Fire and Fury Games' Battlefront WWII Cold Wars 2012

Fire and Fury Games We give history a second chance.

Cold Wars 2012

A fair number of Fire and Fury events were played this year. RFF was much in evidence, and several events were put on by Game Masters outside the direct F&F community, which shows that the game is catching on. I was spent a lot of time gaming instead of taking pictures, so I have a lot of pics of the 3 Landry/Sincavage games along with narratives of the action, but less of others. If anyone wants to fill in what happened or add some more pics, send them to me (contact@fireandfury.com).

Familiar Terrain, but wait a second...

Anyone familiar with the Gettysburg battle will instantly recognize the Fishhook, Round Tops, etc., but there seem to be Confederate flags on the top of the hills!! Michael Panzer put on a "Gettysburg in Reverse" scenario using the Brigade level F&F rules. The situation is that Lee occupies the ground and Meade is forced by political pressure to attack the strong position.

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
The Wheatfield	Looking North over the wheatfield. The Flaming thing is an objective marker.
Cemetary Ridge	Looking South over the main line of defence.
South along Cemetary Ridge	Looking South toward the Round tops.
The Union Lines	From the Confederate positions looking at the Union troops in the distance.
The Union Lines from the center	From the Confederate positions looking at the Union troops in the middle of the position.
Devil's Den and the Round Tops	The Southern part of the line.

Well Met in Russia

Mike Sincavage and Pete Landry put together a scenario featuring a German recon attack on a Russian village. It seemingly featured every piece of terrain available, an armored train, cavalry on both sides, and tons of early equipment. The result was a seesaw battle where both sides were constantly in crisis. Unfortunately some of my best pictures of the train's arrival did not come out well, but I think you can get the flavor of the game. An excellent scenario which could have gone either way. I want to thank Peter Lowitt who was one of the Russian players for some additional photos, including a really good one one of the train.

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
A peaceful Russian Village	The initial setup (the Germans at the bottom are not on the table yet). The German objective was to clear 8 houses.
Russians defend	Peter Lowitt - Russian initial deployment: Goal is to contest the first tier of village buildings, keep Germans on their side of the water and hold the rail embarkment and 2nd tier of buildings at all costs.
German Recon advances	German recon armored cars (controled by your humble webmaster) move into the center of the board, screening the advance of infantry. One of the big advantages the Germans had was the maneuver roll modifiers caused by armor, which were devastating on trained troops in disorder, so they are getting close enough to cause these while looking for the Russian anti-tank assets.
Attack on the Right	On the right flank, German motorcycles and engineers engage Russians in the woods and head for the town.
Surprise Cavalry Charge	On the left flank, a German Cavalry unit was able to enter in the rear of the Russian position. Rather than move and dismount, they launched a charge into the rear of the defense, sending them reeling.
Forward in the center	With the Russians on the flank in trouble, the recon and supporting infantry close on the first line of buildings, the tactic was 1) discover, 2) suppress/disorder with fire (keeping some units on overwatch to engage newly discovered units, 3) move close and assault. Things were looking good for the Germans.
Germans Attack	Peter Lowitt - German combined arms hunting for Soviet anti-tank assets.
Nasty Surprise 1 - Cavalry Charge Redux	With the German cavalry and infantry engaged in the town, the first of two nasty surprises appeared. Russian Cossacks charged the rear of the German cavalry in almost a repeat of the earlier maneuver but from the other side.
Close up of the Cav Melee	Peter Lowitt - Another shot of the Cossack and German Cavalry set too in the woods.
Nasty Surprise 2	A Russian Armored train appears, sporting two T34 turrets, 2 HMG ports, an armor value of 4, and a trainload of infantry. At this point in the game, the Germans had nothing that could effectively engage the weapon car with fire combat, but they were able to immobilize the train by close assaulting the locomotive.
Coming in on Track 2	Peter Lowitt - While successful german use of combined arms (infantry and Armor) have pushed the Soviets out of the first line of village building, the timely arrival of the Soviet Armored Train puts a wrinkle in their advance.
Melee	The Russian cavalry engages the German infantry. The German armored cars attempt to balance supporting the infantry with not getting toasted by the train.
Swirling cavalry	The Russian cavalry continues to charge, but is starting to lose cohesion. The discipline rating of the Germans allows them to get out of bad situations and not break and run.
Russian Armored Reinforcements	The first Russian tanks and armored cars start to arrive. Facing them are 20mm and MG armed tanks (the best German AT vehicle - the command halftrack - was toasted early in the engagement). However, the German engineers and motorcycle troops are starting to get the upper hand on the right flank.
Soviet Armored reinforcements	Peter Lowitt - Soviet armor arrives, too little too late; though we do toast a few engineering half tracks and cause the engineer unit to break.
Stalemate in the Center	The T34 turret points ominously at the center, daring the German Armored cars to poke their heads out. Fortunately for the Germans, the train can't move.
Assault on the German Right (Russian Left)	The engineers assault the Russians on the flank.
German tanks	German Tank reinforcements appear, finally giving the Germans something to deal with the train. They line up to engage one of the turrets with all 5 tanks, planning to move up with a successful shot and clean out the rest of the battle car.
Push forward	With the train under attack, other Germans move up to take the center of the town.
Cavalry standoff	The exhausted Russian cavalry and German cavalry stare at each other. The cossacks tried one more assault, which was beaten off, and then neither side could advance effectively.
Near the end	German light tanks in the woods face off against Russian light tanks. The near bridge is not useable by tanks. In the middle (although it isn't clear here), the German tank line has disordered and closed with the rear train turret, which is soon destroyed. This allowed some of the PzIIIh to move to block the Russian armored reinforcements while the PzIVD supported the infantry assault. The game was called here, as a marginal German victory.

