Wednesday 11 October 2017

modern spearhead

tried a scenario from the "across the table" blog called "baiting the bear"
Russians V British circa 1982
The battle field
British set up 1 battalion  anywhere with one coming on over the river
Objectives, hold town by river, break 2 Russian battalions and get a battalion across the table and off
(easy peasy right, wrong!)
Russians enter opposite the river and down the right hand side
Objectives, moral test for 2No British battalions and get a battalion over the bridge
All fields block line of site.
 
Turn 1: 1st Russian battalion enters with a boosted recon battalion as support
British are spread around in a wide arc to cover all approaches (wrong)
2nd British battalion in reserve can not enter until the Russians have been spotted

2nd Russian battalion sweep in on the British right
Russian Battalions are all BMP combat teams (drug enhanced) with the tank battalion held in reserve
British are cross attached tank and combat team battalions (with bows and arrows)
 

Turn 2: Russians push forward and the British give way
No ambush fire for ATGW
the Russian wait for the tell tale fire and punish it with overwhelming force
British force on the extreme left is a recon squadron with fire support and attached Foo
this ended up trading fire with the Russian recon and cancelled each other out

On the right Russians halt with primed ATGW waiting for the British to give themselves away

Turns 3 to 8 (lost track of turns)
British reserve battalion enter and the lead tank gets suppressed

Combat teams fighting in the woods
British combat teams were far outclassed by the Russians and could only compete in the woods using anti infantry factors

Russian left hook slowly pushing

3rd Russian battalion enters the fray

British reserve battalion moves to meet it as the Russian net gets tighter

Never kick a man whist he's down
Just send in a battalion of T64's to finish the job

British forces are not on the offensive
they just want to survive

If Ian offers you some dice, just say no
they may look like D6 but there are no 5's and  6's on them!

End game
last British reserve is committed
2No lynx attack helicopters on a tank busting mission
Russian AA tank ( Russ's new BFF) takes out one and is suppressed by the other
Helicopters have to deal with AA threat before continuing on their mission
 

Russian win
British did not achieve any of their objectives
Russians forced 2No moral checks on the British
Well done Gents
 
ECM missions were played using the cards and did not slow the game down
Alternative artillery took some getting used to but was fine
Counter battery fire was used
 
recon battalions were discussed and it was decided to give recon companies ( not support companies) within the battalion  the 3" spotting rule  this allows recon battalions to work in the field
 support companies (those that do not have the word recon ahead of them) have normal spotting distances, they are there to give the recon elements a bit of beef..



3 comments:

Ian said...

Excellent battle report! It was a great game and you struggled with a plan based on holding everywhere but winning nowhere, although I hate those dice as well. Russ and I are now worried that you'll be putting the Brits on Ebay. The problem with all the spearhead rule sets is that if you get your initial plan wrong then there is no forgiveness - Russ found that out in our first game.

jono said...

Sorry can't agree with the recon rule that your suggesting. My entire recon battalion is just referred to as light or heavy companies but has the same equipment as a standard recon unit with the exception of a few leopards.nstick to the rules. Recon can be spotted as normal but doesn't count toward overall morale when parcelled out to battalions as a recon company. Otherwise your stripping 80% of the west German recon ability so what's the point of a recon battalion if it's going to be penalised because it's got good equipment. Recon should be a expendable asset that allows you to spot the enemy without endangering your main force not an invisible element that Can move about with impunity.

Ian said...

I thought your Lynx was recon?