Room at the Inn

 Time for another trip to our on/off early 1980s WW3 series. This time we are joining the plucky socialist heroes of the Czech 15th Motor Rifle Division on their trip through Austria, previously seen here from our last game a couple of years ago: https://tgamesweplay.blogspot.com/2024/04/phaffing-around.html

I really must dig out my central front stuff again, I've not put on a game for almost ten years now, but Tim was running this one with his 6mm toys and NATO Brigade Commander. And yes, he does have all right Czech kit, including wheeled artillery, wheeled 57mm AA guns etc. 

The field of battle, north is left. The River Inn runs down the centre of the screen and the outskirts of Brunau (sp? ) are visible at the top. The entire city is large, so the Czechs are going around it. The Inn also marks the border between Germany and Austria.

We had a pretty good turnout for this one. Pete did the overall plan for the Czechs, I was the division commisar to ensure everyone followed the plan in the correct spirit (and I also ran the divisional assets). Russell commanded a regiment of fearless Czech paratroops, Jim the 68th Motor Rifle Regiment and Terry the (Divisional) 20th Tank Regiment.

The Capitalist Running Dogs were Ian running the Bundeswehr, Micheal the Austrians and John A in overall command.

Our general scheme was to drop the paras at the far end of the bridge, and race to the rescue with the MR Regiment and Tank Regiment, clearing out any annoying pockets of resistance on the way.

As a couple of units I was assigned included traffic control units, I broke out my ancient copy of 'Armies of the Warsaw Pact'. Cheery Soviet traffic regulation troops can be seen on the left, while traffic regulation diagrams and unit march orders are on the right.

As we had no intel on the defences at all, and as we had been thoughtfully supplied with a bridging train, I thought it best to prepare a plan B just in case the paradrop wasn't fully successful....

Diagrams for assault river crossings, there were a couple of suitable sites west of the autobahn bridge with decent deployment areas for the bridging train. The manual did mention preparation of the opposing bank with tactical nuclear weapon fires. I'm sure that will be just fine and dandy.

Tim ran the game with his usual roving eye camera view, which certainly introduces an element of fog of war. Dimly visible in the distance is the head of  Jims MRR while in the foreground, the paras have had quite a decent drop without too much scatter and only discovered one company of German jaegers in the town beside the autobahn.

The explosions are from the Czech preparatory barrage, which was noisy and spectacular but ineffective.

Slightly alarming was what looked like an entire Austrian mechanised battalion in the outskirts of Brunau. An armoured combat team was on a rise overlooking the bridge and an infantry heavy combat team was in the city itself. You can just see Austrian M60s on the ridge above the bridge, accompanied by an AA platoon of Dusters.

Also noisy and spectacular was the unwelcome arrival of an Austrian Saab Draken. Fortunately it got distarcted chasing away the paras Antonovs.

The Czech barrage lands beside the bridge! (luckily not on it), and the Jaegers shoot up one of the para companies. It is hard to see but I've put a PT76 recce company into the village just above the bridge and a company of OT65s onto the river bank at the far end to scout out crossing sites.

More Germans rock up, another Jaeger company and a company of Jagdpanzer Kanone. The M60s and Duster shoot up the paras from across the river.

To everyone amazement, the para AT missile platoon manages to hit and knock out some of the M60s. Two more companies of paras assault the Jaegers in the town and destroy them, only to run into their own artillery barrage. The para commander clearly didn't read the fire plan. The paras took losses and hit the dirt.

The lead battalion of the MRR reached the southern end of the bridge as Austrian refugees fled in terror. The Regimental T55 battalion peeled off to engage the M60s, covered by an airstrike from venerable Mig 21s. Eagle eyed readers will spot the PT76s lurking around the pump control station on the dam. They have spotters for the divisional artillery attached and I want to get them in position to spot the Austrians. The dam is passable by foot troops, so another potential crossing site.

The leading APCs crunch across the bridge and link up with the paras, who have now taken losses from the German jaegers and are looking distinctly shaky. A Frogfoot strike misses the M60s, but they are finished off by the para AT missile platoon while the T55s knock out the Dusters.

Back at the river, the Czech OT65s start swimming across the river! Very carefully...

