Cold War Collection Games Day

 Our latest trip to Tapton for Friday f2f games was a pair of Cold War battles run by Pete and John respectively. The first was 5Core brigade Commander presented by Pete, and the second was Cold War Blitzspiel presented by John. Otherwise, myself, Tim, Bish and Anthony were in attendance.

Petes battlefield from the northeast. Three Russian Regiments are attacking from the east, against two US Combat Commands. I've played 5Core Brigade Commander (5CBC) before, albeit in a WW2 setting. Tim and John deny all knowledge of the game however, so it obviously made a great impression!

Just to prove we did, here is the original game post, although from Petes comments, I think I got a couple of things wrong. https://tgamesweplay.blogspot.com/2016/06/5core-brigade-commander.html

Anyway, I was promoted to Russian CO and to keep things simple, I attacked with all three regiments in line. From top to bottom, Tank Regiment, BMP Regiment and BTR Regiment, commanded by John, Bish and Anthony respectively. John is busy contemplating his troops while Pete points.

I had some assets in reserve and and had pre-plotted all the air and artillery strikes. The general plan was for the BTR Regt to make a diversionary attack in the south through bad ground, the BMP Regt to push up the centre and sieze a ridge and city there, while the main effort was the Tank Regt up the autobahn in the north.

The BMP Regt advances with support from Hinds.

BTR companies with masses of air defence in support.

The southern US command was equipped with M1 Abrams, the early model, but even so, a  bit scary when you are riding a BTR!

My original plan had involved the BMPs going up the middle, but for some reason they drifted south a bit. This actually worked out fine as it generated significant force superiority against the US left. 

This rather left the Tank Regiment in the north out on a limb. They were facing a National Guard unit with M60s, including a couple of companies of M60 Starships, which should have been easy meat for the T64s. The US commander (Tim) burned loads of divisional support assets - artillery, air and choppers in support of the Guardsmen and although the Soviet tankers didn't suffer enormous tank casualties, they lost most of their infantry and and the tanks ended up scattered and disorganised, hiding in various woods with their elements in various states of suppression. 

Halfway through the game a (pre planned) Spetznaz incursion popped up right next to the US HQ! I'd managed to guess the location of that correctly anyway. Sadly the HQ company drove the Soviets off easily.

The US National Guardsmen hung on tenaciously, and the Soviet thrust in this sector was halted. Ranged Combat in 5CBC is relatively unbloody, but units do seem to very rapidly end up disorganised, which require valuable activations to sort out.

In the south however the combined BMP and BTR Regiments had great success against the M1s, supported by every asset I could give them. The US forces here suffered heavy losses and were outflanked via the south. The Russians conducted a lot of close range assaults here, which are extremely bloody although something of a crap shoot in resolution (opposed D6 with a couple of modifiers).

At this point the US commander decided it was time to pack up and withdraw to the next defensive line in the rear.

That was a very good game, and it was good to see how Pete ran things as he has far more experience with 5CBC than me. Some of the things we stumbled with back in 2016 were actually easily resolveable. The whole thing ran very smoothly and in a believable manner.

Next up was Johns 'Cold War Blitzspiel', a modern version of his old WW2 Blitzspiel rules from the 1990s. This is a lower level game than 5CBC with 1:1 vehicle representation. I've played a lot of the later Blitzspiel derivative 'Platoon Commanders War' so I was fairly familiar the approach and mechanisms. Generally it is a bit like WRG 1925-50 but with combat resolved via a DBA style modified dice roll with an outcome table with various different results for different types of troops.  

This is the terrain viewed from the east. A couple of villages separated by a marsh with a wooded ridge on the right.

The Russians. A reinforced tank battalion (3 x T62 companies, a company of BTRs plus HQ, air defence and recce).

The British Combat Team, two troops of Chieftans, a platoon of Mech Infantry in FV432s, a section of Swingfire and a section of Milan (four posts).

These are the forces used in Exercise Chinese Eye, as described in David Rowlands 'The Stress of Battle'. The exercises ran a series (dozens) of Battalion vs Combat Team assaults using SIMFIRE (a 1970s laser weapon simulation system) to adjudicate the combat results, which generated better tactical understanding and masses of OR data.

In the real exercise, Chieftans and FV432s substituted for the Russian vehicles, but the computerised combat results were based on the supposed stats for Chieftan vs T62.

From this side, there is a very obvious kill sack. We put a troop of Chieftans on each flank, supported by Milan on the right and Swingfire firing from the ridge on the left. Our recce troop went to the end  of the ridge and the infantry were kept in mobile reserve apart from a section attached to each Chieftan troop for close protection.

I took the right flank. Chieftans on the left of the village, Milan lining the front, with the various troop carriers parked up in the town.

The Russians deployed in two main waves, with two tank companies up front, and third company and infantry in the second wave. The BTR recce platoon was out front, but not very much.

Even at 2" to 100m, the Russians got very close very quickly. We'd planned on opening fire when they were level with the villages, but they came on so fast I didn't have much choice but to open fire asap as the minimum range of Milan is quite long.

Soon a number of T62 were burning happily, however one of the Milan teams had already shot off all its missiles (they deplete on a '6'). Two of my Chieftans were unable to engage frontally, so they took out the Soviet recce units and scooted.

There are penalties for moving and shooting so the other Chieftans stayed put to get the maximum firepower.

While the NATO elements are platoons, they are companies for Warpac. The company I'd shot up reached its morale test level (30%) and was a bit unlucky and promptly broke and ran, generating smoke as it went. 

tbh, it was a massacre. The Sov return fire was fairly ineffective as they tried to advance and fire from the short halt, which managed to suppress some Chieftan but not knock any out.

Soon more Russians were in effective range of most of our stuff and we just blew them apart, as the piles of burning markers indicate. That was probably quite realistic given our position and the Soviet approach, and WRG 1950- 2000 would have given much the same result.

In the real exercise, the 'Russian' commander was a bit more canny. One of the Chieftans opened fire far too early, and the entire 'Russian' force regrouped and attacked behind the ridge on the right, completely outflanking the British and overrunning the position with minimal losses. Right flanking behind bags of smoke. Perhaps they don't teach that at the Frunze Academy.

It was a good tryout for the rules and rattled along at a fair pace. The weapon effects seemed OK, but the Russians never really got enough stuff in effective range to to test the return fire much and the infantry never engaged at all. It would be an interesting scenario to run a few times to try different tactical approaches for the Russians, as I don't think a mass charge in line is the way to go. 

I thought the missile depletion mechanism worked fine, although I'm not generally much of a fan of additional dice rolls to determine ammo use, this wasn't obtrusive and worked well. 

That was a very enjoyable day out and a nice change from the all day games we've generally been playing on Fridays.