Surrounded in Italy, or "who spoilt my pizza"!

Friday night saw Paul and I square up for another game. We had previously decided to have another go at MidWar again, and set the scene in the Mediterranean theatre.

Prior to the game we had agreed to have a simple tank battle, but I was still keen to try out my mechanised infantry; Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier force, in the MidWar setting... so I created a Tank list and a Mech list, packed both armies and set off for Pauls.. Paul didn't mind me playing mech instead of tank, and stuck with his tank list.

We rolled off a random mission, and came up with Surrounded.

An interesting mission this - defender gets to set up in the middle strip across narrow width of board, and the attacker hits him from both sides; he must have at least one platoon on each flank. One nice thing about the scenario is that there is no messing about with reserves, both players have 'all their cards on the table'.

Reserves do add an interesting dimension to the FoW game, but they can make it a bit of a lottery, especially if you are waiting to see who's reserves come on first, and where.

Thankfully we didn't have to worry about that today. I took a German Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier force, themed Tunisia/Italy, from North Africa.

 Paul took a British Canadian Tank company, again from North Africa.

Thanks to EasyArmy.

The battlefield before deployment. I apologise ahead of the rest of the report, some of my photography was not at its best as it turned out - a few blurry shots, sorry!

I deployed through centre band of board, objectives are the smoking tank in centre of village in foreground and the marker just to front left of ruined abbey.

The small dismounted GPg hold top objective, covered by PaK38s in the ruin and assisted by the Tiger, (proxied by Panther) which had better areas of open ground here to dominate. SPAA in the centre wood. Large GPg is in the village supported by 8Rads, and Marders spring their immediate ambush behind the tree line (sorry for shiny tanks - I had only just got the gloss varnished, they still need matt varnish and decals to finish them off.)

Paul has two tank platoons coming at me from the right...

... and one tank platoon plus HQ tanks, and the Humbers (hiding behind top woods) on my left...

After recce moves, Paul sets off. Fearing the Marders looking at his command tanks over open ground, he moves the HQ into the wood, to get some cover and still have a chance of some shots at the Marders. Both the CO and 2iC bog down entering the wood!

Paul advanced his other tank platoon from left in single file behind hill, staying out of line of sight of Tiger and looking to get shots off at the Marders too. Recce moved up to crest of hill to start shooting up GPgs on objective...

Right side Shermans advance too, the top platoon is angling to get shots up the road at the Marders whilst the lower platoon heads toward village to pressure the Germans there...

All shots at the Marders miss... range, cover, gone to ground etc, mean Pauls moving tanks were getting one shot each needing 6's.

In my turn I called up the Luftwaffe who obliged with a flight of Stukas that came screaming in and raked the single file sherman column hiding behind the hill. (sorry again for glossy stuka, it just needs its final matt varnish)

The stuka cannon fire rips along the tank column, but only results in a bunch of bailed tanks, curses! The marders now have a choice, hit the bogged HQ tanks, or try and finish off the bailed tank column. I decided it was better to try and destroy a platoon, so fired at these, but the 4 shots only resulted in one further bail result, forcing Paul to take a morale check for that tank which he passed. Curses again, the Marder 'ambush' has whiffed!

Next turn Paul frees his stuck HQ tanks and advances...

... and predictably the Canadians remount most of their tanks (Canadian special rules effectively gives them 'protected ammo', so they re-roll motivation to remount tanks) once stuka has flown off...

This time Paul closes in on the Marders and has a better round of shooting, destroying both Marders...Elsewhere the Recce shoot up the GPgs but to little effect, and same for tanks targeting village.

In my turn I called up the stukas again who obliged once more in showing up...

... and this time wrecking one Sherman, and bailing the other... Paul passes platoon morale check...

