The Four Day Battle For Berlin - Campaign Map - Starting Positions

The starting positions for the (current) three factions fighting over Berlin.  In case anyone is unsure I've included the below key to the 'pins':

• Red - Russians
• Blue - Germans
• Green - Allies
• Yellow - Represents the Reichstag which is five territories close in to the heart of the 3rd Reich on a separate small map.

Of particular note; each faction has an airport.  The Germans hold the territory worth the most points because they hold the bulk of the city, but have fewer territories and the most players.

Opening positions.

The Four Day Battle For Berlin: Campaign Rules

    This is a fictitious WW2 campaign for Berlin set in April 1945.  It is a simple map-based system, with the aim of bring as many players together as possible to play games in a specific historic context, and to give an overall theme and connection between games rather than one off outings.  Players can play up to two games each campaign turn (4 weeks), or none at all if time is against them – although each should aim for at least one game a turn.  Players can choose at the beginning to be part of the Russian side, German side, or the Allies (British, Yanks, French etc) side.  Player defection from one side to another during the campaign is acceptable with prior approval from the campaign organiser; you may even be allowed to take your troops!  Be warned that it may prove costly in territory losses to the side they are joining.  It is even possible to declare yourself independent and carve out your own block of Berlin!

 The Campaign Map & Territories

• The map the campaign is fought over is split into territories, each with specific terrain in (e.g. forest, town, farm land).  Each territory is worth a set number of victory points (noted on the map), and each side adds together their territories to get their overall points total.  The side with the most victory points at the end of the campaign is the winner. Note: some territories may be secretly worth more to one side than the others.
• There will be three ‘factions’ to begin with; the Russians (and their Eastern allies), the Allied Armies (British, American etc), and the Germans.
• Players chose which faction they will join at the start of the campaign, and which army they will be part of (e.g. Romanian, Heer, SS, Luftwaffe, Russian Guards etc).  Finally they will pick a company to use throughout the campaign (e.g. Tankovy Company, or Tank  Destroyer Company) out of ANY late war book.  Any results (victories or defeats) in games will affect the factions territory holding.
• Factions gain and loose territories by players fighting battles:

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Winning Territories:

1. The players involved firstly roll off to decide who will pick the location of the battle, with players who won their last campaign battle getting a +1 to their 1D6 roll as they look to keep up their momentum. Re-roll draws.
2. The winner of the roll off places a pin in one of the losers territories which must be adjacent to any friendly territory.
3. The loser then places a pin in one of the winners territories, which must be adjacent to the territory which the winner had chosen.
4. The winner of the battle keeps/wins both territories.  In the case of a draw the status quo is maintained and nobody loses or gains any territory.
5. Remember to update the map (remove any losing pins) and update the organiser.

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• For multiplayer games the same rules should be followed, but each side should stake as many territories as there are players on the largest side if possible (e.g. a games with 4 players vs 3 players would see 4 territories a side marked as available for the winner).  These territories must be adjacent to at least one other.
• Cut off territories – if a territory is cut-off (not adjacent to any other friendly territories) then it is under siege.  If it has not been relieved by being joined up by another friendly (not cut off) territory within 2 weeks then it is automatically captured by the enemy.

Playing a campaign game:

• Players organise their own opponents and size of games – any scale or scenario goes.
• Games should be between players who are participating in the campaign.
• Having rolled off to find where the battle will take place (see Winning Territories box above) the players should attempt to set up the scenery on the battlefield to look like the territory that the winning player chose (e.g. cityscape, or forest, or hilly).
• A scenario is randomly rolled for (no just putting armies down and shooting, its boring!), and the side defending or attacking is decided in the usual way.

The Campaign Turn:

• The battle for Berlin lasted four days, in our campaign each day is represented by a campaign turn, so there is of course 4 campaign turns in total.
• In real terms each campaign turn lasts 4 weeks.
• In a campaign turn players can play up to two games against other players in the campaign, with the exception being that they can only play each opponent once per turn.

Campaign Timetable:

Campaign Turn 1 - 4th December - 8th January

Campaign Turn 2 – 15th January - 5th February

Campaign Turn 3 – 12th February - 5th March

Campaign Turn 4 – 12th March - 2nd April

  

Picking Your Company & Casualties:

It’s impossible to fight a war without taking losses, and with enemies at all sides they come thick and fast in the battle for Berlin. 

