Mid War Desert Pincer (FOW)

Flames of War has seriously dropped off in Auburn this year.
I'm having trouble putting my finger on the exact reason, but I think most everybody has real life stuff coming up. I've been dating someone who doesn't really get the whole "toy soldiers" thing... and my arch nemesis Rob has a new grand baby, Mathew's heading off to college and Matt is flying all over the place. So we have hit a historic low for Flames of War games in the shop since we started playing FOW way back in 2004. It's kinda made me sad...

But that being said we did get a Mid War desert battle in a few weeks ago! Joel and Mathew brought out their British and I put down the Afrika Korp. Early on I thought it would be a tough match up with my force containing Panzer III with the short 5cm and Panzer IV's with the short 7.5cm gun, while Mathews force was later with Shermans and Crusader III's. However with the mission being pincer and me being the attacker, I was able to move up aggressively and funnel his reinforcements, taking on each piecemeal.

The 21st Panzer Division rushing to escape encirclement.

Two Platoons of Shermans and the HQ forming the initial British force.

Such a hodgepodge of different tanks.

But with a few Mark IV "Specials"

A frightening sight in North Africa.

Using the buildings to protect their flanks.

The RAF shows up to bail a Mark IV.

A Crusader III platoon comes on from the left flank.

As does the second.

I had moved up my 5cm AT guns to prevent his reserves from coming in on my right.

Neither side wanted to get in a melee in the village.

The Germans finally pushed hard for the objective, taking out a Sherman platoon.

We used the Mark IV shorts and then the AT guns to hold off the reinforcements.

Mathew was then forced to bring on his last reserve platoon on the right to try to contest, they whiffed their shots.

The AT guns knocked them out and moved to support the center.

And that is how it ended. The 21st had cleared an escape route through British lines!