Van Gogh Away

 Fireball Forward 15mm ww2

Nuenen

14. Turn 5, US had 7 of the 8 buildings.

A scene from earlier in the game where the Sherman drew the Panther shot in a sacrifice move.

13. Bazooka and Stug trade misses. 

12.  US 1st platoon managed to rally off their broken status and secure the 1st building. 

11.  The broken Stug backs away from the Sherman. 

10.  2nd US platoon goes around the right flank, bazooka gets a rear shot on the stug.

9. The Stugs come into the fight.  The Sherman takes opportunity and gets a breaking hit, about as lucky as it could get vs its tough front armor.   2nd Stug comes around and shoots at the Sherman,  it goes wide.

8. MG team broken and then destroyed,  3rd platoon takes the 3rd building. 

7.  I moved 1 Sherman up the road to draw its fire.   The Panther easily destroyed it.   Now to make the sacrifice worth it  - the firefly slow moved west off the road, managed not to bog in the gully, and got its shot off.  A hit!  But the Panther's armor saved it.   Next turn the US got initiative first and the firefly shot again.  This time the cat wasn't so lucky.

6. That haystack turns out to be a hidden Panther!

5. Turn 2 the German counter attack begins.  It starts off looking bad with 2 US squads broken.

4. US flanks around the right, and captured 1st building. 

3. Somewhere ahead the Germans have 2 MG teams and a sniper, but they don't expose themselves 1st turn.

2. 101st Airborne deploy in the gullies along the road into Nuenen.

1. Scenario from FbF Io group.  My map is flipped left to right since that matches my battle map roads better.

FbF Sicilian style

 "Taming the Tiger" scenario from the main rulebook.

Sicily 1943, 82nd Airborne vs German Heavy Tank company .

Photos are in reverse order, start at bottom. 

13.  End game.  I held 2 farms for 2 points, Germans held 2 hills for 2 points, but they had killed/incapacitated/neutralized Gavin and that was worth 1 point  so German victory 3 -2!

12.  With the last turn upon us, the Tigers headed for the 2 hills, with 1 victory point each.  The Germans didn't have the Infantry power left to take out the farms.

11.  Tigers were worth 1 victory point each so I threw a lot of elements at them in hopes of getting lucky.  It was not to be.  The only bazooka I got within range bounced off easily.  There were a couple of tense moments where the Engineers close assault with demo charges but they could only manage temporarily suppression. 

10. The Tigers were making mincemeat out of everything in their way. Even though my troopers had taken over German foxholes for hard cover, Dan was rolling lots of 6's!

9.  On the right flank I was able to get the Engineers platoon in and take over the farmhouse.   +1 victory point if I could hold it.

8. Following the tanks are 2 more platoons of Infantry.   With some long range MG fire and the howitzer I was able to bottle them up at the bridge head.  I didn't want them to be able to break out and get the farmhouses. 

7.  Turn 4, the Tigers arrive, tearing up the road at full speed.  Yes, we don't have 4 Tigers, so made due with proxies.

6.  US captures left farm house.  +1 point to US if they can hold it.

5.  Left flank gets battered by German artillery.   Gavin is one of the casualties 

4. Us 75mm Pak howitzer support

3. There Dan protected it with a platoon in foxhole.  We both called in artillery strikes against each other.  Mine mostly destroyed his platoon,  but his took out Col Gavin- a victory point to the Germans!

2. As the US, I first pushed over the ridge through the orchards towards the left flank farm objective. 

1. This scenario was a depiction of Col. Gavin attack and defense of Biazza Ridge during the Allied invasion of Sicily.   For the first 3 turns the US is on the offensive against dug in German infantry (3 platoons vs 2).   The last 3 turns the Germans get 4 Tiger tanks and 2 platoons of infantry to counterattack. 

Each farmhouse is worth 1 point, each hill is worth 1 point (north/south).  Additionally points are gained from knocking out Tiger tanks or Col. Gavin.

Fireball Forward: counter attack at Hunningen

 

This is another scenario from the FbF IO group.   Some changes:  we don't really have winter terrain so this looks a little more like France in 1944.  Cut 3 Stuart's and 3 Stugs due to lack of models.  M36 changed to M10.  US armor plattoon is 3 75mm and 2 76mm instead of vice versa.  Germans reinforcement option changed to a Panther.  Table is shorter at 6 x 3 foot.

