Cold War Commander Warsaw Pact v Americans Scenario 3 "Counter Attack"

After the Soviet's victory in our last game "Assault" Simon's Americans attempted a counter attack to drive the Soviets back.

This scenario lasts 8 turns and the attacker (the Americans) has 50% more points than the defender who deploys in the end third of the table. To win a minor objective the attacker has to inflict 25% casualties, for a major objective they have to break the opposing battlegroup.

Having less points to play with this time the first thing I did was dump the ineffective helicopters, the BTR-80's and a few other things to make the points total. The trusty BMP-1's and T64/72's would attempt to hold back the Imperialist hordes!

The Soviets deploy their T72's in a wood on the left, half the BMP-1's in the central wood with the rest in reserve in the town behind the lines and the T64's plus a couple of infantry in the town on the right:

The Americans appear, their force heavily weighted to tanks with very few infantry. They have also brought along some cheaper M60's to support the Abrams:

The Americans continue to probe forwards, not helped by several command failures which slow down some units:

Contact! T64's engage M60's as they move up:

The Americans deploy thermobaric smoke (whatever that is?!) to cover their advance in the centre:

Air Strike! Unfortunately the Americans forgot to bring along their A10 so the RAF had to help out with a Jaguar!

For once the air strike is somewhat effective suppressing almost all the Soviet defenders though not before the T64's have managed to knock out one M60:

An artillery strike follows up from the Americans adding to the carnage but not actually destroying any Soviet units:

Another air strike, this time the heroic Soviet AA gunners shoot the plane down before it can attack!

T72's engage Abrams trying to break through the Soviet centre. The Americans command and control problems have continued with several orders failing to get through and a couple of command blunders:

The T72's assisted by ATGW fired by the BMP-1's and their infantry begin to successfully take out the Abrams:

One Abrams explodes and the rest are suppressed:

On the Soviet right the T64's have dealt with the Americans moving past the wood in front of them though they have lost some tanks themselves:

With the American attack stalled and burning Abrams/M60's littering the battlefield the Americans withdraw:

At this point we had reached turn 6 out of 8 and, with only two losses, it was obvious the Soviets were not going to lose 25% of their force.

Another really fun game (which, in part, Simon suggests I enjoy because I win which is part but not all of the reason!) with some new things introduced (smoke and a semi-successful air assault!). 

So far the much cheaper Soviets seem better value than the very expensive Americans (an Abrams is 240 points compared to a T72 at 150 points for example) with, in general, the Americans being harder to kill (but not to suppress) and having a longer range which isn't much use when there is a lot of  terrain on the table. Simon also hasn't had much luck with his command rolls which hasn't helped.

The next scenario in the campaign is "Pursuit" where the Soviets attempt to stop the Americans withdrawing successfully. More to think about before that game, how do I stop the Americans just running away?!