Turn 3 of Firestorm Caen, Belatedly

These pictures were taken 3 or 4 weeks ago, during the third turn of the Firestorm Caen campaign. In a lucky aligning of schedules, I managed to play my games against Evan and Adam on the same day! As I go through and caption each photo, I'll do what I can, but it was while back so I might not remember everything.

Epron

Allied forces at Sword Beach have been battered by attacks by the 21st Panzer Division. The airborne troops that held Breville have been pushed back to the beachhead. Desperate to protect their shallow beachhead, the Allies have launched a daring attack directly into the German defenses around Caen. 

Mission: Breakthrough
Terrain: Bocage

Allied Firestorm Troops: 4 AGRA-AOP, CT Command team, observer, staff team, 4 BL 5.5" artillery battery (or 200 points)
AND
6 Airborne Division-FV Rifle platoon with Command Rifle/MG, 6 Rifle/MG teams, 1 Piat team (all have gammon bombs and section mortars) (or 200 points)

Axis Firestorm Troops: 21 Beute Stug-3 CV 7.5 cm (Sf) 39H (or 200 points)
AND
III Flak Corps-RT Luftwaffe Anti-Aircraft Command SMG, 4 8.8 cm Flak36 guns with extra crew (or 200 points)

Campaign Map Location: Epron

Allied player name: Adam P
Axis player name: Benjamin E
Allied points: 2
Axis points: 5

It turned out that Great Hall Games had FAR fewer hedgerows that I'd expected. So instead of a true hedgerow battle, we settled for this kind of pseudo-hedge-y setup, the hedges fallen into disrepair around this small crossroads village.

A view from the other end. This game saw me facing off against Adam's British Paratroopers.

"Let's see how this whole 'artillery' thing works," thought I. It was okay, I think. Nothing too exciting happened, but I think that was mostly due to my dice rolling.

Adam's forces on the table. I don't really remember what happened, to be honest.

My defensive position.

I seem to remember the scenario being a very odd one, deployment wise. We deployed in opposite table quarters, with the enemy reserves arriving Beside us, maybe? I'm too lazy to go look the scenario up, but it sure threw us for a loop. In the end, I managed to pull off a victory without losing too many of my troops.

___________________________________________________________

The second game, against Evan, saw me change up my army list source for the first time, haha. The only way for German Grendiers on the western front to have Panther support is with the very generic army lists book that comes with the Open Fire boxed set. So finally, PANTHERS

Bretteville L'Ogueilleuse

The 11th Armoured Division, freshly arrived from Britain, have been tasked with breaking through the German lines at Bretteville L'Ogueilleuse. Supported by the tough Scottish infantry divisions, the 11th Armoured Division will attack into the heart of Normandy and engage in some of the largest tank battles in history.

Mission: Hasty Attack
Terrain: Bocage

Allied Firestorm Troops: 11th Armoured Division-CT 3 Shermans and 1 Firefly (or 250 points)
AND
51 Highland Division-RV Command Rifle/MG, 6 Rifle/MG, PIAT, Light Mortar (Sticky bombs, Cautious not Stupid) (or 100 points)

Axis Firestorm Troops: 12th SS Panzer IVs-3 FV Panzer IV H (or 250 points)
AND
CT Grenadiers-CT Command Panzerfaust SMG, 4 Rifle/MG teams, Pak 40 (or 100 points)

Campaign Map Location: Bretteville L'Ogueilleuse

Allied player name: Evan C
Axis player name: Benjamin E
Allied points: 4
Axis points: 3

We changed up the table, still a few hedges to muck up lines of sight and the ability to maneuver, but nothing too fancy. This view is roughly my side of the table, on the left there.

Evan's side of the table.

My army. Much smaller than last time. Panthers cost a LOT of points.

After rapidly chewing their way through a platoon of Shermans, losing one of their own in exchange, the Panthers swing around the British left flank and smash into the mortar platoons who hd been pounding my infantry positions.

In something akin to trench warfare, the German and British riflemen hunker down behind their respective hedgerows and trade fire for the majority of the game. The MG-42s weight of fire begins to tell...

