DICE-DEVILS do it again!

A fantastic battle report from everyone's favourite Canadian Flames of War Group!

Just look at the battlefield, it's great! A rail-head, some small German villages, some Bundeswehr units holding out, with a huge amount of Soviet Armour pouring forth.

I am blown away by the contribution of these guys to this project, and also their support and on going suggestions.

Marders moving in to Position to use their MILAN's!

When I'm a bit fed up of it, I take stock, have a look at what these guys are doing and a couple of the other sites out there and I feel re-energised to carry on.

I would recommend you go to their site and have a look at the videos.....Their FOW WWII stuff is also a great read!

http://www.dicedevils.com/

PENARTH CRUSADE

I had a good day at Penarth & District Wargames Club's Annual event "CRUSADE 2013" which is more of a Mini-One-day Convention with Games, Vendors, Traders, Lectures and a bring & buy.
             I ended up demonstarting this Cold War ruleset, with some fellow club members helping out and having a look around. Unfortunately 15mm producers were thin on the ground so I picked up some stuff for my WWII collection. But it was a very good chance to push the boat out, and Chris brought his "almost" US Force. I have to say, the Camo he has put on the tanks looks great, and he attributed this Armoured Acorn's Camo schemes helping him out.  He still has some more painting to do, but helpfully brought his Vietnam era M113's from the FLAMES OF WAR Vietnam Range so he was able to bring 2000 points to the board.

We did put on a large Battle in slow time over 3-4 hours just to give a sense of scale make the Battlefield look nice. I have put some little notes just to give some context, but writing a full battle-report is a bit beyond my memory.

SOVIET MOTOR-RIFLE vs US ARMY  -  CENTRAL GERMANY 3RD FED 1986.

A Soviet Motor Rifle Regiment breaks out of the main breakout and races forward at Breakneck speed, hoping to maintain the headlong, ferocious advance into the Federal Republic of Germany. They successfully shoot down an AH-1 Cobra which has been following them for several miles, waiting to pounce on them.

The Vanguard of the US V Corps has dug in ahead of the Soviets and is seeking to deny ground, Isolate and then Destroy the Soviet forward elements.

The US Forces using their superior ATGM Missiles snipe an advancing T-72 Platoon with TOW Missiles, destroying one tank outright, and crippling a second causing the crew to abandon their vehicle.  Return fire, highlights the Bradley's weak armour and one goes up in Flames. The US Infantry dives into nearest buildings and begin setting up their M47 Dragon AT missiles.

The M1 Abrams Platoon move forward from concealed positions, as they witness the toll of the TOW Missiles on the T-72 Platoon. Just one other Tank Platoon remains their key threat, but they remain out of sight. The woefully under-gunned M1 with it's 105mm gun begin firing at BMPS in cover

AT-3 Missiles streak across the battlefield, as the low pressure guns of the BMP 1 seek to cripple the Abrams Battle Tanks and allow the second T-72 Platoon to out flank and destroy the Main Battletanks.

Another Platoon of BMP's crest the rise of a Hill, and get a perfect line of sight at a pair of Bradleys Scouting for a better position to deliver their TOW's. Three AT-3 Missiles streak out and the pair of IFV are immolated in detonations, their Aluminium armour no where near the level required to stop the Missiles.

The M113 Platoon move into cover and daren't show themselves from the marauding BMP's on the nearby rise.

The loss of the two Bradley Platoons has depleted the ATGM threat and the Soviet Units Race forward, intending to sweep through the US positions and surround them or push onwards.

All hell breaks out in the centre where a BMP is hit and burning and several Troops inside are burned to death, the final Tank of the 1st Platoon is blown to pieces by a Depleted Uranium round entering through the turret ring.

At this point the second T-72 Platoon flanks the Abrams and destroy one, with a flank shot. The US armour then performs an incredibly aggressive, manoeuvre, and charge head-long through the advancing Soviet Armour. They expose their side armour to over half the Soviet Vehicles. The stunned Soviets are utterly shocked by this maneouvre, and despite firing everything they have, fail to draw a bead on the US tanks. 

The BMP's race and jump on the objective, but the M1 Abrams are not done, with three out of 4 Tanks Operational and one sitting on the objective they start to mercilessly cut the Soviet force to pieces. The T-72 Platoon is utterly destroyed, by the M1 Abrams Platoon. The BMP's fire at point blank range, bailing one crew, but the blow out panels on the Abrams Protected Ammunition mean the crew get back in and fight on. With courage borne of desperation the US Tankers, smash the BMP Force trying to capture the T-junction.

The Soviet Commander decides to push his forces towards the town in the hope of forcing the US Forces to break off....

The BTR Platoon drives up the main road at suicidal pace, and avoids the M47 Dragon Fire, their 14.7mm HMG's cut through the rear armour of the M113's. Two vehicles are bailed, but the Infantry in the building, take revenge blowing the BTR70's to pieces. Subsequently the M47 Dragons finish off the BMP Platoon on the rise, and the Soviets are almost spent.

