Sunday, October 13, 2013

Operation Cromwell IV

Operation Cromwell IV was the 4th annual Flames of War tournament run by Camp Cromwell at the church hall in Cromwell St over the weekend 12-13 October.   As has become traditional, it was a teams competition with teams of 2 or more playing on 8x6' tables - double normal FOW size.  This time it was Normandy themed with all armies 2,500 points from the Earth & Steel or Turning Tide books and all Allies v. Germans.  Camp Cromwell & the Launceston Gaming Club has 1 team on each side, the Kingston Bunker Rats 2 teams on each side.  There were 4 tables each with a specific scenario designed for it.  Each team played each enemy team once, each game on a different table / scenario.

The Scenarios were:

Hit The Beach:   Based on the FOW Mission in D-Day.  The Allies will be provided with landing craft, air & naval support, engineers & funnies to add to their lists.  The Germans may swap platoons for fortifications up to the same points value - as in Earth & Steel.  If the Germans have any King Tigers, Jagdpanthers or Panthers, these must be traded for fortifications in this scenario as they were not available on June 6.  This is to be worked out beforehand with a copy of the calculations for checking so as not to delay the start of the battle.

Bocage:   The Allies have to grind their way through the bocage.

Rommel Strikes Back:  Bad weather has grounded the Allied air forces.  Rommel sees the chance to take back a row of hills that dominates the area.  He gives his forces in the sector additional assets & orders them to re-take the high ground.  In this scenario, the Allies can use counters to mark location of platoons out of sight of the enemy (with dummies to confuse the enemy further).
Falaise Gap:  The Germans are deployed in the Falaise gap and have to keep it open for their comrades still in the pocket.   The two Allied coys deploy one at each end of the table & have orders to close the gap.

FOW Victory Points were not used - generally Victory Points were gained by taking ground with 6 V counters marked 1, 2 or 3 placed on significant terrain features.  The missions were generally unsymmetrical and not necessarily balanced, but there were separate prizes for best Allied & Best German team, so while playing against the enemy teams you were really competing with the others on your side.
The Inglorious Bastards from Launceston Hit The Beach defended by Meyer's Marauders from Kingston.
Shaving Ryan's Privates from Kingston v. Kampfgruppe Kromwell in the Bocage.
Messines' Ridges from Launceston move their Tigers forward in Rommel's Fight Back v. Cromwell's Ironsides. 
The Justice League from Kingston try to close the Falaise Gap defended by 21st Panzer from Kingston.
The Justice League receive their Medal of Honour awards for Best Allied Team from the TO watched by some of the 21st Panzer - winners of the Iron Cross for Best German Team.  The Kingston Bunker Rats won the World Domination Award for best club.
 
Final results:
Allies:
1. The Justice League, Richard & Twisty, KBR, 11 VPs.
2. Inglorious Bastards, Rob & Shane, LGC, 9 VPs.
3. Cromwell's Ironsides,  Rich, mark & Jim, CC, 8 VPs.
4. Shaving Ryan's Privates, Griggsy & Gazza, KBR, 4 VPs.
Germans:
1. 21st Panzer, Smithy, Mark, Mat & Carl, KBR, 36 VPs.
2. Meyer's Marauders, John & Rusty, KBR, 34 VPs.
3. Mezzine's Ridges, Nick & Declan, LGC, 32 VPs.
4. Kampgruppe Kromwell, Steve & Nick, CC, 26 VPs.
 
There is an obvious difference in scores between the Allies & the Germans.  The scenarios turned out to be not as well balanced as play testing indicated beforehand - maybe because the German teams did a lot better in picking lists that we did for the playtests.  Or maybe they were just better at being Bad Guys than us.  3 of 4 teams had Tiger platoons that the Allied teams struggled to deal with.  But the difference in scores between all the Allied teams and the difference in scores between all the German Teams were quite small, indicating the close nature of the competition - which went right down to the last grabs for ground in the last round of games.
 
 
 
 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

so every german army have tigers?or not 21st panzer division only had MK IV s

Truscott Trotter said...

In the opinion of allied infantry every German tank WAS a Tiger! :)

Jim Gandy said...

"In the opinion of allied infantry every German tank WAS a Tiger!"

Yes. But very few of them actually WERE Tigers!

lap1964 said...

"In the opinion of allied infantry every German tank WAS a Tiger!"

Same as evey German gun was an 88.
LES

Cailus said...

Well done guys!