Off to the Desert: Cold War Commander in the Sand

Cold War Commander made its was back onto the table yesterday, in the form of a Yom-Kippur War clash in the Sinai. Since we've both had precious little time playing CWC, I kept it simple and set up a simple Encounter scenario, with both forces entering onto the table. Both sides did have FACs and air support because who doesn't like ground attack aircraft in a game of toy soldiers?

Models are all 3mm Pico Armor / Oddzial Osmy.

Our battlefield was composed of mostly hilly terrain with a couple small villages and a pond to mix things up. The dark brown areas are rocky bad terrain - bad for vehicles, fine for infantry. I started with two units entering the table from the western edge - T-62s and Infantry. I held the other T-62 unit in reserve, to enter from a flank later on. 

My initial moves. The tankers we're terribly well motivated and petered out quickly, whereas the infantry stormed forward and took the big hill in record time!

A turn later and my lads were in better positions.

On turn three, I decided to bring in the flankers. The Israelis had a unit of M48s behind the hill right next to the central town. I needed to pressure them so they wouldn't just roll up the roll up and start blasting my tanks in the town.

They arrived and had a decent volley of shooting, taking out some M48s and suppressing others. I then got really cautious and re-deployed the T-62s, fearing that they'd be flanked in turn. They ended up in the position shown above, just next to the rocky ground.

Of course I'd made a major mistake and had forgotten a big part of the flanker rule... once you arrive on a flank, the enemy can only enter on that flank from their home edge corner. There was no way Ziggy would have been able to flank them back.

Some A-4s make their first of many unwelcome appearances. My flanking tank unit gets hammered. Critically, their command group, the overall commander, was suppressed. That unit was going to be pinned in place next turn!

Fortunately they took very few casualties from the Pattons firing at them moments later.

The Israeli flankers arrived on cue. I was fortunate that they ground to a halt right after their arrival. They were right in front of my FAC who called in a pair of Su-7s. They only succeeded in suppressing a single stand.

The combat cameraman was stunned by a nearby explosion and footage from the next 30 minutes was lost. What happened though was that the T-62s in the center turned to meet the flankers and then failed a command roll. The infantry immediately failed their command roll. Turn over. The Israeli M48 flankers begin a massive volley firing at the T-62s. Five of my seven stands were destroyed.

Then there was this mess on my left flank... the FAC got the entire IAF to respond and my flankers were hit by two airstrikes going from this (shown above) to this...

Gah!

While that was going on, My infantry on the hill had managed to eke out a command roll of "2" giving them two actions. They sprung into action, moving towards the flanking M48s. The new Russian 9M14 missiles streaked out smashed into some of the American tanks. Impressive! Mortar fire was accurate, resulting a handful of suppressed Israeli units.

That gets us to here. My flankers have evaporated. The central tank unit is smoke and rubble. My infantry is still in excellent shape, but the noose tightens for them.

The Sagger team in a great spot. Wish I had about six more of these!

With little else he could spot, the Zionist FAC called in an airstrike on the hill opposite. It deviates a bit, practically right on top of my AAA. The AA fire makes it exciting for the Israeli pilot but my infantry still take a pounding from the bombs.

With next to nothing left in the tank, my remaining Egyptians concede.

Although it was a blow-out, I enjoyed the game thoroughly. There's only so much you can do against the dice and you just have to put on a brave face and have a good time. I could really kick myself for screwing up the flank situation and not pressing harder. Oh well, it made things play out a bit more historically for my guys - capable troops, poor command and control. If I had to do it differently, I'd shit-can the T-62s and replace them with three units of cheaper T-55s giving the Israelis more targets and the Egyptians more maneuver groups. Next time!

CWC turned in a solid battle and perhaps it'll make its way on the table again soon with my 1980's European Theater toys. They've been in lock up long enough.