• Flames of War companies, in the same way as previous campaigns, lose platoons which are wiped out in games, including core combat platoons, are no longer available for subsequent games.  Unlike previous campaigns players CANNOT buy back platoons, HQ is not going to send more men! 
• This can leave some companies decimated, but help is at hand – players can choose to disband their damaged company at the end of any campaign turn and choose an entirely new company, effectively dragging groups of men and whole platoons together into a semblance of order by sheer force of will!
• A new company must be from the same army as the disbanded company, e.g. Heer, Russian Guards, British.
• There is a price to pay however – if a player disbands his company then the enemy will take advantage of the vacuum.  A randomly chosen enemy faction with at least one territory on their borders gets to choose a territory to take over and this immediately becomes their territory.

The Faction Commanding Officer:

• Each side will have an overall General in command; dictating (or at least trying to dictate) strategy, and handing out re-enforcements.
• It is the Generals job to give direction to his commanders which territory he wants capturing, and to plan out a grand strategy to win the war.  The commanders can then choose whether or not to follow.
• More directly the General can give out two re-enforcing platoons per campaign turn to different players.  The two nominated players may include an additional platoon worth up to 10% of their armies points cost for each game they play in that campaign turn, and this may be any platoon available to their faction even if it is not normally included in the company list they are using – e.g. A Panzer Kompanie playing a 2,000pt game can pick a grenadier 8cm mortar platoon worth up too 200pts.  (Note: This is NOT an extra 10% for the army, it is an extra platoon worth UP TO 10% of the armies points cost).  Should this extra platoon be wiped out in a battle then it is lost for the rest of the campaign turn.

  

Winning the Campaign:

At the conclusion of the final campaign turn the faction with the most Victory Points is the victor.  Because each faction can have a wildly different number of players (for example if the SS decide they hate the wimpy Werhmacht and declare themselves independent) the totals are worked out by dividing the total victory points of all territories a faction controls by the number of players in that faction.  For example a faction with 20 territorial VP’s and 5 players would have a total of 4 victory points, and so be defeated by a faction with 20 territorial victory points and 4 players (who would have 5 victory points).  Clearly they didn’t make their numbers count!

Territories are worth the following Victory Points each:

Open ground (including rivers/bodies of water) – 1pt

Forest/woods – 2pts

Urban Areas – 4pts

Airports – 6pts

Reichstag and its four surrounding territories on the secondary map – 8pts each

As mentioned before some territories will be worth more to some factions than others.  Keeping this secret from the enemy would be wise.

 Designers Notes:

Any WW2 system can be used to play games in the campaign, as long as there is a result at the end.  For example although I expect Flames of War to be the main rules set Bolt Action, Rapid Fire, or any other relevant set could be used by participants with approval from the (high flexible) organiser.

It’s a bad year to be a German

Lets face it, 1945 isn’t a good year to join the German army, or indeed to speak with a German accent.  And April 1945 is pretty much as bad as it gets.  The Germans may start with the most territory, but they face an uphill battle with the Luftwaffe out of commission, and fuel supplies patchy as best.  All German players should use the following rules:

Luftwaffe – By April 1945 Goering has successfully managed to decimate the remainder of the German air force with ill-judged big wing actions against the Russians, with the last few aircraft even having to resort to suicide missions against Russian bridges over the Oder River.  No German player may take air support, there simply is nothing left.

Fuel – German has lost most of her fuel supplies, vehicles are having to be abandoned by the roadside and blown up simply because they are unable to move to retreat in the face of overwhelming allied pressure.  The German player must roll 1D6 for each German platoon that contains vehicles at the start of their turn (including any in reserve).  On the roll of a 1 no vehicle in that platoon can move as it has temporarily run out of fuel.  This lasts until the beginning of the starting step of the next German turn.  Out of fuel vehicles count as being bogged down with the exception that they may shoot their weapons (so yes to shooting and defensive fire, no to assaulting, moving, stormtroopering etc).

Airports – The air ports surrounding Berlin are key to any forces looking to keep their air force in operation.  If their side controls any air port(s) at the beginning of a campaign turn then the Commanding Officer may delegate out a FREE Limited Air Support at one player to use for that campaign turn.  If the air port(s) are lost then this is immediately cancelled.  Note: this is available for the Germans too.    

The Four Day Battle For Berlin: Background

Ignore the traditional history, the one where the Allies (Britain and America chief amongst them) pulled up short of driving for the capital of Germany for fear of unnecessary casualties, for fear of insulting the fragile Russian pride, and ignoring Winston’s advice to meet the Communists as far East as possible.  This is irrelevant.  Instead step into a reality where Ike caved in to his more aggressive generals; Monty and Patton amongst them, who demanded an assault upon Berlin.  They got their wish, Ike gave the green light, and with paratroopers dropping at key points ahead of them the armoured divisions sped onwards.

