Breville Campaign - The defence of Breville - Fighting Withdrawal

Since starting the Breville Axis of Attack campaign, the British paras, under Paul's skilled hand, have done all expected of them, landing in a glider borne assault to capture the Orne bridges, resisted repeated attempts by the Germans to break through their lines, and then gone on the offense, beating the Germans back out of Bois du Mont, their fighting withdrawal there becoming a rout.

The Paras push on to capture their last objective, the town of Breville itself, and close out the campaign...

The Germans have one last chance to salvage a small amount of pride, before the end... And this time their Commanding Officer has been given a rapid schooling in the art of holding ground with Infantry...

 Having won the last battle and the dice off for the next game to choose the mission, Paul has pushed me back to Breville, and has decided on a Fighting Withdrawal to try and seal the fate of the Germans. Paul set the board up and I came along with 1750pts of Grenadiers, against Paul's British paras...

The German Force

Pauls forces, IIRC...

British Airborne
HQ: CO + 2iC + 2x PIAT
Full Paras platoon
Full Paras platoon
Full Paras platoon
Para Engineers platoon
Commando Section
2 x 6pdrs
3 x DD Shermans + 1x Firefly (Confident Trained)
4 x Mortars

With insufficient buildings to create the right look, Paul instead took a different approach to setting up the town, and went for a full ruined town edge look, using the 'Stalingrad' building set he made!

Paul managed to bring these two sides of the boards into alignment raising one section on a slightly raised platform. Very clever I thought!

The outskirts of Breville

Having learned how not to defend with infantry in the last game, I took Paul's advice, and this time set up a high perimeter line on the edge of my deployment zone. The three objectives were spread across my zone with typically, the defenders one in the centre and the attackers two to the two flanks.

The pioneers covered my exposed right side of the board, behind their barbed wire, and backed up by 2 infantry guns and 2 HMGs. In the centre a grenadier platoon with attached HMG and P'schrek team, and backed up by my scouts with assault rifles. On my left another Grenadier platoon with attached HMG, backed up by 3 Pak38s. My 2 mortars were centre back holding centre objective . The 5 PzIVs were in ambush...

Pioneers defend the German right flank

Paul decided to mass his main attack on his right, not wanting to have to deal with my wire... which was more or less as I expected. So I added my 2ic and CO to the end flank building.

Paras, commandos and Shermans backed by mortars ready their assault under cover of darkness

Looking down the German line from their left flank

Paul pulled night attack and with it the British spearhead move. My high line of defence did impede this move, slightly. Undaunted Paul pressed on with his attack getting into it quickly with Commandos and Paras, looking to make some holes with flamethrowers...

The panzers reveal their ambush from behind the left flank end buildings and drive up ready to hose the attacking infantry...

Initial attack, 2 flamethrowers are expended for the loss of a single German team

The bold move by the commandos flamethrower is rewarded by a hail of return fire which guts the commandos and they break and flee. Still undaunted Paul readies his assault with careful precision and manages to breach my line...

Paul gets excited with the casualty markers... there weren't quite that many deaths here , yet...

Its all on like donkey kong! I have lost the end grenadiers, 2iC and a panzer to Paul's assaults, but my Co has fallen back out of harms way. All this time my scouts have been rushing across from the centre, as have the 2 HMGs from the opposite flank, trying to help reinforce my faltering left... But Paul still has the pak38s and panzers to deal with...

Its all on big time!

A surge by Brits, and everything fires trying to knock out the pak38s and panzers to little effect! But the assault still goes in capturing the end flank building and forcing me to pull back the guns and tanks slightly....

Paras capture the end building, but objective is still strongly contested.

Pak38s and panzers return fire at the Shermans killing two and bailing the other 2 but they pass morale!

Now comes the craziness, with nothing to lose, a real do or die, Paul emerges from the building, and with a combination of fire, destroys a Pak38, bails a panzer with a Piat, and assaults the remaining panzers, staring down 12 dice of def fire on 4s. I push him back just... 3 dice are 4s, 2 are cocked, I roll these again, one 4 the other cocked again... I can't bare the tension! I roll the last dice again, a 4! And he is pushed back!

Paul then throws caution to the wind and has the 2iC join the 2 remaining Piats from a gutted para platoon and assaults with these! 12 def fire dice again... I pick my dice back up counting as I do and suddenly realise I had thrown 13 dice previously! What to to do? Paul resets his main para platoon again , "thrown em again Scott!" Eek! I do but get 5+ definite hits pinning back the main thrust. So Paul still tries with the 2 Piats. 12 dice again and again they are thrown back. But Paul's is rolling saves like a god again and few if any of the paras fall to the def fire.

Day light had also broken at start of turn 3...

In my turn I think, right, hose the lot of them down and that will be the end of it. I fire everything that I can. But Paul keeps rolling so many saves. Only the engineers are finally stopped , reduced to three teams and the Pltn Cmd dead, they cannot advance. But the main paras still pressuring my panzers refused to die.

To make matters worse the Shermans remount and let my Panzers have it! Paul lines up everything shooting all he can to get pins and or destroy teams in the crucial area. He's done all he can and assaults once more.

