Small Scale, Big Game

 This weekend sees the annual Cold War Commanders big game, making its debut at Richard P's own venue The Unit in Stone, Staffordshire. This year there are 8 players and we have been split across two tables. In this year's scenario, set in the CENTAG area of operations, WarPac forces have broken through NATO defences and pushed forward into a salient. NATO have been tasked with counter attacking from North and South to cut off the salient and surround the attacking Soviet and WarPac armies. A third table represents the centre of Soviet held ground and will be used if/when NATO breaks through the Soviet lines.

Table 1 in the north has Nick G's US troops and Neil's Irish brigade attacking Ian W and Simon's Soviets. Table 2 to the south of the salient featured Martin and my West German forces attacking Mark W and Stewart's Soviets.

Table 2, with NATO on the right (south), Soviets on the left (North).

In the first few turns my Leopard 2 companies came face to face with a Soviet T-64 battalion. The greater range and durability of the Leopard 2 made the difference as Mark W's centre battalion was repulsed in short order.

My West Germans press forward.

The Soviet centre opens up as the T-64s come off second best in the long range exchange of fire.

On my left flank a Soviet T-64 battalion has moved forward, blundered, fallen back and then advanced forward again towards a BUA.

At the end of day 1, my West Germans have faced down a Soviet tank brigade (regiment?). 1 battalion has been all but wiped out, another has been badly mauled but the third is unblooded and is on my left flank, threatening to stop any drive forwards. On my right flank, Stewart's Soviet motor rifle regiment have taken up a blocking position in the centre of the table and also threatened to turn the NATO right flank. Martin has shorn up the right flank and has worn down the Soviet forces. Neither of us have the infantry reserves to be able to conduct sustained operations in built up areas.

Tomorrow Martin and I need to figure out a way to quickly push through the remaining Soviet forces and break through to the middle table.

Finally a few photos from table 1 in the north. Here Neil's Irish have held their own against the Soviets and allowed Nick's Americans to attack the Soviets, break them and move across the far table edge. They will thus play across the middle table tomorrow.

Panzer Marsch!

 It's the annual Cold War Commanders big gaming weekend this weekend, held for the first time at Richard P's own venue, The Unit in Stone, Staffordshire. I've been getting a few units ready for the event.

Last year I was asked to put together a recce battalion for a game. I liked that unit so it has now been stood up as a permanent formation:

The first company is 2 platoons of foot scouts and a Milan team, transported in a pair of Fuchs. I've used arrow headed bases for the vehicles to denote recce, a useful convention on a busy battlefield as well as pleasing to the eye.

Next company is 3 Luchs with a Leopard 1 in support.

The final heavy recon company consists of 4 Leopard 1. These will be classed as Recce Support. Apologies for the poor photos, the light conditions aren't that great. It was fun deploying the company in full though I can't see that happening too often. 3 HQs may be a bit of overkill but the intention was to help the battalion cover as much ground as possible.

For the last 10 years I have been using these Leopard 2s:

Most of our games have been set in 1985 though and I keep getting told that these are 2A5 and so not available for '85.

I decided that it was time to replace them so I now have a new battalion of Leopard 2A3 or A4.

I've taken the time to add Balkan Crosses to all of them though they are hardly visible on the gaming table. I know they're there though.

Finally for now and not for this game we have these:

I'd watched a Tank Chat on YouTube about the Scimitar 2 and seen an example on a recent visit to the Tank Museum so decided to have a bash making some. They are a simple conversion of a Striker hull filed down a bit with a Scimitar turret added - the real things are basically the same conversion with a Spartan hull mated to a Scimitar turret. In real life they've seen action in Afghanistan, are deployed as part of the NATO "tripwire" in the Baltic States and I believe that some are on the way to Ukraine. Not sure when my lads will see any action but they were a fun little conversion. I can't help wondering how their performance compares to the Ajax; not seen any reports of anyone developing tinnitus after riding around in one of these.

Next up shall be an AAR from The Unit. Looking forward to it now.

