Battle Report - Flames of War - Firestorm: Caen Turn 1

Bernhard and I decided to play in the Flames of War Caen campaign.

There are currently 50 FoW groups across the world participating in the campaign.

The first turn is a beach invasion using the Hit the beach mission. There are many special rules in this mission. Amphibious Assaults, D-day fortifications, Delayed Reserves, Interdiction, Overwhelming Force, No Retreat, No Surrender, Preliminary Bombardment, Prepared Positions, and Total Air Superiority.

Bernhard and I decided to do Juno Beach

Juno Beach

Allied forces are making progress on Juno Beach. As the Allied commander, your job is to break through against strong resistance to reinforce the established beachhead and provide room to land more troops and supplies on Juno Beach. For the German commander, your job is to retreat with your forces intact while maintaining control of key strategic locations. This mission is ideal for an Allied tank, infantry or mechanized force attacking a German infantry or mechanized force.

Allies are the attacker. Bernhard used an Assault Company

One of the Firstorm troops are already added on the list above. The list also has an additional Armoured Platoon.

Allied Firestorm Troops: 3rd Canadian Division-Confident Trained Rifle platoon with Command Rifle/MG, 6 Rifle/MG teams, 1 Piat team, 1 light mortar (all have sticky bombs, Special rules-Canadian) (or 100 points)

AND

2 Canadian Armoured Brigade-Confident Trained, 2 Shermans and 1 Firefly VC (Special rules: Canadian) (200 points)

For the German list I used a Fortified company.

To the list above I added the Firestorm troop. German Firestorm Troops: Confident Trained Grenadier Platoon with 1 command Panzerfaust, 4 Rifle/MG teams, 1 Pak40 (100 points)

I used my beach table that I had made earlier for the campaign we ran at the Ottawa Miniature Gamers OMG Forum

I set up the fortified platoon on the table and we were ready to play.

I have circled both objectives. The objective closest to the beach was placed by the attacker.

The first thing that happens in the hit the beach mission is a preliminary bombardment. Basically the attacker rolls for every Infantry and Gun team on the table. Bunkers (Nest and Pill box) can not be hit. The preliminary bombardment was relatively successful and took out two Infantry and one 10 cm howitzer.

After the preliminary bombardment the attacker rolls for direction of current then initiates the amphibious assault. The current will be going from left to right as viewed from the table above. The first turn the allies have to leave half there force in floating reserve. The allies had 11 platoons so 6 had to be in floating reserve. This meant that 5 landing crafts were sent to the beach. One failed to find the beach, one was swept by the current. This meant that 3 landed.

The Canadians landed the commandos, an infantry platoon, and the flails. At the end of the turn the Canadian landing craft try to return to the floating reserve. Two landing crafts failed to return, only leaving 3 landing crafts for turn 2. The first thing the Germans have to do on their turn is to unpin do to the effects of the preliminary bombardment. The fortified platoon was able to unpin, but the Artillery were too scared to man the guns. One the German turn the 8.8 Pak 43 pillbox opened up and destroyed one flail.

Turn 2 saw the Canadian advance on the beach. Two more landing crafts off loaded one infantry platoon and one AVRE platoon. These are bunker busters so this will start clearing obstacles. The Canadians were able to destroy a MG nest. To destroy this nest you need to make a skill test, then to consecutive fire power tests. On the German turn all the MG nests started firing. There are 5 remaining nests and one pillbox. The MGs managed to kill 8 Infantry and the 8.8 Pak 43 killed another flail.

Turn 3 saw the Canadians bring in their Crocodiles. This is a flame thrower tank that has front armour of 13. So only the 8.8 Pak 43 can take it out. The Canadians start using their AVRE to take out the barb wire and the first sortie of typhoon and the first Naval gun fire. Both the Typhoon and the Naval gun fire will be mostly ineffective during the entire game. When the Typhoon manage hits the guns were quick to get out of the way and avoid the effects. The Canadians take out one wire obstacle and the German MGs open up again and take out 4 Infantry stands. At this point two Infantry platoons failed their morale test and replacement were sent forward.

Turn 4 see the Canadians take out one more MG nest and the Germans with a lucky shot take out a Crocodile. With the distance the front armour of the Crocodile was effectively 14, so the armour save roll needed to be a one for the 8.8 Pak 43 to penetrate. This was a lucky shot because the Germans needed a 4+ to hit. 3 for a trained troop and 1 for the distance, then the Canadians needed to roll 1, which Bernhard did, then the 8.8 Pak 43 needed to get a 3+ for firepower test.

Turn 5 saw the Canadians take out one more MG nest and a wire obstacle. This will assist the infantry greatly, however there are still 4 left. The Germans were able to take out one Infantry stand and bail an AVRE. With four AVRE on making closing in, the Canadians should finally start making progress. The Germans were able to bring in some reinforcements. Two Marders are making their way to the front.

Turn 6 the Canadians took out one more wire obstacle and the Germans brought in more reinforcements. The Firestorm troop can be seen approaching the two story building and the Marders are hiding behind the same building.

Turn 7 the Canadians took out two more MG nests and are know making progress with the infantry. Most Shermans have been destroyed, but the Canadians still have 4 AVRE and one Crocodile operational. On the German turn they destroy 3 Shermans and one bulldozer.

Turn 8 was the last turn as we were running out of time. As can be seen the Germans have reinforcements arriving from the forest, there is another platoon in the two story building and the Marders are still alive and fighting. The Candain have only two AVREs left. The Germans managed to take out the last Crocodile and one more AVRE. The one MG nest, one MG pillbox, the 8.8 Pak 43 pillbox, and the 7.5 FK pillbox are still active. At this point we called it a day. The Germans were still contesting the Allied objective, but chances are the Canadians would have taken this. 

The final result was a 4-3 German Victory. It was a great game.