... but not before another platoon of Shermans wipes out the SS Panzer IVs, and adds their own considerable firepower to add their embattled infantry allies.

Having made short work of two mortar platoons, the Panthers continue their drive into the English center, trading fire with english tanks, infantry, and taking no small amount of artillery fire, which was to knock out one (or maybe two, I can't recall) of their number over the last few turns.

Grenadier platoons and Machinegun platoons are bought seperately, but MG platoons can be split apart, and their troops added to the grenadier platoons to beef up their firepower. I absolutely love this rule, as every historical account I've looked at says that the Germans equipped their infantry units with vast numbers of machine guns, sometimes two per squad. While this is taken into account with the 'MG,' 'Rifle/MG,' and 'Rifle' designations for infantry bases, it really doesn't seem like enough. Two Heavy MG bases added to each platoon certainly seems to do the trick.

Goddamn Churchill tanks. I was really counting on my Panthers to make as short a work of them as they had everything else they came up against. Of course, Evan had other ideas.

The two Panthers here managed to wipe out the British rifle platoon holding the hedgerow, and my own infantry moved up to assault through to the objective (the red chip between the buildings there.) They were chewed up dreadfully by the Sherman platoon.

I forgot! Evan's arty in the lower left of this picture hd been pounding my forces all game. Since there was no infantry support near them, I attempted to assault them with a rifle platoon of my own. But direct fire from the guns pounded them into dust.

Verdammnt! The last of my Panthers are knocked out by those damnable Churchills. I'm pretty sure I killed one of them, which is better than my StuGs or Panzer IVs managed in earlier games, but still. The unit had simply taken too many losses by that point to take on all their foes.

That platoon of Panthers destroyed the following platoons: Shermans, Mortars, Heavy Mortars, rifle platoon. They were, without doubt, my Most Valuable Unit. And even if I couldn't take the objectives, I still bled Evan's forces dry, which narrowed the victory-point gap down to 'only barely a victory.'

The stars weren't in alignment for this game turn, sadly, and it looks like all of our divisions are going to just say that they've pulled out of the line to rest and refit, but we'll be back for the Final turn.

Flames of War- The Battle for Caen Continues

 Last Sunday, my friend Evan and I played another game of Flames of War for the ongoing Firestorm: Caen campaign, detailing the British/Canadian half of the Normandy invasion. My grenadiers, along with their kameraden from the 2nd Panzer and 12th SS Panzer divisions, strove valiantly to hold back the British onslaught from Juno Beach. This is the third campaign turn, and... I feel like Evan won both of the previous games? I don't really remember, truth be told. I know he won one of them 5-4, a narrow victory, which was his same result this time.

I've been playing against Adam and his Paratroopers from the British 6th Airborne, and we've been taking turns royally stomping each other of late. First, he thoroughly trounced me, and the following game was trounced in turn, with the victor scoring 6 points to the loser's 1. My loss is documented in an earlier post, while my victory was un-photographed, since we played with shoddy, makeshift terrain. Anyway, here's the battle.

Game 2: Attack from Juno Beach
Allied forces on Juno Beach have been successfully landing for days. As reinforcements pour in, the Allies launch an offensive into Bretteville L'orgueilleuse (B-3). The Canadian forces tasked for this mission are eager to prove they are the equal of any Commonwealth troops. In their way, the 12th SS Panzer Division has deployed a company of Panzer IVs. The Allies must contest with stiff German resistance and the natural fortifications of the dense bocage hedgerows. Can the Germans hold their objectives long enough to thwart the Allied attack?

*Note-This matchup is pretty tough for the Germans. Make sure both players are okay playing with the unbalanced troops. You can modify the FS troops to create equal forces if you prefer.

Mission: Fighting Withdrawal
Attacker: As per mission
Terrain: Bocage
Allied Firestorm Troops: 3 Candian Infantry Infantry Division-CT Rifle platoon with Command Rifle/MG, 6 Rifle/MG teams, 1 Piat team, 1 light mortar (all have sticky bombs) (Canadian) (or 100 points)
AND

2 Canadian Armoured Division-CT 2 Shermans and 1 Firefly (Canadian) (or 200 points)

AND!