The Allies intelligence, and Stalin’s fears, proved correct as the Wehrmacht forces parted before them like the waters of the Red Sea, and even as the first Russians were in sight of the centre of Berlin the first Shermans were rolling out of the woods and into the suburbs.  This slight enraged the Russians.  Berlin was theirs, they had fought from the banks of the Volga for this moment and the Allies who had suffered so little in comparison were threatening to take this away.  Discipline, always a difficult subject in the Red Army, began to fall apart completely, with the officers as frantic as their men at having come so far to see their prize apparently being pulled away at the last.  Fire first, ask questions later, became the order of the day, and the high command, from the very top down, did little to discourage this practice. 

The Allied spearheads, spreading out around Berlin, had driven part the way across Germany to reach the greatest prize.  Pushed onwards by commanders with images of medals and newspaper heroism blinding them they were equally as keyed up.  Even the British matched the trigger happy Americans in their aggression, while some already feared the Russians were planning to sweep through the city and onwards towards France and the English Channel.  Many, many miles behind the advance Eisenhower could not see until too late the clash that would come, much less control it.

As the German forces became squeezed between East and West the first ‘friendly fire’ incidents began occurring as Russkie met Yank and Tommy, and within the space of hours the war in this small part of the world became a three way scrap.  The Russians and the Allies fought each other for the honour of claiming the Reichstag and the 3^rd Reich’s funeral pyre.  The Germans fought for their lives, for the lives of civilians, to try and escape, to try and hold out just a few days longer in the hope that the anarchy in Berlin would spread and they could switch to the Allied side and defeat the Red Bear.

Afterwards it would become known as ‘The Four Day Battle For Berlin’; four days of utter chaos as ally fought ally and the Germans fought for survival before the respective Russian and Allied high commands restored order.

And so begins a new Flames Of War map-based campaign.

Race For The Rhine: Part 6 - The End

Round 4; the home stretch started with Jerry some way behind those hightailing allies on their way to the Rhine.  That 17 point lead was soon sliced and diced in the first clutch of games with the Great German Hope; Dennis and his panzer kompanie, defeating his rival James to move to the top.  The American tank destroyers were rendered impotent by the cunning German use of massed recon troops (you’d almost have thought he’d planned it from the start), and a single platoon of Yankees was left to try and fend off the wave of Panzer IV’s.  They almost did until that most unlikely of heroes; a bergepanzer, stepped in and a 6-1 victory started an Aryan party.  It would only get louder with the announcement that Pete Derrick, on the verge of being declared a traitor to the fatherland due to his poor results, had defeated Paul’s British armour.  His dug in infantry proved impossible to shift, and had just enough firepower to bloody the Brits noses before they withdrew in disgust – 6-1 again.  The third game of the clutch saw another Panzer kompanie, this time David’s, take on Luke’s paras, and from an excellent position contrived to rescue defeat from victory.  In truth it was more about the para’s foxhole norman status, and another infantry army that couldn’t be shifted.  David still caused enough injury for it to finish as a 4-3 result, and with that the Germans had pulled the gap back to 8 points.

The next batch of games brought reality back to the overly optimistic Germans, as Blue Team Dave’s SS Panzergrenadiers fell foul of their own inexperience and Red’s Cromwell’s.  The British tanks swamped them, and ran out easy victors at 6-1, with the winner kindly writing a battle report which is at the bottom.  This brought a renewed belief to the Allied cause, and combined with a moment of madness for Ian and his Panzers as he took on Aidan’s British infantry.  The Brits supporting Cromwell’s being able to wander forward and capture the undefended objective on turn 3, bringing a swift end to the game, and to the possibility of the Germans making an unlikely comeback in the campaign as it moved out of their reach mathematically.  Some points were still to be scored however, and that started with a grudge match between my woefully depleted panzergrenadiers against Phil’s British infantry.  Phil failed to pick up on my lack of ranged firepower, and was very cautious throughout which meant he ran out of time to claim an objective, and could only pick up a draw, abet 3-2 in his favour.

Two games remained for the Germans to pick up some pride, or for the allies to rub it in.  Firstly Andy’s para’s took on Adam Bates Sturmkompanie in the battle to escape the foot of the table, and ran out the winners in a pincer scenario where Adam’s sturmkompanie attacked, and come second to rocket Andy up the table to the heady heights of 8^th.  Adam was almost as pleased as his 2 points (in a 5-2 defeat) moved him above Paul.  Finally there was Ben’s SS Panzergrenadiers, who took on Martins 7^th Armoured looking to finish as the second placed German, while Martin was aiming to destroy all German hopes by taking the top spot off Dennis with the last roll of the dice.  It looked to be a close game right up to the point where it began, and then promptly ended on turn 2 with an Allied victory and no casualties anywhere!  The 6-1 victory gave Martin the title of top allied player, and overall campaign winner.

