Flames of War Milan Tournament – back in action!

The first step was to find a location with enough space: even if the law allows us to be closer, we still want to play safely with some distance between tables. For this reason, I found a 5-player soccer field (roughly the same area as a tennis field). We decided to do a Late war tournament – after all, during the pandemic BF released the , so we wanted to see them in action. Milan is in a central position for the whole of northern Italy, so we had 20 players coming from Pesaro to Switzerland, from Venice to Turin.

	Player	Army	Book and List
1	Bossi Alessandro	USA
2	Baroni Luca	Soviet
3	Bendotti Giorgio	German	Bagration: German
4	Celiani Marco	German
5	Cisotto Maurizio	German
6	Dal Dosso Andrea	Soviet
7	Gaddi Andrea	Soviet	Bagration: Soviet
8	Gotter Giacomo	Finnish
9	Moroni Gianluca	German
10	Paglianti Paolo	British
11	Papisca Luca	British	D-Day: British
12	Pozzi Diego	British
13	Regazzoni Stefano	British
14	Sana Manuel	German
15	Sandrini Mattia	German	D-Day: German
16	Simonetti Matteo	Soviet
17	Soncini Antonio	USA
18	Tiso Claudio	Soviet
19	Tonazzi Livio	Soviet	Fortress Europe: Soviet
20	Vinante Tiberio	German

A good diversity of lists, from the latest Soviet steel divisions from Bagration to “early” Fortress Europe older lists. We were going to play three games in a day, using .

The two infantry platoons will have the task to secure or defend the two objectives you normally find in More Missions. The British infantry is greatly improved by Canadian Relentless Card, so they do Rally tests 3+.

The twin WASP platoons, together with their big brothers from the AVRE, have the duty to kill infantry in holes and bunkers – lots of Italian players love to play with 88s in bunkers with the Pakfront card. The mortar platoon will be my only artillery – a hard decision, but since the plan will be to attack, artillery will be used to stomp defensive infantry, and I will help them with the aforementioned AVRE and WASPs. A single UV would act as scout when needed or cover with its machine guns the infantry advance.

In my opinion, if you are a British player, you should never leave home without two M10s platoons: their AT 14 guns are what we need to keep at bay heavy tanks, while Bofors will cover the air over our troops. Finally, can’t play without my new brand Typhoons I painted during the Pandemic. The thrill of the dice rolling to see if they answer our call at the start of the turn, the sound of their guns, and the explosions in the rear lines of artillery destroyed by the planes. Since I had one point off, I opted for a Lucky card, since as Murphy’s law explains brilliantly, bad luck hits when it can really hurt!

The overall plan was: attack, attack every time, and try to go for the objectives with the infantry. AVRE and Wasps would attack infantries in holes or bunkers, while M10s should target heavier tanks. A good plan, but will it survive the contact with the enemy?

Giacomo loves his Finnish army, and it’s the second time we meet on the battlefield – the last time was in a MID war tournament, with my 8th army against his Finnish (well, they were Germans with Finnish uniforms, as the book was not out yet). This time played on a table with dense vegetation and a river streaming from the two long sides.

Here is his list:

I attacked and he defended, so we ended up with Bridgehead mission.

Giacomo deployed his single infantry platoon between the two objectives I placed on the furthermost distance towards the table center. Behind the infantry, he positioned three platoons of 2 AT guns, a couple of machine-gun nests, and some artillery. Having “deep reserves” rule, he had to place almost all his tank units off tables. However, he used the four minefields to completely cut off the right side of the table.

When you have a plan, follow it: I deployed the first infantry platoon in front of the wood area with the two objectives, a true hedgehog of infantry and gun bases, with the mortars behind them. The second infantry was on its right, to threaten the rightmost objective.

On the left, I deployed the M10s – I already know they would be useless, at least until Giacomo’s tanks would not enter the field from reserves, the AVRE platoon close to the WASPs ones, and thanks to the scout spearheading, I even placed the Bofors in an advanced position. I rushed with infantry and WASPs towards the leftmost objective: I knew I had to sustain a dense fire coming from the wood, but sooner or later I would have to charge the objective. I had three turns with half of the Finnish army off table, so the faster my approach, the better. The infantry actually sustained some losses, but thanks to some small walls, they arrived in two turns very close to the Finnish line defending both objectives.

Giacomo was distracted also by the second infantry platoon, so he used part of the fire on them, and this was extremely good for me. I managed to move the WASPs with the cover of the wood itself out of the guns line of sight, and they began to fire on the infantry, together with the mortar platoon. Giacomo shot frantic against the AVRE, destroying the platoon with his guns, but this left untouched the WASP even when they had to emerge from cover. In a couple of turns, the Finnish infantry platoon was decimated, and I ultimately charged the remnants with my infantry, cutting them to pieces. The final score was 7-2, but great respect for a good player using an army he likes even if it’s not that performing.

Manuel is a very good player, we already crossed swords before the pandemic. His list has infantries and scouts in numbers, the ubiquitous 88 platoon with Pakfront card, and a single, indestructible Elephant. Here is his list:

We both attacked, so we had Counterattack mission, where I was the defender. Manuel had a plan similar to mine: he used the two infantries to charge towards the two objective, and I did the same – as defender, I had to clear both objectives, while he had to capture a single one. The left objective was guarded by a Canadian Infantry Platoon, the mortar platoon, the AVRE twin Churchills and the ambushed Bofors. My other infantry platoon together with the HQ and some WASPs headed for the other one, the faster, the better. Off in reserves, my M10s and the other WASP detachment.

