Return to the Altar of Freedom rules

You may recall that around this time last year I was waxing lyrical about the Altar of Freedom ACW rules.  The only issue with them is that they are definitely not solo friendly, which is a bit of an issue in times of Covid isolation.  This has meant that I haven't been able to play a game since I bought the rules.  Which of course really annoyed me as it was an itch I couldn't scratch!  So I built a back scratcher to solve the problem.  If you don't know the rules the heart of the system is a bidding process where a player bids points to allow a division to activate.  Generals have a set of traits which impact the total number of points and in some cases how they can be used.  Points can be saved for a reserve action phase but cannot normally be shared between commands or passed on to the next turn.  Divisions activate in highest bid order but here is the thing.  The Army commander can use his points to control the turn clock.  The turn clock runs down by an amount determined by a dice roll after each set of activations and when it reaches zero the turn ends even if some divisions have not yet activated.  both sides roll a dice after the end of each activation and the player who controls the clock decides which one to use.  Its a neat system which simulates a general's limits to command and control his forces.  So how to make it solo friendly?

For those who don't know me, in real life, I work as a tax consultant which means I have more than a passing familiarity with Excel spreadsheets.  So I built a spreadsheet to generate semi-random action bids for the non player side in a solo game.  I say non random as I built in a bias based upon which division I determine the non playing side needs to prioritise.  In brief I enter the number of points a general has to bid for the turn, the number of points the Army commander wants to add to that total and the level of priority a division will receive (as a percentage).  At the start of the game I allocate a number of points to be bid for each priority every turn and set a minimum and maximum range for the random bid that will be added to that value.  There is some jiggery-pokery in the formulas to ensure that the maximum bids are not exceeded and each turn the spreadsheet churns out semi-random bids made up of my pre-set manually entered amounts and the spreadsheet's random additional bid.

It looks like this, sorry I can't show the formulas but if anyone wants to play with the Excel let me know and I will send a copy by email.  The yellow and green cells are where I enter values.  Green at the start of the game (these will not then change) and yellow for any changes during the game (although my current thinking is that the player bid for each divisional priority level will stay the same throughout).  All I have to do in game is allocate each division a priority level each turn and get the spreadsheet to update the random bids.  The screen grab above is the initial version,  I'm up to version 2 now having ironed some bugs in the way it totals up the points.  It looks the same but some of the formulas have been refined.

The only thing this spreadsheet doesn't do is focus on combined attacks by more than one division.  A player could allocate the same bid for two divisions so that they activate together this spreadsheet doesn't have an option to do that.  The current version is rather clunky as the total in the check box is calculated in a different way to everything else but I'm pretty sure that it does what I want.  All I need to do is test it to destruction to find any errors which needs me to actually play a game.

Real Life - The beat goes on

 The heartbeat that is.  I am almost four weeks the other side of the coronary bypass surgery and the recovery is going well.  I'm up to two 15-20 minute walks a day and my pace is picking up to what I consider my normal walking pace.  I have been given the OK to take a partial shower which means I can get everything wet except the chest scar.  Up until now I have been having to make do with a rub down with a damp copy of the Radio Times!

The wound on my leg where they harvested a vein is healing well and the hope is that the application of warm water will soften the scabs and let them come off naturally.  The chest wound is progressing well but one section needed to be redressed as the dissolvable stiches didn't!  Overall I'm very pleased with the way things are healing, it seems that my body is smarter than I am about these things.  A couple more weeks and I should be able to set a game up.

Cold War 82 - Identifying the Soviet attack avenues

 BAOR Brigade HQ - 05:30hrs 6th June 1982

"We are definitely in to a shooting war Gentlemen.  Warsaw Pact armoured formations have crossed the internal border at multiple points and large scale air raids are hitting our airfields and port facilities as we speak.  Battle Group Bravo fought an engagement over the last hour with what they are tentatively identifying as lead elements of 2nd Guards Tank Army around Ingelund.  They have badly hurt the Russian advance guard but are now withdrawing to the west to avoid being outflanked."

"We have two other Russian axis of advance within the Brigade area to contain but we have no positive contacts with them as yet and I have some concerns that they may have bypassed our recon formations.  We will know more once the AAC helicopter recon flights report in.  For the moment our trip wire units are pulling back to pre-planned defensive positions where they will make a further defensive stand.”

Soviet command post 1st Division, 2nd Guards Tank Army

"We have pushed the British back around 7Km all along our main axis of attack.  Our third tank regiment has dislodged heavy armoured formations at the cost of two battalions having to reform their units which will prevent them from following up immediately.  This is of little concern as the Regiment’s remaining two tank battalions have closed up and they will launch a regimental scale attack as soon as their lead battalions are ready to engage.  Lead elements of 2nd Tank Regiment are reporting contact with a British Reconnaissance screen.  1st TR advance guard has not made contact with the enemy yet."

In game terms the BAOR units are mostly withdrawing one table west to cover the crossings over the first river line.  Soviet 3rd TR faces an hour’s delay while it regroups the advance guard which was roughed up at Ingelund.  This has allowed it’s second echelon to close up.

If you look at the game map below Soviet units are orange circles and BAOR yellow rectangles (they show up better if you open the image up and zoom in).  The markers show which tables they occupy but not the exact locations on those tables.

The situation at around 0530 hrs 6 June 1982

There is a situation developing in the far north of the brigade area where one river crossing is unguarded.  BAOR needs to redeploy units northwards across the entire front line to balance out defensive duties.  Remember the BAOR battle groups are pairs of companies/squadrons and the recon units (noted with an R prefix) are troops with attached specialist units, while the Soviets are pairs of battalions so things are not as clear cut as they appear.

The turn process is to move the BAOR formations then the Warsaw Pact ones.  There is no fixed turn length, instead I set a time based either on the end of the last engagement and any regroup time and see how the other units have moved during that time.  Once I had moved the Soviet units, using a semi random system, I diced for air superiority for the next set of encounters and got a pretty substantial pro-NATO result so Soviet air support may be 'delayed'.  The next fight will be to try to extricate the BAOR Recon formation from table D8.

I'm beginning to wish I had used an actual set of locations from the BAOR area of operations rather than fictionalising things, mainly because I wouldn't have to try to invent names for places!  Lesson learned for next time!

Meanwhile back in the real world, I'm healing well following my surgery but still can't lift or carry anything over 5Kg in weight or stand for more than 15 minutes at a time.  The surgical scars are healing well and I'm not in any real pain more a general discomfort where my chest was cracked open!  All of which prevents me from setting up the large table required for the cold war games for a while yet.  It's probably going to be a couple or three weeks before the next game is played. 

Real Life - which is better than the alternative.

 I have had a busy few days going into hospital for triple cardiac bypass surgery.  I went through the procedure on Wednesday last and I’m back at home recovering now after my stay with our wonderful NHS.  The operation went well and I should be fully recovered in around six weeks.

I’m not up to full on blogging yet as I can’t stand for long enough to play a game but normal service will be resumed in due course.

As for better than the alternative, I just deleted the ‘if you’re reading this then I’m dead version’ of this post.  Personally I prefer this version.

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 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.

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.