Cold War Commander BAOR v Chinese

Another CWC game, this time my BAOR faced Simon's Chinese horde. The British were tasked with defending a town with a fairly small force and some minefields to slow down the Chinese hopefully. The line looks thinly held:

The Chinese advance cautiously mainly on the flanks:

In a sneaky and never before tactic the Chinese deploy an impressive smoke screen:

Several Chinese tanks are brewed up by Cheiftains:

So far things are going well for the British with more Chinese tanks in the centre being turned into wrecks:

An artillery strike blasts the British infantry defending the hill next to the town and decimates them:

The Chinese infantry dismount and approach a wood filled with Cheiftains:

Predictably they do not fare well and take heavy casualties:

On the left the endless waves of Chinese tanks have finally had an impact on the Chieftains knocking one out and suppressing the rest:

It is too little too late though and the British easily hold onto the town:

An interesting game where Simon had vast numbers of not very good Chinese against a small but superior British force. The smokescreen was a new idea and my attempt to force the Chinese into killing zones with the minefields worked well. It seemed extremely difficult to dislodge the British infantry rom the town, something we will have to think about if we play the scenario again!

Cold War Commander BAOR v Americans

After several games of my Soviets against Simon's Americans we thought we'd have a change and try the BAOR against the Americans, after all it could be an exercise rather than an actual battle in preparation for the cold war going hot! 

The first thing I noticed was that you get an awful lot less British than Soviets which meant that with limited forces almost everything I have painted got used including two RAF Jaguars (though not the two Harriers I have as well).

The British are arriving from the right, the Americans on the left:

Chieftains in the centre flanked by infantry in FV432's:

The Americans:

With the Americans having made little progress (Simon's Americans seem to love failing command rolls!) the British continue to advance with the infantry taking cover either side of the Chieftains:

More movement in the face of American inactivity:

Finally some action as an A10 strafes the Chieftains but is driven off by AA fire:

The RAF retaliate but miss their target:

Chieftains press on, in the distance the American tanks await the enemy:

An artillery strike hits the Chieftains:

Four tanks take hits:

The A10 returns, adds a few more hits and suppresses some of the tanks:

Demonstrating excellent combined arms tactics the American tanks pour fire into the left hand group of Chieftains. Hits and suppressions mount:

They also overcome their command problems and manage to continue firing:

Three Chieftains are forced to withdraw and five are suppressed but the resilience of Western tanks results in none actually being knocked out:

The Jaguars return but are again off target. Not a good day for the RAF!

The next A10 also misses though:

US and British IFV meet across a hedge!

More US IFV have moved up into the central wood, unwisely as it transpires with four out of five being taken out by the remaining unsuppressed Chieftains. In return the American tanks finally knock out a single Chieftain:

It's not a good day to be an infantryman as two FV432's are knocked out:

As it was getting late we called it a day at this point with the action undecided, the Americans had lost six IFV to the British two plus a Chieftain so honours were declared even and both sides withdrew to contemplate the lessons of the day!

Simon combined his artillery, aircraft and armour well but even so the resilience of Western tanks made it hard for him to convert this into knocked out tanks. He also suffered from dismal command rolls as he seems to in every game with the Americans, they really don't seem to like him!

From my point of view looking back it is interesting that after the games with the Soviets I have developed a rather Soviet way of doing things which I didn't change here! The Soviets get a significant command bonus if everyone does the same thing hence that's how I play with them. This time I'd have benefited a few times from the flexibility of allowing some of a command to do different things ( some move, some fire for example) but I didn't think of that!

I'm also interested in how you make ATGW work (they have not done much in our games so far) and the use of ambushes. Finally I must paint up my British artillery and add a few more bases I think to up the choice for the army a little....
 

Cold War Commander BAOR v Warsaw Pact Polish

Tim kindly agreed to give me an introduction to Cold War Commander with some of my newly painted BAOR taking on his Warsaw Pact Polish. We didn't use points values or play any particular scenario as it was very much a learning experience for me (having read the rules I still didn't have much of an idea how it played!).

The British prepare to halt the Polish onslaught somewhere in Germany:

Chieftains and British infantry hold the line:

Large numbers of Polish tanks appear in the distance. Two of them are knocked out as is one Chieftain:

Hordes of Polish tanks attack!

On the left due to poor command rolls the Polish infantry have made little progress:

More Polish tanks are destroyed or suppressed:

An airstrike by the Harriers! It has little effect though:

The Polish finally call up their own air support in the form of a scary looking helicopter:

Having failed with the Harriers two Jaguars try their luck:

With the Polish infantry still refusing to move the British redeploy three more Chieftains to support the lone one on the right:

It's a Polish air strike this time:

Polish tanks attempt to rush the British, the situation looks bad for the British, but they do at least have Harrier support:

Recovering from being suppressed the Chieftains are back in action:

Ten Polish tanks are burning wrecks leaving only two in action against four Chieftains. The Polish infantry have finally advanced a little but with no real armour support the Poles withdraw and the British hold the line:

After a few moves I picked up how to play (and realised how much I was doing wrong!) and we used most of the various troop types (armour, air support, artillery and AA fire) though the infantry didn't get into action really.

With the Poles being second-rate troops, the British have a considerable advantage in command and control allowing them to do more while the Poles struggle to activate regularly. The British also have better kit with the Chieftain being much superior to the Polish tanks which is balanced to some extent by their superior numbers.

As a learning game it was great, I enjoyed playing and would like to play again. The aircraft and artillery didn't seem very effective but then I suspect you have to combine attacks much better than I did. I might even invest in a Warsaw Pact army to give me a choice of sides and also to play solo games, rather like TMOCB Vietnam rules I think CWC would suit solo play.

Cold War Commander British Army of the Rhine

With the recent release of version two of Cold War Commander by Pendraken there has been a resurgence of interest in this period at the club. It's not something I've had much interest in really but, caught up in the enthusiasm and putting in an order to Pendraken for some 10mm tanks anyway, I ordered a copy. 

When they arrived the rules seemed rather complicated and the army lists utterly incomprehensible! So rather than try to flog through them I just asked Simon what to buy for a 6mm British army. A couple of orders to Heroics and Ros and Scotia Grendel followed giving me the nucleus of a mid 1980's British force.

Some HQ bases and forward observers:

Nine infantry bases:

FV432 to transport the infantry:

Infantry supports, HMG, Blowpipe and Milan:

Heavy metal! 12 Chieftains:

More support, Scimitar, Swingfire Strikers and Starstreaks (which apparently were not introduced until 2000 and I should have bought Rapiers!):

Air support from two Jaguar GR-3 (decals to be added!)

You can't have a British army without Harriers:

Being 6mm the army was cheap, easy to paint (apart from the infantry to some extent) and I think looks nice enough especially once I get some decals for the aircraft. I also have two Lynx and one Gazelle helicopters to add to the force. The next part sees me attempting to get an idea of the rules in a teaching game!