Back the bridgehead, the shattered paras fall back to regroup under German artillery fire and the Motor Rifle troops take up the fight. Czech Frogfoots target the Germans and inflict some losses.

A bit of a problem further back down the column! The Austrian mechanised infantry venture forth from the city and attack the MRRs (towed) artillery battalion. This of course blocks the autobahn and stops the bridging column moving on. Terrys Tank Regiment is marching on in column to cross the river, but someone is going to have to deal with the Austrian infantry.

Well, we will leave that conundrum until tomorrow night as we broke for the evening at that point.

The action resumed the following day. Given the 'flying camera' viewpoint, expect a certain degree of chaos as to what gets photographed for here on in, as things were happening all over the place.

Back down on the Autobahn, the Czech artillerymen tried to break off from the vicious Austrian infantry assault. They retreated in a disorganised fashion under the guns of the Tank Regiment. Unfortunately the Austrians were made of stern stuff and pursued them! 

Some Hinds turned up and set themselves up in range of the rampaging Austrians. The MRR HQ pulled off the road to allow the leading units of 20th Tank Regiment to approach the bridge, but unfortunately the trailing two tank battalions had become embroiled in the battle down on the Autobahn.

The Austrians meanwhile covered themselves with glory. They dispersed the Czech gunners, then routed one of the T72 battalions which tried to overrun them! Sadly they had taken heavy losses from close range tank guns by this point.

Hearing alarming radio chatter about incoming artillery strikes, they engaged the T55s more closely.

I had meanwhile called down the entire Divisional artillery (152mm guns and MLRS) on the impudent Austrians, and despite the proximity to the our own troops, just let fly. More Hinds appeared and both wings poured rockets into the melee too. 

A certain degree of friendly fire took place, but more importantly, the last of the Austrians had enough and disappeared, so we had (finally) cleared the southern bank of the river.

North of the river, the MRR finally managed to deploy two battalions and the Regimental mortar and AT companies while the paras dug in. With more force to bear, they soon saw off the Jaegers and consolidated the bridgehead as the Tank Regiment thundered past.

And what of the swimming OT65s? Well, they finally made it across the Inn despite some strong currents, and scouted out a bridge site. A German panzergrenadier battalion briefy made an appearance, took one look at the massed Soviet armour across the river and thought better of it and went away again. So, several hours later, a pontoon bridge went across the river upstream from the dam as an alternate crossing point. Bravo!

That was excellent fun and purely by chance we managed a strategic victory by seizing the Autobahn bridge intact. The paras had very fortunately managed to forestall the demolition team, and some of us had misunderstood the victory conditions and completely ignored the Austrians in Brunau, not realising we were supposed to clear them out until we'd already bypassed them. Ahem. It worked out OK in the end, even if it did cost us an artillery and tank battalion to do it

The game rattled along very well as ever, and reminded me that I really, really must dust off the central front again..

Kaliningrad 2024

 Another game brought to us courtesy of Ian R and the British Army Fight Club. This one is an extension of the Peoples Army of Voronoi system, using a Voronoi map of the Baltic States to examine various scenarios around a Soviet Russian incursion and NATO responses.

It is an area movement map, much like the previous game, although it now includes sea areas, capital cities and ports (cities facing sea areas). Units, movement and combat are still heavily abstracted to let players focus on the strategic situation, but there is plenty of operational decision making to be made.

A rather scary inclusion in this one is tactical nuclear weapons, whose use is fairly devastating, but carry an ever increasing risk of starting an all out nuclear exchange.

There are four scenarios, covering various levels of NATO readiness and involvement (or not) of Belarus. We started with scenario 1, which has a supine NATO, riven by internal divisions, but a neutral Belarus. The big victory points are if the Russians can make an uncontested land bridge to Kaliningrad by game end, but there are also points for destroying units, occupying capital cities etc. Only the Russians have tac nukes in this one, but if WW3 breaks out, both sides lose. More on that later.

Jim and I were the plucky Baltic States, Tim and Pete the wicked Russians. John ran the game and Ian observed and chipped in to answer questions. The active NATO countries (Finland, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) each start with a couple of units, and we have to take reinforcements from Sweden and Poland before the rest of NATO rocks up.

