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| Lets Ride! |
We had a new player, Domingo, come by on Thursday night and since we had some warning Gordon had asked me to have Two demo forces so we could show what this Flames of War thing was all about. On AJ's advised I had two "armored" forces at 600 points each. The German force was my German Mitller Panzer force from the Escalation League, HQ Panzer IV Platoon of two tanks and a light panzer force of 2 Panzer IIs and One Panzer I. For the French I had an Escadron de Reconnaissance with a Panhard HQ and two platoons of 5 Panhard armord cars and a platoon of H39 Hotchkiss Tanks. 
Domingo picked the French and used them quite aggressively(starting with his recon move) sending one platoon toward the objective on the left and another on the right . I tried to slip my light panzer up the middle to put pressure on his objectives but good shooting by Domingo had one Panzer II and one Panzer IV Bailed and I decide I needed to try and concentrate fire. I did get on Panhard and bailed one or two more but Domingo wipe out my light Panzer platoon and brought in his H39s on my fight giving me two threats and only three tanks to deal with them. 
Most of the French vehicles were still on the board so my situation looked really grim. At this point my luck with the shooting dice finally turned and my Panzer IV platoon was able to kill one platoon of Panhards in shoot out that lasted several turns. I was bailed a few times but Domingo couldn't seem to make a fire power roll of 5+.
On the other side my Company commander was using a combination of carefully timed moves, and a lucky streak of storm trooper moves to shoot at the second platoon of Panhards while mover so that at least some of these would have to move to get clear shots. I was bailed several times but always managed to get back in. Finally I brought over a second Panzer IV and was able to kill or bail several Panhards. At this point with more than 6 turns played(probably about 8 actually) and with Demingo needing to go we called the game a draw.
This was definitely still any ones game Domingo had 4 panhards and two H39s on the board against my three Panzer IVs. French had the advantage in numbers but the Germans were all Vets and had a definite edge in maneuver though I was more or less pinned to the objectives at this point limiting the utility of my edge in maneuver. 
Honestly I thought I was in good shape, two objective near the fort and a lot of mobile assets to put pressure on Teds objectives... With delayed reserves I had to start with half my troops off the board. I deployed the Mountain guns and an infantry platoon with two HMGs and a 60mm mortar attached in the fort and another platoon and the 81 mm Mortors along the road outside the fort. The rest of my force was delayed..
I move the platoon out side the fort forward to spread them out a bit, I should have dug them in. on his second turn Ted got a tank platoon in range and lot loose with 17 MG shot! He also did some damage the boys int he fort with his air support. It was one of those games were I just could not make a saving throw. Ted even killed my CiC.
My mountain guns did knock out several panzer but with on Infantry platoon down and another blow half strength I was in serious trouble.Ted lauched an assult and killed my mortars and infantry in ranged. gun shots and air strikes took out ever one except the 2iC who move in to contest the objecive. |
| All By may self... |
Finaly my recon troops arrive but not close enough to help me.
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| $75.00 in free stuff from Adler Hobby and Battle Front! Got to Love this! |
I got in on the plastic action by picking up the Angles 20 starter set from Axis and Allies. You get a Spitfire, 2 Hurricanes, 2 ME-109s and a BF-110 along with tokens, a full set of game cards, two maps and a rule book, not a bad deal for about forty bucks. The planes are all the same scale as Battle Front so they can be used for air support in Flames of War too! Gordon and I did a quick demo game with may Spirfire flaming his Ace Me-109 in the first fire phase. The game plays quick and its should be a quick pick up for any one who enjoyed Axis and Allies War at Sea
Erica and Chris go in a game with Eric Rolled out his new Russian tanks against Chris' late war Poles. Looked like a fun game Chris was helping teach Eric and he went.
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| 1500 Points for Free French Senegalese Du Chad |
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| Captured Italian AA Guns with dismounted option |
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| Combat Reconnaissance with Dismounted Rifle MG teams |
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| That is a lot of trucks... |
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| More trucks I am especially pleased with these Italian 6 ton trucks. OK they are big for the job of hauling two mountain guns but the force need extra supplies! |
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| Side by side 1500 points of French and 1750 of Germans |
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| One of Chris' three Italian Falco fighters. Looks awesome but was easily driven off by my AAA |
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| For the up coming late war 'Red and Grey' league Eric did these IS-2 Joe Stalin tanks. The look great and I cannot wait to see them on the board. Gordon advised Eric on painting these the did a base green prime then applied painters tape and sprayed very lightly with white primer. The results are awesome. |
I had Senegalese du
Chad with 4 platoons of motorized infantry some light guns and a load of recon
trucks and armored cars. We did the hasty attack and since I was defender half
my men were off the board you can see my deployment to the left. 
Things started off fairly well with one of Chris' Motorcycle platoons
running up to range of one of two of my HMGS. Chris said he didn't see them and
took some devastating hits reducing his platoon to 3 leaderless stands. Chris
has always been quick to adjust to set backs and he quickly launched an attack
on the other flank using his tanks with motorcycle support to right hook me and
set himself up for a very successful assault. His tanks assaulted my front
while the motorcycles moved in behind me. While his tanks were not terribly successful
I failed the moral roll and caught between the two fires I lost most of that
platoon. My luck with reserve rolls was bad and Chris wiped out most of the
combat recon platoon that did show up with well aimed artillery. (and bad saves
on my part). I did shoot down both of Chirs' Falcos when they showed up. 
