Flames of war early war ( battle 2 )

Well for the second battle of the day we decided to fight across the table and fight a free for all. I deployed my British with most of my strength on the right flank as this was where i wanted to launch my attack and kept a cruiser and light tank platoon & 2ic on the left flank both hidden away behind hills from the 88s and the recce platoon as support. The Germans had a 38t platoon with c/c and the 2 88s on his right flank and the motor cycle and 2nd 38t platoon on his left with the panzer II c hull down on the middle hill of his deployment zone.

The German player got first turn but with it being a mobile battle did not roll for the stukas in his first turn. A round of shooting from the 38t platoon on the German left bailed one of my cruisers. In my move i advanced with the right flank attack, using the fast tank rule on my light tanks to move up the road at 16", a shot from these destroyed a 38t behind the church, the tank which was bailed refused to remount the tank despite the best effort of the nearby c/c and i moved a light platoon behind a hill in the middle of the board to stay out of sight of the 88s. The cruiser shots on my right flank managed to only bail a 38t.

The stukas were intercepted at the start of the turn so the Germans stayed in there current positions. The 88s had a long range shot at my c/c on the hill, so i attached myself to a near by cruiser platoon. However some of these tanks were out of line of sight to the 88s so i had to share the hits on the bailed tank, the c/c and the bailed tank were destroyed however the cc passed his warrior save and mounted a near by cruiser. The 38ts  on the German left destroyed a couple of cruisers and the light tanks took a destroyed and bailed from the panzer II c tanks.

Panzer 38t and c/c ( model is Rommel's tank but in this game it was not him ) and the 88s guard the ambulance objective.

After taking a bit of punishment from the Germans over the last  turn  i made a big push over the next couple of my turns for the right flank objective behind the church yard on the hill. My cruisers pushed into the 38t lines and the light tanks went around the wood to flank the motor cycle platoon. The french in their lorries backed up this assault. I managed to KO all but one of the panzer 38t which was bailed, however this remaining tank passed its below half morale check. My remaining light tanks on the road which was down to one now managed to KO a panzer II on the hill. In the Germans next turn the panzer II finished off my light platoon, however after twice passing his warrior save my c/c became a causality of the remounted lone panzer 38t and the cruiser platoon it had attached itself to was now under strength and failed its morale test.

The light tanks behind the hill in the middle of the table made a dash for the 88s, with machine guns blazing i destroyed both guns ( hurray ) this opened up the left flank so my cruiser platoons over there finally stopped hiding behind the hill and advanced into the open as did my scout cars to put pressure on the remaing 38t platoon on the hill.

The left flank as the British tanks advance towards the objective on the hill now the 88s are destroyed. The Germans managed to destroy a scout vehicle in return for a 38t been bailed.

On the right flank i pushed home my advantage, the light tanks which had come round the german flank finished off the panzer II platoon on the hill and the cruisers finished off the remaing 38t. In the Church yard the German motorbikes had dismounted to make one last stand on the objective. Despite taking numerous hits in my shooting phase they passed all but 2 of there saves, however becoming pinned by receiving more than 5 hits my dismounted french infantry charged them confident of beating them and taking the objective. Alas if you want a job doing don't leave it to the french, i scored no hits and the countering attacking Germans killed two french stands pushing the french back out of the church yard. For now the games was still not over but it was only a matter of time before the British claimed the victory.

The only real chance the German player could win was by destroying 3 more of my platoons and taking my regiment under half strength ( i would lose at the start of my turn as my c/c was dead ). However this was a tall order as most of the German fire power had been destroyed. However the stukas showed up again after a long absence and destroyed a lone cruiser and the 38ts destroyed and bailed a cruiser also. The c/c finished off my scout platoon ( they failed a under half strength test ), The German infantry killed another french stand but were limited as they had remained pinned after last turns combat. I managed to pass my cruisers morale so only 1 more platoon had been destroyed. With a sigh of relief i moved into my next turn sure that  i would get the victory.

In my next turn i failed to unpin my french infantry so it was up to the remaining light tanks and cruisers to finish the job. The German  infantry were cut down by the light tank mg fire leaving the objective unguarded. At the start of the German turn the c/c rolled a company morale check which was failed and the remaining panzer 38t platoon retreated from the field leaving the British victorious and free to claim their objectives although British casualties had been high  4 platoons to 3. ( the British really lost 4 platoons but they don't count there first destroyed platoon )

Conclusion : Well the game went alot better with the British this time. Playing across the board allowed me to close ranks with the Germans alot quicker than the previous game so the German air force had less impact in this game. Also i managed to stay out of sight of those dreaded 88s and only lost a couple of tanks to them. This time i was able to move into mg range and destroy them. Also getting up close to the German tanks allowed me to utilise the tally ho rule to good effect, and with concentrating most of my force onto one objective i was able to bring my greater numbers to overpower and out flank the German tanks. Although the French infantry seemed very reluctant to follow the orders of their British commanders!!

