Flames Of War: British Vs Germans Battle Report - Late War

With my Thursday evening ruled out for this week (apparently small children can have birthdays on Thursdays) I was lucky enough for Peter to offer to give my new Flames of War British armoured company a game.  He had an eye on a possible upcoming Operation Market Garden campaign, and brought an experimental and newly painted grenadier company – plenty of small platoons of infantry supported by a substantial four gun platoon of PaK40’s, some Luftwaffe AA (including a FlaK36) and a confident trained trio of Panthers.  Against this 1500pt force I put my own never before used British; four platoons of Shermans, two patrols of universal carriers and a platoon of infantry, all confident trained.

The venue was my house, and some fields in an unnamed part of France, and the day went not very well for the British in a Free For All mission.  With many fewer platoons I was set up long before the Germans, who were able to position their PaK40’s, AA guns and Panthers directly opposite the bulk of my armour on my right flank beside a farm.  The railway line, with its steep embankment, slowed my Shermans initially, while the hedgerows hemmed in and slowed down my carriers.  An early firefly attempt on the lives of the Panthers was returned with interest and two Shermans brewed up.  Not deterred, and knowing that aggression was key if I was to get anywhere with armour, I stormed forwards through the fields and along the road, with half of my armour providing smoke cover for the rest.  Unfortunately I sent the right hand platoon too close to the enemy AT guns, and not even the smoke could cover them enough to prevent a murderous fire destroying several of them.

My strong right flank by the farm. 

Panthers waiting.

German AA and PaK40 position.

My recon ready for the off.

My initial attack, advancing across the railway line and then the fields - the Panthers have just cost me 2 Shermans on the near side.

Smoke covers the enemy.

Casualties mount thanks to the Panthers again.

By this time I had identified that the left hand objective represented my best chance of success out of the AT guns fire arcs, especially with my smoke barrage reducing the enemy return fire, but not slowing it enough to prevent casualties.  I sent my left hand Sherman platoon, which had been left out on a limb near a hill, towards it and tried to force a way through with my central one along the road.  On my right the Panthers were on the move, and having dispatched the last of my far right Sherman platoon they began to fire into the fields and road.  A slice of luck saw my two fireflies there survive the fire, but their return shots at close range still could not penetrate the Germans armour, and they fell in the next round of firing as the number of Shermans firing smoke became fewer and the battlefield began clearing of smoke and active British tanks.  The road was filled with wrecked Shermans, and my attempts to support my far left tank platoon with the universal carriers saw the carriers hit by light AA gun and mortar fire and they disintegrated; two running from the battlefield and the rest burning.  The last Sherman platoon proved unable to defeat the surprisingly potent light infantry gun platoon defending the objective, and with German platoons closing in all around it was unsurprising that the British CO failed his moral check.

My aggressive attack down the road.

The attack ends in tears, my tears, despite the dramatic side shot by the Firefly at the Panthers.

My last attempt to secure an objective fails due to enemy infantry and infantry guns.

At that end of that first appearance for my British I learnt a few things, and had the chance to try out some of the ideas I had had beforehand –Armoured companies are best used aggressively, with their manoeuvrability key to hitting one point of the enemy line.  I tried to use my four Sherman platoons together, with one moving while the other provided covering fire, and managed this to some extent, although I had split off one platoon to the far left when I would have been better bringing them all together before the attack went in.  In the end I took too long working out which was the right objective to attack and lost too many tanks moving over ; poor deployment really.  The use of smoke from the Shermans was very effective, although I negated some of its benefits by stopping too close (within 16”) when firing.  The width of the smoke markers was also a pleasant surprise.  The universal carriers were ineffective because they only had one machine gun each so didn’t cause any damage to the dug-in Germans, and they didn’t have much chance to practice their eyes and ears ability, while my infantry scared off a sniper, but did nothing else.  The companies ‘Trained’ status made them horribly vulnerable to enemy fire (that was a real shock when I’ve played with veteran Germans for years!), and the PaK40’s, FlaK36 and Panthers carved through them with ease.  I think some artillery capable of laying down smoke and some air support would really help this army, and then its down to practice and tweaking, fortunately despite my defeat I was greatly entertained and pleased with my armies aesthetic appearance.

