Flames of War- Free for All

Our wargaming club a school fought out a Flames of War scenario.  It was our first go at actually playing with forces broken into points and a clear scenario.  Our game was to last up to six turns unless the victory conditions were met before that.

An overview of the table.

A closeup of the table center

The Americans won the die roll and were to be the attackers.  Objective markers were placed on the enemy's side and the platoons were deployed.  The Americans were heavy in armor and had some veteran paratroopers.  The Germans only had three Stugs, but their infantry was all veteran and had anti-tank guns and veteran infantry.

On turn one, the Americans advanced aggressively across the table.  These were commanded by our  younger players, less experienced players.  Their youthful boldness would prove to be a problem.

The American side.  A German objective can be seen in the middle right of the picture.

The German side.  The two American objectives can be seen in the upper right of the picture.

On turn two things started to pop, literally.  An American tank platoon came down a road and into the open hoping to take out the anti-tank guns.  This was not successful.  In the German half of the turn, the guns destroyed on Sherman and bailed another.  To the left of this, the American command tanks came into range of the Stug platoon.  The U.S. shots bounced harmlessly off of the German armor, but the 2IC tank was destroyed by return fire.  Additionally, the second American tank platoon had two of three tanks get bogged down trying to cross a hedgerow.  This hasn't been a good start.

How things stood after turn two.

On turn three, the more experienced German commanders seized the initiative by advancing one infantry platoon through some woods to get to an objective and sending the other to engage the marooned Shermans hung up on the hedgerow.  The Americans were able to take out an anti-tank gun, but that was about it..

Turn three.  The Stugs get into the flank of the command tanks.

On turn four things really went the Germans' way.  One infantry platoon was close to reaching an objective marker and another U.S. tank was taken out by panzer schrecks.  Only an incredible die roll (two sixes) saved an American tank from a flurry of fire.  But the command section had to test morale and failed.  One American unit was out of the fight.

German infantry takes out a tank.

Another German platoon threatens an objective marker.

Turn five was dramatic.  The Americans were able to move a lone tank, supported by the paratroopers, towards the threatened objective.  The tank sprayed the Germans with machine gun fire and scored enough hits to pin them.  This followed up by an assault by the paratroopers.  The bloody hand-to-hand combat saw the German platoon destroyed and the American one forced to break off.  But the tank rested squarely on the endangered marker.

Turn six saw the game come to an end.  As the desperate struggle for one objective came to a conclusion, the Stug platoon was able to advance unmolested onto the other.  There was nobody left on the American side to stop them.  The Germans had scored a 5-2 victory.  More importantly, everyone had a great time.  We were finished within two hours.

It was our first real attempt at using the assault rules.  I am sure we made some mistakes, but we were close enough that it seemed to work out as it should have.