Battle Report - Flames of War Ver.4

Hello All,

Time for another Wednesday wargaming battle report!

This week we are still messing around with the new Flames of War rules on the Eastern Front, trying out some different lists missions ect.. I changed up the terrain this time around, I knew I would be playing Kampfgruppe Bake, so I put in a bit more terrain and tried to have more things to block the long sight lines, to make it more interesting and less standoffish. We will see if I was successful or not!

As discussed my army was Kampfgruppe Bake, a mix of Panthers and Tigers. I had 2 Tigers, 3 Panthers, and the commander was Bake and his Panther, time to try out a special character in the new game. I also had my usual rocket artillery, and a couple of AA guns to fill in the points. The Russians had a Tankovy platoons with 2 platoons of 5 T-34/85s, some pioneers AA guns anti-tank guns and mortars. We thought that the Guards Tankovy doesn't have Hens and Chicks, but I am pretty certain this was a mistake, but this didn't play a big roll so whatever right. The main reason for this was the platoons looked expensive, but I think that was just due to being fearless and all 85s.

For missions I decided to do a Prepared attack hoping to avoid having to put platoons in reserve, as it would be very awkward for my list, and the Russians chose to defend so we ended up with no retreat.

Turn 1:

Here we are in the start, one objective on the hill and one in the woods. The ambush is a tank platoon, very scary for me as I can't afford to take any side shots with so few tanks. So my plan is to move up slowly and try and wait out the ambush, or at least kill the tanks that come on from reserve first. For there is just infantry and guns on the hill and mortars in the woods. The Russians brought in some tanks and tried to hide along the edge of the woods.

 

I slid over as much as I could helped along by Bake making people Blitz! move on a 2+. This got me a couple of shoots I think they missed. I moved up the AA to shoot at an observer that was in a house. My rockets had killed the gun they could see last turn so I moved them onto the house as well.

The Russians tuck into the woods more, and try a few shots but not able to penetrate a Panther at long range really. The mortars are trying different targets, but are not having much luck. All of my stuff is at least armored, so gets a pretty good save against them.

This turn I got a lucky hit with the AA guns and took out the Russian observer, so this will mostly end the mortars being able to fire, for awhile anyway. The Panthers fire some more shots and get some kills, and the Russians bring on the commander tank and the other guns platoon from reserve. All the reserves are on now.

The Russians had moved their commander up the the edge of the fair minefield to try and get some long shots at my rockets. So I moved my Panthers over to kill him while Bake kept picking at the other tanks. Still had my tigers waiting within range of the center of the table, but waiting out the ambush still. The other tanks are mostly dead now so we are kind of in a stalemate.

After a few more turns I decided to start moving into the woods anyway. So I moved up the AA guns, they are pretty much useless now anyway. They died, but I didn't get anything I wanted.

By now we are into turn 6 so I had to move the tigers across the center line or lose. Also creeping up the Panthers now. They are especially vulnerable with a side armor of only 5, so can be lost very easily. But the Russians don't ambush so I am having to take more chances or just except a draw and end the game.

Next turn the tigers move to the edge of the woods. I was really expecting an ambush now, so I tried to put the Panthers where they were protected but could still get some shots. With only 2 tanks left the other tank unit pulls back into the woods.

Next turn the tigers head in and I moved Bake down. Still not will to expose the Panthers badly, I am hoping the much higher side armor of the tigers will be able to take the brunt. One failed the cross test, but that is not a huge thing now. The Russians pulled their tanks fully back to the objective.

Now I have the tigers fully in and committed, and the Panthers up to the edge of the woods. At this point I am close to threatening the objective so the ambush is pretty much forced to deploy now. But I am not feeling super confident.

The T-34s of course ambushed in now. They got 6 hits out of their 10 shots so each tiger had to make three, and they both ended up bailed out! I was pretty happy about this at first, but only one remounted so I was forced to make a last stand test, this was failed so they left the board. I don't have any more pictures but the Panthers were able to move in and get some shots, with Bake gong over the mines successfully. I reduced them down to 2 tanks as well without further losses as the Russians tried to surround me. We ran out of time at this point, so it was again a draw!

