Taking Hill 112

Friday night Densmol came over so we could get a game of Flames of War before the deadline for results submission for the final turn of Cameron's Caen Firestorm campaign, umm, today as a matter of fact.

We played to 1400 points, with me playing the valiant 51st Highlander Infantry Division and Densmol busting out some SS Panthers lead by the deadly zombie (See comments below for a description of why he's a zombie) Ritterkreuzträger SS-Oberscharführer Ernst Barkmann. I don't know if he was around Caen during the Normandy campaign, but it certainly made for some fun gaming with him on the board.

My Scots were as follows:

Reluctant Veteran rating
1iC + 2iC (Bagpiper, also somewhat of a zombie due to his special "Warrior Save" of a 5+)

2x full Platoons of infantry with all the trimmings
1x Platoon of 4x 6-Pounder AT guns
1x Platoon of Universal Carriers
1x Platoon of 4x Heavy Mortars

Confident Veteran rating
1x Platoon of 2x Sherman tanks and 1x Firefly

Confident Trained rating
1x Platoon of 2x Churchill Crocodiles
1x Platoon of 4x M10 3" Self Propelled AT Guns

Firestorm Troops
Confident Trained rating
1x  full platoon of infantry (With Sticky Bombs)
Limited Typhoon air support

Densmol's list was a lot more simple

All Confident Veteran rating (I think)
1iC Panzer Ace in a Panzer IV H
Barkmann in a Panther tank with his "workshop"
2x Platoons of 3x Panthers tank
1x Flak36 8.8" Gun (With extra crew = 3 shots a turn!)
1x Platoon of 3x Nebelwerfers of one flavour or another.

[Densmol didn't take the listed Firestorm troops and instead opted to add extra points allowance to his total, though I haven't the foggiest what those points equated to.]

Our mission per Cameron's briefing was Cauldron. We'd not played this one before, ever, so it was a nice surprise. With random placement of my units, it ended up being a little frustrating, but nothing that wasn't overcome and my plan adjusted accordingly. Defending Panther tanks are usually in trouble - not this game though as they performed admirably in my opinion. We both had not played for yonks, so lots of mistakes were made and rules forgotten - but that just made the evening all the more fun!

On to the pictures of the evening with some captions to summarise events. Needless to say, the valiant Scottish took the day and the vile SS were sent scampering back to their pits of hell. After around 9 turns, I ended up the victor, 4 points to Densmol's 3.

On the way to Hill 112, the German forces wait in this heavily bombed out farm area to keep the Commonwealth troops from making it to the hill, thus denying the Germans a perfect place to drop artillery bombardments upon Allied forces at Caen. My troops were spread out with majority in the near areas of this picture and my poor Crocodiles by themselves at the opposite end - they resolved to be a distraction from my main push.

German 1st turn saw little happen, whilst my own had my infantry advance to the edge of the ruins and shermans to the crest of the hill. They took shots at the German 1iC and brew him up!

The Allied Typhoon airpower was called in on numerous occasions, but proved quite flaccid, managing to only bail one tank all bloody game. Bah.

Panthers MG the heck out of the poor infantry, scoring 7 hits!

Here is what I rolled for saves. 3x 6's and 4x1's!!! Made sense that the front "rank" who made it to the safety of the ruins survived, but those poor sods following up were definitely in the wrong place out in the open. After this bout of shooting, this platoon failed to unpin for the rest of the game! >_<

Bit of maneuvering by all parties. Crocodiles fencing with the far Panthers platoon and  I finally get reserves in the form of my 2nd infantry platoon!

Unfortunately Densmol also gets reserves and more Panthers arrive! Those Shermans are in for it.... If they could only hit. Miraculously, not one shot hit it's mark and the Shermans live for at least another turn. 

Slow Churchill Crocodiles are eventually out maneuvered and one is brewed up by a powerful Panther shot.

Meanwhile, Barkmann starts pouring fire into the Heavy Mortars, destroying one.