Eye In The Sky

 A few years ago I bought a 1/288 Antonov AN-72P kit:

I've been thinking that I really ought to get it assembled but seeing Richard Phillips' expanding air armada take shape (see coldwarcommanders.blogspot.com) has inspired me to get moving.

The AN-72P is a patrol version so has a few underwing hardpoints for bombs or rockets (as shown in the box illustration) as well as a 12.7mm gun pod on the starboard side:

Originally I thought that I had been given the wrong kit as there was no sign of weaponry. Looking at the pictures in the instructions though it looks as though they have just stuck a standard AN-72 kit into a different box and called it the patrol version. I've created a gun pod by filing down a bit of sprue and adding a stub of paper clip for a gun barrel. Not quite the right shape but close enough. I also added a couple of rocket pods from the H&R Soviet aircraft weapons pack donated by m'colleague Neil.

In terms of colour scheme, based on the box art I assumed that it was a maritime reconnaissance plane so planned on a basic grey. A bit of research though showed that they are more for border patrols and some of the paint schemes are quite garish for an aircraft:

Anyway, without further ado, the finished product:

The kit comes with a little stand which is helpful as I never thought to weight the nose so it tips backwards. The kit was very rough and not easy to assemble but overall I'm pleased with the finished product. The hole for the little stand can also be used for a flight stand. I'll have to think up some rules for use in CWC. I don't think that it would worry a NATO armoured column but would be effective in some sort of irregular/ bush war. I have read of Canberras getting fitted with rockets and guns for ground strafing in Vietnam, Rhodesia and India-Pakistan so there's a precedent.

Joy Of Six 2023 Game

 A big slice of real life has kept me from gaming for a long time so when my friend and fellow Cold War Commander Richard Crawley invited me to help run a game at Joy Of Six this year I jumped at the chance. Lots of background information is available at Rich's blog on thelandofcounterpane.blogspot.com. The scenario was a fictional Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1948 after the failure of the spring coup d'etat. We had 2 games running side by side, with Richard taking the helm of a TACWW2 battle while m'colleague Neil and I looked after a CWC game. Our battle featured advance elements of the Soviet 11th Tank Division crossing the Polish- Czech border and looking to push past the town of Ceska Skalice and on to Prague.

Our set up. Soviet forces would enter from the North East corner.

The town of Ceska Skalice.

As usual I got far too engrossed in the game and took very few photos. The Soviet forces comprised a Motor Rifle battalion in lorries, a tank battalion of T-54s and an attached heavy tank company of JS3s. N.B. we wanted to give the game a post-war feel so we stretched the in service dates for some of the Soviet equipment. Thus the Soviet forces had AK-47 rifles, T54 tanks and a limited amount of air support from a MiG-15. The Czech defenders used 2 companies of WW2 Soviet infantry, a battalion of T34-85s and an anti-tank company of 2 x 88mm guns. They also had an armoured train carriage with a surplus Panzer IV turret with short 75mm gun. The Czech air support featured a Me-262!

Being outnumbered and outgunned, I decided to deploy the Czech tanks into a fighting line and let Neil's Soviets come to me. In the right of the photo is a wood that concealed my 88s. This turned out to be a smart move as the 88s could get flank shots on the Soviet armour. They were my most effective unit and accounted for one of the JS3s.

The Soviet forces advance, T-54s in the centre, JS3s along the road.

As the forces closed in on each other the hits ran up on the Czech T34-85s.

We played from around 10am until 3.10pm and got through at least 10 turns. We called the game a minor victory for the Soviets. Most of the T-54s had been KO'd but the Czechs had lost over half their T-34s and the armoured train. The JS3s had got in range and were about to tackle my 88s before finishing off the remaining Czech tanks.

The game was most enjoyable and certainly kept Neil and I busy for the day. As a display/participation game it was well received, with a constant stream of visitors chatting, asking questions and rolling some dice. Everyone we spoke to was very complimentary about the scenery and the scenario. We were so busy that I barely had a chance to look around the rest of the festival and have no idea what the outcome of the TACWW2 game was. Richard C, Ian and Andy C looked equally busy though and seemed to be occupied for the whole day.