Photos upload in wrong order: start at bottom 

13.  I have forgotten to photograph the last turn(s).  The Panther's reign of terror is short, due to unlucky dice rolls.  It never hits anything else.  The m10s and Shermans counterattack and destroy 3 of the Panzer 4s.

The left flank tank platoon pushes up through the woods and shells most of the infantry in the village to pieces, leaving it open to the little infantry I have left to move in for victory points.

My right flank infantry platoon never left their starting positions!

Counting the points at last turn it was US 11, German 8.  A close game.

12.  The Pz4s destroyed 2 more Shermans. Rounds bounce off the Panther.  Things looked bleak!

11.  Finally the Panzer 4 platoon shows itself!  My cunning plan is foiled as Dan has set up his primary defense on the right flank.

10.  First shot brews an M4

9.  Turn 2, Panther arrives.  It doesn't need to move far, just starts blasting US armor.

8. View from the Germans perspective,  the shootout for the village lasted a few turns.

7.  I'm starting to think there's nothing on the left flank...

6.  Command squad on the hill.

5.  Bring on everything!  An infantry platoon dismounted and head up the middle to draw fire.   They end up being sacrificed to give the tanks targets to shell in the village.  M10s come on and destroyed the other stug. 

4.  One of the stugs attempted to fall back to the village but was hit by the left flank Platoon. 

3. The left flank platoon is staring at empty woods.

2.  Sending the Stuart's up the middle to draw fire, they receive it from the Stug platoon hidden in the woods.  1 destroyed and the other races into contact range hoping for a lucky hit.

Turn 1:  3 US armor platoons and 2 mechanized infantry platoons attack the village.  Germans have 2 armor platoons and 3 infantry platoons.

The plan:   seeing all the cover on the left flank, I figured Dan would put a lot of defenses there, thinking I would avoid the wide open space of the right flank.  So being clever, I put 1 armored platoon on the left to lock it down and stacked everything else to push up the middle and right flank.

Fireball Forward ETO

 Shifting ww2 to Europe.  This Fireball Forward scenario came from the Io group.   It's supposed to be BoB but we don't have much winter terrain so it's nice and green.  Also came off a bit more urban than woodsy, but still worked ok.

Once again the pix load backwards.    End of the game is on top.  Start at bottom.

14.  Great game.  Very close (down to the last die roll which was 50/50 to pass the morale test).  The German forces had lost just about everything,  but the scenario victory conditions are designed so that this doesn't really matter-  all they have to do is hang onto the buildings.   The US has to move fast but also not lose too many units.  I was definitely lucky with some of the squad vs squad shootouts, and 2 of the 3 German artillery strikes rolled duds.  The one that hit was devastating!

13.  By turn 5, the US had the left flank house and the church.  The center house was contested by a German AT team.  Finally the US squad broke them, giving the US control of 3 of 4 buildings at game end.

12.  Afraid to lose more armor, I kept them back out of the German tanks LOS.  I didn't get any points for destroying them so it wasn't worth the risk.

11. The Germans armor played it safe and sat back, blasting the US infantry in sight.  A bazooka team moved through the nearby woods and took it out with a flank shot.

10. By turn 3 I had moved the right flank US platoon into the rightmost objective house.  But here comes the German armor to challenge them.  Shortly after this the Germans rolled a 12 on an artillery strike on the house and crippled this platoon.

9. A valiant Shrek team moves in and zaps an M10  I let get to far ahead without infantry support 

8.  Some lucky mortar rounds disrupt the Germans left flank platoon.

7. Church yard holds the German company command and 2 Medium MGs.  They take a lot of fire from the m10s and mortars that breaks them after a few turns.

6. View from the Germans side

5. The center platoon pushes up.

4. This was the first time we used armor.  I wasn't sure how effective it would be.  Also, at 8 points a piece I had to be very cautious about losing any vehicles.

3.  With only 5 turns, the US has to move fast.  I pushed all platoons Forward 12" or as far as they could go in terrain.  The German played aggressive defense and came to block them.

2. The scenario is available on the Fireball Forward IO group. 

1. US attacks German held town.  Objective is to capture 4 topmost buildings in photo.

Germans can auto win by scoring 24 points in kills.  8 per M10 tank and 2 points per infantry stand eliminated. 

US has 4 M10 tank destroyers and 3 platoons.

Germans have 2 platoons and 3 artillery strikes.  Additionally,  2 German tanks arrive on turn 3.

Game limit is 5 turns.