Rollcall 2016 - Flames of War

[leopard]

Joint 3rd overnight

[Baldie]

I think I can safely sspeak for us all when I say it is very disappointing that you are shunning the bottom rungs these days

[leopard]

Game four, 5:2 defeat defending with 2. Panzer v a silly number of t26 in pincer.

Well I got one, and nearly got another.

[leopard]

5th game, attacking Polish cavalry with panzers..

6:1 victory

Will do a summary of the day later and sort the piccies during the week

[Baldie]

Wonder how you would have done with just Sovs, looking forward to the Polish write up.

[leopard]

5th overall, with just Soviets, assuming 4:3 victories in the two German defeats would probably come 3rd.

The Polish one was fun, helped by the enemy making a slight error in deployment. Do have pics though

[leopard]

Game 4

2. Panzer defending against a Soviet light tank army in Pincer.

Enemy had three units of T-26, each with a couple of the twin MG tanks that would be shell soaks here, IIRC each had eight vehicles, these were backed up by 10 T-26 flame tanks and 6 BT-5 support tanks and an ickle aeroplane.

We started with the Pz-389t) and Pz-IIC on the table, with three of the Pz-38(t) in ambush - the armoured cars and infantry went into reserves, to deploy from the table side to the right of the picture below.

This is the initial deployment.



As you can see we started lurking in woods to be as hard to hit as possible, what passed for a plan was to try and do as much damage as possible then fall back to take advantage of the low speed of the T-26.

Turn one saw the Soviets advance, here the final tank is positioned.



Pretty basic advance, due to Hens & Chicks they couldn’t hit the gone to ground panzers, so nothing fired - an attempt by that seagull to cause trouble was seen off by the Luftwaffe.

Hmm.. Thats a lot of tanks getting close, however nothing could get behind us on its next turn so we decided to sit back and shoot, then withdraw later.



With what would be a feature of this game, see if you can spot the markers in later pictures, we managed to hit a lot of Soviet armour, but only managed to bail out much of it. Here a few of the T-26 have smoke coming from them, but really not enough…

Then the enemy had a second turn, nothing moved so as to be able to fire…



After the enemies firing the Pz-38(t) in the wood had gone, two killed and one broke, the 2iC was bailed, one Pz-IIC dead and two bailed..

Ouch, but could have been a lot worse.

On or following turn the Luftwaffe turned up and killed two BT-5, bailing two more. We dropped the ambush, to replace the dead tanks in the same place.



All but one Panzer unbailed, and the lot opened fire - the flame tanks took a brunt of it, figuring with the preroll on firepower the 5+ light guns could do something, we killed enough to block the road which was the intention. Also bailed another T-26 to the right, and killed a few in the centre, plus took out over half the third T-26 company, though they didn’t break.

Not a bad round of shooting, helped by the enemy not advancing in order to fire, so we had less need to fall back.

Then the enemy moved again..


Flame tanks went around the building, a cheeky one getting to contest the objective the swine, the others to the right advanced to pick on the light panzers, killing two of them, the Pz-38(t) fairing better with one dead and one bail - those BT-5 support tanks with Volley Fire are brutal, naturally many of the Soviets having unbailed to fire.

My third turn rolled round, reserves! a pair of 8-rad joined the fight, basically in desperation to get some more guns to hold the right flank and prevent encirclement to the rear objective.



Then we fired, nothing else moving, we couldn’t afford the drop in rate of fire.



This round of fire focused on the flame tanks as a priority, killing enough to force them to panic, which they then did - we had a kill, frankly better than I expected really.

The 8-Rad managed to bail one T-26, with a further bail on the central platoon and enough kills to make the one to the left test, plus bailing more BT-5, sadly not enough, the luftwaffe performing badly, typically just one aircraft arriving diluting the fire then a lack of ability to actually do anything.

We were whittling them down, but not really fast enough, the 4+ and 5+ Firepower ratings were killing us.

The enemy remained static once more to fire, the result as below



All the Pz-38(t) outside the HQ dead, the Pz-IIC dead and now nothing to replace either, the 2iC bailed..

We broke the start of the following turn, frankly even if we hadn’t we would have lost but potentially could have forced a further Soviet company off the board..

End result: 2-5 defeat, so close to a 3-4 defeat, but was highly unlikely to ever be a win.

