Battle Report - Flames of War - Early War - Dust Up

Time for another Wednesday wargaming battle report! Playing some more early war desert flames of war games, this time the mission is Dust Up which is one of the ones I quite like.

I decided to change things up a bit for my list, but still using the Shutzen company, so this time I had:

Command
Full Platoon
Short Platoon
HMG Platoon
Mortar Platoon
Infantry Gun Platoon
3x Panzer 2
3x Panzer 3
2x 231 armored car

The British switched over to a guards Rifle company, with machine guns, carriers, 2 platoons, Portee Guns and matildas.

Here we are after deployment and Recon moves. I have started with one infantry platoon on the lower objective, and HMGs and the Infantry Guns by the upper one, with the guns behind the hill. The armored cars have moved over, their job is to slip by the matildas and go for the undefneded back British objective. The Brits started with one infantry, HMGs and matildas.

I moved my armored cars up to hide behind the Oasis, the Matildas got a few long range shots but no effect as it was not easy to hit even for the guy in the open. The British machine guns moved up at the double.

On my next turn I moved up my cars so they were just outside of range of where the matildas could get, and walked one HMGs up onto the hill to shoot the Brits doubleing in the open. My theory was that he would die but would kill a few teams so that seemed like a good trade. In the end I killed 2 guns and lots one so not bad. The Matildas continued to trundle forward.

Next turn I decided to risk it a bit and doubled my cards towards the back objective. The matildas didn't go for it but the HMGs did try for some shots as you can see being measured. But the bullets didn't quite get through my armor. I kept trying to get a Matilda kill with my artillery but was still not able to even get a hit.

On turn 3 no one got any reserves, but my recon was able to move right on to the objective, forcing the British infantry to move towards them in the open. Meanwhile the matildas got right in my face and started to plan their assault, and killed one gun with machine guns, I moved so infantry up to be in the zone.

On to turn 4, no reserves again which gave the Brits an opportunity to go to ground. My recon kept up the fire but there is just 2 of them. On the other side the Matildas launched their assault. My gun got lucky with the defensive fire and managed a kill, despite being pinned with 1 shot and Matildas being almost invulnerable! I lost a few teams but they were pushed back, so not overly concerned. But time is beginning to be a problem!

Turn 5 reserves began to arrive, and I got all of my tanks in! They moved up to blast the infantry. Sadly I forgot to remove gone to ground with my recon which would have doubled the amount of hits I was likely to get. So they were left 1 team away from making a morale test. But still the noose was closing in. I don't think the Brits got any reserves, but the Matidlas continued to grind away, there is just 2 of them but I don't have much of a chance of getting kills with only one gun that even has a chance! Really it is about who can secure things first.

Next go around I get in my other infantry platoon, and should also have gotten my mortars but I forgot they existed! My focus was to much on bringing in more infantry to trade for time with the Matildas. The Brits go some portee guns in and raced for their objectives. All my tanks closed in on the infantry, and again I forgot to recon. But after 3 assaults all they had left was the commanders and 2 teams. This cost me an armored car and a tank and frustratingly not getting the objective secured.

Next turn the Brits got in some infantry and carriers, and shot my gun in the back! The press for the objectives continued on by sides. I moved my infantry up to contest and shot at the HMGs on the hill and got ride of those pesky guys. My tanks finished off the infantry, except for one pesky commander. So things are very close but still no one is able to get a win.

Next go around I moved up my HMGs to try and get a lucky go at the carriers. The shooting for me 2 bails, but didn't get the kill in assault to seal the deal so they escaped. My commander moved up and then storm troopered to be just in range to contest, and my tanks fired on the pesky trucks who had taken over the duty of blocking my win. At this point I realized that I only had 3 platoons left on the board out of 8 so rolled a company morale which I failed and lost me the game. Later on I realized that I had forgotten to deploy my mortar platoon! So I wouldn't have had to make that test at all but ah well lost the game due to forgetting things. Well there is a chance it could go either way, but I think I was running out of stuff to contest faster, and my HMGs are dead meat so that is a test next turn even without the mortars.

Still it was a crazy close game and could have gone either way, I think a few mistakes with the recon cost me big. Matildas sure are hard to deal with, but they are expensive and slow so hard to know if they are worth it or not. Obviously it would be good for me to take the 88, but having that immobile gun with huge range is the opposite of what I like about the desert. I want to have interesting battle with maneuver not huge immobile guns so I am resisting that.

Hopefully you enjoyed this crazy close battle, even thou the wrong side won out in the end!



Thanks;
Mike