Tournament Report Flames of War at WOLFKRIEG 2021

By Howard West

Hard Knox Games located in Elizabethtown, KY hosted a Flames of War Tournament on March 13th, 2021 as part of WOLFKRIEG 2021. This year due to the state of Kentucky’s COVID-19 event size restrictions WOLFKRIEG 2021 was been broken into two consecutive weekends. Weekend #1 for Wolfkrieg 2021 took place, March 13th, 2021 was Flames of War and March 14th was Team Yankee. This report covers the Flames of War for weekend #1.

Hard Knox Games has been hosting small gaming tournaments during COVID based on the state of Kentucky’s COVID-19 guidelines that are in place at the time of the event. Chad and the team at Hard Knox have a great store and is like walking into the vendor area at a gaming convention. This is the 12th year that WOLFKRIEG has taken place.

Tournament Info

For this tournament Chad (TO & Ringer) provided the entrants with the following information: 105 points, 3 rounds, GERMANS vs SOVIETS all three rounds where possible, More Missions Book will be used, players will pick their stance for each round, after all players have chosen their stance the TO will roll one die to determine the mission for that round. 16 players played in this tournament and we had 8 Red and 8 Blue players for each round. The tournament had a East Front Theme, Army books and lists where limited to that front. Lists may be chosen from the Soviet or German portion of Fortress Europe, from either of the Bagration books, or from either of the D-Day German books. German Command cards may not feature captured American or British equipment from the D-Day sources. Chad worked with any player that wanted to build a list out of German Bagration book, since the store had a copy of the new book and cards.

My List

For this tournament, my list was a Soviet T-34 Hero Battalion. I have used various versions of this list before and the major change for this tournament was adding the Decoy Panther Tank Company. My list consisted of: T-34(76-HQ), 3 T-34(2-76 & 2-85) Companies, ZSU M17 Anti-aircraft Platoon, Hero SMG Company, 82mm Mortar Company, ZIS-2 57mm Anti-tank Platoon, in support I added a Hero Motor Rifle Company, I also used 2 RPG-6 Anti-tank Grenades and Decoy Panther Tank Company cards.

Game#1

Game #1 was vs Brian and the mission was BREAKTHROUGH.

Brian’s list consisted of : D-Day German Armored Panzergrenadier Company,

• 2 HQ SMG w/251, Armored Panzergrenadier platoon full w/shrek, Panzergrenadier platoon full w/shrek,
• 6 Stummel 25/9s, 4 8cm 251/2 Armored Mortars,
• 3 Tigers, 3 250 recon platoon, four Flak 88s with Pak Nest Card,
• Kurt Knispel Card,
• 9th Panzer Division Rebuilding Card,
• 3 Tigers, 3 250 recon platoon,
• 4 Flak 88s with Pak Nest Card,
• Kurt Knispel Card,
• 9th Panzer Division Rebuilding Card.

 

My plan was to advance my T-34 companies across the road and clear part of Brian’s 88 pak front and then make a right turn and work thru the buildings and clear out his tracks along the table edge. While this was happing I wanted my infantry to work their way thru the woods and then assault the German infantry holding the woods.

My reserves consisted of my Decoy Panthers and my ZSU M17 Anti-Aircraft Platoon. For some reason I decided not to continue with the plan after Brian deployed his ambush consisting of Sdkfz251 75mm SP Gun Platoon, and retired my tanks up over the hill on my base edge. My infantry tried several assaults’ against his infantry in the woods and where repulsed.

The game ended after turn 6 when I did not have any active teams near the objective and was a 8-1 win for Brian.

Game#2

Game#2 was vs Chad and the mission was COUNTERATTACK.

• Chad’s list consisted of : D-Day German Armored Panzergrenadier Company,
• 2 HQ SMG w/251, Armored Panzergrenadier platoon full w/shrek,
• Panzergrenadier platoon full w/shrek,
• 6 Stummel 25/9s,
• 4 8cm 251/2 Armored Mortars,
• 3 Tigers, 3 250 recon platoon,
• 4 Flak 88s with Pak Nest Card, Kurt Knispel Card, 9th Panzer Division Rebuilding Card, 3 Tigers, 3 250 recon platoon,
• 4 Flak 88s with Pak Nest Card, Kurt Knispel Card,
• 9th Panzer Division Rebuilding Card.

My plan for this game was the KISH (Keep it simple Howard). This is plan #1 out of my Soviet book of plans aka the hammer plan.

Take the whole army and go after the objective in his deployment area and hopefully you have something left before his reserves can come into play. I did leave my 57mm anti tank gun unit on my left flank of my deployment area to cover the advance and hopefully stop or slow down his reserves. My 2 Infantry Companies where tasked to take the buildings and progress towards the objective, while my 82mm mortar battery would be shelling the German Infantry platoon holding the objective.

The pic above sort of shows Chad placing his STUG ambush in the wood on his left flank. Chad’s ambush did great damage the turn it arrived, the next several turns both sides  exchanged shots. His reserves arrived and where intercepted by my 57mm ATG and Hero Motorized Riffle Company. My my shear volume of shots eventually broke his army. The game ended a very painful 6-3 win for the Soviets.

Game#3

Game#3 was vs Lawrence Sr. and the mission was FREE FOR ALL. 

• Lawrence’s army consisted of German MKIV Company with
• MKIV HQ Platoon,
• 2 MKIV Tank Platoons,
• 1 Tiger I platoon,
• Flak 88 Platoon and
• 1 SDKFZ 7 flak platoon.

My plan for this game was the KISH(Keep it simple Howard). This is plan #2 out of my Soviet book of plans aka the modified hammer plan. This plan entails leaving enough troops near one of my objectives to hold it while the rest of the army advances to take the opponents 2nd objective at the opposite end of the board.

I held the left flank Objective in my deployment area, with my Decoy Panther Company and my ZSU M17 Anti-Aircraft Platoon. I also had one of my Infantry Companies in one of the ruined factories to the right of the objective and also a Hero T-34 Company nearby. Lawrence and I skirmished and occasionally fired at one another on my left flank.

The main action took place in the center and my right flank, as I advanced my Infantry company and T-34 Company forward to occupy the next set of ruined buildings in the center. I wanted to do this to try and stop him from shifting his forces to the left and as I advanced hard on the objective on the left flank objective in his deployment area. My far right T-34 Tank Company drove to the targeted objective and we had a fire fight with one of Lawrence’s MKIV Panzer platoons, my center T-34 Company provided fire support and my 57mm Anti-Tank gun played a key role in destroying his left flank MKIV Panzer platoon. The game ended a 7-2 win for the Soviets.

Both sides are deployed and ready to advance.

This is a very nice board to play on, even though it has a lot of buildings, walls and rubble scattered is is highly playable on and has given me some ideas for my City/Town board that I have been building.

57MM Anti Tank Guns Providing fire support for the Hero T-34 Company taking the objective.

Pics from other games.

Soviets are behind a smoke screen reading to assault. Will the Germans hold the objective?

Looks like a bad day for the Soviets.

Soviet Infantry sneaking up to the objective.

Final Tournament Results:

Wrap-up

This was another good Flames of War tournament hosted by Hard Knox Games. It was really nice having Red vs Blue for all three rounds. Hopefully I can make it back this year to another Hard Knox Games tournament or to WOLFKRIEG 2022. I had three good games against three nice opponents. Looking forward to using this list again, I definitely will use the Panther Decoy Tank Company in my other Soviet lists.