The Russians have a fair amount more stuff, particularly four units rammed into Kaliningrad. Fortunately all the Belarus units are neutral, although the Russians can pass through them. Our reinforcement rolls are penalised for the first two turns in this scenario. 

The Russian opening attack is devastating. The Polish border forces are wiped out, as are half the Baltic States forces. Russian reinforcements appear on the Russian border. Our guys mainly retire to their respective capital cities (you get a defensive bonus defending your capital). The Russians have been fighting, not moving this turn.

By game turn 6, things aren't looking too great. We have at least held off the Russian attack against Helsinki, and the Swedes arrived to help out. Talinn has fallen, but Vilnius and Riga are holding out. The Russians have pushed across the map and have their land bridge however.

The Baltic Fleet is floating off Kaliningrad, while the Swedes are afloat in the Gulf of Finland, threating St Petersburg with amphibious attack. The Polish reinforcements have now arrived in eastern Poland.

The game ends when the sum of 4D6 equal the current turn (a ceasefire is declared), so we have a way to go yet. So far we've lost 8 NATO SP and killed 5 Russian.

Sadly Vilnius finally falls to a mass Russian assault on Turn 8, and Poles disappear in a can of Instant Sunshine as the Russians fire a barrage of nukes. This wipes out the Poles, and produces a single nuke marker. On a roll of 1, WW3 breaks out.... it doesn't.

Two NATO naval units arrive and lay siege to Kaliningrad.

Sadly this produces another nuclear response, and the fleet goes to the bottom. WW3 on a 2 or less.... phew, we survive another turn.

NATO doesn't give up, more ships and troops pile into Eastern Poland and lay siege to Kaliningrad. The Swedes are just outside the port of Riga, where the Latvians are still holding out. We broke for the night at that point. 

On turn 10, the Latvian defenders finally give up, just as the Swedes debark into Riga and continue to hold the city.

The force ratios are just too much in the Russians favour now. The Swedes are kicked out of Riga again, and our ground troops in Kaliningrad are wiped out. The Russians set about widening their land bridge and occupy Eastern Poland.

NATO (finally) gets some good reinforcement rolls and massed troops pile into Eastern Poland and Southern Lithuania to contest the land bridge. By this time we are deliberately stacking troops up and encouraging the Russians to nuke them, as if WW3 starts both sides lose ie it is a draw. I think that needs thinking about in terms of victory conditions.

The Russians wisely don't rise to the bait and instead our attack into Lithuania is beaten back. All the Baltic States have been overrun now with no possibility of liberating them, and as the game clock runs out, it is a massive Russian win. The geographic locations are largely irrelevant in terms of VPs as the Russians get 22 points just for destroyed NATO units, whereas the land bridge is worth a measly 5 VP.

Well, that was a total wipeout, but a very compelling game with lots of serious decisions to be made. It certainly doesn't bode well for the Baltic States in future - which idiot thought NATO expansion was a good idea? Although the game was thought provoking and fun to play, I do think some of the victory conditions need looking at. The relative VPs for geographic locations vs losses for one - the Russians really don't care (much) about losses. Secondly, the nuclear aspects. The optimum strategy for the player losing is to start WW3, as then they salvage a draw. This really doesn't seem right, as the end of civilisation probably isn't a price to casually pay over whether the Russians have a land route to Kaliningrad or not. My suggestions was that if all out nuclear war breaks out, the player who fired the most tactical nukes to start it automatically loses.  

Anyway, thanks to Ian for the game design and John for putting it on. 

Phaffing Around

 Micheal was very keen to play NATO Brigade Commander as intended - in a Cold War setting (what I tend to think of as 'modern'!), so Tim kindly put on a game. We've been doing a cold war gone hot set in 1981 for many years now, I tend to do the Central Front, while Tim does the more peripheral theatres.

This weeks excursion featured Czech forces invading Austria, always a bit of a side show in SPIs mighty 'Next War' as I recall. 

Here we are near the town of Phaffing in deepest Austria. The River Inn is off to the left (west) and Czech columns with masses of bridging material are heading west down the Autobahn.

Micheal and I took the Czechs, with their OT64 APCs and interesting collection of T55s and wheeled artillery. John (later joined by Pete) took the Austrians. I recall first seeing Tims 6mm Austrians at the old Polish Club where we used to meet, so that was a very long time ago indeed.