Elsewhere at the village, I am starting to get a little worried at the approaching armour... My 8 rads are useless against them so they skedaddle out of there and head off to attack the only thing they can hurt, the Humbers... In MidWar, my poor Germans don't have any ranged infantry AT weapons - no panzerfaust or panzershrecks, only panzerknackers, so I am very aware I have no chance of stopping his tank assault from happening, as I wont be able to destroy/bail 2 tanks as they charge in, with my 'defensive fire'. So I come up with an idea of blocking his entry into the village area with my halftacks. Sure he can blow them up, and I wont really care (they no longer count as platoon losses in V3). So I drive the halftracks into the open between the buildings. He can destroy them, then they give me more cover from their burning wrecks, and would need bog checks to cross them... so that was the plan. The only AT shot I have is with my Puppchen... so I let rip, and the rocket charge roars out clanging hard against the Sherman, sending their crew out the tank in case it explodes (bailed). The Tiger (having remembered to roll Tiger Ace skills, gets "EveryShotCounts" increasing his ROF to 3 - me likee! :-), looks for targets and sees one of  the Sherman platoons through cover and range, pressing on to village.

The Tiger's gun roars out three times and wrecks a Sherman, leaving a burning hulk...

The 8Rads, predictably miss their shots, and in subsequent return fire from humbers, suffer multiple bail results and quit the field... you see that empty stretch of road?... That's where the 8Rads used to be...

Over the next couple of turns (sorry forgot to take pictures) ... Paul being a clever player makes use of my exposed halftracks, as they now give away my platoons position, so he can roll to hit the platoon, who now don't get any cover or gone to ground penalty to hit BUT he can prioritise shots against my infantry AND manpacked gun team, the Puppchen, they only thing really that has a chance of hurting him, if he assaults with his tanks. In a hail of fire the Puppchen predictably pays dearly for its audacious rocket shot, and dies to a flurry of 75mm rounds...

Seeing the stupidity of my 'halftrack screen' I send them to the rear, and my remaining infantry, hunker down in the buildings and foxholes and go to ground. Paul now needs 6's to hit them... which he fails to do repeatedly over the next two turns...

Meanwhile the HQ tanks are trying to consider their options; threaten the other objective and what to do about the Tiger... They go for a shot on the Tiger, which suffers a bailed result. Thanks to their protected ammo, the Tiger crew happily get back in their tank next turn. The Humber recce, pleased with itself for dealing with the 8Rads, now turns its attention to the PaK38s in the abbey, they let fly with a load of fire, but fail to get any hits.

The stukas return once more, third time in a row and once again bail a Sherman...

The Pak38s, rather indignant at being shaken up by the humbers, return fire, and blow away all three humbers, who cannot recce disengage because they had fired previously...

My SPAA who had moved previously to gets shots at the Humbers in case the PaKs missed both get caught up in the tree roots...

Paul continues to shoot up the village with little affect, I roll forward with Tiger towards the village as this is the crisis point now. The stukas arrive again and destroy one Sherman, as the Tiger turns its turret to kill the remaining platoon tank...

Paul knows he has to do something before the Tiger rolls into the village, so launches a tank assault... I have no defensive fire, but do have a platoon commander, CO and 2iC all with panzerknackers. Paul targets these with his assaulting tanks where possible. But his CO bogs down trying to assault the left hand twin cottage. The other tanks roll forward and kill the platoon commander, who cunningly uses his German mission tactics to switch out for an infantry team, keeping the panzerknacker active... I must motivate against tank terror to charge the tanks now with my panzerkanckers, and do so thanks to the COs re-roll....

But once in combat, I miss all attacks with the panzerknacker teams; needing 3's I roll three 2's ... argh! but the infantryman smacks one of the tanks indignantly with his rifle butt in frustration. Whilst not damaging to the Sherman, it counts as a hit. Paul needs to motivate, to squish my now exposed panzerknacker teams, and with British bulldog gets to re-roll any failed attempt... and fails with both dice, needing a 4! He is forced to break off, leaving the CO bogged tank to be captured, which the plucky Germans defenders do, setting it ablaze...

A little desperate now, Paul swings in with the two remaining Shermans from the other platoon into top of village, hoping to attack the 2iC and infantry in the top central building... and one tank bogs again trying to crash through the building wall! The second tank, attacks and misses! Once again the brave Panzerknacker teams leap out of their buildings and attack the Shermans, and hit with two of the panzerknackers, but Paul saves one and gets a bailed result on the second.

But that is enough for the Germans, with one bogged and one bailed the Shermans can do nothing more and are captured and set ablaze!

Paul is now down, 3 platoons and his CO is dead! If I can kill his his 2iC, he wont be able to take a company morale check, and will quit the field! Now where is the 2iC tank, ah ha, thats him hiding in the trees over there. With a belt and braces approach, the Luftwaffe are called upon once more and arrive, as the Tigers turret swings round once more...

