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Mid-war Monsters

Mid-War Monsters Battle Report

Blake reports...

With the recent release of the Mid War Monsters, Wayne and I decided to play a game utilising some of the experimental vehicles featured in the book. Venturing back to Afrika where it all began, Wayne decided to take a British Heavy Armoured Squadron and to rival him; I intend to deliver a glorious victory for the Italian Army fielding the Compagnia Carri.

After much deliberation, we both settled on our Army Lists (based on 1750 points, but we go a little over due to the Monsters) taking the Monsters as additional Support Platoons:
 

Heavy Armoured Squadron
(rated Confident Trained)
 
HQ
2 x Grants                   

190 points
Heavy Armoured Platoon
3 x Grants                   

285 points
Heavy Armoured Platoon
3 x Sherman III


345 points

 

Scout Patrol
3 x Universal Carrier               

90 points
Experimental Support Platoons  
Heavy Armoured Car Platoon
3 x Boarhound I
(rated Confident Veteran)   


210 points
Experimental Gun Carrier Tank Platoon
3 x Churchill 3” Gun Carrier           

485 points
Total Points   
1775 points
Compagnia Carri  
HQ
1 x M14/41 with Luigi Pascucci

110 points
Combat Platoons  
Carri Platoons
5 x M14/41

300 points
Carri Platoons
5 x M14/41

300 points
Carri Platoons
5 x M14/41

300 points
Experimental Support Platoons  
Self-propelled 75/34 Platoon
1 x Carro Comando
+ 4 x Semovente 75/34


385 points
Experimental Heavy Tank Platoon
4 x P40

385 points
Total Points 1780 points

Blake’s Plan

Playing Italians for the first time I’m relying on a little luck to get me though. I also might have to gamble and take a few risks in order to win, which is out of character for me as I’ve always been cautious, very cautious when it comes to Flames Of War. Firstly, I need some good Morale dice after deployment and then a little luck on Wayne’s armour saves, especially with his Churchills. I’m only able to hurt them with my Mid-War Monsters and even then only just (needing an armour save of 1 or 2 depending on the shooting situation). I have plenty of experience in tank versus tank games, so I feel that I have an advance on Wayne in this category as he usually plays more balanced forces. I’m hoping if I can roll Veteran for a majority of my units and pull off a couple of questionable moves the Italian Army will win the day.

Blake's P40 heavy tanks

Wayne’s Plan

My plan was to simple drive the Churchill 3” guns towards an objective with the Boarhounds in support, while the rest of my tanks would cover the objective. The reserves would arrive wherever the dice fell, so I felt there was no real point making any plans for them until they arrived and then assess the situation. The superior armour of the Churchills should see them right in this role.

Set-up

Setup

Keeping with the Mid-War Monsters theme, we decided to play the Key Position Mission featured in the book. Wayne wins the dice off to choose the long side of the table, picking the side with the Wadi and we place objectives and deploy our forces in accordance to the mission briefing. Since the mission called for Reserves (both Delay and Scattered), I elected to keep the Semovente 75/34s and a platoon of M14/41 in reserve, whereas Wayne went with a Grant platoon, the Crusaders and the Universal Carriers in reserve.

The mission also required that each player nominated an Experimental Support Platoon to take an objective (in accordance to this mission rules this platoon can only take an objective in order to win the game); Wayne selects his Churchills while I settle on the P40s.

I then rolled for my morale grades with everything rated as Elite other than the Semovente 75/34s who are rated as Artillery, I managed roll the following morale grades for my units:

  • All M14/41 platoons were Confident Veteran
  • P40 platoon was Confident Veteran
  • Semovente 75/34 platoon was Fearless Veteran
  • Luigi Pascucci is rated as Fearless Veteran regardless.

Turn One

British
Wayne won the dice off and got the first turn. An unspectacular Reconnaissance Move by the Boarhounds from Rough Terrain of the Wadi saw one vehicle bogged down. The Churchills moved forward out of the Wadi while the Shermans and the HQ section also advanced, leaving the 2iC Grant and a Sherman behind again due to becoming bogged down. With everything out of sight, Wayne has no valid targets and it was time for the Italian Army to spring into action.

Wayne’s note: Due to ignorance on my part I deployed the Boarhounds in the rough terrain of the Wadi thinking, “Boarhounds have eight wheels, they are bound to be good in difficult going.” However, Boarhounds are still rated Wheeled and can only move 4”/10cm in difficult going!

Turn 1
Wayne's 2iC tank

Italian
Having rolled either Confidence Veteran or better for morale across the board, I boldly advanced the M14/41 platoons and moved the P40s into a cactus patch (losing one P40 to bogging) and Company Commander Luigi into a position to put some fire down range.

The ensuing shots see two destroyed Shermans (which passed motivation, but were now lacking a platoon commander) and two bailed Boarhounds. The last M14/41 platoon used its Avanti move to continue its advance rather than shoot.

Turn Two

British
Wayne was able to un-bog both the Boarhound and the Sherman in addition to re-mounting one of the Boarhounds. The Churchill platoon advance continued, they positioned themselves for some shots on the M14/41s.

The rough terrain continued to hamper the Boarhounds as another vehicle bogged down. Wayne then moved his company commander towards the leaderless Sherman platoon in order to take over command.

The three moving shots from the Churchills all hit home and penetrated the thinly armoured M14/41s, destroying three tanks, which consequently fail their platoon morale test and run.

Wayne then returned fire with the Command Grant and the lone Sherman at the P40 platoon, but failed to hit. The Boarhounds were only marginally more successful and bail out a M14/41.

