The first Flames of War game of 2013 (Part one)

I was hoping to do a full AAR of this game (with a load of pictures as well), which had been in the pipeline for around a month, but as it turns out, I ended up being quite ill with Bronchitis!  So, here I present the set up of each force and in the next/final part I will give a brief run down of the battle as it took place..

Usually, on or around bank holidays our group like to have a big game of Warhammer 40k or 40K Apocalypse, but over the past year things have been a bit quiet on the 40k front for us, and a few of us have been playing other games such as Flames of War and Firestorm Armada, we decided to play something else.  As soon as the idea of Flames of War was put forward, everyone was keen to play, particularly the guys who don't already play it (I'm putting this down to excessive playing of World of Tanks over the past few months!).

So, we arranged a simple British vs German battle, around 3200 points (As to fill an afternoon/early evening), mostly using Turning Tide and Earth & Steel.  We had two companies per side, with one FoW newbie on each side.  Luckily I had just received the Open Fire box set, so had an Armoured Company to allow a second British detachment!   From what I remember, the forces were as follows:

British:
Airlanding Company
Company HQ with Sniper + 3 x PIAT Teams
3  Airlanding Rifle Platoons (with 3 Rifle Teams)
Airlanding Pioneer Platoon
Airlanding Machine Gun Platoon
Airlanding Anti-Tank Platoon
Commando Company

Armoured Squadron (From the Flames of War 11th Armoured Division pdf)
Company HQ (2 Sherman V)
2 x Guards Armoured Platoon (2 x Sherman V and 1 x Sherman Firefly VC)
1 x Guards Armoured Platoon (3 x Sherman V and 1 x Sherman Firefly VC)
1 x Anti-tank Platoon, Royal Artillery (4 x M10C 17pdr SP)
101st Airborne Parachute Platoon

German:
German Panzergrenadier Lehr Kompanie
Company HQ
2 x Panzergrenadier Lehr Platoon (with 3 Panzergrenadier Squads)
1 x Panzergrenadier Lehr Platoon (with 2 Panzergrenadier Squads)
Panzergrenadier Lehr Heavy Mortar Platoon (1 Section)
Tank-Hunter Lehr Platoon (3 x Jagdpanzer IV)

Panzer Lehr Kompanie
Company HQ (2 x Panther A)
Panzer Lehr Platoon (4 x Panzer IV H)
Panther Lehr Platoon (4 x Panther A)

So there we go, we've got a British infantry heavy force of Fearless Veterans, elite Airlanding troops and commandos, supported by the solid, confident veterans of the 11th Armoured Division.  On this misty June morning, they face off across the countryside of Normandy against the Confident Veterans of the Panzer Lehr, equipped with not only the rapid and devestating half-tracks of the Panzergrenadiers, but also the devestating strength of the Lehr's finest tanks.  

Will the daring British advance succeed, or will it be crushed by the well equipped and trained Panzer Lehr?  In part 2, we will find out...