Flames of War Tourney report - Soviet Steel -Made in the USA!

This last weekend saw another Flames of War Tournament here in Phoenix.  This event was hosted at  Imperial Outpost, a great game store with friendly staff. If you are in north Phoenix or anywhere close I recommend you check them out!

The Tournament had no theme, just a straight up 1500 point Late War Battle. We had 18 players show up as well, a great turnout!

For this battle I wanted to take the new Plastic Soldier Company's new Sherman tanks. I build 15 of them for a fun little Soviet List. Unlike most tournaments I actually got to play a couple of Practice games.

My list was something like this...

HQ
10 x Sherman (76)
5 x Sherman (76)
3 x SU-100

No infantry but at 1500 points the budget was pretty tight, hopefully I wouldn't feel their absence.

My Son Jake would be taking his British 7th Armored. He has plenty of experience throwing Cromwells around but this would be his first outing at 1500 points.

Jake setting up for Hold the Line.

First Round game set me up against Sam on the Table that Jake and I brought!
The battle would be Hold the Line.

I actually played Sam early in the week as Practice and had lost horribly! Would history repeat itself or would vengeance be mine?
Sam had German Falshirmjagers from Casino... 2+ Moral checks on Platoons and Company! Here is a pic of his elite German troops.

Sam's Troops!

He had some Tank busting, the Marders and 88's scared me the most, the StuGs could be troublesome but I like my odds pitting them against the Sherman 76.

Sam was obviously defending in this mission. He deployed StuGs, and a meaty Infantry platoon and placed his 88s in ambush.

Sneaky German defenses... somewhere 88s are hiding.

My Shermans at the starting line! 

I hoped to push the left flank and survive the 88 ambush before pushing on. In practice I've found mass AT 12 fire to be intimidating and effective.

Sam's excellently modeled 88s spring their ambush!

...and takes out 2 tanks!

The Ambush hurt but it wasn't too bad and the 88s could now be screened by the woods while I dealt with the StuGs....  Unfortunately a good reserve roll sees the Marders join the fun...

Sweeping right to avoid the 88s!

Sam starts a very effective dance, using storm trooper moves to evade my return fire. I try to minimize my losses while waiting for him to fail a Stormtrooper or bog test.

lots of stuff happening!!

The massive amount of fire I can put out starts to tell. Sam starts losing his StuG's and I start snipping out his 88s. The Marders fail a Stormtrooper and a round of shooting takes them out.

Pushing forward!

With most of the German AT assets dealt with it's just a matter of dealing with his deadly Infantry platoons.

My Small Sherman platoons runs rampant

In the backfield my small Sherman platoon runs rampant, wiping out the Mortar platoon and the MG platoon, forcing Sam to a Company check.

Flanking with the SU-100s and a Sherman platoon

My SU-100s launch and assault but are easily repulsed. This would be a mistake as they lose two and fail moral! cursed Fearless!!!

My next platoon goes in, assaulting the infantry... This assault goes well. I win after several rounds and push Sam off the objective.
At the start of Sam's turn he makes a company moral test... 2+ should be easy to make... until he rolls a 1! Ouch!   5-2 victory to the Soviet Shermans.


This battle was a blast. Sam is a great player and fun to play against. He would get my Sportsmanship vote!

Lessons learned: Always keep in mind there are two ways to win, take the objective or force the enemy to fail their company moral.  I shouldn't have assaulted with my SU-100s but at the time it looked like a good move... oops!


Next battle was against Tim and his Soviet Infantry list.

Lots of Armor in this infantry list!

We would be playing Free for All on this wide open board.

My large Sherman company on the left, small Sherman  company on the right and the SU-100s hanging in the middle for snipping duty.

Tim would push his assault up my left flank, leading with his mixed t-34 platoon of 10 tanks. His Assault guns would also sit back in the snipping roll, fortunately my SU-100s would out range his guns.

The Anvil of Tim's army!

Tim's t-34's move up to attack my Shermans... I take some losses the first turn but my return fire is very effective. Gun tanking the T-34/85s proves the key.

I'm able to force a company check, which he fails! This reduces the pressure somewhat, the only other dangerous long range AT he has are his assault guns, which over the course of 3-4 turns my SU-100s knock out.

Conscripts wade across the river into machine gun fire... with predictable results.

The Conscripts keep me tied up enough that I can't force the objective in the 2 hour time allowed. Tim's force bravely (and repeatedly) made it's Battalion moral test to stay in the game and deny me a win. 3-1 to me.

Lessons learned:  Play faster! Once I removed all of Tim's AT threats he played a masterful delay game. While I did end up killing 4 platoons and only lost 4 tanks it wasn't enough.

Once again the Sherman 76 did not let me down... I'm loving these things!

Round 3: If you follow my battle reports you may notice I take less and less pictures as the day goes on and I get more tired... So I apologize for the lack of pictures in my last game... however, based on the outcome I might just want to block it from my memory!

I played Shane the last round in a new mission from Hellfire and Back called Dust-Up!

He fielded a lot of heavy armor in the form of a Soviet Assault Gun Company.

Shane's initial deployment

My plan, for what it was worth, was to hunker down on the only piece of terrain in my corner until my reserves showed up.

my initial deployment

He's heavy armor rolled forward, bouncing my AT 12 shots with impunity, I did bail a couple but they climbed right back in.  Things were looking okay if  I could hold on until reserves showed up.

Alas it wasn't to be... Shane's reserves rolled in on turn 3 and my lonely little hill turned into Custer's last stand! When turn 7 rolled around I still had failed all reserve rolls,  that's 5 dice of reserves on my last turn!

His tanks finally cornered my, losing my 6 sherman put me at a company test, for which I duly roll a 1, and then the Battalion commander re-roll and then another 1!  -Sam I feel your pain now!

I lose 6-1

Great game... I had bad luck but Shane was relentless and played very well, giving me no other options.

Lessons learned: Odd number of platoons stinks! oops!

I finished with a mere 9 points but had a good performance. I only lost 2 platoons the whole game and my Shermans were a real stand out. Against other medium tanks that Front Armor 7 is great and AT 12 is wonderful in massive quantities!

As a side note my son won the Tournament... with a 15 points! Has the learner become the master? perhaps... but probably not :-)

For me I had three great games against three really fun players. I look forward to playing them again!
I like my sherman list... I'd like to add a few more as well as some tank riders to the 1750 point version.

Here are some random pictures of pretty miniatures from the rest of the tournament.

My sons only platoon loss all tourney.

lots of soviets showed up here!

Thanks for stopping by!