Total War

FoW: Total War
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

We've put together a few Flames of War games since our primary driver has moved on. One thing that was irritating me was how much support stuff I was putting on the table to fill out points. Eventually, I started to think about using multiple companies per side, to consume points with company level troops and using fewer points for support. Then I bought Das Book, and found the rules for Total War, which are essentially that.

In my mind, ideally, you'd choose companies that would naturally be found together. For example, for this game, the Germans were a Panzer company and a Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier company. Obviously, they could be a kampfgruppe from the same Panzer division. It didn't have a whole lot of support, either...a pair of heavy 15.5cm infantry guns and a recon platoon.

On the US side, we had a company of Shermans and my recently painted 29th infantry making their debut. Again, could be the 29th supported by armor just post D-Day. They had priority air support and some tank destroyers.

All in all, it was a fun match up. It was about 2,500 or so points (we kind of estimated down a little bit from the initial build up of 3,100), playing the Total War scenario on my 8'x5' table divided diagonally. The US defended with their infantry dug in on the left, the closer front, and the tanks on the right. The Germans split their panzers and supported their left.

It was a stalemate for several turns, with the Germans claiming an objective in front of the US infantry, and the Shermans going face to face with the Panzer IV platoon to take an objective of their own. Each Pz IV platoon was reinforced by one of the command Panthers, though, and things started to turn around for the Germans! The American Sherman commander-- yours truly-- tried to take advantage of the fact that in Total War, you continue to receive Victory Points for Objectives you've taken, even if you move on, until the enemy actually takes them. With that in mind, I sent my remaining Shermans off their objective and into the woods, routing a Pz Gndr platoon and giving me cover for a flanking movement on the Panther and remaining Pz IV. However, the Germans darted forward and took the objective! Sneaky Boche! I managed to get the one Sherman which could reach the objective in place-- only to realize he was a command Sherman and didn't actually contest the objective. The Germans went up 1 VP that turn, giving them the win.



Oh yeah, baby! Two Sherman platoons with priority P-47 support vs. one Pz IV platoon! These are odds I like!



The Americans hold on the left while the Sherman OP calls down fire on the German tanks.



Hmmmmm...two to odds in my favor, but I'm taking one to two losses against me...this isn't quite what I wanted to see!



The American tank destroyers go all in trying to drive the Germans off the objective they held on the left.



The German recon platoon keeps the American infantry out of the middle of the city with their four MGs.



The infantry moves forward to try and contest the left objective.



The tank battle on the right gets ugly. The Panther AT value is a WHAT?!!?



I'm not too worried about those pesky little infantry guns moving up-- as soon as my brilliant flanking maneuver is completed and I wipe out these Panzers, they'll be easy to clean up.



Ah, yeeeeah....shouldn't have left that objective, should I?



Tanks scramble, the infantry guns opens up-- but I'm on the objective!! ...with my company commander...



The American infantry contests the objective on the left, but without matching effort on the right, the Americans fall 17-16.