Defensive fire from the remaining Pak, Scouts, CO and lone observer spit out just enough fire to throw back Pauls assault.

Paul gets ready for his crazy assaults!

Its now almost midnight, we've played for over 4 hours and although contesting the flank objective, I am now in a position after some 5 turns to be able to pull this flank objective out from under Paul. Even if he does get it next turn, it will then vaporise and he will be in no position really to push for the other objectives in any sensible time frame, and I have enough platoons remaining such that he is unlikely to break me, and I still have my CO alive, for a change!

So Pauls calls it. The Germans have held on for their first win of the campaign, and as they started with 9 platoons and only lost two (Grenadiers and Panzers), claim a 5-2 win.

Final positions

To say this was a nail biter is not the word! This mission is always a real sod, especially for the defender as you always feel you are hanging on for grim death. So I am thrilled to have come away with a win, especially over Pauls Paras after the gutting I got last week against them. And I have to say most of that comes from Paul giving me some idea of how to set up and run a defence with infantry.

He may be wishing he hadn't told me now???

So I claw back some VPs for the campaign and post game dice rolls show Paul still has the initiative to try and attack again. He chooses to try Surrounded for the next game...

Firestorm Lorraine - Turn One, Game Four - Cauldron in Belgium

Last night saw Brett and I meet up for our next Firestorm Lorraine campaign game.

In the end I had decided to attack into A2 (Belgium). This sector only contained one unit of American Infantry as Firestorm troops, and if my attack was successful, I would gain a sector worth 100pts to me and cut off Luxembourg from supply.

I got to set up the terrain before the battle (home field advantage and all that!), and after coming across an interesting looking map on the FoW website, decided to copy that, which comprised a village/town in one corner, with roads radiating out in several direction and wooded areas between the roads.

I anticipated Brett bringing an infantry company, and this would give him plenty of places to hide his infantry and set up his defense, but would hopefully give me some cover too, on my approach to any objectives...

Forces are still 1250pts, plus Firestorm troops.

I had chosen to attack with my BGG Panzerkompanie again, though with a subtle tweak to last time.

I fielded the following:

HQ (Reluctant Trained) 2 x Panther
3 x Panther
4 x PzIV J
Aufklarungs; 7 x MG/P'Faust & 7 x 251/1 Half Tracks
Aufklarungs; 7 x MG/P'Faust & 7 x 251/1 Half Tracks
Plus... 3 x PzIV/70V as my Firestorm troops

 Brett had brought his Tank Company, not what I was expecting! IIRC...

HQ (Confident Veterans) 2 x Sherman 76
3 x Shermans
2 x Shermans & 2 x Sherman 76
Armoured Mortars
Armoured AAA
Artillery
Infantry platoon with 1 Bazooka - Firestorm troops
Priority p47s - Firestorm troops

We rolled off mission and got Cauldron, one of the most random missions in the book! A defensive style battle, in which the defender gets an Immediate Ambush, though this is more like a delayed deployment, but since the defender gets first turn, could be quite effective.
The attacker has his forces deploy randomly by table quarter.
Both sides get reserves, with the defenders being delayed, and the attackers immediate but random.

Another mind bender of game seemed likely...

Brett picked his deployment area, and chose the 'open' side of the table, rather than the congested town side, and I placed objective markers in the opposite corners of his zone, hoping to spread Bretts defence as much as possible. Brett chose to deploy his infantry on one objective at the rear and tanks on the forward one with Mortars, AAA and Artillery as reserves...

I decided I would have to deal with Bretts armour first, if I could, before trying to deal with his infantry and other assets with my armoured infantry. So I chose to deploy the Panthers and 70s and obviously the HQ Panthers, and leave the P4s and infantry in reserves until some of the threat of Brett tanks had hopefully been reduced... The Panthers and 70's had the best front armour and biggest guns to hopefully deal with and withstand the attentions of the Shermans, and the P4s would act in their traditional infantry support role... But I still didn't know where my deployed troops would deploy... as it happened I rolled a 2 for each of the tank platoons so they both arrived diagonally in front of the front objective, facing off against Bretts armour...

Since Brett would get first turn, and had an immediate ambush of 4 Shermans to put down, I chose to hide the tanks behind a couple of clumps of woods, so Brett would need to move out to hit me, and I'd be close to terrain to hopefully mitigate his planes a little... I'd then either be able to move, shoot and hopefully stormtrooper back out of the way, or be left as is but firing at full ROF next turn...

The problem I faced was, being trained I am hit on 3s, and Yank Shermans have stabilisers which means they can fire at full effect ROF on the move though at +1 to hit. Still that means each Yank tank gets two shots on the move and hitting me on a 4... So with 9 Yank tanks and priority planes available, facing off against 8 German tanks, it was going to get interesting quickly...

Initial deployment...

Tanks ready to face off, 70s just below centre bottom woods and HQ Panthers to right

It was going to get interesting in a heartbeat...

and reverse view from infantry side

A rather nice Mustang proxying as a P47, will it prove decisive in this tank scrap?

