Well, its been out a while, sitting looking forlornly down from the shelf at me. So, I finally found the time to get the models in my Opertion Unthinkable British/German starter set assembled and on to a table top to finally try out Clash of Steel for myself. For more detail on Operation Unthinkable have a look at this https://brilliantmaps.com/operation-unthinkable/ .Well on with the game, Martin.
My gaming partner has acquirred a few more Clash of Steel compatible models as he is collecting the German Late War Leviathan kits but as all I have is the starter set we still played with a 50 point limit which is what comes in the box. I commanded the British with 2 Tortoises, 4x Centurion 3’s in 2 units of 2 tanks and a squadron of 3 Comets. Whilst my partner had a German Force comprising a single Maus, 3x King Tiger’s and 3x Panther 8.8cm.
Following setting up the table the instructions told us to pick a deployment card and we got Central Attack with just 2 Objectives which with such small forces was probably helpful and we selected a mission card #5 giving an 8 turn game with scatterred delayed reserves (not so ideal with small Forces). I elected to start with my Centurions and Comets on the table so I could pressure both Objectives whilst the Germans started with the Maus and Panther 88s.
Rolling off I lost the die roll to be the Attacker and promtly deployed my Centurions on either flank and my Comets pretty centraly this meant that if I went first I could actually get to both objective markers thanks to the rapid movement rates of the Biritsh tanks. My oponent placed his Maus opposite one objective but screened from it by a hill and the Panthers facing the other again screened from my troops this time by a wood. Winning the die roll to go first I promtly advanced my units forward to get them close enough to the two objectives and making my opponent manouver to get any shots at me in hs turn. On revealing Objective 1 the card revealed that tanks within 4″ could increase their gun range by 4″ this could be handy in a larger game but as I didn’t have a gun powerful enough to hurt the Maus front on and I couldn’t see the Panthers from this position it wasn’t overly useful ato either of us as a bonus. In the end step I scored the first victory points.
German Turn 1 saw the Panthers advance at top speed into the wood close enough to the objective to start contesting it, the Maus rolled ponderously forward failing to Blitz keeping it well back from Objective 2 and my HQ Centurions and Comets. Shooting proved rather eventful for the Maus hitting my HQ Centurion, easily penetrating their modest front armour but failing to pass the Fire Power test, my 2iC survived. The Panthers fter their long move failed to score any hits. We now again moved to the end Phase I failed to remount but score more VP’s.
Turn 2 started with the 2nd Objective being revealed, you could only score points for this objective until Turn 5. As I was already in possession uncontested of one objective the best tactic for me was to try and amass as many points as possible before the Germans started slowing my scoring, after all Clash of Steel is all about scoring VP’s. I manouvered my Comets and HQ to make the Maus move again if it wanted to shoot me next turn whilst my Centurion platoon facing th Panthers stayed still. I had a plan here. In Clash of Steel you build up a hand of Tactics cards (you get 3 to start) which can help you during the game, I just so happened to have cards that increased my platoon RoF, allowed me to reroll misses and I had a Lucky card. Taken all together these could give me a shooting phase for my 2 tanks as least as good as the 3 Panthers. If I could elominate or Bail the 2 near the objective I would then hold it uncontested for more VP’s.
Playing my first card increasing their RoF to 3 giving me 6 shots, getting 2 hits, here I played my reroll card and scored another 3 hits, my opponent rolled his saves suceeding in only reducing my shooting to 1 hit on each Panther. I now made my FP rolls scoring 2 kills and a bail result, I still had my lucky card electing to play it to go for 3 kills I rolled the die but failed to score the neccessary 3+. However, I had destroyed 2 of my opponets 3 tanks leaving the last bailed out and in real trouble.
Here we again see the subtle way Clash of Steel differs from Flames of War or Team Yankee WW3 remounting is done at the end of your opponets turn so the Panther tank remounted but only to promtly fail its Unit Last Stand test and exit the battle. This meant I scored 6 vP’s for holding an uncontested objective and an extra 3 for destroying an enemy platoon. This gave me a big lead
German Turn 2 was pretty uneventful being concerned that I could flank his Maus my opponet settled on getting in a couple of shots again picking on my Centurians but again German ammunition quality was lacking and again the result was just a bailed out tank. Remouting proved a little more difficult and despite a reroll from my HQ only my 1iC got back into operation however, I did score another 6 VP’s to none further increasing my lead.
