Dispatches from the Front: ETC 2015 UN1 wrap up

intro

Monday, August 31, 2015

ETC 2015 UN1 wrap up

ETC2015

The team

FOW team UN1

Me (captain), chief cat herder, tasked with making sure things were moving and bring the Irish whiskey.
Karel,vice captain ( captain for Czech republic next year ). tasked with being the local scout and bring the Czech.slovice
Nick, operations officer, the team enforcer tasked with german beer( must be cold)
Arkusaz, tactical officer tasked and pairing master.
Matteo, tasked wih bring italian limoncello.
Ilya, tasked wih bring Russian vodka
Julia,(Ilya's wife) coach/team photographer tasked with taking photos

Pre-Round one

we opted to go on night manvoures with the Czech (karel) and German (Nick) contingents of UN1. Karel oragnised a FOW meet and greet for all the teams at the Grill park. This was a neat venue were we bought meat and rented a barbeque and had a cook off over a few beers. We came pretty late of the Finns and the Polish were left standing we got to try the Finnish local drink (60:40 cognac vodka mix). We nailed our color to the mast by being the last group to leave the venue. Although it was pitch black at the time and visibility was not great with phone light being used to see the path. Nick and myself got a taxi home while Karel and Matrin, the Polish ref, walked off into the night with a bottle of the Finnish home brew in hand. If I was a bit more concern I might have been worried my vica and one of the REf might be MIA for the first day.

Round One: Operation banzai vs Scotland

UN1 Vs Scotland

Going into the round I wanted to get four good wins If necessary I was willing to throw karel (hungover to hell) and myself (lead by example) under the bus to ensure good pairs for the other four. I play Alex from Break through assualt. The mission was dust up. Alex was using strelkovy (russian infantry).

So my frist game ever with the Czech panzer company sees them assaulting a Russian infantry battalion somewhere on the eastern front. The 38t' and PII’s opted for a blitz and picked a section of the line that got hit hard, really hard. A lucky round took out the pioneer truck before it could be used to help the strelkovy dig in. The local AT guns were knocked out and repeated assaults from PII's, 38t's and scout cars(!) wore down the defenders, destroying gun teams and infantry and over running the objective.

Final score 5-2 win. I may have been a bit too aggressive with the scout cars :)

Elsewhere,the team also claimed four more scalps.

The result put us in second place after round one.

Round two: Operation mincemeat vs Danmark

UN1 Vs Danemark

I as paired against Mikkel in fighting withdraw. He had panzer grenadiers defending my objectives.

The intial probe by 38t moved through cover drove back grenadier support and trigger an turn one ambush which put Mikkels' the main AT asset in a bad location for the rest of the game. But the panzer were forced to change axis of advance, taking up time. With the game nearing it ends the panzers got even more aggressive and starting to assaulting pioneers and grenadiers in buildings to clear the objectives. In the end the grenadiers could not take the pressure and the game end with. 5-2 win

However, to the rest of the team must have got altitude sicks and struggled to get results we got 2 5-2 wins , they got 2 5-2 wins, but they also got two 4-3 wins. That was frustrating, one more point was a draw and two more points was a round win to us.

UN1 Vs Northern Ireland

Round three: Operation Payback vs the North Ireland

Played Dave in No Retreat. He played auto-Saharan, which seemed appropriate in 38 degree Celsius heat. The table was not great for the Panzers to move through, with a lot of potential ambush spots making it impossible to secure the advance. To make it more difficult Dave brought a fort to a gunfight and natural put an objective in it

The Panzers probed down one flank and entered through the breach destroying the garrison. More panzers flwed in to the destroyed main game. At one point there was ten german AFV in the fort . But Dave was able to feed in unit to keep the objective contested long enough to time out the game.

I got a 3-4 loss but the team fought back for 4-2 win. In hindsight I suffered target fixation and it would have been better to switch the axis of attack to either break the company or move towards the other objective.

Round four: Operation Compass vs Australia

Played Scott in Breakthrough. He had French mechanised and I suspect really like his chance against the panzers.

UN1 Vs Australia
(aka the point were my army took a stroll to test my search and rescue methods)
So I forgot to prompt for a team photo

This was not a great mission and list to play against. The Panzers needed to move forward fast to intercept some his troops before they could get into position and dig in on the objective but I also needed to move slow until his reserves arrived otherwise they would just outflank the Panzers and destroy them to with shots on rear armor. Turn one saw a cautious move forward. The armoured cars moved out hoping to bait the French armour. The 38ts moved hoping to eliminate some artillery observers. Annoyingly nobody wanted to pass their storm trooper move. The French responded as expected their tanks went for the armoured cars which disengaged. A platoon of laffy ( french anti guns on trucks) rolled on from reserves and destroyed my main 38t platoon who took the 1iC with them when they broke. Losing 50% my armour with a bit of setback. For the rest of the game the armored cars, bunker flak, 2iC and the mortar platoon tried to hold back increasing of French armour while the remaining Panzers pushed on the objective. In the end they just held on (with just one team left) allowing the Panzers to overrun and seize the objective.

I got at 4:3 win but the team again suffered altitude sickness for 2:4 loss

UN1 Vs england

Round five: Operation keep England out of the top five was against England

I played Jes in Counter attack. He brought fortified french company with a fort plus some bunkers to block any gaps in the fort walls.

This was tough nut to crack the only approach was through a anti gun wall screen by infantry. The Panzers broke through but the losses were too heavy and the game timed out before they could start their assault on objective. In hindsight, I should have kept some teams near an objective to keep it hot.

I got a 3:4 loss but the team held in for 3:3 draw.

Round six: Operation Keep Ireland out of the top three against Ireland

UN1 Vs Ireland

I played Padraig in free for all He played french mechanized (which was really a lot of french tanks in disguise)

We both opted to send our tanks down the center for a head on head challenge. For the Panzers the plan to hold the center break the french Armour then sweep into an objective. While for Padraig I think he was trying to break the Panzer line so his one of his units could take an objective. the Fighting was heavy the Panzer claimed the French commander and were within one platoon of breaking the french force but again the losses were to great and the force had to withdraw.

I got a 3:4 loss with the team getting in for 3:2 loss

When the dust had settled UN1 was in tenth place.

For a group had never met before as a team, the guys were great we were in second place after round one and never left the top ten we were one point from a top five finish and two points from a top three finish out of a potential 36 points.

A big thanks to UN1 Karel, Nick, Matteo, Arkusaz, Ilya and Julia. To my opponents Alex, Mikkel, Scott, Dave, Jes, Padraig. To fellow ETC-ers more making a great weekend.