Both games were good fun again but next time ill be back with my Germans and hopefully i might have a few new models to bolster its size.

Flames of war Early war battle 1

Well I've finally got round to posting a few pictures of our recent flames of war game or games as we ended up playing two in the same afternoon as I was on the end of rather a one sided beating in the first game which only lasted an hour!! We decided to play the first game down the table for a change and placed a couple of objectives in each others deployment zone, from turn 6 you could claim an objective. For a change I decided to run the british tank company against a German Czech company. It was made up of the following:

HQ = A10 CRUISER MK II + A9 CRUISER MK I
ARMOURED COMPANY = 2 X A13 MK III + A9 CRUISER MK I CS
                                               3 X A13 MK II CRUISER + 3 LIGHT MK VI C
ARMOURED COMPANY = 2 X A13 MK III + A9 CRUISER MK I CS
                                               3 X A13 MK II CRUISER + 3 LIGHT MK VI C
ARMOURED COMPANY = 3 X A13 MK II CRUISER + 3 LIGHT MK VI C

DIVISONAL CAVARLY CARRIER PLATOON = 3 X SCOUT CARRIERS

FUSILIERS PORTES PLATOON = 3 X FUSILIERS SQUADS

AIR SUPPORT = SPORADIC FIGHTER INTERCEPTION

OVERALL POINTS 1760

I deployed my forces as open as possible as the germans had priority air support, i decided to launch two attacks down each flank using the cover of the hills, i would leave a couple of tank platoons guarding the objective and the scout platoon would push up the middle trying to attract the attention of the german fire.

The germans had 2 88s and 5 panzer ii c behind the hedge behind the field on the left hand flank as you look at the picture supported by a motorcycle platoon, on the right hand side is 2 platoons of 5 panzer 38t's and attached cc / 2ic

I deployed my forces as open as possible as the germans had priority air support, i decided to launch two attacks down each flank using the cover of the hills, i would leave a couple of tank platoons guarding the objective and the scout platoon would push up the middle trying to attract the attention of the german fire.

The scout platoon used their free reccee move to push up to the objective. I lost the roll for first turn and lost a scout carrier to an 88 even though they passed there recee fallback and restricted the 88 to 1 shot each ( the 88s had extra crew so they would normally fire 6 shots! ) in my turn i pushed my forces forward but had no firing as i was out of range. In the germans following turn the 88s desroyed 2 light tanks and the stukas arrived although it was only one and it missed its target.

My cruiser tanks pushed up onto the hill to have a shot at the 88s as i really wanted to ko them, however i'd overlooked the distance and to my horror was out of range when i measured in the shooting phase, in the germans turn they took full advantage of this by ko all 3 tanks... ouch

On the right flank i pushed my light tanks onto the hill to open fire onto the 38t platoon, i was at short range so i could fire at full rate of fire, 6 shots equalled 1 bail... not good!! The 38ts returned fire and destroyed all 3 light tanks. i managed to intercept the stukas this turn.

Lots of burnig british tanks on show!!

The two czech panzer 38t platoons defending the objective

With the 88s making mince meat out of my left flank i decided to gamble on moving out into the open with my remaing cruiser on the left flank and c/c to open up with machine gun fire to knock oput the 88's as they dont have gunshields and saveing on a 5+  are vunerble to mg fire, i scored 2 hits which my opponent saved  by rolling a double 6, now i really feared the worst!

With one of my remaing cruisers i managed to ko a panzer ii c tank, at last i had managed to penetrate some german armour :)

The 88's returned fire on the british tanks in the open and true to form destroyed  all  bar 1 of them which failed its morale check and fled the table, this left one light tank defending my left handside of the table.

I needed to make my right flank attack fast  so i dismounted my french infantry to push onto the objective and pushed a cruiser platoon onto the hill next to the destroyed light tanks into short range of the 38ts, my scout carriers pushed into the german 38t flank arc to get some side armour shots with there anti tank guns

Many shots later and id destroyed 1 38t and bailed 2, nowhere near enough, the germans remounted there tanks and destroyed the cruiser tanks showing the british how to do a job properly, the scout platoon suffered from the 2nd 38t platoon with one destroyed and 2 bailed, at the end of the phase they failed there morale throw. Also 3 stukas showed up and destroyed the 2ic and a remaining cruiser tank putting my regiment under half strength, the c/c failed the morale check and the british army retreated off the field leaving behind alot of burning british armour!
Conculsion : Well that is what you call a battering, from the first turn those 88's caused mayhem to my attack, with such a long range they picked my tanks off at will, causing to much damage before i could get into range. I think next time i pick an army i'll have to take a couple  A9 crusier mk I cs so at least i could fire a smoke bombardment and put them out of action for a turn or two to get into range, oh and make sure that i USE my tape measure to make sure i am in range instead of guessing as i did when my cruisers drove into view of the 88's!! ( since warhammer has done away with range guessing i have become a tad rusty at it lol )
However i had an opportunity to get this bad loss out my system with a 2nd game after a cup of coffee.......