Flames of War - Desperate Measures in 20mm

I guess like most wargamers I find it hard to settle on a default set of rules for a period.



I was very excited when Battlegroup Kursk rules came out, they gave me the granularity of infantry section tactics and battle drills that I craved - surely these would be my default set of 20mm rules for small-medium sized games?



But their artillery rules are so convoluted - it feels like being back on an Artillery acquaint course at the School of Artillery at Larkhill! And, if I'm honest with myself, no matter what my good intentions, I do seem to always end up 'going large', whatever rules I use!



So I think for now I'm going to trial using Flames of War rules for my 20mm games as well as for my 15mm games. Simple and fast to use, and, in my opinion, generally giving an outcome that is credible and authentic. And of course very popular and well supported.

Somewhere in NE Germany, April '45 - looking south east

My default playing surface is 12 x 6 foot, and in past experiments with using FOW with 20mm, I had simply doubled the ground scale - effectively only giving myself a 3 x 6 foot table, for a rather cramped scenario.

Now looking due west...

The purpose of this game was to trial only increasing the ground scale by 50%, which corresponds better to the relative increase in model scale, and is hardly more taxing on my mental arithmetic - infantry movement goes from 6 to 9 inches, most tank gun ranges from 32 to 48 inches. And my table now covers, in 15mm terms, 4 x 8 foot - plenty large enough for all FOW scenarios!

The 'liberators' form up...

I quickly cobbled together a 'No Retreat' scenario that would give this ground scale a good test - lots of artillery and armour! Desperate Measures covers the tank battles of Eastern Germany from Jan - April '45, and would be ideal!

Advance to Contact!

The attackers would be a Soviet Tankovy Batalon of 2550 points (told you I like to go large!)



The backbone being a couple of companies of T34-85 with tankriders, but supported by a platoon of SU85s, 



Guards IS-2s, 



and a small troop of ISU-152 assault guns...

The German Panzer Kampfgruppe of 2475 points consisted mainly of 2 platoons of Panthers,

A pair of JagdPanthers,

And a mixed armoured artillery battery of 2 x 105 Wespes and 3 x 150 Hummels,

With the PBI represented by a platoon of Volksgrenadiers,  

armed with a variety of light AT weapons.

The objective was the crossroads in the village, upon which the German company commander sat inside his Panther, making a total of 6 of these beasts, against 16 T34-85s...



But of course the Germans were confident veterans, with the exception of the 'Trained' Volksgrenadiers, and they had Oberst Hans-Ulrich Rudel in his Ju-87G Stuka...



The defenders were deployed first. Siting the rifle pits and artillery was fairly straight forward, dotted around the objective in all round defence, with the SPs close enough to intervene with direct fire if things got a little emotional...

But where to spring the Panther platoon ambush? In the churchyard facing across the flank of the likely approach route?

Or in the orchard facing the exit from the treeline?

I decided to follow the intent of the rules and leave it till the enemy forced an obvious choice - easy to do in a solo game! The other 2 platoons were off table as reserves.

Then the Soviet hordes came on, up the middle and off on their left flank through the woods...

However Rudel was soon on scene...

But only managed one kill despite the target rich environment!

The hordes were coming on...

And no German reserves came on for the first round...The company commander ordered his driver to stalk the Befehlpanzerwagon forward to the edge of the village - when the rush came every tube would count!



On and on they poured - Stalin's River of Heroes!



But the second German reinforcement roll was a game changer - two platoons could come on!

It was also high time to spring the ambush, from a fog shrouded fold in the ground that just gave a modicum of cover - it all helps!

So with the Jagdpanther platoon advancing to contact, that was all the German platoons on and soon to be in the fight!

And Rudel was getting his eye in - this time a double bullseye, including one of the scary ISU-152s!

The Panther ambush thinned the leading cohorts of the T34-85s emerging from the woods...

Whilst the Jagdpanthers reaped a harvest with their 88mm cannons:

At this point the Soviet company commander was in a quandary:



- use the guns to lay smoke, or continue targeting the infantry around the village, which were proving hard to range in on?



But there was only one answer - he couldn't send his tanks into the village against unsuppressed infantry armed with panzershrecks and fausts! Eventually the range was found and both batteries hammered the front edge of the village...



The armoured columns pressed on, their 85mm shells mostly just bouncing off the Panthers...

Predictably, Rudel continued to reap his deadly harvest...

Closing on the objective, the Soviet armour was now within effective range of the Panthers...

 And Jagdpanthers, and it was telling...

The left flank advance ground to a halt in a twisted mass of flames and molten metal...

And the centre advance had also reach tipping point, although it passed motivation - this time!

 

A further exchange of gunnery proved the advantage of the 88mm L71 and the 75mm L70 over the 85mms once again, and the final Soviet tank company withdrew...

And what did I conclude about only increasing the ground scale by 50% ? Well in any wargame, objectively, ground scale, compared to model size, is ridiculous - 1/72th of a 88mm/L71s effective range - call it a conservative 2,000 meters - would need a table accommodating 27 metres! So you have to fall back on your subjective instinct - did it look and feel right?

Oh yes!