Flames of War AAR

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US Rifle Company vs Grenadierkompanie (Mid-War)

US Rifles
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Company HQ + 2 Bazooka Teams
Rifle Platoon (full strength) + Bazooka
Rifle Platoon (full strength) + Bazooka
Weapons Platoon + 2 Machine Gun sections + Mortar section
Artillery Platoon (4x 105mm Howitzer)
Tank Platoon (3x M4A1 Shermans)
990 pts

Grenadierkompanie
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Company HQ
Grenadier platoon + light mortar
Grenadier platoon + light mortar
Assault platoon
10.5cm Artillery platoon (4 guns)
Tank Destroyer platoon (2 Marder 3Ms)
Sniper
1000pts

The Mission
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Once again my US Rifles took the field against Jon's Grenadierkompanie. Since we were feeling more comfortable with the rules, we decided to step the points up to 1000 this time. We ended up playing another Free For All mission though to keep it simple. We both brought some more trees and walls and used the whole table this time, so we were spread out a lot more. I think our scenery setup is starting to  look pretty good.

Objectives / Deployment
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Jon won the roll and was the attacker (again). Objective placement wasn't that interesting, but I placed mine as far apart from one another to keep his back line stretched.

Jon deployed his artillery opposite mine on the other side of the forest. He also put a grenadier platoon near them and his right objective. His other grenadiers covered his side of the town, while his assault platoon started against the wall. No doubt preparing to push as quickly as possible into SMG/Assault range. Not sure of where my tanks were going to go, he placed his Marders on the road near the town.

My deployment on the left was howitzers and rifle platoon defending the left objective and covering the road into the town. In the center/right I put down the other rifle platoon as close to the outer wall as possible, with the mortars and HQ behind (also protecting the right objective). I was lucky and got to see where Jon's Marders ended up before deploying my shermans. Since they were in the middle, and his left objective was relatively undefended, I decided to put my tanks on my far right (opposite the objective) and rush the flank. Oh, I attached my machine gun teams to each rifle platoon as well.

The Battle
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Turn 1:
Since this is a Mobile Battle (or whatever its called) Jon's units were considered moving at the start of the turn. He pushed his assault squad up a bit and his Marders crept into town, keeping good spacing so they wouldn't both get killed by a single artillery bombardment. He revealed a sniper in the center of town, with a good view of my troops in the center/right of my side. Grenadiers moved up into the woods on my left. I think the only shooting was at my observer team near the entrance of the town. They weathered fire from the Marders and the sniper, but managed to make their saves.

I moved up my rifle platoon to the wall and setup firing positions for my machine guns - also in preparation for the inbound assault squad. My other rifle platoon, seeing the grenadiers advancing on their position from the woods, decided to dig in. The mortars and company HQ followed suit. The shermans pushed up the right flank, safely behind the cover of a small forest. My thinking here was that I could either go straight for the objective with my tanks - or if Jon reinforced the position too much, I could cut back and hit the assault platoon as they advanced toward my rifle platoon.

Grenadiers push forward

Matt moves rifle platoons to the wall.

Matt is Ranged in on Marder III

Turn 2:
Jon's assault squad hopped the wall and took up a position near the town's fountain. His grenadiers in the woods moved up the the edge and out a bit. At this point, I wasn't sure if he remembered the victory conditions for the mission - since he had nothing protecting the one objective. So I told him that I could potentially take the objective next turn if he didn't contest it too. He then double timed his marders back to the objective, their guns fixed directly at my tanks - but luckily unable to fire this turn (due to the At the Double move). He dropped some artillery on my dug in rifle platoon, catching 10 teams under the template. Five of them were hit, but managed to make all their saves - the squad was pinned however. The sniper once again tried to kill my observer, but they managed to survive. The grenadiers in the woods took some shots at the rifle platoon, then storm troopered back into the woods.

We hit something!!!!

I unpinned both the rifles and the observer teams, moving the observer out of LoS of the sniper (and getting an eye on the Assault squad across the town). I hopped a few rifle teams over the wall so I could take shots at the assault platoon, but kept one of the machine guns stationary to shoot at the sniper. The shermans moved up to get the Marders into close range. I knew that if I didn't destroy at least one of them, he'd be able to wipe my whole platoon in a single volley. Everyone else held their ground. I shot at the sniper and managed to hit him, he failed his save, but I failed my firepower roll (6). My rifles on the right took some shots at the Assault squad. I saved the key shooting for last, my shermans vs the marders. I opted to utilize my stabilizers and fire at my full RoF. Three of my six shots hit, easily penetrating their 0 front armor (Anti-Tank 10). My firepower roll yielded one kill and one bail. Jon had to make a morale motivation check for the platoon and failed, causing the platoon to be destroyed.

U.S. hits the deck with the help of their new sandbags!!

HOLD!!!!!

That could have gone better.....

Turn 3:
Seeing his marders go up in flames he tried to shift his grenadiers from the center over to the objective, but couldn't get close enough to contest the objective (and sadly, couldn't get his mortar in range of my tanks). I think the grenadiers from the woods actually moved up, shot, and SS'd back into the woods this turn - not last turn. Or maybe they did it both times. He ranged in on my tanks and managed to bail one of them.

My sherman remounted the vehicle and the tanks moved up to secure the objective and take a defensive position against the grenadiers moving their way. They took some shots at the grenadiers and managed to get some hits, but I can't remember if any died. My rifle teams didn't kill any of the assault teams, and even though I managed to range-in my artillery on them - I was unable to get any hits, so they didn't get pinned (which ended up being very costly).

In the assault phase I decided to risk it and attack the german assault squad. Since they weren't pinned they had their full RoF of 3 shots each - 15 shots yielded 11 hits and a good amount of kills. Since I was pinned during my assault, I had to fall back to my starting position. Not looking good. I needed to test motivation for morale and failed, losing the rest of the platoon!

Assault in the town square.

Throw a penny in the fountain for good luck!

Turn 4:
I think we called it at this point, since he couldn't get any units close enough to the objective to contest it.

Thoughts: Matt
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It was another good learning game and I'm glad we were able to move the points up a bit to try out some tanks. If Jon would've realized the win conditions during deployment, the game would've unfolded much differently. I'm sure he would've deployed an infantry squad to defend that side of the board, or started his Marders on that flank - totally deterring my tanks from that side. But that's how we learn these things! Next time we play I may have to face some Panzers, should be fun!



Thoughts: Jon


I picked up a few more rules this time around. Actually remembered to do the Germans Stormtrooper Special rule, however I only passed the test twice to actually perform this move. Unfortunately, I got completely caught up in the moment and left one objective completely open. Should have looked over the Victory Conditions...duh! Looking forward to the next game. I am hoping to bring along some new toys to keep up with the Shermans.