Well, it's time for some more Flames of War, this time for the Infantry/Mech escalation league we just started at out local store, De Purperen Draak in Groningen.
In fact, this was the first game played for it, with six more played over the course of the day by a bunch of our local players.
In the first month, we're playing 500-point games on smaller tables, with no Support Platoons allowed. Only HQ, Combat and Weapons platoons.
Hopefully, there will be a bunch of additional battle reports in the next few weeks.
If people are interested, I could also do a series where I showcase the different forces used by the various players in the league.
My apologies for the mediocre quality of some of the pictures; I only had my phone camera available.
In this game, we ended up playing Breakthrough.
I was playing the following list:
Strelkovy Batalon (Red Army) - Confident Trained
HQ: CC Rifle, 2iC Rifle, Bat Kommissar, 4 PTRD AT Rifles. (2 PTRDs attached aan elke Strelk unit)
Strelk Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7 SMG
Strelk Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7 Rifle/MG
HMG Company: Cmd RIfle, 3 Maksim HMG
Mortar Company: CMd Rifle, 6 82mm mortars
My opponent was fielding the following:
Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadierkompanie - Confident Veteran
HQ - 2x Cmd SMG teams
Combat platoon - 1 Cmd MG team, 4x MG teams
Combat platoon - 1 Cmd MG team, 4x MG teams
Combat platoon - 1 Cmd SMG team, 2x MG42 HMG
Weapons platoon - 1 Cmd SMG team, 2x observers, 4x 8cm GW34 mortars
We rolled off to determine attacker/defender and the Red Army would be trying to break through a German encirclement to connect to their troops in a pocket.
German infantry units are trying to close the gap, but the troops in the pocket are moving in to reinforce.
With Mobile Reserves, the entire German force starts on the table. The infantry are in position to move onto the objectives while the mortars set up a firebase, covered by the HMGs.
Surprisingly, the Soviet forces attempting the breakthrough only set up a firebase in the wooded area overlooking the battlefield, deploying their HMGs to protect the battery of medium mortars trying to disrupt the German movements.
German infantry at their starting positions, ready to storm forward.
Soviet reinforcements, ready to charge towards the objectives once they arrive.
Note the PTRD teams attached to each company. Without any vehicles in the enemy force, their use will be rather limited.
Soviet turn one; the German infantry take some mortar fire before they can start their advance, but remain essentially unharmed.
The Soviet firebase takes some fire from the German mortars in return, pinning them but causing no casualties.
The Germans Stormtrooper up further.
The Soviet mortar company remains pinned down, clearly shaken by the accurate German return fire.
Little else seems to be happening within the Soviet lines.
The Germans continue firing at the Soviet firebase and manage to knock out one of the HMGs.
They also dig in close to the objectives, careful to not move too far forward.
This leaves the reasonably prepared for the Soviet assault they know must be coming soon.
But not yet, apparently. Reserve dice seem to hate me as usual.
Meanwhile, the Soviet 2iC is still struggling to restore order among his mortar crews.
Some more accurate German fire knocks out one of the mortars as well.
Meanwhile, the German HMGs are also moved up into locations where they can support the infantry's defense of the objectives since the mortars seem relatively unpressured.
The mortars remain pinned. Again.
German firces shift positions on their HMGs and some of the infantry teams to have a larger field of fire, leaving some of the troops outside their foxholes.
Meanwhile, continued mortar fire has now pinned the HMGs as well.
But order among the mortar crews is finally restored.
At the same time, reinfoircements finally arrived!
They open fire at the handful of exposed German troops.
Only to fail at hitting much of anything.
The recently unpinned mortars don't do much better.
The infantry remain at a distance, ready to move up to launch an assault in the near future.
Germans dig in further, but some soldiers move forward to contest Soviet control of the hill.
Note that the troops on this side of the hill are mostly irrelevant in the main battle about to happen, which was part of the Soviet assault plan for this location.
German return fire is a lot more effective, mowing down a significant part of the Soviet infantry.
Guess who don't unpin this turn?
Of course, having one's HMGs pinned isn't that relevant when there isn't anything really threatening them or available for them to threaten.
The infantry unpin, not even requiring some additional motivation from the local political officer.
They move ahead, charging at the Germans and firing at their exposed support elements on the move.
The HMG covering this position is knocked out and the infantry pinned by some mortar fire.
However, the assault is still rebuffed.
Miraculously, there are no casualties sustained in the failed charge.
Once more, the Germans open fire to whittle down the Soviet horde, moving in some supporting weapons to add to their firepower.
Even more miraculously, only a single fireteam is taken out by the hail of lead.
The troops do try to keep their heads down, though.
The Soviet infantry remain in place, trying to maximise their firepower, since the reinforcing unit of infantry remained rather shaken by the heavy German fire.
Soviet fire is deadly accurate, knocking out the other HMG and some exposed infantry trying to reinforce.
This time, German return fire is a little more effective, but only a little.
The infantry in the ruined church decide on a small counter-assault, wiping out the forward Soviet infantry unit at a small loss of their own before heading back towards cover.
The other infantry unit remains in place on the other side of the hill.
This time, the other Soviet infantry unit launches their assault, taking out most of the Germans in the ruined building.
However, their own numbers are wearing thin as well.
The remaining Germans on this side of the hill launch a desperate assault to crush the remaining Soviets, but the Soviet response is devastating, driving the Germans back and allowing them to consolidate onto an uncontested objective. They also hold fast despite their casualties.
With this, the battle is over.
It was a pretty close one, but the Soviets managed to pull through in the end.
I'm looking forward to playing some more games in this league. The format means games are done pretty quickly, allowing you to play more than usual. However, there's still quite a bit of tactical depth.
We did see some weird matchups as well, like with halftrack-mounted Panzergrenadiers in a mirror match trying to knock each other's vehicles out by firing MGs into their flanks.
I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of forces our locals come up with in the future and trying to defeat those concoctions.
No comments:
Post a Comment