The highlight of Flamescon for a number of people, myself included, was the Dust Battlefield tournament held on the second day. Plenty of local hobbyists have been collecting Dust forces this year and with the long wait for the new tactics card decks and templates finally over it was time to really get the games started with New Zealand's first official Dust tournament.

My List

• The Iron Fists
• The Panzers
• The Flak Boys
• The Ghosts
• Sharpshooters
• Kampfaffen
• Henrich Light Panzer Walker
• Ludwig Medium Panzer Walker
• Wotan-AR Heavy Panzer Walker

The core of my list is the Heavy Grenadier Platoon; The Panzers and Flak Boys providing huge amounts of anti-infantry and anti-light vehicle fire power, while the Iron Fists give extra versatility with their command actions as well as their own significant damage output. Plus with damage resistance on all these units they can absorb a substantial amount of firepower themselves.

As the heavy grenadiers are relatively slow I took several recon units; The Ghosts, Sharpshooters and the Henrich; which all have the scout special rule enabling them to deploy onto the battlefield very rapidly. The Sharpshooters are also a great cheap activation and are hard to target if they use their camouflage action.

The Ludwig and Wotan-AR provide the long ranged heavy anti-vehicle firepower and are also capable of doing reasonable damage to enemy infantry units as well, making them the biggest threats in my list.

Finally to finish thing off I took a unit of Kampfaffen, because it didn't seem natural to leave home without the angry gorillas!

Game 1: Free for All Vs SSU

My first game I was up against Damian and his SSU army consisting of 4 KV-47s Medium Walkers, 2 units of Steel Guard Snipers, a Steel Guard Assault Squad and a Steel Guard NCO Squad. Damian's SSU walkers are extremely deadly at close range and the Steel Guard are devastating against infantry so I planned to play quite defensively in this game.

I deployed my heavy grenadiers and gorillas on the left flank, with my Wotan, Henrich and command squad in the centre and finally my recon grenadiers and Ludwig on the right. Damian opted for a refused flank approach, with Steel Guard units and KV-47s deploying in the centre and on his left flank.

In the opening stages of the game the action was all on the left side of the table, as my infantry units clashed with the Steel Guard assault squad and 2 KV-47s, taking heavy losses.

Things were looking extremely grim when both my heavy grenadier units and my gorillas were destroyed and Damian's KV-47s closed in on the objective.

However I managed to bring back the gorillas as reinforcements just in time and their mighty charge destroyed one of his walkers and bought me enough time for my Wotan to take out the second.

Meanwhile in the centre the SSU advance ran headlong into my superior long-ranged firepower and despite using smoke and taking advantage of cover they were wiped out short of my lines. This enabled my light infantry to scoot forward on the right to claim an objective and secure the victory.

Game 2: Dust Up vs Axis

The second game was a mirror match-up against Dan's Axis force, made up of Lara, the Panzers, 2 units of Zombie Grenadiers, a Zombie Suicide Squad, 2 Ludwigs and a Wotan-AR. This was also quite an interesting mission, as we were deploying on the short table edges so had a wide field of fire across the table and had additional reinforcements which could come on from the opponents flank.

As I had more units in my list than he did I was able to seize the advantage quite early in the game, as Dan was forced to bring on his walkers while all my infantry were in cover or out of line of sight. This meant that my Ludwig and Wotan both came moved onto the board and each killed an enemy walker at long range without any retaliation.

Dan then aggressively redeployed both his Ludwig and Wotan behind my lines using the flanking rules, but due to some poor rolls was unable to inflict much damage. However this bold move backfired as his walkers had sacrificed their range advantage meaning that my gorillas could charge and destroy the Wotan, while my recon grenadiers destroyed the Ludwig with their panzerfausts.

Once again I was able to enjoy a sizeable ranged firepower advantage and mercilessly destroyed the rest of the opposing forces for a large victory.

Game 3: Bait & Flank vs Allies

Heading into the third game I was a little worried as I was facing off against Paul and his horde of light ranger squads as the mission meant we each started with only half our forces on the table. The Light Ranger Platoon has some great special rules for reserve and initiative roles meaning I was likely to be heavily out-numbered and on the back foot from the beginning of the game.

So I choose to maximise my firepower and resilience during deployment, relying on my Panzers, Iron Fist and Flak Boys to dig in and hold the line while my Wotan provided long ranged fire. If they could hold on then my reinforcing recon units could run in from the flank and capture the objective.

As it turns out things when almost exactly to plan, as my heavy grenadiers inflicted massive damage on the advancing Allied units and my Wotan devastated the Ranger command unit, preventing Paul from bringing on some of his reinforcements and reactivating his units.

My early luck continued and unfortunately for Paul his lightly armoured troops evaporated under the heavy Axis firepower and my flanking reserves moped up the last remained Allied soldiers and took the objective.

Game 4: All Out Attack vs Axis

Heading into the final round I was facing off against the only other undefeated player, Battlefront's own Victor and his excellently presented Axis NDAK force. Not only was it the battle of the Afrika korps themed armies, we also had very similar unit choices. Victor had a Wotan, the Iron Fists, the Panzers, Flak Boys, a Hans Light Walker, Laser Grenadiers, Heavy Laser Grenadiers and an armoured car.

The final mission was also a little different, as in All Out Attack all destroyed units can be brought back on the following turn as reinforcements, which meant that it was a race to kill as many units as possible. We each also had an objective which was worth 2 points each turn it was held, but given the shear weight of firepower in both our armies it was very unlikely that a unit could survive long enough to claim them.

Things got off to a brutal start, with both of us taking heavy losses in the first turn as we focused on taking out the large walkers. Then I decided to shift my approach slightly and began to focus fire on Victor's infantry and light vehicles in order to quickly build up my kill tally. I also tried to make it as difficult as possible for him to get clear shots on my units to improve their survivability.

In the end it paid off, as each turn my Wotan and Ludwig were able to absorb attacks from several units before dying while I was often able to get 1 kill per unit of mine which shot. Another major factor was I was rolling pretty well and Victor had some unlucky dice for his laser attacks which swung things in my favour.

The final result was a 18 –12 victory.

Overall Results & Thoughts

With a 4–0 record I happily took 1st place, with my final opponent Victor coming in second. Suffice to say I was extremely happy with this result and felt that my list performed as I had intended in all of my games; being able to secure long ranged fire superiority, unleash devastating short range fire from the Panzers and Flak Boys, and have enough activations to able to control when my walkers came onto the table.

Having plenty of recon units in the list enabled me to deploy very rapidly and still shoot in the early stages of the games and one of my favourite units was the Sharpshooters, as they could use their camouflage action to remain untargetable while holding down objectives.

A big thanks to Andrew from Battlefront for running a fantastic event and all of the players had a great time, even the ones who's dice rolls let them down, and the fast paced game-play was refreshing.

For more photos of the event be sure to check out the Dust Tactics site