Turn 3 and time for reserves to come on, again I had lucked out with my Tactics cards and had a card grnting an extra die rolling 2 dice I managed the 5+ and my Tortises arrived in the middle of the deployment zone and promtly dashed forward my Comets manouvered to flank the Maus whilst I kept my fragile Centurion platoons holding the objectives. Shooting was ineffective as I failed to even hit the Maus! I again racked up 6 more points and now had a massive lead.
The Germans started their turn with some better fortune with the King Tigers arriving and advancing to engage my Comet platoon, deciding to concentrate on eliminating the Comet platoon the Maus Blitzed bringing it within 4″ of the objective Held by my lone tank, Shooting was highly effective with the king Tigers killing 2 Comets, this forced my opponet to make a choice try and kill of both platoons or ensure 1 was removed, deciding to go for certainty the Maus turned its mighty guns on the poor Comet completely destroying the tank. I managed to remount the bailed Centurian and the Germans scored their first significant points, this turn but, with no change in the differential.
Turn 4 came and I continued to move my Tortise platoon forward to get them toe to toe with the mighty Maus neither of us could frontally hurt the other but with a successful Blitz we could both get into a firing position. This was a bit of a gamble on my part as the Maus would get the first chance to try this but I figured killing both was a bit of an unlikely outcome. I was now concerned about my HQ platoon with the King Tigers marauding up the middle of the board so, I attempted to redeploy them to keep the Germans having to make choices about where they went to knock out my platoons. I needed to move my other platoon foward to threaten the King Tigers or at least slow them down but despite only needing a 2+ I failed my cross checks and was left safe but without any lines of sight. My opponent now played one of their Tactics cards to change the objective rules drawing a new one from the deck he stopped me scoring on the uncontested objective until Turn 6. So it was just 1 vp each this time.
Seeing the position he was in my opponent decided to focus on my Centurion platoons if those were eliminated my Force would break and the game end – now this is where you need to remember how Clash of Steel works at this point I was well ahead in VP count so breaking my Force would end the game and score my opponet 9 VP’s for my 3 remaining platoons and he would be holding one objective for a total of 12 points but the gap between us was was considerably more and he would still loose the game. Now there area couple of contradictory parts in the rule pamphlet on one pages (37) it says you loose if you Force break and on another (44) that it doesn’t matter just complare VP’s. As the latter is in the missions section we concluded that was what should be followed.
Unlike in FoW and TYWW3 you need to keep the game going not end it rapdily if you are behind on the VP counter, so a you really need to think about that all the time. The King Tigers repositioned to be able to contest Objective 2 next turn. The Maus opened fire aided by Tactics cards and with some good rolls killed both my HQ tanks. Now, here my opponent made a rash decision deciding that as he needed 5’s to hit anyway and he was at risk of my Centurion platoon flanking his remaining platoon (a Force break would easily win me the game) he would shoot them as well, having seen me eliminate the Panthers in one go I suspect this influenced his decision. His thinking being he should only get 1 hit anyway needing 6’s to hit them. Logic doesn’t apply to dice, he promptly got 2 hits and now needed to fail at least 1 FP roll to stop the game ending and handing the British the win! The dice bounced across the table a 5 and a 3, oh dear! This left the game with a British win by 12 Victory Points.
Well for a first run through I must say Clash of Steel was a lot of fun to play the simplified nature of just tank on tank combat made for a quick and easy to play game, the addition of the Tactics cards added an extra level of subtelty to the game do you use them or wait until later on when they may be even more helpful? The random nature of how the Objectives would work and the fact they could change added some extra jeapody, suddenly an Objective can dissappear or become inactive adding to the complexity of play. Overall as an alternative way to make use of some of your Late War Leviathans its a great addition to the GaleForce 9/Battlefront stable of games.
Time to get some paint on the British, more from me on this in the future, happy gaming – Martin