I think this was allot more about us being careful and not wanting to take big risks then the rules thou. Also the terrain was not easy going for a tank battle, especially a long range gunnery duel which would have been perfect for me!

One thing that really has become apparent with the new rules is that small tank platoons can be very vulnerable to last stand tests which is not good! Tigers will have to test if they loose a single tank so you can see 400 points running away even from just a single bail! But the big Russian tank platoons may have to loose 9! That is a huge difference. Arguably good but I don't think I totally agree. At least the tiger ace rules give a slightly better shot to stick around, fearless SS tigers maybe are allot more tempting now also?

Anyway thanks for reading, more Flames of War is likely coming hah.

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Hail Caesar

Hello All,

This part Saturday we had a gaming day at Duncan's, time to crack some British skulls with the Romans. This collection of stuff has been building for a few years now, so as you can see there is tons of stuff!

Romans and British getting lined up for battle, there is an Elephant! You can probably tell from this picture that we have left all of our skirmishers and missile armed troops in the rear, maybe not the best idea?

A few moves up for the first turn, as you can see some commanders past there test and ran up, and other did not hah.

Still no charges, but the British have moved in real close to our right flank to throw some javelins and bows and what not. They did not score any real hits thou, the Roman armor was just to well made, going to have to try harder then that.

Next time all kinds of stuff happened. I tried to charge with Mr. Stompy but failed, so I moved the preatorian guard to stand in front of him. Then failed my next test, so this whole thing is not working out that well. On the other side a ton of Legions charged the frst excited British, while a few marines got ready to face the full force of their cavalry division.

This went about as you would expect, the warband was pushed back in disorder, and the marines were ran over. Now the next unit has to fight all the mounted troops. But hey now they are angry so there is that.

At this time the other British Cavalry win decided to move and charged my mounted troops. We pretty much eliminated each others first unit and went on the the second rank! The other guys of course crushed the next Roman unit. In the middle the Praetorians were hard pressed fighting a division alone, and this were not seeming great for our other unsupported group.

The battles continued, much blood being spilled. Mr. Stompy tried charging a unit of cavalary by himself, which worked. But then he broke my heart by only being a small unit and was routinely crushed. Although he did scare the British and disorder a unit of theirs.

The carnage continued with the British breaking most of the first line of Romans in contact, and pushing us back everywhere else. The right cavalry force has wheeled and is now rolling up our lines. At this point we called the game, that seems like enough for one day. How about we call in a draw??

So ya attacking unsupported and with no plan, and keeping all the skirmishers out of the battle, are not great ideas. But lots of people died so was a good time.

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Flames of War Ver 4 - East Front - Game 2!

Hello All,

Time for another Wednesday Wargaming Battle Report! Once again we are messing around with the new version of flames of war, using the more missions method to generate missions. I was to lazy to change around the terrain this week, but new lists and a new mission.

I wanted to try out some vehicles, so I took out my StugG Battery, 10 StugGs, most with tank riders, in platoons of 3, some infantry, mortars, rocket artillery and that is about it. The Russians had a infantry company just loaded with toppings, couple of groups of infantry, HMGs, mortars, anti-tank guns, and 5 ISU 122s (Or I think that is the one). They are AT16 and front armor 9 so not what a bunch of poor StugGs want to be facing! For missions I assumed the Russian Infantry would defend, and there is no way that I want to attack a bunch of anti-tank guns I am assuming they would have with fragile 3 tank platoons. So I opted to defend, as guessed the Russians defended, so this gave us a Fair-Fight mission which ended up being Free For all. (my decision to defend was not popular hah)

Here we are about to get going, I have my infantry 3 tanks on the left Objective, with mortars and rockets behind a hill. They are facing off against a big infantry platoon, half a dozen heavy machine guns, and some big anti-tank guns and mortars by a woods. On the right objective I put most of my tanks and my observer, they are facing off again some infantry and weaker anti-tank guns in the woods, backed up by the Russians and their doom cannons! My goal is to play cat and mouse with the hill and never let them shoot without moving. I guess there goal is to disintegrate me.