Lessons?

Frontal armour 2 is pants, firepower 4+ is also pants, and the Pz-IIC has RoF:3 which I only worked out post game (had been firing it as 2), this could have made a difference…

Doh.

Onwards to the final game of the day.

[Baldie]

Another good report Dale, 5th overall is very respectable in a FOW tourney.
I am glad I tend to be in the driving seat of the little Russian tanks rather than the one being fun over by them, the AT7 in EW is very good.
Getting them to where you want em is a bigger problem though.
Will let you take out some T35's one day as they prove to be as bad a choice in FOW as they were in the real war.

[leopard]

Game 5

2. Panzer again, this time attacking Polish cavalry of all things in Breakthrough.

My opponent had three lots of cavalry, some HMG on carts, five little tankettes in ambush, four artillery and two horse artillery plus three anti tank guns - plenty that can hurt tanks, and plenty that can move quickly.

Thought this one would be a hard win, and then my opponent deployed.. followed by myself, see if you can spot the mistake they made leading to my deployment..



Yup, they had a lot of cavalry poised to mod the objectives, dismount and dig in - exactly as they needed to, the anti tank guns limbered up to likewise get into position before my single platoon of Pz-38(t) arrived to outflank them and the artillery split to provide anti tank fire as a crossfire.

They had however forgotten two little things, firstly I had first turn - so that cavalry cluster to the top centre of the picture was a tempting target for the luftwaffe, and that artillery to the bottom was awfully exposed, indeed I could get within assault range on the first turn, and do so from behind the wood out of arc for defensive fire..

He let out a little yelp when I deployed, expecting more to go into reserve and the rest to try and blast through the middle…

‘da plan’ was to go behind the wood, killing that artillery and go through the fields to the objectives, keeping the second artillery (only a two gun battery) out of direct fire range…

We started our first turn, by the end of which we had thus:



The artillery in the wood fell to the assault, its commander shot to ribbons by the panzers, one platoon went into the woods, none bogged down and we took out most of the battery, though they didn’t flee.

Nothing passed its stormtrooper move though to that lot to the bottom were nicely bunched up..

The luftwaffe got an anti tank gun and some cavalry but nothing special, was very glad with the number of guns removed for no losses.

The enemy ambush arrived! in the open at range, but on a road



Weird little tankette things, one is a warrior who has what amounts to stabilisers as a special rule, two were just machine guns, the others 20mm cannons similar to the panzer IIC gun, so rubbish, in an all round armour 1 very small tank.



The tankettes moved up and the surviving gun fired, we lost one Pz-389t) and my heart started again.

He also fired the two gun horse artillery, not amazing guns, but against equally unimpressive vehicles..



The 2iC then only kill, but he commandeered a Pz-IIC, its crew left chucking sticks at the blazing wreak, bailed a half track and Pz-IIC, not bad for a two gun battery with FP:6.

His cavalry also moved up to the objectives ready to dismount the following turn - remembering the most important lesson in flames, stick to the plan.

Our following turn ended thus:



One tankette burning, two pinned, not amazing from everything that fired at it as you can see, the luftwaffe removed one of the two horse artillery and we got rid of the final gun in the woods - a platoon kill!. The rest mobbed the centre, just out of direct fire range of his surviving gun.

Stormtrooper moves saw a bit of a breakup, the infantry dismounting, except the two in the still bailed halftrack.



The rest just spread out a bit for the following turn.

The next enemy turn saw four HMG in carts arrive behind us - the possibility of which is why we dismounted the infantry, his cavalry also dismounted and moved up into position and the tankettes moved to flank my troops - he said he wanted specifically to kill the grenadiers, his plan to assault - but the tankettes move as halftracks so that field stopped them.

Then they fired..



CiC dead, or at least very angry, one halftrack bailed and two infantry stands dead - not enough to force a test though as still plenty alive, all in all we would accept this, it could have gone a lot worse.

Still hadn’t lost a platoon… Was starting to this I could win this, with his anti tank guns mostly dead except two on the objectives facing the other way to fire on reveres as they arrived.

Out next turn saw movement thus



8-Rad and the 2iC moving to deal with these HMG wagons, sent that much because I know my dice. the other 8-Rad moving to deal with the tankettes, sadly without support, the rest moving to try and start shooting his now dismounted troops before they could dig in and go to ground and become what is technically referred to as a ‘reet pig’ to remove.