Turn 2
The Churchill gun carriers

Italian
The bailed out M14/41 crew were able to remount their vehicle and I un-bog the P40, only to have it bog down once more when I decided to get fancy by driving into rough terrain, out of it and then back into it again. Whatta mistaka to maka!
With the objective open to the Churchills and reserves still waiting in the wings I decided to stay stationary in order to take out the Boarhounds, to prevent them from causing havoc on my flanks in later turns, before moving to cover the objective in the next turn (thank goodness the Churchills are rated as a Slow Tank).

My plan worked, the shooting at the Boarhounds was enough to force platoon morale, which Wayne failed. Luigi, waiting in the wings to provide fire support, was not required. The P40 remained stationary and in cover. 

They fired at full ROF at the Sherman platoon with the attached Company Commander. While the Sherman saves, the Company commander wasn’t so lucky and was destroyed.

Destroyed Boarhounds
Turn 3

Turn Three

British
With his Company Commander now dead and the 2iC failing to un-bog, Wayne needed help and it arrived with his first successful reserve roll. He promptly brought on his Crusaders for the added mobility, who advanced to within close range of the P40s.

However, the shooting was less than satisfactory, the moving shots from the Crusaders and Churchills all missed.

Italian
This turn there were still no reserves for me. The bogged down P40 was able to recover and join the firing line in front of the Crusaders with his fellow platoon members.

Meanwhile the M14/41 platoon raced towards the open objective, assisted by a successful Avanti move. Luigi fired at and missed the 2iC Grant, but the P40s were able to completely destroy the Crusader platoon.

Turn Four

British
More reserves arrived for Wayne, this time the Grant platoon, but once more they arrive in the corner of the table in front of the vaunted P40 platoon. With the Churchills closing in on the objective, they continued to take moving shots at the nearby M14/41 platoon. They kill one and bail out another, while the P40s continued their charmed life saving a hit from the last Sherman’s Semi-Indirect fire.

Italian
I’m again unable to get any reserves to arrive. However, the objective was safe for the moment as I was able to move the M14/41 tanks out of sight of the Churchills while still being in position to contest the objective. Everything remained stationary to take advantage of their full ROF. Luigi finally scored a hit on the 2iC Grant, which had remained bogged down since the first turn of the game. Wayne’s subsequent armour save equalled the Anti-tank rating (in this case 7) of the Luigi’s M14/41, but his special rule Aim For The Tracks adds +1 to his Anti-tank on these occasions and therefore resulted in a penetration and a destroyed Grant with my successful Firepower test.

Turn 4
Grants arrive
The Grant platoons suffered a similar fate to most of other tanks on this side of the table. Fire from P40 platoon destroyed two of out three leaving only the platoon commander, who passed his platoon morale and fought on.
Turn 5

Turn Five

British
It's Wayne’s turn to finally fail a reserve roll as he began the task of trying to shoot the M14/41 platoon off the objective. The Churchills were without any success and failed to score a single hit. This theme was continued by the Grant platoon who failed hit the elusive P40s. However, the Semi-Indirect fire from the Sherman was able to bail out a P40.

Italian
Three dice still wasn’t enough to get any reserves for the Italian Army. I manoeuvred the M14/41 to positions where Wayne has to continue to move in order to shoot at them. I was careful to remain in a position to contest the objective. With the threat of the 2iC Grant no longer present, Luigi moved into the open in order to flank the last Sherman. In the meantime the bailed out P40 crew was able to remount their tank.
The flank shot failed to hit and I crunch the numbers to determine the best way of taking out both the Grant and the Sherman in this round of shooting,

I chose to split the fire (six shots at the concealed Sherman at long range and two shots at the Grant in the open at short range) from the P40s in an attempt to take out both the remaining Grant and Sherman tanks and break Wayne’s army. My gamble paid off as both the Grant and Sherman go up in flames.

Turn Six

British
With four platoons out six platoons destroyed Wayne’s force was below half-strength and needed to pass a company morale check to stay in the fight. However, with no company commander to take a company morale test, the British army broke and it was indeed a glorious 5-2 victory for the Italian Army.

The knocked out British 2iC Grant and Luigi
Churchils threaten the objective
Turn 6

Game Over

Blake’s Thoughts
I got what I wanted in terms of motivation and skill, but I actually planned to use the P40s to soften up the British before trying to move them up to challenge the objective with Luigi and possibly the M14/41 platoon that was deploy in the centre of the table in support. However, I wasn’t expecting all of Wayne’s reserves to come on in the same spot, which kept the P40s busy shooting rather than moving. I did get lucky however when no reserves came on to support the Churchills in their advance after the M14/41 platoon broke. Any additional support for the Churchills, given my inability to get any reserves, would have been disastrous for the Italians.

I think my motivation and skill ratings played a big part in the winning of the game, Wayne’s inability to take out my Veteran P40 platoon enabled me to keep peppering him with fire and inflicting casualties on him faster than he could on me. In the end it was just a mathematical equation.

Blake 

Wayne’s Thoughts
With any Mission including scattered reserves you are always at the mercy of the dice gods. But I think I was pretty lucky in this respect, but didn’t use my reserves as well as I could have. I should have used the reserves arriving in the corner to lure the P40s out of the bushes instead of trying to take them head on. 
The wreckage of the British Armour!
and their destroyers

If I’d brought them on 16”/40cm from the corner on the back table edge as opposed to the side edge they could have covered the objective and waited for the P40s who were the platoon tasked with taking the objective. Good play Blake.

Wayne


Last Updated On Thursday, July 30, 2009 by Wayne at Battlefront