Sean and I got another
Flames of War game in before the end of the year! Again, we wanted to something "fun" and decided to revisit the East Front. We didn't want a horde of Strelkovy, and Sean wanted a train, so with that criteria, we got to work! The Udarny are attacking.
Sean elected to start with 2 infantry and Pak 40s on the board with his Tigers in ambush (who rolled For the Fatherland and Rapid Fire).
The board from the Soviet Perspective.
IS-2s rollin' on!
The scouts infiltrate an Udarny... and Sean rolls a 6 to go first!
The Soviet left flank.
ISU-122s advance.
The Pak 40s stay gone to ground for the time being.
Grenadiers take up positions in the ruined train station.
76mm guns walk forward, ready to direct fire any threats.
Strelkovy advances!
IS-2s cross the bridge.
The Udarny fail to pin the Grenadiers, and elect not to assault after all. My dice were horrible and continue to be as the game goes on!
IS-2s nose forward...
When suddenly two tigers fire from the rubble!
On the other flank, the train rumbles on from reserve!
1 IS-2 down and 1 bailed!
Everything opens up on the forward Udarny, tearing them to pieces!
Despite being gutted, they hunker down and survive!
Grenadiers move up to support the Tigers.
The one remaining IS-2 takes a shot and knocks out a Tiger!
The Udarny follow up, and try to catch the other Tiger in the rubble...
But he pushes on, crashing his way out!
The ISU-122s and 76mm guns rip into the train.
The Udarny digs in! Hold!
Udarny on the other flank faces off against the Grenadiers.
Sean gets ALL THREE of his reserves on the top of turn five!
Looted T-70!
The situation is looking a bit grim for the Soviets!
The IS-2s take even more fire!
The commander quits the field!
The bottom of turn five dawns darkly for the Soviets...
As they prepare a wonderful assault against the grenadiers... the flamethrower completely whiffs!
76mm guns, and ISU-122s focus fire on the Hetzers, while other 76mm guns and the 45mm AT gun start whittling away at the Pak 40s.
The soviets launch an assault anyway... Sean has 7 dice at a 4 for defensive fire... but gets five hits. Ouch! No luck!
The left flank is ablaze.
After pinning the Soviets in defensive fire, the Germans launch a followup assault!
It goes back and forth several turns...
With the Soviets eventually "winning".
The Fearless Vet soviet scouts push forward.
The Soviets begin to turn the left flank, knocking out the T-70 and gutting the Hetzers.
The late game situation.
After fire eliminates the 2cm flak battery, Soviet infantry polices the bailed Hetzer. the Germans are now down Hetzers, the train, the T70, and the flak. They are teetering right at half!
The Tiger hounds the remnant of the Udarny on the right.
Focus fire on the Pak 40s!
Bang! The Pak 40s go down!
Soviet Scouts launch an assault on the remnant of the Grenadiers on the right...
And take them down!
The Soviets then launch an assault on the forward Grenadiers- taking them out!
In the end, Sean fails his company morale check for a 5-2 victory to the Soviets. HOWEVER, we played for something like 3.5 hours, and 9 or 10 turns, so in fairness this is a "victory" in name only. The Soviets are down to a handful of men, lost a unit of IS-2s, and are generally pretty well battered.
The result doesn't really matter, the game itself was a blast!