The game was on the “urban” table, so plenty of places to shelter infantries, with lines of fire broken by buildings. Manuel had the initiative, but British infantry is very good in close fighting, so I rely on their abilities in close quarters to capture and defend objectives.

The battle immediately broke up in two halves. On the left, my AVREs move thru a small wood and began to shoot over the German infantry inside the building. The only other German unit insight was the Elephant, deployed insolently in the open since no one can kill it frontally.

The AVRE crew was particularly lucky as they managed to range in immediately and kill half platoon in a couple of turns. I didn’t have any specific reason to attack the infantry, but I wanted to lure Manuel and push him to use the Elephant to kill my AVREs. Manual felt in the trap and wasted a couple of turns shooting in the wood towards the AVRE, with no success. After that, he realized that he needed to capture the objective to win, so he moved the Elephant near the objective, and charged the mortar platoon. That was my turn to do a mistake: the mortar crew fight far worse than the Rifle infantry, so with no surprise, he managed to win the close combat and force me to evade. Thank God, I moved 15 cm away but still in range to control the objective. A couple of centimeters farther, and I would have lost the game.

On the other side, I got closer to the objective and took control of it. With some lucky shots from the mortars (before they would be charged by the Elephant) and sacrificing the WASPs, I destroyed half of the second German infantry platoon, greatly reducing its chances to attack my still intact infantry. Samuel threw in the Stugs, but they were promptly killed by the M10s as they entered on the flank from reserves.

However, Manuel is a very good and competitive player, so he used the German scouts to continuously attack my flank. He managed to destroy one of the M10 platoons and both the WASP platoons. He also used the HQ to threaten the objective.

In the last bound, the streets of the city were literally full of smoking wrecks. On the left, the Elephant was very close to the objective, so a final charge decided who would eventually hold it. The Canadian had the better luck and managed to repulse it 15cm far away.

On the right, the German player controlled the objective with a single scout platoon, on which I unleashed all the guns I still had: the PIAT, the planes, the few survived M10s. Luckily I killed them all despite the cover, and I was controlling both objectives. Tough game, 6-3.

Stefano is one of the best Italian-speaking players (he is from Switzerland but always come to Milan tournaments). Reflexive, serious, and mindful, but ready to take risks to win. We had very similar armies – both British infantries. However, he had three Desert Rat Motor platoons, with a better ROF but smaller numbers, and a single WASP unit. Here is his list.

The camp was full of bocage – we treated them as horizontal woods but with hardcover for infantries. I chose to attack and he maneuvered, so we ended up with Gauntlet, one of the new missions.

The two objectives were on the other side of the table, with Stefano deploying 60% of the army on the sides. I had my 60% in the center, rushing towards the objectives with immediate reserves, while Stefano had Deep scattered ones. Basically, I was literally in the middle of big problems.

I sent one of the platoons on the left objectives. Again, the plan was to use this as a diversionary attack to lure some of Stefano’s troops into that position. With a single platoon and the UV platoon, I was sure I couldn’t take and defend it effectively. The real attack was on the right objective, where I sent the infantry platoon with the HQ and the two WASP units, together with the AVRE. This time, I was the attacker and I had to clear only one objective, while Stefano had to hold both of them.

He deployed two small motor platoons to attack the left objective, with a UV platoon – my “decoy” flank. On the right, where I was counting to take the real fight, he poured almost all his army: another infantry platoon on M5 Halftracks, the M10s, the 3 Churchills, another UV unit. Almost same army, almost same plan. Since Stefano is so good, that was simply flattering for me!

The fight on the right was truly furious. He shot everything he had on the infantry I managed to place in some buildings on top of the objective. In three turns, he almost killed the platoon, so I decided to move the mortar guys just behind the houses, to take place of the frontal infantry platoon when, sooner or later, it would be wiped out by the mass fire. However, thanks to the WASPs and I destroyed all Stefano’s infantry.

On the left, meanwhile, we began a duel with UVs and infantries hidden behind the bocage. I crossed the bocage and shot some of them in the back, with no hardcover. Stefano did the same with some of his Motor Rifles, so we literally butchered each other. However, my planes come in help and gunned some more infantry, and that gave a boost to the flank. Having a big platoon testing 3+ for the Rally instead of two smaller testing 4+ or 5+ for the morale, helped a lot and on the sixth bound Stefano had no infantry survived on the whole field, while mine was still good on the left, and still surviving on the right (2 HQ, 2 infantry testing each turn, 4 mortars). Stefano concentrated all his units to shoot on the right-most unit to take the objective. Doing that, however, he left the other objective held only by a single UV unit.

In my turn, I shoot everything I had, included 4 M10s arrived some turns before from the reserves, my PIAT, my planes on them, bailing two Universal Carries. Finally, I charged the single surviving UV and destroyed it, winning the hardest battle fought in the last months. 8-1, but I really feel this score doesn’t reflect how hard the battle was fought: I had three platoons with only one surviving vehicle since I managed to pass all Morale tests in the last few bounds.

We had a cup for the first five players, and also cups for the first three players of the 2019-20 Flames of War Championship – interrupted by the COVID pandemic.

We also had a painted bunker as a prize for the player arriving from the farthest place, our friend Gianluca Moroni from Pesaro, and a random prize (also painted by me!) of four Panzer IVs randomly assigned and won by Diego Pozzi. Finally, a prize for the only Finnish army, so brave to face many powerful lists with such small tanks – and I swear I prepared the prize *before* I knew I was playing against him!