Limited Air Support Typhoons (or 150 points)

German Firestorm Troops:

12 SS Panzer IVs-3 FV Panzer IVs (or 250 points)

AND

2 CT StugG or StugIV (or 100 points)

My army. Three platoons of Grenadiers, two platoons of MG-42s, 3x Panzer IVs, 3x Fearless Veteran Panzer IVs (12th SS Panzer, free firestorm troops), 2x StuGs (2nd Panzer Division, free Firestorm troops for this turn,) 3x StuGs, some PaK anti-tank guns, some 7.5cm infantry cannons, a platoon of mortars... I think that was it, I'm writing this a week late. 

Evan's Englishmen. Or, should I say, his Scots. A platoon of Churchill tanks (and they're right bastards, let me tell you!), two platoons of Shermans with Firefly tanks (One of them was a free Firestorm unit, I believe), a 25lbr battery, another smaller caliber cannon battery, three infantry platoons (and he's been working on painting, hurrah!), mortars and air support. (Plane not to scale, (and technically German) but it was lying around the shop, so what the heck, we used it.)

The scenario was Fighting Withdrawl. All forces start on the table, but at a certain point I have to being withdrawing troops. The objectives are the two purple tokes and one white token above. At a certain point, I think turn 5 or 6, I get to remove one a turn. Evan wins if he starts a turn holding an objective. This lets me sneak them out from under him, if he takes too long to get there. Of course, my challenge is that starting in turn 3, I have to start removing platoons from the board.

Another view of the board, with the objective village in the lower right hand corner.

With my PaK anti-tank guns hidden in ambush (off the table), my Infantry platoons dig in, a strong, in-depth defence being the plan, with my two infantry cannons dug in on the hill overlooking the road Evan's tanks are sure to come down...

My 7.5cm infantry guns. There's some long abbreviation for them, but they're not PaKs, just. small cannons. 

And they wreak a fearsome toll on the allied tanks as they advance on the dug in German infantry!

Smoke billows from knocked out tanks, and a big yellow chip means that the platoon commander has bailed out of his beleaguered tank, discretion being the better part of valor.

... Just as my Own tanks run in to a spot of bother, their elite SS crews scrambling to escape as their entire platoon is wiped out by some Canadian Shermans on my right flank (Evan's left)

A pointless close up of my infantry in the village, the knocked out Shermans billowing smoke in the distance.

The Brae Scots advance on the village, even though well-sited MG-42s and supporting StuG assault guns force them to pay a high price for every yard they take.

I admit my picture taking got pretty spotty as we went, since things heated up and left no time for photography, in the midst of battle. My right flank collapsed under the hammer blows of the Churchills and Shermans, even as my PaK guns revealed themselves in the woods and blew a Churchill to pieces.

Evan's air support also did a good job, knocking out several StuGs and pinning down my troops time and time again over the course of the game.

In the end, the objectives didn't matter, since after several hours of intense fighting, the courage of the Germans broke first, and they were forced to flee the field, leaving it in the hands of the battered Scots. Since I'd destroyed a sizeable portion of Evan's force, the victory points totaled out at 5 to 4.

For more on this campaign, check out http://rustandthecity.blogspot.ca/

The Battle for Bayeux

The nice crew at Rust and the City blog have been running a Firestorm Caen campaign for Flames of War, which is in effect the British/Canadian half of the Normandy campaign. I finally took pictures of our 2nd turn game, my German Grenadier company (just basic infantry) against Adam's British Paratroopers.

http://rustandthecity.blogspot.com/2015/11/firestorm-caen-turn-2a.html

He scored 6 victory points to my 1, since I didn't wipe out any of his platoons, and that's how VP is scored, grumble grumble. We stumbled several times with the rules, since we really are still re-learning it all, but we ended up with a legitimate result, and the next game should go a lot faster, haha.

