Warclouds 2014: FoW

Today as the annual Warclouds comp. I don't usually go but thought I'd support it. Keith had organised a loose "Kursk" theme, probably more correctly an East Front '43 theme. Not wanting to put any thought into it I simply dropped the Razvedki and ran my MW Sherman conscript tankovy at 1110 pts:

HQ Stuart
8x stuarts
7x shermans
4x SU 122s
3x BA 64
 Sorry about the photos, they are from my phone.

Game 1: No Retreat vs Andy
Andy as running some armoured PGs backed up by 3x pak 36s, a ferdinand (crap!) and Remer. We chose a very cool looking airfield table. My plan to win before the ferdy coild do too much damage. Andy deployed a PG platoon near the hanger and the ferdy in ambush.

On your mark...get ready...

 

 Recce move- 24" along the airfield. Halfway is now behind my recon before turn 1. "That was pretty fucken ninja".

 

 Turn 1 my Stuarts double moved towards the rear objective as the BA 64s advanced to screen them. Remer and the company commander were all that stood between us and victory. Until, dum dum da dum.  Ferdy surprise! Andy had no choice but to ambush.

 4 dead stuarts!

 So on turn 2 I bravely flank the ferdy which had the audacity of ignoring the stuarts and shooting at my AB 64s- somehow the one he hit was only bailed! The 2x pak 36s arrived from reserve and bagged a Stuart. The survivors stay.

 Meanwhile the Shermans and SU122s, hidden by the huge hanger, were blasting at the infantry, trying to win the game before the ferdy was able to do anything about it.

 The bailed BA 64.

 Shermans and SUs clear the objective of infantry.

 I'm trying to keep the Ferdy busy so it can't support the panzer grenadiers.

 Too late the ferdy is able to get a LoS on the shermans and kills one.

 Boom!

 But too little, too late. 6-1 to me :)

A bit lucky but a quick charge seemed my best hope on this one and the hanger helped by screening my shermans. Hard luck Andy. It could have been very different.

Game 2: Dave D FFA.
Dave was running Guards strelkovy (2x 1 platoon companies, 2x SU 122s and 3x KV85s). A mix up between Soviet Fronts resulted in a friendly fire incident  (I hate these kind of games!). Dave's list was even scarier for my tanks than Andy's as he had 3 times the shots each time he moved.

My plan this time: Try not to get killed and grab an objective once the KVs were committed. Didn't fancy my chances though.

Since I'm not a fan of blue on blue games only a coupe of shots. The tables had lots of LoS blocking treelines. The KVs went after my SUs and Shermans so as soon as they were committed I sent my Stuarts round on an end run to get some points before I crumbled. 

 The stuarts assaulted the infantry on one objective, killing a few. He then broke off and retreated the survivors but now Dave was under some serious pressure. Dave tried to redeploy the KVs to counter them but was a bit slow.

 This meant the shermans went for the other objective (they'd knocked out Dave's SU 122s in some lucky shooting).

 The enemy commissar helped out by killing 3 teams before shooting himself. With the objectives taken Dave finished off the last SU 122 to grab a belated point.

5-2 to me, but bloody hard. A bit of switch and move and keeping the KVs stretched helped but had Dave ignored my diversions & shenanigans the KVs could have simply advanced onto one of my objectives uncontested! Morale of the story: keep your eye on the ball.

Game 3: Fighting Withdrawal vs Josh.
Hungarian tanks: 4x38Ts, 3x panzer IV F1s, 2x Nimrods, 3x Marder IIs.
A replay of our last game. I lost the dice and got to defend but when I said I hate defending Josh said he didn't mind and so would. I happily agreed.
On this table my recon would be moving 4:" per turn! Yee haa!

Turn 1. Shermans advance on the right but are ambushed by 3x marders. Lucy dice rolling meant 2 Shermans saved and only 3 died!

 In return the Shermans took out the Marders. In the foreground the SU 122s advance on the 38ts and the Stuarts are beside them.

 Turn 3: Shermans destroy the panzer IVs, stuarts & volleyfiring SU 122s kill the 38ts. Game over within 15 minutes!

One of those tank games where the luck of the dice on turn 2 decided it. We then replayed it with Josh attacking. The game lasted till turn 4 with a 4-3 victory to him- mainly as the only Stuart to be destroyed was the company commander meaning I couldn't move to contest in time, at that point Josh had 2x panzer IVs and 2x nimrods on table! Time taken for both games: 30 mins :)

Another shot of Andy's super cool Ferdy.

Game 4: Cauldron vs Dave D.
Dave was running a snell squadron and had won 3x 6-1 victories. He had: 2x snell platoons with assault rifles, 3x pa 38s, 3x marder IIs and 3x 20mm quad AA. Dave didn't do himself any favours with his deployment. He has a tendency to take small infantry platoons and max out support but in this case he placed his pa 38s on and flak in ambush and a small platoon. Marders were off board meaning I placed my stuarts in reserve to deal with the marders, SUs and shermans on table.

Turn 1- 2x Sherman MG shots aren't saved, I rolled 2x 6s. The small platoon as even smaller and there was no way the pa 38s were ever gong to be useful as they weren't place in ambush to actually influence the game!

 SU 122s advance on the hill.

 These guys are to going to do Sweet F.A. in this one.

 Here come the Shermans

 Volleyfire + Breakthrough gun= only the company commander being left on turn 2.

 Turn 3 the marders arrive and roll to hit the SU 122s at short range... needings 2s Dave rolled 2 1s! So only one died.

 Turn 4: Stuarts arrive and kill 2x marders.

 The SU 122s line up the company commander and blast him to smithereens.

 Game 6-1 in 15 or so minutes.

A bit of a disappointing last game. The mission and table were against Dave but his choice of on table units and immediate ambush were not helpful to his cause.
 
End  result: 3x 6-1s and a 5-2 so I assume I took out first (Dave and I were about 7 pts clear going into the last round). but I left as soon as we'd finished as there was another hr 45 to play and I had a 2 hr drive home.

Only a small turn out (9 players as one player couldn't make it on the day) but some newbies which was good to see. Keith made it a fun day and the smaller points totals made for lots of space on table (which suited my stuarts) and some interesting forces. 4x 2 hr games in  day meant it was an early start (8:30 am after a 2 hr drive) but I got home early as well. I thought the guys put together some really interesting tables that were fun  and challenging to play on. 

Thanks to all my opponents, I look forward to catching up with most of them at Day of Days in a couple of weeks.

Craig

FoW- EW- Hasty Attack

 It's been a while since I posted, been off on holiday with the family. We drove up to Blenheim for my son's rep soccer tournament and took the opportunity to head over to Wellington on the ferry for a few days. The kids haven't ben to the North Island before and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with their cousins and exploring our capital city.

On the way up we stayed at my friend Ian's place for the night so we too the opportunity to play a game of Flames.  Ian had made up a couple of Mid War tank forces  suitable for Operation Barbarossa.

Ian ran:

5x panzer III hs- late Js

3panzer IVDs

2x 88s

2x 231 armoured cars

Priority stukas

For me had selected a mixed tankovy:

10x T26

10x T34/76

3x KV1E

3x tank rider platoons + 2x HMGs.

We played on a 6x5 table which (IMO) gives a much better game that a 6x4 does. The extra depth on the table made it in a game of manoeuvre much more than happens on a 6x4 table- during the game the 88s needed to redeploy twice to get better opportunities. It’s a shame that Ian uses is beautiful terrain boards so infrequently- each  time I use them it inspires me to build as similar setup. Maybe another future project…

 Ian won the dice roll so was the attacker. I deployed 2 KVs and put the infantry into immediate  ambush. Ian deployed both tank platoons and my ambush deployed on the objective that wasn’t removed.

                                                  

 Some of Ian's lovely scratch built buildings.

 The panzer IIIs deploy.

 The large conscript blob sits on an objective.

 I love his objectives.

Turn 1: Ian advanced his panzer IIIs and command tanks towards my tank riders pinning them. My company command KV survived a direct hit from a stuka and rumbled forward towards Ian’s panzer IVs.

 

Turn 2: No reserves for either of us. The panzers assaulted my tankriders killing a few and I retreated. Ian consolidated his tans forward forcing my infantry to give up more ground. The KVs continued to move over to help the infantry and the company command tank too headed towards the objective on Ian’s side of the board.

 KV to the rescue- if only it could hit something!

 Ian tries to bloc the objective with panzers. 

 Turn 3: The 88s turned up and missed my company command KV. The Luftwaffe again bombed my tans without success and y infantry once more were assaulted and driven back away from the objective. One of my two KVs was bombed by te Luftwaffe and so I was now down to two tanks. In my turn a team was just able to get close enough to contest the objective and keep the game alive. My company commander rumbled out of LoS of the 88s as it headed to the objective. My other KV took a pot shot at the panzers but missed.

Turn 4: Ian’s panzers again assaulted my infantry and cleared the from the objective, the survivors ran off the board despite the attempts of the commissar to keep them following orders. So now I was down to 2 working tanks and my reserves again failed to turn up. The 88s spent this turn redeploying.  A recce 231 managed to grab the central objective.

 

 

 My KV “platoon” rumbled down the balka to contest and keep the game alive- now came an amusing situation of Ian’s panzers being unable to hurt the KV. My company commander again missed the panzer IVs but my platoon commander managed to hit and destroy a panzer III.

Turn 5: I was contesting Ian’s objective so he used some to blind the company command KV and made it almost impossible for him to hit.

My reserves finally arrived but not where I wanted them. The T26s arrived on the central area and rumbled forward against the central objective. Unfortunately my T34s arrived on my far right and so were in completely the wrong position but they too moved round a balka to take potshots at the 231 which promptly broke off and hid. 

Turn 6:  Stukas once more arrived and in a spectacular bombing  run knocked out 5x T34s, including the commander and a T26. The panzer IIIs knocked out 2-3 T26s and mt return fire either missed or was saved.

Turn 7

The 88s had redeployed on a hill, lined up the KV which was skulking in the balka and knocked it out. The T26s were reduced to 2 working tanks with no commander and the panzer IVs again used some to minimise the effectiveness of my commanders KV. 6-1 to Ian.

A fun game in which I managed to kill one tank! I’d probably tweak the list I was given, adding some air support by losing tank or two and taking motostrelk instead of tankriders (or I'd add a 4th KV1E) but they were two flavourful forces that mad for an entertaining game. The Luftwaffe was amazing arriving 6 turns in row and knocking out most of my tanks- it was only the last round or so that the panzer IIIs got any kills (T26s)

I really do like using  6x5 table as it makes for a much more interesting game due to the extra depth (I would recommend giving  6x5 a try).

Lessons learned:

1.    I still hate using conscript Soviets!

2.    The T26 is complete junk, FA 1, slow, unreliable. I now know why I’d never taken them. I’m sure they have some redeeming features (cost?) but would rather use T60s if given the choice (which I wasn't). 

3.    I probably screwed up deploying the T26s but had to try to contest the  central objective- I wanted them to take on the panzer IIIs from the side if I could have.

Craig