Cold War Commander Warsaw Pact v BAOR

This time I gave Jerry an introduction to Cold War Commander. I used my Warsaw Pact army while Jerry used my BAOR as that was the army he was thinking of getting. We went for a fairly simple game with no aircraft or artillery and a simple meeting engagement:

Chieftains advance quickly on my right flank facing only a few WP APC's:

Predictably the WP APC's take a pasting and two are destroyed:

It isn't totally one-sided though as a Chieftain is destroyed and another suppressed:

In the centre both sides close in on the town:

WP tanks deploy to take on the Chieftains:

Neither side has managed to capture the town, both lurking on the outskirts:

The British manage to capture the town but then suffer a 'command blunder' and decide to push out the other side into the teeth of massed WP forces. It does not go well for them:

The blundering British are quickly overwhelmed:

The BAOR isn't finished yet though, the powerful Chieftains take out more WP armour:

The fight ends with a narrow British victory despite the WP holding the outskirts of the town:

This was the first time I'd faced the BAOR with my WP force, Jerry did well considering that he hadn't played before and the Chieftains proved very tough nuts to crack. The 'command blunder' was a nice mechanism, just as things were looking great for the British they foolishly decided to charge out of the town into the massed WP forces! Hopefully we will get some more games in at some point.
 

Cold War Commander Warsaw Pact v Chinese

Having become disillusioned with his Americans refusal to obey his orders Simon invested in a Chinese army to rival my 'quantity has a quality all of it's own' Soviets!

For their first run-out we went for the 'Diversionary Attack' where the attacking Chinese have 3000 points, the defending Soviets have 2000 points split into three groups, 1000 points on table and two 500 point reinforcement groups. For a major win the Chinese have to force the Soviets to deploy both reinforcement groups, for a minor win (for both sides!) one group and for a Soviet win none at all in 8 turns.

Looking at what 1000 points gets you this looked like a hard task indeed. I opted for 8 of my trusty BMP-1's with attached infantry for the main force and two groups of reinforcements each 2 T72's and 4 conscript infantry. The only plan I could think of was to hide as far back as possible and hope to not get destroyed quickly.

The view from the Soviet position, all units are concealed in woods or villages:

The Chinese hordes appear. Simon seems to have mainly gone for tanks which is bad news for the BMP-1's. The enclosed areas are minefields which I hope will slow them down:

The Chinese seem keener to obey orders than the Americans we usually face and push forward rapidly:

The BMP-1's are outnumbered and outclassed:

Assailed on two sides the first two BMP-1's are taken out:

The other two don't last much longer:

The infantry in the forest suspect that they will be next:

The Chinese move on to the next village defended by the BMP-1's. This time the BMP-1's manage to get off some shots:

Three Chinese tanks are suppressed which isn't a bad result all things considered:

Unfortunately they recover and take out two BMP-1's:

Chinese APC's and tanks prepare to assault the woods:

The remaining BMP-1's get off a few more shots to little effect:

Only a single BMP-1 survives plus the commander:

Chinese tanks are everywhere! The Soviets are being overrun:

Surrounded and faced with massive firepower the infantry in the woods are slaughtered:

The lone BMP-1 in the village is still fighting though:

Chinese infantry decant and prepare to rush the woods:

The one remaining Soviet infantry unit yells 'Huzzah!' and assaults the Chinese for the Motherland:

The last BMP-1 is destroyed:

There is no one left in the woods either:

The Soviets have been forced to deploy their first lot of reinforcements. T72's are effective but heavily outnumbered. However, there is only one turn left for the Soviets to survive or the Chinese to gain a major victory:

The only survivors of the initial force hang on in the forest to the right of the village. All the reinforcement conscripts can do is hide in the woods:

The T72's are under heavy pressure:

Just in time the Chinese finish off the remnants of the initial Soviet force giving them a major victory on the last turn:

Much more exciting than I thought it would be with the Soviets almost but not quite holding out. Simon's Chinese were far more numerous and better behaved than his Americans with only one group failing to get into the fight I think.