For turn 1 both sides mainly just moved up. Due to this being a mobile battle the Russians counted as moving in their shooting step. This meant the tank would need 7s to hit as they have both Hen and Chicks, and RoF 1! So no hits for me, lucky there. On my turn I of course went to the other side of the hill, a lucky shot from a StuH killed one guns, and I let the artillery rain. My rockets had a wide template on the moving infantry which killed a few, and then my mortars ranged in on a guy by the tanks, clipping a couple fo infantry and a gun.

Turn 2, the Soviet Army kept advancing, amping up the pressure. The infantry moved into the fields, but the HMGs failed to unpin and couldn't advance. The tanks started making there move around the hill. I guess the plan is to press the objective and make me fight, but I didn't catch on to that until later.

For my turn I hammered the infantry again, adding in all the MG fire from my infantry, killing a few more stands. The mortars repeated, but no effect. Then got one kill on the AA gun trucks.

The Soviets decided that the impending infantry assault was not such a hot idea, so pulled back and spread out, but the tanks kept coming. They lined up to have some shot at my commander, bu no hits again. The other AA trucks also ducked behind the hill.

For my turn I hid my tanks from the Russians again, and they managed to kill a HMG team. Then I brought my artillery down again, I was able to repeat with the rockets killing another couple of teams. Decision from me seems to be that rocket artillery is even better. Making teams count double is what gives the double wide template now, but there is nothing saying you don't get a ranged in marker, and all normal rules apply so no smoke trails or any of that either. In addition my mortars killed a gun team. So not bad at all. But time is starting to be an issue now. I also started moving over my other StugGs now that the infantry pulled back, assuming I will need more help to fight those crazy Russian tanks.

The Russians just advanced thier tanks and AA, setting up a fight that can't be refused as they are now threatening the objective, but with their flank out of reach. I think the mortars must have been forgotten, but no effect with them anyway.

Next picture is sideways, not sure what that is about. Anyway I did a blitz move with both my commander and the tanks across the woods. Both succeeded and never bogged down (complely changed now just ends your movement), so they would get to shoot but not count as moving. My artillery fired on the stuff to the left again, my idea is that I can soften that area up enough for my infantry to attack. But the HMGs have to be pretty much removed first, and the infantry thinned out which is mostly done. So I am well on the way to being able to advance there. Sine I am being forced to fight the tanks I am trying to get a few lucky shots and then pull back with shoot and scoot. The Germans are allowed to make 2 special moves is they pass. In the end I had the StuH at long range (can't damage), and one tank in the platoon shooting, plus the commander. The tank got 2 hits, and the Russians rolled 2 1s, giving me 2 kills by some miracle! My commander missed both of his shots. The StuH knowing he couldn't hit shot at the AA trucks and killed both.My shoot and scoot mostly worked, just the commander and one tank were left vulnerable.

The Russians tried to retaliate, but only a couple of tanks could now see and they both missed my commander. For my turn I kept up the artillery and moved more tanks to fight. But no lucky hits this time. We ran out of time at this point, so the game ended in a draw with no one taking any objectives. Just for arguments sake we tried shooting the Russian tanks and they obliterated a platoon of StugGs. So I am pretty sure that baring more insane luck, or side shots, they probably would have won. But no time to do it. Also only my tanks are counted as being in my formation, which is just 4 units so it is pretty easy for them to be forced to test once things go south.

But I thought it was a fun game anyway. Some things are hard to deal with, but trying to find out how is fun!

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - Flames of War Ver4 - East Front

Hello All,

Time for another Wednesday Wargaming Battle Report! Back after a week off due to a test. This time around we decided to try out the new version of the Flames of War rules, basically to try out the new game, and also to see how it would work for the next campaign which is planned at the club, which is a re-do of Operation Bagration. This meant lists from Grey Wolf and Red Bear basically.

I decided to take my Sturm Kompaine army, which is my original FoW army, to see how infantry would work now. Serge took a Tankovy Company with lots of tanks. I kind of figured that I would be facing tanks but my ranged anti-tank is a bit weak if I am honest. But that was my choice to go with.

I basically had 3 platoons of infantry, 2 with full panzerfaust, some mortars, and heavy machine guns, a pair of Pak 40s, a trio of StugGs, and a Hs 129 B-3. This plane has the most powerful forward firing weapon fitted to a plane in WW2, according to wikipedia, so this was meant to give me a bit of a boost in the tanks department.