My army: 3 platoons of grenadiers, a mortar platoon, an MG42 platoon (which I attached to two of the Grenadier platoons) (And I split my 3 platoons into 4, using the Kampfgruppe rules lets you take the company 2iC and group portions of other platoons into a separate platoon), a PaK Anti-Tank gun platoon, some Infantry Guns (my bare-silver ones there), 2x 4 Panzer IV tanks, and 2 Panthers.

With 'Delayed Reserves,' half your army starts on the table, and the other half in reserves, and they don't start showing up until turn 3 (if you're LUCKY. I only got one reserve unit to arrive before the end of the game, and they weren't enough to turn the tide.)

Adam's unpainted Paratroopers. We started playing years ago, but let it all lie fallow for ages. We just got back into it very recently, so some of our stuff is unpainted. Please don't judge us too harshly.

View from the German deployment corner

View from the British deployment corner.

Turn 1, the Germans begin to spread out, with a strengthened platoon and the Panzer IVs moving to engage the enemy, while the 2nd platoon of infantry moves towards the woods to cover that flank.

My mortar platoon prepares to give covering fire as my 2nd Grenadier platoon advances to cover our exposed flank. The scenario has the enemy start in the opposite table corner, but their reinforcements arrive on the other side of the long table edge, so directly opposite the village I started in, instead of further away, hence the need to guard against a flanking maneuver. 

My bold Panzer IVs managed to knock out one of the British Cromwells at range, sending the survivors scurrying around the hill, out of the line of fire.

Adam's deployment, with a platoon of Paras behind the woods and holding the objective, some anti-tank guns ready to blast anything that clears the edge of the woods, mortars right by the farmhouse, and his tanks there on his left flank, on the other side of the dirt road.

With no nearby tanks to contend with, I use my Panzer IVs against the Paras in the woods, killing several with massed vehicle machine gun fire, before they assaulted and massacred the Panzer IVs. In my game with Evan last week, we didn't have any assaults, so I was woefully unprepared for how murderous Fearless Veteran infantry are in close combat, especially Paratroopers with their gammon bombs and PIAT teams. By the end, Adam had three bases left, two from the platoon and one the Company CO, but I was all out of tanks, and my reinforcements were not forthcoming.

Bearded giant! 100 metres, front!

No, but those yellow chips are my objectives, which Adam has to take to win. He did. My AT guns lost 2/3 of their number to his tanks, which swept around the hill and rolled absurdly well. The survivors decided to flee back to Dusseldorf rather than guard the objective.

With his tanks sitting on my objective, my only hope left was to drive them off, giving me more time to bring on reserves. He has to Start the turn in control of the objective, so I had a chance. But my Panzerschreck team, the only survivor of that large infantry platoon, fled at the start of my turn.

I guess I don't have any pictures of their action, but that platoon did some decent work, advancing on the enemy and taking constant fire from mortars AND anti-tank cannon the whole time, but were outflanked by the tanks once my PaK guns fled and left them unsupported.

But finally, my first reserves arrived on turn 5(!) I chose my two Panther tanks, the most powerful and meanest medium tanks of the war. If I could destroy two of his tanks, his last might very well flee, and save my skin for another few turns.

But alas, it was not to be. Both shots missed, and Adam won the game. With no platoons lost, he scored 6 victory points to my 1. I'm only a little salty about the results, I just wish more of our armies had gotten table time. He didn't get any reserves at all, and I only got a single platoon, leaving like 2/5 of my points completely un-used.

Still, I had an absolute blast, and I'm looking forward to playing again. I'm ready for some big, pitched battles where I can bring more of my force to bear against the foe.

For Dad and David to look at

The Tiny guys (15mm tall) are either Ancient Carthaginians or WWII Germans, the medieval looking ones are either Normans (who beat up the english at Hastings) or Crusaders, either way it works and I painted them kind of generically so I could go either way. The ugly looking fellows are Uruk Hai from Lord of the Rings (normans and uruk hai are 28mm)