GREAT Flames Gaming Day

So DylanGould and I paired up against 3000 points of Soviet armor. Historically accurate? No. Fun? Hell yes! We played on an eight foot table, Hasty Attack, which meant that we started with half our forces in reserve, had Delayed Reserves which meant they didn't come on for a long time, and had Scattered Reserves which meant that they didn't come on where we wanted to. Yikes! To add insult to injury, Dylan and I were both playing 5 Platoon armies, which meant that only 2 of our armies got to start on the board from each army. Yeck. So I started with an eight gun battery of 25 pounder arty, which I set up around our two objectives on the forward edge of some woods. I figured they could fire bombardments and shoot direct fire at anything which tried to get close. Dylan deployed a full Armored Rifle Platoon around the same objective. I took one platoon of Cromwells + Firefly, attached my CO and 2ic, and sent them up the right flank. Dylan deployed a battery of Priests (armored arty) on the right flank too. So facing us... 3000 points of Soviet armor. Two T-34 Platoons with Tank Escorts on one, two units of honkin' huge Assault Guns (one with Tank Escorts), an eight gun arty battery, a mechanized infantry platoon, and some other peripherals. Now, he had the same reserve status as we did, so we didn't face the full might of his army all at once. But he deployed his arty and his assault guns and some 85 mm Heavy Anti-aircraft (really anti-tank) guns, and basically moved up and started pounding on us. I spent most of the game trying to turn his right flank and roll up his arty park, but he was able to stop me with some assault guns which had a hard time killing my Cromwells, but which also refused to die due to ridiculous armor values. His first assault gun platoon rolled up and parked in front of our defensive positions and volley fired us turn after turn. They had breakthrough guns (ignore saves) and 2+ firepower, so every turn they picked off defending troops and guns. His arty kept my arty well surpressed (my guns are Reluctant, so had a hard time unpinning), but at the same time our defensive position was too tough for him to just assault into without weakening it. His reserves came on and he rolled his two large T-34/85 Platoons up the center headed for our gut. Our turn came, and we got a platoon of Cromwells and a Firefly. The Firefly scooted over to a hedge to the right of the objective, with a clear field of fire onto the front side of the objective. The Cromwells double moved to the left and stayed concealed behind the woods that the objective was in. We were able to start popping a few of his T-34s with the Firefly, some direct fire from the Priests and some long-range Cromwell fire (the order this stuff happened in might be a little off but the general idea is there). We got a platoon of Sherman 76's and sent them running up the left flank towards our objective, and put some pressure on him, causing one of the T-34 platoons to divert off to the left. Finally, he committed to trying to take the objective, and killed a few infantry men in assault, moving up to claim. On our turn we got another Cromwell Platoon in, and shot his Assault Guns with 3 Firefly shots from close range, blew up a bunch of his T-34's by combining fire from 2 Cromwell platoons shooting into his flanks, etc. We bailed out or destroyed all the Assault Guns, and then assaulted them with Infantry auto-killing them all. His T-34 Platoon was destroyed, his assault guns were destroyed, and our opponent conceded. It was a great game, and really felt like a battle. We struggled and struggled to turn his flank, our arty batteries were duking it out we came out on top with a vicious counter-attack from flanking reserves. It was a good Sunday. Dylan can correct any errors in my memory, but I think I got the gist of it.