Phil's Shermans; on their way to be ambushed by my pioneers.

Dennis' Panzer IV's bringing doom to James' infantry.

Red thoroughly defeating Dave.

The Final Tables

Player	Company	Round 4	Average % Loss	Points Total
Martin	7th Armoured Division	6	3.2	21
Dennis	Panzer Kompanie	6	9.2	20
Phil	Canadian Assault Infantry	3	10.6	16
James Underwood	US Tank Destroyer Company	1	14.5	16
Red Pendrigh	Guards Armoured Recce Company	6	27.7	16
Aidan Holman	British Rifle Company	6	7.1	14
Luke	US Parachute Rifle Company	4	15.4	13
Andy Canham	US Parachute Rifle Company	5	2.5	11
Ben	SS Panzergrenadier Kompanie	1	5.3	11
Rick Andrews	Panzergrenadier Kompanie	2	21.3	11
David Astbury	Panzer Kompanie	3	25.8	11
Pete Derrick	SS Panzergrenadier Kompanie	6	14	9
Blue Team Dave	SS Panzergrenadierkampfgruppe	1	20.3	9
Adam Bate	Sturn Kompanie	2	49.2	8
Ian Shaw	Panzer Kompanie	1	57	8
Paul	Guards Armoured Squadron	1	28.7	7
Position	Company	Round 4	Average % Loss	Points Total
Martin	7th Armoured Division	6	2.5	21
Phil	Canadian Assault Infantry	3	10.6	16
James Underwood	US Tank Destroyer Company	1	14.5	16
Red Pendrigh	Guards Armoured Recce Company	6	27.7	16
Aidan	British Rifle Company	6	7.1	14
Luke	US Parachute Rifle Company	4	15.4	13
Andy Canham	US Parachute Rifle Company	5	9.7	11
Paul	Guards Armoured Squadron	1	28.7	7
Position	Company	Round 4	Average % Loss	Points Total
Dennis	Panzer Kompanie	6	9.2	20
Ben	SS Panzergrenadier Kompanie	1	5.3	11
Rick Andrews	Panzergrenadier Kompanie	2	21.3	11
David Astbury	Panzer Kompanie	3	25.8	11
Pete Derrick	SS Panzergrenadier Kompanie	6	14	9
Blue Team Dave	SS Panzergrenadierkampfgruppe	1	20.3	9
Adam Bate	Sturm Kompanie	2	49.2	8
Ian Shaw	Panzer Kompanie	1	57	8

The Campaign Awards

Such occasions call for awards for a group who very kindly played every game in the campaign, with only one player having to drop out and being replaced by Adam.  Joining the awards for overall winner, best German, and top Allied player, are general awards for all the players who took part.

The ‘Julius Caesar’ Award For

‘Overall Campaign Victor’ 

In the ‘Race To The Rhine’ FOW Campaign goes too:

____________Martin_______________

You are a shining example of a tactical genius; capable of breathtaking manoeuvres, holder of the keys to bloodless conquering, and the master of the smug ‘victory is mine’ look. 

The ‘Heer Otto Flick’ Award For

‘The Greatest German’ 

In the ‘Race To The Rhine’ FOW campaign goes too:

_____________Dennis_______________

The Fuhrer sends his congratulations to you; the greatest German outside of the Fuhrer bunker, and offers you a place of honour at his side defending Berlin to the last.  He knows you will be delighted to accept.

The ‘René François Artois Award For

‘The Top Ranking Allied Player’ 

In the ‘Race To The Rhine’ FOW campaign goes too:

_______________Martin___________

Resistance hero René Artois bestows this award upon you for ridding his café of Germans, ending the war early, and in the expectation you will pay your bar tab.*    *Tab attached to reverse.

The Award For

‘Defeating The Germans And Not Giving A Damn About Afterwards’

In the ‘Race To The Rhine’ FOW campaign goes too:

__________The Yanks_________

Congratulations its hamburger time!  We’ll be in Berlin by next week, shake hands with our good buddy’s, the Russians, there, then off back home for a slice of mom’s apple pie and a slap on the back from Uncle Sam.

The Award For

‘Defeating The Germans And Handing Half Of Europe To Russia’

In the ‘Race To The Rhine’ FOW campaign goes too:

___________The British Players___________

You complete ass.  Now we’ve got to put up with years of Cold War, nuclear peril, and seeing commies on every corner.  Next time slow down and give the Jerries a chance to whack Stalin for six before you join in.  Apart from that, jolly good show old chap!