Never one to hold back, Brett moves out... with one platoon backed up by the HQ tanks, leaving one platoon covering the wooded objective. Planes arrive sniffing out the Panther platoon... Brett also moves out his artillery observer in his jeep , looking to find a vantage point in the church steeple.

Brett lines up 4 side shots on my HQ panthers, but only scores one hit, which I then have the gaul to save! His HQ 76s let rip at the Panther platoon, destroying one and bailed a second. Thankfully the planes fail to range in...

Yanks roll out

In return, Germans get their P4s as reserve but they annoyingly arrive on the other side of the board and have to drive past or through the urban area to get to the Yank infantry. However they do spot a lone Yank jeep  driving up to the church, and rip it apart with their MG fire, killing the occupants...

The bailed panther fails to remount, but remaining panther, the 70s and HQ Panthers converge, and target the HQ Shermans, but Brett  joins them to the nearby Sherman platoon and allocates hits there. I fail the gun-tank rule, and thus destroy 2 tanks from the platoon. They fail morale and Brett decides to let the last tank go, rather than risk losing his CO too...

German return fire...

Sorry no more pics, things got a little intense... a swirling two turns later saw  Brett move out his Shermans from the wood, though one bogged, to enter the fight. The remaining Panther was knocked out and the bailed tank failed morale and fled. The p47s ranged in but failed to hit any targets... More fire on the 70s was ineffective, only bailing one. Return fire from the 70's and HQ Panthers knocked out two tanks from second Sherman platoon, and with one still bogged in woods, forced a morale check and they failed and fled. The Sherman 2iC was also knocked out.
This now forced a Company Morale check at the start of Bretts turn 3, which he passed. The Sherman CO was now on his own and moved out to try to get out of harms way and let te planes freely operate. He knocked out a 70, but the planes failed to range in.
The P4s moved up on the infantry and an Aufklarung arrived from reserve behind the P4s so again had a long route through the town so decided to try and make up time doubling down the road...
The main German tanks massed as much fire as they could on the lone Sherman CO and knocked him out. The 2iC panther had also moved up on the now exposed front objective...

Top of Bretts turn 4 and with two platoons destroyed and only his infantry on the table, and with no HQ elements alive, he auto-failed Company Morale, yielding a 5-2 win to the Germans! However it had taken a moment to realise this, and Brett had just rolled to get his reserves, and succeeded... his Armoured AAA was poised to turn up behind the doubling half tracks, which would have no doubt proved painful for the Germans. But the battle ended before they could enter the fray...

Final positions...

The German armour has won the tank battle on the flank and contest the objective.

I have to say on balance I think this game should have gone to Brett, but his dice let him down at times, and the few return shots I got back each time, steadily reaped rewards... for once I don't think I failed a Firepower test all game...

The P4s were pressuring the Yank infantry (now departed) with Aufklarungs ready to roll up...

A few post game issues to clear up. I still had to roll to see what happened to Bretts Firestorm troops from the last game... The dice result showing them as 'destroyed' and thus going back into the reserve pool of Firestorm troops. A similar roll was needed after this game and that too saw Bretts Firestorm troops destroyed. It wasn't a good night in the end for Brett...

[We still need to figure out at which point these reserve Firestorm troops get redeployed in the 'Strategic Phase' - is it after each 'Game', or at the start of each 'Turn' - if anyone can help us here please advise in comments below - Thanks!]

So this sees A2 Belgium captured, and in the hands of the Germans, scoring 100Vps if I can still hold on to it at end of campaign, and I have cut off Luxembourg, forcing an out of supply issue to Bretts troops there if I attack.

A final post game dice off showed Brett will be the attacker in the next game, where he can choose which sector to attack... it aint over till the fat lady sings!

Firestorm Lorraine - Turn One, Game Three - CounterAttack

Continuing our Firestorm Campaign, Brett and I pressed on with our third game...

Brett had won the initiative after the last game and would become the attacker... and chose to attack with his forces to A4 from A3 Luxembourg that he had previously captured. This would mean an attack across the Moselle River, which would mean some bonus field fortifications for the German defenders...

Brett chose to attack with an American Armoured Rifle company (Confident Trained), and I chose to defend with PanzerGrenadiers (Reluctant Trained).

Brett had some Firestorm troops; heavy artillery battery (proxied by Long toms) and AirSupport - Priority. As Brett has Air support we rolled on the weather effect chart, getting a 6 meaning clear skies, curses!

I also had some Firestorm troops - an infantry platoon of variable quality - I rolled a 5 which meant they were Confident Veterans.

Knowing before hand we were playing across the River, I set to making another bridge for my set up 2 days before the game and managed to have it done in time, giving me a modern style bridge with girders newly completed, and a rustic stone bridge and a ford to cross the river satisfying the 3 crossing points required...

On Brett's arrival we rolled the mission, getting Counter Attack, put the river down the middle nominally through no mans land and quickly placed the surrounding terrain. The small hills were classed as "Rises", so block LOS as any other high ground , but classed as Cross Country for movement.

