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I paint small metal and plastic figures and rarely get to play with them. But that is fine with me.

31 July 2013

Operation Overlord AAR #2


Game #2 was with lists made from the new books, again, 1780 points limit.

Again, I experimented with something new to me - a 15th Rifle Company Confident Trained list. This was mainly due to the fact though, that I managed to fit 12 (!!!) platoons in 1780! Crazy stuff and something I'm sorely tempted to try out in a tournament. (Though I'll have to up my play-speed as it takes a lot longer to move about that many platoons than my typical 6 or 8 platoon list.)

Rifle HQ with Bagpiper
3 full Platoons of Rifle/MG infantry,
Warrior teams Stan Hollis and Capt. Treleavan (Effectively making two of the platoons roll Motivation tests as fearless.)
2 Universal Carrier patrols with a PIAT launcher each
4 6pdr guns with Loyd Carriers to cart them around
Platoon of 4 3" mortars
Full HMG platoon
Platoon of 4 Heavy 4.2" Mortars
Platoon of 3 x Sherman tanks + 1 x Firefly
4 M10's with 17pdrs
25pdr Artillery battery with 4 guns

This time Densmol ran a Gerpanzert Grenadier infantry list (I think....). Confident Veteran Germans. (Have to say, it's nice having a pal who having got into this, decided straight away to choose the opposite faction to my own and so we have no blue-on-blue games. There'll be a small campaign in the future I think.)
He ran:
HQ SMG teams with extra Panzerschreck team
Full MG infantry Platoon in 1/2 tracks with SMG and Panzerfaust for Platoon Commander
Full MG infantry Platoon, NO 1/2 tracks with SMG and Panzerfaust for Platoon Commander
2 x sd Kfz 251/9 - 1/2 tracks with anti-tank guns
Platoon of 2 Pak40 AT guns
2 dreaded Tiger 1's
Platoon of 3 Jagdpanzers
Battery of 3 Hummel self propelled artillery with a Panzer III observer tank

The game was started late and we ended up playing until 2:30am, stopping then cos we both had to be at work at 8am.....
 We rolled for mission and got Encounter with Densmol as the attacker. It ended up a 1 - 1 draw and even then could have gone either way, though Densmol's Tigers were still about at the end and my own heavy AT options were dwindling fast.....
 [I'll not write a turn-by-turn  account as we were well into the 10th or 11th turn prior to calling it quits, so here are some pictures and captions to hopefully allow you to get the idea of how it all went. Excuse the brown hills, they are not chocolate as my 8-year-old had hoped and are since been appropriately and crappily flocked green.]

Set up looked like this:


(Densmol wondering how he's going to get through 12 platoons of Brits.)

 I started off with Shermans on the left with the Capt.Treleavan and the 1st Infantry Platoon camped on the objective in the woods (Behind the large chocolate hill.). 25pdr battery left of middle behind the wheat field and Heavy Mortars in center behind a wall. Stan Hollis and 2nd Infantry Platoon camped about the right most objective with 1 patrol of Universal Carriers in there somewhere.

Densmol had a platoon of infantry in the wheatfield opposite my shermans with the OP PanzerIII, Pak40 AT guns in the other wheatfield and Hummels in his left most corner hidden behind trees.

Shermans moving out



German Infantry dash to take advantage of the buildings on their right flank the better to protect against the advancing Shermans!
 
Sneaky carriers have a cunning plan....

That apparently wasn't so cunning afterall.


What else can we pop?



Not the reserve roll I was looking for....

Dear Hummels, you should not be able to shoot so damn far. Love and kisses, The Shermans.

Shermans retaliate and blast the Hummels' Observer PanzerIII.

With their observer dead, the Hummels decide to try direct fire at my poor infantry instead.

I needed a six.... Just one stinking 6! :(

I finally get reserves! M10's on the wrong end of the table..... *facepalm*



6pdrs though, are a timely arrival indeed.
My 3rd Infantry Platoon trod up the field in the face of scary big guns... Jagdpanzer and a Hummel though are dead!

Captain Treleavan orders a push towards the left side objective!


