Flames of War - Feb 26th Tournament report

With a busy month and a 7 month pregnant wife I was lucky enough to sneak away for the good part of a day and play in a Flames of War Tournament at Empire Games in Arizona. (Yes, my wife is amazing like that)

I brought a US 2nd Division Armored Rifle List out of the new Turning Tide Book.

How would these brave troops fare in the battles ahead? read on, loyal Reader, read on!

My list was as follows

HQ
2 x Armored Rifle Platoons
4 x Stuarts
Tank Destroyer Platoon (4 Hellcats)
1 x section Priest Battery (3 Guns)
4 x M12 (155mm SP)
Air Observation Post

I am traditionally a US player, and while I've not played with this exact list before I do have some experience with them.


Round 1: Fight!
The first round was Free for All and my first battle was against Jacob (Not my son, but other Jacob, the T.O)

He was fielding a really nasty looking, almost all armored, German force that included

HQ StuGs
3 Panthers
4 Brumbars
3 StuGs
3 PZII Luchs
Short Pioneer platoon

A lot of German Armor for my boys to handle.

The table for battle 1

As often with Free for All this battle broke down into two separate actions. Left and right flank.

Here is my right flank covered by the Stuarts and the M12s

On my left the Priests and a Armored Rifle Platoon

In the Center I had my other Armored Rifles and the Scouts for my Tank Destroyers.

I think we were both a little intimidated by the other Army. I Spearheaded my Stuarts on the left to cause trouble, and tried to hunker down everywhere else.

Left Flank develops: On the left Brumbars and Luchs move out. The Luchs make a daring move to try and take out the Artillery and pay for it dearly. Eventually being destroyed in my lines, the last Luch falling to my Observer Sherman!

Sneaky German Recon looking for trouble, they found it

The Brumbars pushed forward unsupported, and with some artillery support I take the attack to them, my Armored Rifle Platoon assaulting and destroying them with very light losses.

Confident Brummbars advance on the Americans...

...And foolishly pay the price

You'd think from the description here that things were going all my way... and I wish that were true, but on the right things were shaping up differently!

When we last mentioned them the Stuarts had bravely Spearheaded forward, to play tag with Panthers and Stugs, and Infantry!

Bravery is relative as the Stuarts cower behind a building

Things didn't go too well with them. They were flamed, (D'oh! forgot about the German flame Throwers) and 2 were bailed but managed to get back into their tanks

Realizing the direness of the situation the Stuarts go on the ATTACK! storming into the woods to try and assault the Germans... it almost works too, except for the Bog checks! (Number 1, how I hate you)

The Stuart Charge ends in smoke, fire and tears

With the Stuart Threat done the Germans roll up my right flank, Infantry, Panthers and StuGs taking out my M12s and parking on the Objective.

Desperation fire picks off the German Infantry, but Hellcats couldn't do more then scratch the paint on the Panthers.

Jacob wins a most enjoyable game 4-3. It was a bloody game, I lost 2 platoons and Jake lost 3, but he managed to get to an objective first and hold it for a well deserved win.

What I did wrong?

 I think, to a large extent, I lost this one on deployment. If I would have deployed the second Rifle platoon on the right hand objective I might have been able to hold out. The problem is the battle was "Free for All" and I hate just sitting on the defensive in these missions.

I should have popped the Hellcats earlier but, hey, they kept his Panthers and StuGs away for a good while.

What I did right?

Attack! you win by taking objectives or breaking the enemy company. Attacking is good an forces an opponent to react to you, rather then passively waiting for the enemy to come to you.


Tales of interest!

Oberserver Sherman Kills a Luch
Speedy, my lucky M-18 Hellcat bailed a Brumbar
Number of enemy tanks destroyed by Infantry: 4

Round 2:

This round was "No Retreat" against Nelson, another great opponent. My son had just played him and defeated him 4-3 so he might be looking for revenge against our family :-)

Nelson had a Panther Company

7 Panthers, Pioneers and some other assorted bits.

This Battle was fought here.

The Scene of the crime!

