Flames of War

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1500 Point After Action Reports (AARs)

American Paratroopers vs. German Panthers (Karen beats on Rich)
!500 Points - Breakthrought

Terrain :  A large city in the center of the board and lots of hedgerows lining the roads.

Plan: Close and assault! Simple... I set my on board Panther Platoon 12 inches from her adavance unit that was dug in and gone to ground. but to grind them under my tracks was the plan... Yeah that's right... grind 'em up.... yeah that' s the ticket.....

What she'll tell you what happened:  And she'll be right?!?!  Well I got the first move. I moved to within assault distance and fired all the MGs and NOTHING! So I assaulted. Bazooka fire took out one Pather. OK we'll give her that one. My close assault resulted in NOTHING! She passes her morale and close assaults... takes out another Panther! I fail my morale... But wait the CiC is there! I fail again? They run to hide in a dark alley away from the bazookas. My first turn and I'm down two Panthers.

It's now her first turn and her artillery observer is looking right at the hiding Panthers. Bang I lose the 2iC! My reserves came in and met all her bazookas. Her artillery fire was deadly... I did not stand a chance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leasons Learned: Pick on someone my own size! Where did those Russian Tank go??????

Russian Tank vs. German Kirsk Force (Sorge vs Rich)
1500 points - Caldron

Plan: To try to attack a Panther force with limited soviet strength. In short use my maneuver ability to out flank his Panthers and get some kills.

Terrain: Mostly wooded and hills.

What Really Happened: This should have been called battle of the reserves, because it came down to a reserve roll. Rich set up one Platoon in the center woods off the objective with the HQ platoon off to my right and behind my lead unit of T-34's. Dam those HQ deploying last. Rich moves first and then misses all but 1 of my T-34's. Hummm…luck may be with me. Great I get reserves..my SU 85s to go with the 152's. Them my Su 152's and Su85's proceed to either miss or not pen his HQ. On the next turn my 85's and 152 go away very quickly. But I get reserves again…more T34's and this time his HQ does go away. My other T-34s with my HQ is now behind his remaining Panther platoon with the other one hidden to his front. Either way he gets flanked and shot up. Rich gets his reserves, his last Panther platoon and shoots the hell out of my T-34s and HQ. Just my HQ lives, but he's bailed.

Now all I need is a 3+ to get back in and I have 2 tries to do it. Two 2's later, I can't do a company morale and we go off the board.

Rich wins with both HQ's dying.

Both sides used their strength to their advantage. Rich his firepower and range. Me, my speed and numbers.

Leasons Learned: The Fates of War. My plan was solid vs a very good defense. Neither player made any real mistakes, nothing game changing. The only thing I might have done differently was to mount my tank riders at the start of the game to get a harder to kill unit on the board. But I really don't think that would have changed very much of the outcome.

It came down to when reserves came in and where. This really was a true fog of war game where each reserve unit coming on to the board tipped the scales back in fourth in each players favor. The last Panther unit just tipped them far enough.

Russian Tank vs. Italian Armor (Sorge vs Lee)
1500 points - Encounter

Plan: Sit by the objectives, dig in my infantry and kill his as he gets close.

Terrain: Very close to Kirsk in real life. My left was Farms with some streams, the center was woods and hills. My right was city ruin and rubble.

What Really Happened: This should have been called "The Commissar gave out too much Vodka" Battle. My plan was perfect. I had all the objectves covered, and the avenues of approach. Lee was forced to come out in the open and fight and his big Germans had to creep up through the city negating their long range. This is just what I wanted.

Except for ONE tiny problem…..I couldn't hit a damn thing. In the entire game I killed 2 Italian tanks and 1 German. My tank crews must have been stinking drunk. Even at blank point, we missed. And when we did hit he saved.

Once the game was over we did the post mortem. He agreeded that my defense forced him to do exactly what he did, and if I could hit something it would have been different. But I couldn't hit and that was the story.

Leasons Learned: Drunk Crews.
This was one of those bad die rolling days. It did show that my force can defend effectively and that it has some balance for a tank force. I did sit still and at several points I was tempted to go out and attack. But I don't think that would have made much difference. My problem was with the hitting, not the plan.

Cossack vs. American Infantry (Rich vs Newman)
1500 points - Encounter

Plan: Run down the infantry with all my cossacks. 4 Platoons now! (Same plan as last time!)

Terrain: Town in the middle and open flanks!

What Really Happened: I got slaughtered!!! Again Big surprise (not)!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you guys sense a theme here!?!?!?! My Cossacks got gunned down by the Stuarts!!!!!!!! and the M-10 shot up my SU-152s

Leasons Learned: Don't use the SU-152s like tanks......

Cossack vs. German Grenadiers (Rich vs Allen)
1500 points - Break Through (or not!)

Plan: Run down the infantry with all my cossacks. 4 Platoons now!

Terrain: Woods in the objective area.... Nice!

What Really Happened: I got slaughtered!!! Big surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you guys sense a theme here!?!?!?! My reserves came in piece meal. The Germans defending the objecive all had SMG and were Pioneers!!! First my Pioneers got shot up on the assault then the cossacks. That goes without saying! But my SU-152s took the objecive. I forgot about the 4 AT of the Pioneers and the pesky Flamethrowers!!!

Leasons Learned: Start a new Army!!!!!!!!!!!

German Panther Compnay vs Amerrican Infantry (Rich vs. Newman)
1,500 Point Game - Mid War

Mission: Strategic Withdrawal

Terrain: A town in the middle and some nice roads for the Panthers.

Deployment: My placement was limited since I only have two platoons.

Plans: Wipe him out quickly.

What happened: The Panthers ran into a stumbling block and 2 speed bumps. The M-10s in ambush... oh yeah I forgot about them... they wiped out one platoon of Panthers. The other platoon had to stop and take out infantry/mortars in the woods and even had to spend a turn eliminating a platoon of Stewerts. Once I reach the objective I had to start engage infantry in the town. Where was my infantry support. (What infantry support!!!!!!)

Lesson learned: Stop forgetting about the ambushers!!!!  And go after the objective the defender places, it does not get removed!!!!!

This Gaming Club meets at the Game Room the first Friday of each month at 8PM.