Micheal and I each had a Motor Rifle Regiment, and I was also notionally the division commander. My MRR was a long way down the motorway, so I was mainly there to provide guidance and support to Micheals regiment, as it was his first game. We also had the divisional T72 battalion, a battalion of 152mm howitzers and an entire brigade of bridging engineers. Our aim was to get the engineers safely off the map to the west. 

The terrain was extremely poor for wheeled APCs, with lots of steep hills and heavy forests, so the road network was going to be key.

The opening moves saw the 1st MRR recce company driving down the motorway to the outskirts of Phaffing. Amazingly it was unoccupied. We'd been very concerned about the bottleneck there. 

The recce pressed on as the main body of 1st MRR arrived. Standard Warpac march order, so a MRB in the lead, with the Tank Battalion behind. We'd opted to bring the engineer brigade in straight after 1st MRR, as I had a plan...

The recce had meanwhile spotted some AFVs on the far ridge overlooking the motorway (dimly visible in the distance). These loosed off a some shots at the recce company, knocking out some BRDMs. They were Austrian Kuirassier SP tank destroyers! Tim had converted them by attaching an AMX13 turret to an M48 hull, and very convincing they looked too. 

The TDs had got the motorway firmly locked down, hull down on the ridge and with a big ZOC over it too.

Well, there wasn't much we could do about it for now. The lead MRB occupied Phaffing just as the Kuirassiers finished off the BRDMs before they could scoot. The T72s also showed off, roaring across country towards the tree line (they are visible just right of the motorway). 

It was a good job we'd occupied the town as now a large Austrian Panzergrenadier Battalion came roaring up the motorway, and split into two groups. One set up in front of the Kuirassiers, while other splashed through a marsh, heading for Phaffing.

Micheal now began  to deploy more of the column, and is it broke up into its constituent battalions, the inevitable friction of card activation resulted in various traffic jams. 

We had at least managed ot get our tank battalions into (and beyond) the tree line, along with the Regimental mortars, AA and AT companies. Another MRB and the Regimental engineers filtered along the tree line south of the town.

We were very fortunate in that the Austrian Panzergrenadiers attempted a hasty assault into Phaffing, but failed their morale test and were now pinned down in the marsh taking increased casualties from the defenders. We were less fortunate in that an entire battalion of Austrian M60A1s had turned up, and now AP shells and missiles flew back and forth down the valley.

The rest of 1st MRR now rolled on, including the Regimental artillery battalion, which would be very helpful. Austrian artillery now hammered Phaffing, but our MRB hung on despite taking heavy losses. Our T55s weren't doing so well against the Austrian armour however, and a number were now burning. The T72s were fine though and blasting away happily at the M60s.

The Engineer Brigade finally arrived. I parked them down this very handy side road, to await an opportunity to advance and free up the motorway for 2nd MRR (mine).

We broke for the evening at that point.

Close view of the battle for Phaffing. We've got two MRBs and the Engineers up now, although the Engineers are disorganised. The Austrians are still disorganised and shot up in the marsh, you can also see we've got a couple of hits on the M60s. 

1st MRR is virtually fully deployed for battle now (finally) despite the difficult terrain so hopefully we can stop just being targets in the Austrian shooting gallery. Our T55 battalion has been completely destroyed, the T72s have taken some hits and one MRB is down to half a company(!).

The main Austrian position. M60s top right, Kuirassiers and AA on the central hill, and remaining Panzergrenadiers bottom right. The Austrian Regimental HQ is on the road at the bottom.

Next evening, the Divisional 152mm battalion comes rolling on, followed by 2nd MRR. I have a cunning plan! The artillery is going to deploy each side of the highway, and the MRR column heads northwest cross-country - I'm aiming to reach that valley in the centre right and form the entire Regiment up their prior to assaulting the Austrian position. There is no point trying to conduct a passage of lines with 1st MRR, it would just be chaos.

Suddenly, things start to go our way. So suddenly I only took one photo in fact. A flurry of Czech airstrikes arrive, called in by our numerous artillery HQs, as does a storm of mortar and artillery fire, backed up by direct fire from the T72s and Sagger company.

