Flames of War |
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Current Standings | Click here for Rules | 600 Point AARs | 1000 Point AARs |
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Flames of War |
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Current Standings | Click here for Rules | 600 Point AARs | 1000 Point AARs |
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1000 Point After Action Reports (AARs) The Players - After Action Report – the Battle of Hill
112 (Sort of) The Battlefield: Typical NW European terrain; Hedgerows; Tree Lines & Woods with scattered Buildings and Farms and a few small Hills. The Opposing Forces: 21st Panzer StuG Batterie
fielded 5 Platoons; 2 StuG (x2 StuGs in each) + 1 Tiger + 1 Lorraine 150mm SP (3 x 150mm
SP Guns) + 1 AA (4x 20mm Quad Armored HT) – a nice compact Armored Force. US Armored
Infantry with an Ant Swarm of Bazookas supported by a few guys actually carrying Rifles
(plus extra Bazooka Ammo). The Plans: US Forces deployed first and set up with their BACKS to German Deployment Zone, all Dug-In and Gone To Ground facing the two Objectives. The obvious American Plan was to rush for the two Objectives with their mass (er Ant Swarm) of Bazooka toting GIs. The 21st Panzer, StuG Batterie is a Firepower Force deigned to Hit & Run (or Ambush) against Armor and stay out of range and pound Infantry with its 105’s and 150’s. It does not have thick enough Armor to fend off Bazookas and it doesn’t do well in close assaults against Infantry with Bazookas. But that teeming mass (Ant Swarm) of US Infantry GOING THE OTHER WAY was just too tempting to resist. So it seemed like the 21st Panzer could attack "en masse" from their Rear and do great damage, in the process certainly Pinning them to avoid any Counter Attacks in the US turn from that Ant Swarm of Bazookas. It looked good on paper. The Battle (a.k.a. Death Ride of The 21st Panzer): The Battle started well for the Germans. Their Big Guns ranged in, the Tiger and StuGs got in range and even the Armored AAA managed to get shots in. All 3 US Platoons (Swarms) were Pinned and took some casualties to boot. Then came the American’s Turn. Newman coolly rolled off two of the three Pins and Swarmed the Tiger. It died. German Turn 2, great execution in the ranks of the Ant Swarm from the AA Halftracks; but 3 Bazooka Teams survived (when you have a BIG SWARM it’s hard to kill it all even with Quad 20 AA!) and they took aim at the German Flak Tracks and managed to DESTROY ALL THREE. After that you could hear the Fat Lady starting to warm up in the wings. On Turn 3 the Ant Swarm (the US had yet to lose a Platoon – great Motivation Rolls by the US CinC) moved in to overrun the German StuGs, including the CinC, and with 3 of 5 Platoons destroyed the Fat Lady was warbling. Lessons Learned: The lesson here is simple "Don’t Play Stupid". The 21st Panzer needs to stand off from a distance and murder infantry, not charge in and mix it up, especially when they are in Ant Swarm density with Bazookas. The packed ranks of Infantry were just too tempting and I had visions of a quick victory from gunning them down and then overrunning the rest. Foolish me. The lesson here is that when the Bad Guys have twice as many Bazookas as you have AFVs, then you should stay OUT OF BAZOOKA RANGE. Ah, live and learn. -------------------------------------- End Of Report ------------------------------------------------------ Big Red One (Assault Compnay) vs. German
Panzers (12th SS Panzers) - The Hitler Youth Plan: Attack!! Atack!!! Terrain: Sun, Surf and plenty of tanks (mobile bunkers!) What Really Happened: The bunkers were easy prey for the assault teams but the Off shore battery did not have an effect on the tanks... My Flamethrowers finally got into the mix... and we took out a few tanks. but the infantry moved far too slow... may next time I'll double all of them??? Maybe not!! Smoke from the mortars can in handy to keep the long range ROF down...... Leasons Learned: You really have to beat them back since they get last licks... and all they have to do is contest the objectives!!! Players:
The Red One Assault Company (Rich) vs. John Miller (GR)
(German Panzer.) The Table: Lots of woods and hills. The Plan: Stay away from bogging terrain and grab the closest objectives with an assault after pounding the defenders down. The Actual Battle: Completely to plan but too slow in execution. Virtually no damage was done to the defending infantry until it was assaulted. The only problem was the Germans waited one turn too long to begin the assaults and the objectives were removed as fast as they were taken. The American rear guard took a lot of damage but achieved it’s goal. The Big Red One achieved a 4/3 win. Lessons Learned: Read the scenario carefully, illiterates don’t get a handicap. The Players: Lee Sowers - 21st Panzer StuG Batterie vs, Rich's
