The Tournament II

Game 27:

Seed 2:
IS-2 Vet 67
2X Russian Mortar 22
Ranger 7
Jeep 3
2X BW

Seed 3:
M12 GMC 28
Greek Officer 9
Jeep 3
4X Ranger 28
3X Flamer 15
Resourceful Hero 8
SE Para 9

Analysis: At first glance it seems obvious the IS-2 Vet team should dominate this match, but this GMC team has proven extremely “resourceful” in the past. The flamers have already roasted a heavy tank, a Jagdtiger, in their round 2 matchup, using the Jeep to get two flamers onto the objective in the face of a Me262 jet. This team actually has two options for dealing with heavies: Keep the flamers safe until Turn 7 and flame away, or pop the Resourceful Hero onto the objective next to the GMC and hope it dies, giving the Hero it's die rolls but none of its disadvantageous SAs, something that has already happened twice in this tournament to good effect. Because of this, the GMC doesn't have to survive the whole game. It just has to get to the objective with the Resourceful Hero before dying. The main problem for Seed 3 is the mortars, and will need to stretch its unique mobile element to take them out early. Allowing the mortars to shoot at them all game likely spells doom for Seed 3.

Seed 2's strategy here should be fairly straightforward. It must keep the mortars alive and shooting as long as possible and try to win on points, since it's unlikely the Vet will be able to kill enough infantry for objective control. Early on it must position itself to protect the mortars at all costs, then the mortars must take out those flamers. If it can accomplish that, I give the Vet a great chance surviving on the objective against the GMC/Hero combo and the other infantry. Tides of War may not play a roll in this game, since Seed 2 just doesn't have that many units to kill and keep it rolling.

Prediction: A pretty close matchup, but I'm going with Seed 2. The heavy will beat the flamers this time.

Map: 5, Secluded Valley, the site of Seed 3's memorable round 1 victory against the Axis infantry swarm.

Turn 1: Seed 3 wins the choice and takes the side with the big forest. Seed 2 places Barbed Wire at the edge of the large forest next to the objective. A very helpful placement, as Seed 3 will have to cross it to get from the forest to the objective. Seed 2 splits its mortars between the two hills at its rear, figuring they have a better chance splitting up. Seed 3 wins initiative and chooses to go first, otherwise the Vet can block the road against the Jeep/spotter combo. The Seed 3 Jeep moves to within range of the mortar on the lone hill and the Para drops into a firest hex within range of the other one. Seed 3 is guaranteed shots on both mortars this round. The Vet moves to within two hexes of the Para while also maintaining line of sight along the road. The Para laughs heartily, confident in its Hard Charger ability and 5 def. Seed 3's Jeep will need to be careful about the mortars. Though Indirect Fire doesn't work against vehicles, a straight line of sight to a mortar would be deadly. Seed 2's Jeep decides to flank left around the forest, allowing it to hit the rear of Seed 3's infantry and avoid the GMC on the road.

The Para scores a disruption on its mortar, while the GMC blasts the other into oblivion with Seven of Nine successes. (See what I did there?) The Jeep moves behind the forest with the Para in it and fails a movement roll into a forest hex, thinking to drop off its Ranger there next turn. The Vet scores 3 of 8 on its initial roll against the Para, but with three 1s it can reroll two and scores two more successes, a hit. The mortar scores a killshot but the Para makes a cover roll. Three hits on the Para all wasted. The Para laughs again and taunts the massive IS-2 with disparaging comments about its ancestry. The dead mortar scores a kill on a flamer though, which misses on the cover roll. Both sides lose a unit, but Seed 3 obviously came out ahead this round. Despite splitting up the mortars, both are hit and one is killed in the first round.

Turn 2: Seed 3 wins init again and considers. With one mortar gone and the other disrupted, the priority is to kill the other mortar which ought to be easy. In order to do that, it makes sense to drop the Ranger off into the forest if possible. Going second would be better for this, since it can fail a movement roll and still move freely during the assault phase as long as it makes sure to be out of range of the Vet for the attempted entry into the forest.

Seeing no further point in attacking the Para without mortar support, the Vet charges up the road. Maybe it can prevent the GMC from getting a good position before dying with its Hero. Seed 2's Jeep/spotter has nothing better to do than wait to see where the flamers end up and move there during the assault phase, so it stays put behind the pond.

Seed 3's Jeep finds a spot away from the Vet where it can attempt to enter the forest. It fails the movement roll and drops off the Ranger in the open, still within range of the disrupted Russian mortar. The GMC decides to run away from the Vet and attempt to get closer to the objective around the other side of the forest, also moving it very close to the Jeep. Seed 2 only has the assault phase left, but the GMC must be careful not to give the Ranger an opportunity to dismount and attack next turn.