The 2nd Panther platoon moves in for the kill, determined that they won't miss a second time.

But they in turn are targeted as the M10 tank destroyers arrive!

(Sideways picture that won't orient, don't get a crick in your neck!) M10's manage to kill two Panthers and bail the third.

But in turn are hammered by a Nebelwerfer bombardment. Thankfully, only one is destroyed! (Nebs are in the picture, but out of focus, back right.)

Attempting to rush the 88's position, the 2nd infantry are caught in the open and Barkmann makes them pay! 

He then assualts, but is pushed back by the stubborn Scots and the assault is at an impasse. Unfortunately, this platoon also fails to unpin for the rest of the game. This push has stalled, for now.

My (Firestorm troops) 3rd infantry platoon arrives, maybe they'll pick up the slack?

(Another pic that wouldn't orient properly. Apologies) The far Panthers take out the remaining Crocodile, then move over to take out my Shermans, which they do, easily. Meanwhile, my M10's turn their guns on the Nebelwerfers and take them all out!

It seems that my push on the left hand objective is done!?

The punishment for killing Nebelwerfers is apparently Panthers to the face and so the M10's pay the price.

The Heavy Mortars like the air support fail to kill anything all game. Good lord.... 

Barkman is killed by the Crocs in a prior turn, this one is the zombie Barkmann as Densmol rolled to have him come back per his special rules. Funnily enough, Zombie Barkmann looks no different from his regular version. :)

In a shock development, The 2iC who up until now had been hiding in some trees, decided that it was nigh time that he and his bagpipes charge out from the trees and assault the 88's position, single-handedly killing the gun crew and it's officers!

When it comes to my final turn, there's no Germans within 4" of  the objective and I win!

I got a little painting done this week as well. The first of my Soviets, my Lieutenant is done! The eyes were an absolute nightmare to get done, needing 4 tries before I was too fed up to try again. It'll do for gaming....

Plastic Winter Soviet from Warlord. Nice sculpts with some cool character. I like how he's holding his right-hand glove and manly moustache!

No idea how this pic is so out of focus? Looked fine on the phone last night. Not sold on the snow effect, done by Army Painter and seems more like sand than "snow". Will stick with it though as I just want to get these done. 

Lastly, (Long post eh?) I have set up a small 3x3' table for me and my son to play our first game of Frostgrave this evening! He's excited and so am I. Will maybe get some pics and a writeup posted depending on how it goes.

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with it!

Firestorm Caen: Turn 1

As mentioned maybe 2 or 7 times already in previous posts, Cameron at the Rust and the City blog is running an online Flames of War Firestorm Caen campaign. Densmol and I decided to get in on the action and got our first game underway this week.

It's D-Day and the allies are amassing off the French coast to push the hated German invaders back up into Northern Europe. The Canadian assault forces were to attack Juno beach in an effort to create a beachhead for the remainder of their assets to come ashore and fortify gains made that day.

Densmol took a German Infantry company and I a 3rd Canadian Assault Infantry Company, respective lists were taken from the Overlord and Atlantik Wall books to keep in theme. Neither of us own any beach terrain, nor fortifications, so we played the alternate mission (Fighting Withdrawal). I arranged the terrain on the board to loosely simulate the type of features that the Canadian forces would have had to cross right as they got off the beach and into the very beginning of French countryside and used this 1944 aerial photo as reference.

The area within the red box  was my inspiration for scenery placement. I just added the tree stands to make it so my PBI had "some" cover to hide behind as they advanced.

The forces were as follows:

Me

3rd Canadian Assault Company - Confident Trained

1 & 2iC (Plus Jeep that didn't feature all game)
Sniper
2x Full Infatry Platoons
4-stand 3" Mortar Platoon
Independent Sherman Tank platoon (3 regular shermans)
Breaching Group (Regular sherman, 2x sherman crab flail tanks & 2x Churchill AVsRE)
2x Crocodile Flame tanks
Recce Armoured Car platoon (3 Humber III's and 2 Humber LRC's)
I also had Medium Naval artillery with an AOP observer.

