Flames - and an update?

 Hi all,

Got in a Flames of War game with the Cub again.  A trip over to the Fundy side for apple picking put us close to Gametronics in New Minas, the local(ish) pervayor of FoW goodness.  Cub took the opportunity to pick up some more Finns, and with his usual industry, had them painted up in a weekend.

Soviet initial position.  We need to defend the crossroads, hill, and red building from attack - but don't know from where the attack will come!

We're using a modified / fudged / newguy version of 3rd edition for now.  Cub's Finns are in a weird place in the newest version of the game, as they don't really have updated or official rules.  He's using a specific briefing for Finn commandos (came across them in an old Wargames Illustrated of mine), and making them work takes a bit of tweaking.  Add in that I've not played the game in 7 or 8 years, and we're playing something more FoW-esque than strict Fow, but it works.

As a good chunk of my 15mm stuff is individually based for Bolt Action, I just fudged in the 45mm AT gun.

We also home-brewed a scenario.  Three objectives (crossroads, supply depot, and hill commanding the town).  Soviets start in control of all three, and if Finns take 2 (i.e., start their turn in control of them), they win.  Seemed like a suitable thing for Finn raiders to be doing - hit and run attack on a Soviet garrison, looking for supplies.

Finns move on to the table, concentrated behind Soviet lines, the tricky fiends.

Cub's Finn commandos get to make a pre-game move, move quickly when they move at the double, and we gave them first turn.  Basically, it meant that Cub could chose the terms of engagement, and he used the option to swarm in from what we'd designated as the "Soviet" side of the table.  We had roughly the same number of troops on the table, but Cub's are better (Finn commandos have the best ratings in the game, for both motivation and skill), so we decided that Soviet reinforcements could start arriving on turn 2 (5+ roll, then a 4+ on turn 3, etc.).

Crossroads about to be hit hard and fast.

It made for a pretty cool deployment, actually.  The unsuspecting Soviet garrison were confronted with a sudden, close-contact attack by Finns pouring out of the woods behind Soviet lines.  It also meant Cub could close to assault distance turn 1, which he used to good effect, gutting the Soviet platoon defending the crossroads.

After the assault.  Soviets still have a toehold, but probably can't pull it off again.

The soviets managed to hold off the initial attack, but it cost them, and I started my own turn one hanging on to my right flank by my fingernails.

Cub, making good use of LoS blocking terrain ;)

I opted to pull the remaining teams in town into some buildings, with the hope that they'd be harder to dig out, and slow the Finn advance.  Meanwhile, on the outskirts of town, the Finns swarmed over the objective hill, and moved in to attack the supply depot.

More Finns surge over the hill commanding the town.

There was an initial firefight here.  The Finns had the advantage, both in terms of their superior troops, and because the elevated terrain let them bring more teams to bear.

With their right flank more or less collapsed, the remaining Soviets spread out into a firing line.

Cub then followed up with a close assault that was much more one-sided than his attack on the crossroads.  My soviets were driven back, and the Finns moved in to raid the supply depot.

Finns push forward.

The arrival of a supporting SU-76, and a daring attack out of the buildings, let me retake the crossroads, but there was nothing I could do about Cub's control of the other two objectives.  Finns win.

Soviet reinforcements arrive, but possibly too late to matter.

For all that this was a bit of a bodge game, it turned out to be really fun.  In retrospect, I might have deployed in a more dispersed way, but I really only have a couple of formations, and at deployment, had no idea from which direction Cub would attack.  I also underestimated how far onto the table he could move with the combination of his pre-game shenanigans and the first turn, and it really felt like I was playing a garrison surprised by a sudden commando raid.

Soviets retake the crossroad, but Finns control the supply depot and hill.  Finns take it.

.I think (hope?) we'll be playing more of this.  I know there's a lot of purists who don't like FoW, and I get it, but the game always struck me as falling firmly in the "game, not simulation" category.  Cub's interested, and I have enough stuff to build up Soviets that we can play larger games as his collection grows.  It'll also be a nice spur to get some terrain done - the mdf buildings we used are functional, but could use some sprucing, and there's lots of opportunity for scatter and area terrain that would enhance our games.

Speaking of game enhancement, I've decided to take the plunge, and have begun the Great Rebasing of 2020.  All of my ancients stuff is based for Impetus, as that's what I played in Toronto when I first got into the period.

The only problem is, no one around here plays the game, I've had limited success (or motivation, if I'm being honest) in sparking a community, and much as I enjoy Impetus, I enjoy actually playing games more.  As a result, I'm rebasing my entire 15mm ancients collection to DBx standard.  Turns out, I have a lot of hoplites.

It should be noted - I can still play Impetus with the new basing (though I'll need to paint more figs), but the basing shift also means I can play a lot of other games as well, including more DBA, which, via remote gaming, is my best prospect right now.

In point of fact, I'll be "hosting" a DBA game today, probably running Successors vs. Sparta.  My Successors are a bit of a fudge, as they were built initial for Pyrrhus, and then morphed to Antigonus, but they'll serve.  I'll also need to work up something for camps, but I'm chuffed at the prospect of getting in a legit ancients game at my place.  I'll take pics, and throw up a post later on to cover it.  Until then, take care.

FMB