Battle Report - Turn 1 Operation Battleaxe Flames of War

Howdy everyone,

In case there was any doubt...yes, I am alive and fairly well...I have taken an unexpected hiatus from the internets, more or less by accident than design.  As the new school year ramped up, my work also ramped up, and so did my volunteering...

All with the result of little time on the line...little time painting...a lot less time cataloging any progress.  So, to kickstart myself and get the blog rolling into the fall...I thought I'd post a battle report from the club last month as part of our FoW Operation Battleaxe Firestorm campaign.

It has been quite some time since I played Flames of War...I have put in a game or two of Team Yankee, but really I cannot remember the last time that I tabled down and kicked it WW2 ala FoW.

The battle ended up being a mobile battle type of fight using the counterattack scenario from the MRB...the table is split into quadrants...I was able to deploy all my forces that were not wheeled or mobile.  My opponent in the quadrant next to me, the attacker, is able to deploy their entire force.

First break for me...none of my troops were mobile...I had 2 x platoons of infantry; 2 x platoons of HMG; 1 x platoon of 5cm AT guns; 1 x platoon of 88's; and 1 x platoon of 3.7cm AT guns.  Not a good break...I hastily deployed my troops and then reread the scenario details...I had troops very far away from the open objective.  My opponent, his forces were all mobile...Crusader tank horde with lorried infantry.

...now that I have set the scene...the pics...

The wheeled fury of my opponent...2 x platoons of Crusaders with HQ elements, Firestorm infantry and Armoured cars, as well as infantry holding the line in the ville facing the DAK.

DAK deploys...from bottom to top: 3.7cm AT guns, 88 guns (one on the plain, the other on the hilltop), objective, hmg platoon on the right, infantry...on the far edge, pushing for the open objective...infantry with HMG...I placed my 5cm AT guns in ambush

looking over the battlespace...troops dug-in...you can see the Brits on the far right getting ready to accelerate hard!!

the ville to the front of the DAK lines is held by a British infantry platoon...

the open objective...not that far...but far enough

Turn 1...looks pretty similar to most of the following turns...my infantry and HMG's holding on the go line, push for the objective...I was concerned about pushing them at the double as I didn't want to loose them all in the open terrain.

 

I deployed my ambush in the oasis early so that I could still have British vehicles in range...hindsight: maybe I should have deployed the 88's in ambush and gotten their extended range.

These troops were pretty innocuous, but they bugged me because they were there...and they were too far to move and then rush into contact...and I didn't have any smoke throwing weapons...sigh...slowly attrited them over the game, but could not get them to break.

Most of the game was pushing my grunts to the objective, long range sniping by my 88's and 5cm guns...I was able to kill the formation HQ early on...I was able to pick off a Crusader platoon as well forcing them to flee the field.  The armoured cars were an annoyance...and the ridge line at the left edge of the pic provided shield for the Brits...using this ridgeline, Bernhard drove his lorried infanteers outside of the range of my guns, dismounted and marched to the ridge...

this turn, I pushed my HMG platoon from the safety of the ridge opposite the armoured cars and was in range of one of his infantry platoons that had just dismounted.  With the ville to the front of the force in a stalemate, I pushed my second infantry platoon towards the open objective

the 88 on the hilltop has a spectator's view of the action...

With the time for the game winding down...neither of us could push the other from contesting the objective...I had managed to kill one of his armoured cars...I had chewed up his infantry, but I did not have the time to keep the momentum...the game ended as a draw for us.

 

Overall, I was pretty happy...there were a couple of things I would have liked to rethink...however, it was also the first list I have ever used that did not have any armoured support.  Also, while I took some hits, I did not loose a platoon.