The Award For

‘Successfully Helping The Yanks And British Reach Berlin Before Breakfast’

In the ‘Race To The Rhine’ FOW campaign goes too:

_____________The German Players____________

To congratulate you for your sterling efforts in ensuring the Allies made it over the Rhine in double quick time, thus preventing the Fuhrer from contemplating surrender to the subhuman’s of the East. We will join with the Allies and together we will fight the red beast and achieve final victory!

The Campaign In Numbers:

21 – the number of points Martin needed to claim top spot.

27 – the difference in points between the Germans and the allies final results!

2.5% - the lowest loss total, unsurprisingly claimed by Martin.

57% - the highest loss total; Ian beating off stiff competition from Adam to ‘win’.

7 – the number of wins the Germans managed between them (Dennis with 3 of these).

17 – the number of wins the Allies managed!

7 – the number of Germans in the bottom 8 of the table.

Battle Reports of Round 4:

Andy on a battle which saw both him, and opponent Adam, avoid the feared bottom spot:

A shock win for the Allies.  The scenario was Pincer, Adam rolled highest so was attacker with his German Grenadier Company of two infantry platoons supported by Stugs, PAK 40s, 120mm mortars, nebelwerfers and 105mm howitzers.  My two platoons of US paras, with 81mm mortars, MG platoon, 75mm pack howitzer battery and 57mm AT battery, supported by a Sherman platoon, held off Adams assault infantry for 8 turns, eventually destroying both infantry platoons and the Stug support platoon, for the loss of one para rifle platoon, leaving no German troops in the Allied half of the table.  So, an allied victory with three platoon losses for Fritz and one platoon for the paras.

Red’s take on his Cromwell’s defeating Blue Team Dave’s SS Panzergrenadiers:

So the 4th battle for the Welsh Guards. After the disaster against Dennis' panzers I'd lost my Achillies tank destroyers so decided to go back to the Sextons that had performed so well earlier in the campaign. I was also disappointed by the performance of the Typhoons so knowing I'd be up against panzer grenadiers ditched them for 40mm Bofors.
DBT turned up and rolled a Breakthrough mission which put him in defense and immediately cost him his half-tracks with their AT guns. This left him with little option but to dig-in and hope.
I had to place 1 platoon in delayed reserve which was one of the tank platoons, whilst DBT had his marders and AA guns in reserve.
As such the only units of note facing me at the start were a unit of PaK-40s and a small unit of Wespes, both deployed in woodland. This proved a disaster as it allowed my Cromwells a free turn to close the gap on the PaK-40s whilst the Bofors proved to be out of range of anything for the whole game (they would have preferred the Germans to have some attacking role in the game) and the spotter for the artillery proved woefully inept, failing to spot a unit of infantry on the other side of the road for several turns. Meanwhile the second spotter tank moved forward with the intention of lining up the Wespes for a counter-bombardment. A quick skirmish with the PaK-40s cost the Welsh an ARV whilst the Germans found themselves minus one of their main AT units and their front line now looking dangerously porous. 
At this p[oint the Marders showed up on the flank which seems to have become a running theme of the Welsh venture into the Rhineland, this cost a Challenger, whilst the remaining tanks swept round the hedge to destroy 2 Marders, bail a 3rd and the sent the platoon running, leaving just the Wespes as the only unit offering any significant resistance.
At this point an artillery observer hiding in a house forced the observer sherman sheltering there to retreat. This robbed the Sextons of the opportunity to bombard the Wespes so the artillery packed up and began to advance en-masse on the observers houses. The heroic German observer who had embarrassed the Sherman earlier became the first victim as German AA guns arrived on the flank but strugled to identify a useful role as the tide of Welsh armour swept past.
The Wespes stated their defiance by knocking out the Welsh 2iC but were silenced in turn by the Cromwells.
It was now just a case of digging out the German infantry from the objectives.
The Welsh reserves turned up at this point to begin the assault on the lighter held of the objectives, causing a couple of casualties and though the first assault was a little indecisive the writing was on the wall. 
DBT surrendered for a 6:1 win to the Allies.

We now hand over (with some trepidation) to Phil and his North Africa campaign. Thank you all, and good night.

