Commonwealth 0, Germans 1
So, to get to that first fight.
Blindfury and I have been diligently trying to get back to more gaming. It's been haphazard at best, and between jumping around between games it just hasn't been satisfying. So we've decided that going forward we'd pick a system and focus on it for awhile, like 6 months or something, and then move on. Our initial push was into Warmachine, but after realizing that neither of us were really invested in that system, we decided to make a switch to Flames of War. We both had plenty of miniatures, and we decided that we'd stick with the version 3 rules that we've played previously, rather than trying to switch up to version 4. So with that in mind I started transcribing everything into Google Docs, to refresh my brain and make everything more accessible to Blindfury.
Our first game was set to be played in an afternoon, prior to a role playing session. We decided to start with 1250 points, early war desert, his Commonwealth Indians against my Italians. I decided I would try and reorganize my fortified platoon into an infantry platoon, so that I wouldn't have to worry about the additional rules on fortifications just yet. But a cat-based accident meant that my Italians were in need of some repairs, so I opted to go with a German Panzerschutzen company, borrowing models from my early war infantry.
The Protagonists - German Panzerschutzen Company
HQ
Two Platoons of Panzerschutzen; 6 teams with anti-tank rifle and mortar, in half tracks
One Platoon of 3 Panzer 3s
Priority Stuka Air Support
The Beligerents - Commonwealth Indian Rifle Company
HQ
Four Platoons of Infantry; 6 teams with anti-tank rifle and mortar
One Platoon of 4 Heavy Machine Guns
One Platoon of Bofors anti-aircraft guns
One Platoon of 4 2 pounder anti-tank portees
Sporadic Hurricane Air Interception
The table was 4'x4', with a small village on one side, two large rock formations opposite, a pair of oasis in the middle, and some sporadic area terrain to slow things down.
The mission was 'Pincer', which saw Blindfury's infantry defending against my mechanized company. He needed half his army in Delayed Reserves, which left him with his Heavy Machine Guns in the village, his Bofors out front where they'd have good arcs of fire, and an infantry platoon defending the forward objective. I put my Panzer 3s on the right side of a rock formation and my halftracks on the left, with the plans to bum rush.
And rush bums I did. My Panzer 3s moved on the infantry, while my halftracks moved on the Bofors. The infantry couldn't really oppose my tanks, and with the oasis keeping my tanks hidden from the Bofors, they instead went after my halftracks. The armoured halftracks did nicely though, taking minimal losses.
Seeing that his troops and heavy machine guns couldn't stop my tanks, I decided to make an all out push to get the Bofors off the field, which would then allow my tanks to assault the infantry unopposed and take the objective. They pushed in easily, with the halftracks ready to follow suit. Game goes to the Germans.
In our initial reflections, what we saw was a mission that put Blindfury at a huge disadvantage. Over half his army was off the table in Delayed Reserves, and the game was over before they even had a chance to come in. Blindfury has also said that he made a couple troop choices that didn't account for the way point values affected army build.
We're both the "lots of troops" kind of players, which generally means that we'll max out our compulsory units, and then build an army around that based on a notion of what the army should look like. The problem is that there are certain factors that need to be taken into account, especially at a smaller point range like 1250. Blindfury took a ton of infantry, which should have fared better, but because of the lower point range he couldn't really get the support he needed. The end result was a deployed force that wasn't prepared to stop my army - there wasn't enough anti-tank to keep my Panzers at bay, and the infantry were easily pushed off the objective. A different build ratio may have been able to put more support down, which may have allowed more opportunity for reinforcements to arrive.
Blindfury and I have been diligently trying to get back to more gaming. It's been haphazard at best, and between jumping around between games it just hasn't been satisfying. So we've decided that going forward we'd pick a system and focus on it for awhile, like 6 months or something, and then move on. Our initial push was into Warmachine, but after realizing that neither of us were really invested in that system, we decided to make a switch to Flames of War. We both had plenty of miniatures, and we decided that we'd stick with the version 3 rules that we've played previously, rather than trying to switch up to version 4. So with that in mind I started transcribing everything into Google Docs, to refresh my brain and make everything more accessible to Blindfury.
Our first game was set to be played in an afternoon, prior to a role playing session. We decided to start with 1250 points, early war desert, his Commonwealth Indians against my Italians. I decided I would try and reorganize my fortified platoon into an infantry platoon, so that I wouldn't have to worry about the additional rules on fortifications just yet. But a cat-based accident meant that my Italians were in need of some repairs, so I opted to go with a German Panzerschutzen company, borrowing models from my early war infantry.
The Protagonists - German Panzerschutzen Company
HQ
Two Platoons of Panzerschutzen; 6 teams with anti-tank rifle and mortar, in half tracks
One Platoon of 3 Panzer 3s
Priority Stuka Air Support
The Beligerents - Commonwealth Indian Rifle Company
HQ
Four Platoons of Infantry; 6 teams with anti-tank rifle and mortar
One Platoon of 4 Heavy Machine Guns
One Platoon of Bofors anti-aircraft guns
One Platoon of 4 2 pounder anti-tank portees
Sporadic Hurricane Air Interception
The table was 4'x4', with a small village on one side, two large rock formations opposite, a pair of oasis in the middle, and some sporadic area terrain to slow things down.
The mission was 'Pincer', which saw Blindfury's infantry defending against my mechanized company. He needed half his army in Delayed Reserves, which left him with his Heavy Machine Guns in the village, his Bofors out front where they'd have good arcs of fire, and an infantry platoon defending the forward objective. I put my Panzer 3s on the right side of a rock formation and my halftracks on the left, with the plans to bum rush.
And rush bums I did. My Panzer 3s moved on the infantry, while my halftracks moved on the Bofors. The infantry couldn't really oppose my tanks, and with the oasis keeping my tanks hidden from the Bofors, they instead went after my halftracks. The armoured halftracks did nicely though, taking minimal losses.
Seeing that his troops and heavy machine guns couldn't stop my tanks, I decided to make an all out push to get the Bofors off the field, which would then allow my tanks to assault the infantry unopposed and take the objective. They pushed in easily, with the halftracks ready to follow suit. Game goes to the Germans.
In our initial reflections, what we saw was a mission that put Blindfury at a huge disadvantage. Over half his army was off the table in Delayed Reserves, and the game was over before they even had a chance to come in. Blindfury has also said that he made a couple troop choices that didn't account for the way point values affected army build.
We're both the "lots of troops" kind of players, which generally means that we'll max out our compulsory units, and then build an army around that based on a notion of what the army should look like. The problem is that there are certain factors that need to be taken into account, especially at a smaller point range like 1250. Blindfury took a ton of infantry, which should have fared better, but because of the lower point range he couldn't really get the support he needed. The end result was a deployed force that wasn't prepared to stop my army - there wasn't enough anti-tank to keep my Panzers at bay, and the infantry were easily pushed off the objective. A different build ratio may have been able to put more support down, which may have allowed more opportunity for reinforcements to arrive.