By Brush and Sword: Armored Clash

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Armored Clash - Flames of War AAR

Curt and I had another game of FoW over the weekend. It was a relatively silly one - neither one of us took 'balanced' list, instead opting for fitting as much of what armor we own on the table. For myself, that meant plenty of Cromwells and Challengers; for Curt, it meant Tigers and StuGs. And that Magnificent Bastard, Otto Carius. Or, since this is a fight on the Western Front, some alternate personality - his distant cousin, Grotto Barius?

I'm going to have to convince him to use some of my Panzer IV H's and Grenadiers. Eventually.

Anywho, we set the table up, decided that we wanted a simple head-to-head fight, and then slugged it out.

The fight went back and forth, with both sides starting with long-ranged shots. The +1 to armor at shots over 16", my ability to use semi-indirect fire (as long as my tanks didn't move), and the fact that my tanks were all Trained as opposed to Curt's Veterans, meant that my Challengers would be staying back in the woods and acting as my artillery for the game. A single platoon of American paratroopers would hang back and protect an objective on my side (i.e., do nothing). My Cromwells, then, with their light tank mobility, would then try to close and flank the Tigers.

Curt's Tigers, on the other hand, had a longer range, much higher armor, were Veteran rated, and had Tiger Ace skills. So a prolonged firefight with them would turn out the worse for me, even with the AT 15 guns of the Challengers.

Unfortunately, this lead to a mad dash by the Brits to try and at least Bail as many Tigers as possible. Amazingly, it seemed to work out, until the Germans rallied and promptly blew apart the British tanks.With all 3 of my combat platoons wiped out, the Paratroopers and remaining Jalopies (who were useless in this game) decided to make a tactical retreat. And so, victory went to the Germans with a 5-2 win.