Flames of War Demo Report Alpha - 1750 - GER vs UK [Img Hvy]

[asuryanmark]

It was to be a quiet day in France. A tank company of the German Panzer Lehr division was having a quiet rest and refit when their day was disturbed by the dirty noise of the British 7th Armoured Division rumbling towards them.

• It was a lovely little French hamlet.

• The British had the initiative and were on the move, flanking the Nebelwerfer rocket artillery with the M3 Stuart scouts while the speed of the Cromwell tanks moved the rest of the forces forward

• The British Crusader anti-air tanks had some trouble running through the bocage, one tank bogging down while the other almost flipping over on the other side.

• The Cromwell tanks and their Sherman Firefly support tanks stormed the hamlet with half-track mounted infantry coming up the rear. No time for tea today! Unless you're part of the Sexton artillery in the back, who seemed incapable of landing smoke where needed.

• The German Panzer IV platoon waiting behind the cover of bocage for the British advance. Leutnant Hofmann knows those Firefly tanks will cause trouble if his platoon is out in the open.

• The Germans get a rude awakening of a British Typhoon storming the Panther tanks! The Brits are going all out for this little hamlet! What happened to the Luftwaffe today?

• Unfortunately, the Typhoon missed it's mark, leaving the Panthers unharmed and hungry for battle. Plus a little surprise, a pair of 88 guns throw off their camouflage and suddenly the advancing British tanks have several big guns pointed at them ...

• Unfortunately for the Germans, after an attack by the Stuarts, the Nebelwerfer rocket artillery decides discretion is the better part of valor and leave the field. {Stupid failed morale rolls for losing half the platoon.}

• Hauptmann Eberhart and his second-in-command (2ic) opts to train his guns on the Stuarts, brewing up one of them.

• Hofmann orders his Panzers to advance and take out the Firefly, but end up destroying one of the Cromwell tanks instead. German shooting isn't what it used to be.

• As for the Panthers and the 88s? Well with all the high velocity shells fired at the British, they get just three Cromwell tanks and a Firefly to bail out. Crap.

• And so endeth the first turn ...

• The British infantry storm to seize the building to hopefully let all the tanks duke it out. The transport half tracks are sent back home at this point.

• And the Stuarts hoped to get flank shots on the Eberhart's command Panzer, but to no avail.

• A couple of Cromwell crews and a Firefly were crazy enough to get back into their tanks to stare down the German gun line.

• They opt to fire smoke rounds at the Panthers to block their vision, force them to move, and reduce their firing.

• That damned Typhoon hits again. This time on the Pioneer team that had disembarked earlier. The 88s were pointing the wrong way, yeah, that's it.

• The cost was a bailed half track, and brewed up half track, and one of the Pioneer squads. Blasted RAF, next time I'll remember to point my guns the right way!

• The British proceeded to move closer towards the Germans, Cromwells on Panzers while the Crusader AA tanks were hunting the recon half tracks that were snaking their way to seize an objective.

• The best the British could do was eliminate a single Panzer in Hofmann's platoon. Eberhart declares an immediate counterattack into British lines and moves everyone forward. The German guns finally find their mark as a full tank platoon has a bad day ...

• The 88s blast the farmhouse to pin the British infantry. Seizing the momentum, the Germans kept moving forward amidst the carnage ... and it helps to finally remember the German storm trooper move.

• Time for the Brits to respond. The Stuarts move at the double to seize an objective and hide behind Panzer IV wreckage

• With the Typhoons being shot out of the sky by the 88s, the Cromwells try to pick up the slack by coming behind Hofmann's platoon, looking for a good shot

• The Sexton artillery realizes just how close that German recon is coming and opens fire

• Result: Dead German recon

• It looks like the Germans are surrounded at this point. Is this the end of the Panzer Lehr?

• Hardly. The Panzers move forward towards the objective while the Pioneers bravely face down the Stuart tanks in order to drive them off the objective.

• The British infantry aren't going to let Jerry get away with that!

• And it's a showdown between Eberhart's 2iC and a Crusader AA for the German objective

• The Panthers disposed of their harassers and move up on the Sexton artillery

• This poor Crusader has been bogged down the entire game.

• The pioneers were hoping to assault the Stuarts, but all the defensive machine gun fire just ends up pinning them down

• And machine gun fire from the Panther's and Hofmann's Panzers ends up chewing through a good chunk of the Sexton artillery teams

• The Brits attempt to assault the Pioneer squad, but it's defensive fire forces the British infantry to be pinned. Unfortunately, those tanks just started rolling over the unit. Literally.

• It's not a good day to be a 2iC, leaving Eberhart to stand alone vs a Crusader.

• The pioneers try one more time to assault but are gunned down. The Sexton artillery get mauled and Eberhart blows up the pesky Crusader. As a result, on the start of the British turn they claim an objective and the game ends.

Who wins? Although Kevin and I agreed that it was a draw, re-reading the rules I'd have to say that Kevin wins with a 4-3 score, as he takes his objective at the start of the British turn, and I don't take mine until the start of the German turn and he lost 2 or more platoons. That's what I get for not keeping him off an objective. Or for not blowing up a bogged down Crusader to force the Company morale test. Hell of a game to grind the rust off with. You should've been there

[desertrat]

It was a really tight game. The clumsy death of my command tanks meant that if I had lost one more platoon, I would be forced to take a company moral check and automatically fail, thereby causing my entire army to flee! So the death of the bogged down crusader would have resulted in the loss of the platoon.

I also realized, had Mark not assaulted my M5 Stuarts and just hanged out on the objective I tried to capture, he would have contested my objective for a turn and won on his turn instead!

[wilder]

I like the format of the battle report good job i hope to see more.

[Court]

Awsome battle report!