Monday, March 27, 2017

Spearhead: Modern- West Germany, 1985 Part 2

Continuing from last time: The Soviets defend their recent territorial gains against a NATO counterattack! 

Some of my chicken-scratch planning on a hand-drawn map.

Plans for the I/290th and III/290th

Hind helicopter support awaiting orders at the Airport.

Andy's British forces begin their advance, spearheaded by his light Reconnaissance units...

...Who walk straight into the killzone of the dug-in and well-prepared II/290th Motor Rifles! Platoons of mechanized infantry are arrayed in line, from the small hill through the woods, with more in the village behind them. A platoon of ZSU 23/4s is dug in behind the woods, providing anti-aircraft cover, while self propelled guns have a beautiful line of fire in the bottom lefthand corner of the picture.

The best combination is a well-layed ambush, a helping of luck, and phenomenal dice rolls. My troops were well-placed, I got lucky in that the British forces came in Exactly where I expected someone to, and that I rolled phenomenally well. I killed about 3/5 of the force outright, and the rest skedaddled, scattering and running pell-mell off the board.


The Americans begin to move onto the board from the south-western road. None of my forces are in an immediate position to oppose them, but the crossroads are defended by I/290, and now I know that I can free up the III/290 to move to their aid.


M1 Abrams and Bradleys roll forward.


Now that they know where the enemy are, the Queen's Own Highlanders dismount and advance on the Soviet enemy. They meet with better success than their recce counterparts.


As they come into spotting range, we deploy/reveal our brave Soviet defenders. Dug in on the hill and in the town, however the Americans are a far tougher nut to crack than the British. 

This is where having the T-80 battalion attached out to the infantry would have helped us immensely. I knew that we had an entire regiment of T-80s in reserve, but they hadn't been set out on the table, so I mistakenly thought that the handful of T-80s sitting out there were the only tanks I had. I needed their heavier guns to oppose the M1 Abrams of the Americans, and they would have helped immensely against the British Chieftains as well.


The armored column advancing on the Soviet held ridge line.


The soviet held ridge line, mentioned above! I had a battalion of 2S1 Self-propelled artillery that I detached out, so that each infantry battalion had two bases (so two batteries? or gun sections? whatever) to provide direct fire support.

The RAF is on hand to provide support to the infantry attack on the northern front


The Americans come on in a mighty wave of troops and vehicles! The Soviet commander, desperate to slow their inexorable advance, calls in an entire regiment of MiG-27s, who... kind of under-perform, to be honest. 1/3 of their number are driven off by AA fire, and the have little impact.


And on the northern flank of the battle, the Highlanders assault the motor-rifles in the woods, steadily grinding them down.


A view of the massed American forces, moving into position for a final assault on the soviet defences around the crossroads. The III/290 has finally linked up with the first battalion, but both are taking heavy casualties from American tank-fire.


And that's all for now! Next time, we'll see how the two-pronged NATO attack plays out.


No comments:

Post a Comment