AAR: Danish Delight - Fistful of TOWs

James brought over some Cold War era toys on Saturday for a wonderful Scandinavian scrap in the late 80's. Mark and Mike joined us for what turned out to be a fantastic afternoon of dice and toy soldiers. The scenario featured a Soviet amphibious landing in Denmark during the "big one of 1988." James had played the preceding naval part of this exercise at Siege of Augusta in January, the results of which affected this battle. 

I commanded the Soviet Marines while James took command of Polish airborne. Mark and Mike shared command of Danish Home Guards and Regulars. We drew up orders and deployment on maps. All the Danes were hidden or off-map to begin with. We attackers would arrive over the course of the first few turns. 

Our battlefield. The attacker's objective was to send troops north, up the big highway. 

The generals. 

I had a good excuse to don the "Che" commie beret!

Me definitely not doing my best spy satellite impression to photograph the Danish battle map.

The Antonov carrying James' troops flies past unnoticed. Its occupants fell into the void.

The paratroopers practically landed on top of one of Mike's companies! Blast!

Over at the coast, my first landing ships arrive and the first company of Naval Infantry hit the beach. James scratch-built the ships from balsa. They looked great, especially considering the terrifically low price and when you consider how often landing ships will make it into a micro-armor game you can appreciate it even more.

The Danish greeting party. Infantry, trucks, a TOW jeep and a Bofors 40mm. 

My second group arrives and there we go. Some damn FO has observed the landing and artillery shells and landing amidst my BTRs in no time! He's got to be somewhere in the highlighted area, I'm sure of it. I suspect the church's steeple. The artillery just caused some disruption and no meaningful casualties.

The second company debarks and hit the beach. The first company gets into the woods and out of sight, we hope!

It's not long before our first air support arrives, a flight of Su-17s. They drop bombs in support of the Polish airborne who have been hustling towards the town. The bombs are relatively ineffective.

My NI get a move on, now following their plotted marching orders. The "Mano de Miguel" locates a target for a hidden TOW team.

Shit. And then the little pecker scooted back behind the trees to evade retribution.

But the spirit of vengeance flowed over the Soviet horde. My T-55 in the second company located a Danish tank ahead that had been giving the paratroopers a rough time. A Bastion rocket is fired and moments later the old M41 brews up!

The air support comes back and strafes the grass and trees ineffectively. A Danish F-16 patrolling the area has caught up with Fencer and sent it to the better place.

The NI group leader requests naval gunfire into the woods where the TOW came from. There's more than just a TOW team there! That same group calls their 105's in on my APCs. Elsewhere, Mark's 155's were directed to fire on my other mechanized group.

I ended up with a lot of suppressions but no significant losses.

Best just to keep moving then... my troops stay on course. No photo but there was a Forward Observer in the green field my BTRs are rolling across. We dispatched him.

The damn TOW jeep reappears and smacks another BTR! Can a brother get a pair of Hinds to go deal with this crap?

Mark's late-arriving mechanized company prepares a greeting for second company. My T-55 finally has worthy opponents in the form of a pair of Centurions. 

In a dramatic exchange of fire, all three tanks are eliminated! Mark was rather displeased by how that turned out. The T-55 on the other hand had killed all three enemy tanks. That's doin' it.

Mark was about to learn another hard lesson - my PT-76s were right in front of a pair of his M113s. My fire was pretty inaccurate though and I only managed to take out one. 

Another turn and "The Ghost of Copenhagen" continues his bloody reign of domination over the Red Air Force. No more air support for us. We only received one of four possible flights. Blast. On the ground, I redirect first company to deal with the troops who'd been causing me so much trouble. The HQ group joined a few hundred meters behind.

The "Ghost's" brother - running the TOW jeep reappears during opportunity fire and takes out yet another BTR. His teammate with a recoilless rifle eliminates yet another! GOOD GRAVY THIS SUCKS! At least the troops inside managed to get out alive for a change.

The remaining troops and APC, assisted by the ZSU in the HQ platoon , fire into the treeline eliminating a stand of infantry, but the TOW team would live to fight another day. 

And of course, the other TOW jeep Mike had hidden up top got a beeline on a PT-76 and burst it. 

A hail of fire and the paratroopers had had enough. My mechanized companies had been reduced to nothing. It was over. A solid Danish victory, no doubt about it.

A damn entertaining afternoon for sure. Plenty of action, plenty of heroic moments and laughter all around. It was nice to play a "WW3" game without walls of T-72s and NATO tanks facing off. This was much lower-intensity than the typical fare and really a lot of fun. The naval battle that was played prior to this saw the loss of more than a couple of troop ships which was THE reason I had so few troops. As they say, dance with who you brought to the party. 

This was my first go with Fistful of TOWs. I liked some elements but the IGOUGO move / overwatch / shoot n scoot mechanism with us being forced to move first was painful. I'm sure Mike would disagree. At least we played with simultaneous fire during the shooting and artillery phases which was nice. I'd play it again if someone else put it on the table, but my tastes run more towards Modern Spearhead and Sabre Squadron for this genre's rulesets.