Flames of War Battle Report – British 7th Armoured vs Panzergrenadiers

It’s been rather quiet around here recently, though thankfully it’s because I’ve been too busy prepping and painting miniatures and terrain for my first Flames of War game to actually make any posts!

Well now that’s over I can get back to keeping things up to date here.

Starting with a battle report from my first game yesterday. And what an awesome game it was.

James and I had been frantically painting little 15mm infantry figures and tanks for this first 600pt game. I’ve gone for the Germans as you will have seen from recent posts hereabouts and James is working on some rather nice British 7th Armoured Division

Lists were as follows:

German Gepanzerte Panzergrenadierkompanie

Company HQ

1 x Motorised Panzergrenadier Platoon (4 MG teams, 1 command SMG team, 251/1 half-tracks)

1 x Heavy Mortar Platoon (2 12cm mortar teams with spotter team in Kubelwagen)

1 x Anti-Tank Gun Platoon (2 Pak40 gun teams, Division Support)

Desert Rats, 1/7th Queen’s Rifles, B Company

CiC and 2iC Rifle Teams

2 x combat platoons (10 r/mg teams, PIAT, Lt. Mortar, Command Rifle)

1 x armoured support platoon (3x Cromwell IV and 1 Firefly VC)

We played a Free for All battle which saw us each placing an objective in the opposing deployment zone. I think the mission type actually calls for two but as we were playing a small learning battle we went for one apiece so we could actually defend as well as assault.

I set up with my AT guns on the road into the village, my mortars in half-track transports ready drive north up to the farmyard, and my panzergrenadier infantry in half-tracks on the Southern road.

The British had an infantry platoon in the woods next to the Axis objective, another infantry platoon heading from the East, keeping to fields and hedgerows for cover, and the tank platoon on the Eastern road – directly in my AT line of fire!

As the two forces became aware of each other the British tanks, siezing the initiative, frantically raced off the road. Unfortunately the Firefly Heavy Tank was not as nippy as the Cromwells and could not pull into cover behind village buildings before the Pak40 team could bring their guns to bear. A solid volley of shells penetrated the front armour and the Firefly was destroyed – first blood to the Germans, and a significant scalp.

The British Infantry continued to warily advance forward on the Southern flank, neglecting to march at the double. Meanwhile the German heavy mortar team made their way into the farmyard and began unpacking their 12cm Sgw43 Mortars. The panzergrenadiers stormed through the village heading toward the Axis objective in the North East.

Unfortunately for the Germans, the Cromwells veered off and headed North to intercept the German infantry in their half-tracks, forcing them to pull up short and take cover in the hedgerows. Guns barked from the tanks and one half-track was destroyed, along with the passenger infantry team riding inside.

This forced a hasty retreat by the Panzergrenadiers, leaving the Cromwells to advance through the Northern hedgerows. Their intent was to engage the northernmost German AT gun team and clear a cross-country route to the objective.

It turned out to be a successful tactic, with one Cromwell lost before the Pak40 team was destroyed. The tanks utilising the cover of the hedgerows to good effect, weathering most of the fire from the AT gun and sporadic but largely ineffectual mortar barrage coming from the farmyard.

While the tanks and AT guns were trading shells, the Panzergrenadiers had regrouped and swept round the south west side of the village to take the fight to the steadily advancing British infantry. Utilising their speciality of mounted assault from their half-tracks they plowed into the Tommies in the southern field. A couple of infantry teams were killed and the rest of the hardened but reluctant Brits were sent scattering back toward the cover of the hedgerows.

Foolishly though the Germans neglected to follow the basic principles of the assault and remained in their half-tracks. This allowed the allied troops to re-engage them as soon as they’d gathered their wits and the German MG teams could not bring all their firepower to bear in defensive fire. Both half-tracks were destroyed and only one leaderless MG team was able to bail out in time. The game was up for them though as the Cromwells had swept around behind in a pincer move and they were cut down as they attempted to flee the battlefield.

With German forces mostly decimated, the Cromwells turned their sights on the remaining opposition unit between them and their objective. They quickly dealt with the AT gun by flanking around it before it could turn to fire.

The Allied objective was captured and victory went to the Brits. Their advance into Fortress Europe continued apace.

~ by Max Von Deadlock on March 7, 2010.