Wally came over to get some practice with his latest Flames of War US tournament list.
We've been playing early in the morning on the weekend, so I dug the sleepers out of my eyes, poured some coffee and got started. I wanted to get my Jagdpanthers - that I painted in 2013 - on the table some more, so I dug them out.
I figured that Wally could see how his list does against some pretty heavy stuff he may have to attack. We are playing a 2000(ish) point game and rolled up Hasty Attack on the mission list.
Jon's German Tanks
Wally's US Infantry
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| I spread out the bottom Volksgrenadiers too much and later corrected it. D'oh! |
This board had some terrain, but in looking back, I think it favored my range and huge guns. Wally set up his guys as best he could and prepared for attack. In the picture above, his objective is slightly off camera to the left.
I started with the two platoons of Volkssturm on the board (as required), plus both Jadgpanther platoons, with one in Immediate Ambush.
Wally started with his platoon of tanks, 105s, AAA and two platoons of Pioneers.
Jagdpanthers back up a platoon of Volksgrenadiers on the center objective.
Jagdpanthers appear from Immediate Ambush to cover the second objective that already has a platoon of Volkssturm.
The Jagdpanthers have some pretty good shooting lanes, making this a difficult mission for Wally. Next time, I'll do some more Tarzan-like terrain.
Wally starts with a platoon of Pioneers on his objective. He will also place some barbed wire here to protect the objective.
The US armor is prepared to attack! The tanks advance through the woods, careful to avoid the Jagdpanthers.
The Me262 has already shot down the US AOP, crippling the artillery. Here, the plane goes after the US tanks, but to no effect.
Wally placed barbed wire in No Man's Land to slow down my advance. More on this in the AAR.
The US tanks are prepared to advance out of the woods, but have not summoned up the courage just yet.
Wally drops smoke to limit the effectiveness of the Jadgpanthers while he moves up.
We decide that the plane can barely reach the tanks and ends up killing one.
Wally gets his Sherman 105s on and they cautiously advance behind the woods to reinforce the other armor. More US infantry also arrives and starts to head toward the objectives.
Jagdpanthers come out to shoot at 105s and infantry.
The US gets more reserves in MG toting jeeps!
Under cover of smoke, the US pioneers advance toward their own barbed wire.
Here comes the US infantry!
The Shermans spring out and fire direct smoke. Somehow, Wally missed his smoke bombardment this turn, which is not good for him.
German reinforcements start to arrive, with the Moebelwagens racing on to shoot up some infantry.
The Jagdpanthers knock out the US armor. Missing the smoke bombardment has been costly.
Ouch!
The German 105s make it on the board, just to get shot to heck by the Recce Jeeps. This platoon is barely holding on.
The US infantry tries to assault, but is pushed back in defensive fire...barely.
The Germans shoot up the infantry and they quit the field. 6-1 for the Krauts.
At this point, we call it because we have reached three hours of play. Wally lost two platoons and the Germans lost none. Though the terrain and mission favored the Germans, we talked after the game about some of the choices that were made during the game and in list construction.
The placement of the barbed wire was a little weird, in that it basically held up the US and not the Germans. I was never moving those Volksgrenadiers at all -- Reluctant Conscript infantry under 20 stands just can't move in this game. The US should have basically run across the field as quickly as possible, as the amount of MG fire in the German list was pretty low. The only way the Jagdpanthers were going down was to assaulting bazookas.
From a list perspective, we thought that four platoons of infantry was a bit excessive. The Sherman 105s were not effective and I advised Wally to perhaps find a way to drop some stuff and make a second effective tank unit rather than the have the 105s. This is basically a sitzkreig list, so I don't think that the Sherman 105s and the Recce are particularly useful, while another platoon with Easy 8s probably would be.
As for my list? Well, it won, but I think it could have gone south really quickly had I not shot down the AOP on Turn 1 and if the infantry had moved up really fast. This is NOT a German tournament list, for sure.
We had a great time and will queue up another game soon!
