Late war campaign part one Encounter

THE CAMPAIGN STARTS

My Dad and i have decided to link our next few games into a campaign series. I will be using GOTZ VON BERLICINGEN 17.SS PANZERGRENADIER DIVISION and my Dad will be using his BRITISH INFANTRY COMPANY throughout the campaign. We decided that the encounter mission would be a good start to the campaign and from here on we would roll random missions. I started the game with a full platoon of 3 mortar sections, 3 A/A 2cm flack guns which would give some covering fire to my mortars if there was any pesky allied fighter planes buzzing around, a pioneer platoon with supply truck and 2 attached HMG, 2 88mm A/A guns with extra crew and a Scout platoon who were mounted in Schwimmwagens. In delayed reserve i had a Stug 1V platoon, a Marder III M platoon, 2 15cm siG33 Infantry guns and 2 full platoons of Panzergrenadiers with a attached panzerschreck. The British had a platoon of mortars, HMG's, 25pdr Battery and 2 rifle platoons on the table with a Humber recce platoon, Wasp platoon, Crocodile platoon, Sherman platoon and a rifle platoon in reserve. They also had limited air force. My Dad won the roll off and was the attacker.....

A British rifle platoon and a 25pdr battery guards the right hand side objective

A British rifle platoon makes for the cover of the hill with the chimney, the 25 pdrs knock out my Pioneer supply truck and pins both the pioneers and mortar platoons. The SS scout platoon move up behind the wood ready to dismount. The Pioneer attached HMG opened fire on the rifle platoon teams left in the open killing two stands (the unit unpinned in the morale step)

British fighter planes arrive and manage to range in and destroy a 88mm in the wood

The British rifle platoon occupies the house and ruined area on the hill, the German pioneers move up into a position ready to assault next turn but are pinned down from the 25 pdr bombardment losing a infantry stand, the German C-C is close at hand though.

With the help from the C-C the Pioneer platoon unpins and after a combination of fire and assaulting they drive the British rifle platoon from the hill. The rifle platoon pass their morale test. Also at the beginning of the turn they pass their sole survivor test and are removed from play. The pioneer platoon consolidates into the ruined walls.

German reserves arrive on the far left in the form of stuG IV and head straight for the the British right hand side objective. Only one plane arrives and although they are out of range of my A/A 2cm guns they fail to hit the target.

More German reserves arrive this time a Grenadier platoon and the heavy infantry guns, the infantry double to support the pioneers. The scout platoon have now dismounted and have taken position at the edge of the wood over looking the objective. The pioneers take a gamble and push for the objective in the open, with the British guaranteed at least one reserve i have to hope they arrive on the opposite flank!

British reserves arrive in force in the right position, first a Crocodile platoon arrives to confront my stuG IV

And the British humber recce platoon arrives just in front of my pioneers and open up with 15 mg shots killing all but the two hmg stands of the platoon. The remnants of the platoon manage to pass there motivation test.

Another Grenadier platoon arrives in the centre so i position them around my left hand objective ready incase the Crocodile platoon start to head this way

Also the Marder III M  platoon arrived in the centre, i doubled these straight up behind the wood ready to threaten the Humber recce platoon. The Grenadier platoon pushed up into the wood on the right.

A stuG IV is knocked out from a long range shot from the Crocodiles, with their firepower unable to trouble the Crocodiles front armour i decided to find cover to make them harder to hit.

A British rifle platoon arrives in the centre from reserve securing the British objective along side a platoon of Sherman's. A smoke bombarment from the British mortars gives cover to the Reece platoon as they move towards the SS scout platoon and remaing Hmg stands.

A British Wasp platoon arrives on the right flank and waste no time time in flaming the stuG IV platoon. However the shots fail to cause any damage. 

The Humbers made an assault move against the SS Scout platoon, however when they shot before they assaulted the scout platoon managed to successfully retreat from the shooting so they only lost one stand before getting out of line of sight. The Humbers were now out of range of the the defending teams to make contact, however they still consolidated due to shooting to successful and managed to bog two vehicles. The rifle and Sherman platoons both advance in support with the rifle platoon killing the remaing two hmg stands.