Forces are 1250pts, plus Firestorm troops.

Brett had brought (IIRC...)
HQ- 2 x Rifle teams
2 Armoured Rifle platoons with half tracks
Heavy artillery 155mm (proxied by Long Toms) [FS]
Medium artillery 105mm (proxied by Romulan cloaked stealth bases!)
Tank destroyer platoon; Security section, plus 2 teleporting M10s
Recce platoon with jeeps and armoured cars
Half track Mortar platoon
Half track HMG platoon
Priority Air [FS]
... I think that was it but I get a bit confused looking over all Bretts Yanks, he seems to deploy a veritable parking lot of armour, and its all festooned with those darn 50cals...

I had:
HQ -  2 x SMG 'faust
2 full PanzerGrens with 'faust
1 full PanzerGrens with 'faust (Con vet) [FS]
1 full Pioneers with supply wagon, and 3 flamethrowers
1 x Heavy platoon - 4 x HMG & 2 x 8cm mortars
4 x 2cm AAA (proxied by static launchers)
3 x PaK40
4 x 12cm heavy mortars
4 x PzIV J
2 x Marder IIIM

I placed the 3 trench lines I had covering the left and centre bridges, gapped by the wood, and put an HMG Nest covering these two approaches. I deployed 3 barbed wire sections thanks to the pioneers, covering my side of the three river crossing points...
I then deployed pioneers in the trench lines, backed up by the AAA, Mortars and heavy platoon, and Pak40s in ambush... The heavy platoon was tasked with trying to get to the second exposed objective before it could be claimed by the yanks... if they could get into position with their 4 HMGs they may be able to chuck out enough def fire to throw the Yanks back into the river...

I felt very thin on the ground...I had two mobile platoons to come on, and three infantry platoons who would have to foot slog all the way to the objectives from the opposite table corner to my deployment area... Thank the Gods I had the defences and barbed wire... but that would also impede my own reserves helping me!

So the game gets under way, Brett making a recce move, and then pushing up with one armoured rifles to the modern bridge to attempt a river crossing here with half track 50cal support from the bridge, backed up by mortars firing direct smoke... The 2nd armoured rifles raced (ATDing) for the other exposed objective looking to ford  a quick crossing to claim the exposed objective...

 This tempting target would also attract my pak40 ambush, which would then leave his main assault unmolested...

Smoke and fire covers the German front line to pin and cover the HMG nest and pioneers overlooking the modern bridge.... The recce zoom out looking to make a break for the far ford crossing, only to realise their wheeled vehicles cannot cross the barbed wire at all! The 2nd rifles reach the mid river bank at breakneck speed...

Smoke covers the German lines

Brett even had some dingies for the water crossing - how cool is that!?...

Dingies at the ready for the crossing

Brett's first round of artillery fire , HMGs and planes also manage to pin the pioneers, mortars and AAA, though causes little actually damage other than a 12cm mortar and a AAA gun...

Can the Germans hold on? Heavy platoon poised for a dash to far objective.

The Germans unleash their Pak ambush, (having got no reserves in the first turn),  and fail to unpin everything, reluctant you know?

The pak40s let rip but only destroy 2 half tracks and killing a few teams... from the centre rifle platoon...

The rest of the pioneers and a pak40, shoot up the HMG platoon destroying a half track and killing all the HMG teams on the opposite riverbank...

Paks Ambush

We remember the red dots, dead mortar and AAA gun...

Initial German casualties and pinned platoons

... and dead HMG platoon across the river...

a little bit of payback to the Yank HMGs

Brett has made it across the river and reached the near bank but still faces the HMG nest and pioneers in trenches... The planes swoop in also and murder the heavy platoon trying to get to the 2nd objective... leaving it undefended...

Yanks force a crossing, half tracks with 50cals supporting dingies across the river

The German panzers arrive and are faced with a dilemma... destroy the tank destroyer security section thus forcing their ambush, or see to the remaining infantry looking to force a crossing on the exposed objective... as much as I wanted to kill the potential teleporting M10 threat, the poised infantry were the most dangerous threat and one I could kill as they weren't dug in... a blaze of tank MG fire ripped into the Yanks on the river bank killing all but 2 teams who broke and fled! This stopped the attack on this flank, with only 2 M10s (yet to be revealed) able to cross the barbed wire. I felt I was sacrificing my Panzers to the M10s to do this though... However I got lucky and passed a stormtrooper test to get most of my panzers back behind the flank woods... though one bogged entering the woods...

 Brett then used his recce command team to call in heavy artillery on the panzers, destroying one and bailing another.... and pushed up an armoured car for a flank shot on the panzers in the wood, but missed...

The Germans got more reserves, getting the Marders and ConVet infantry... The infantry moved to assault the armoured car in the woods, the Marders moved to shoot up the tank destroyer security section as the remaining panzers moved out from behind the wood to do the same... on other flank, some teams unpinned eventually allowing the AAA to move closer to defend the objective, the mortars were out of it, never managing to unpin after the first hit artillery hit. but the pioneers were able to push over to the reinforce against the the main Yank thrust... the Paks had previously been knocked out by direct fire from medium artillery battery and other weight of massed fire from the Yanks on my left... I felt I was hanging on by my finger nails here but thankfully the HMG nest still had not been knocked out but continually pinned and smoked turn after turn...