Flames of War Battle Report - German & Russian Armour Clashes

Having put plenty of paint on my Flames of War Panthers, and various additional units, to assist them in their plans to foil the allies, I took them out for a spin.  An initial 2,500pt game against James and his Yanks fell through (you could almost smell the American’s fear….) but the Russians, obviously to daft to know fear, stepped into the breach.  An initially organised 2,500pt game against Pete spiralled up to 4,000pts a side when Red joined proceedings, and I provided and commanded all 4,000pts of Germans.  This sadly meant I had to use some part painted models rather than an entirely painted army but I did get to use all my newly painted bits and a horde of stuff that rarely has an outing.

With such large forces we expanded the table to a 6ft depth with a 7.5ft width and deployed two objectives for each side in the enemy deployment zone in appropriately positioned spots (we made the scenario up in other words).  We then rolled off with the winner setting up first and then going first.  Pete won the roll, and the Russians went first. 

A blow by blow account in black and white would be much too painful for Pete and Red, for whom the game finished in around an hour and a half with both Russian companies decimated.  They were unfortunate in the location of two pieces of scenery; the first a handily placed hill which one of my Panther platoons used to play hide and seek to great effect.  The second a built-up area, dominated by my Konigstiger, which blocked the Russian lines of sight as they were picked off from range.  During a horror show for anyone East of Poland a special mention should go to Petes ISU-122’s who managed to move a sum total of 6” throughout the game thanks to some atrocious luck trying to get through a forest!  Apart from that the Russians attacked German armour from the front, and their opportunities to hit back were too limited to make a difference.

The battlefield from the German side, note the built up area and large central hill that enabled my Panthers to dominate the approaches.

Pete's armour.

Red's armour, including 5 IS-2's.

I was a big fan of Pete's paint job on the Russians, here were his captured Panthers.

The bogged down ISU-122's

A brave (foolish?) Stuart in the town.

One of Petes plans almost came to fruition, but the Panthers survived and the supporting Panzer IV's wiped out the Russian light tanks.

Pete's snow camouflage.

Red's IS-2's.

With 8:15pm reached Pete withdrew and me and Red placed 2,000pts of troops on the same table, but swapping sides.  This had the feeling of being closer, but still resulted in a German victory, if only because Red misjudged the position of some sneaky German 8-rad armoured cars.  With the IS-2’s and T34/85’s playing out a long range duel with my Panthers the Sd Kfz 231’s sneaked into the town under heavy covering fire just before I would have been outflanked on both sides.

In truth I would have been happy being pounded from one end of the (lovely looking) battlefield and back just to see my newly painted troops take to the field.  In fact I spent rather an unnecessarily long time just looking at them, until I saw Petes winter camouflage and was wowed by that instead.  As it was I was very fortunate to play two quality opponents who didn’t let a horrible beating (and some appallingly bad, and good, dice rolls) put them out of humour, and my sense of guilt lasted only until around 5:30am the next morning.

Second game, and my Panthers began it in the open while the Russians had the hill and town.

Russians creeping around the flanks but just too late.

Flames of War Battle Report - Breakout from Anzio

With an open gaming weekend at Deeside Defenders a few brave souls gathered to try another scenario, thought out in Petes car on the way to/from the club on a couple of Thursday nights.  Based in Italy, and looking for an alternative to a horde of German heavy tanks, we settled on Anzio, with the Yanks looking to break through the German lines, while the Jerries tried to hold on, and await the other 50% of their army in the form of reserves – representing the German counter-attack to drive them back into the sea. 

For the Allies: The British had to pull out, so the Allied army was an all American affair, with James fielding two companies; one tank and one rifle, while Luke fielded a large tank company.

For the Germans: A mix of branches of the Wehrmacht, with Phil going the Luftwaffe (Herman Goering Division – panzergrenadiers), Pete choosing an SS Panzergrenadier regiment, and me going for a Heer (army) panzergrenadier regiment.  As would be expected of us, we bickered throughout over virtually everything!  Following the ‘no heavy tanks’ rules, we had only 3 Tiger 1E’s (in Phils army, and in reserve), and 5 Panthers in mine, but had to be last to arrive from reserve.

The Mechanics – Six objectives were arrayed up the table, the side holding the most objectives at the end of play was to be the victor.We playing lengthways on a 12ft by 5ft table, with the Germans starting covering all six objectives with less than half of their forces.  The Yanks began 2ft on, and a scarce 18” from the first objective (and my troops!), they then had first turn, and the German re-enforcements arrived according to the FOW rules.  In terms of scenery we went very hilly to prevent easy lines of sight, and make it a bit more Italian.