My Firestorm troops were a 3rd Infantry platoon and a 2nd Sherman tank platoon, though this one had a Firefly and 2 regular shermans.

Densmol

some sort of German Panzergrenadier Company - Confident Veteran

1 & 2iC with Kfz 251 half-tracks
2x Full Infantry Platoons with Kfz halftracks
4x Gun 15cm artillery
3x Nebelwerfer rocket artillery stands
2x Flak 88 AA guns
3x Panzer IV tanks
3x Luchs Recce tanks

 Densmol's Firestorm troops were a small 5-stand platoon of Confident Trained Infantry and a Pak40 AT Gun.

Per the scenario instructions, we played the Fighting Withdrawal mission with my Canadians as attackers. After all the Objectives were placed, these were our deployments:

A view pre-turn 1 from Densmol's side of the table.

Firestorm German infantry and AT gun, supported by Veteran 88 and Luch tanks.

Frightening 15cm German artillery.

The forces on the Canadian right flank

And the Canadian left flank looked remarkably similar, give or take a longer barrel.

Recce moves saw my Humbers darting up the furthest left flank to hide behind a bridge and Densmol's Luchs shifting more toward the center of the german deployment. (No arrow graphics for the Luchs move, I got fed up of messing with photos really quick.)

Turn One sees the shermans on the left moving up, leaving their Firefly behind so it can take advantage of some Semi-Indirect firing. This saw me roll a sweet double 6's to hit as my first dice of the game! Swiftly followed by double ones for firepower rolls....  *facepalm* Still, the only panzer iv visible has it's crew run off, too sensible to stick around for another 17 pounder gun shot. first blood to the good guys!

Densmol, not impressed at all having lost a tank already.

 Canadian center moves up, Breaching Group sherman tanks shoot at the other two Panzer iv's and miss all shots. Firestorm infantry in support. Crocodiles trundle forward through the woods without any mechanical issues.

Right most Sherman platoon Machineguns the German Firstorm infantry and kill one stand, but get the pin. Rightmost infantry platoon moves up in support.

Naval bombardment drops on the redeployed Luchs in the center and take out a tank!

Humbers Unleash a whole mess of shots at the Dug In and Gone to Ground artillery and.... miss every shot! The Canadian mortars though manage to pin the scary big guns. (Also, though not pictured, my sniper plops down opposite the 15cm's and fails to hit. This becomes a pattern.)

In German Turn One, the 15cm Artillery and Firestorm Infantry unpin. Then the remaining two Panzer iv's move to get clear shots and pop both Sherman Crab flail tanks.

The 15cm artillery drop a bombardment onto the 3 remaining Breaching group tanks, but only manage to bail a singe AVsRE!

The two German 88 guns take some tricky shots at the right most Sherman platoon, blow up two and bail the third! For some reason, the crew of the third feel it's a better idea to stay and fight than to run away...

 

The Luchs move over to help out the 15cm artillery and shoot at the Canadian armoured Cars, but fail to damage. 

After this the German tanks all make stormtrooper moves to get out of sight or get better shots for the following turn.

Turn Two opens with some lovely shooting by the sherman platoon who take out a second Luch. The third decides it would be safer to leave the field altogether and so the Canadians score a point.

Right of center, the Crocodiles are within flame range of the center german infantry who are holed up in the house and also the Firestorm infantry in the right most hedge. They unleash their terrible flamethrowers and kill three infantry in the building and two in the field.

The AVsRE fire their very short range Petard Mortars at the same building and kill another of the infantry stands forcing a morale check.... But the German 1iC is lurking behind the building and reminds them they have to stand firm!

(Some dramatic flame effects for those petard shots!)

 

The Armoured Cars once again open up on the big guns and this time do kill something, but it's not the guns, merely their platoon commander. The sniper again fails to hit.