Normandy - Battle Report

As if by magic a date appeared in my diary, a day off work, a Saturday off work.   The first for over 3 months, and the thought occurred that perhaps a nice wargame would do for the day.  I had missed out on a couple of Deeside gaming weekends and a trip to York thanks to my job and it seemed only fair.  Initial hopes of an English Civil War bash were dashed by a lack of players with specific armies, but undeterred a Flames of War game was organised, and a venue (Phil’s Ellesmere Port haunt – an excellent spot for a big game) booked.  Six players, including me, were engaged to bring 2,000pts each, and with Aidan writing a scenario, Phil providing the venue, and me bringing most of the scenery the scene was set.  It was supposed to be Normandy, but the scenery was a generic one based on the Total Victory scenario, but whose inner workings were mostly confusing to all but Aidan, luckily he was the one keeping score on who was claiming which of the 9 objectives at the start of each turn.  The battlefield did look European, and La Haye Sainte seemed to appear at one point.  I've given a general indication of how it played out, no blow by blow detail however.

The Setup

The German players set up with Phil and his heavies (Jagdtigers x 5!) in a wooded area on the right of the 14ft long table, me taking the centre with my panzer kompanie of mostly panzer IV’s, and Andy with his SS Panzergrenadiers on the left in and around a built up ruined town.  Aidan’s British infantry faced Andy, Dennis and his Yanks (mostly infantry with 2 lots of tank destroyers and lots of artillery) faced me, and finally David and his British armour faced Phil across the 5ft wide table.  The German plan (god knows if the Allies had one) was to wear Aidan down with waves of troops from Andy and my army, leave Dennis stranded and impotent in the central area (where there was only one objective), and for Phil to wade through David’s inferior Shermans and win the battle for us by gaining the bulk of the objectives on the right.  I almost changed my deployment at the last moment to support Phil instead of Andy due to a concern about the number of British AT guns on our left, but after some bickering with the German heavy CO switched back and left him to his own devices!

The whole table, with the German left and Andy's SS Panzergrenadiers in the foreground on the right facing Aidans British infantry. 

Better view of Andy's troops.

Aidan's Cromwells.

Capturing the length of the table.

This time from the wooded end of the battlefield; Phil's big cats to the left in the foreground facing Davids British armour.

An elephant pretending to be a tiger.

The whole battle can be explained best by divided it into 3 sections; left, right and centre, and explained in those terms, although the troops that started in each section often didn’t stay there.  

The Left

The left was where the closest fighting took place as Aidan bore the brunt of a good 3,000pts of Germans against his 2,000 of Brits.  The Germans began by securing the farmhouse and contested the two objectives in no mans land, before moving on to wear down the British troops.  Aidan’s Cromwells were lost to an ill-judged attempt to flank Andy’s 88mm guns (perhaps forgetting they were on turn tables), while his Shermans and a platoon of Dennis’ tank destroyers were seen off by my Panzer IV’s, although with heavy casualties amongst my men.  Aidan resorted to using smoke from his big mortar platoon to reduce the effectiveness of the German guns, and to his 17pdrs and 6pdrs to fend off the armour, which the 17pdrs did admirably; wiping out Andy’s Panzer IV platoon.  His universal carriers caused a problem throughout; darting in and out of the action and contesting objectives willy-nilly.  They proved almost as difficult to kill as my 8-rad armoured cars which we used unsuccessfully to try and defeat them.   The armoured cars also supported the attack on Aidan’s infantry platoons, which had moved up to within striking distance of the objective in the built up area, only to be ‘revealed’, and then attacked and wiped out by Andy’s armoured panzergrenadiers. 

My Panzer IV’s continued to cause a nuisance at the join between Aidan and Dennis’ forces, with a platoon succeeding in breaking through and wiping out the 6pdrs on the way to the enemy board edge – the furthest any unit advanced in the game.  I lost my own armoured panzergrenadiers to a poorly co-ordinated attack on the last of the British infantry platoons in a ruined area at the join.  One thing which should have heavily affected the fighting was Dennis’ artillery, but while most of his bombardments came in my direction in an attempt at relieving the pressure on Aidan he failed to range in most of the time, to my relief because the 12” square devastating bombardment template was available to him!  He even had an aerial observation post, which took me 3-4 turns of chasing it around with AA guns mounted on trucks to shoot down!  Overall on the left by the end of play (7 turns in total and 5 and a half hours) Aidan’s forces had been ground down to a point where they were nearly disappearing – questionable whether he should have been taking company morale checks or not, and the Germans were at the point of finally claiming most of the 4 objectives in that area.

It kicks off on the left, and Dennis' US tank destroyers come off worse in the opening exchanges.

Aidan's smoke covers Andy's positions as his infantry move forward.

Heavily defended British positions - Aidans again with his Shermans, 6pdrs and infantry covering an objective - the fork in the road.

My Panzer IV's try and pressurise the fork in the road, while Andy' troops hold the farmhouse.

