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?!

FoGR TYW/ECW additions

 More plastic TYW/ECW units off the production line painted speedily with speed paints!

The 'Orange Coats'

The 'Purple Coats'

The Dragoons:

The infantry I did with blue sashes for use as Swedes mainly but the sashes are not that noticeable compared to the flags which can easily be switched.

I'm definitely impressed with the speed paints, for the right units they look great and are so quick to complete a unit once you get used to them. I now have twelve pike and shot units which is probably far too many for any table size I'm likely to play on!

Now I just need to finish off a couple of extra units for the Catholics and all the Swedish cavalry (plus guns and gunners).

FoGR TYW Later German Imperialist v TYW Later German Protestant

The 28mm ECW/TYW army continued their run of games with an outing against Tim's army. We both went for Later TYW Germans, my version was more quantity over quality while Tim had invested in some superior infantry and attached battalion guns.

My Catholics attacked and the table ended up being fairly open. Both armies deployed in a similar way:

On the right cavalry are massed for action, the Catholics having support from some Dragoons and two infantry units while the Protestants only have a single superior infantry unit

The Catholics advance in depth:

On the left two lines of infantry face each other:

Will numbers or quality triumph? 

Both sides mounted eye each other warily:

On the left the Catholic infantry advance hoping to move their reserve infantry unit into a gap developing in the Protestant centre:

Shooting removes bases from both sides:

Close combat! The Protestant line charges:

On the right the fighting continues with the quality of the Protestant foot overcoming the numbers of the Catholics but not breaking them:

Finally the rather hesitant cavalry engage:

The result is inconclusive though:

On the left the Catholic infantry begin to break their Protestant equivalents:

The infantry fight on the right is finally ended when the reserve Catholic infantry charge the Protestants in the flank breaking them:

On the left despite being reduced to 50% strength and fragmented the Catholic infantry finish off their Protestant opponents:

Meanwhile a large cavalry melee has been fought out on the right with little result until one Protestant cavalry unit breaks finishing off the Protestant army:

Even at 650 points on a 6x4 table the units easily covered the table which is a bit of an issue. We also used the last lot of amendments to the rules making average units much tougher (they don't break on base losses so easily) which certainly affected the outcome as I had three infantry units which would have broken due to base losses but fought on successfully steadfastly refusing to rout or lose the last base!

Chain of Command Winter War Soviets v Finnish

A mere three years and six months after being painted the CoC Winter War Finns Dave gave me managed  to get their first game! I used the Russians while Dave used the Finns in a defence in depth scenario.

The table consisted of a few wooden buildings dotted about with plenty of pine forests and a marsh. The Russians (average) attacked the Finns (elite) and both sides force moral started at 9:

One of the huge Russian squads deploys and begins to move forward:

A BT7 arrives to support the infantry:

The infantry press on to take cover in the woods. Two Finnish LMG squads have deployed to face them:

Disaster! After surviving the first shot from a Finnish AT gun concealed in the farm the BT7 explodes dramatically when hit by the second shot!

However, the Finnish gun crew don't last long enough to celebrate as they are wiped out by Soviet infantry fire:

With both sides' support wiped out it is down to the PBI to determine the result. Emboldened by their large squad size the Soviets rush forward hoping to give the Finns too many targets to be able to concentrate on one squad and overwhelm the Finns by numbers:

The Soviets discover their is a flaw in their plan though as two Finnish SMG squads deploy into the forest the Soviets were expecting to take without a fight. That's an awful lot of Finn's in an ideal position to shoot up the Soviet squad. Even more problematic is that there is a Senior Leader with the squad:

Undaunted the Soviets press forward while exchanging fire with the Finns:

The Finns decide to rush forward in true Finnish style and engage the Soviets in close combat where their SMG's will have a deadly effect:

The outcome is disastrous for the Soviets with the rampant Finns killing the entire Soviet squad for the loss of three men and two wounded Junior Leaders:

Having started only on 9 and already lost the BT7 bad things happen rolls for a squad wiped out, a Junior Leader and a Senior Leader killed result in Soviet morale falling to zero and a victory for Dave's Finns!

The game was over very quickly but wasn't totally one-sided as the Finns had taken some losses as well. I almost always play the Russians very aggressively (unless it is part of a PSC and they need to defend) and often it pays off with the large Russian squads taking losses but remaining useable unlike other nation's smaller squads. This time it didn't as Dave cunningly deployed his last two squads in the prefect position to shoot away some of my squad then charge it and finish it off. 

As I hadn't used the Finnish in so long since painting them (and I have my preferred option of Norwegians to paint) it made sense to return them to Dave as he may use them more than I have and hopefully they will see more action with him!

ADLG Palmyran v Numidian

My first game of 2023 saw my Palmyrans give Gordon's Numidians a practice for a competition Gordon had entered.

This time I thought I'd go for the 'Roman' version of the Palmyrans which resulted in a rather small and not at all elite 22 element army.

The Numidians won the initiative and decided to attack in Steppes (why?!) so I rather fortunately put down an impassable river on one flank. Again oddly Gordon didn't really want any terrain so the rest of the table was rather empty apart from a couple of hills on Gordon's side and a patch of scrub on mine.

On deployment it quickly became apparent that I had totally misjudged Gordon's army. I'd been expecting the usual mix of light cavalry, javelin men, imitation Legionaries and an elephant or two. What I faced was a horde of Medium cavalry, almost all elite and some with the new 'javelin' ability allowing them to shoot from a new (I think) variant in the army list!

The Numidians rush forwards on the flanks:

On the left there is some initial combat and skirmishing:

The Palmyrans are already being split into smaller groups:

On the right they advance but are unable to catch the faster Numidians:

Javelins are hurled at Cataphracts with little success:

On the left both sides take a few losses and hits:

The Palmyran army is becoming scattered with open flanks available to the faster moving Numidians and some of the weaker Palmyran units being picked off:

A rare success for the Cataphracts as they catch up to an evading Numidian!

Unfortunately the Numidians are now taking advantage of the flank opportunities they have engineered:

Further losses to both sides on the left:

Elements are scattered everywhere now, the slower moving Palmyrans can't take much advantage of this though unlike the Numidians:

Eventually the Palmyran army breaks with the Numidians having suffered significant but sustainable losses themselves due to their larger army size:

A fun game in which Gordon totally outwitted me with his army composition! His horde of medium cavalry were very hard to pin down, evading largely when threatened while picking off my weaker units and taking full advantage of gaps that developed in my lines to achieve flank attacks which my troops were just too slow moving to either exploit or defend against.