Sunday, September 4, 2011

Flames of War game at my house.

Hi to all!
Well we had a fantastic Flames of War game at my house Saturday morning. Five players participated and I hope that all had a great time, I know I did. The game was Russians vs Germans and represented an attack by a German armoured company attempting to take a Russian rail head early in the Barbarossa campaign of 1941.
The Russians were played by Bill (Joseph's distant relative) and Mike (our ethnic adviser).
The Germans were played by Greg (myself) Wendel (a great cavalry tactician) and Jamie (hopefully a new addition to our gaming group).

Jamie had the German left flank, Wendel had the German right flank and I managed the center.The Germans were to have the first move and fire and in taking advantage of this, they managed to take out almost every Russian heavy (KV-1's and KV-2's) and medium (T-34's) tank in the game! Those vehicles that were not destroyed were bailed out. What a fantastic opening. Now we thought all we need to do is advance into the rail head (a very built up area with many houses), push out the defending infantry with our armour and win the game.

Well the Russians had other plans. They delayed our right flank advance by the gallant sacrifice of an entire armoured car platoon (about 8 vehicles). Then they delayed our left flanks advance by the sacrifice of an entire light tank platoon (again about 7-8 vehicles). Such bravery. In the mean time those lucky Soviets were able to get some air support and evade our fighter cover. By utilizing their air and artillery(handled very nicely by Mike), the Russians were able to take out most of our anti tank guns and delay our Panzer Grenadiers moving in to the rail head from our right center.

Now time was running out for the Germans as they had to take the rail head before more of those damn Russians arrived to stop them. It was also getting late in our day and some of the players were forced to withdraw to fulfill other commitments. This left Bill and I to finish up the game. Left without the best generals on my side, I was able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!!! We had to call the game a Russian victory as the Germans could not take their objective within the prescribed number of turns. Good work to the Russians!

So now in my recent gaming, I am 0 for 4. This is a dismal record for me. And I will be up nights trying to devise a way to win the next battle I will face. This looks to be an Aerodrome game at Bill;s house so I will report on that one also.

Below I have added some pictures from out game.
The rail head as seen from the German left flank.
More of the same.
Burning Russian armour on their right flank.
Another shot of the Russian right flank.

A view of most of the table from the Russian right flank.
Part of the rail head with the staunch Russian defenders.

The advance of the German Panzer Grenadiers and Scout platoon.

Another perspective on the rail head.
And now just for some eye candy from Bill's fine collection.


Notice the hand made ammo boxes and shell casings. Just fantastic!!
Take care to all.
Greg

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