With only 4 BMP's left, and 1 and half Platoons of Infantry a Junior Commissar leads them in a fruitless charge at the M1 Abrams platoon, who furiously gun them down with a combination of MG and .50cal fire.

Catastrophic Soviet Loss, the Soviets did have some minor successes in destroying all the Bradley Platoons and shooting down a Cobra Helicopter, but the American's were still in a Combat effective state and the Soviets were utterly shattered.

The Colonel in Command of the Motor-rifle Company, calmly took his makarov out of it's holster, cocked it,  and the final thought that went through his brain prior to the bullet was "I hope the Party leaves my family alone".

More Test game shots...

After altering some of the rules, dropping national rules (like Hen and Chicks for the Soviets) and balancing out the AT values with the Armour Values to make everything more balanced, particularly the side armour on NATO vehicles being too high.

So the Battle was a "Free-for-all" with the Soviets aiming to smash through, the objectives are Orange Dice and grey dice are the objectives.(we will get some decent objective markers).   

The Battle

A Soviet Motor Rifle Platoon captures an Objective and leaps out of their BMP's and prepare to dig in. 

The main Soviet Vanguard of a Platoon of T-72's and a BMP Platoon move swiftly forward and come under murderous fire from concealed Chieftains who destroy the T-72 Platoon outright.

The BMP's take cover behind their burning tanks as the rest of the Company sweeps in, on the left Flank now the Chieftains have revealed themselves, and are in a precarious position without support.

 The BMP's go hull down to distract the Chieftains as the other T-72 platoon races foward from the left flank and the Two BMP Platoons also perform a left hook.

Mean while the British Mechanised Company turns up, with the MILAN Platoon setting up in the Woods, and getting some good firing positions on the Rear of the T-72 Platoon.

But unfortunately in their haste to bring their weapons to bear, they manage to miss with all their shots. 

 The T-72 Platoon Races to the top of the Hill and starts to take the Chieftains under fire in their lesser side armour, the whole of the ground in front of the hill becomes a butchers shop as the Soviets race in to capture the objectives and destroy the Chieftains.

The Two platoons of Infantry jump from their transports and race towards the Cheiftains in order to force them off the objective. The BMP's watch their SPIRAL missiles and Cannon shots bounce off the superior Chieftain Armour time and again, and decide to close to point blank range to surround the British Tanks and cut off their escape and allow the infantry to capture them.

The Soviets moved up their Final BMP Platoon to screen the hill and protect the Read of the T-72's, unfortunately the MILAN Platoon is ready and the Platoon is utterly shattered by the MILAN's firing from the Wood in to their side armour. 

The British now feel the battle swinging their way and know that they need to Counter-attack to survive, or they will be destroyed. The Mechanised Platoon leaps out of their Transports (now the threat of the BMP's is gone) and race up the hill with MAW's at the ready and  bail or destroy the tanks, their consolidation move captures the T-72s and the hill is now in British Hands. 

The FV432's engage with their GPMG to pin or kill the Soviets, the 4 Chieftains move forward to engage. Lot's of Soviets die, but they hold on, successfully bailing a Chieftain and then capturing it, the British fail their morale and break off. The Soviets hold the Objective so hold 2 to the British 1. The Soviets manage a desperate last minute win, with only 3 BMP's left and 7 stands of infantry, the British had lost only one Tank.

DESPERATE LAST DITCH SOVIET VICTORY!

This game was more luck than judgements and to be fair to my opponent he played extremely well, constantly moving his tanks to keep the front armour facing the enemy, equally I was unlucky failing quite a few firepower tests on his Chieftains where their Protected Ammo really helps them out. 

Good fun, and the Rules seem to be more balanced now, and the NATO tanks need a slight side armour 'nerf or the things like RPG's at close range simply cannot bail them (I should have spotted this!). 

Test games:- 

We played a short test game with my new home grown FLAMES OF WAR Modified Rules. It was entertaining and a quite a giggle, despite my appalling rolling of 1's and 2's damn near constantly (god blessed me in many ways but not with the ability to roll dice with anything resembling a proper  statistical distribution). 

We decided to boost the AT ratings of many of the Weapons after re-balancing many of the vehicles several times, and also looking at the TANK ASSAULT values of things such as LAW's. 

We are still debating the "Hen and Chicks" rule as this is massively debilitating when taking 3 Tank Platoons in the modern era, so I am considering dropping this rule from the Russians. Especially when I make IFV equivalent of Tank Teams it affects BMP's and BTR's too. I also need to address certain IFV's as Transports rather than IFV's (M113 or FV432 spring to mind).

Anyway here are some pictures, because you all prefer them anyway!  (ignore the unpainted mini's they are objective markers!). 

