Joel is potentially going to a tournament this weeknd, so I offered to play him in a game of Flames of War to help him practice. I’m no great opponent, but I thought it would help. We played with the same armies as last ime, but we played the Breakthrough mission. I ended up being the attacker and he the defender. He chose his deployment quarters and I chose to deploy on my side of the table in the right-hand quarter. Because of the mission rules, Joel was in Prepared Positions which allowed me, being British, to use the Nightfighting rules.
Here’s the list I used:
- Rifle/MG Platoon (3 sections)
- Rifle/MG Platoon (3 sections)
- HMG Platoon (2 sections)
- Mortar Platoon (2 sections)
- Universal Carrier Patrol
- Wasp Carrier Patrol
- Churchill Crocodiles
- M10C 17pdr Platoon (1 section)
- 6 pdr anti-tank Platoon (2 sections)
I put the Wasps, the 6 pdr’s, and the HMG Platoon in Delayed Reserves, per the mission rules. I placed the objectives in the two opposite corners of the available area so one is closest to my deployed force and the other is near where the Reserves will arrive.
The Nightfighting rules were both a boon and a curse. The limited movement kinda sucked, the rolling for distance a platoon can see was annoying when I rolled low (per the usual), and having all his units Concealed was pretty bad for me. On the up side, he had to roll for distance as well.
I started out moving my units around and through Recon move and normal movement, was able to get the Universal Carriers in range of an enemy Rifle platoon. I fired all the shots and killed no one. I tried firing the M10 17pdr’s at the Shermans, but failed to do any damage at all. The PIAT from a Rifle platoon fired at the Shermans as well, but failed to do any damage either. I then fired smoke from the mortars at the Shermans. I now know that one has to fire smoke first if any smoke is to be fired at all. On Joel’s turn, he moved the Rifle platoon in danger from the Universal Carriers back toward the objective. He also moved the Shermans in that direction as well. Some shooting happened, but nothing too devastating.
The next turn, I moved the M10s closer to the Shermans, moved the Universal Carriers and the Crocs nearer to the Rifle platoon, and moved my Rifle platoons around. The M10s again fired at the Shermans and did nothing, the UCs fired into the Rifle platoon killing maybe 1. The Crocs fired their .50 cals into the same platoon and did minimal damage. This seemed to be the theme of my game; either I’d roll badly for distance or my attack rolls would do poorly.
I kinda get fuzzy about the middle part of this game. I finally got my Reserves with the MMGs showing up first, followed by the Wasp Carriers the following turn. The turn the MMGs showed up, they decimated the Rifle platoon Joel was using to hold the objective. In the meantime, the Crocs tried to deal with his 6pdrs in the woods and failed to ever do any damage. I lost a good portion of a Rifle platoon to his own MMGs and another good portion of the other Rifle platoon to his artillery. The Wasps wiped out half of another Rifle platoon he was using to hold the second objective. I failed to do enough to make the unit test, however. The Crocs worked on the other half of the platoon and eventually wiped them out. He moved his Shermans closer to that objective to contest it. His 6pdrs were able to destroy one Croc and Bail another. His reserves that finally showed up managed to wipe out a Rifle platoon as well.
Now, here is my big mistake in this game. I decided to have the MMG platoon disembark from their Carriers as I thought they were vulnerable inside them. As it turns out, I was wrong. He ended up using his artillery and Shermans to wipe out that unit, making me give up control of it.
Due to time, we called the game at this point. I believe Joel would have won this game given another turn. I made a couple of big mistakes that screwed things up a bit. As I already pointed out, I should have left the MMG platoon inside their carriers and held the objective. I also should have let the Crocs move alongside a Rifle platoon and act as support. I also should have used one of the flamers from the Crocs to work on the 6pdr unit.
The game could have gone better for me, but the best thing is I think I’m catching onto the rules. I didn’t have too many basic questions and I think I played a pretty decent game. I know I’ll get better over time and I might actually play in a tournament one day. I’ll probably challenge someone else at the store to a game or two, just to broaden my Flames of War experience too.