The stuG IV return the fire and destroy all three of the wasps with little trouble

The game was now pretty much at a stalemate with both sides in full control of there own objectives and not troubling the enemies, the British rifle platoonsuffered some casualties from a mortar bombardment and the SS scout platoon dug in in the face of so much armour.

The Marders get into a position to fire on the infantry platoon as the Humbers are out of sight on the other side of the hill but cause no damage.

With time running out and very little chance of anything other than a draw with both our objectives well guarded we called a halt to the game.


Score 1 - 1

Conclusion

The game ended as a stalemate and with so little casualties we each received one point for the game. If my stuGs had arrived on the other flank to support the Pioneers i may have had a better chance to threaten the objective but alas the didn't and the pioneers were left in the open to the mercy of 15 mg shots, but aside from that both our reserves arrived where they were needed as regards to protecting our objectives making it almost impossible to claim a win.
To win this mission i feel you need your opponents reserves either to be very late turning up or arriving on a flank where they are not needed both of which did not happen. Anyhow the campaign is under way and we rolled for the next mission in advance which was a Free for all, stay posted for the outcome to part two......

FOW Late war Hasty attack 2000 pts

Hasty Attack 2000 pts

Tonight's game saw us using the new edition of the FOW Rules (Vol 3). We decided to try the Hasty assault mission as it was one we haven't tried before. I had picked two forces to choose from on the night, one was my SS Panzer Grenadier company and the other was a Panzer Lehr mechanised company, i rolled a die to see which one id be using and rolled the panzer Lehr. I was up against my dads British Infantry company. With my company been mechanised i was the attacker. We had a deadline time which allowed approx 2hrs game play. I started the game with my 15cm NW rocket launchers, Panthers, Pumas and Anti aircraft (SP) on table with heavy mortars and Panzer IV and 3 Panzergrenadier Lehr platoons in reserve. The British started with a  mortar platoon, 25pdr battery, Rifle platoon, HMG platoon deployed with 2 17 pdrs in immediate ambush. Off table was a Sherman and Crocodile platoon, a recce unit of Humbers and x 2 Rifle platoons. The British also had Air Support. Here is some pictures and comments of how the game unfolded.......

The British left flank, an objective had been on the hill but this is the one i removed before the game started.

Under the cover of a barrage of rockets the Panther A and Anti Aircraft (SP) roll out towards the objective on the British right flank.

British HMG's guard the central objective (wrecked car) Inside the building are piat teams from the HMG's and Mortar platoons.

The Panther A platoon pushes on ever closer to the objective just off screen, progress is slowed by the knowledge there are typhoons hogging the sky (i was perhaps a little to cautious as i tried to stay within 2" of the woods and buildings so the planes couldn't just auto range in on me, in the new rules teams in the open are auto ranged in on!) Fire was exchanged between the Panthers and the 17 pdrs on the hill, the Panthers knocked out a British Gun .

The Pumas had moved into position to stop the HMG's going to ground. I managed to pass my skill test to reveal the HMGs with the first recce team, this allowed the other two to open fire on the platoon.
Also the first of my reserves arrived which i choose a Panzergrenadier Half-track platoon, these came on down the road heading towards the centre objective.

The British 17 pdr returns fire and knocks out my Platoon command Panther who quickly remounts one of the remaining Panthers from the platoon. Also my Anti Aircraft half-track takes a direct hit from a mortar knocking it out.

As my Panzer IV platoon arrives from the reserve on the right flank they are welcomed by 2 Typhoon planes, despite auto ranging in on the target the Typhoons send there rockets way off target much to my relief!

The Panzergrenadier platoon came under heavy fire from the piat teams in the building, having destroyed a couple of the half-tracks i had to make a motivation test, i failed this and the remaining half-tracks headed off to the rear, the unit became pinned down just short of the objective which was still guarded by a somewhat depleting HMG platoon.
Also the piats managed to bail out a Puma.

British reserves finally arrive  from reserve and my Dad opts for his Crocodile platoon, hoping they will arrive on the right flank to head off my Panther tanks from the objective with their flame throwing, unlucky for my Dad they arrive on the left flank! (ha ha)
However they waste no time in opening fire on my Panzer IV platoon destroying the lead tank with a side armour shot.