During its assault phase, Seed 2 moves its Jeep to spot on another flamer. The disrupted mortar scores a hit. Hopefully the Vet can clean it up next round, but it has no shots this round. It moves behind the barbed wire around the objective, lining up its endgame position. The Vet team will have to kill both remaining flamers on its own and enough material to offset the loss of both mortars and win on points. That can easily be done if it can get the GMC, but as of now there's really no motivation for the GMC to come out from behind the forest, and the Vet cannot corner it on its own. The flamers retreat back into the forest, forcing the Vet to move behind it to get a shot on the disrupted flamer next turn. Two Rangers fearlessly advance out of the forest toward the Jeep and around the Barbed Wire. The Para and the GMC finish off the remaining Russian mortar, and the Ranger dropped off by the Jeep has nothing to shoot at it, so it advances towards the objective, linking up with the Para. The Jeep moves back towards the forest, looking to potentially pick up a flamer next round. Going second worked out great for Seed 3. It now has Rangers one hex away from the enemy Jeep. Going first gives them the option of entering the Jeep's hex and forcing the enemy Ranger to dismount and fight it out.

Things are looking very bad for Seed 2. It has lost both mortars and only killed one flamer. Way behind on points, the Vet must find a way to make up the difference without getting flamed or letting the GMC/Hero combo near the objective. It's Jeep/Ranger combo has nothing to spot for, and if the Ranger dismounts anywhere near the objective Seed 3's infantry will instantly converge on it. We will see what happens. Seed 3 still hasn't spawned its Hero either.

Turn 3: Seed 3 wins initiative and ponders the pros and cons of engaging the enemy Ranger/Jeep. In order to trap it, the Rangers have to move into its hex, which means it can't use the GMC without hitting its own units. Without the GMC, it would be hard to attain fire superiority. It would be two Rangers at close range and one at medium with Tides of War active against the one Ranger, Jeep and IS-2. Spawning the Hero would greatly increase the odds, but then it wouldn't be able to spawn right next to the GMC right when needed. Seed 3 chooses a compromise. It spawns the Hero in the big forest so it will get a medium range shot with it but still be close enough to where the GMC is operating. The Rangers move in to attack. The Jeep fails the movement roll to get into the flamers hex. GMC moves back to the road hex behind the forest.

Seed 2 has no choice but to dismount its Ranger and fight it out. It maneuvers the IS-2 back to the center to prevent the GMC's advance but maintains a firing position on the two offending Rangers. With an assist from the Greek Officer, the first Ranger to fire wipes out Seed 2's Ranger with one shot. One of the other Rangers easily wipes out the Jeep. The Jeep finally makes a movement roll into the disrupted flamers hex to be picked up next turn. Seed 2's Ranger completely whiffs leaving the IS-2 to choose its target. It makes the most of Veteran Guard again, rerolling two 1s for two successes to kill a Ranger, but Seed 3 still comes out ahead of the exchange. It's just the IS-2 Veteran now.

Turn 4: Seed 3 wins initiative again and goes second. The IS-2 Veteran is by itself against a bunch of def 5 infantry ready to swarm the objective and the GMC lurking comfortably behind the forest with two flamers ready to pounce with Tides of War if the Vet moves in. Besides, there's no way for the Vet to guarantee a shot on the GMC, since it can just play ring around the rosey behind the forest. The Veteran can only keep it from getting to the objective and try and take out more infantry in the meantime. It moves to a center objective hex to guarantee an open shot on a Ranger. The Ranger in the forest fails its movement roll to cross the Barbed Wire, but succeeds on its Lead the Way reroll and gets into the Vet's hex. The Vet says,”Fi Fie Fo Fum. What have you brought me for dinner today?” A flamer mounts the Jeep and returns to the road, just out of range of the lurking Vet, hoping to dismount in an objective forest hex next turn. The Vet takes a swipe at the Ranger in its hex and misses. No 1s to reroll this time. The GMC fails a movement roll to get into the forest hex in front of the objective where the Hero is, so the Hero successfully crosses the Barbed Wire into the open objective hex, 1 hex away from the GMC. Seed 3 is thinking it won't need subtlety at this point and is simply trying to force the GMC/Hero combo as close to the objective as it can. If it wins initiative next turn it can go first and try for the objective hex itself. The Ranger makes a valiant close assault try on the Vet, scoring 5 of 8 with Tides of War but misses anyway. The Jeep fails a movement roll into the objective hex.

