We decided to change things up a bit and play a mid-war Flames of War game last weekend. With four players anticipated we opted for a 3,000 point game. Dan and I drew up the appropriate Soviet v. German company lists. Knowing that Dan had mostly armor painted I went with a Panzer company, though decided (wrongly it turned out) to take a list where I could put lots of things on the table for the first time. The mission I randomly rolled, Counter-Attack was bad for my list. I could only have one platoon on table with mobility. Anything else could only be on if they sacrificed transport for the game. So I took the 150mm battery, single 88mm gun (extra crew), panzerpioneers (at least they have a good AT rating), priority air support and my platoon of 3 MkIVg panzer. Reserves would come in on the opposite corner section. I commented "we should just declare you winner and start something else" but I wanted to play it out. Oh well.
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| Nothing but tanks with air support. |
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Feeling a bit naked. My MkIV tanks are in ambush mode. Maybe
I'll get lucky. |
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| The Soviets wisely wasted no time assaulting and killing the pioneers. |
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| Ambush sprung! One hit for a bailed T-34. Sigh... Storm-troop back. |
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| T-70s assault the guns. 88 stops one assault, T-70s win theirs. |
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Killing some Soviets but no reserves, no effective air and terrible
rolls doom us. |
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| I must be in Alabama, 'cause it is "roll tide, roll." |
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| One reserve of Marders comes on but cannot engage in time. |
So with the Soviets sitting on an objective already on turn five, no air rolled and my reserves a long ways away we called it. In this case all armor beat combined arms, though the scenario, which was also a disaster for the defender last time we played it, determined a lot of the result. Add in the abysmal dice rolls for both Germans combined with the hot rolls from the Soviets meant it wasn't as close as it appears.
But I made mistakes too. I should have kept the pioneers back so the Soviets couldn't get to the on the first turn. Dug in around the guns (we were allowed prepared positions) I might have been able to put up a better fight. Congrats to Dan and Kevin for giving me the worst spanking I've experienced in Flames of War. Next time comrade! <grin>
Let it be said that NOTHING went right for the Germans this day. I've never seen so many 1s and 2s in a Flames of War game, a problem only made worse by the scenario. Kudos for playing it out.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the point of creating a scenario that you know is lopsided? Seems like a waste of valuable gaming time.
ReplyDeleteWell, we use dice so there is always a chance. Had my ambushing panders scored 5 out of 6 instead of one we might have been hailed as brilliant.
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