US Assault Company The Battlefield: Typical NW European terrain; one side of the board was 2/3 Woods with a prominent Difficult Terrain Hill at one end of the Table; the other side of the Board had a Large Farm "Chateau" enclosed by a stone fence and a small village with 6 Farm Buildings separated by a Railroad Embankment bisecting the table into two 3 x 4' sections. Two Objectives were on The Hill, one was in the Woods. The Opposing Forces: 21st Panzer StuG Batterie fielded 5 Platoons; 2 StuG (x2 StuGs in each) + 1 Tiger + 1 Lorraine 150mm SP (3 x 150mm SP Guns) + 1 AA (4x 20mm Quad Armored HT) - a nice compact Armored Force. US Assault Company also fielded 5 Platoons; a swam of Veteran Assault Infantry with a mix of Bazookas and Flamethrowers. The Plans: US Forces deployed first and set up evenly defending the Objectives in The Woods and on The Hill with 2 Platoons each; the 5th Platoon was held in Ambush. Obviously the US planned on digging in and forcing the Krauts to come to them where their Bazookas and Flamethrowers could take on the mostly thin skinned German Panzers. In this game, the 2 StuG Platoons and the AAA Platoon could be eliminated forcing a German Company Motivation check without ever having to face The Tiger whose power was much diminished going against Dug-In & Gone to Ground Veteran Infantry Teams. The 21st Panzer, StuG Batterie is a Firepower Force deigned to Hit & Run (or Ambush) against Armor and stay out of range and pound Infantry with its 105's and 150's. It does not have thick enough Armor to for a stand up fight against enemy tanks, and it doesn't do well in close assaults against Infantry with AT Weapons; especially Bazookas. Based on its strengths and weaknesses The Plan was to ignore the Objectives and Blow Away at least 3 US Platoons to force a Company Check (or series of Company Checks); with 8 Turns in the game and all of that Firepower, this seemed like it was the best plan. The Battle: The Battle started very auspiciously for the Germans. The German Big Guns ranged in on Turn 1 and the rest of the entire company moved to within 16" of The Hill, prime Killing Range, but out of Bazooka Range and a range where the StuGs were impervious to Infantry Fire due to their '2' Front Armor. This forced the US to expose their Ambush on the first Turn and Assault the StuGs. Bad move. Result was one destroyed StuG in exchange for one wiped out US Platoon. One US Platoon down, two to go. And from there things went completely south for the Germans. Counting the Flak Platoon, the Germans were getting 30+ shots (many with a FirePower of 2+ or 3+) at The Hill each Turn, plus the 150mm Batterie was still Ranged In. However it was not until Turn 6 that the Germans finally managed to Break the 2nd American Platoon, which meant that on Turn 7 the Germans had no choice but to Assault. The German's good luck (or lack thereof) continued to hold and the Tiger succumbed to the 1st Bazooka Shot, and it was down hill (pun intended) after that with the entire StuG Batterie being destroyed (failed Company Motivation) for the loss of 2 US Platoons yielding a 4-3 Victory for the US. It wasn't that close. Lessons Learned: The lesson here is interesting. The 21st Panzer fought the Battle correctly for the Company it brought to the fight. The lesson is that they brought the wrong Company to the fight. While some onlookers commented that "you need Infantry", a single German Panzer Grenadier Platoon would have died in the Assault as quickly as the AFVs given the US Automatic Rifles, etc. When you are going to play Armor, play Armor. And there was the mistake. Those very expensive 150mm SP Guns looked so fine on paper, yet produced so very little; in 5 Turns of Fire with 3-4 Stands under the Template each time they managed to Kill a grand total of TWO Teams! Give me a break. But we all know that about Artillery, it's as unreliable as the French chassis they are built on. No, what this unit needed was another 4 StuGs (that's 8 shots Direct Fire; 6 from 105's folks) OR another Tiger for the Close Assault Finale. Live and Learn! Big Red One (Assault Compnay) vs. German
Panzer Grenadiers Plan: Attack!! Atack!!! Terrain: Sun, Surf and plenty of Artillery..... Each Boat Section had a mortar!!! What Really Happened: The first turn I could not land any boats and Allen's artillery did not unpin from the Preliminary Bombardment till turn 7 (with the CiC helping!!!) Took until about that same time to get my Off-Shore Bombardment going (knowing the rules would have helped... Live and learn). There were actually two turns where I left my infanty on the beach.... But I got rid of two of his bunkers and I like using the Assault Boat sections as Pioneers against the barbed-wire. No Company morale checks was cool.... I lost lots of Boat Sections (Platoons) but they keep coming back. If they land and there were some turns were they did not.... But in the end I only contested the closest Objective not controlled it. So Allen won 5-2. As this game was scored only on the achivements (or lack thereof) of the Assaulting Infantry. Leasons Learned: Nothing beats knowing the rules... on first reading it looks like the game goes 12 turns but we found out it stops at the beginning of the 12th turn... Only 11 turns of Play. |
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