Toby Pilling
Member
Once again I had a great time at the Bounding Fire tournament, despite not winning this year.
On Thursday afternoon, before the main tournament started I was able to play my old oppo, Neil Brunger. We had a go at the scenario donated by Peter Struijf and Chris Mazzei for the Scratch Tournament, ‘Five to One’ – a preview from their upcoming Death to Fascism 2 pack. I was the Finns attacking Russians in 1939 in an interesting scenario with high replay value as troops from both sides enter the board from multiple areas. Anyway, I gained a resounding victory which eventually won me the prize for the best Finnish performance.
Alas, my good fortune did not continue as when the tournament proper began on Friday morning, I lost the roll for sides when lined up against the player I’d defeated in last year’s final – David Blackwood. It was another interesting scenario, this time designed by Ian Willey, who’d constructed the superb diorama that was the tournament’s main prize. Unfortunately, unlike all the other scenarios I’d come across at the tournament the previous year, ‘The Sicilian Snail’ was still at what I felt was the playtest stage – it looked extremely hard on the British attacker. While I was able to give some useful feedback afterwards (reduce the 9-2 German leader to a 9-1, exchange two 1st line German squads for a 548 and make the olive groves rally terrain), it didn’t help me overcome the balance deficit and I lost on the last DR of the game. I think the scenario would have been better placed in the final round rather than the first, as at least then if one was lumbered with the disadvantaged side, having got to the final one can at least be runner-up! I guess it just proves that scenarios ideally need to be past the playtesting stage to feature in the tournament – ‘oven ready’, so to speak - though I realise that is difficult to arrange.
Anyway, technically I could still progress from the group stage and next round I funnily enough played Neil Brunger again in a monster of a scenario which I thought was possibly on the large side. We got it finished though and I won fairly easily as the defending Germans – it was an eastern front clash called ‘Desperate Bridgehead’ from the upcoming Onslaught to Orsha 2nd edition product coming out from BFP. It’s a cracking, fun scenario, but I’d argue that the Russians should only have to clear the hills of German non-crew MMC, to avoid sneaky shenanigans regarding HIP guns.
Saturday morning brought another early war Finnish scenario called ‘Karelian Sculptors’. Most people seemed to want to bid for the attacking Finns, but I deemed that a cunning defence could be crafted for the Russians, so bid for them. Once again I lost the DR and attacked with the advantage, winning the scenario reasonably comfortably. It was fun and interesting to play, but one thing I didn’t like about it was that I feel sneaky things can be achieved by the Russian player controlling hexes and locations with his AFVs, especially on a last turn dash – I’d rather have seen an SSR restricting such.
After the group stage I was now officially knocked out as the tiebreakers do not favour players with high AREA ratings. One innovation of the tournament was that the scenarios for the whole weekend were presented to players on the Friday morning, rather than each only being unveiled at the start of every round. Though this did speed things up, it meant that some players were able to play and practice the final scenario on the Saturday night, which one could argue gave them an advantage. I’d advise going back to the original system of handing out the scenarios as the rounds begin, to help get a level playing field.
Anyway, playing for fun, my opponent and I ditched the scheduled scenario ‘Schmidt’s Roadblock’, which is again set to be published in Onslaught to Orsha. This was because, for the first time, I felt that one of the proper BFP scenarios was unbalanced – it just looked like the defending Germans were hugely favoured. The results of games seemed to bear out my observation and I’m surprised that this one slipped through the net, so to speak. I played the defending ‘Dutch Marines’ instead, which is a great scenario, pitting the aforementioned forces against the Japanese. I really liked the SSR which allows one to assure oneself of SMOKE placement at the cost of immediate depletion, as the scenario could be over very quickly if the Japanese roll badly. Suffice to say it was a very close and hard-fought game, featuring one of the only successful berserk charges I have ever undertaken. I won, but it was close.
I rounded off my gaming on Sunday morning with a game of ‘Sledgehammers’ from a Friendly Fire pack, written again by the great Struijf and Mazzei team, against Nick Ranson. Though it's ROAR rating seemed to indicate a lack of balance, I felt a decent defence would be a hard nut to crack, so I took the defending British and won fairly quickly, though did have to undergo a direct hit from one of the 150mm guns on my commandoes before doing so. I really like the SSRs in this scenario that help recreate a hasty, uncoordinated German attack and the variable victory conditions - an excellent scenario.
So there you have it: another great tournament, run with supreme efficiency and friendliness by the directors. I recommend it heartily and will aim to attend next year.
