War in the desert - Flames of war AAR

My friend Tobias and I played two Flames of War games last Saturday and here are a small aar of one of the games.

It felt like ages since I last played Midwar in fow (my favorite) so this was lots of fun.

My German Africa Panzer force was up against an American Tunisia mechanized infantry company with strong tank support in form of Shermans.

 

My list was as following  - 1605pts

Cmd Pz IV E
2ic Pz IV E

3x Pz IV G
2x Pz III L, 1x Pz III J(late)

5x Pz IIF

2x 88 heavy AA guns with extra crew

Limited Air support of Bf 109E

(wrong tactical numbering for an Pz IV, I know.)

With only half our forces deployed at the start of battle and I got a clear sight of the dreaded Sherman platoon (those are some nasty tanks in midwar). 

I knew I wanted to try to take them out early, so the 88s was deployed to handle them as well as the Pz III to try to outflank and close in on them with my shorter cannon range.

Things started good with the 88s destroying two of the Shermans and bailing a third.

My Pz III didn´t do squat but the Messerschmitt nailed one Sherman.

The concentration of firepower against one unit started really good with only one Sherman left in that unit and he was bailed out.

I was allowed one reinforcement and chose the Pz II unit as I intended these for anti infantry duty and thought to keep the Pz IV off board until I knew where his next Sherman platoon would arrive so I could counter it.

The Pz III and my Second in command with his Pz IV have taken up fire positions behind a small ridge.

And opened up fire against the surviving Sherman that managed his bail out test and had moved backwards and taken cover next to his 2iC and one objective.

This resulted in a very strange happening, with four hits from my tanks he rolled four 2s resulting in a lot of bailed out results because of the range (6armour+1 for range +2 for the dice against my at9). And as he was rated as “confident” surly he would have to fail atleast one of the test and leave the battle…
No, not a chance… He managed to keep calm and remained on the battlefield.

Meanwhile on the other side of the table the Pz II platoon and my Commander in his Pz IV tank raced between covers to not give his 37mm gun any targets as I closed in on the objective and the enemy platoon guarding it.

In an attempt to get a clear side shot on the last Sherman my 2iC had ventured a little too far and when his reinforcements of four brand new Shermans arrived they could see no better target then my lone Pz IV tank…
At least I managed to take out that lone Sherman.

With an combined fire from my 88s, my Pz II and my commanders Pz IV I managed to take out the 37mm gun and the bazooka teams as well as inflicting some casualties on the American grunts to.

After the anti tank gun threats was neutralized I closed in and with gunz blazing I assaulted and routed the infantry.

This put me on top of the objectives but I knew I was to expect a enemy reinforcement before this game was over.

Now happened what I only could describe as a Napoleonic tactics… Arranging the troops in a sort of fireline. Oh well Flames of war is just a game, with some ww2 toys in it. 

The infantry reinforcement did arrive but didn´t do enough damages to push me from the objective.

A victory for the Deutches Afrika Korps.