First FoW battle of the season!

People have returned from holidays at work... and I've succeeded in convincing one to paint more of his Russians for late war, and the other has started Mid-War Brits (MID WAR?! WHY?!!)

So, here I shall share you my latest game and my thoughts -

For this, I brought out a little KG Peiper list:

We were playing a 1780pt game and while in the end it took FAR too long (we're still novice at the rules thing... and thus is took a while), I brought the following to the table:

Command Tiger II
x1 Tiger II
x3 Panther Gs
x4 Panzer IV Js
x2 Sdkfz 251/9  7.5cm
x1 Gepanzertepanzergrenadiers platoon
x1 Sporadic Me-262 support


I haven't played Flames of War since last year, so I was incredibly rusty.

DEPLOYMENT / TURN 1

I wasn't really sure what to do - so I decided to go for the standard military operations tactic - delaying operations on the left flank, and effort on the right with my Tiger IIs and Panthers.

TURN 2

My opponent was attempting a pronged attack approach, so I decided to use the Tiger II's advantage in the open fields facing the T-34/85s. As the T-34 are incapable of penetrating the Tiger II's front armor, I simply held ground and poured shells down range... great effect other killing the platoon commander, and bailing one. The skillful company commander's Tiger II would prove to be the decisive Tiger Ace as the other one ended up being wholely worthless for the rest of the game (missed about 80% of its shots.....). With the commander killed, the Russian T-34s could no longer move - meaning that as long as I stayed hull down and firing, it would be a one-sided fight.

 TURN 3

Opponent continues to advance, and double times his T-34s on my right flank to envelope me. I use my Panzer IV Js to fire back, bailing 3 of the 5. Not very useful, but enough to hold back any further daring attacks on that side. Meanwhile, my Panthers and Tiger IIs combined fire takes out the scary SU-152s at the back, killing 2 of the 3.

TURN 4

The opponent's motor rifle infantry attempt to assault my infantry in the woods, but the sheer amount of MGs as well as MG support from the Sdkfz 251 half tracks simply moved them down. I counter attack, killing all but one team. I try to press the advantage with my Panthers in the center to surround the enemy, but poor shooting bogs down the attack.

At this point we realized that we were shooting on +4s (Veteran), instead of the +3 (Trained) that our armies were rated at. No wonder things were dying so slowly! So we continued playing as if we were all Veteran. Lesson learned!

TURN 5

The Panther's prowling in the town definitely cost me. Not only did the attack bog down, they got surrounded and I lost one Panther to that. Ugh. I got my revenge, but... costly maneuver on my part. The lone SU-152 attempted to flank my Tiger II, and was promptly denied and turned into a flaming hulk.

The T-34s that I ended up ignoring my left cost me as well, destroying my Panzer IV platoon. Here I learned how flimsy these Panzer IVs are! At this point I pretty much realized that the game was lost - there was no way I could defend my objective now, as I have been surrounded.

TURN 6

The opponent has full control of my objectives now, and my Tiger IIs are stuck fighting defenseless T-34s.... who due to poor shooting on my part are STILL alive. Ugh!

At this point in an action of pure spite, I snipe the opponent's command T-34 with my Panther and turn that into a wreck. Take that, dirty Russian!



CONCLUSION

Well, it was a fun game for sure. It did end up taking about 5 hours to full play through due to us not really knowing the mechanics, and while as expected my Me-262 did cause a few frights, it was wholely underwhelming and did no damage. Similarly, I think my opponent's aggressivity paid off as I was still bogged down in the center of the battlefield getting nowhere, and my objective contested.

I think the game in itself is quite interesting. There was a distinct lack of terrain which I felt was rather disappointing, but I also felt that the lack of a certain amount of realism was disappointing. I think that that's really the plague of wargaming - especially when in a "I go, you go" sort of system. I also have to admit I dont like the Flames of War scenarios. It just feels so arbitrary.

My opponent and I agreed that we'll be fighting more 'historical' / 'realistic' scenarios next time around, ie "seize and hold the village" or "fighting retreat". I think it was maybe the terrain that made the game disappointing - there simply wasnt enough of it.

It almost made me question why I painting so much Flames of War and that I should maybe continue working on my10mm Napoleonics, who's "linear" style of battle has a bigger sense of realism. I suppose time will tell, but it certainly did make me think about continuing my 6mm and 10mm napoleonics for precisely that reason.

Can't seem to choose though - the 6mm look great when assembled together in divisions and corps, but I think the 10mm could look just as good.... if only I could bring myself to paint them more.