The Russians, had 2 big mixed companits of T-34/85s and T-34/76s, 3 IS-2, and a few anti-aircraft guns.

We used the new matrix to determine the missions. I choose defend, and the Russians chose Hasty Attack, you then look up a table and roll similar to Age of the Wolf, this gave us Cunter Attack. Not a awesome mission to be in as an infantry company!

Turn 1:

Turn 1 sees the Russians advancing at full speed towards an objective. They way this mission works is that the defender starts on one objective, and there is a second open one. But they don't count until turn 6. So the attacker has a chance to get on it if they are fast, and then you have to counter attack them off it. I was really on the fence but decided to deploy my ambush, mainly to by time. I moved up my counter attack infantry platoon into a woods as a distraction, and put my guns in the back. They destroyed 2 tanks so not bad really. I got a reserve in and took the plane, but it didn't turn up. The way reserves works is much improved now, you have to keep 40% of your points off table instead of half your platoons. So there is much less of an ability to game the system.

Turn 2:

Turn 2, the Russians circled the wagons I guess. One tank platoon surrounded the forest, and shot up my guys in there, killing most of them but they stuck around for now. The other platoon had to move to line up some shots on my guns, no effective hits due to moving around as Russians! On my turn my plane came in and destroyed an IS-2, and bailed another, you can see him doing Gods work by the hill. I also got 2 reserves, so took in my tanks and the HMGs. My guns managed to kill another tank, and I moved up a platoon of infantry with panzerfausts into the crops. My idea here is that they can't shoot anyone, and I will force them to move or maybe loose a couple of tanks next turn.

Turn 3:

The Russians now focused on my 2 poor guns, and of course easily killed them. But they had claimed 3 tanks which is not bad for 2 guns really. They also murdered to rest of my poor infantry. But this is less of a concern now. The tanks in the field had not moved, so that at least gave me a chance for some fun

On my turn the Hs 129 B-3 came in again, he is on his game now. Planes come in on a 4+ single die roll always  now, and you get 1, 2, or 3 based on the level you choose. My StugG's killed nothing, but he took out 2 more tanks. I moved up my HMGs and they were able to easily kill the 3 AA trucks. A bit suicidal in retrospect, but I wanted to kill some stuff and protect my plane! My infantry made their surprise attack, and easily killed their 2 tanks. The assault rules are a bit simpler now, and harder to get everyone fighting. The Russian tanks decided to fall back not wanting to assault against so many panzerfausts. I also got my last platoon the mortars on, but they had nothing to do now really.

Turn 4:

On turn 4 the Russians went on to control the objective. One platoon of tanks advanced on the StugGs, just getting a bail. The IS-2s killed most of the machine guns, in revenge. And the other tanks platoon tried to shoot up my guys in the field, but weren't super effective.

For my turn I gave it a good go. My tank failed to remount, and my infantry failed to unpin. My StugG's fired some shots and I think just got a bail, they then used shoot and scoot to move back. My plan came on yet again! And killed another tank. With my infantry pinned there wasn't much else I could do.

Turn 5:

Turn 5, the Russians pretty well just moved everyone onto the objective and full speed. A few tanks got some shots, and they easily killed the bailed out StugG. On my turn I was now forced to contest or loose. So I had to move in my StugGs. They didn't kill anything I think but are now contesting, delaying the game a turn. My plane continued to come in, and knocked out another Russian tank. He is racking up quit the kill streak.

Turn 6:

Turn 6 the objectives count from now on, the Russians have it literally buried under tanks, so they just sat it out and killed my StugGs without much trouble. T-34/85s are really good tanks. At this point the writing is on the wall, but I don't want to just give up. My plane herocially came in again, and killed yet another T-34, but they still have 3 left on the front platoon, so aren't even forced to make a morale test in the new rules. I also kept my infantry pressing up. They are close enough to try an assault, which is a bit crazy but last ditch effort. Three tanks are able to get me with their turret machine guns, and they killed my 2 guys with ease. But worth a shot.


Turn 7:

This left the Russians in control of the objective at the start of turn 7, so they are the winners. In the end this was a tough mission for me, but I found it to be pretty fun. The new rules make it allot more fun to be an infantry company, as infantry can move 8" now, and you are not rolling company morale as soon as you get below half. So loosing a few platoons is not a big problem.

