Flames of War Firestorm BAGRATION Turn 4 Battle Report

Last Sunday we played the last turn of the BAGRATION campaign. The club had enough players for 5 games. Before turn 4 the Germans had 90 victory points. I had made a mistake in my last report. I had added two destroyed units for the Soviets, but it was actually for the Germans. This turn there were three German and one Soviet city up for grabs, so if the Soviets wanted to win they needed to win some of these games.

These were the battles

As mentioned only battles 1 to 5 were fought.

These were the battle assignments

Battle 1 was for the City of Minsk. The mission was Bridgehead. This was worth 80 points. The soviets brought a tank force and the Germans were defending with Carias (Grenadiers with Tigers).

This was the start state

The Germans only have two infantry platoons on the table (Blue circles) and two Tigers. The battle plan for the Soviets is to concentrate on the left flank. Tank force 1 with 9 T34-85 will be doing a left flank, while tank force 2 (2 IS-02s) will be moving straight up the road to keep the Tigers busy. Tank force 3. (5 T34/85s) was sneeking up on the Tigers, but had to stay out of range of the Infantry. The red dash line is five SU-100 that had a range of 40 inches that had the mission of taking out the Tigers at long range. They have cat killers so they get to re-roll misses over 16 inches.

The first turn went mostly in the favour of the Germans. The Soviets tank force 1 and 3 moved up at cross country dash speed so could not fire. The IS-02 moved up at slow speed, but since the only have rate of fire 1 they needed a 6 to hit. (4 for Tigers in the open, +1 long range, and +1 for ROF 1 on the move) The Arty decided to shot in direct fire at the buildings and also missed. So the move up went as planed, but no Soviets manage to destroy anything. On the German turn the Infantry remained gone to ground. The Arty opened up on Tank Force 3 but did no damage. The Tiger however opened up on the IS-02 and destroyed 1. The second decided that they should live for another day and left the battle field. They are suppose to be fearless.

The second turn saw the soviets advance at Dash speeds again. The Arty decided to range in on the German Infantry in the field. The Germans Tigers used blitz move to move a little further from the SU-100s but still were not far enough. The score to hit the Tigers on turn 1 was 7, but it was reduced to 6 for this turn as they were no longer gone to ground. This is when the tide turned. The Germans had no luck with the Tigers and the sprung the ambush with 3 Pak 40s but only manage to kill one Soviet tank and bail two others. The SU-100s managed to kill one Tiger.

Turn 3 Saw the Soviets take out all the Pak 40s, the remaining Tiger and most of the Infantry on the objective. The Germans decided to move up the Infantry platoon in the ruins. You can see at the top of the picture the third infantry platoon come in from reserves. Unfortunately this was in the wrong spot. These were scattered reserves and Bernhard rolled for them to arrive right in-front of the SU-100s.

Turn 4 was the last turn. The last German reserve platoon was the Panthers, but unfortunately the scattered reserve had them arrive on the other side of the table. Too late to help take the objective back. The Soviets won a 8 to 1 victory taking Minsk (80 victory points)

Battle 2 saw Duncan versus Mike for the city of Orsha. The result was a 8 to 1 victory for the soviets taking Orsha for 50 victory points. Here are some pictures of the battle.

Battle  3 saw Jeff play against Jay for the city of Vitebsk. The game lasted 9 turns and saw the Germans (Jeff) win on the last turn. A 6-3 victory. So the Germans recaptured the town of Vitebsk for 40 victory points.

Here are some pictures.

Battle 4 saw John (Soviets) against Chris (Germans) for the city of Vilina. John had a Soviet guard tank list against German SS Coy with Tigers. John made a brave advance, but the German firepower was eventually too over powering. This was a German 8  to 1 victory. So the Germans retained the town of Vilina.

Here are some photos. As you can see the T34/85 and IS-02s are starting at the bottom of the map had have to make it all the way to the top.

Battle 5 saw Kevin (Soviets) attacking Martin (Germans) for Lepel worth 10 victory points. Kevin brought a Soviet tank hoard versus a German SS company. The battle ended after 2 or 3 turns and the Soviets complete over ran the German defences. This resulted in a 7 to 2 Soviet victory.

Here are some photos.

So this is the end of the campaign. The colour map looks like this.

The end result after 22 battles. The Soviets won 14 and the Germans won 8. In total the Soviets took 9 of the 14 victory point objectives. The soviets captured 3 Firestorm units and the Germans captured 3 Firestorm units. The end result is 110 Victory points in favour of the Soviets, so this is a Soviet Operational Victory. It is the same outcome as WW2.

13 club members participated. (Duncan M, Duncan A, Serge, Jeff, Kevin, John B, Chris C, Nick, Mike, Bernhard, Jay, Stan, and Martin)

The top five Generals were

Duncan M, Soviets, 3 battles, 100%

Serge, Soviets, 5 battles, 80 %

Jeff, Germans, 4 battles, 75%

Duncan A, Soviets, 3 battles, 66 %

Kevin, Soviets, 3 battles, 66%

Thanks for everyone that participated.