Sadly the Stuka cannons failed to find their mark on the Sherman hiding on the tree line, but the Tigers 88mm finds its mark, blowing the 2iC tank skywards, and handing victory to the Germans.

Paul's remaining tanks shelter behind village hill before quitting the field...

A great game with much camaraderie and banter, and for me a long awaited for victory ( I have lost the last 6-7 games I have played). Credit to Paul too, as he played on with his preselected force. Had he known I was playing Mechanised, he would have taken a much different force...

End result 4-3 to me, I think, as I lost the Marders and 8Rads...

Man of the the match has to be the Stukas, which turned up on 6 consecutive turns, bailing and killing tanks each turn, and of course the Tiger, with its thick hide and big gun. It was nice fielding something that could dominate the battlefield. I think Tigers will be a regular feature of my forces from now on, even if they have to be proxied by panthers in the meantime.

Thanks for reading, comments welcome as always.

Tales of Woe!

Many moons ago when I first started collecting a force for FoW, I picked a British Commando force - firstly through loyalty to my British roots, and secondly the Commandos were a small elite force that I thought would be good to get to learn the game with and not need to invest too much time and money in, buying and painting... but few games eventuated at that time.

Much later I decided that I might as well get some Germans to fight against the commandos, so I can learn the game myself at home, and with young son who was just getting interested in WWII. So I picked up a Festung infantry company boxed set as a starting point.

Since then I have added massively to my German forces! For starters it's always fun to play 'the bad guys', so I guess that was part of the appeal for me. Plus the Wehrmacht had so many iconic pieces of equipment and machinery of war, that I just about couldn't help myself.

When the Plastic Soldier Company released their excellent boxed set of 251 half tracks I was in seventh heaven as this was one of those iconic vehicles that had great appeal to me, little did I know what I was letting myself into...

So a Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier (GPg), armoured mechanised infantry, force was planned collected and painted up.

Now it must be said, that many FoW veterans would state, that a mechanised force is quite a difficult one to play right and get the best from. Its not an easy army to use! Yet that is the main army I have chosen to learn this game with.

They also come in various 'flavours' - Panzer Lehr with all their extra panzershreck tank hunter teams, and Waffen SS varieties. Each with slightly differing support platoon options.

I have played a great many games now with this force, with some success and a lot of defeat.

Like any force they have their pro's and con's.

PRO's They are a very mobile force and pack a lot of anti-infantry firepower. And with the German special rule (Mounted assault), they can fight directly from the half tracks in the assault phase, and if they dismount, the half tracks can stick around spitting out MG fire.

CON's The problem is, though they are 'armoured' that armour is pretty thin. Plus the fact that they are open topped means plunging artillery fire and aircraft can also make quite a mess of them, if caught in the open.

So, I spend a great deal of time mulling over how best to use my GPg force.

There are so many platoon support options it gives a dazzling and confusing array of ways to field them and fight with them. These options have lead to a constant state of collecting and painting up all these support options to try them out, hence my large Wehrmacht collection!

Some of the problems, and possible solutions I have are...

a) getting caught advancing mounted up, by artillery, and aircraft - Solution: advance quickly (ATD / storm trooper) to get past the 'kill zone'...

b) but it you ATD, you can run into a storm of fire from AT guns especially from ambush - Solution: push recce elements ahead to push back Ambushing forces and try and end move in cover...

c) trying to get mounted assault to work - needing to pin enemy and smoke them to ensure I don't suffer the 5 hits or two bailed that force back assault... not easy to pull off, and enemy can always get lucky with their dice roll; 5 hits on 8 dice needing 5+ can really get you down... and even infantry weapons can hurt through side armour 0, if you roll 1's for armour saves...

d) if mounted assault successful, try and make it unstoppable on first assault, as with confident troops there's only a 50/50 chance of fighting on in each subsequent turn (no British bulldog), so need the CO or attached Warrior Higher command character team near for re-roll to motivate, and use attached HQ elements and combat attachments from 'Heavy platoon' to bulk up size of platoon.

