West of Hannover - A BAOR vs Soviets After Action Report (another attempt at Part 1)

Back  in April I posted up a coupe of pics of what was meant to be the prelude to a large After Action Report.  We had an all day game, I tried to take a bunch of photos and as usual I started with the table layout.  Unfortunately, real life slammed me pretty hard right about then, and all my "free time" at home got spent on anything other than my hobby time.

So now, although all my hobby stuff is packed away, I have a bit of spare time and I thought it was time I rid myself of the guilt of not putting up this report.  So I'll pretty much start from scratch - so settle in.

OK - the premise of the game was to test to see whether or not my unofficial BG:Cold War rules could cope with a large battle - rather than a platoon plus kind of skirmish.  To do this I decided to test a game with "real" Battlegroups.  I was also testing whether or not you could do this in 20mm rather than a smaller scale.

The BAOR force would be a Squadron/Company sized combat team - similar to the US team described in the book "Team Yankee" - except Brits of course!  It would consist of:

Forward HQ (1435 pts - 65 BR)

• Combat Team CO & 2IC - both in Chieftain TOGS MBTs
• Forward Signals Unit in a Sultan

Tanks

• 2 x Troops of 3 Chieftain TOGS MBTs

Infantry Units

• Mechanised Infantry Platoon in FV432 (2 with MG turrets)
• Self-Propelled medium Mortar (in a FV432M)
• 2 Milan Teams (in a FV432)
• 1 Spartan MCT

Artillery Units

• FO Team (in a FV432)
• 2 x Abbot SPGs (on table)

Reconnaissance Units

• 2 x Scimitars

Logistics

• 1 x Stalwart

Specialist Units

• 1 Blowpipe Team (in a Spartan)
• Tracked Rapier
• Guided Weapons Section (2 x FV428)

Additional Fire Support

• 2 x Pre-registered Target Points
• 2 x Counter battery Fire Missions
• 2 x Timed 155mm HE barrages

Defences

• 6 x Tank Fighting Positions
• 20" of Trenches
• 2 x Minefields
• 2 x Bridge Demolitions

While the NATO force got a company sized team with add-on assets, the Soviets got a Battalion sized force with some add-ons.

Forward HQ - (1997 pts - 92 BR)

• 1 x Battalion Commander (in a T-64BK)
• 1 x Artillery Command Post (in a ACRV)

Tanks

• 2 x T-64 Companies (each with 10 T-64B)

Infantry

• 1 x BMP-1 company (with 10 BMP-1Ps)
• 1 x MANPADS Section (in a BMP-1)
• 1 x Fire Support Section (in a BMP-1)

Artillery Units

• 3 x 122mm guns (an off-table battery)

Reconnaissance Units

• 1 x Recon BMP Squad (in a BMP-2)
• 1 x BRDM-2

Specialist Support Units

• 2 x ZSU-23-4 Shilka

So that's about 28 tanks on the table, along with about 31+ other vehicles.  I then had to decide how to fit this all into one game on 1 table - that a normal human being could reach across!

So... of course... I cheated.  I found this nice straight stretch of autobahn heading from the Inner German Border towards Hannover, in the British sector.  It seemed like a perfectly sensible road for the Soviets to speed along on their way to liberate the workers of Hannover from their capitalist oppressors.  It also seemed like a perfectly good road for BAOR engineers to crater, mine, and drop every bridge along it's length in front of the Soviets.  Here it is:

Since it was impassable (and a raised road in my mind) it would make a perfect boundary between two tables.  There is a road (and maybe a tunnel) connecting the villages of Lehre to the north to Essehof in teh south.  As long as it is controlled by the British they can pass units backwards and forwards to their heart content along it.  If the Soviets control it at the end of the game - so can they.

The top red outlined box would become Table 1.  It turned out looking like this from the Soviet's point-of-view:

And like this from the NATO end with the village of Lehre in the foreground:

The bottom box on the map then becomes Table 2.  We laid it out with the Soviet end looking like this:

Here's a table-eyed view of the road heading towards the NATO held village of Essehof:

And here's the NATO point of view looking back down Table 2:

So now we were ready to start the game.  Greg and Charles took up the cudgel for NATO (the dastardly oppressors previously mentioned) while Mick and myself played the role of the Heroes of the Soviet Union.  As such you'll have to forgive me as more photos ended up being taken of the massacre on my table (Table 2) than of the more free-wheeling attack on the other table (Table 1).

Next up - the game itself.

Thanks

Richard