Until then!
On Thursday afternoon, before the main tournament started I was able to play my old oppo, Neil Brunger. We had a go at the scenario donated by Peter Struijf and Chris Mazzei for the Scratch Tournament, ‘Five to One’ – a preview from their upcoming Death to Fascism 2 pack. I was the Finns attacking Russians in 1939 in an interesting scenario with high replay value as troops from both sides enter the board from multiple areas. Anyway, I gained a resounding victory which eventually won me the prize for the best Finnish performance.
Alas, my good fortune did not continue as when the tournament proper began on Friday morning, I lost the roll for sides when lined up against the player I’d defeated in last year’s final – David Blackwood. It was another interesting scenario, this time designed by Ian Willey, who’d constructed the superb diorama that was the tournament’s main prize. Unfortunately, unlike all the other scenarios I’d come across at the tournament the previous year, ‘The Sicilian Snail’ was still at what I felt was the playtest stage – it looked extremely hard on the British attacker. While I was able to give some useful feedback afterwards (reduce the 9-2 German leader to a 9-1, exchange two 1st line German squads for a 548 and make the olive groves rally terrain), it didn’t help me overcome the balance deficit and I lost on the last DR of the game. I think the scenario would have been better placed in the final round rather than the first, as at least then if one was lumbered with the disadvantaged side, having got to the final one can at least be runner-up! I guess it just proves that scenarios ideally need to be past the playtesting stage to feature in the tournament – ‘oven ready’, so to speak - though I realise that is difficult to arrange.
Anyway, technically I could still progress from the group stage and next round I funnily enough played Neil Brunger again in a monster of a scenario which I thought was possibly on the large side. We got it finished though and I won fairly easily as the defending Germans – it was an eastern front clash called ‘Desperate Bridgehead’ from the upcoming Onslaught to Orsha 2nd edition product coming out from BFP. It’s a cracking, fun scenario, but I’d argue that the Russians should only have to clear the hills of German non-crew MMC, to avoid sneaky shenanigans regarding HIP guns.
Saturday morning brought another early war Finnish scenario called ‘Karelian Sculptors’. Most people seemed to want to bid for the attacking Finns, but I deemed that a cunning defence could be crafted for the Russians, so bid for them. Once again I lost the DR and attacked with the advantage, winning the scenario reasonably comfortably. It was fun and interesting to play, but one thing I didn’t like about it was that I feel sneaky things can be achieved by the Russian player controlling hexes and locations with his AFVs, especially on a last turn dash – I’d rather have seen an SSR restricting such.
After the group stage I was now officially knocked out as the tiebreakers do not favour players with high AREA ratings. One innovation of the tournament was that the scenarios for the whole weekend were presented to players on the Friday morning, rather than each only being unveiled at the start of every round. Though this did speed things up, it meant that some players were able to play and practice the final scenario on the Saturday night, which one could argue gave them an advantage. I’d advise going back to the original system of handing out the scenarios as the rounds begin, to help get a level playing field.
Anyway, playing for fun, my opponent and I ditched the scheduled scenario ‘Schmidt’s Roadblock’, which is again set to be published in Onslaught to Orsha. This was because, for the first time, I felt that one of the proper BFP scenarios was unbalanced – it just looked like the defending Germans were hugely favoured. The results of games seemed to bear out my observation and I’m surprised that this one slipped through the net, so to speak. I played the defending ‘Dutch Marines’ instead, which is a great scenario, pitting the aforementioned forces against the Japanese. I really liked the SSR which allows one to assure oneself of SMOKE placement at the cost of immediate depletion, as the scenario could be over very quickly if the Japanese roll badly. Suffice to say it was a very close and hard-fought game, featuring one of the only successful berserk charges I have ever undertaken. I won, but it was close.
I rounded off my gaming on Sunday morning with a game of ‘Sledgehammers’ from a Friendly Fire pack, written again by the great Struijf and Mazzei team, against Nick Ranson. Though it's ROAR rating seemed to indicate a lack of balance, I felt a decent defence would be a hard nut to crack, so I took the defending British and won fairly quickly, though did have to undergo a direct hit from one of the 150mm guns on my commandoes before doing so. I really like the SSRs in this scenario that help recreate a hasty, uncoordinated German attack and the variable victory conditions - an excellent scenario.
So there you have it: another great tournament, run with supreme efficiency and friendliness by the directors. I recommend it heartily and will aim to attend next year.
Until then!