AAR: USTDs vs. Panzer Lehr in Surrounded

by Luke Melia 

So Jon and I got a chance to get a little Flames of War Late War game in.  We mentioned in Episode 66 of News From the Front, that we have a bad habit of avoiding certain missions that we do not have a preference for.  This has negatively impacted our knowledge of how to play those particular missions.  So this time, we rolled Surrounded as our mission and because Jon's list is an always attack list he got to be the attacker.

Luke's Tank Destroyer List

2x M-20 CiC 2iC

4x CV M-10

4x CV M-10

1x CV TD Recon Section

4x CT 105mm Howitzers

1x AOP

4x CT Towed TD w/4 Halftracks and 3 Bazookas

1x SP AA Section

Jon's List:

I put my artillery in immediate ambush because I was not sure where Jon was going to deploy.  I really suffer from not having infantry in this list.  I placed the artillery in ambush because I was unsure of which direction he would come from.  The last thing I wanted was to have the artillery facing the wrong direction and to be completely ineffective or worse have it facing the wrong way and to become an easy point for Jon.

Jon lines his forces with the Pumas and Panzers on one end and his half tracks and infantry on the other.  He gets a spearhead move and has the Pumas for recon so basically his entire force gets to get an extra move before the first turn.

Not knowing which objective Jon would go for, I have to spread my forces in between.  The artillery is positioned to keep the Pumas from going too far up the road.  The towed TD's are near that clump of trees and there is a SP TD by each objective.  I placed the recon at the bottom of the following picture to strengthen this area which was my most lightly defended objective.

Jon makes his spearhead then continues to advance. He drops smoke on my most likely place to put my TD's down and pours fire into the artillery.  His halftracks bail my Quad .50 cal SP AA truck and he manages to kill one 105.

In the stormtrooper phase, Jon pushes everything he can forward to limit or remove places for my M-10s to deploy, thus reducing my possible ambush areas.

His crazy panzerfaust MG squad gets out of their halftracks and line up for an assault next turn. 

"I will be revealing all of my TD's"
Now this picture does not show the smoke. We removed it so I could get all of my TD units out on the table.  I face my Towed TD's in the woods, but my halftracks I keep on the backside to face off with Jon's Grenadiers.  My SP AA trucks both bail back in and my artillery unpins!  I am ready to give him a whomping right about now.

My recon races towards the Nebs that are completely undefended.  This should be an easy kill.

I open up on the Grens, bail a halftrack, and kill four out of eight of the infantry.  Jon fails the motivation for the halftracks and they are taken off board.

I manage to do some damage to the Panzers, but not enough for a test.  I do, however, manage to kill his company commander.

Return fire on turn two is ugly.  One entire TD section goes up in flames.

Two more guns bite the dust.

Pumas kill one of the M-10s.

Turn two was rough for me - Jon has killed 5 total M-10's, 1 Towed TD, and my SP AA platoon.

I know my situation is desperate.  I am also feeling like there is no chance for me to win unless I get incredibly lucky.  So, when in that situation what do you do?  GO FOR POINTS!  I move the halftracks to try to take out the infantry.

I am going in for an assault on the Nebs.  This should be an easy point.

Seriously?  I go in for the assault with the M-8 and with RIFLE shots he manages to bail me, I mean kill my M-8 and a jeep.  Fortunately the 2iC gets an assault off and kills 1 Neb.



On turn three, Jon is going for the kill.  He focuses on the Towed TD unit and puts all of his fire into it. Amazingly, the unit stays on the table.

On my turn I focus in on the Pumas to secure my first point.

The 2iC is able to polish off the Nebs.

I have moved my company commander over to the objective.  The towed TD's are hanging on, but just barely.  I take some shots on the Panzers and manage to kill one, but it is not enough to slow Jon down.  Happy with my two points I concede the game giving Jon a 4-3 victory.

It's easy to sit back and say "well if I had done this then I would have done better".  The reality is, if I changed any of my moves or decisions, Jon would have reacted in turn.  I think the problem lies in my list and the mission.  Jon played a solid game and is learning how to deal with the TD threat.  He had a great plan and stuck to that plan giving him a victory.