The panzers and Marders combined to kill the security section and the infantry assaulted and killed the armoured car in the woods... as below pic... red dots where the Yanks were mown down by the panzers MG fire...

The other flank hots up, the security section is destroyed...

Brett's turn 5 and time is running out on the game, we've just about played 3 hours and its near 10pm and a work day tomorrow... Brett goes for it with infantry, its a do or die assault time...

Its do or die time for the Yanks, the assault is set up, but the HMG nest isn't pinned

The M10s pop up and wreck a Marder...  More Heavy artillery is called in on the panzers but they manage to only suffer a bail... The planes are shot down again, causing zero damage...

...Even with security section destroyed I can't get close enough to stop the M10s teleporting in...

Brett goes for the assault but this time has failed to pin the HMG nest though has smoked it... but there is enough defensive fire to force back Brett's assault from the HMG nest and pioneers in the trench line to throw back Brett's assault, and at this point he calls it...

As the defender in this mission I auto-win if the attacker fails to capture an objective, I have lost 2 platoons but started with 10 so the game is scored a 5-2 to the Germans. Who'd have thought it?

In retrospect, I think I should have left the Heavy Mortars off in reserve, and deployed another infantry platoon to back up my initial defense. I could then also maybe have thought about attaching out the elements of the Heavy platoon...

I think the best thing I did was shoot up the Yank infantry with the panzers, as without that, they would have been across the river with nothing I could do about it, and as it lucked out, the panzers stayed alive too...

To Brett's credit he kept pushing the situation, even if he only realised how the barbed wire was going to inhibit his troops, after he had deployed and started moving towards it! And quite frankly I felt he was still going to force the situation with his main thrust, but I was pleasantly surprised how my thin line managed to hold out... I just didn't die enough to leave a gap Brett could exploit... My Pioneers were golden, remembering to bring their barbed wire to the party! Definitely a man of the match award ;-)

I think the mantra now is, never leave home without some pioneers!

So this puts Brett back into Luxembourg. No territory lost but none gained either. I won the roll off for initiative for the next game and thus become the attacker. The campaign special rules force me to continue attacking with the Panzer Firestorm troops I have, currently in B3 (Mairy). Do I attack Luxembourg to reclaim it and stabilise the line? Or do I attack B2 (Belgium) to cut off Luxembourg, forcing Brett to suffer Out of Supply conditions in Luxembourg, hopefully making it easier for me to attack at a later time? Or do I try and capture B2 (Verdun) and the 80 campaign victory points it would give me for the city and the bonus 100 campaign points for doing the same? But of course this then produces a thrust to which its flanks could be vulnerable... decisions, decisions!

The only thing we still have to do is work out whether any Firestorm troops were captured after the game...

Stay tuned for more drama...

A Time to Die... how long should a game take?

I have enjoyed two games of FoW this week, which could not have been more different...

The first against Brett, was the tank on tank battle featured in the previous blog post, and the next game the following night against Paul; the 3rd game in our Breville Gap campaign, the Germans having another go at breaking through in a Hold the Line after their 'diversionary attack' in the previous game.

 Normally our 'policy' here at 'KFoW', is that the victor writes the battle report... but that last game against Paul became quite a serious (though still good natured) affair, and I think I gave Paul enough concern, and thus caused him to concentrate on the game a little more than normal, that he stopped taking pictures part way in...

It was a seriously gutsy game, death and mayhem on each side, and I eventually broke through and had a toe hold on the objective with other troops poised to follow up, and with Paul's remaining forces being quite battered and getting to the point they were hanging on as best they could, but at the point we called it, Paul was still contesting the objective, and thus the game was a 4-3 to Paul.

The reason we called it was that the game started at about 7pm and we called 'time' at 11.30pm... four and half hours later... Poor Paul is an early riser and he was just about asleep by the end of the game, whilst me being a bit more of a night owl, was still happy playing on...

 I will admit freely, I am not the best player in the world (but hopefully improving), and it takes me quite a while to ponder my tactics for the game and in turn, turn to turn as the game progresses...

With the tank battle previously, there is little to really consider; no artillery, no decision between bombard or smoke, no worrying about moving infantry around, being gone to ground or dug in, or whatever... it just about boils down to, can I roll a 6 to hit, and if so, can I follow it up with a successful FP test... hence the game was probably over in 60-90 mins or there abouts...

But with infantry on infantry, in a defensive battle, there is far more going on...

The game for the defender, once they have cunningly constructed their defense, becomes a game of mostly keeping their heads down gone to ground and waiting to unleash their ambush at the most opportune time, and hope they get reserves in time...

The game for a the attacker is more complex, having had a brief chance to study the defenders defense he has to come up with a plan of attack; which objective to strike for, how to go about it, how to mitigate any ambush, which artillery to use against which targets, and to try and fire smoke to conceal, or a bombardment to kill... and then how best to set up a possible game winning assault such that I can capture an objective and be in such a position to hold on to it against any likely counter attack...