Unpleasant Peasants

Another Sincavage/Landry creation was a conversion of a Skirmish Campaigns scenario. Set in Crete, several companies of Elite Fallschirmjäger must take a village. Opposing them are a motley group of Raw partisan/peasants, with several companies of Greek Infantry rushing to the battle. It would seem that the Greeks are overmatched, but the German paras are in the situation of "A long way to go and a short time to get there" as the time limit on the scenario is extremely short. Although this was a German victory, it was a close run thing. Surprisingly, the peasants inflicted the most damage, destroying 5 or 6 stands of paras as they were forced to rush forward on the attack. With a bit of adjustment, this would make an excellent small/medium scenario for both conventions and and afternoon game (hint - Mike and Pete, send it to me).

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
A peaceful village	On the island of Crete, a peaceful village lies. The farmers are in their houses having lunch, their shotguns resting against the table.
Reinforcements	Greek Infantry approaches to save the village.
Paratroopers approach	German paratroopers rush toward the village, avoiding a giant water glass full of dice. One company tries to head off the Greek Infantry, while two others engage the peasants, who have rushed out to save their homes. The peasants use their shotguns to kill 5 stands of paras before being overwhelmed.
Greek Infantry heads toward the village	Greek infantry rushes through the grove. One company turns to confront the German left flank. While this
Engagement in the field	At the climax of the battle, the one company of paras hit the Greek infantry in the field...
Engagement in the town	While the remnants of the last company of paras drive the Greeks out of the village, squeaking out a victory at the last second.

Greek Slugfest

The last Battlefront:WW2 entry by the Pete/Mike team was taken from the Monastary Hill scenario from the Treadhead Games "Balkans on Fire" scenario book. This one featured an Italian attack on a fortified Greek position. Despite the fact that they were driving M13/40 tanks, the Greeks had almost no anti-tank capability, and this allowed the Italians to approach to close range within impunity. While it was a slug-fest, the Italians managed to overwhelm the Greek position, especially with the "tank-fear" modifiers in Close Combat and Maneuver rolls. The addition of 1 or 2 AT guns, the use of hidden minefields (they were visible on the board), shortening the time limit, and possibly a slight reduction in the number of the tanks would have made this more even.

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
Greeks await the assault	Greek infantry in their entrenchments.
Another angle	The Greek position from the other side.
Italians march up the hill	Tanks in the lead, the Italians start their frontal assault.
Italians march up the hill 2	As seen from the other side.
Left side diversionary attack	While 2 companies and the tanks moved up the middle, 1 Italian company moved up each flank. Here is the left flank attack.
Right side diversionary attack	The right hand company (commanded by your humble webmaster) manages to get 6-4 in a close assault in the woods. I managed to wint the majority of these, and forced the Greeks back out of the woods, where we stared at each other until my flanking support arrived.
Tanks break through	Without defending AT capability, even M13/40 tanks can attack successfully. Here the tanks break through the Greek trenches.
Tanks break through 2	Another angle.
Into the rear	Tanks pour into the rear and split of some of their number to support the flanking attacks.
Into the courtyard	Tanks rumble into the center of the Greek position.
Tanks line up to fire	The tanks line up to shoot at defenders at the wall.
Standoff in the Woods	The Italian Right flank and defenders stare at each other. The Italians are waiting for the center to hit the flank of the defenders.
This is the end	The Greek left flank is starting to crumble, tanks are wandering in the rear, and the courtyard is falling.

