Cruft and I sat down Wednesday night and had ourselves a game of Flames of War. You have read about this new obsession of mine, it is the 15mm WWII miniatures game produced by the New Zealand company Battlefront.
I have some pictures and an after action report, so y'all can see what all the fuss is all about.
It was determined that Cruft would be the attacker while I would be the defender. We played the encounter mission, so we had to hold at least half our forces in reserve and not have them placed on the table until we could roll for them at the beginning of turn 3.
We placed our troops on the table, Cruft placing his StuG F/8 platoon with two tracks, Panzer III L platoon with three tracks and his anti-tank gun platoon with a pair of 5cm PaK 38 guns. I placed a full three squad rifle platoon, a platoo
n of four M4A1 Shermans, and my company command with the 2iC taking the bazooka teams as his own.
TURN 1
Cruft made the first move by advancing his tank platoons while under the protective eye of the anti-tank team. The StuGs opened up on the rifle platoon and took out the bazooka team. And the PaK 38s fired on my Sherman platoon and caused the tank covering the left flank to bail out. His Panzers weren't even as effective as that, missing with all shots.
I took my first turn and successfully dug-in my rifle company, using the Trusscott Trot my 2iC and the pair of bazookas advanced through terrain to outflank the StuGs and get into a better position to take them out. My Shermans advanced slightly trying to keep their side armor from becoming exposed to the Panzers to my right while still threatening the StuGs. The M4s fired on the StuGs and struck a few glancing hits, net even enough to make the crew jumpy enough to bail out.
Turn 2
Feeling confident, Cruft pushed closer with his StuGs and Panzers. Again he opened fire on my teams, this time the StuGs fired on the 'zook teams coming up on his flank. Although he had some nice hits, my guys dove behind some close by terrain and saved their hides. While this was going on the Panzers and PaK 38s took shots at the Sherman platoon but with no hits of any value.
The 'zooks felt they were at a good angle and came out of cover to bring the StuGs into range and fired, knocking one out. The platoon leader of the Shermans sees this and decides to split his platoons fire; two more shots down range to the StuGs and two toward the Panzers on his flank. These guys are excellent shots, the second StuG went up in a ball of flames and smoke while two of those pesky Panzers got their turrets popped. The third Panzer sees the carnage and decides discretion is the better part of valor and retreats from the battle.
Turn 3
Cruft brings on his PanzerGrenadier platoon and moves them up to the area just between the two olive groves preparing to deploy for the next action. Again the PaK 38s open fire on the Sherman platoon and makes three strong hits, but I made the miraculous roll of three sixes to save.
At this point Cruft still had some life in his forces, if he could keep that platoon from getting mauled and make an assault he could still pull out at least a draw. But that wasn't to be. I rolled for my reserves and got them, still some hope for the Germans. Nope they landed right on top of that battle saving platoon and obliterated them.
The coups de gras was the 'zook teams taking out half of the Pak 38s. With that blow, Cruft conceded defeat.
Fun was had by all.
This is the first time we have used the random terrain layout method as prescribed in the hardback rulebook. The process was fairly painless and resulted in a fairly dynamic table providing a very believable battlefield. The one thing I would have changed is the size of the battle area. when we started playing FOW, Cruft and I started on a small area of no more than 3'x2', this has grown to about 3'x4', as it was last night. With the number of points we are going to be able to field I think we need to expand to at least 4'x4' if not to the full 4'x6'.
Now that I have got about a half dozen games under my belt, I can honestly say I prefer this game over any other game I have played with my current gaming group. And I hope to expand my gaming horizons with all the historical gamers in the Austin area and the great support provided by my FLHGS.
See you in the trenches.
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