For a long time we've had a plan to play some Flames of War in 6mm using the early war desert lists in Hellfire and back! book. We bought and quickly painted up some troops ages ago and then never got around to playing the game ... until recently.
We are using the old 3rd edition rules, which, as old gognards we prefer and never moved on from. Battlefront have made all the old third edition books available via this web page here, and for free! Which is pretty decent of them, if a bit surprising, given their rather commercial reputation. The files can be accessed directly on this drive here.
This report is for our second game. The first game went very well for my DAK tank company. racing east from Tripoli they encountered a British armoured force and the panzers destroyed all before them. The swift bikers then dismounted to storm the objective for a convincing win. The victory was marred only slightly by the heroic death of the company CO, Haumptmann Klutz. He had advanced into 25-pdr range at the end of the battle, to draw fire from the infantry, and paid a heavy price. The Luftwaffe support had also been quite rampant in game one, with this particularly successful bomb run putting paid to three British tanks.
So moving on, we join the Panzers - now under command of the blonde and youthful Leutnant Himmelsplitz - as they push deeper into Cyrenaica and encounter a formidable British gun line of 25-pdr and motor riflemen digging in. The accompanying Luftwaffe boys dig in their 88 but cannot see the British guns clearly enough through the heat haze to open fire.
The panzers begin a wide flanking attack on the right, throwing up clouds of desert dust.
Stukas scream down on the infantry but are driven away by ferocious AA fire from just behind the British gun line. The Tommies have learned from the first encounter and this is going to be a tougher nut to crack.
Suddenly fire rains from the sky as the 25-pdr make short work of the 88. “We never even saw them until they opened fire” laments a stunned gefreiter Potz.
The panzers approach their supply dump objective but find it guarded by two British tanks. They call the Leutenant for back up and prepare to attack.
The panzers delay costs them time but eventually they go in with a well coordinated attack just as reinforcements arrive.
The original two Britischer panzers are quickly silenced but out of nowhere a horde of Tommy armour appears!
Meanwhile, more DAK reinforcements have taken up positions to defend the objectives they hold (a pair of downed Stukas with engine trouble).
The intense tank fight is brutal but the weak armour of the British tanks means even the 20mm guns of the Panzer IIs are effective.
There can be only ever have been one winner but the cost is considerable and both sides see their burning tanks litter the desert
Things get rather unclear from this point [I forgot to take enough photos] as the fighting went on into the dusk. A British counter attack of Portee AT guns and armoured cars was destroyed but the light panzers strayed into the 25-pdr's direct fire range and were quickly shown their error. The last bailed out armoured car was was assaulted and captured by the Kradshurschen platoon.
With only two Panzers remaining Leutnant Himmelsplitz assaulted the dug in riflemen as 25-pdr shells dropped all around him. The day ended in confusion with both sides claiming victory*.
The test games were quite a success. The British armour is not great under these rules but we liked the look of the 6mm figures. I think keeping the ranges but using smaller figures helps with the 'car park' effect you can sometimes get in 15mm Flames of War.
*The motor rifles were broken in a second round of assault, which should have broken the British company but we forgot the company morale test and had the 25-pdrs fire, which destroyed the last panzer, which would have broken the unit except the Brits should already have broken. We called it draw as it was late, we'd had fun and we were on about turn 19 by this point.
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