Flames of war - Late war - Counter attack

Forces 1500

Red Bear Heavy Tankovy (FT)
HQ IS2
3x IS2 
3x IS2

5x T34 (+2x85 upgrade) (CT)

2x Katjuscha

Limited Sturmovik

Grey wolf Wiking (FT)

HQ 

Platoon

Platoon

Sappers (with supply truck)

3x Pak40

3xNebelwerfer

Otto Carius and Albert in Tiger tanks (CV)

2x Flak 8.8 (extra crew)

This game was played as a counter attack with the Soviet force as attacker. The defending SS-wiking place the PaK-40s in Ambush. The Pioneers put a minefield in front of the objective in their own deployment. The Soviet attacker takes the first turn.

Turn 1

The Soviet IS-2 tanks try to keep the distance from the dreadful tigers, but still close enough to threaten them if they should do any mistakes. A Sturmovik arrive, but fail to hit the tiger under the template. A Pioneer-team is killed, and the Pioneer platoon is pinned.

The fearless SS-Pioneers unpins and rush toward the second objective. Otto Carius confidently finds his targets and hit two IS-2 tanks at long range. Both shots finds a weak points in the IS-2 tanks armour, resulting in one destroyed and one bailed tank!

Turn 2

The IS-2 slowly advance and lay down a few shots on the dug in infantry, but with no success. The Katjuschas hit the infantry but only manage to pin them down.

The PaK-40s ambush in the distant field and get some long range shots of the IS-2:s, but all hits are saved by the tanks. Otto and Albert engage more of the IS-2 tanks at long range, but fail to penetrate their thick hide. The Flak 8.8 are busy fending of the Sturmovik and cannot engage the ground targets.

Turn 3
The Soviet tanks push further towards the far objective. One IS-2 manage to hit a infantry team and kill it. Another attempts to hit Albert but fail to find the tiger hiding in the field.

Again the PaKs and the Tigers tries to destroy the IS-2 tanks, but as Maunteuffel mentioned from one of the first engagements with the IS-2 tanks; "the Tiger crews watched their hits bouncing off the tank armour when firing at a distance of 3,000 meters". The Nebelwerfers do however range in on the Katjushas smoke trails and destroy one their launcher vehicles with a counter barrage.

Turn 4

One of the IS-2 finally manage to hit Albert, but the tiger manage to roll a 6 for its save and partially deflects the shot. The following firepower test is a... 1 and the tiger escapes unharmed. The Air support fail to hit any target.

However things are looking worse for the German defenders as the soviet tanks are closing in towards the objective. The Pioneers dig in, but the Tigers once again fail to penetrate the IS-2s.

Turn 5

The Soviet aircraft arrives again but fail do damage the tiger with its rockets. However one of the the flak 8.8s are destroyed in the attack. The Is-2 finds them self lucky and one shot destroy the last 8.8 AA gun.

One of the Pak-40s barley reach the t-34s but its enough to destroy one tank! The Nebelwerfers also prove worthy by destroying the second Katjuscha and force the remaining command team to flee.

Turn 6

The Katjusha command team fails it sole survivor test and is now treated as destroyed! Three IS-2 attempts long range shots at the Pak-40 and scores ridiculous 3 hits. With their breakthrough guns they deny the gun save and destroy all three guns.

The T-43s now claims the objective and the tigers have to move ahead to claim it back as the pinned infantry fails to rally. Another T-34 is destroyed by Alberts tank crew shooting through the small woods.

A brave assault is attempted by the SS infantry, but the IS-2s fends of the assault with exactly 5 lucky hits in defencive fire.

Turn 7

The battle plan has changed as the only remaining Germans now is the Nebelwerfers and the tigers, the IS-2 rush for the other objective. However, the SS company breaks the following turn due to a failed company morale test. 

With a little more lucky dice than the Germans, the Soviets claim the victory by 5-2!

Flames of war - Tankfactory Tournament

Denmark Feb 27th 
Two Swedes (or more specific Scanians) decided to give the Danes a beating in their regular "joint club tournament". Said and done, we packed our stuff and got on the train crossing Broen. Early morning and hungry from the absence of breakfast I rejoiced as soon as the traditional danish breakfast was served (see picture below).

The tournament was played at 1750 pts with lists from the late war books; Regmagen, Nachtjaeger and Berlin. I decided to get things done quickly, either by winning or loosing, so I picked an army, few in numbers from Remagen:

Schwere Jagdpanzer (RV)

• 2x Jagdpanther (HQ)
• 1x Jagdpanther (Combat)
• 2x Wirbelwind
• 3x Königtiger
• Full platoon of Volksturm (RC)

Game 1

The fist game against a (RV) US tank company turned out to be a game of cats and mice. The battlefield provided lots of building to manoeuvre around and one of the turning points turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to outflank the king tigers with a platoon of Pershing tanks. The Pershing failed to destroy any king tiger and the return fire destroyed the Pershing. With only AT10 left its shouldn't have been a problem for the Germans to win without causalities, but all Jagdpanthers were lost either to Stuarts, air or flank attack.

The game ended in my favor 5:2.

Game 2

This was a nice game with a nice table in the Italian landscape. The enemy this time - a Hero Tankovy company witch recklessly charged into death by my 8.8 guns.

At least this is what we both thought... Instead I failed basically all of my firepower test and the T-34s were suddenly right upon me! After losing the Jagdpanthers and the Volksturm there was nothing more to contest the objective.

I lost 3:4.

Game 3

The third game was against a Heavy Tankovy company. I started by destroying the enemy mortars and artillery in a few rounds and then the game was a bit to one sided when the king tigers basically could move around without getting shot. A lucky hit destroyed my one tank platoon Jagdpanther and that also resulted in the only causality (not counting a few Volksturm men...).

Result 5:2.

Game 4

The forth and last game against the British rifles was sadly a bit uninspiring as the table/terrain was not especially appealing nor playable. Also by using the rules for ruins, I fist off had no chance to get rid of the infantry in the ruins and secondly had nowhere to hide from air planes (This due to ruins not counting as building for ranging in aircraft even though they sometimes are much higher). My only strategy was to kill as much as possible before I lose turn six. Said and done, I killed 3 platoons and was just one missed shot from forcing the 4th platoon to take a morale test (and then possibly forcing the whole company to retreat).

The game ended 3:4.

Comments

Anyway its was a fun day and basically as much FoW one can take during one day. Also the main objective was successful - the Swedes took the top positions in the tournament....

And a few pictures from the other games: