Chain of Command Normandy:15mm

Played a game of Chain of Command using my 15mm infantry that I finished recently.  To try and tie it into the Rust and the City Campaign we said a platoon of US Airborne had missed the DZ on D-Day and was now operating in the British Sector. Their objective was to capture a small hamlet with the support of a platoon of British Tanks. Defending the area was a platoon of panzergrenadiers and the infamous Michael Wittman in a Tiger.

***Sorry for the blurry pictures!

The sleepy French countryside. The allied objective is to take the beige house in the center of the village.  

After the Patrol Phase the Allies have jump off points by the ruined house on the left, field on the right and by the far right copse of trees. The germans have their HQ house, and the two opel trucks. Allies begin by placing a squad on the left and moving a tank onto the board. 

The Germans place a squad on the edge of the village in a fence field. While the allies bring on another Sherman. The driver of the left Sherman was sick during training and careens towards the hedge but not the opening (I didn't really understand tank movement when I gave him an order)  

Both sides are on overwatch waiting to open up. 

But the Germans are caught off guard when a Paratrooper section appears on their flank and lays down withering hail of fire. The Sherman  adds to the suppression with  a long range shot.

In response Wittman appears in the village and at the extreme range ricochets a shot off the Sherman (wew lucky!)  

The Sherman decides not to stick around and moves out of Wittman's line of sight, together over a couple turns of fire the Panzergrenadier section is pushed to breaking with a loss of a senior and junior leader.  

Wittman standing guard:
Despite firing almost every turn he never managed to penetrate a sherman, perhaps the Resistance has infiltrated the munitions factory?  

On a double phase the Allies rush the German jump off point and shut it down. While a second Grenadier squad deploys in  the village behind a house to try and cover the retreat of the remnants of the first section.   

The Allies deploy a brave firefly to trade shots with Wittman, to little effect.

Eventually the Firefly manages to scare Wittman into backing off the table and back into reserve. With the germans morale in bad condition after the loss of the section and jump off point we decided to call the game. Wittman will continue to pull back and maybe talk to the logistics officer about getting some ammo that actually works.  

US Paras and German Grenadiers

I finished painting and based up the infantry from the Open Fire box set. With a recent interest in Chain of Command at the club I decided to go with individual basing (using the now discontinued Canadian Penny). I hope that Chain of Command in 15mm will allow me to use all my terrain and vehicles from Flames of War and provide for more realistic engagement ranges.  I'm realizing  I missed painting the edge of the bases so I guess I am not quite done yet....

US 82nd Airborne: Base Platoon.  I'm short one loader for one MG team
 

Squad 1

Squad 2

Bazooka Team

Lt and Platoon Sergeant 

Close up of Rifelmen with 50mm Mortar in the background 

German PanzerGrenadier Platoon

Squad 1

Squad 2

Squad 3

Close up MG team

 

15mm Battlefront German Infantry from Open Fire

I painted up the German infantry from Open Fire over the summer and am just now getting around to posting the pictures I took.  My plan is to individually base them on pennies for playing games like Chain of Command or Battlegroup.  Originally I was hoping to somehow be able to magnetize them Flames of War bases so I could go back and forth but that looked like it was going to be far more work than just painting up some more minis.

My painting is very basic, but it does allow me to paint things quickly when I actually sit down to it.  Maybe one day I'll learn how to highlight....

Gottacon Flames of War Tournament AAR: Day 1

The weekend of February 28th I played in my first real Flames of War Tournament.  It was 1750 points Late War, with lists restricted to the Normandy, Eastern Front, and Italy Compilations.  This meant few big cats and less high AT allies.  We had ten players come out which was a bit lower than what was expected.  But major Warhammer, Warmachine, X-Wing and Malifaux events going on at the same time definitely drew off a few players.

The tournament was set up with a campaign element where your sides results in the last run would affect the mission you played and who would be attacking and defending.  We had 6 German players using Herman Goering Panzers (Me), Italy 26th Panzers, Panzer Lehr Armoured Panzer Grenadiers, a Fortified Grenadier Company, Schwere Panzers and Grey Wold Panzer Co. Facing off against them was 2 British: 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and British Paras, 1 American infantry and 1 Soviet Strelkovy. (The American player dropped out the second day and was replaced by a Soviet Tankovy).  My friend Cam, playing the Lehr Panzer Grens, got switched to the allied side to even things up.            

All's Quiet on the Western Front

Round One:

I faced off against Lachlan's British Para's in No Retreat. He had ten platoons, but half started in reserve, he had 6 pounders in ambush.  I used my recce aggressively early to push back his ambush from the most likely tree line.  He dropped them in the buildings though, which I did not anticipate, and routed my Pz III's.  My Stuh's were doing well blasting out his forward infantry platoon while I kept one unit of Panzers watching the far side of the table.  I then unnecessarily assaulted his unit of paras in the treeline and was soundly beaten.  With the infantry hanging on and the 6 pounders covering that whole flank I decided to switch my axis of attack.  

       

This would have worked well if I hadn't of forgotten about the 6 pounders in the buildings.  After moving my Stuh's out of their line of sight I then storm-troopered back into it, and was suitably punished by losing the unit.  My remaining Panzers went into assault the other objective and ground down a few units but were unable to secure the objective before time was called.  I destroyed a unit of 17 pounders and an infantry unit, but due to Lachlan having 10 platoons it was a 5-2 for him  

Doh! forgot about those 6Ilbers 

Assaulting dug in Paras across a stream

Things were looking ok for the Germans but too many British reinforcements were flooding in.  

Other games in the first round saw the German's sorely defeated, all other games were 6-1's for the allies but mine.

 Round Two: Encounter 

I faced Kip's 3rd RTR, 2 units of Shermans, a unit of 4 Fireflies, 4 Achilles, and two units of Recce. 

We traded shots from cover in the middle while units in the far right wood got embroiled in a knife fight.  My Dice got the better of Kip and he lost a unit of Shermans.  In the middle my Stuhs were having fun crashing into trees and decided to fail almost every bog check they were called on to make.  At one point the entire unit was either bogged or bailed.  His Recce came on, on my left, but were taken out by my Panzer IIIs arriving from reserve.   

Werfer command stand assaults a bailed out Stuart, pretty pleased with myself for setting that up. 

 Kip failed a string of firepower rolls with his fireflies and I was able to force a moral check.  With both command teams dead his company broke.  6-1 to me.

Too many 17lbers to go toe to toe with

 Other Games in Round Two  

 Round Three: Counterattack 

I faced Cam's beautifully painted Panzer Lehr Mercenaries check them out here! I think we messed up the rules for this mission and he only started with two units of Panzer grens in tracks on the board, nothing in ambush. My Panzer IV's went to set up a welcoming committee for his arriving reserves while the Stuh's, 8-rads and Pz III's went to try and whittle down his infantry.  The plan worked and I got a 6-1 although I had to do a pretty risky assault to get the objective in time.   

Those dang half tracks would survive all game despite some concentrated shooting. 

 

Cam tries to get his reserves out of the "killzone" to mixed effect 

Other Games in Round Three

At the end of the day I was the leading German player with 14 points, while strategically the allies were winning by a large margin.