Cold War 82 - further information

 If you are trying to follow the Soviet invasion on the campaign map it helps to understand the grid reference system I am using.  The horizontal rows are named alphabetically A - J so the top row is row A and the bottom is J.  The vertical bit is slightly confusing as rows don't line up as exact columns.  The horizontal rectangles are numbered from left to right 1 - 9 in each row.  so each potential table has an alpha numeric reference such as E9.  All features on that map are given the feature name (e.g. a hill) the table reference and a number if there is more than one of that feature so Hill E92 for example.  Hopefully it makes sense. 

The campaign map for day 1 objectives (click for a larger version)

The Soviets had nine potential entry points (marked by the small red arrows on the east side of the map(the right of the map).  I started by assigning units to assault forces and placing them into three columns.  I then diced for entry points for each column.  Which gave me entry points in tables B9, C9 and E9.  of those only E9 was occupied.  British forces are B Gp (Battle Group) Charlie in B8, B Gp Bravo in E9, B Gp Hotel in F8, B Gp India in H7 and BG Alpha in I9.  Those formations (two company sized units each) are supported by Recce groups (R Gp) in D9, H9 and J9.  Artillery support in the form of an Abbot regiment are located G4,

What that all means is that the Russians have chosen to concentrate in the North and BAOR assets in the south will have to relocate.  But they have to be aware that a further Warsaw Pact Formation is available and could enter to the south.  Two Soviet formations are yet to meet any resistance and will be pushing deeper into the Federal Republic unless BAOR can relocate blocking forces.

The current plan is for B Gp Alpha to move north to J8 allowing B Gp India to move North West to where the fighting will probably be concentrated by the time they are in position.  Recce Groups Alpha  and Bravo in the south will move slightly north to help cover the gap left by B Gp India moving away.  Other units may need to move westwards to support each other and prevent Soviet flanking movement.

Last but not least (at least for me) there will now be a short break in blogging as I have to undergo some medical treatment in hospital.  This will keep me away from the keyboard, other than checking in on my phone from time to time.  Hopefully It won't keep me away for too long.  

Cold War 1982 - Disaster at Ingelund

Disaster, but who for?  Read on to see how the fight develops!

The first thing to say is that I made a mistake with the map for this game.  I'm not sure how I managed it but I drew up a map for a 8' x 4' table and not as it should have been 6' x 4'!  Which probably explains why I had trouble getting the terrain to match the layout from the campaign master map,  The corrected map looks like this.  As before the yellow lines are ridge lines which block LoS but have no other effect.  I laid fields down onto the table to give a bit of variety but they have no effect on game play.

The reworked table layout.  The smaller settlement to the East is Alte Ingelund

It's a fairly open part of the North German plain crossed by low ridges in the west and a single higher ridge in the east.

The BAOR Battlegroup (Bravo) has to slow the Soviet assault to buy time for road cratering and bridge demolition to be carried out, or at least prepared, further to the west.  The plan is for the Infantry platoons to dig in with hasty entrenchments and the Chieftains to provide fire support.  As it is expected that the Russian attack will be preceded by artillery strikes the defence decides not to use the reverse slope of the main ridge as a holding line and instead to dig in behind the lower ridge line to the west.  This is in the hope that the artillery attack will initially fall on the more prominent eastern ridge line.  The British should have artillery support from their parent brigade available if not called into use in other areas.

The Russians elect to lead the attack with the T-64 Battalion with the BMP mounted infantry in close support.  The plan is not exactly subtle, advance in two lines until contact is made and then attempt to overwhelm the defenders as quickly as possible.  The tank force is to identify enemy fighting positions and pin them while the infantry go around the flanks to engage them.  The Russians have artillery support from their Brigade's assets and can call upon Divisional assets (the rocket artillery) but may not get access to them.

