I had my first game of Flames of War at the club for a very long time. I played against Phil, he took Mid-War Africa Corps whilst I took Mid-War Brits. Both of us took infantry companies.
We played a scenario which neither of us had attempted before which was Attack/Defend. Phil had the middle of the table whilst I had the two outer short edges. I had to capture one of two objectives which were situated within the centre.
Once Phils had deployed his troops (except for one platoon) I deployed my forces and Phil then revealed his last platoon (armoured platoon). All troops started the game dug in and concealed, which given that most of Phils troops were veterans meant that I stood little chance of hitting anything if I was outside 16 inches.
My fist turn entailed me bringing forward all of the infantry on one table edge along with the supporting matildas. My other flank force advanced to take position on the hill providing sight to the enemy armoured cars and artillery. My first turn achieved little more than bailing out one armoured car.
Phil responded and pushed his armour forward against my advancing infantry whilst his armoured cars at the other end attacked my ports on the hill which had failed to retreat in my turn. His aircraft came in an attacked my matildas. I lost one portee and a couple of infantry stands to the armour (the infantry became pinned – a state which they were to suffer from for the majority of the remaining game). My dug in Indians lost one section to the anti-tank fire. The aircraft achieved very little.
Turn 2
My second turn saw the armoured cars succumb to my portees which did managed to ‘tip-and-run’ back behind the hill this time. My machine gunners advanced towards the enemy lines whilst on the other flank my infantry continued to advance with the Matildas. We removed a couple of light guns and pinned an infantry platoon.
Phil again brought in his aircraft and this time tackled the portees., but to little effect. His armour continued their advance on my left force, again hitting my infantry and attempting to address the matildas (to no avail). His armoured cars made a mad dash towards my mortars but failed to achieve much against the dug-in troops. He had now brought up his mobile artillery to help out. His dug-in infantry opened up on my advancing infantry platoon and removed a couple of bases and pinned them.
Turn 3
My Matildas and infantry unpinned and continued their advance towards the nearest dug-in enemy infantry. My artillery and mortars offered support and a couple more bases were removed keeping the unit pinned. My portees meanwhile sought out Phils mobile artillery and managed to double bail one of them which then failed its moral test and was destroyed.
On Phils turn he brought his artillery to bear and destroyed one of the Matildas. His armour continued to advance around my infantry whilst targeting the other Matildas but achieved little. His armoured cars rushed back to support his ailing infantry before I over-ran them.
Turn 4
I threw my Matildas and infantry platoon forward to assault the platoon holding the nearest objective. My other infantry finally unpinned and attempted to assault the German armour around them, but this time failed their moral test to assault.
My machine guns, mortars, and artillery lay in fire to support keeping the enemy around the objective pinned. My Matildas went in and removed some infantry but unfortunately they passed their moral and assaulted back and succeeded in removing a second tank. I then failed my moral test to assault back, then again failed the moral test to keep the tank in the game. My infantry quickly assaulted and took the position. Now all they had to do was hold onto it for one turn….
Phil threw everything at the infantry holding the objective who valiantly tried to hold. Most of his shots missed so he didn’t pin the unit. Eventually he threw in the armoured cars for the assault. The combat went back and forward with him removing a base at a time. Unfortunately I was unable to successfully his and damage his cars and failed a moral test (even with British Bulldog and a C-In-C) and I was beaten off. Given that I didn’t have any further troops which could effectively try and take either of the objectives Phil was the winner,
All in all a great game. There were a lot of rules which I had forgotten, (and there are still rules which wind me up) but it was great seeing the troops back on the table after so long. In our club there has been a real dearth of 15mm WW2 games over the last year, some do get okayed occasionally but nothing to the extent they were a few years ago. Maybe the campaigns proposed later in the year will change this.