Under the massive volume of firepower, the Austrians melt away. The Austrian RHQ and half the panzergrenadiers are destroyed, the Kuirassiers and M60s take more hits and almost all the survivors fail their numerous morale tests (152mm stonks are scary! airstrikes are more scary!!), only the M60s hang on.

With the Austrians in disarray my plan for 2nd MRR is hastily revised. My lead MRB and Tank battalion are already in the tree line, so they form up into a powerful tank/mechanised Forward Detachment. The rest of the column just plans to bash on right up the motorway and overrun the disorganised Austrians.

There is no need however, with their HQ gone and all other units with heavy casualties, the Austrians pull back.

The Bridging Engineers are completely unscathed - I hadn't realised the Austrian objective was to damage (or ideally destroy) them. Parking up in the side road was the best decision we made.

That was really good fun, and re-kindled my interest in WW3 again. This was the period NBC was written for, and it just works so well. I've already dug out my notes on the existing campaign, I hadn't realised we'd already done a dozen games on the hypothetical 1981 war.

On the Border

 Another last Friday in the month, and another big face to face game at the local hall. This time Tim hosted a huge Little Cold Wars game in 54mm. This was set in August 1961 in the BAOR sector of West Germany, just as the Berlin Wall was going up. Tensions were rising and the local police reported the sound of heavy engines on the other side of the border.

I was in command of 9th Brigade, BAOR, with Lloyd and Matt my trusty battlegroup commanders.

The hordes of Reds were John, Russell and Tom, all commanded by Pete.

There was a certain degree of pre planning beforehand, I had to mark out the brigade covering positions, war positions and fallback lines, while the Warpac did whatever planning it is that they do. We were aided by the provision of original 1980s BAOR maps of the area, which are very handy.

In the end we only modelled the line of main effort, so portions of 9th Brigade on the flanks were omitted from the game. View looking west from the Inner German Border. 

This is Wittingen, close to the border.

The vital bridge over the Elbe See Kanal.

And behind the canal, Hankensbuttel.

(Some) of the Warpac forces. Looks like two two Tank Regiments, each with two tank and one motor rifle Bn plus various other assets. The baddies were Russell, John and Tom.

The British 9th Armoured Brigade, 10th RTR, 1st Royal Highland Fusiliers and 2nd Yorks and Lancs. I was the brigade commander with Lloyd and Matt as my trusty subordinates. I'd had to do a wartime deployment plan covering a 10km front, and as the game only focussed on about 6km, various bits of the brigade were missing - basically two infantry companies and a platoon from each of the Centurian Squadrons. I divvied the forces up into three infantry heavy battlegroups of two infantry companies and one tank squadron, but stripping out the flank cover  left 1RHL and 2YL with two companies and a tank squadron each, but all that was left of 10 RTR was one reduced squadron of Centurians plus the brigade engineer company as a reserve. 

Centurians and Saracens places this firmly in the early 1960s. I had planned to use these great tank transporter models to rush our tanks to the front as the tanks were parked up back in Celle as tensions rose.

The covering force was a recce squadron up on the border, with forward rifle companies from 1RHL and 2YL holding the key river crossings until the rest of the brigade to move up. Here are 1RHL on the main road.

Various RAF planes available, including an Auster, Venom, Swift and the mighty Javelin which looks the size of a Vulcan next to the others. A glorious age for British jets!

The baddies had lots of planes. Various MiGs, a great big bomber whose name escapes me and a chopper.

Hostilities opened with enemy helicopters crossing the border.

Supported by waves of MiGs and a massive artillery stonk on Wittingen.

Russells arrival turned out to be bringing yet another enemy Tank Regiment with him. This one seemed to have a scary looking FROG in support as well....

The choppers were followed by these huge transport planes as the plucky Bofors team behind Hankensbuttel blazed away. These planes disgorged lots of Russian paras all over our rear areas, including the vital roads for reinforcements. 

The lead DDR Tank Regiment moved up to the border, Infantry mounted on the back. 

The Sov paras had brought some ASU85s with them. With the roads interdicted, the Centurians had got off their transporters and were driving cross country instead.

Soviet MiGs dropped bombs on the bridge defenders.