As armored rifles I'm not really afraid of Panthers any more than any other tank.  I am afraid of attacking any tanks across mostly open ground though!

Unfortunately with the chaos around us I didn't snap any end game pics(forgot to do that first round too) , for that I'm sorry guys!

Here is my starting lineup, the plucky Stuarts are sweeping around the left, charging the Panther CO!

The US Starting lineup

The plan was simple, Charge!

I wanted to hit the closest objective with everything, while the Stuarts kept him honest on the other flank.

The deceptively thin line of Germans

My troops smoked and assaulted but were cut down in defensive fire repeatedly.
Smoke didn't seem to help as the apparently laser targeted German machine guns killed me.

Crap! where did those guys come from? Ambush revealed!!

The only bright spot was my Stuart Platoon, who swung around, hit several Panthers in the rear, killed an arriving infantry platoon and contested the objective... but ultimately I asked a little too much of them and they were finally gunned down.

Overview showing the Panther gauntlet

Not to knock my opponent (Who played very skillfully) in the least but, unlike the first game, I lost this one primarily due to luck, or lack thereof.

Over three turns, while in smoke, my infantry failed to attack or were repulsed in defensive fire. The ultimate kicker was failing a massive 16 out of 20 Infantry saves, gutting my two platoons.
The Stuarts were the only thing working well and kept me from a one the scoreboard.
5-2 to Nelson in another fun, if frustrating, game.

What I did wrong?


I don't think anything was particularly wrong with my plan... In hind sight I might have driven the M12s in closer for direct fire on the Panthers but that has the potential to backfire too!
In desperation I through my M-18s out, only to see the fragile open top vehicles torched by Flames, however at this point I was just looking for VPs and the battle was already decided.

What I did Right?


Attack... you can't be shy in No Retreat... I kept attacking hoping something would open up, but nothing did.

Tales of interest!

16 out of 20 Infantry saves failed
2 out of 2 (2+ Firepower) attempts failed.
Observer Sherman bailed out two Panthers on Consecutive turns but could make the FP to destroy them.

Round 3

Round three was Breakthrough against Jeff.
 I'd played him last tournament in Round 1 and this time he was playing Hungarian Armor with no infantry support.

Jeff ran afoul of the fact that my US Armored Rifles ALWAYS attack. As the Defender in the Breakthrough mission you can only deploy 1 unit with vehicles.
This meant he would/could only deploy 1 platoon on the table. He deployed his Hungarian Tigers in the woods in the Center of the table.

We played on this table

And the plan was to, again, charge down the middle. This time, however, I had a giant forrest to conceal me.

Armored Rifles charge through the woods towards the Hungarian Tigers

More charging!

Blurry but here is my artillery park

The Armored Rifles take out tiger, gotta love Bazookas!

Taking the objective on turn 3, just need to hold out.

I felt sorry for Jeff as the full weight of the Americans fell on a single Tiger platoon. 155mm, Hellcats and Bazookas destroy the last two Tigers, including the CO!

Jeff was able to Bring on a Panzer Platoon, that did get lucky and kill my Stuarts, but they were not close enough to contest the objectives by turn 6.

I won 5-2 in a landslide as Jeff couldn't get his reserves on fast enough to contest any objective.

What I did Wrong:

 I got cocky with my Stuarts and tried to tangle with Panzers IVs. I paid the price in a lost Stuart Platoon.

What I did Right:

Charged with the Armored Rifles and rolled over the Tigers like they weren't even there. I didn't do anything particularly wrong, my opponent was handicapped by his own force selection and the mission.

This was something I taught my son, Jake, as in practice his all tank force was similarly handicapped. If you take a ALL Vehicle force you better have a plan for defending in Breakthrough!

Conclusion:


All in all it was a great Tournament against fun people. I finished in the middle of the pack with a whopping 10 points.

Below are a couple of random pics from the tournament.

My Son Jake pushing is Desert Rats around the table

Germans on the defensive

German Pioneers with their truck

All in all a great time, thanks to Jacob for acting as TO, thanks to Empire Games for hosting us and congrats to Sam for the overall win.

till next time!