There's an awful lot going on in such a game... so how long is fair amount of time to resolve such a game?

This question crops up in the forums from time to time, especially concerning tournament play, where time management is crucial for the conduct of the tournament in a timely manner. Most tournaments appear to allow 2.5hrs  for each game. And yet it can cause concerns about deliberate slow play, as several missions go in the defenders favour if the attacker fails to grab an objective, or break the defender...

Note that I am not saying Paul plays slowly, far from it, it would be me the attacker taking a while to ponder my tactics, I can't help it...

Here's a quick look at the issues from that last game. I am not going to do a full ARR, but give you a few of the points of the game...

So the Game is Hold the Line, with Brit Paras defending against an attack by German Grenadiers.
Objectives go down in typical fashion, Paul places his at the back, I place mine more or less diagonally opposite as near to my front as possible...

The Brits deploy two Para platoons and an Engineer platoon, spanning the front of the board with 3 barbed wire sections down covering approach to front objective. This is tough enough to get through, But Paul also has 4 x HMG and 4 x 6pdrs in ambush. One can shred an infantry platoon, the other can wreck a tank platoon, in one round of fire... Not nice...

The rest of Pauls force is in delayed reserve; artillery, 2 more 6pdrs, trained infantry, recce jeeps with MGs, and mortars...

I am attacking this with 2 x grenadier platoons, 1 pioneer platoon with flamethrowers, 4 x HMG, 4 x Mortars, 4 x 105 howitzers, 4 x StuHs, 1 x Scout platoon.

My plan is relatively straight forward - Get scouts up as far as possible early to push back any ambush and then start lifting GTG on the Paras. GTG Paras in foxholes are 6s to hit at short range and impossible at long range... Lifting GTG can make all the difference.

Also, my infantry start 16" back from the Defenders zone, so its going to take me 3 turns to get there, unless I am lucky with some storm trooper moves, then I have to get to the wire, and then start the next turn NOT pinned down with my pioneers to Gap it to allow my troops through, then I still have to get into suitable position to assault...

All the while I am conscious of Pauls ambush and where they could strike from, and thus where do I need to try and drop smoke to cover my approach, but I also want to kills some Paras with my Howitzers...

Here are the general deployment pics...

My pioneers are still a WIP, hence the card bases...

Now, things go wrong for me in first turn, I push my scouts up as far as possible, getting a good position to view Pauls platoons from cover and also forcing back an ambush from the area I intend to assault.
Paul realises he has nothing to lose, as he'll be lifted GTG next turn anyway, fires everything he can at the scouts, he kills two teams, despite needing 6s to hit, but I have 2 left so I am still OK, just. Then he remembers one last possible shot, from an observer team; one shot on a 6, gets it and I fail the save, typical... scouts fail morale and are gone. F*ck!

So now my chances to lift GTG are gone and I cant push back any ambush... And Paul now settles back into his foxholes, gone to ground...

Red dots mark the dead scouts

This forces my approach to be far more cautious...

So I eventually get into position to shift the wire, but then Paul ambushes with his HMGs killing some pioneers and Pinning the platoon... so I cant shift the wire next turn and must wait for another turn and on it goes... All during this time I am slowly doing some damage with the howitzers which luckily ranged in on first throw of game and the StuHs are picking off the odd team thanks to their breakthrough guns...Opposing sniper teams are also enjoying some activity...

Eventually I am through the wire, but by which time Paul has decided to withdraw slightly, not wishing get all crispy from my flamethrowers. So I manage to get to and take the building adjacent the objective, but Paul still has a few teams left from a platoon, dug in near it contesting. I can eventually kill them once I reposition the StuHs but that's at least another 2 turns...

So we call the game, Paul has took a battering, 3 platoons down, CO - rang away with engineers, 2ic just been killed, two para platoons badly mauled, the 6drs have had two guns knocked out (one to the pioneers goliath), only his mortars left to come on. My only concern now really is if his artillery ranges in on me on the objective and starts to do some damage before I can remove his last contesting teams...

So all of that took 4.5hrs. We did have a few rules queries along the way which always takes a few minutes to resolve too, looking stuff up.. And it could go on longer to get to conclusion... so when do you stop?

If this game had had a time limit from the start, then I may as well have packed up and gone home once the scouts died on turn one - I'd certainly have scored more brownie points with the Mrs for an early Friday finish and get to have a glass of vino with her...  but I was conscious of throwing away the second game early, and not playing on for VPs for the campaign... hence my determination here...

As it happens, Paul is now 14 points to 7 up in the campign after 3 games, so I have no chance of getting back into it... So I'll declare Paul the winner.

We have planned another Hold the Line for next game; 3rd times a charm(!?) to see if its possible to crack this nut as the attacker, I can be a determined stubborn bugger sometimes... see if I can keep the scouts alive this time and what difference it makes, maybe consider other ways to play the mission...

