Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

Played an interesting game of Flames of War yesterday. Both my fellow players were named Frank. Made for an interesting moment of confusion when I said "I'll play on Frank's side". Brit's vs. Germans at I am guessing 2k points a side.

Let me be Frank...nope there are too many of them already... Yeah I am easily amused...

I decided to try my hand at the Brit's (German's can get boring at times). I ended up playing with Frank against Frank. Frank had the British left flank and I the right. Frank was the sole German commander.

Setup - Both sides made errors; Frank and I should have placed more infantry; Frank should have placed more armor.

The Game - Meeting engagement, standard setup, delayed reserves, scattered reserves. I hate scattered reserves, they never show up where you need them, which is suppose is the point. Despite the errors on both sides, us Brit's were ok, tactically.

The one problem was the German schewerePanzer Zug, i.e. Tigers. I love running Tigers... they have a psychological impact out of proportion to their actual effect on the battlefield. The standard way to deal with them is to smoke them, forcing them to move to shoot which reduces their ROF to 1. That simple tactic cuts their effectiveness in half. Problem is...you need something that can penetrate armor of 9/8.

So I am facing two Tiggers with three Shermans (75mm) and three Churchills (6 pdr.). Now the Churchill's armor is almost as good as the Tigers, but the gun is much worse. The math works like this:

Shooting at the Tiger: 10 AT vs. armor 9/8. Firing from the front has no chance of penetration, the best you can to is a bail. With protected ammo, you know he is getting back in on his turn (approx 9% chance of a kill with a side shot under 16").

Shooting at the Sherman: 13 AT vs. armor 6/3? You have to be at long range and roll an armor save of six to survive (approx 50% chance of a kill at long range).

Shooting at the Churchill: 13 AT vs. armor 9/7 (applique armor). Five at long range, a six under 16" will keep you safe (approx 20% chance of a kill at short range).

So...smoke and move...I lost all my tanks... But I held the Tigers off for five turns, and managed to finally kill one - Hurry for our side. Frank was upset... Frank was also happy...

When the surviving Tiger got across the board he ran smack into my infantry (w/piat). The infantry tied the him up for another three turns. At that point Frank had a platoon fall below half strength and auto-failed a company moral test (C-in-C killed in an assault with Frank's tanks).

And that as they say is that. Very tense game towards the end

Thanks to Franks for a good game.

Tim, they call him