As ever it was a pleasure to meet up with the chaps and get some gaming in. My thanks to Neil for co-hosting the game and to Richard C for inviting us to help. Rich came up trumps again with another brilliant and unusual scenario. Let's see what his fertile imagination comes up with for next year!

The Most Sophisticated Helicopter In The World

 This weekend sees the annual Cold War Commanders big weekend game at Grimsby Wargames Club. A massive intervention from real life however meant that I could not attend this year. I did still want to get a game in though so looked about for a suitable solo game.

This scenario is from issue 470 of Miniature Wargames magazine, June 2022. I didn't pay too much attention to the article at first as it was a sci-fi game featuring Rabbit People; not really my thing. On closer inspection though I noticed that it borrowed significant elements from Black Ops and could be easily adapted to a Cold War environment.

"During the Soviet invasion of West Germany of 1985, reports began to emerge of several Soviet units coming under attack by some sort of advanced stealth helicopter. Military intelligence managed to locate the forward operating base of this advanced prototype. Although they would have preferred to capture the helicopter and learn its secrets, there was not enough time to find a suitably experienced pilot. A hurriedly assembled Spetsnaz team was therefore infiltrated into the area with orders to disable the mysterious aircraft." The game was played using the Black Ops rules in 6mm, with inches substituted by cm for all distances.

 

The NATO compound.

The mysterious advanced stealth helicopter.

The defenders started with two 2-man patrols on guard duty, with their starting positions randomly determined. The first patrol started at the South East corner of the compound.

The second patrol began at the western edge of the compound, right by the Spetsnaz deployment area.

The Spetsnaz raiding party was split into an assault team with 2 demolition specialists, a security team tasked with dealing with local security and a support team led by the CO with a LMG team and RPG team. Here the Soviet force deploys and begins to move towards their objective.

The security team moved quietly up to the guard force patrol before engaging them in close quarters combat:

One of the guards was outnumbered and quickly despatched. The other one though fought back and managed to kill his attacker. The remaining 2 Spetsnaz troopers then attacked the guard, who amazingly fought them off.

The raiders didn't have time for a long drawn out melee though so the security team's NCO joined the fight and slipped a bayonet between the guard's ribs.

With the first patrol out of the way, the assault team climbed the perimeter wall and the demolition team moved in on their target.

Meanwhile, Starsky and Hutch of the 2nd patrol continued to bimble slowly along the perimeter road in blissful ignorance of the drama happening around them. By now the security team had occupied one of the bunkers and, backed up by the LMG of the support team, lay in wait to ambush the remaining patrol. As they got within range, the 2nd patrol had to make a roll on the guard reaction table. Their response at their big moment...

... was to turn 180° and proceed back the way they had just come. And so the 2 worst security guards in the world continued with their evening stroll.

The assault team had now infiltrated into the compound and lain their satchel charges on the stealth helicopter. The defending quick reaction force and off duty team had still not been alerted that anything was wrong. The defending CO finally became suspicious but wandered ineffectually in and out of his barracks, still not raising the alarm.

Having set the satchel charges to detonate in 3 turns, the raiding party began to exfiltrate the area.

All too late, the defending CO belatedly began to suspect that something was afoot and moved towards the source of all the noise. Unfortunately, that brought him within the blast radius of the satchel charges when they successfully detonated. Surprisingly, he survived the blast but the advanced stealth helicopter was no more.

An almost perfect stealth mission then, with just the one Spetsnaz casualty. The prototype helicopter is gone, Starsky and Hutch have been demoted to spud patrol and the guard commander is being bawled out by an Agency man who looks just like Gary Busey. I'm not sure that I read the guard reaction rules correctly but it was an enjoyable game nonetheless. I really ought to play some more Black Ops and definitely want to play this scenario again, after I've read the rules some more. Perhaps next time the target will be the stealth helicopter Mk II, the "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" project.

Down on the farm

 Yesterday the Cold War Commanders convened in the village of Stone in Staffordshire. Our esteemed colleague Richard Phillips has set up a splendid gaming venue in a unit set in a converted barn, imaginatively named The Unit!