So this is a "Dust Up" meeting engagement so, reserves will arrive after turn 3. The Chieftains were in a good conceal position.

The Motor Rifle Scouts approach with a T-72 Tank Platoon in support. The Chieftains are spotted and the T-72's fire whilst racing forward and the Chieftain's front armour bounces those shots that hit.

The sited and static Chieftains fire back with full rate of fire and neutralise the Platoon after two turns of firing at each other. The second T-72 Platoon managed to flank the Chieftains and fire at the side armour, but were hamstrung by the "Hen and chicks" rule so need 6's to hit *BAH!!!! ill considered implication*

The Chieftains begin a fighting withdrawal as the Soviet surge forward, presenting their ridiculous front armour to all the threats. The Second T-72 Platoon is wiped out by lucky Chieftain firing as they reverse and my bloody dice rolling near constant 1's.  

 The MILAN Platoon arrives and is taken under fire by the BTR's HMG's and MG's. The return fire is focused on the sole surviving T-72 in the 1st Platoon which shrugs off the MILAN hits.

 A British Mechanised Platoon sees an Opportunity to neutralise the Soviet Recce section.

Equally a BMP Platoon races in and it's infantry move forward to Capture the objective. The BMP's fire SPIGOT's at point blank range but against miss as they need 6's due to "Hen and Chicks".

The Soviet second BMP Platoon arrives and blocks the FV432 Mech Platoon, and stays out of range of the MILAN team. Taking the FV432 platoon under-effective fire, but not before the soviet Recce platoon is destroyed. The Mechanised FV432 Platoon, suffers one destroyed and other 3 vehicles Bailed, British Soldiers spill out in all directions and an entire section is killed, as their vehicle cooks off.

The first BMP Platoon comes under murderous MG fire from the Chieftains working as a team. Neutralising the BMP's and pinning the troops. At this point I hold 2 objectives, contesting one the British positions. But my Platoon breaks, and it triggers a Company Morale check * I fail and my company quits the field.

The bottomline, is that I need to tweak the "Hen and Chicks" rule and up the AT value. There was a random element where I rolled ridiculously low dice through sheer chance. More work is required.

Also one for all the UK Ex-Service types out there:-

PICTURES OF SOME TEST GAMES

This is one of about 7 Play test games we did, (I really need to take more Photo's on my phone!).  In the end we couldn't get Force on Force to work in a Platoon Armoured warfare style, so we are adapting FOW to a modern ruleset specifically for this. 

So here are a few snaps of me and colonel Miller trying to work through Force on Force with some significant stalling points. 

Pair of Chieftains Hidden in Overwatch, with a FV432 top left hiding behind the Building where the OiC is "holed up"

It's fair to say that the Chieftains did nothing/ little until late in the day with two of them covering the left flank hiding in a copse. But the Milan Teams hiding in the ruined buildings really made a mess of my BMP force, equally the FV432's were a pain putting out GPMG fire on my dismounted Motor Rifle Infantry who took casualties by the bucket load. The 155mm Artillery strike called in on the Soviet advance was devastating and crippled an entire platoon of BMP's.

In the end the Soviets pushed across with the T-72's but almost all were crippled, with main guns KO'd, movement crippled or immobilised or with little Firepower left. The BMP's were a bloody death trap with almost every single one brewing up when it was hit. 

The T72's with their Heavy machine guns and the BTR's with their Machine guns managed to silence 4 out 6 FV432's before the "Crazy Mad British Infantry" decided to move forward into a Jumping off position and then conduct an Infantry Bayonet Assault against the surviving Tanks with 2 Chieftains performing a left hook.

Exactly as Corporal Jones had said "They certainly don't like it up 'em" and the British Troops swarmed all over the crippled Tanks put them out of action gunning the Crews down, and drop grenades inside any opening and shredding the interior's and setting fire to the tanks before rapidly retiring.

I lost :-

2 x BTR70's
8 x BMP's Destroyed (1 crippled)
1/2 x Infantry Company ( 50 Dead - 28 fine)
2 x T-72's Destroyed (2 crippled and 2 immobilised)

Chris lost :-

4 x FV432's Destroyed (2 x Completely Fine)
1 x MILAN PLATOON Destroyed (12 Dead)
1/2 x Infantry Platoon (12 Dead - 14 fine)
1 x Chieftain Destroyed ( 1x Immobilised, 2 x Completely fine)

The net result a marginal BAOR victory, a blood bath but with the British holding on by their finger nails and the Soviets delayed, but decided merely to throw another Company to assault the position again an hour late. Such is the life of a poor harassed NATO Commander, Germany will belong to Mother- Russia!

The Stat's from the game seem to stack up with the Quality vs Quantity debate, and pretty accurately show the projected casualties approx 3 to 1 for WARPAC vs NATO.