Things to think about

1) advancing infantry alongside/in front of half tracks, not in them... infantry saves of a 3+ are better odds of staying alive than a 5+ passenger save in a burning vehicle...

2) keeping half tracks off table and hiding infantry GTG, until main threats to halftracks have been eliminated... using Heavy tanks / Heavy AT guns ('88' Flak 36) and Heavy artillery to knock out threats - protect all with AA until ready to advance, pushing recce forward to remove GTG on any target platoons...

Its this last option I am working on at the moment... in a recent game against Paul, I got to try out Tigers for the first time and though I lost the game, it could have gone quite differently. It was also very interesting to see just two Tigers virtually dominating one flank of the table... so a pair of Tigers seem a likely future support choice for my GPgs.

The other thing I want to do is pound the enemy into submission, with some decent artillery... 

 

From some of the reports and tips I have read, if you are going to use artillery, then do it well!... I am considering a platoon of 4-6 Hummels, should be able to give me a fair bit of umph! With a bombardment range of 80" they can hit anywhere on board, with AT 5 and FP 2+ even tanks will get scared , and will dig out infantry and guns with ease, and with 6 elements firing that's a double wide template, or re-rolling misses... . Plus with a 24" direct fire range, they get AT 13, FP 1+ and 'bunker-buster' too  - not many things will want to get in front of that! Send some recce forward to find hiding targets, protect this battery and the dismounted GPgs and Tigers with decent SPAA, and hopefully once everything on other side of board is a squishy mesh, THEN mount up GPg's and roll forward....

So that's the 'next' plan, at least for LateWar. We'll see how it goes (I may have to proxy some of the stuff to try this out in the mean time, until I can get it ordered and painted up)... but of course it will always be tempered by the mission rolled for to play and the opposing force !

No plan survives contact with the enemy!

Cheers

Scott

www.scottswargaming.blogspot.com

Smoke Bombardment, or simply firing smoke.

Flames of War is a great game, though most would admit it's not 'perfect'... few rules sets are, there will always be issues that certain players don't like...

One of the issues that really bugs me is the use, or should I really say, the timing of using smoke.

The shooting rules state that Smoke must be fired first, that's great, but I would go one further - Smoke should be fired before the movement phase!

Why? Let me explain...

A lot of battles are won during a well planned assault, and getting an assault to work against dug in well positioned infantry can be tough... due to the amount of defensive fire they can spit out..., especially when backed up by HMGs etc.

So the trick to trying and launching a successful assault is to pin down the enemy defending platoon, whether by air-strike, artillery bombardment or simply weight of fire.

Great so we've pinned them down, but our troops are still going to be hanging out there as they run in for the assault, so wouldn't a nice blanket of smoke cover their assault? Of course...

The problem here in is, your troops, if you have cared anything for there little lead lives, will have advanced through cover as best they can to get to this point and are probably hunkered down in their hedgerow, treeline or whatever, waiting for that smoke to cover their final approach ... what if the smoke doesn't happen? No problem we'll stay in out hedgerow I hear you cry!

Well sadly that's not how the rules work. MOVEMENT comes before SHOOTING.

So, I have to advance my plucky troops out of their hedgerow, standing there in all their glory looking skyward wondering if the smoke shells will arrive... If you fail to range in your smoke... tough tit, you're now out in the open... and can't move back, (unless you have a Stormtrooper move, but that's not a guarantee by any means). So do you just stop now or press on with the assault... because guess what, we haven't fired anything else yet either so we might not even manage to pin down the enemy platoon... it could all go to Hell in  a handcart...

My main gripe here though is the Smoke issue. You have quite a number of chances to pin an enemy platoon, as listed above (air, artillery & weight of fire) , but usually only one go at smoke.

And to my mind, troops are not going to move forward, or at least should have the choice not to, it the smoke fails to materialize.

Its simple and logical, and dare I use the word 'realistic': Fire SMOKE, then MOVE should be the order of the day!

I am a relative newbie to FoW, having only really been actively playing over the last 12 months or so, and in that time the V3 rules were released.

I can't for the life of me see why this hasn't come up before and been included in the V3 rules changes and updates. Maybe there is some greater 'meta-game' issue at work here which I can't see?

Maybe I'll just have to house rule it and see if local players are willing to give it try.

Battle Report - Fun in the Snow!