Aidan's Cromwells and their ill-fated attack on Andy's 88's.  There were no survivors.

Looking at the table from Aidan and Andy's end - the German left.

Wider picture; flames are starting to spring up in the far wood.

My Panzer IV's breakthrough the British line on the join between Brits and Yanks.

Andy's SS Panzergrenadiers in their halftracks, and covered by artillery and armoured cars move in to wipe out the British infantry in the town and secure that objective.

Panzergrenadiers subsequently deployed, but Aidan pulls a contesting fast-one with his universal carriers.

Wider picture.

SS artillery.

The farmhouse secured after an earlier scare.

Very few Brits left.

The Right

On the right it was a very one sided battle amongst the trees of the large wooded area.  Phils Jadgtigers (two being represented by Elephants – if it had been spotted earlier he might have been told to switch units!) advanced as the RAF screamed overhead and artillery bombardments from the British 25pdrs bracketed them.  The large German AA presence took care of the typhoons which were dogging them, while the artillery had little to no effect.  In desperation David threw in platoon after platoon of Shermans, with Dennis’ adding a tank destroyer unit as well.  They could not penetrate the armour of the Germans. 

Even when the fighting became close up and personal – Davids tanks alongside the enemies blasting at their flanks – they still could not cause a casualty.  What they did do was to keep coming, and Phil’s advance started to slow down to a crawl.  With enemy tanks coming from all angles he struggled to keep up the speed needed and his rate of fire.  David hit him from the flanks continuously; platoons of tanks fleeting through the trees to encircle the Germans.  The German AA vanished in a cloud of smoke, and a Jadgtiger was finally hit by Dennis’ artillery. By the end David’s army had virtually ceased to exist, having given its all to slow the enemy down - and it had been enough.  Time ran out and Phil’s big cats were still quite a bit short of their objectives.

Elephants/Jadgtigers move forward.

Their opposite number has no fear, and also advances.

Shermans make up the second wave.

Woods, Stuarts, table, volksgrenadiers.

The troops Phil had left behind to hold the German right flank and the objective there.

It gets messy in the forest as Phil pushes forward.

The yanks dispatch a tank destroyer platoon to help.

More burning tanks.

Phil's company HQ breaks cover, and is strafed (to no effect) by Davids typhoon.

Final scenes, with Phils Germans falling short of their objectives by a distance, but Davids army being virtually no more.

The Centre

The centre looked like the quiet spot to be for most of the battle.  Some of Dennis’ recon grabbed the centre objective in the village there before some of my recon infiltrated into the buildings and contested it.  Dennis responded by bringing up his infantry, and moving house to house, clearing my troops out as he did so.  His recon went on to threaten my artillery and a platoon of pioneers left to guard an objective at the back of our lines in the centre.  Concerned out the infantry advance, and with no obvious route towards Aidans flank, I brought a platoon of Panzer IV’s and AA guns back to challenge this, with the infantry in the village taking heavy casualties from the AA guns and the American recon being hit by the artillery over open sights. 

The Panzer IV’s, however, got too close to what turned out to be a hedgehog of bazzokas in the woods, and were lost except for the company commander.  The American infantry then used the trees to good effect to reach the flank of my pioneers and roll them up and away from the objective, contesting it.  Aidan announced with glee that this single act had wiped over a third of our victory points in one fell swoop and that the Germans had lost, and the battle was over.

Recon units from both sides are first into the village in the centre - Germans in the near building and yanks on the road.

The Americans brought a bull dozer.

The Americans also brought lots of artillery, which was ineffective all day.

The American advance through the village was slow but purposeful.

Looking from the centre to the German right.

US infantry taking the objective for good.

A Stuart brews up after being hit by a Panzer IV sitting on the edge of the village.

American infantry pass their burning recon on their way to win the battle by taking the German central objective.

Post Game Thoughts:

The Germans, with quite a lot of feeling, cried foul play at the result especially when two of the three allied armies had virtually ceased to exist, and all the allies had done to win was contest one objective out of 9 on the last turn.  Then I turned on Phil (as is tradition) and observed that he was tasked with winning the battle on the right for us, and as such it was clearly his fault ;-).  Happy days!

Onto real analysis and I felt Andy and I teamed up well to wear Aidan down; he had set up a very good defensive position which he didn’t advance far from (a good idea given the weight of attack aimed at him), and we still managed to push him backwards, and claim or contest all the objectives he was overseeing.  In this we were helped by Dennis’ artillery failing horribly throughout.  In the centre I made a mistake of not closing the door on Dennis’ infantry sooner, and we paid the price in losing the objective.  On the right David fought gamely against an invincible foe in Phil’s heavies, and in my, and the overall general, opinion was the player who won the battle for the Allies; slowing the Germans down with constant attacks and hanging in there despite being unable to damage their giant enemies.  Overall then a good game and a good day, and a demonstration that perhaps you don’t need 3-4,000pts a player to have a good big multiplayer game – 2,000pts worked rather nicely.

