Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Fireball Forward - Battle of St. Lambert-sur-dives 1944

Last night at the club, Dave brought out a WW2 game using Fireball Forward. We refought the Battle of St. Lambert-sur-dives where Currie won his Victoria Cross




The battlefield was quite small compared to many we have played at the club. I played the German force with Jonathon, while Chen & Scott played the Canadian force. Dave ran the game as none of us had played these rules


The Canadians started under blinds, with 3 of them being dummies. After the fact I wish I had snagged  a copy of the scenario to better describe the forces. The Germans had 4 turns to achieve 2 of 3 objectives, which would prove to be somewhat difficult


We advanced our first infantry squad from out of the woods & proceeded to the edge of some ruined buildings.


Right smack dab into a pair of Canadian Sherman's.


We then ran our Panzerfaust armed teams up into the building beside the Shermans. One thing we learned quick is that any movement opens you up to Opportunity Fire from whatever elements can see you. Not good for the attacker at all, as every time you moved a unit, it was hit with fire. My personal thought is that a unit should only be allowed one opportunity fire rather than at everything, this is way too powerful.


It took several volleys of back & forth fire before the Panzerfausts destroyed both Shermans in the same turn, but by this time it was a deadlock.


The Germans were able to achieve 1 of the 3 objectives at games end, having driven 2 vehicles off the roads on the opposite side of the battlefield.

The sun was wreaking havoc on the photos, spoofing the Camera, though it did give me this rather interesting shot, which almost looks like a spotlight lighting up the Sherman's ablaze.


Post battle it was realized that the Germans have to go full bore & I already have a good idea of what I would do different as the Germans next time we play this scenario.

Thanks again to Dave for bringing out his well painted miniatures & running the game.

7 comments:

  1. That looks like a fun, fast paced game; love the final photograph - what a great effect!

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    1. Michael, its interesting how the sun affects a digital camera's photo sensor to get such a dramatic effect. I too liked it, though a couple other images not posted did not fare so well.

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  2. It's easy to defend, but you really have to use solid infantry tactics and play bold as the attacker - use fire bases and your armour to suppress defenders then rush in to close assault in numbers. This is also where the intiative chit can be worthwhile.

    Worth trying again?

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  3. BTW- thanks for the great after action report!

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  4. Absolutely, as with most rules, until you've played them a number of times you don't get a good grasp of the intent of certain mechanisms. My main concern is that it causes players to remain static in fear of movement. Hindight being that you could indeed send 1 element forward to draw the opportunity fire & leave the remainder of the unit free to act.

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  5. Looks like fun. Wish I had been there.

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