This weekend LGC hosted its fourth Flames of War tournament - Dogs of War.
For something different compared to the usual "bring a list and your army", players circulated around the five tables with preset missions and armies. The event lasted over a weekend but I was only present for one (my brother Dead1 took over for Sunday's final two games.
The organisers and people who built the terrain had done a fantastic job. I hadn't played Flames of War for a couple of years but fully painted models and great terrain made it a fun day.
BATTLE OF FOY
I took control of the Yanks and had to push the Germans out of the town. I had Lieutenant Spiers sprint over to a pinned unit that under the scenario could only be unpinned by the officer.
A sniper shot rang out and killed Spiers before he could get there.
The rest of Easy Company slowly pushed through the German-infested town but the the rate of attrition was against the yanks. The arrival of Panthers did not help either!
A final and desperate push failed to gain any head way and the German held Foy.
5-2 Loss
WORLD WAR I
Having never played this period, I found this battle very interesting. I took command of the Germans who defended the trenches. Both sides included field guns and behemoths of tanks as support.
The attacking British split into two flanks and my HMG nests whittled them down. The tanks blasted at one another but failed to cause any damage whatsoever.
One flank of British wasted its entire time either pinned or struggling to cut through the barbed wire. The second flank managed to ultimately gap the wire and surge forward but Germans destroyed them. The scenario allows destroyed attackers to be redeployed and these continued what their former brothers in-arms failed to do. The British guns and tanks managed to take out one of the German trench guns and a small mortar team.
Even though the British finally managed to reach the German trench-lines, they ran out of time and the big push, at least in this sector, was called off.
4-3 Victory
NOMOHAN
In this scenario a massive horde of conscript Soviet infantry, along with two titanic land ships and ten T-26 tanks, swarmed at dug-in Japanese defenders. I took control of the Soviets but couldn't help but feel daunted on behalf of the Japanese.
Half of the Japanese force was in reserve, leaving only two infantry platoons and the Type 97 tanks guarding two objectives.
In the theory that the best form of defence is to attack, the Japanese tanks bravely drove towards the red horde and in their first salvo destroyed one of the two land ships. However the return fire during the next two turns destroyed the Japanese armour, their last couple of shots bailing out the remaining land ship.
My Soviets then threw themselves continually at the single Japanese infantry platoon on the closest objective. These Japanese defenders managed to stave off five individual assaults, including two by the mass of T-26’s!
Although reinforcements trickled in and time was about to run out, the objective was just secured in time by my Soviets.
6:1 Victory
MALEME
Dead1: "It started off badly for Germans - Fearless Veteran Fallschirmjager weren't able to beat up a small platoon of Confident Trained Brits who gutted a Fallschirmjager platoon.
And it got worse with Fallschirmjager units failing to unpin and then one of the reserve platoons losing half their number before entering the table due to casualties taken inbound. It took the Germans about 5 turns to make it about 18 inches to the objective at which point they had lost 4 platoons with fifth one reduced to two stands plus company HQ.
The Germans had one bit of luck - the 2 British Matildas refused to turn over for most of the game. By the time one finally started, the 4 remaining Fallschirmjager had managed to take the objective! Phew. Very historical result as the Fallschirmjager suffered catastrophic casualties in taking Crete."
4:3 Victory
IA DRANG
Dead1: "It started off with a failed Vietnamese assault on a single American platoon that saw 27 stands wiped out by combined infantry and helicopter support.
Vietnamese then started building up their forces and reinforcing their own objective despite harrasment by UH-1B gunships and 105mm artillery. The US infantry did nothing for most part until late in the game when a single American platoon moved towards the Vietnamese objective.
Any American casualties were negated by idiotic medic rules. Being completely unable to hit any US infantry (8 inch range plus Americans were hit on 6s only) the Vietnamese focused on taking out the helicopters. Both gunships and an observation helicopter were shot down. The Americans managed to gut some infantry and guns units but failed to make any serious inroads.
Essentially neither side had an incentive to move or do anything, just like the first time I played this scenario. FOW Vietnam is awful to play. In essence the myriad of special rules actualy accentuate the clumsier elements of the FOW rule set (essentiallyy pitting a near unkillable pure infantry company versus a pure infantry batallion with unlimited respawn), resulting in a game that is painful to play. Yuck! Shame as it was a pretty game.
Deadone thinks stuff like Vietnam is better handled by Force on Force which is designed around insurgency warfare."
Draw
Overall, Dead1 and I came third, tied with another player. Thanks to the organisers and sporting players for a good weekend.