Soviet reconnaissance photo of the road to Ingelund

Ingelund and it’s environs 

Alte Ingelund and the main ridge line seen from the South

The Soviet advance force enters the table at 04:12 hours, each turn in FFT is 12 minutes, hence the slightly odd times.  Its  first light on a clear June morning but with slightly reduced visibility as the sun isn't over the horizon yet.  In turns one and two the Soviets advance towards the main hill line and call in artillery strikes on the reverse slopes (I used a random target selection with a slight bias to that location).  It is not until 04:36 that they break cover and cross the ridge.  Everything looks clear ahead (they can't spot the dug in infantry within their hasty entrenchments until they get to within close combat range or the infantry fire or move) so they press on keen to sty on the time table for fear of the Zampolit accusing them of 'a lack of socialist zeal'.  Ahead are a troop of  Chieftains waiting behind the ridge which passes through Ingelund for their moment.  At which point the battlegroup's radio net crackles into life.  "All Bravo call signs, this is Bravo Actual. Enemy tanks to our front.  Weapons Free repeat Weapons Free. Out".

BAOR's  BG Bravo dug in around Ingelund

The Russian initial advance

In the restricted light the Brit's can't yet see the BMPs following up the T-64's.  The Chieftains behind the crest line opt to shoot and scoot relying on their 'excellent' rating to off set the movement effect.  All four troops open fire at long range then pull back from the crest.  The result is not what they hoped for one T-64 platoon fails a quality check and becomes Combat Ineffective.  The T-64A is a different beast to the T-62 I tested the rules out against, better armour and a gun that can cause a Chieftain real pain if it gets close enough.

First blood went to BG Bravo a T-64 platoon burns

The T-64's push doggedly on under cover of smoke laid down by the brigade 152mm guns,  Not helped by a wind from the West which means the smoke lies parallel to the line of advance rather than crossing it. They Russian armour needs to close to within their effective range which is half that of the Chieftains they are facing (12 inches v 24 inches) so the only option is to push on.  As they finish their move two troops of Chieftains reoccupy their firing positions on the ridge and open fire. With stabilised guns and high quality crews the firing is more effective than the last salvo.  Two T-64 platoons are destroyed and a third rendered ineffective (failed a quality check)  the Russians are rated as average quality and have a high hurdle to clear if they are to successfully pass a QC.  The BAOR defenders now spot the BMPs following up behind the T-64s.  This is starting to look a bit dicey numbers wise.

It's now 0500 and World War three has been raging for a little over an hour.  The leading T-64s are now into effective range of the Chieftains deployed on the ridge to their front.  Time for some payback.  Except this is the time that two dug in Milan teams make their presence felt.  Waiting patiently on overwatch they now unleash a barrage of ATGM's and while not destroying any Russians out right they cause two more T-64 platoons to fail quality checks..  That takes the T-64 battalion over 2/3 casualties and the formation has to take quality check for casualties.  They fail.  At this point the FFT rules would take the models off the table  I prefer to leave them on with mandatory retreat moves and having them no longer counting as a priority target.  With their tank support gone the BMPs are caught flat footed.  They have already moved forward and are now easy targets.

"All Bravo call signs, Bimps in the open, advance and engage"

In their movement phase the Chieftains surge forward over the crest line and engage at close range backed up with Milan fire.  It's bloody, 5 BMP platoons are wiped out in a matter of moments with only one platoon of infantry managing to dismount from the carnage.  To make matters worse the BMPs were unable to spot the Milan positions to return fire.

Smoke was not as useful as hoped for by the Russians

In a last desperate throw of the dice the BMP unit calls for fire support from the 152mm artillery but is told they are not available to him (Failed availability roll).  With tanks running free to his front and no anti tank capability other then the mounted up infantry the battalion CO orders the surviving BMPs to withdraw and dig in around Alte Ingelund.  It's 05:24 and already two full Soviet formations have been decimated with little chance of recovering vehicles or crews as the British hold the battlefield.

As the survivors retreat the Brits pull back to their starting positions.

Meanwhile around Ingelund, Battlegroup Bravo is mounting up and slipping quietly away to the west.   The day is still young and the fighting isn't over it's time to go, before Ivan unleashes massed artillery (or worse) on the ridge line.

Russian survivors dig in and hope to be relieved

Conclusion

I rolled for the two sides quality and downgraded the Brits from the resulting 'superb' status to 'excellent'  I upgraded the Russian result to average as well.  The quality gap was still too high and in FFT troop quality is vital.  The Russians really need more toys on the table to make that scenario winnable given that quality imbalance and more and heavier artillery support would help as well.  Lastly the terrain is probably too open even for the North German Plain.  Next game I will try helicopter support as an add on and possibly the dreaded fuel air MLR as off table fire support.  the game played out well and even though I was using the full rules for the first time completed in under three hours.  I'm sure I must have made some mistakes and I still have not really fully grasped the artillery rules but onwards and upwards!  Ivan has two other lines of advance and BAOR is stretched pretty thinly so they may not be so lucky next time.

