Desert Dust Storm

After a foul weather and health induced long layoff, we finally got the crew together for a Flames of War game last Sunday.  We've been doing some quickie games from the Firestorm Stalingrad system but for a change of pace shifted to North Africa, giving me a chance to use my new-used cloth mat.  With four players we each prepared a 109 point list for the 5x7' table.  Unfortunately a mistaken box grab meant we had to cobble a German force together and only came up with 103 points to complement my Italians.  Both the Germans and I had infantry companies (mine was a Bersaglieri weapons company) with anti-tank guns and some armor in support.  The Germans had stukas for air support, the Brits had none.

The British both went armor heavy.  One with Shermans and guns, the other with Crusaders and Grants and guns.  I'm a big fan of combined arms so these games are always a test of the system to me.  Fortunately for us, the mission rolled was Encounter with Meeting Engagement rules and Delayed Random Reserves.  The British "won" the toss to be the attackers, or we would have had to wait a long time before we could attempt to attack.  As it was we could let them come to our big guns.  Each side had 40% in delayed reserve.

Looking down the table after Turn 1 is complete.

The British came out swinging right from the start, moving aggressively forward even though their guns couldn't bombard.  The Italian contingent had recon and had advanced the AB41s towards the village with a bersaglieri weapons platoon trailing, ready to jump into the center buildings.  Little did I know that it would become a focal point for the British.

We attempt to react.

Outside of occupying two of three buildings there was little we could do besides hold and punch back.  Stukas appeared but outside of occasionally pinning guns they did little against great saving throws.

Shermans advance with only a single 88mm that can hurt them.

I had Lancia gun trucks, Semoventes and engineers off table, so for the most part had to just hunker down, wait for flank shots and bombard with my 100mm guns.  The Germans weren't any better off in terms of mobility.

From the other end.  

Crusaders pose little problem but the Grants are a different story.

Earlier: My M14s do a dance of death, failing multiple crossing checks.

As an experiment I bought three command cards.  Pietro Brunno, Pazzaglia bombs and a reroll one dice card.  This time all three ended up being used.  Once to unpin my village Bersaglieri, once to help them assault Crusaders that wandered into town, and to get shots against flank armor values. 

The Pak43 are proxies for the standard "barn door" German 88s.

Since I had to put together the German list from my holdings I bought all the extras for the DAK infantry platoons.  Some were useful, like the ATR, others like the mortar never had a viable target.

The big red dice tracks the turn number.  We need some reserves!

The British on this flank had two formations, one of Crusaders
and one of Grants.

Shermans are pretty terrifying for Italians.  They kill M14s easily.

Stand fast my heroes!  The attached 47mm gun lurks in the palms.

The British poured a ton of fire into the village, trying to dislodge the Bersaglieri but although pinned almost every turn they kept hanging in and firing galling shots.  Even popped out to assault Crusaders that got too close.

A great roll brings in most of the British reserves.

The 88 survives multiple last stand checks and the 10.5cm guns
are firing over open sights.  Marders to the rescue!

The horde of British tanks on our right are getting thinner but the situation is still desperate.  On my flank I got my Lancia guns who quickly neutralized one platoon of Shermans.  But they will have to dash somewhere else to contribute more.

My Semoventes arrive and go hide, but still get one bailed anyway.

Hot dice vs. cold dice ends the crisis on our right.

Semoventes kill a Sherman and Bruno bails another.

Both tank formations on our right broke or in the case of the Crusaders, were wiped out.  Although we still hadn't advanced beyond the center line the British conceded the game.  With our lists if we had needed to attack it would have been a disaster.  On the defense we had a tight game with chances for all.  A frigid turn where the British couldn't seem to hit anything didn't help.  My rolls for elites were below average but the Bersaglieri in the village earned their status.

Next up a day of demo games at a local public library.