Battle Report - Flames of War - Late Late War Tank Battle

So I decided that we should do a late late war tank battle, with no rivers! We agreed to pick a list from Blood Guts and Glory, Devils Charge, or Nuts. So we are playing a game maybe somewhere between the Loraine and the bulge.

We played 1500 points, so I decided to go with the Veteran tanks option, and since I had recently painted Abrhams and some M10 Tank Destroyers I wanted to give them a try so took those as well. This is what I then ended up with:

Serge went for a disguised Panzerbrigade, really I don't know where these bizzare forces come from some times! But their stuff is disguised as Americans so you can't shoot them unless you make a skill test or they have already shot first. But I talked them into using the evil SS dice which never roll well so there is that.

A big unit of 5 Panthers that is some scary stuff.

I figured it would make sense to play a mobile battle and we flipped a coin to see if it would be Breakthrough or Counter Attack, never felt like doing Cauldron or the other one. I quite like break through so sounds cool. I ended up being the attacker so I put the Tank Destroyers in delayed reserve as the breakthrough unit and deployed everything else. The Germans have the 5 Panthers in the big hill with the wooded top, and the StuGs hiding behind the small hill. The German commanders are tucked away somewhere.

I decided the best idea really was to get in with the StuGs right away and avoid the Panthers until later. So I deployed that way, and here we are after the 2 spearhead moves that Abrams gives ready to start things off.

So after my move Abrams is ready to shoot up some tanks, but I failed the roll to see through the disguise with both of these units, and the other tanks by the church, so the nasty guys would get the drop on me. Abrams then tried to do his storm trooper move with this unit but promptly rolled a 1 so that was not happening. Not the decisive start I was hoping for.

The Germans moved the StuGs into a firing line, but only got 1 kill. Meanwhile the Panthers made their way out of the smoke and the hill getting into position towards some shots next turn.

Turn 2 I kept up the pressure on the StuGs, they had shot now so I was able to return fire! The stabilizers and easy ride really helped me out here so was able to get a nice 2 kills and 2 bails. They passed the roll for platoon morale but I can't really complain. My other tanks moved at the double to try and hide from the Panthers. My plan is to draw them across the train tracks and have Shermans on both sides of them to get some side shots. It's not a good idea to get in a long range gunnery duel with 5 Panthers!

I even sent the company commander off on his own.

Now is was the Panthers turn to have a not so stellar turn, they only managed to bail the commander and the 1 tank from the other platoon the could see. But the StuGs killed another 75mm Sherman, and Abhrams didn't manage to un-bail! In the bottom you can see the rude second in command German team coming up to kill some of my mortars.

On my turn I finished off the StuGs, so one problem down. Then I smoked the Panthers on the cross roads to force them to move, and doubled my tanks again trying to hide behind the next woods.

Getting Excited now so blurry pictures

This turned out to be pushing things a bit to much and 3 Panthers caught them and eviscerated that platoon in one go. The bailed out guy left behind failed his platoon morale and was also gone. Meanwhile the religious guys by the blown up church killed my commander.

To make matters worse lieutenant rude snuck up in the woods and murdered the  mortars commander! Things are looking very bleak for the Americans. Don't worry though the mortars got him back a few turns later after he killed one more team.

But my tank destroyers had come in on their break through so I now had the Panthers surrounded, and it was getting close to turn 6 so the Germans had to start thinking about defending the objectives in the vineyards. So there were opportunities for me to get some revenge. The tank destroyers heros that they are deployed from their seek and destroy doctrine into the forest on the hill and took out a Panther. Someone also bailed the guy across the tracks at some point, and he failed his roll many times to un-bail. Abrams and my remaining Shermans though were forced to start a long risky journey across the open plain.

The Panthers struck back against the tank destroyers, but only managed one kill, hah! I later had to change which was the killed one as we found out I needed a team within 16" of an objective to not loose. Still that Panther was bailed so the mocking really ramped up about here. Really enjoying those evil SS dice I think hah.

My tanks continued their trek up the side of the table, while Abrams drove down the road. Now I have the Panthers on 3 sides so really in the position I wanted! The tank destroyer decided that discretion was the better part of valor and went gone to ground instead of shooting to make it hard for the Panthers to get a hit.

I think they did and only got 1 bail! But some other guys killed a Sherman. The poor guy on the left of the tracks is still bailed out, so the German Commander raced down to give him some encouragement. The Americans were very luck and passed all their platoon morale rolls so I am hanging on with just 3 vehicles!

Now was the Americans time to be lucky, Abrams destroyed the bailed out guy finally, and the tank destroyers took out the side of the Panther in the woods. The Panthers then failed their platoon morale roll, and since the commander had raced off he couldn't give them a re-roll! With just the German half track left we called it a win for the Americans!

I really enjoyed this game, because I won for once! No hah because of all the manuvering and cat and mouse games. Also there was a fair big of back and forth and some fun moments.

Let me know what you think. I am really starting to not be crazy about the green GW mat so going to have to replace it soon maybe.

Thanks;
Mike