Prarie Grove

Purpose-built terrain added excellent visuals to this playtest of the Prairie Grove scenario (one of the scenarios in the upcoming scenario book), put on by Paul Olszanski, Gordon and Hague Historical Miniatures, and the Fire and Fury team. I took pics at two points in this battle, the first set at the start, and the second after the Union had advanced and started to attack. I was able to take two sets of pics on this game. The first was at the start, showing the terrain and starting positions. Then I took a few more later in the game, after the Union moved up.

Starting position:

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
prairiegrove001	Prairie Grove 1
prairiegrove002	Prairie Grove 2
prairiegrove003	Prairie Grove 3
prairiegrove004	Prairie Grove 4
prairiegrove005	Prairie Grove 5
prairiegrove006	Prairie Grove 6

Later on:

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
prairiegrove007	Prairie Grove 7
prairiegrove008	Prairie Grove 8
prairiegrove009	Prairie Grove 9
prairiegrove010	Prairie Grove 10
prairiegrove011	Prairie Grove 11
prairiegrove012	Prairie Grove 12

Helena

One of the indications that you have succeeded in developing a good rules set is when people outside of your immediate group start to use it in conventions. This game was put on by Chris Rothermel and Refuse the Flank Wargamers. It covers the Battle at Helena Arkansas 4JUL1863. Richard approached the game master about getting more details on the scenario, so we may see more of this battle.

I got to this battle just when the Confederates were starting to break through the outer line of Union trenches but taking some severe attrition in doing so. One Union player (I think it was Lowell Hamilton but I am not sure) was having fun taking a multiple Union batteries, pointing to a Confederate unit, and saying things like ""25pts on that one, +5 to the die roll...".

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
helena001	The Confederate Left is through the entrenchments and fighting to push the Union back.
helena002	The same thing is happening on the Confederate Right.
helena003	A view from the same angle, but showing the multiple Union batteries in the center of the position.
helena004	A view from behind the center of the line.

El Teb

RFF converts well to other periods. Here is a variant called "Mahdi's Fury" used to fight the Second Battle of El Teb 29FEB1884 from the late colonial period. Tony Figlia and Mike Pierce did the conversion. Unfortunately for the first few photos, the game table was set up so the setting sun outside the window cast black shadows through the middle of the table.

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
The Objective	A Hill with some captured guns was the primary objective of the British advance. British Squares can be seen in the distance.
British Advance	Two British Squares advance, screened by cavalry.
Hi There!	The British Cavalry discovers some of the Dervish Forces, which started the game in hidden positions all over the map.
Assault Begins	The British Right Hand square breaks up to assault the hill.
Wider View	The same situation as the previous picture, but showing the left hand force preparing to engage another Dervish force.
Cavalry Engagement	The British Cavalry falls back while the Dervish Cavalry advances.
British Firepower	On the left flank, a British line prepares to unleash its Martini-Henry's on a Dervish unit.

Bladensburg

The usual suspects (Rich, Mike Pierce, etc.) try out a scenario for an 1812 battle near DC. This one was a bit experimental, as the British player had to spend the first few turns crossing a causeway onto the main battlefield. Future variants probably will start them on the battlefield.

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
British Advance	After crossing the causeway and driving off a small defending force, the British begin their advance in extended line to minimize casualties from the defender's fire.
British Advance 2	A view from the other side of the table.
From behind the American Position	Looking at the advance from behind the American position, showing several more lines of troops.
The Lines Close	The British get closer to the Americans.
Preparing the Assault	Lowell Hamilton, controlling the British left, forms and assault column behind the extend line, preparing to hit a small U.S. unit with and turn the flank.

New Orleans

Another game put on from outside the F&F community. Dan Stokes, Tyler Therp, and the Mason Dixon Gaming Group put on the Battle of New Orelans in 1812, where the British charge Andrew Jackson in his entrenchments. Doing it in 10mm allowed almost 1500 figures to fit on the table.

Click on the Thumbnail for a full-size photo	Description
Open Field, and then the Trenches	The British in this battle put themselves in a horrible position, frontally charging entrenchments across an open area bordered by the river on one side and a swamp on the other. Here the British columns start to move out, with the Trenches looming in the distance.
Marching closer	Marching closer to the U.S. position.
From the American Side	The U.S. Entrenchments and the approaching British columns.
Another Angle	Another View from the U.S. Side.
U.S. Position	The U.S. Trenches.

Top of page

Home Page