DieCon and Flames of War

This weekend (today as it happens) sees me return to DieCon in St. Louis.  Well, Collinsville technically, but it's like 10 minutes away so close enough for most peoples thoughts.  Jim and I attended last year and we had a really good time even though we both got fairly spanked at the tournament, we had a lot of fun.  Unlike Adepticon the players here felt much more laid back and the armies were more varied, not SPAM like up North was.  You didn't run into Stuart or Crusader hordes and there wasn't giant blobs of infantry, though the Russians have released since then so maybe that will change this year.  Also a change from last year is that I took my Americans and this year now that my Germans are finished I want to take them.  The largest problem here is that the Germans are very elite and small model count armies comparatively to the other nations and I don't own anywhere near what would make an optimal list but bedamned I'm going to try them anyway.  That said, here is my list:

Afrika Rifle Company Formation

 Afrika Rifle HQ
-2 SMG Teams

Afrika Rifle Platoon
-4 MG34 Teams
-1 2.8cm AT Rifle
-1 sHMG34

Afrika Rifle Platoon
-4 MG34 Teams
-1 2.8cm AT Rifle
-1 sHMG34

5cm Tank-Hunter Platoon
-3 5cm AT Guns

Support

Panzer III Platoon
-5 Panzer III 5cm Shrt

Panzer IV Platoon
-3 Panzer IV Long 7.5

10.5cm Artillery Battery
-4 10.5cm Guns


SD KFZ 231 Heavy Scout Troop
-2 SD KFZ 231

Diana Anti-Tank Guns
-2 Diana

Cards

Captured 6 Pounder
Captured 25 Pounder
Panzer-Knacker
Captured Tank
Pure Luck

The list totals out at the 109 mark and the Reserves for it are fairly simple.  I lose the Diana, Panzer IV and 1 of the Rifle Platoons.  The list has obvious shortcomings.  You only have knock out a single Diana to start forcing them to check and the Panzer IV which are a significant investment aren't much better at only having to kill 2 and the fact that they have a relatively weak armor.  The plan is to always go defend.  Let them run into my buzzsaw's and hope that the AT can stop the tanks coming forward.  I get 1 smoke barrage so in the odd game where I 'm forced to attack I can lay a 16" smoke line to try and get my tanks across to an attack position.  Again, not optimal, but hey, I want to play the Germans and I'm going with what I have.  The formation itself isn't particularly tough either with 6 man units and a 3 man gun unit.  Knock off my HQ and the Guns which probably wont be that hard and you've only got to eliminate 6 more stands to see me off.

I'd like to win at least one game which was what I ended on last year, but even if I don't I bet I still have a good time.  There will be a podcast released alongside this blog post so go listen to that to if it tickles you and look forward to another blog post and podcast talking about later this month discussing my time at the event.  I'm also going to try and take my camera along and record a bit looking at games and tables so that should be on YouTube eventually as well.  Thanks for reading!