On the right flank, the infantry assault the lone poor German artillery observer, in the hopes of drawing in the enemy Firestorm infantry. It works, but not nearly well enough as two German stands of infantry survive which means the platoon is at half strength, no need for a morale check yet.

German Turn Two and Densmol drops his ambush! His second Infantry platoon was hiding behind the hedges the whole time! (And in their half tracks too no less - not looking good for my right flank...)

The not-in-picture Nebelwerfer rockets barrage my very exposed rightmost infantry, killing two stands and pinning the platoon. The Newly arrived Panzergrenadiers in half-tracks first machinegun, then assault my poor infantry, making short work of them and the few survivors run foro their lives.

Followed by the final sherman on that flank getting blown to pieces by more 88 fire. My right flank is gone and the Panzergrenadiers are on the prowl. I'm now two platoons down and losing.

Panzer iv's line up some easy shots on the Breaching Group, but both miss! At the same time, the 15cm guns (Who couldn't unpin last turn.) get two cheeky direct shots off at the left flank sherman tanks and pop them both!

The German tanks Stormtrooper back out of Petard range and also of the Piat team in the ruins, whilst the sherman tanks at top left snap, crackle and pop with exploding ammunition.

Canadian turn Three. Notes and pictures get a little spotty from here as it was getting muy late and the wine had been flowing a bit freely. The Firefly once again uses some long range shots and manages to destroy a Panzer iv! Bloody last one sticks around though, again, the German 1iC reminding them of their duty.

The Firefly who could. Also on the left, my #1 infantry platoon, slowly making their way up to try to tackle the 15cm guns and then on to tackle the left most objective.

The mortar platoon realising it's in a rather vulnerable position, shuffles about so all teams can line up some direct shots at the Panzergrenadiers in half-tracks. 6 shots fire and!!!! Nothing. O dear. Meanwhile, the AOP calls in another bombardment and actually hits the German artillery, but only manages to kill their Staff team!

An overview of the turn.

German Turn Three sees Densmol remove the last Panzer iv under the strategic withdrawal rules. Damnit, I was ready to assault that tank in my turn as well! His artillery once again do not unpin. The halftracks trundle over unimpeded and machingun my poor mortars to death as expected. Now they are in my backfield.

Densmol's defense is looking good from here.

Canadian Turn Four and my Armoured Cars ONCE AGAIN open up on the artillery killing a single gun. (Densmol has rolled about 7 or 8 fives and sixes for saves on these big buggers. They should have dies two turns ago! The sniper tries to make himself useful and finally take out an artillery team from the bridge - hits (!) and then fails his fire power roll... Worst unit ever.

The now flamethrower-less Crocodiles manage to shoot and kill the Firestorm Pak40 and also blow up one of the half-tracks, killing the infantry inside.

German Turn Four starts with Densmol withdrawing the a required platoon and chooses the infantry in the central building. Then the 15cm guns decide they will stay pinned! The Nebelwerfer rockets bombard my central Firestorm infantry platoon and kill a stand, then the half-tracks move in and Machinegun two more. A 88 AA gun shoots and blows up both AVsRE Churchills and force the platoon commander regular sherman to flee the field of battle.

I'm now four platoons down and have to make a Company Morale test. I roll a one... Thankfully Assault Companies get a re-roll so I do and roll.... a three. 5-2 win for the Germans.

So Densmol's holding action allowed the remaining German troops who were manning the defenses at Juno Beach to get back and regroup safely and perhaps buy enough time for a counter attack whilst the Canadians get themselves reorganised.

It was a fun game on a very open table terrain-wise, though I felt it kept in theme because of this and so didn't mind the hard slog my poor bloody infantry had to get at those German positions. Saying all this though, it went on far longer than it should have due to us being rather rusty on rules after not playing for 2-3 months and we didn't end up finishing until almost 1:30am. ~_~

Round 2 rules of the campaign should be up tomorrow, so we'll try to get that in soon.