So what do you think; a defensive battle between infantry companies, each knowing beforehand the opponent and mission thus the best chance to pick the best troops for the job. And a game involving field fortifications - How Long Should The Game Last to get to a fair conclusion?

Firestorm Lorraine - Turn one, Game two - Hold the Line

A couple of weeks back, Brett and I decided to make more of our series of one off games, now that we both have a degree of competence with the rules and general tactics of the game, so some kind of campaign of linked games seemed in order.

 Some time ago Brett picked up the Blood, Guts and Glory book, for his American Forces, and was quite thrilled with the prospect of Tank battles in NW Europe.

I must confess at the time this came out, and I checked out the German lists, suddenly finding my Wehrmacht was getting reduced to Reluctant Trained as the Yanks improved to Confident Vets, did not fill me with much enthusiasm...

However, having found a free online download of a smaller scale Firestorm setting entitled Lorraine from the BF website, it seemed too good to pass up the chance to learn the Firestorm campaign setting. We also have the Firestorm Market Garden and Bagration sets but haven't figured out how to use them yet, so this seemed the perfect way to learn...

The first game we played saw, Brett start the campaign, attacking my forces in Luxemburg (A3) from Mairy (B3). I chose a themed Panzerkompanie from BGG, which Brett had to attack with his Armoured Rifles, and we rolled up Counter-Attack. Brett had a bunch of big AT guns as his Firestorm troops for the mission which he put down on a ridge overlooking my position, which kept me pinned down behind it. We cocked up a bit giving the guns the benefit of being in cover for being dug in, not realizing they were too big to get this cover bonus... I managed to keep my force fairly intact, knocking out a couple of these guns with moving and storm troopering back out of harms way... but Brett advance across a broad front, and manage to get his 'teleporting' M10 tank destroyers behind me by about turn 4 or 5 and in one round of coordinated activity wrecked my force which being reluctant failed a bunch of morale rolls and quit the field giving Brett a 6-1 win and Luxemburg!

Thankfully Brett failed his campaign roll to destroy my Firestorm tanks (3 x PzIV/70s). We then rolled of for initiative for the next battle, which I won making me the attacker in the next game.

So on with game two of Turn One...

As the German player I am only allowed to attack from a location that has Firestorm Panzer troops. This limits my options some what, but allowed me the chance to counter attack round Luxemburg, rather than going for it directly, with the chance of cutting it off, so that's what I chose to do...attacking from A4 to B3 Mairy

I stuck with the same Panzerkompanie from BGG, which in the first Turn sequence of the game gives you 1250pts.

I took:
HQ - 2 x Panther G
3 x Panther G
4 x PzIV J
3 x StuG G
1 x GPG 'scout platoon'; 7 x P'faust/MG teams and 5 x 251/1D half tracks

Added to this force I had the Firestorm Panzers; 3 x PzIV/70's (proxied in game by jagdpanzers).

Brett took (IIRC):
HQ - 2 x Sherman 76's
2 x Shermans + 2 x Sherman 76's
3 x Shermans + 1 x Sherman 105
Tank Destroyer 'teleporters'; Security section plus 2 x M10's

Added to his force he had a Firestorm Infantry Platoon of 10 teams plus 1 x bazooka


 I set the terrain up before the game, representing (hopefully) the French countryside of the Lorraine area...

And we rolled up a mission; Hold the Line.

As soon as this happened, I felt doomed - I have played this recently against Paul in our Breville campaign and know only too well, whilst the defender suffers delayed reserves, he benefits from 2 ambushes. So Bretts 4 platoon tank force would mean, 2 platoons off and 2 platoons on, both ambushing! Sure enough that's what Brett did, having chosen the end to defend, and us placing objectives.

Brett predictably placed one objective centre rear of his position and I placed mine as near as possible in the open to my right hoping my tanks could get a quick clear run at it.

So the only troops on the table for Brett were his HQ tanks, one each tucked behind the left and right flank woods in below pic.

I had opted for a rush down the road with my half tracks, knowing full well they would get hammered, but this would sacrificially reveal Bretts ambush, hopefully allowing my following tanks something to do about it. I thought about AtTheDoubling the half tracks straight onto the objective, but it would only have made their demises all the more easy and even if they survived they wouldnt be able to contest the objective for a further turn.

The half tracks would be supported by the majority of the tank force.
I did however decide to send the StuGs on a long run round the left flank, thus threatening the rear of Bretts CO tank, and a threat on the rear objective. I also chose in the end to ATD them (this would be a tempting target to attract Bretts other ambush, and be as far from the front objective as possible...)

So, my deployment as below, Bretts tanks virtually hidden from view behind the woods...

...and view again from the other end...

Then I remembered to deploy my HQ Panthers behind the main central thrust following the half tracks...

The FHH Panzerkompanie, is horribly one dimensional - all armour - no real recce to mitigate ambushes. The GPGs are 'scouts' in name only... Nor do I get any artillery which could offer me the concealment of smoke,... its just lots of guns, that are easy to hit, and once hit and taking damage will quickly quit the field due to their poor morale rating. The only thing to keep me in it, is the high front armour of the Panthers and PzIV/70s...