The Panthers finally clear the objective after dispatching the final 17 pdr and assaulting the mortars in the wood, the mortars fall back from the combat leaving the Panthers in control of the objective, the British are guaranteed a platoon to arrive from reserve but where would they arrive? If they come on the right flank the game could be over in my following turn if the mortars failed to unpin and re-contest the objective.

In the centre i had all but finished off the HMG platoon, however i couldn't unpin my Panzergrenadier platoon so i couldn't contest the objective as i was still a few inches short of it! Just off screen right side another unit of Panzergrenadiers joined in the assault on the centre objective.

A BIG ROLL for the British and my dad came up trumps. Two reserves arrived in the centre, my dad brought on his Sherman platoon and a rifle platoon. The Sherman's and firefly managed to knock out one Panther and bail the other. I failed my platoon morale, however as my C-C was in command distance, i passed the re roll he granted me so the Panther platoon held its ground. My Pumas dashed around top give some support to the Panther who managed to remount his tank. Some combined shooting saw two Sherman's destroyed but not enough for a morale check. The Panther storm trooped out of the line of sight of the Firefly on the hill

The second Panzergrenadier unit assaulted into the rifle platoon who had started to make there way to the centre objective, however the assault was repelled due to defencive fire. The HMG platoon where finally destroyed however with objective right in front of them unguarded my first Pannzergrenadier unit decided they preferred to stay hiding with their heads down and they remained pinned (their platoon leader has some explaining to do later!)

Having arrived earlier in the battle my Heavy mortars had set up position near my objective. The had played there part in destroying the dug in HMG platoon and keeping them pinned down to weaken their fire power throughout the game

A view from the British side of the table, the panzer grenadier platoon who failed in their assault failed to unpin so they dug in to give themselves some protection, the other grenadier platoon was now down to 2 stands after taking a bombardment from the 25 pdrs so they remained pinned, i think i was not destined to take the wrecked car objective.

Mean while else where my Panzer IV tanks got in a position where they could get a flank shot into a crocodile as their front armour is to thick for my Panzer's to penetrate, i managed to destroy one of these behemoths much to my delight. In return the other crocodile emptied his flame trailer over my Panzer IV but only managed to bail one out and stopped the other from defencive firing.

Another shot of how close my German troops are to the objective but time is about to run out and victory has faded away..

In the final British turn the Pumas take a a shot from the Sherman's losing one of their numbers and the Panther is bailed from the rifle platoon piat team who sneaks a side armour shot. My Panther failed its morale test but the near by C-C urged him back into his tank and passed the re roll. However the objective was now strongly contested

Time was up and the British had held their objectives and had won the day!
Conclusion
Well that was a hard fought game, i was so close to winning with my Panthers taking the objective only for the British cavalry to turn up where they were needed. Also the reluctance of my Panzergrenadiers to un-pin proved costly as the objective was there for the taking, (i knew i should have used my SS company lol) maybe if id pushed a little faster with the Panthers id have taking the objective sooner but the threat of the 17 pdrs and the typhoons hampered my advance. The British fought hard and stood their ground when required and eventually the reserves found their way to the battlefield to strengthen their  hold on the objectives. The new rules from the 3rd edition rule book played out well and both me and my dad felt they improved the game play although the crocodiles flame throwers are alot less effective against tanks now much to my dads dismay and my joy!!

Flames Of War game at Smoggycon

A WELCOME RETURN TO THE BLOG!
Well after a few months away from from my blog due partly to me becoming a dad for the first time i have returned with some pictures of a game my Dad and i put on at a wargames convention called smoggycon recently. In total we used 3000 pts aside, 1500 pts from an infantry company and 1500pts from a armoured company which started the game in reserve. The game attracted a lot of attention throughout the day and was a fun game to participate in, come the end of the day my German forces where starting to edge the game in there favour, anyhow enjoy the pictures and keep tuned for my forth coming battle reports throughout 2012 ..........

Some pictures from Edinburgh Castle museum