As can be seen, there's plenty of space! I'm not sure of the actual dimensions of the table, perhaps 20 foot x 6 foot. More than enough elbow room for 10 of us to fight out in comfort.

In contrast to the usual massed tank battle, the scenario saw a thin NATO forward screen of 5 roughly battalion sized commands fighting a delaying action against the advancing Soviet hordes. 5 Motor Rifle Regiments of them in fact! Our task was to stop them advancing past the Elbe Lateral Kanal, represented by the NATO table edge (apart from a section of canal on our left flank). My force consisted of the West German 3 Recce Battalion, backed up by a company of Leopard 2s, a battery of 155mm artillery and 2 BO105 attack helicopters.

Here my 2 companies of Leopard 1s move forward to take up position in the woods.

I don't have too many action shots of the game. My opponent, Ian, deployed a tank battalion on to the table as the vanguard of his main force. The rest of his troops arrived behind a shallow river. That plus Ian's ability to repeatedly roll 10s and 11s with every attempted command roll pretty much did my job for me.

In the top right of this photo, in the open valley, Ian's T72 battalion came off second best in a firefight against my Leopard 2s and BO105s.

By 4.30pm Ian had started to untangle the omnishambles of his deployment zone and advance forward. On my left flank Andy C's BAOR seemed to be holding their own against Mark J's East Germans. Further off to the left flank however Mark F's Dutch had succumbed to the increasing pressure from Richard C's red tide and the general retreat was signalled.

We managed 4 or 5 turns before pulling back so probably not enough to call it a NATO win. Still, it was a grand day of gaming and it's always a good day when I meet up with the chaps again. It was particularly nice to see Alan and Roger as this was the first time we've met up since Grimsby 2018.

I don't have long to wait until the next meet up as a group of us will be putting on a participation game at Joy of Six in Sheffield next week.

If anyone is attending then come and say hi!

Cold War at the Club

 Work commitments have been keeping me busy of late but a window of opportunity opened up tonight for a game so I headed over to the Beacon Wargames Club in Elton for a game of CWC2 with fellow Cold War Commander Andy Canham.

The battlefield before we deployed troops. We had decided on a reinforced West German battalion taking on a Soviet brigade. I totted up a Panzergrenadier battalion with 2 companies of Leopard 2  plus 3 M109s and a pair of Phantoms in support and it came to just over 4,000 points. Andy C's force on the other hand was a bit over 9,000 points. Hey ho...

The Soviet horde advanced, with BMP mounted infantry supported by T64s (I think) and on table 2S1 122mm artillery. My Jaguar dedicated ATGM unit managed one shot before the rapidly approaching Soviet tanks blew it away.

Undaunted, my stalwart Panzergrenadiers dismounted and headed for the BUA while their Marders backed up and tried to get out of range of the Soviet tanks.

The hits built up on my Leopard 2s but they gave as good as they got, although several of Andy C's tanks survived what looked like certain death as he rolled a series of astonishingly high saving throws. They make their steel tough in the Urals!

Late in the game an unfortunate command blunder resulted in my flank company charging off their hill and towards the oncoming red tide. Andy took the opportunity this offered and wiped out the infantry and M113s. This blunder had dire consequences for me as it took me to within 1 unit of my breakpoint.

With my battalion morale looking shaky and fresh Soviet forces arriving on-table, I decided that that was enough and left the field in Andy's possession.

A Soviet win and defeat for me then but an enjoyable game nonetheless and a good workout of the new rules. There are a few significant changes that we noticed: Leopard 2s have had an armour upgrade and are now very difficult to kill. I didn't lose a single one over the course of the fight. The change to aircraft attacks, so that AFVs are now hit on a 6 rather than a 4+ has made them much weaker and is not something that either of us agree with. On-table artillery rules seem strange too.

We are heading to Richard Phillips' new unit for a big game next weekend so General Von Klinkerhoffen's Panzergrenadiers will not have to wait long for their chance for revenge.