On reflection I feel my force composition was poor, the BMP-1's are great when supported by tanks but poor alone against tanks. My deployment also left units isolated allowing Simon to pick them off one at a time which didn't help. 

Probably I'd have been better off picking hordes of conscript infantry, stuffing the woods and villages with them and just challenging Simon to kill enough in 8 turns while doing absolutely nothing myself but of course that would have been a dull game for both of us!

The other option might have been to start with just six T72's and hope that by using manoeuvre to pick on one part of the Chinese army and actually destroying units I might have been able to hold out, while I'd only have had 6 tanks they would have been much harder to destroy.

Still greatly enjoying Cold War Commander and looking forward to the next encounter!

Cold War Commander Warsaw Pact v Americans Scenario 7 "Pursuit"

The third game in Simon and I's CWC campaign. In the first game the Soviets made a successful Deliberate Attack and followed up by defeating the American Counter-Attack. The Soviets are now pursing the retreating Americans who are making a fighting retreat.

To win the Soviets need to inflict 25% casualties on the Americans for a minor victory or break the battlegroup for a major victory. The Americans have to exit 25% of their force across their baseline for a minor victory or 50% for a major victory.

Not being entirely sure how I'd stop the Americans retreating I went for one command of T-72's one of T-64's and one of the inevitable BMP-1's. In support I chose two Hind helicopters and three rocket artillery batteries.

The first surprise for the Soviets occurred when the Americans placed eight potential minefields on the table! This was followed up by a deployment that suggested 12 (very expensive) tanks was their entire force:

As usual the Soviets waste no time moving to the attack. The T64's appear on the Soviet right and move up to the nearest minefield. BMP-1's lurk by the forest on the left and in the distance the T-72's use flank deployment to arrive in the American rear:

The Americans respond instantly by moving three tanks to the crest of the hill and opening fire supported by another three tanks lurking by the wood. Perhaps the Soviet advance was a little rash as hits and suppression mount up:

One T-64 has brewed up and three are suppressed leaving only two effective tanks. This is not the start the Soviets were hoping for!

However, the two remaining T-64's heroically fight on and take out two American tanks! Meanwhile the BMP-1's move through the wood in support:

Order is restored among the T-64's:

With three American tanks burning hulks the rest of the Americans decide to withdraw and attempt to take on the T-72's blocking their exit from the table:

The T-72's face enemy in two directions but manage to trade losses:

Neither side can make much of an advantage, all the while though the T-64's are closing in on the American rear:

The Americans can't break through the T-72's and are in grave danger:

With the T-64's ideally placed to shoot up the remaining American tanks the Americans admit defeat and the Soviet pursuit is successful.

What happened to the Hinds and the artillery? Well the Hinds failed to appear at all yet again and the artillery managed a couple of moderately useful shots. As such they didn't really help me much at all, partly as it was hard to get their forward observers in position to direct them on to the enemy and partly due to the Hinds failing every command test they took!

Simon surprised me with the minefields and having an entirely tank force, initially I thought he would blow through the T-64's easily before the T-72's could intervene and the BMP's could get close enough to help out but the T-64's survived remarkably well (aka were lucky) only taking a single loss and managing to take out three American tanks.

So that's three wins in a row for the mighty Soviets. Next we move to Scenario Eight "Encirclement" assuming Simon has the enthusiasm for what may well be another battering.

Post game discussion included looking at the points values for the various tanks and discovering some American tanks that cost more points were actually worse than the cheaper ones and that the Soviet tanks seem very cheap considering their effectiveness! The Soviet command bonus for all doing the same thing for each command also seems to help a lot as, as far I can tell, you very rarely want a command to do different things.

I'm certainly still enjoying the games though as there is a lot to consider when you add some new things in (I also used a Reconnaissance tank for this game) and perhaps the Americans are not an especially favoured army in the rules, when I tried using the British they seemed much better!

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?!