While 2YL was turned back by by 'German traffic police' and had to take the scenic route to the front.

1RHF squared off against the Sov paras and the British infantry dismounted. It was a very long way to walk to the front from there...

Meanwhile I sent the Brigade Engineer Company to talk to the 'German Police'. Along with their truck, the engineers had brought an Centurian AVRE with them.

The AVRE had a 165mm demolition gun firing cannister, which was very useful when the 'German Police' turned out to be Spetznaz... Cannister fire was simulated with a Party Popper.

Back the border, hordes of Russians were rolling forwards. The lead Tank Battalion curiously had lots of infantry riding on the back. It turned out these were a Penal Battalion. The Auster flew over to have a look and called in some ranging shots from the Royal Artillery.

Back in the rear, the 1RHF infantry took out a platoon of VDV, while the Centurians hurried past, heading for the front.

Wittiingen was now a smoking ruin having been repeatedly shelled and bombed, the waves of T55s got closer.

The Javelin had a go at the tanks but was driven off by AA fire.

Having cleared the obstruction at the roadblock, 10th RTR and Briagde HQ came rolling on. The engineers set off para hunting.

Russells penal battalion cleared Wittingden, while the other Soviet tanks bypassed the town to the north.

South of Hankensbuttel, 2YL were busy getting into position. The Centurians hull down up on the ridge covering the canal, and the Wombat moving to provide flanking fire.

A good job too as suddenly lots of enemy tanks were near the canal.

With even more crossing the border behind. 'Space Invaders on the Rhine' indeed.

The armoured wedge north of the town was commanded by Tom. They had a very prominent bridge layer with them, so it was easy to guess where they were headed.

View from the British end. 1RHF has finally got its Centurians onto the ridge north of the town but the infantry are still mopping up paras. 2YL on the right is in a good position (there is another bridge on the right near where Lloyd can be seen kneeling). 10th RTR is in position in reserve in the woods nearest the camera. The lone stand in the open in the middle is a Soviet air dropped ZSU AA gun! It spent several turns duelling with the Bofors battery just behind the town... 

Russells boys line up to assault the bridge, and Toms line up to prepare an assault river crossing. A heavy 'T10' (it is actually an IS-II) coming up the road. 

The penal battalion overruns the forward RHF company. The puff is British artillery fire. The Centurians knock some T55s out, but there are loads more.

There is an unseemly scrap for the bridge, while Tom flicks through to the 'river crossing' section of the manual.

View from the 2YL tank position. A Target Rich Environment.

And from the 1RHF tank position. Sadly both Centurians succumbed to a veritable wall of T55 fire as the enemy got their bridge into position behind a smoke screen.

Meanwhile, in the relative quiet of the rear (:most of the VDV had been mopped up by now), I set up Brigade HQ. All the toys were in the box, so why not?

Leaving a trail of burning T55s and dead Penal Battalion Infantry behind it, the T10 forced its way across the southern bridge. The central bridge was too choked with knocked out vehicles. Both attempts at demolition by the British failed.

And in the north, a column of T55s crossed the newly laid bridge.

The RAF Swift carried out a recce flight down the main road and confirmed there were loads more Russian tanks on the way.

The Russian tank column was now approaching the 2YL ridge and 75% of their Centurians were lost. The infantry in the wood were in danger of being cut off. 

And in the north, columns of tanks approached the ridge as the infantry prepared to make a last stand on the reverse slope.

With that, it was time to bug out to the next line (where 10th RTR were located) while we still had some troops left, so we called it a day. A clear, if bloody, win for the Russians - although in the envent they turned out to be entirely DDR troops. A cunning DDR operation aimed just at BAOR to take the pressure off Berlin as the Wall was just going up.

That was a very enjoyable game, I particularly liked all the pre-game planning (Tim knows what I like!) and the mounds of kit was very impressive, especially all the 1960s British kit. I was expecting his SLR infantry in DPM, but no, they were all in olive green Combat Dress and armed with EM2 bullpup rifles! Amazing, no idea where those figurs came from. It also had the distinction of being the largest Little Cold Wars game ever played inside.

Many thanks to Tim for putting it on, and for my fellow players for entering into the spirit of it.