Cold war moderns game report
Introduction
As part of BattleCry (a local convention) we ran a WRG 1950-2000 tournament which was
kindly sponsored by GHQ Models (www.ghqmodels.com).
The year is 1985 and tensions between East and West has caused war to break out in Europe. Soviet
forces have invaded West Germany and a NATO covering force is performing a fighting withdrawal
action near a main junction of the autobahn.
This tournament was a one day event and is a multi player attack defence game. The forces consist
of a NATO screening force of British Recce (in the area on a training exercise) and US ACAV (11th
Armoured Cavalry Regiment) forces defending against the leading elements of the 20th Guards Motor
Rifle division and East German forces.
Pre game
The players assembled and decided on forces. The NATO forces consisted of elements of a US ACAV brigade and a British Light covering force. The Warsaw Pact forces were split into East Germans and Soviet.
The terrain was vaguely based on terrain around the town of Hunfeld near the Fulda Gap.
The game was a prepared attack game and this meant the attacker had 16000tpts of forces (including artillery and pre game bombardments). The defenders had 8000pts of forces and 4000pts of field defences.
Forces
Warsaw Pact The East Germans had one company of T72G/Ms, 1 BMP1 Company and a Recce company. The Soviets had 1 T64BV/R Company, 1 BTR Motorised Company, 1 Engineering Company and various support and HQ elements. Off table elements including a BM21 battery, a BM24 battery, a 2S5 SP 155mm for counterbattery and a battalion of 2S1 SP 122mm guns.
NATO
US
One ACAV Trp with 2 platoons. Each platoon had 2 M113ACAV, 2 Dragons, 2 M901 and 4 M60A3. Aircraft consisted of
3 AH1A Apaches and 2 F16 Fighting Falcons providing air cover.
Their artillery was a MLRS battery for counterbattery (with CB radar) and a MLRS battery for general support.
The British forces consisted of a Saxon Motor Platoon and a Recce squadron with 2 troops of Scorpions/Scimitars, 2 troops of Strikers and one troop of Spartans with infantry.
Setup
The defenders marked their positions on a map whilst the attacker wrote their orders. Then the defenders had to deploy half their elements on table and visible field defences,
whilst the others remained hidden until they move, shoot, or are automatically acquired. Then the attackers began their pregame bombardment. One of the targets was a village
and the rockets destroyed most of the buildings and some of the Saxon APCs deployed in the village. The defender had also placed an infantry platoon in a tunnel in the village
but the tunnel mouth was destroyed, trapping the platoon.
Click on the thumbnails to see the full sized image
The table from the defenders side
In the foreground you can see the main objective of the Warpact forces which was the autobahn. On the very right is a railway line and also outside of shot is a hill (Rises in WRG terms). The NATO players commented afterwards that there wasn't enough hills and they didn't have enough hills to park their M901s and Strikers on!
Crash on the Autobahn!
Field defences
NATO deployments
British forces
Pre game artillery
The first turn
After much mucking around the Warpact players finally moved on. They went for the classic attacking move of concentrating all your forces on one side with a few vehicles covering the flank. An important roll went their way and they avoided being hit by MRLS in the NATO players first turn (as they failed to request it). In the bottom left is a recce platoon and the East German and Soviet forces are mixed together. The triangle cards represent the smoke screens generated by the tanks injecting diesel onto the exhausts, which provides partial screening.