Cold war gone hot - Nato goes on alert

NATO Northag HQ - Intelligence briefing 09:00hrs Friday 4th June

"Good morning Gentlemen.  We face a concerning development today.  It appears that our old friend Ivan may be attempting to pull a fast one on us.  

Their recent exercises may have been a cover for a rapid mobilisation.  Intelligence sources within East Germany and Poland are all saying similar things about the military rail convoys returning units eastward.  They do not appear to be fully loaded and in many cases are apparently running empty or with only ballast onboard.  I won't bore you with the details of how this has been determined it involves some very brave chaps checking weighbridge data and other arcane stuff but it seems that the formations which came west for the exercise are not being returned to base.

Our American colleagues have satellite data supporting this hypothesis.  The heat signatures of the locomotives do not accord with them pulling fully loaded transporters and they have picked up isolated infra-red signatures within forest areas close to the internal German border suggestive of troops in bivouac.  This is the case everywhere we have eyes on Ivan and to be frank it is worrying.

Our normal presence on monitoring duties inside East Germany is facing the usual harassment and in a couple of cases this has included their vehicles being blocked from entering areas of interest.  In one case a vehicle was forced off the road.  Not spectacularly unusual but it does show a pattern. We are also noticing a reduction in the number of East German civilians coming over to our side of the border which suggests a tightening up of security in the border zone.  As a result NATO HQ is raising the alert level to 'attack imminent'.  I know we have been here before and it has always been a precautionary measure with a stand down following within 24 hours, but this time it has a different feel.  

I do not intend to allow us to be caught with our trousers down and have deployed reconnaissance formations forward towards the internal border as a trip wire these are supported by heavier assets from BAOR a few miles behind although in some locations they have been pushed further forwards."

HQ Battlegroup Bravo - Saturday 5th June 20:00hrs

"Listen in everyone.  I have a nasty feeling that this is not another one of those damn silly readiness exercises Brigade likes to chuck at us.  I'm hearing from our Bundeswehr liaison that German 1st Corps to the North is also on high alert tonight. Sorry but no beers tonight I'm afraid.  Stand too is at 03:00hrs, full combat load outs and full light discipline will be in effect.  Early to bed chaps we may be busy in the morning!"

Battlegroup Bravo - Sunday 6th June 03:45hrs

"Heads up, the games on!  We have solid reports of Soviet armoured formations breeching the internal border at multiple points across our frontage.  Its time to earn our pay and find out if we are as good as we think we are.  Mount up and  be ready to move in ten.  Full NBC precautions are now in effect make sure your guys are suited and booted.  Our recon troop is withdrawing rapidly without making full contact and we will shortly be the front line.  It looks like tanks with infantry support coming our way Our job is to slow the initial thrust and to identify the axis of advance.  If this is really 'it' then we are going on a bear hunt and it's going to be a long day"

As the day starts to dawn Battle Group Bravo moves forwards into their fighting positions. 

The first battlefield - Ingelund Crossroads

The image above shows the battlefield for the first clash in and around the village of Ingelund.  It is a fairly open area with a low ridge running to the east of the village at right angles to the Soviet line of advance.  The yellow lines show ridges which block line of sight but don't have any other effect on combat or movement.  The actual table will have other features non of which will have any effect other than as cosmetic features.

The initial Soviet formations entering the Map are a Battalion of T-64s and a Battalion of BMP-1 mounted infantry.  In reserve is a second Battalion of T-64s.  They enter from any point on the right of the table.  BAOR has a Squadron of Chieftains and a company of infantry with FV432s as transport.  There is a further Battle Group in positions to the immediate south of this table and recon formation to the North East (so on adjacent tables).  These will be tasked with holding at those locations until it is clear that there is no risk of parallel Russian columns advancing through those areas.  Both sides have off table artillery support available.

  

So you want to invade Western Europe? (and other other problems for rampant expansionists)

While I still have some painting to do the 1982 cold war campaign has been taking shape and I have most of the combatants ready to roll (in the Warsaw Pact case quite literally so).  I'm running it with a time limit for the Warsaw Pact.  They have to exit the west side of the campaign map (and maintain a supply line back to the east side) within 24 hours.  After all they only have a time budget of seven days to the Rhine.  I have come up with an alternative time line that doesn't involve a limited theatre nuclear exchange as a starting point, which was the case with the actual Soviet plan: Seven days to the Rhine.  

