Envelopment Mission

Envelopment Mission

A Flames Of War Mission By Craig Courtis One of the main tactics in WWII was to by-pass or outflank pockets of resistance and leave them for follow up troops (often infantry) to deal with.

The Germans first perfected this with blitzkrieg, but later the Soviets became masters at driving deep into the enemy’s operational zone and capturing key objectives so that they could destroy the cut off troops at their leisure. This Mission reflects an attempt to envelop a pocket of resistance and capture an important objective behind the front lines and thereby cut off the defenders and eliminate them.

Special Rules • Prepared positions • Flank Attack (Delayed Reserves) • Reserves • Limited Ambush • Strongpoint (see below) Defender You have insufficient forces available to hold everywhere at once so have concentrated at vital points which have been heavily fortified. You have received reports that the enemy is trying to outflank your positions. You must prevent them from doing this. You must hold until reinforcements arrive. Attacker The enemy do not have sufficient force to cover the whole front. Your orders are to exploit a gap in the enemy lines to outflank their defences and capture an important objective leaving the follow up troops to mop up the enemy strong-points. Preparing for Battle 1. A player with an infantry Company will defend against a player with a Motorised or Armoured Infantry Company or a Tank Company, a player with a Motorised or Armoured Infantry Company will defend vs a Tank Company. In all other cases, both players roll a die and the higher scoring player decides whether to attack or defend. 2. The defender chooses which short table end they will defend from. 3. Starting with the defender, both players place an objective in the defender’s end of the table. Both objectives must be at least 12 inches from the centre of the table and 8” from all other table edges. 4. The defender places up to 20 points of fortifications (if they have them) up to 8”/20cm into the attackers half of the table or within 12”/30cm of half way on the defenders side of the table. See below for the points cost of fortifications. 5. The defender must hold at least half of their platoons in reserve at the start of the game. The remaining platoons must be deployed in the defender’s half of the table or held in ambush. 6. Next the attacker deploys their force at least 24” back from the battlefield’s centre line (this 24” zone is No-Man’s-land). The attacker must keep at least one unit, and may have up to half their units in their flank attack. 7. Both players now place their Company Command teams in their deployment zone, starting with the defending player.

Beginning the Battle The attacker takes the first turn. Ending the battle The battle ends when the attacking player starts a turn from turn six onwards in possession of either one of the objectives that they placed in the enemy’s deployment area. The defender wins if they start a turn from turn 6 with no enemy with 16”/40cm of either objective or on their half of the table. Deciding who Won If the game runs out of time then the defender is considered to have held off the attack and they win the game (if six turns or more have elapsed, otherwise the game is considered a draw). Victory Points Table Winner’s Losses Result Winner’s Points Loser’s Points 0 platoons Stunning Victory 6 1 1 platoon Major Victory 5 2 2 or more platoons Minor Victory 4 3   Special Rules Strongpoint The defender has had several weeks to prepare their positions and as such have created a strongpoint which includes (or may include) minefields, barbed wire entanglements and even an anti-tank ditch to protect their strongpoint. To reflect this the defender may deploy up to 20 points of fortifications (if they have them) on the table (for rules on obstacles see Flames Of War).  Points cost:   Barbed wire entanglements   2 points Trench Lines  2 points Minefield  5 points Anti-tank Ditch  10 points (Note: These points vary slightly from Flames Of War page 217)

Flank Attack (Delayed Reserves) Attacker’s Flank Attack: In this scenario the flank attack can come on from either or both flanks of the defenders deployment zone. The flank attack deployment zones are up to 12”/30cm from the defender’s back table edge and come on as Delayed Reserves (see Delayed Reserves, page 200 of Flames Of War). Defenders’ Reserves The defender’s reserves zone is the back table edge but must be at least 12”/30cm from the side edges of the table (thus on a 4’/120cm wide table the defender’s reserves may only appear in the central 24”/60cm zone of the rear table edge). As with the defender the attacker may not place troops within 4”/10cm of this zone so as to prevent reserves from joining the battle.