September 25-27, 2009
Welcome to Market Garden 65. Market Garden 65 is the Fall Recruits 09 Flames of War tournament. It is themed to the Market Garden battle in celebration of the 65th anniversary of the event.
The Fall Recruits 09 convention takes place at Lee’s Summit High School in Lee’s Summit, MO – a suburb of Kansas City.
The Recruits website is: http://recruits.mtswebsites.com/
Note that for a short time after Spring Recruits, the website will have the info for Spring Recruits on it and not Fall. But, the location and hotel information is the same. I always stay at the Comfort - nice place, right across the street from the HS.
The entry fee will be $5, but anyone attending who is 17 or younger will have their entry fee waived. Players will all receive at a minimum 2 BF blisters as prizes, so the event itself is revenue positive…
Fall Recruits 09 will be 25-27 September 09. The Con will be open on Friday afternoon the 25th and players may request getting a first round game in that night, which I will accommodate if I can find another player willing or needing to play Friday night. Otherwise Friday is table set up, open gaming and socializing.
The MG65 tournament will be 1750, Late War. It will be 6 rounds: 4 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. That is a lot of gaming on Saturday, I know, but we have found this schedule to work best through experience. The intent will be to conclude the awards on Sunday by 1600 so that folks can make travel arrangements out of KCI Airport Sunday evening. Food – most likely pizza - will be catered in between rounds 3 and 4 on Saturday.
The forces permitted will be only those that fought at Market Garden. Special Intelligence Briefings (SIBs) for the appropriate MG forces have been prepared just for this event by the MG65 team.
In order to receive the appropriate MG65 Special Intel Briefing (pdf) for the army you will be taking, you must do the following:
1. Go to http://www.bardsabode.com/MG65/ (this site)
2. Look at the force summaries for the MG65 forces
3. Choose which one you will play
4. Write me, Jon Cleaves, at falkaar@aol.com and tell me you will be playing in MG65 and what force you would like to play. I will add you to the list and provide you with the appropriate MG65 SIB. Please only send your intent to play and which force to this address. Ask any questions about the event onthe Market Garden 65/Fall Recruits 09 Official Announcement thread on the Flames of War forums so that everyone can “hear” the answer. Also, when you write me, include your FULL NAME, forum name, mailing address and t-shirt size.
DO NOT write me with your intent to play at any address but falkaar@aol.com. That is also the address where you may ask questions about your SIB. PLEASE ask questions about anything but your SIB: the con, rounds, terrain, volunteering, providing prize support – ANYTHING except your SIB – on the forum thread on Fall Recruits on the BF Forum. I want everyone to “hear” my answers to those questions there and not write a 1000 separate emails. Questions about your SIB go to falkaar@aol.com. If the answer applies to several players, those players will get the answer emailed to them from that address.
I will not respond to emails about FR09/MG65 of any kind on my personal email – no matter how long I have known you…lol.
I will not answer questions about the SIBs on the forum, as that is information restricted to the players who are sent them and who are committed to playing in MG65.
The MG65 SIBs are the work of the MG65 team. We will not be selling these SIBs and they are not in any way intended to compete with any BF product. They are merely to permit us to provide the players with lists specific to the campaign and this tourney. By signing up to play in the event, you are agreeing not to resell or redistribute these pdfs and that you will not use them in lieu of any BF product. If, at any point between now and two weeks before MG65, BF makes available an official intelligence briefing on any of these forces, the official intelligence briefing will become the only legal one for those forces and the unofficial one we generate will be removed from use. The judgment that someone is actually planning on attending and not just saying so in order to get a free intel brief is entirely my own. If it is discovered that someone has violated the agreement with respect to the SIB or has signed up just to gain access to one, they will be banned from the event. This may sound harsh, but BF has been VERY supportive of the efforts of the MG65 team to make this a very special event and we will support their wishes in return.
You cannot sign up to play more than one force. Use the previews on the website to make your choice and make it once.
These SIBs will be updated periodically over the time between now and MG65 and those who have received one will automatically receive any updates to the one from which they intend to play.
The initial version of the SIBs is marked 2.0 as we have been working on them for some time before this point. 2.0 is NOT the final version that will be in play for MG65. All of them are complete forces as far as they go, but research and playtesting by the MG65 team is still being done and some issues have not been resolved. You will see these as we decide them in the updates. You are looking at between 70-90% final right now depending on the force, but some parts may change over the spring and early summer. We will probably lock it all done no later than mid July. BE FLEXIBLE AND PATIENT!
