Firestorm Berlin - Sample Turn

I put together an example turn of Firestorm Berlin for the players in the campaign and thought I'd share it on here.

Firestorm Berlin - Turn 1 (Example)

Axis
Player A
Player B

Allies
Player D
Player E

Battle Plans

Allied Battle Plan
The main thrust of our assault on Berlin will be via the south. We'll first move on München and then push north towards Berlin. We'll do our best to hold our ground towards the north and a secondary priority will be to capitalise on any gains we can make there. For this turn our priority should be Baden as it brings us one step closer towards München and can be used as a staging point for our assaults next turn.

Axis Battle Plan
The Führer demands that we recapture France from the Allies. They now have a strong foothold on the continent and we have to disrupt their plans to advance further or Berlin will fall. If we begin by attacking the Ardennes area to drive a wedge into their advance and force them to divert the resources pushing for Berlin to defending their own lines then we will be off to a good start. After the Ardennes, Brussels and Flanders are our priorities so that our forces will be able to keep in supply once they begin the push to retake Paris!

The Generals can make their battle plans as simple as this or they can use maps etc to show help explain what exactly they'd hope for the players to do. Like all good plans it'll have to be adaptable as there's no guarantee that you'll win the initiative so might well spend the turn fighting battles on your opponents terms and it's the General's job to make sure that his Commanders are able to capitalise on any advantages that present themselves by being informed of their ultimate goals throughout the campaign.

Battle Phase

Player A & Player D arrange a game against eachother and agree to play the campaign standard 1750pts in their game. They will then roll off to see who has the initiative and that player will decide where the battle is fought. Player A rolls a 3 and Player D rolls also rolls a 3. Throughout the campaign the Allies win tied Initiative rolls. This is to represent the impetus the Allies had over the Germans at this stage in the war so Player D wins the Initiative.
Having read the General's Battle Plan for this turn Player D knows that Baden is a priority and chooses to attack there from Saarland so that he can use both Firestorm Counters there to help ensure his victory and to advance the Allies' goal of an assault on the Supply Depot at München in the coming turns.
There is only one Firestorm Counter in Baden so Player A uses this in response but knows that he'll be up against the odds in the coming battle.
Both players check that their armies are In Supply which they are as the Supply Lines run through both territories from Supply Depots in other territories without a break in the line through enemy controlled areas. This means that both players will be playing with an army of 1750pts. In addition to their 1750pts army Player D will have an additional 600pts to spend on Support Platoons and Player A will have an additional 300pts to spend on Support Platoons.



Player B & Player E also arrange a game and they roll for initiative. B rolls 6 and E rolls 4. This means the German Player B has the Initiative. The German General has stated that the Ardennes and Flanders are to be the main focus of their assaults this turn so Player B chooses to attack the Ardennes from the Rheinland. Player B uses both Firestorm Counters in the Rheinland to support his attack and Player E uses both in the Ardennes to create a level playing field and give him a chance of victory and with it a counter-attack into the Rheinland.
Both armies are In Supply and will play with 1750pts plus have an additional 600pts of Support Platoons.

The players all play their games of Flames of War.

It's really important to work out the VP at the end of the game. The rules for this are in the rulebook but are 1 VP for each platoon destroyed. You can roll off to destroy Firestorm Counters after completing your battle.

Player D beats Player A but Player A made him pay steeply for the victory and Player D finishes with 5 VP to Player A's 4. The players roll to destroy Firestorm Counters after the battle. Player D rolls once to destroy the Firestorm Counter that Player A used. As his VP were 5 he needs to roll a 5+ to destroy the counter. He rolls a 4 so Player A's counter will survive as it can safely retreat to an adjacent friendly territory of Player A's choice, and does so, fleeing to Pfalz. Player A rolls twice, once for each counter that Player D used and needs a 6 to destroy each one due to his 4 VP in the battle. Player A rolls a 2 and a 6. This means that one of the Firestorm Counters is destroyed. As the counter wasn't surrounded (there were friendly territories adjacent to it) it goes to the Allies' Reinforcement Pool.
Player D captures Baden for the Allies and chooses to advance the surviving Firestorm Counter into the newly acquired Territory.



