Recce Screen AAR

Obviosly its been a while since my last post - mainly because I've been preparing stuff for these next two posts.  Here we go...

Last week I got in two more test games - this time with actual opponents!  No more Billy No-mates for me!

First was played at my friend Simon's.  We were attempted to play 2 small recce games in a few hours, a 1986 clash and a WW2 clash, so the forces were suitably small.

The aim of this game was for the Soviets to bypass the British and get off the back of the table.  The Brits simply had to stop them.

I played the Soviets (I always seem to end up playing the Soviets...) and this is what I had:

2 x Recon BMP-2s (with dismounts) and a BRDM-2.

NATO force was as follows:

Sorry - a range of crappy and OK photos on the day...  So NATO force was British Recce, with 2 Scimitars, a Striker with a Remote Team and a Spartan with dismounts.

The Soviet's had a randomised board entry, while the Brits had hidden markers for each vehicle and some dummy markers.  Simon spread these fairly evenly across the table.  2 of my elements came in on a road, while the other BMP-2 came in anywhere on my table edge.

Here's a pretty poor pic of the placement of one of the hidden markers, which was later ID'd by some dismounts as a dummy:

The Soviets were fairly cautious (not knowing what was where) but managed to spot the Remote Team hidden in a building.  Some reasonably poor shooting from a 30mm cannon, managed to kill one of them.  (We used a Star Wars dice to remind us)

However the Remote Team could still function (passed it's morale test) and it directed a Swingfire missile at the BMP-2.

Which struck home...

Fortunately - as you can see above, I had already dismounted my motor rifle chaps who were working their way up the flank.  Here another shot of the British end of the table with my lads way off in the background.

Same point in the battle from another angle

You can see another 2 hidden markers in the background.

For whatever reason - I probably thought the road was too heavily defended - I moved my BRDM-2 into the centre of the table with the surviving BMP.

Again the infantry dismounted, taking with them the BMP's AT-5 ATGM.

This was able to take out one of the Scimitars, while the BMP killed the final member of the Remote Team, forcing the Striker to withdraw.

Things were starting to swing the way of the Soviets.

The BRDM-2 made a mad dash through the deserted town to reach the bridge (which marked the end of this part of the table.

The Brits decided to take a bit of revenge on a poor innocent BMP squad hiding in a building.

Two turns of firing a 30mm Rarden cannon into the building turned my squad into red mist... However, it did give the remaing BMP-2 the chance to disengage in the centre of the table and move towards the town.

And the next turn both the BRDM-2 and BMP-2 had made it to the bridge (which looks remarkably like Pegasus Bridge?).

I'm not sure how the dismounts felt, but imagined that at this point the British had been outflanked and so withdrew to the Northwest.

So the first real test was over.  Things had all worked smoothly and I was now ready for the next, bigger game a couple of days later.

Stay tuned...

Richard