You will only receive an SIB if you commit to play. You will only receive the SIB that contains your intended force. If you want to see what can be taken in other forces, check the force summaries at http://www.bardsabode.com/MG65/ (this site)
*** This is an historical theme – only painted armies are allowed***
The forces available will be:
Allies
Guards Armored Division (with 82d/101st Spt – includes Armoured, Armoured Recce, Recon and Infantry)43d Infantry Division (with 8th Armored Bde Spt)
50th Infantry Division (with 8th Arm Bde and Gds Arm Spt)
Royal Netherlands Brigade
82d Airborne Division (with Gds Arm Spt)
10st Airborne Division (with Gds Arm Spt)
1st British Airborne Division (with Polish Airborne and 43d Div Spt)
1st Polish Airborne Brigade (with 43d Div, Gds Arm Div and 8th Arm Bde Spt)
Axis
KG Walther (Inf Base: 6FJR or Division Erdmann)Panzer Brigade 107 (Tank Base: PzrBde 107, 21 FJR,10SS, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe)
Korps Feldt (Inf Base: FJR, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe)
KG Henke (Inf Base: 10SS, FJR, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe)
KG Chill (Inf Base: FJR, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe)
KG Spindler (Inf Base: 9SS, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe)
KG Graebner (Mech Base: 9SS, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe)
KG Brinkmann/Knaust (Inf Base: 10SS, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe)
KG Tettau (Inf Base: OB West SS, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe)
KG Harzer (Inf Base: 10/9SS, Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe)
I will balance the number of players on each side (Axis/Allied). As the number of players who commit increases, I will ensure no new players are added to an unbalanced side until that side is brought into balance. It behooves a person to declare early as someone deciding later may have to wait as an alternate. I will have one or two “swing players” identified to help balance things out in the case of the inevitable no show on game day. If a player would like to volunteer to be a “swing” player, let me know and let me know which two forces, axis and allied, you will be able to play. I am planning on 60 players – which should be more than enough spaces. If we get more, we will make the room for them to play and find the tables somewhere. Don’t worry about the limit – pick your force and sign up as soon as you feel you can commit.
Lists will be due Friday, 11 September 2009. First round matchups will be posted Monday evening the 13th.
Games during the event will ONLY be Axis vs Allied. Every attempt will be made to make every round the best possible set of historical matches of forces, terrain and mission. No matter what the current set of general’s scores, however, each and every game will be Axis v Allied.
There will be more than $3000 in prizes in a large number of categories. There will NOT be a “history” or “background” prize as you can only take forces from the SIBs anyway. There will be prizes for Best Army, Best Modeled Unit, Best Objective and Player’s Choice Army. There will be prizes for the Best Allied General and Best Axis General, Best Sportsman, Military Misfortune and a few other special categories including the brand new and very popular Manliest Army award. Best Overall will be a combination of Generalship, Army and Sports scores. Every player will leave the event with something – at least two BF blisters.
Missions
To be determined, but campaign themed. There will be a Roadblock, possibly more than one. There will be a Cauldron, possibly more than one. River Crossing and No Retreat from FS:Bagration will be likely. Airborne/Para players will be able to conduct Seize and Hold in certain situations and need to come with two versions of their lists, but Para players will not be able to execute a glider Coup de Main. Not One Step Back may be in play. Special unpublished missions may be included. There will be special rules for each game. There will be NO Breakthrough, Free for All or Hold the Line. Expect to do the things your force was called upon to do in September of 1944.
Terrain
We will have 14 MG themed tables provided by 10th Cavalry that are being done for our grand MG campaign. We will need assistance in getting the remaining 16 tables. There will be an award for Best Table, possibly more than one. Tables must be themed to Holland and Belgium Sept to Nov 1944. They do not *have* to be specific to Market Garden (can be Walcheren, for example…) and we also are ok with there being multiples of key parts of the MG battlefield (more than one Arnhem bridge, for example). The narrow roads, polder terrain and water obstacles, etc, will all play a key role…. Mike Turner has graciously agreed to serve as my terrain captain to help recruit and organize the tables above the 14 provided locally from our campaign. Let him know (he is MWT here on the forum) if you can help us with terrain.Plan now!
Jon