Modern Spearhead

Managed to get some quality table-time yesterday with Z - we fought a nice-sized game of Modern Spearhead using the Keith McNelly's Scenario Generation System. As usual, Z took charge of the West German force and I commanded (herded?) the Polish force.

We got the table situated and determined the situation. It would be me attacking in a deliberate attack. My force consisted of:
3 T-72 Bn

1 BMP-2 Bn (all attached to the tank battalions)

1 OT64 MR Bn

1 T-54 Bn (2 companies)

3 Batteries of 2S3

2 Sorties of Su-25 w/ smart bombs (thanks Soviet friends!)

(1987 Warsaw 2 Regular)

The Germans

1 Leopard 1A4 Bn

1 Marder Bn

2 Gepard

1 Roland SAM vehicle

3 Batteries of M109

(1987 NATO 1 Regular)

We drew up orders and got going.

Da Cunnin' Plan. I kept some units off the field to begin with having learned from previous mistakes. The red dots are objectives.

The battle is met. Imagine my joy when I saw how far back his forces we deployed and that he wasn't holed up in the towns.

Turn 2 - My center battalion has taken the bridge and the motor rifles have the overlook on my right. The lead platoons start getting pelted right away by the Leopards.

At the start of turn 4, my flankers arrived as did the delayed T-72 battalion. I've managed to get the FO into the town. T-54s are taking a beating, but I guess that is their lot in life. If it looks like I lost a whole lot of T-54s, it is because I accidentally deployed all 10 stands on the board to begin with then caught my mistake and removed 3, since I should only have deployed 7 of them. Marker "4" on the central hill is an artillery range-in spot. Z had moved out of the trees with one of his platoons got get and extra barrel pointing at my guys. My mortar from 1Bn suppressed the platoon and a volley of T-54 fire finished them off. That was my first kill in a game and a half of MSH. Small victories.

The Conga-line of DOOM! Quite doable when you have air superiority and no damn tank-destroyer helos to worry about.

These things give me nightmares.

Artillery manages a suppression on some tanks in the woods.

Turn 5 - the hordes oozes forward. The flankers push hard down the road.

We're starting to get entrenched in the town. Choke on that, Fritz!

Final position of the T-54 battalion. They headed back home shortly after this.

Froggy finally shows up. He get a kill. 49.5 points well spent. This guy irritates the shit out of Ziggy. Not much different than the helos really...

...and there go the T-54s.

Turn 6 movement. I move a BMP from the central town to its outskirts.

And the flankers occupy "Stadtburg"

Froggy takes his gun-run. Artillery hammered the tank platoon at the edge of the woods. The plane knocked out the exposed platoon.

The two lead platoons in the flanking battalion were eliminated. Sadness.I got a change order through to 1Bn (the big battalion in the center) at the end of the turn. They were to move out towards the Panzers in the center alongside 2Bn.

Turn 7. The flankers get some platoons in the outskirts of town taking up good firing positions.

Maybe not an entirely fair trade, but I bag a Leopard on the flank.

The Su-25 goes all Wild Weasel on the Gepard in the open. I was being a bit foolhardy targeting a Gepard with a Roland launcher right there as well, but that high DEF and the Stand-Off weapons rules will make you brave.

The tanks in the middle are now all over the center position. The Panzer Grenadiers who had been sitting still for too long finally got moving towards my middle forces. The problem that was hampering them was that Z kept rolling ones for his order change to get them moving. You can see that my motorized infantry on the right got off their duffs and started advancing too.

Beginning of turn 10. The flanking battalion had been eliminated but my middle two tank battalions were completely overrunning the Panzers and the motorized infantry were getting in position to attack the Panzer Grenadiers. Ziggy called it there. 

The score - 10-4. That's eight points for capturing four objectives plus two more for casualties caused the the Panzer battalion. Zig destroyed two small battalions and retained one objective.

What we learned.

Zig learned that maybe NATO2 is not a bad idea just to get some extra stands on the board. His Germans were as tenacious as ever and just a pain to dig out. If he had defended the forward town with the mechanized infantry I'd have had a hell of a time digging him out. Live and learn.

I learned:

- Keeping some troops behind isn't a bad idea. The flankers and delayed battalion worked well. 

- Outskirts are your friend. 

- Warsaw 2 rating is just fine - especially is you can roll fives and sixes.

Good gaming ya'll!