And Finally....Aidan has his say

On saturday, 6 slightly odd blokes got together at ellesmere port for a game of FOW. Late war, in normandy. Dave Astbury brought his british Shermans of the Guard, Dennis brought his yanks and I added my 11th Armd Div infantry into the mix for the Allies, While Andy, Rick brought a lot of panzers and big guns , with Phil bringing a couple of kitties for the Reich. 

We decided to play the Total Victory/war scenario with 2 minor modifications. Firstly accumulated victory points for holding an objective only counted if you didnt at some point lose control of it: if you did you started counting again! If you lost it, even contested any VPs gained so far were lost! And we used 9 objectives for kicks and giggles, rather than the usual 6. Terrain was layed out to look pretty: a ruined town at one end, a village in the middle with farm land all around, and Woodland at the far end. 

With my largely infantry force I took the right flank amongst the ruined town, squaring off against Andy. Dennis filled the village with Arty, While Rick, opposite tried to wrangle a way to fight somebody else, even if this meant opening a large hole in the middle of the German line. On the left Daves tanks faced off against Phils unkillable things.

I didnt get to see the whole game alas so I wont give a blow by blow report, suffice to say I found myself facing a wave of panzers trying to drive a wedge between myself and Dennis, which they eventually managed, albeit at great cost and to little gain. Meanwhile my infantry advancing through the town found itself smothered by artillery, though the wall of recce kept the worst of the german fire away for a while. Unfortunately I was compelled to pull back the Carriers for a short spell, and by the time they re-engaged the damage was done and most of my infantry was done for. However they were at least able to restabalise the line, more or less, though I suspect they wouldnt have held much longer. I also lost my Cromwells on their first jaunt in a rather foolhardy attempt to rush an 88. Id outflanked it and intended to gun it down, but missed and found myself with little choice other than to charge! It didnt work...

Recce seemed particularly stubborn in this game with the 8rads and carriers on both sides absorbing a huge amount of firepower, and being right up at the sharp end for the entire game. it was only towards the end that carriers and 8 rads alike finally started to wilt under the repeated battering by 88s and 17pdrs...I think weve sussed how best to use it, making great use of the cautious movement rules and cover to make sure killing them is as hard as possible. Ive even stripped my carriers of the bulk of their additional weapons as in their true recce role they are a waste of points. Strangely tanks are so much easier to kill than recce: the tanks evaporated very quickly on both sides!

In the event with my infantry disappearing under barrages and my AT guns being picked off one at a time, and my tanks all being on fire my carriers with mortar support were unable to do much except make sure as many objectives as possible stayed contested, ensuring a local stalemate...

In the centre Dennis's arty was struggling to hit the myriad of massed targets before them, but the threat of invisible tank destroyers kept Rick worried for quite a while! His infantry advanced to take one objective, turfing out some huns who got there first and then seeing off their reinforcements. He even managed to start making some headway into the german lines to contest another. 

On the Left Daves tanks were getting chewed up and spat out by the jagd-somethings. Unable to scratch them dave could only watch as his tanks were brewed up until the woods were filled with the wreckage of british tanks and tank destroyers. the sudden arrival of Dennis Tank destroyers helped somewhat but Dave seemed to be getting a little despondent at what seemed like an unstoppable wave of ridiculously well armoured tanks. 

However despite being down to throwing rocks and bad language it was Dave that actually won the battle for the allies...or rather, it was Phil, who seems to have forgotten what the objective was and to have ignored it in favour of annihilating Daves tanks...as a result Daves camping of two objectives went uncontested for the entire game,single handedly beating the German total! 

I rather enjoyed the game and getting to fight proper panzers was a rather nice novelty! I dont think my mods to the victory conditions made a difference at all to the actual outcome, but Rick didnt like the sudden swing at the end, though in truth the VP counter had been swinging first one way and then the other all day. He might have felt robbed that turn, but if the game had ended a turn earlier we would have felt the same! 

I cant see a way to avoid this with an accumulator style scenario of any sort. I think post-battle discussions regarding player specific missions (like in Risk!) might work better in the future. Something to try certainly. 

I didnt get any pics though I hope Rick/andy did and can add some. does andy have a blog for wargaming? Im sure I heard talk of it. 

Anyway I thought it was fun, despite my nearly getting crushed, and some silly mistakes!