It’s an alternative 1982!  

After some persuasion from Ronald Reagan, Mrs Thatcher decides not to withdraw HMS Endurance from the South Atlantic and instead she increases the garrison on the Falkland Islands.  Reagan wanted Britain to shoulder more of the burden for security in the South Atlantic as he was concerned about Communist influence in SW Africa and didn’t want them to gain any kind of additional influence in South America which might allow them to interdict the other half of the South Atlantic trade routes.  This prevented the Argentine invasion but slightly weakened the British presence in Germany.

Reagan supported the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan and increased support to Pakistan which in turn allowed high tech weapons to cross over the border.  The impact of these was a shock to Soviet analysts and hastened the end of the Soviet occupation.

Meanwhile in the Soviet Union Chairman Brezhnev’s fading health opened the way for hardliners to exert increased influence over Politburo policy.  Soviet concerns over the rise of Solidarity in Poland and the possibility of Western intervention should Soviet forces be required to suppress the movement created a climate of deep concern in Moscow.  This was not helped by President Reagan’s strongly anti-communist rhetoric and the American's forthcoming deployment of both cruise and Pershing intermediate range ballistic missiles to Western Europe.  The unsuccessful involvement in Afghanistan also created dissatisfaction in the civilian population at Soviet policy and the Politburo needed to do something to distract them.

In our new timeline these factors spur the hard-line camp into action.  The military see that there is only a limited window of opportunity for action against the capitalist west before Soviet military forces become incapable of meeting NATO on advantageous terms.  Intelligence is available about the next generation NATO weapon systems which are starting to become available (Challenger, Leopard 2 and Abrams MBTs for example) suggesting that they will never have a better chance of victory than this summer.  The politicians have concerns that any perceived weakness will also bring about liberalisation in their Warsaw Pact allies and this will become a uncontrollable downward spiral.  This laid the foundations for an update to the 1970’s operational plan.

The original plan for ‘Seven Days to the Rhine’ was based on a NATO first strike and had called for a limited nuclear response upon NATO facilities and ports in Europe to hamper US re-enforcements reaching Germany.  If, instead, Warsaw Pact forces launched that first strike it was expected that NATO would retaliate in kind hitting targets along the Polish Russian border to restrict Soviet resupply and re-enforcements.  There were worries that this would lead to a rising within Poland and so a non-nuclear initial assault was planned.

Soviet forces in East Germany along with East German and Polish forces were told to prepare for large scale exercises and under cover of this troops in the western Russian republics were also activated.  After troops moved up to their jump off points dummy convoys were used to make it appear that they had returned to base at the end of the exercise.  As far as Soviet military planners are aware this worked.  The attack was scheduled to commence on Sunday 6^th June 1982 in the hope that some NATO units would be less field ready as it was known many western servicemen had a habit of going out on the town on Saturday evenings and as this was also the anniversary of D-Day this might have exacerbated the effects of the night’s drinking!  

At 04:12hrs in the twilight of Sunday 6^th June, the first Soviet assault units cross the internal German border heading West.  Operation Krasny Shchit (Red Shield) is underway.

The opposing forces 

BAOR has an armoured Brigade consisting of two regiments of Chieftain Mk5 MBTs and an armoured infantry battalion plus an attached recon squadron of Scimitars, divided up into 9 individual battle groups.  In support is a a artillery regiment of Abbot SP artillery and some royal artillery anti-tank detachments.

The Soviet initial attack consists of four Tank Regiments with T-64A MBTs and two Motor Rifle Regiments mounted in BMP-1 or BTR-70s with an integrated T-62 MBT battalion.  These are supported by a Hind attack helicopter company and a Recon battalion.  Off table support consists of an MRL Regiment and a SP artillery Battalion.  The second echelon adds a further two Tank Regiments and a single Motor Rifle Regiment from Warsaw Pact allies.

Other rampant expansionists?

While all this is going I haven't forgotten the Dark Ages campaign and further action will be forth coming.  There are only a couple of potential battles to resolve before the clock ticks over to the next turn.