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 stay 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.