In their game Player E manages to beat Player B. This means that Player B's offensive has failed and Player E counter-attacks into the German territory capturing it for the Allies. The game was very one sided and Player B only managed to earn 2 VP so doesn't get to roll to destroy Firestorm Counters at all. Player E scored 7 VP against Player B so needs to roll twice, once for each of Player B's counters, and only needs 4+ to destroy them. Player E rolls a 4 and a 6 destroying both of the Axis' Firestorm Counters. They were adjacent to friendly territories so are not surrounded and removed from the game entirely and instead goes to the Axis Reinforcement Pool.
Player E decides to advance both of the Firestorm Counters from the Ardennes into the Rheinland.



All the battles for this campaign turn have been played so the Campaign Turn moves on into the next phase

Strategy Phase

This phase is carried out by the Generals. The Allied General first will declare his exploitation moves. Then, the Axis General will do the same. Next the Allied General will bring on their Reinforcements into whichever Supply Depots they choose and then the Axis General will. Finally the Allied General will detail all of his Strategic Moves as he prepares the Allied army for the next Campaign turn and then the Axis General makes his Strategic Moves. Once this is done the Victory Points for the campaign so far are added up by the Campaign Organiser and then then next turn can begin. Each turn will last for 2 weeks and will start on a Sunday. This means the Generals will be busy finishing their Strategy Phase and preparing their Battle Plan in advance of each turn beginning so that their Commanders know what is expected of them.

Exploitation Move

The Allied General makes his Exploitation Moves first. He makes these moves to seize more territory from the opposition. He can move up to two Firestorm Counters that are In Supply into adjacent enemy controlled areas that do not contain a Firestorm Counter and doing so captures those areas. The Allied General begins by moving his first Firestorm Counter from Baden into Württemberg. This is a potentially risky move as it leaves Baden prone to exploitation from the Axis General which would also cut off the new acquired Wurrtemberg territory from Supply. This risk is mitigated by the Allied General's second Exploitation Move which is to move a Firestorm Counter from the Rheinland into Hessen. This leaves one Firestorm Counter to defend the Rheinland and importantly cuts of Supply to the German Firestorm Counters in Pfalz, leaving them unable to exploit from there, cut off from Reinforcements and in a weaker position come the Battle Phase in Campaign Turn 2.



In response the Axis General exploits into the now vacant Ardennes territory with a Firestorm Counter from Zuid-Holland. The Axis General is unable to make any other Exploitation Moves this turn as the rest of their counters do not have a valid territory to exploit into or are Out of Supply.



Reinforcements
Both Generals bring their reinforcements back on in their Supply Depots.

Strategic Moves
Both Generals makes their Strategic Moves to reinforce their front lines with Firestorm Counters. The Firestorm Counters can move any distance along Supply Lines as long as they start in supply it's an unbroken chain through friendly territories all in supply. They could instead move to one adjacent friendly territory, this type of movement need not be along a Supply Line and need not begin or end in a territory that is In Supply but must be between two adjacent Friendly territories. Firestorm Counters are unable to make Strategic Moves into or through territories that have just been captured through an Exploitation Move.



As they prepare for Campaign Turn 2 the Allies find themselves in a very strong position early on but the Axis players can quickly turn this around with a few well placed victories!

Victory Points
The Victory Points at the end of this turn are:
Allies - 310
Axis - 200
If the game ended at this point it would be a Tactical Victory for the Allies.

The Campaign Map at the start of Turn 2



Things to keep in mind on Turn 2 would be:
Köln, Pfalz and the Ardennes are all Out of Supply so any battles fought in these areas will see the Axis Commanders having to roll on the Out of Supply chart and potentially having weaker or poorly motivated troops.
Hessen is Out of Supply so any battles fought there will see the Allied Commanders having to roll on the Out of Supply chart.
Both sides have brought their full quote of Firestorm Counters to the front lines so a lot of battles will be fought with additional Support Platoons on each side.
Pfalz is currently surrounded so an Allied Victory there will see the Axis Players losing 2 Firestorm Counters that will be Captured by the Allies and removed from the Campaign Map for good. This would also net the Allies an additional 10 VP in the Campaign.

Campaign map made with a great deal of assistance from the awesome Battle Chronicler software!