Jagdpanzers dead or run away. HMG's arrive and pour fire into the Hummels.

Getting nasty on the left flank. If you look really hard, close to Densmol's  left leg, bloody Tigers.....

Mortars reinforce the left flank and start laying down pinning fire and smoke to protect the infantry.

Right flank is taken, with the 2nd Carrier patrol motoring up to take on those pesky 1/2tracks stuffed full of more stinking German MG teams!
And...... it's 2:30am. Stupid idea to play such a big game on a work night. Fun though. :)


11 comments:

  1. Smashing writeup - one day I want to get into all this, and it's the photo'd batreps like this that make me want to put my 28mm on hold...

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  2. Good fun stuff!

    Would the Carriers have had much of a chance against the half-tracked MGs?

    I'm still wondering whether to roll with a carrier patrol. Your minis really do look absolutely smashing though!

    BTW: I've another Flames post coming up over the next couple of days which I think you'll like.

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  3. @Col. Scipio - Heh, I'll snare you into this 15mm hell. Hopefully my next batrep will look prettier too. Pacificon is next month and I'm hoping to have at least 3 or 4 practice games beforehand.

    @Admiral Drax - Thanks! Nah, to be honest, the 1/2 tracks were the only target they could have hurt at all in that area, and then it would be a scant chance in all reality. UC patrols though mate are amazing - stick them all with .50cals and you can really mess up people's plans.

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  4. At the moment (from the PDF list) I can only outfit a carrier patrol (at cost) with a max of +1 normal MG, +1 .50cal, and +1 PIAT.

    I'm actually thinking of taking an Armoured Car Platoon, who - for only 10pts more - have five anti-tank shots and the 'Devil's Own' special rule jut in case. More importantly I've always loved the look of armoured cars!

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  6. Hrm.... You really need to invest a couple bucks into a book's worth of lists on Easy Army mate (Market Garden would be my first choice). Seriously, they offer SO MANY more options for list building.

    Even UC's with extra MG's all round are worth it if only to try to get that cheeky pin.

    AC's are fun no doubt. Am currently slowly collecting Humbers for a platoon in my Canadian rifles list.

    Thing is, Armoured cars are wheeled, so cool if they are on roads, but only moving 4" a turn if you happen to have them in slow going terrain or boards. Careful with that. But ya, love the look of armoured cars too.

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  7. Fair point - thanks for the reminder!

    As luck would have it, I made a nice little bit of capital on the sale of the Tau lots, so top of the list is the 'Overlord' book. YAY!

    Next on the list? Hmmm...I'm really covetous of a cheeky little 3" mortar platoon, which leaves me enough money for just about one other small purchase - maybe a platoon of UCs; maybe a brace of armoured cars...I'll happily take your thoughts: if you had money enough for just ONE blister pack, would would it be...?

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  8. If it's just the one....?

    You don't have any Recce options yet, right? If so, I'd first go for the carriers. (When modeling them, see if you have a spare PIAT trooper about so you can show the PIAT option if your local group are very WYSIWYG.) They also come 3 to a pack which is a full Patrol, so no extra purchases needed. :)

    Otherwise, Mortars would be my second choice. At both 2 or 4 team platoon size, they are cheap pointswise and great for dropping smoke to screen your force's advance or to drop a cheeky template on dug in infantry for the pin.

    Armoured cars typically come one to a pack depending which you want. So they are best left for when you have enough mullah to get 'em all at the same time.

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  9. Thanks for the tips - we'll see what the gods decide.

    HOWEVER...I've just hit a minor stumbling block: I just realised (through a video review and the realisation that my alternative Easyarmy list was in fact based on Market Garden and not on Overlord) that 11AD is now no longer rated Veteran!

    Whilst I've grown to enjoy the 11th, I have to say I find this a little disheartening: after years of playing Imperial Guard, my hope with Flames has really been to play a rather more 'elite' force...rats!

    Hmm...we'll see...

    On the plus side, at least it gives me even more reasons to buy 'Overlord', eh?

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  10. Hummmm. Epic......

    The scale is appealling.

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  11. Part of the reason why I like it.

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