Fog of (Late) War - Eastern Front

I recently played a game of Flames of War V4 using Soviet and German forces from Armies of Late-War. However to mix it up I also applied selected objectives from the Fog of War objective card deck, to a base scenario of Free for All.

The table was 10 x 6 feet and laid out to represent a small town and environs somewhere in Poland or Western Russia in early June 1944. The town was small but had a large marshalling yard, which was overshadowed by a large hill. A small river run though the table which could be forded by vehicles on a cross check.

With my limited LW resources, I put together two 2,000 point forces, being careful to allow the Soviets a scout force so they could have a bash at the Scout Town or Forest objective:

The Panthers are a mix of Plastic Soldier Company and Battlefront, and are slightly different sizes, but actually, once painted up with a disruptive camo pattern, its hard to spot the difference.

My Peter Pig assault rifleers are standing in for more conventional Rifle/MG teams, and until Battlefront produce plastic Wespes or Hummels - (the latter possibly  being released late this year), my trusty PP Nebs will have to suffice for German artillery support!

 The four objectives were placed:

And the Sovs rolled attacker and so deployed first - concentrating the infantry, tanks,and artillery on the town, with only the scout platoon detached to the other end of the table to defend the other soviet laid objective.

The assault guns and heavy mortars deployed on the track which also led into the town.

The Germans also deployed directly opposite the town, detaching only their Nebs further along the table to cover their objective and provide overall coverage.

It was pretty clear there was going to be an armoured knife fight in the streets of the town...

Probably not the best use of armour!

Since the Russians had much more infantry than the Germans, fighting in the town would probably play to their strengths... 



Nonetheless, the Germans barrelled on, the Panthers heading straight into the heart of town...



the Pz IVs branching off into the marshalling yard to where the objective was.

However, the Soviet SU-100 assault guns got to the edge of town first, setting up nice covered fire positions...

 

And in a uncharacteristic roll of a handful of sixes, wiped out an entire Panther platoon!



This was a devastating blow for the Germans...

Since the heavies weren't even playing yet!

Nothing daunted, the Panzer IV platoon pressed on though the marshalling yard on to the objective, which however was contested, since the Soviet riflemen had dug themselves in throughout the yard and surrounding buildings.

Whilst the surviving Panther platoon, minus one, desperately held onto its position in the main street to prevent the Pz IVs being flanked...



It didn't help that a roving flight of Sturmoviks pounced on the German formation commander, who had been on his way to the forest to contest that objective...

That put a crimp in his plans...

Whilst the PzIVs were doing surprisingly well in their duel with the IS2s, a Soviet rifle assault pushed back the German grenadiers who had been protecting them...

And the IS 2s eventually broke the Pz IV platoon and it was game over for the Germans - another small piece of Eastern Europe liberated for Stalin!

An enjoyable and smoothly flowing game of V4, the mission enhanced made subtly more interesting through the use of balanced objective cards.

I really like the Armies of Late War book - now I just need to get sorted with a wider choice of forces - including finally assembling my boxes of T34-85s which have been gathering dust for ages!