So off we went 'to the races', with the GPG roaring off down the road, singing 'Gott mit uns' as he was going to have to be! The panzers followed up behind, trying to get positions to fire back at the likely place Brett would pop his ambush...

... with the StuGs heading off down the other flank, trying to draw more attention... I have no targets in the first turn, and stormtrooper at little closer with half tracks and PzIVs...

Bretts tankers cant believe their luck, seeing a trio of StuGs advancing having thrown caution to the wind... Brett lines up 3 tanks with 12 shots at the ATDing StuGs..., with the 105 looking at the half tracks the other way...

In the centre wood, 4 more Shermans train their barrels on the 'do or die' armoured infantry... and can also see the leading PzIVs coming round the farm house...

The Shermans let rip destroying all five half tracks, but 4 of the 7 teams inside survive, leaping from the flaming wrecks ... luckily meaning they are not required to take a platoon moral check...

Two of the PzIVs are also hit multiple times, but are only bailed, but sadly taking multiple bail results each, are forced to take morale checks and being reluctant promptly quit the field leaving yellow 'coward' markers to show their last known positions... However the remaining tanks do not require a morale check, the platoon being at 50% strength...

The StuGs receive the incoming 12 shots hitting on 3s, yet amazingly only suffer one destroyed and one bailed! Which doesn't amount to a morale check...

I have survived the ambush, and amazingly have a chance to continue! Really I should have been blown away in turn one, game over with three platoons out of 5 gone and a pathetic chance of needing a 5 to stay on the table... But sometimes thems the breaks, so press on ...

German turn 2, the bailed StuG remounts! And the two press on to threaten the rear of the COs Sherman...

The five Panthers look for payback against the central Sherman platoon; 10 shots needing 6's, can I get lucky?...

While the remaining 2 PzIVz's and '70's go after the Sherman 2iC...

The Panthers score 3 hits, destroying 2 Shermans and bailing a third... the platoon promptly rolls a 1 for platoon morale and quits the field, evidenced by the fleeing tank crew down the road...

The StuGs score two hits on the Sherman CO, who promptly decides to join the adjacent Sherman platoon and allocates hits there, which destroy 2 Shermans...

But the Sherman 2iC survives, all shots missing, curses! But still, that's really made it game on for the Germans!

Now Brett has some work to do! The 2iC returns fire at the remaining PzIVs destroying one and bailing the second, who fails morale and quits the field...

On the flank, Brett manages to get a Sherman out of the woods and onto the flank of the StuGs and the CO joins in the shooting... Darn stabilizers on the moving Sherman still gives him 2 shots, added to the 2 from the CO spell the end of the StuGs. Still they achieved more than I expected... and tied up a platoon on the wrong side of the board for a couple of turns...

Back to the Germans, the Panthers move up through the cornfield to try and take out the Sherman CO... The German infantry have still failed to motivate but dig in and stay gone to ground...

The 70's get into position to kill the Sherman 2iC tank...

This time up he goes in flames, and we're sitting on the objective, with nothing in range to get anywhere near to contest. The 70s fail their stormtrooper move so are left with their arse's literally hanging out, but I cant do much about that and there's little that can affect them...

The Sherman CO is only bailed... who scampers from his tank...

Bretts turn three and he rolls one dice for reserves needing a 5 and wouldn't he darn well get some! Up come the 2 M10s from the tank destroyer platoon. No stabilizers, gives them 2 shots at range and cover for slope of the hill at the rear of the 70's, needing 5's... Brett rolls 'box cars' followed by two successful FP tests and 2 of the 70's brew up! I need a 5 for platoon morale to stay in it, and get a 5!

The Shermans who had moved over from the other flank cant hurt the front armour of the panthers and miss the remaining 70.

In the Germans return turn, the Panthers in the cornfield knock out the 105 Sherman, and the 70 moves to the cover of the burning wrecked 70's, which also gets him contesting the objective, and aims at the M10s, as do the 2 HQ panthers.


The cornfield panthers destroy the Sherman 105...

Whilst one of the M10s is knocked out...

Bretts turn 4 sees his last reserve arrive, in the nick of time? The infantry Truscott trot desperately toward the German front objective but are still too far from it...

Brett has to break me this turn with his shooting or its all over... the M10 returns fire at the 70 but fails to destroy it, one shot hitting but bouncing off its front armour...

Brett moves the remaining Shermans from the flank to have a shot at the flank of the panthers. I had been unable to pass stormtrooper with them last turn to avoid such a possibility, but thankfully only bail one of the panthers in the cornfield!

And that is it, Brett has failed to break my force, and I start the next turn sitting on the front objective, claiming a 4-3 win! Who'd have thought it!? Games of dice eh?!

So that means I capture Mairy, and am one sector away from cutting off Luxemburg.

We both rolled to see if we destroyed the others Firestorm troops, needing 6s and both failed so our forces are still intact.

We also rolled to see who would get initiative for the next battle, with Brett winning the dice roll, so he will attack somewhere next game...

More next time, we hope to have Game 3 of Turn 1, next Thursday...