Written report by Paul, additional pictorial commentary from Scott.

Game1 

On Friday I went to Scott’s place for a practice game ahead of Winterfest. Winterfest is a tournament in Upper Hutt in two weeks time, organised by Bede Bailey and hosted at the Hutt Miniature Wargames Club. It’s Late War Eastern Front themed, 1750pts (plus a free sniper) and all games are played in snow, two of them heavy snow. This means all movement is slow going, and no moving at the double! I’m taking a Soviet Strelkovy Batalon consisting of:

 HQ with 5x Pioneer Rifle teams

 2 Strelkovy Companies each with 2x Platoons (1 platoon in 1 company with SMG’s), an HMG and a Komissar

 Scout Platoon with 1 section

 4x 122mm Howitzers with observer

 4x MK 4 (lend-lease Churchills)

 4x ISU 122s with AA .50cal MGs

 I figure this list gives me enough infantry to form a solid core to hold objectives or launch assaults, a decent template, the wide-tracks and protected ammo of the MK 4’s will keep them going in support of my infantry or taking on medium tanks or gun teams, and the ISU’s to threaten the heavies and blast dug-in strong points. The scouts can infiltrate or use recce eyes & ears in support of the ISUs.

 We decided to play Free For All, with Scott proxying Panthers as Tigers to field:

 CHQ – Tiger 1E, Bergepanther recovery vehicle

 2 Platoons each with 2x Tiger 1E

 2x Mobelwagens (proxied by 3.7cm armoured halftracks)

 3 x Nebelwerfers

 A 7-stand Gepanzerte Panzer Grenadier 'Scout' platoon (which oddly didn't count as Recce)

Sporadic Air Support - HS129B3

 Von Saucken warrior

This force should prove tough in this mission and on the table which was a couple of hills, a few woods and a lot of open space! Objectives were on the flanks for both sides.

German 1st turn. Tigers roll forward (In hindsight I should have left them in cover on the tree line) [Dice on the tigers indicated their Tiger Ace skills - I forgot to roll the additional one for the CO]

 Scott deployed the first platoon, and ended up with two Tigers and the Nebelwerfers on his left, everything else on the right.

German HS129B3 (proxied by Stuka) turns up on first turn, bails an ISU, and flies back to Germany, they are never seen again...

 I had the MK 4s and a blob of infantry in a wood on my right, the other infantry with the Pioneers attached spread between the two objectives, and the ISU’s and artillery on my left. Scott had first turn and advanced his heavy armour at me. I lost a MK 4 to a long range Tiger shot, two ISU’s were bailed (one to planes), and a couple of infantry stands went to the nebelwerfers. I wasn’t keen to move my infantry across all that open ground without removing a few German guns first, so I stayed put and returned fire. The only hit was my artillery which scored a lucky shot on a Tiger on Scott’s right flank, boom!

6yr old Becky doing the cheerleader routine from the sidelines for dear old dad - it didnt help - I lost! [Dice on ISU indicate bailed tanks, can I get a Fire Power?]

Infantry adavnces from wood... to protect Tigers from any Soviet foot troops, or so that was the plan

Brett turned up to heckle and jeer, though once camera was waved about he studiously stuck his nose in Turning Tide. 9yr old Chris is indicating the size of his... 'Balls of Steel' he has when fielding US armoured rifles...

First Tiger dies to a lucky artillery hit... Damn! Rolling a 1 for a top armour save does not help the German cause...

One dead ISU, and a burning Churchill behind far wood... things are looking up...

Two dead ISUs, this was as good as it was going to get... the ISUs lived a charmed life, repeatedly passed armour saves or I failed German fire power tests, and those fearless russkies just jumped back in their tanks...

Even with long range flank shots the Tigers still couldnt finish the ISUs... The Soviets must have sacrified well to the dark Gods the previous night...

Paul patiently lines up his shots... the lone truck is a proxied bergepanther doing duty as a mobile MG to support infantry, von Sauken hussles the infantry from his halftrack.

