Road to Hünfeld - Game 2

GAME 2

Game 2 was meant to be a slightly bigger - more platoon sized - action.  This was to represent a Conbat Reconnaissance patrol from the leading Soviet Motor Rifle Battalion clashing with a West German Covering Force, which is attempting to slow down and perhaps confuse the Soviet advance elements, buying some more time for the main defensive line to dig in.

I had thought about giving the West Germans some defences, but after reading a bit on their doctrine, and looking at what they were going to field, I decided the West German defene would be more of a mobile - counter attack at any opportunity defence - rather than a static defence.  I'm not sure how historically accurate this is - but it seemed right to me!

The Soviet Force – 1 x T-80BV platoon (of 3 tanks), 1 x Motor Rifle Platoon ( of 3 BMP-2 with dismounts), 1 x BRDM-2 AT-5, 1 x NBC BRDM-2 and 1 x BTR-70 with a mounted Combat Engineer squad.  In addition the Soviets had basically had the whole force from the recon game, minus the BMP dismounts – who were all killed.  I had given them 2 x Timed 122mm strikes when I prepared the list and the I gave them 1 more added as they had won game 1 so convincingly.

The West German force consisted of 1 x Panzer Grenadier Squad (3 Marder with dismounts), 2 x Leopard 2 MBTs, 1 x Jaguar 1, 1 x SP 120mm Panzermorser, plus 1 x Fuchs (with dismounts) and 1 x Luchs which had survived Game 1.  The Germans also had 2 x 3 tube battery On Call 120mm Mortar Barrages.

The scenario was as per Attack/Counter Attack from BGK with the recce units that start on the table being those units that survived on both sides from Game 1.

The table looked like this once the recce units had been placed on it.  The Soviet table edge is to the left and the West German edge is to the right:

You can see two large wooded sections on the Soviet side, with small tracks leading through them.

Looking at it from the other side it looked like this:

The combi vans centred on each intersection and the beetle in the barnyard are the objectives.

The player's plans were bound to cause an interesting game.  The Soviet player had decided to nuke the centre of the table with his timed artillery strikes and drive down both flanks, while the West German player had decided to hold the centre and win the game from there.  It would prove a costly, but ultimately sucessful choice.

The recce BMP-2 and motorcycle with sidecar drive straight down the main road towards town (as bait) before heading off into a copse of trees.

The centre of the village before it erupted in artillery fire:

A Luchs in its starting position

The results of a couple of turns of activity (and a crap photo to boot).  The BMP-2 drove to to the small woods to overwatch the village.  The Luchs in turn drove around the opposite side of the woods and slotted the BMP-2.  The Luch was in turn taken out by the T-80BV - which is now in a stand-off with the Leo 2.

The Germans - in keeping with their plans, drove up behind the village and dismounted troops into the houses.  The Soviets, in keeping with their plans, shelled the living daylights out of the village.  Results:

2 dead Marders, a dead Fuchs and a Pinned panzermorser.  Some infantry were killed as well.

The Leopard 2 pulled back towards the centre of the board - ready to go onto Covering Fire

The West German luck turned and they picked up an Aircraft chit and scored an Alpha Jet - which had been left at home so a standin RAAF F-18 stood in!)

Sadly for the west Germans - despite dropping 2 cluster bombs - no Soviet units were taken out, although several were pinned.

Here some overview of the table shots from later in the game - I get caught up and forget to take photos!

You can see the Leo 2 and the Jaguar are on Covering Fire.  Infantry from one of the destroyed Marders and made it across the main road into one of the house and nailed the BTR-70 with a PzF 44.

From the Soviet side you can see a T-80BV has been destroyed shortly after it attempted to take out the Jaguar with a long range shot - and was knocked out the next turn by the Jaguar with a HOT missile.

Down the other end of the table a stand off was occuring between a lowly BRDM-2 and a Leopard 2, along with some infantry

This would be resolved when the Leo 2 raced up to the corner of the block, was missed by 2 T-80 shots, a AT-5 shot and was not pinned by the BRDM-2 hosing it down with 14.5mm HMG fire so it blew the BRDM-2 into little pieces and went back and hid behind the building again.

Final shot I managed to take, before the now lone Panzerfaust 44 operator (they rest of his squad had been gunned down but he soldiered on for 1 more turn) took out the NBC BRDM-2.  But his bravery award would be post-humous as he in turn was killed by Soviet infantry.

Suddenly - when it looked all over for the West Germans, the Soviet player announced he had just exceeded his battle rating and it was all over.  The West German player could scarely believe it - nor could I.  But the West Germans had won Game 2, which meant they would have more time to prepare for the Soviet assault in Game 3.

Which is coming soon...

Richard

Oh - and I should say - a BRDM-2 and the even more herioc recce motorcycle combination survived Game 2 and will be leading the Soviet forces in Game 3!