Sacrifice of Heroes

As you saw in the previous episode of this battle report, the German reinforcements had come in earlier than I thought, and in the worst spot.  Still, the commitment had been made, and the advance would have to press on no matter what.

At the same time, attacking aircraft pounced on the artillery battery.  While I had kept one Lorraine behind for anti-aircraft cover, there were not enough, and repeated attacks continued to grind down the battery.

In the future, even more AA support will be left behind!

Sadly, the flanking maneuver pulled off by the Panzers would claim a prominent victim.  Charles himself!  Alas, he was caught out in the open, and no amount of evasive actions would prevent his Somua from being destroyed.

There could be no time to dwell on such a loss, with the far objective just one turn away!  The Somuas and the Hotchkiss units were sent forward.

At last, one of the objectives was in sight.  It was being guarded by just one Panzer T-38.  If that could be taken out, the sudden death factor might be enough to secure a French victory!

But just as hope was beginning to dawn for the French tankers, multiple units of German light tanks speed onto the battlefield.  While they had little hope of destroying the heavier Somuas, the Lorraine transports would prove an inviting target.

Try as they might, the Somuas were not able to take out these lighter vehicles, despite point blank firing!

The German guns struck home on the unit of infantry in their transports.  Several were destroyed, forcing the occupants out into the open.

This seemed to be a disaster, but the intrepid machine gun toting infantry were undeterred. They promptly rallied, and immediately launched an assault into the town!  

As it happened, they had approached from a lightly defended part of the town, which meant they could overwhelm the few defenders in the area, and claim control over the western half.

Suddenly, the forward objective was now threatened by a pincer advance from infantry.

The contest of act and react continued as the light German tanks bypassed the town to take on the exposed MG unit which was approaching the pinned down German infantry holding the second objective!

The battlefield was now a swirling maelstrom of destruction and confusion.  What was a front line was now the rear, and flanks seemed to have no consequence.  A deadly merry go round!

With all of their timely reinforcements on the board, the Germans could now attempt to isolate certain units and grind them down.  While it had been a relative stalemate to this point, these later moves would prove to be too much for the overstretched French units to handle.

Eventually the impact of all those reinforcements was felt in a devastating way.  With the troops out of the Lorraines, the threat of ant-aircraft fire was gone, leaving the skies open for one last air assault.

This, in combination with the fast moving scout vehicles and tanks meant that the vital objectives could not be taken.  Valiant sacrifices were made... perhaps precious time was gained by this action.

One can be sure that more attempts shall be made to stave off complete disaster!  Stay tuned.

The March of the Lorraines

After the first game of Flames of War, I determined that mobility would be very crucial for any future battles.  Over and over, foot slogging units would arrive late and far out of place.  Also, air power was proving to be absolutely devastating.

That's what prompted me to scratch build those Lorraine Carriers.

They would now get ther first test on a wonderful table set up by Paul at Draxtar Games.

We did some reworking of typical scenario conditions this time around, since I was not able to build everything that would eventually be needed.  We even tossed in Charles Du Gaulle, just to see what kind of effects that might have on this type of setup.

This does not show all of the German force, which was certainly a rapid strike force with lots of vehicles!  They were not incredibly powerful, being early war tanks, but very high numbers of fast moving threats.

The "Charlie Effect", as I now call it, basically set up a nice little drag race off to the left side of my lines.  I had to advance far down the long edge of the table to claim one of the objectives.

Speed would be essential, as the German forces would be getting reinforcements soon enough!

My Somuas and Lorraines got a nice head start with my hero's special ability.  As you can see, they offered each other mutual protection... the tanks protected the transports from other vehicles and infantry, while the Lorraines gave vital protection against attacking aircraft!!

The far off objective marker meant that the Somua unit would have a long way to go deep in enemy territory... could they reach it before all the reinforcing German armor arrived?  I was hoping to at least be in position before their arrival...

That advance was slowed somewhat by the transports, which are considered slow tracked vehicles.  I was tempted to rush the tanks forward, but that would leave them quite vulnerable to that air support.  The terrain also meant they would be bunched up in that effort to rush the objective.

I had to slow them down just enough to remain in sight of the anti-aircraft guns of the transports.

There was a road which provided a measure of protection from the entrenched German positions, but it would be a prime target for any reinforcing tank platoons, of which there were many!

Charles determined that the road would have to be used, regardless of the potential dangers.  At the same time, a small detachment of Hotchkiss tanks was sent towards the town to flank the defenders inside it.

Perhaps that move could split the attention of any arriving reinforcements...

The fight for the other objective in town became an interesting infantry and artillery duel.  The bombardments were not very effective, but the MG unit dismounted from their transport was proving to be very dangerous to the German position.  

Perhaps this could be the maneuver which would divide the attention of the Germans just enough!

Despite a continuous bombardment by the 75mm artillery, the dug in Germans could not be sufficiently pinned to cover a French advance.

Oh no!  The armor support not only arrives early, but exactly where the Souma column is most vulnerable.  It will be difficult to avoid major casualties here!

I had avoided putting too many vehicles jammed together on the road, worried about them being trapped there if the first and last tanks were to be knocked out.  Apparently that is not something that I needed to worry about.  Next time I will make more use of these 'tunnels' through the hedges.

Can the armor and infantry elements combine their advances to claim the objectives?  What role will the troops in the armored carriers play?  Find out in the next episode: Sacrifice of Heroes.

Slogging through the mud

Prior to my next battle of Flames of War, I realized that I was going to need two things.  Heavy duty (and mobile) anti-air support, and mobility for my infantry!

