Late War long game

Me and Gary set up a 1750, Late War game of Flames of War at our club and slogged it out over the course of a few hours. Though at times the time seemed to fly by in a whirl of dice rolling and pushing man toys around the miniature battlefield it was a long game. But we had a casual attitude and spent some time getting our head around the Version 3 assault phase rules.
It was my Soviets versus German Panzers of the Fearless Veteran variety. I took a Soviet Shock Infantry company which is mostly designed about being among the first waves of the Soviet assaults from Operation Bagration and onwards. However this game saw the Russians taking on the role of Defender so they missed out on using the nice pre-turn 1 advance move that the Scout unit extends to another unit but also gives them a massive 16inchs to move forward with. Gary also tried out the massive Sturm Tiger models and managed to wipe out two teams of infantry the entire game with them. They did not make a big impression on us both really but, still they might have better days in the future. Might be the case of that type of randomness with these big rocket mortar tanks that they get lucky some games and they really lay out some hurt and other days they are mediocre at best.
Among my units I took a big artillery battery of 4 x Zis 76mm guns and 4 x 122. While ending up at a unit of 10 teams which is good they didn't really have a big impact in the game. I might re-think the inclusion of them when I next try soviets like this. I also ran out of points to purchase an observer for them. Doh!
Gary stated that he thought he had a made a good list to take on my Soviets prior to the game and I would have to agree with him. No heavy tanks, just mediums and support which included some halftracked infantry. Perahsp ideal really for taking on lots of Infantry in my opinion.
It has been a while since I gamed with Infantry hordes like this so it was good fun. However if a gamer was to ask me about what I thought about getting into the game and building up a force like this I would probably say.....hmmmm..... I like your enthusiasm and don't want to take it away but seriously re-think it. The time it takes to paint it and the logistics of moving it and storing and also how long it takes just to plop them all down on the table....sheeesh! Also less toys means you spend less money.
Anyway here is some images I snapped.

Soviets deploy in fox holes center table.



 The table as it looked soon after. 

Panzers line up for Firing Squad duty.

Lastly the SturmTigers looking nice in the plain Dunkgelb scheme. They sat in this area the entire game but they looked cool while doing it and that's what really counts.

How did it end? The Soviets held out tooth and nail to just manage a win. The climax was a number of Tank versus Infantry assaults with some unlucky 1s coming up for the German tanks as a bit of grenade in hatches action took place in our minds. An exciting end.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)