The next three turns were essentially a tank duel, Scott’s Tigers on the right taking on my ISU’s at range, and the two on his left angling in for some extreme long range shots onto my flanks. Given the slow movement and lack of cover, engaging the Tigers with the MK4’s would have ended badly for me as there’s no way I could get a flank shot and can’t destroy him from the front. My ISU’s did manage to pop another Tiger, but were now on half strength themselves thanks to the deadly 88’s of the big cats. The remaining two ISU’s used the wrecks of their comrades as cover, but with the flank shots coming in from the other Tiger platoon (one was bailed but I passed a platoon morale on a 3, it’s good to be Fearless!) something had to happen. 

The German  infantry hussle to the cover of a small hill, waiting their chance for coordinated fire to smoke and pin the Soviets, it doesn't happen... they don't want to go yet as there's a Soviet HMG on other side of hill...

Deciding it was now or never, I advanced both ISU’s straight at the one remaining Tiger on my left flank. This took them out of range of the other Tigers and put a wood in between us as well. The only problem was if I didn’t kill the Tiger in front of me I was toast! The ISU’s are only ROF 1, so even hitting Veterans in the open required a 5. One shot hit, AT15 was too much to stop, it was all on the Fire Power roll. Scott had failed several FP’s on a 3+, so was delighted when I rolled a 2. He was slightly less delighted when I informed him that the ISU 122 has a FP of 2+ and flames and smoke would be required instead of the bailed out marker he had in his hand.

On the other flank the two Tigers chase the Churchills round the wood, finishing them off eventually and sitting by the objective, but the blob of Soviet infantry is unmoved.

 This opened up my left flank for the ISU’s to advance at their leisure. Scott’s infantry had meanwhile made their way across the table to the cover of a hill in front of my artillery and the end of my spread out infantry blob. With their armoured support gone however, assaulting was now a lot more difficult. A couple of valiant attempts to storm the hill were thrown back, and the ISU’s mopped up the remaining vehicles. With the German infantry hanging on (passing three sole-survivor checks to keep the Company above half-strength), Scott went for broke on the other side. In my excitement I’d forgotten to move my MK 4s out of the way of his Tigers and they all ended up melting snow as they burnt. I was confident my big infantry blob would take enough punishment to buy me time to win on the other flank. Scott’s right hand objective was wide open, but it would take three turns to get there through the snow, and with planes still a chance at wiping out the platoon (and with it my big advantage) I fell back on my old fail-safe plan – kill everything! I poured everything onto the German infantry platoon commander and von Saucken. Their demise took a third platoon out of five, and also the ability to take a company morale check as there was no 2ic in Scott’s company.

The ISUs get bold and lucky and bag the last Tigers on the main German attacking flank, they now have the battle sewn up, its just a matter of time... Their luck has held, the Germans are left wondering what happened... 4 Tigers and we couldn't finish off 2 ISUs... damn fire power tests...

So, 5-2 to me, but could easily have gone the other way. A few successful firepower rolls from the Tigers and I would have been greatly neutered. I took my chance when it came though, and luck was on my side at the critical moment. This game highlighted the difficulties of advancing infantry at armour in the open. Even just two Tigers would be enough to cut down my 20+ stand of Trained infantry as they took four  turns to get across the board, and then they would still have to deal with the Tigers if they got that far. The ISU’s have the gun to do the job, but when they have to fight a mobile battle they are at a disadvantage.

Game2:

 On Sunday afternoon I faced off against Brett’s American Armoured Rifles with the same Soviet force. I defended in a Breakthrough, again in the snow. Mercifully I forgot my camera so there are no pics of this one! My artillery was pinned in turn 1 and stayed that way for the entire game. Not being able to double, my big blob of infantry heading for the objectives got hammered by artillery. They had to shoot each other to unpin, and when that didn’t work they couldn’t even dig in. Needless to say, Brett’s three big armoured rifle platoons all arrived promptly from delayed reserve, while my mobile reserve MK 4s didn’t turn up until after the first American platoon! Brett’s dice were good (although not a major factor) and mine were terrible (a bit more of an impact). 

In the end the Americans were on the objectives before me and despite some fierce shooting I was wiped off the board. The snow made movement tortuous, Brett wisely flank-marching his mobile units to avoid the slow going. I lost so badly I don’t think I can even claim to have come second, more like a distant third! Still, some good tactics to use when attacking and highlighted some issues when defending in this mission, which was the main aim of the game. Hopefully the painful lessons have been learned ahead of Winterfest.

Paul.