An even bigger Flames of War game

It was a gaming weekend at the Defenders club in Broughton a couple of weeks ago.  This gave the opportunity for a large Flames of War game to be organised with 10 players, 5 Soviets and allied Romanians taking on 5 Germans.  An interesting confrontation then between Romanian Panzer IVs and German Panzer IVs.  I found myself on the right flank of the German line next to Adam, Ben, Dave and Ian with Phil and his Jagdtigers as overall commander and fire brigade.  Opposite were Luke, Pete, Martin, James and another Ian (I think).  Germans each had 2000 points and the Russians I think had 3000 points.

Views of the battlefield looking towards the Soviet table edge, moving along the table from German left to right.  The left flank, scene of some hot PzIV on PzIV action.

 Centre of the table.

 Ruined factory

 German right flank with blitzed town

   
Looking along the table from the German right, Germans on left, Soviets on right.

 The opposite end of the table.

The situation at lunchtime.  Three turns in and the Romanians and Germans were having at it with relish on the German left, but Luke's cunning plan for the Soviets was to refuse the German right and make a concerted push on the German left and centre.  This meant my Grenadier company was able to occupy the ruined town with ease and set up a PAK front with 88s and Adams PAK40s.  Unfortunately, we had little to shoot at.

 Lunchtime on the German left with PzIVs on both sides.  Ian had some misadventures with no AA on table to prevent a Sturmovik strike, which was pretty devastating, and an even more devastating artillery bombardment, which destroyed a Panther platoon.  Fortunately, Phils Jagdtigers stabilised the situation.

 The fighting about to get messy between Romanians and their former German allies.

 Dave's sector of the German front, note the T34s lined up in the middle distance.  These were supposed to be sweeping around having despatched Ian and Dave's forces and rolling up Ben, Adam and yours truly.  Unfortunately, the T34 commander hadn't had enough Vodka and steadfastly stood firm trading shots at a distance with the better armed German tanks.  I suspect the NKVD will be making a visit soon.

 Adam and Ben making a concerted effort to secure the objective by the big house on the road towards the left of the view, with Adams grenadiers having secured the ruined factory objective.

Close of play, with my grenadiers still having little to do, despite the late appearance of some lend lease Churchills and T34s to give me something to shoot at.







 On the left flank, the fighting was intense, with lots of scrap metal to deal with after the war.

 Final view of the ruined town that my grenadiers held, pretty much uncontested throughout the game.

All in all a fun game.  Luke's plan could have worked well, but the T34s seemed reluctant to get stuck in and the brunt of the fighting fell to the Romanians.  Phil's use of his heavy cats as a fire brigade worked really well and they were able to add stability wherever they were committed although they remain surprisingly vulnerable to artillery.  A great game and a big thank you to all involved.

Thanks for looking.