We opened fire..



The 2iC on his own took out the four HMG carriers, the 8-Rad failing to rid the commander though, the others nailing the tankettes..



Then cast your eye towards the central objective.. The panzer IIC removed enough troops to force a test, which with a re-roll they failed and fled, the luftwaffe got a few of the other platoon but not enough to make them also run.

The next enemy turn saw more reserves arrive, armoured cars, these really should have dropped where the HMG carriers did where they could have made a mess of rear armour, or at the very least robbed me of the grenadier platoon for a kill - however they went behind his surviving gun to reenforce the objective, as did the 3rd cavalry platoon, nothing was in range so nothing fired bar one shot from the anti tank gun that rotated, which missed.

Well with our next turn the objectives were ripe for the taking, but we couldn’t reach them just yet.



Note the grenadiers still in the wood, failing to unpin yet again. otherwise we moved up to get into position to start an assault, but waited with the 8-Rad until help arrived, we fired, but didn’t manage to hit the now gone to ground and dug in Poles, settling for just the advance and stormtrooper moves to advance.

Enemy movement ended thus



His armoured cars raced up, to be concealed by the fields and as recce thus a pig to hit, the cavalry advancing clear of the fields they started in.

Again they opened fire



And again they managed to do nothing, the infantry again holding fire so as to preserve an anti tank rifle for defensive fire.

Our next turn went thus..



Panzer 38(t) from reserve arrived and went into the back of his infantry two being bailed before the third broke off, but didn’t run, so that was the reserves broken, but critically the enemy infantry crippled.

in went the next wave



This saw his 2iC (the CiC fleeing with the first infantry unit killed) split from his troops as they fell back, the infantry reduced heavily but didn’t break, the Pz-IIC not charging the anti tank gun as it would likely kill them and as yet we hadn’t lost a platoon…

Enemy movement ended thus



The 2iC contesting one objective, his anti tank guns and now armoured cars the other, with cavalry moving in. Pressure was certainly being applied, this wasn’t over and a good round from the Poles would break what I had left.



Fortunately for me at least they didn’t get it, the cavalry made their move in lieu of shooting to contest the objective and his shooting bailed a further Pz-IIC who didn’t break.

We didn’t feel the need to move anything but the second 8-Rad unit, which moved up to machine gun the horses before they could dismount and become a problem.



The first wave of shots took out his anti tank gun platoon, finally, but did nothing to his remaining infantry and killed the armoured cars.

We did however remove much of the cavalry, and push his 2iC back in assault and killed the last infantry by running them over.



Didn’t manage to kill the swine though.

Start of the enemy turn saw a company morale check, which they passed, but realising he could do little to actually contest the objectives, and realising there is a bonus point for breaking an enemy his 2iC ran and hid, specifically so we would win the start of our turn, with the Poles technically unbroken, just utterly shattered.



Thus we secured the objectives, both of them, and the win, and didn’t lose a platoon doing it. a 6-1, the first win for 2. Panzer in recent years, its first ever win in Early War and a 6-1…


Actually impressed by the Polish cavalry, they looked amazing and against infantry would have done a lot better, more so if they hadn’t deployed the artillery to try and create a crossfire - that essentially cost them the game as one solid round of shooting from them would have removed half my army.

[leopard]

Final Result

Placed 5th overall, out of 10, which is a lot better than last year. Had the Germans managed a 3-4 in both other games would have been 4th, one of them a 4-3 win and potentially even 3rd.. but higher would have taken a miracle.

The Strelk are very nice, a few adjustments and they will be brutal, they just need a way to deal with a panzer I/II/Flamme horde which is on the circuit and they are good to go.

2. Panzer? mixed results, the final game was a bit of luck with a good match up, but they need some serious work.

Considering the eye waveringly expensive Pz-IVF, for frontal armour 5, to in effect negate largely the T-26 from the front, especially at range, also for 3+ firepower so the reduced number of shot actually do something.. Need to think on what to team them with though, I think I can get some NW41 (probably only three) for smoke then a small flak and panzer I platoon for helping with enemy infantry - would be a very fragile list though and means dropping air support..

Hmm..

Overall though a very good and enjoyable weekend.

Knackered now.