Will, friend and owner of the closest gaming shop around, got some Flames of War starter sets. Will likes historical gaming but his clientele are 40K zombies (sorry not sorry) so it is rare to find someone who is willing to play historicals. I have the rules and always wanted to play, but there were some things in the rules I didn't understand no matter how many times I read them. So, I jumped at the opportunity to play. I should have taken pictures, but my opponent was someone I didn't know and some people adverse to getting their picture taken by strangers.
Will acted as referee. I took the US and my opponent the Germans. I had more tanks but in addition to PzIVh tanks, he also had a battery of 75mm Pak 40 anti-tank guns that sat in a forest edge and picked off most of my Shermans. My infantry did manage to put some hurt on his infantry but he had a 2 to 1 superiority in numbers. The other advantage is that the German light machineguns do not count as heavy weapons, but the US 30 cal machineguns do. This makes a huge difference when having assaults as heavy weapons are penalized during assaults. Assaults are the main ways infantry can be effective.
The Germans clearly won, but they lost most of their tanks and almost one of their two platoons of infantry. I think I would have done a little better if those nasty 75mm Pak 40s weren't present.
It was a fun game and it answered a number of puzzlements I had with the rules.