To be fair I did kill like 10 T-34s and an IS-2, which is a good amount of tanks! Half of that is from the Hs 129 who did much better then average, coming in every turn except 1.

Personally I liked then new rules, they simplify allot of things, and there are some big changes which shake things up allot. Planning to try another game next week as we continue to play around with things.

Thanks;
Mike

Battle Report - SAGA Campaign - Last Day

Hello All!

This past Sunday down at the club we played the last day of our ongoing SAGA Age of the Wolf campaign.

Game 1: Vs Vikings (Serge)

For the first game I was set to face off against the Vikings. When all the campaign actions and special rules were accounted for and tables rolled on the campaign decided that we should have a battle for the ford. In this mission there is a river running along the middle, and you get Conquering Victory points for guys that are able to cross the river. The Vikings have learned how to fight me, so were being careful to keep together.

I had the first turn, and just advanced everything, being careful to stay outside of 12" of all the Vikings so they would have to move 3 times to attack me.

The Vikings moved up to the end of the Bridge in a similar fashion. It seems that nobody wants to be the one to start some killing. I think my warriors were attacks and both sides took some casualties.

On my next turn I sent in my small unit of hearthguard, to fight the viking warriors on the bridge. Mostly I am trying to conserve people at this point, it would not be good to start loosing early. I was not looking forward to fighting the huge mass of hearthguard on the left bridge, so it made sense to me to put pressure on the right hand bridge. This attack went pretty well and I pushed back the warriors with no losses.

But the Viking warlord counter attacked with a small unit of hearthguard and fought 2 battles, this killed all of my guys, and all but one of the vikings. Which didn't feel like a half bad trade. This left me with a decent possibility to get an advantage on that side.

This put the Vikings in a bit of a tough spot, so they pulled everyone from the left bridge to reinforce. I assume they were worried about Mr. Warlord. But also with keeping troops together to prevent some of the strong Rus abilities that can be used.

With the left bridge open I just walked across, this was pretty late in the game so I also used an ability to reduce movement distance. Hoping to waste time and that my 6 warriors could hold out and block the Vikings in. They had a bit of moving to do so this slowing down was really annoying for them.

In the end they were easily able to murderer my warriors. But didn't quite have enough dice left for crossing the river. We decided to count the hearthguard as across, even thou they are still on the bridge, but the viking Warlord was right in the middle, vs mine that was accross, so it was a vicrory for me by just 3 points!

Game 2: Everyone!

After the scores were totaled, it was apparently clear that no one would be able to get enough campaign points to beat me. Both of the players that were close lost. So it was decided that we should just have a big giant multiplayer to cap things off. We tend to do this to end campaigns, and they are always fun. So we had the Scots, plus a few Vikings allies, vs everyone else basically, but mostly Vikings. Allot of the non-Viking people couldn't make it I guess. Anyway there was 5 on our side so we got 4 points each, and the 4 generals on the other side got 5 points each. So we are looking at 20 points per side, give or take a warlord. Big Game! Scenario was just Slaughtering victory points.

Getting ready for action. I am down by the green hill. In this area we had 4 Viking armies, and my Rus hah.

Everyone just Marches forwards, except the Scots way on the end who go crazy and charge a bunch of levy.

Getting close now, blood is about to flow.

Not too long later and loads of guys are dead. Not much shyness in these Viking types.

Long view, as you can see there are lots less guys left on our end. We playing the same game over here?

Here we are at the end of turn 7. We had 2 of our Viking armies on this end mostly wipped out, and like half of my guys. On the other side  we had wiped out basically one of the bigger 5 point armies, and the next one had some casualties but nothing super major. But our side is down a couple of Warlords which is not good. The tally of points put us 16 or so behind on this end. I think on the other side it was a bit closer, but we went down a bit more. So that left it as a pretty Solid win for the Scots! Which is fine, so long as they remember I'm the King!

Anyway it was a great campaign, and the big super game was a laugh as usual.

Looking to try out the new fall of stuff for the next campaign apparently. So I will have to get my Romans done, and maybe some Saxons/Britons we will have to see.

Thanks;
Mike