Turn 5: All of Seed 3's infantry is now on the objective except for the Greek Officer and one flamer. Seed 3 wins initiative and goes first. The GMC goes for the objective hex and fails a movement roll, but the Hero moves in. If the GMC goes down there it can cover 7 of 8 objective hexes. Two Rangers and the Para move into the Vet's hex to force the issue. The Jeep makes the movent roll into the forest hex and drops off the flamer. Seed 3 now has virtually all its firepower on the Vet. The Vet has no choice really but to kill the GMC and try to survive. It's 20 points down but the GMC is worth 28. At least in its current position the Howitzer enabled Hero is only at medium range. The Vet stays put as there's really no better position to fire at the GMC from without taking a ton of defensive fire, including from both flamers. A bevy of infantry close assaults yields no hits, but one of the flamers rolls four 6s and the game is over by KO.

MVP: There are no candidates from Seed 2, and Seed 3 had a great all around team effort, so the MVP award goes to the flamer that downed the IS-2 Veteran. Seed 3 still had a decent chance to win on points by killing the GMC, and it had two turns to get into the one forest objective hex the Howitzer Hero couldn't hit, plus a decent chance at killing the two flamers in that time, so flaming the IS-2 Veteran may have been Seed 3's only chance here.

Conclusion: Trip 6s on seven dice is about a 9% chance if I remember right, so there's a very real possibility Seed 2 could have pulled this out had the dice gone its way, but Seed 3 was rolling well all game and definitely had a pretty high luck factor involved in its quick victory. Another possible move for the IS-2 on turn 5 could have been to retreat from the objective. It would have avoided the flamers and still gotten a shot on one of the infantry, setting itself up to enter a forest objective hex next round. But Seed 3 could have hidden its flamers and the GMC would have survived another turn to try for the objective hex, which would have been orders of magnitude worse for the Vet, leaving all objective hexes covered with 12 AT dice after Improvisation took over. The Veteran probably should have just stayed on the road to prevent the GMC from advancing, but that would not have reduced its vulnerability to the infantry rolls, including the eventual BBQ.

This game illustrates perfectly the weakness of heavy tank teams in the 100 point format. The IS-2 Veteran is by far the strongest single unit in the game, but that doesn't change the fact that it costs 67 points for one roll of the dice per turn. The luck factor will not often favor a heavy tank team simply because it won't be rolling as many dice as a more balanced team with cheaper units. Once again my basic theorem for this game holds as the def 5 infantry team takes down the last heavy tank team in the tournament.

I am starting to become really impressed with this Seed 3 team. When I made this team, I did not expect it to be in the top half of these power teams, much less the top four. But it has beaten two heavy tank teams and a 4/4 def infantry swarm, all in dominating fashion. True, its second round matchup was a lightweight gimmicky squad, but it was a gimmicky squad which had what should have been this team's Achilles heel: an aircraft capable of quickly taking down the M12 GMC. The other two teams were legitimate contenders. The victory against the 4/4 def swarm was a particularly impressive display of firepower. This team is proving to be very versatile and capable. It has mobility, as it proved this game in taking down two mortars in different positions in the enemy rear in the first two turns. It has plenty of firepower against tanks and infantry, and even a decent AA capability with the Hero Howitzer, as I've taken to calling it, a combo which has proven more effective than I imagined. The Hero Howitzer move essentially negates the primary drawback of the M12 GMC: its low defense. In many situations it's almost better to have the M12 destroyed and taken over by the Hero, presenting opponents with a catch-22. They can kill the GMC which is worth over a quarter of this team's points, but if they do it's replaced by a very difficult to kill Hero with ridiculous die rolls and none of the GMC's drawbacks. This team is also hard to kill with all its high def infantry. I've been classifying this team as a def 5 infantry swarm with six elite infantry units, but it also has four def 4 infantry and two vehicles, though one of them is just a Jeep. The more I look at it, the more it looks like a near perfect combination of all the best U.S. Infantry units. The Greek Officer is almost as important to Allied infantry teams now as the Hamster is to Axis ones, but the rest of the team is a combo of the best U.S. Infantry units plus the Indirect Fire unit needed to take full advantage of the Ranger, which is overmatched against SS units without some artillery to spot for. The Jeep is just a necessary addition to take full advantage of the Spotter/Indirect Fire combo. It really ought to be considered a legitimate power team. But as they say, that's why we play the game. Seed 3 enters the final four as the dark horse candidate to win it all with a realistic path to beating all of the remaining teams.