Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Village Games, May 26th, 2009 'Flames of War' Germans vs Soviets 6000 Point Battle

I swung by the Ville yesterday for 'Flames of War' day. I knew John was going to muster me into the game somehow, and of course the game keeps pulling me back in....


There were essentially four players in the game: John (on the left above), Bobby (the guy on the right in the foreground), Josh (in the background) and Herb (not shown). The game was played in 'The Cauldron' scenario format from the rules book. Herb and John played the Germans with 1500 points each, with Bobby and Josh as the Soviets, also at 1500 points each. The basic objective of the game is for the Soviet forces to hold their three objectives, which are shown (somewhat) in a pic farther down. Herb/John were pretty much a solid armor force and Bobby/Josh were a mixed force, with armor, infantry and air support.

The main objective for the Soviets was to essentially hold the area marked by the defensive works you see in the left center of the pic. The Germans job was to hold one of the objectives until the end of the Soviet's fifth or sixth turn if I remember correctly. The objectives were marked by pennies which can't be seen here, and later there was some confusion on the distance of the distance between the pennies during the placement. But we're all still learning the rules here, so...

This is a shot of the early placement/movement. John's forces are mainly in the upper portions of the table, while Herb's forces moved in from the bottom. Josh mainly operated in the area you see him in here, while Bobby more or less played the Soviet infantry/mortar/ATG guys in the center. You can see Herb's Tiger at the bottom center.

This is a decent shot showing the Soviet defence positions. Later I'd end up taking down much of the Soviet infantry and mortar positions, but most of his tanks seen in this photo would survive the game. In the rear center you see two Soviet SU-152s next to some of his tanks. In front of them is a Tiger and three Marders I believe. You can see some of Herb's armor rolling up on the right.

Well, eventually I was drafted by John to take over part of his force while he did rules checks. Mostly I was involved in the battle at the rear of the table, between Josh's and John's armor and some of Bobby's infantry. Two of Josh's SU-152s can be seen burning here, my first Flames of War kills. They were taken down by the Marders next to the Tiger.

The Tiger and the Marders would not survive the game. Soviet armor ultimately overwhelmed them and all four were lost. You can see one of the objective markers next to the white house below. The Soviet tank next to it was taken out not long after this.


This was pretty much the end of the game. Although the German forces had taken a bit of a pasting, all wasn't necessarily lost. The three German tanks next to the white house managed to survive until the end of the required Soviet turn, which was a required action for German victory. However, there were some questions about Morale checks or some such thing, and in the end the battle was declared a draw.

Everyone here is pretty much still learning the game, but it seems to be getting better. This was the first 'Flames of War' match I participated in, and I certainly enjoyed it. Once we all get the rules down, and I figure out what I'm going to play, it will be even better.

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