Well this is an indication of how we spent the Saturday night. Quite fitting, considering the theatre of operations. The previous blog entry was written at 12am after several jars, including a pint of Cherry Porter Grand Reserve, infused with Amaretto. Like Bakewell tart in a glass. I'm blaming that for neglecting to mention something important on the Saturday:
Last year, Richard had mentioned making some concealed dismounted tank turrets, hidden in wooden houses. Something that I completely forgot about until NATO turn 2, when this innocent looking building turned out to be a reinforced bunker containing a Centurion 105mm turret and 3 sapper units. They promptly sprung an ambush and toasted what was left of my infantry with their flamethrowers. I decided to fight fire with fire and sent on my own sappers mounted in BTR-50s to smoke them out. They then spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday blundering the way up the road, as a series of failed command rolls and double 6 blunders hindered their progress.
Santa had arrived early on Sunday as Rich allocated me some reinforcements from my KO'd pile.
A reinforcement battalion of T-55AM2s deployed on my left to back up my other battalion, who had been having some success winkling out Martin's Austrian Kurassiers and M-60s in the woods.
In my centre, some more infantry on BMP-1s arrived to try to push Martin's West German infantry out of the built up area in my centre, just as soon on as the engineers had cleared out that pesky bunker. The slow progress of the engineers meant that these infantry never really got into the game.
My centre tank battalion were planning on tackling Ian's Leopard 2 battalion, that had set up behind the railway embankment and took out my other T55 battalion. However, Gerrard's Russians on my right had managed to turn Ian's left flank. Ian's Leopard 2s thus bugged out and redeployed to counter the developing situation on the left. Martin sent 2 companies of Leopard 1s to the embankment and started taking shots at Gerrard's T-62s. He countered with tank mounted ATGMs and charged his T-62s forward. In doing so he exposed their flank to the turret in that pesky bunker so I sent my T55 battalion to cover his flank and pile HE rounds into the bunker, trying to silence it for good.
On my left, a T-55AM2 battalion had been exchanging fire with Martin's Austrian armour. With the day pressing on, they charged forward to take on the Austrians at point blank range. Ably assisted by a close assault from Stewart's Czech infantry, the Austrians were cleared from the woods. Retaliatory fire and repeated air attacks effectively wiped out that tank battalion though.
We played on until 2.45pm. By that point, Martin's combined battlegroup still held the centre but were beginning to look shaky. Gerrard's Russians were outflanking Ian's West Germans and looked like they were ready to break through. Stewart's Czech brigade had struggled against Mark's Leopard 2s that were safely camped in woods to the NATO rear table edge. Nonetheless Stewart had made progress and were halfway across the table. The Warsaw Pact forces were awarded a minor victory but it didn't really feel like that from the East German point of view.
The Luftwaffe made their presence felt on the Sunday. It was a bit galling to see my own aircraft being used against me though it was nice to see the toys out of their box and in action.
Once again, a most enjoyable weekend of gaming. It's always good when the Cold War Commanders get together to roll the dice at each other. My thanks to my comrades Stewart and Gerrard on team WarPac and to the NATO opposition Mark, Martin and Ian. Huge thanks to Richard for organising and hosting the game and keeping us fed all weekend. The big table really was a belter, particularly the centre piece schloss and castle.
With the year growing old, thoughts turn to plans for 2025. Richard C is looking at hosting another Crisis Point weekend and Neil & I have designs on putting on a game. Richard P has big ideas for Joy of Six as perhaps a few 1 day games at The Unit, in addition to next year's big weekend. Lots to look forward too!
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