The initial setup, with the Yanks nearest, and the German re-enforcements arriving at the other end of the table!

The 7,500pt American army.

The waiting German defenders.

The paricipants caught on camera, from the left; Pete, James, Phil and Luke.

The Battle:

The exceptionally large American army (all 7,500pts of it) began the battle with a charge forward on its left (Luke in gung-ho mode), and a more sedate advance on its right with James troops.  Luke instantly came up against a problem; my German infantry supported by 88mm guns, and a minefield, were in the village directly in the route of his advance, and were holding an objective.  He was light on infantry, and rather than assault with his tanks and risk losses he opted to try and soften up the target first.  This was partly successful, with the 88’s return fire ineffective, and the guns silenced before a platoon of American paras swarmed in to pushed the infantry back and eventually wipe them out.  James faced a similar scenario on the Yanks right, with Petes SS infantry in the way on a large hill.  The SS were in the open however, and chose to fall back to the road and a more defendable hedgerow in the face of the Shermans, yielding the objective on the hill early.

Pushing forward the combined American forces met a much more formidable opponent in the centre in the form of Phils Herman Goering panzergrenadiers.  Armed to the teeth with panzerschrecks and 3 PaK40’s the 2 Luftwaffe platoons were unwilling to give ground, even when the Luftwaffe CO was killed by a very fortuitous artillery shell.  Supported by the SS artillery and Nerbelwerfers they took a toll of the attacking tanks, with the Luftwaffe Wespes arriving from reserve to add to this artillery park at the rear of the German positions.  It wasn’t until the Heer platoon in the village fell back, and Luke launched a successful tank assault with Stuarts on the Luftwaffe’s flank that the first of the two platoons disintegrated, with the PaK40’s taken out by heavy fire from the Shermans at the same time.  The second platoon moved to fill the gap, but was caught in the open and wiped out by the tanks machine guns, leaving the central objective in the Americans hands.

The first casualties - caused by the Luftwaffe PaK40's in the centre.

Lukes army slows when faced by the Heer infantry and 88's.

The German pioneers making the best use of the road - 36" a turn!

The Americans come up against Phils Luftwaffe troops at the T-junction.

James Yanks taking a beating trying to get over the hill that the SS have retreated from.

Despite having assaulted, and now holding 3 of the 6 objectives, the Americans had paid a high price in vehicles, especially with Stukas roaming the Yanks rear areas as well.  They had deployed in quite a deep formation, especially James, and were struggling to get the remaining troops up to re-enforce their front line.  The Germans were also being re-enforced, although not too swiftly.  A Heer pioneer platoon hammered down the road in their trucks, covering the approximately 8 foot to their deployment area in a mere 4 turns (arrival to digging-in in a blink of an eye!), and now filled in the gap between the rapidly dwindling SS in front of Lukes troops, and the objective on that side.  The Heer artillery also arrived, and the heavy tanks; the Luftwaffe Tigers, put in an appearance, doubling down the road while being strafed constantly by the Yanks air force to no effect.

James pressed on over the hill the SS had retreated from, but found winkling them out of the hedgerows to be far more difficult, especially the infantry guns.  The Luftwaffe 88’s (3 in total) sitting behind the newly arrived Heer pioneers took a fearsome toll of the Allied armour on the hill, forcing it to go round the foot of the mound to stay out of line of sight.  Finally breaking through the hedgerows into the lane it still took a close assault by newly-arrived American riflemen to subdue the last of the advanced SS infantry.

German re-enforcements clogging up the road network.

More pain for James, but at least he finally clears out the hedgerows of SS.

Lukes advance down his left was hampered by another Heer pioneer platoon, this one holding a large hill and guarding the spotters for the Heer artillery and mortars.  He left a number of platoons raking the hill with fire (to no effect!), while sending several around to the left to race for the next objective, which was foolishly being guarded by just the SS and the Heer CO’s!  By fluke they had landed up in the same building, and were still there (obviously having a party meeting) when the Yanks light tanks arrived outside!  The Luftwaffe efforts to help the situation not being welcomed when their artillery hit both CO’s instead of the enemy tanks!  Luckily both survived.