I thought that a solution presented itself in the form of the Lorraine Carrier.  It is an armored transport, which also has two crew fired AA machine guns!  These can also be used against ground targets.

Since they are two part vehicles, they needed to go on a stand.  As an added bonus, they would look much neater on a road, and I could magnetize the bottom more easily!

For this task, I combined the black lava paste and the usual red oxide.  The black lava provides more structural support for the off road sections, leaving the softer, smoother red oxide paste to create the ruts in the dirt roads.

I also like to mix in some Elmer's glue for a few reasons.  It thins out the paste just a touch, making it easier to apply, and the rocks and gravel tend to stick much more firmly.

You can see that I did the two corners with a few stray pieces of cork, which were covered with the black lava.  The cork pieces would make a good base for a few pieces of tree branches.

This set of images shows the ruts in the road, strategically placed for the carrier... matching the width of the treads.

I had so much fun making these, I am almost tempted to do all of my vehicles this way!  I added the last of my broken artillery wheels off to the sides of the roads.

To speed up the process (yes, time was a MAJOR issue), I mixed a little of the black and red together to 'paint' the undersides of all the transports.

The trees on the side of the road gave the vehicles a sense of size and scale, and created more of a vignette as well.  Once these are painted, and all the rest of the foliage applied, it should be quite a scene!

I have been saving some artificial tree foliage for many years, just for something like this.  It is a little too small for 28mm, which is why it has been set aside for almost 11 years... but it's ideal for 15mm Flames or War scale. :-)

Oh yeah, did I mention that I scratch built all ten of the Lorraine Carriers?  Yes indeed!  Sorry there are no WIP images of them, but I was in a rush.  These are made from junk. Not kidding.

I used left over pieces of pink foam, plasticard, polystyrene tubing, and even paper!

I covered most of the rougher areas of the cut pink foam with the card stock that are in the blisters of every type of miniature that you get these days.  It made a very hand (and free!) building material.

Since super glue melts pink foam, I had to be very careful about what kind of piece was glued to what.  It takes a lot longer for the Elmer's glue to dry, and the super glue does have a much stronger hold.

I will make the trailer sections later when I have the time, for the moment, I did a few trailers, which would house the command stands or other special weapons.

Another concern about the materials used was the potential for warping and tearing them apart with aggressive brush strokes.  This seemed to be just the right time to test out the new Badger Air brush (the basic Patriot)!

It was a good choice, as I didn't damage them at all, and I was able to do my shaded basecoat phase with great speed on all ten of the vehicles.

You will be seeing these in an upcoming battle report, and the finished versions will also appear on these pages.  Stay tuned!!

In Memory

For this Memorial Day, we have an experiment.

I wanted to see what would happen if I mixed weathering powders with my wash and glaze colors.  I have mixed them with the Secret Weapon sealer, as well as with rubbing alcohol, which turns them into a flowing paint.

They dry just the same as if I had applied them "dry", but I have the advantage of getting them to sink into the crevices, and mottle them a bit more.

I also did some splotches of darker wash colors over the dusty areas to see if I could create some interesting effects, especially on the flat surfaces of the upper hull.  I got some very fun results!

To all those who have served and sacrificed, many thanks.

Beware of the deadly eights!

We continue with the desperate struggle between the French and the Axis terror.  Just when the brave French defenders thought that the line could be held by the power of their heavy guns, flights of Stuka dive bombers pounced again and again.

They attempted to fend off these attacks as well as possible, but to no avail!

Eventually the heavy guns would be wiped out by the persistent bombing, and the entire battery would no longer take part.  You will see some interesting consequences of this issue in coming WIP hobby reports!  Let's just say that from now on, there will be at least 2, if not 4, layers of air defense.

The looted Czech tanks stormed across the tracks, heading for the now vacated base!!

Nothing stood in their way, so the unit of Heavy machine gunners was ordered to leave their positions in the woods and advance towards almost certain death...

They knew that reinforcements were coming, but none could be seen.  Eventually some did arrive, but poor communication meant that the foot slogging infantry came in the wrong area!  

This meant that the hapless machine gun teams were completely on their own.

In desperation, the Somuas and Hotchkiss tanks halted their advance towards the German base and headed back towards the clouds of smoke and flame by the key railway yard.

It is just as well, since the German reinforcements did begin trickling in.  They brought with them one deadly 88mm gun, which took no time in making it's presence felt.  One of the Somua tanks was blown apart...

All enemy positions would have to wait for another time, as the delayed and misguided French reinforcements left them on the verge of defeat!

By now, strong emplacements were set up by both of the far objectives, making them unassailable. 

This phase of the battle showed me why the French categorized these two tank models as "Cavalry" tanks.  They charged in to rescue the machine gun platoon, only to find their charred bodies all over the rail yard.  They would have to hold that position themselves.

Off in the distance, the rumble of ancient Renault tankettes could be heard, along with the shouts of French soldiers, rushing ahead as fast as feet to bring them.  Once again, modifications have been made to rectify such eventualities of misplaced reserves.

Huzzah!  At long last, the communication issues were resolved, and a rifle platoon marched straight into the rail yard.  By now, the French tanks had stabilized the position.

The German tank destroyers proved to be an ever present threat, although the woods seemed to wreak havoc on their aim.  I don't think the French tankers will be quite so fortunate next time.

When the last looted Czech tank went up in flames, so did the German hopes of a rapid victory.

However, they were now in place with highly mobile units, and would surely make another push to the rail yard, and possibly beyond that.  The line was held, but only by the narrowest of margins.

Can the French continue to stave off imminent defeat?  Will new units brought in to the front honor the noble sacrifice of the Machine gunners?  We shall see.