The American advance down the centre had slowed to a halt, very much aware of the apparently unstoppable (if slow) advance of the 3 Tigers down the road towards them, as well as a third larger Heer infantry platoon guarding the middle objective and the road.  This meant the American armour stopped around the central objective they had pulled out of the cold dead hands of Phils Luftwaffe platoons, and became subject to an intense artillery bombardment as all 4 of the Germans artillery batteries set up and began hitting that area.

The SS Assault Guns retaking the right hand objective.

The end game picture from the German end.

The German re-enforcements, with the turn counter ticking quickly, now started to flood on, with Lukes advance tanks the main ones to feel their wrath as SS StuG’s and Panzer IV’s headed towards the SS and Heer CO’s position using the road and the fields.  They were backed up by a truck-mounted platoon of SS infantry, while the SS mortars and HMG’s followed the Luftwaffe Panzer III and armour car platoons down the German left to support the 88’s and Heer pioneer platoon there.  Lukes light tanks fell victim to a hail of shells from the StuG’s who reclaimed the objective , while the Tigers carried on past on the road heading for the American centre.  With time running out the American air force strafed the SS troops moving down the German left, destroying their trucks  in an effort to stop them re-enforcing the Luftwaffe 88’s position which James’ remaining armour was massing to attack.  The entire allied artillery power was turned towards the Tigers now, with the realisation that the battle would end in a 3-all draw unless the German heavies could force their way through to that central objective.  The lead Tiger fell prey to a big American shell, but the other two powered past, and with a last roll of the dice Phil stormtrooper-ed them within 4” of the objective, and contested it to win the battle for the Germans.

Phil's Tigers on their way to the tent that represented the objective, and too victory!

Post-Battle Analysis:

The scenario eventually came out quite even this time out.  The Americans took a lot longer than expected to break through the initial German line, despite its fragmented defence – caused by the constant good natured bickering between the German players!  This was partly due to the solid centre of Phils troops, combining with some hesitancy by James, and Luke not wishing to get his tanks bogged down in the village against my men.  When the German reserves began to arrive they turned the tide back, especially on the German right/centre against Luke, however if we had had the time to continue the Americans had more than enough troops left to balance that out, and throw it back, and nothing was a foregone conclusion.

There was a good buzz around the game, more often than not created by the Germans arguing, as well as the speed at which the re-enforcing troops in their trucks came hammering down the road, and one last laugh at my expense when my 700pts of Panthers failed to make it onto the table as time ran out.  A note on size and timing; we played 2,500pts a player, or rather 7,500pts a side (Luke and James splitting the points between them), and found this to play quite quickly.  A turn time limit was set as 25 minutes, but we rarely got within 5 minutes of reaching it, and played a swift 9 turns.  A worthwhile scenario and game, I think it might be Normandy next!

Falaise Gap - Flames of War Battle Report

Some eye-candy of a late-war Flames of War game I played in on Saturday.  The scenario was based around the Falaise Gap with the Americans (James) and British (David) attacking the flanks of the German retreat on the two side tables, looking to break though to the main big table and claim victory by securing the objectives on the road.  On the big table Phil’s Germans were supposed to be providing a rearguard against Red’s horde of Cromwells streaming down the road trying to overtake them.  Me and Laurent were defending the flanks, Laurent against the Americans, me against the Brits.  Approximately 11,500pts a side.

Sadly the scenario didn’t work out as well as I had hoped, with the Allied flank attacks being far too cautious and slow to make the main table, and Red’s armour coming up against a nasty combination of Phil’s Konigstigers and dug in infantry and making no headway at all in 5 turns.  A few twists to the rules, such as reducing the Germans AA power and points totals, and me remembering to force the German retreat more, would have made it work I feel, another time perhaps.  Victory to the Germans overall.

The British Armour (Red) musters for the assault on the Germans rearguard.

Th German rearguard - 6 Konigstigers in total.

Full setup, Yanks attacking the far flank, with Brits the near.

The German 'rear areas', consisting mostly of my troops who did little to nothing all game. 

The German rearguard again, complete with heavy artillery.

Reds Brits with some American support.

The American support gets caught on the road and decimated.

American artillery, unfortunately held back just too far to make a difference.

James tanks looking for an edge against Laurents Panzer III's and Tigers.

Davids Brits coming out on top against my small rearguard on the flank, although a shortlived victory thanks to counterattacking German armour soon afterwards.

Allied airpower - 3 strikes a turns wasn't enough due to the heavy concentration of AA guns in the German rearguard.