Czechs and Americans, 1980. Part II - the battle.

Previous post on plans can be found here.

Turn 1

The Czechs deployed five battalions on table, with the central ones in reserve.  They were a formidable looking lot.  Although there was only one tank battalion, the mechanized infantry battalions - in BVP-1s - of 5th Motor Rifle Regiment each had a company of T-55s attached.  4th Motor Rifle Regiment had four battalions present, three of motorized infantry in OT-64s, and one of T-55s.

As expected, Luke had ordered a flank march.  What I had not expected was that it would be scheduled to arrive on turn 1.  No matter, I thought; he had to roll a 6 for it to arrive.  Fat chance!

One roll of 6 later, I began to think wistfully of my original plan...

The mechanized infantry of 1/30 speeds towards its objective...

The M60A1s of 2/64 advance.

The Czech left heads for the hamlet.

The map below shows the table at the completion of the first turn.  My mechanized infantry battalion is making for the two-sector town in the centre, while 2/64 armoured battalion is advancing on my right.  Luke's flank march can be seen on the top right of the picture.  The rest of his forces can be seen in the lower quarter of the map...

Turn 2

The advance continued, with my infantry speeding to occupy the town before being taken in the flank by 2nd Battalion, Fourth Motor Rifle Regiment.

Something wicked this way comes.  OT-64s crest the brow of the hill on my left.

The map below shows the situation at the end of turn 2.  The Czechs have occupied three of the five objectives already, but recon elements of my mechanized infantry battalion have taken one of their own.

Turn 3

My mechanized infantry are now dangerously exposed on their left.  Their anti-tank guided weapons systems are out-ranged and out-spotted by the OT-64s opposing them, so it is all they can do is dismount and prepare for a grim fight.  In happier news the recon elements give their opponents a bloody nose.

The M60A1s skirt the rough ground as they make their way forward. 

Oh dear.  Under pressure on two fronts, and it's only turn 3!

The map below shows the table after the third turn.  The Czechs hold three objectives; the Americans two.

Turn 4

The big question this turn is whether we will see our flank march arrive on schedule or not.  It's 50/50...

Will we get to fall upon this flank?

And we will!

The cavalry arrives!  Things are looking up.

The Czech left, blissfully unaware of the menace to its rear.

The map below shows the table at the conclusion of turn 4.  Things have swung the way of the Americans.  The Czech flank march has ground to a halt overlooking my position, unable to advance without a further directive from above.  There is more good news: the Americans are locating the Czech batteries and the M107s have begun knocking them out with deadly counter-battery fire.

Add to this the arrival of 3/64 in the enemy's left rear and the Americans are feeling quietly confident.

Turn 5

Will this be the turn that the Americans win the game?  The Czech right is stopped, while the Americans have the Czech left in a vice.

So near yet so far: the Czechs find it frustratingly difficult to coordinate their assault.  The Americans, meanwhile, keep their heads down and call in the artillery.

The M60A1s of 3/64 about to overrun the Czech rear elements.  2/64 can be seen to the left of the picture as the pincer closes.

But the Czechs have a few tricks up their sleeves. 　In desperation they call down rocket fire.  It arrives, and the Americans on the flank are blanketed with smoke, thwarting all attempts to fire.

The map below shows the situation after turn 5.  Well-placed smoke is preventing the Americans from making good the advantage on theirr right, and is buying time for the T-55 battalion to race to the rescue of their beleaguered colleagues.

Turn 6

There is fighting on the Czech left and artillery is called in on the Czech right.  American counter-battery fire continues to be devastatingly efficient.

In this sector smoke is now the Americans' friend...

The flanking troops are unable to bring much of their firepower to bear due to the smoke.

The Americans are able to force a morale test on the leftmost of the Czech battalions, but it still maintains its position.

The Americans have not made as much progress as they would have liked, and the T-55s are making their presence felt on the Czech left.

The map below shows the table after turn 6.  It is in the balance.

Turn 7

The advantage swings back to the Czechs as their high command finally gets orders through to 2nd Battalion on the left.   They are to coordinate with 1st Battalion and commence their assault on the American position in the town.

2nd Battalion gets its order change at last!

The men of 1/30 call down as much artillery fire and smoke as they can.  Somehow they manage to beat off 1st Battalion's assault on the town, but they will not be able to hold much longer.

The M60A1s of 3/64 advance through the smoke, picking off enemy armour as they go.  

The map below shows the situation at the end of turn 8.  2/64 and 3/64 are both now in firefights with the enemy on the American right.  The ATGW capacity of the BVP-1s is beginning to take its toll on the Pattons, and casualties are sustained on both sides.

Turn 8

The American armour continues its assault on the Czech left, causing significant damage, but the American left is under extreme pressure of its own.  Who will break first?

3/64 gets into the enemy rear areas, but BVP-1s take out two M113s with ATGW fire.

OT-64s advance on the American left.  The Americans break the battalion to their front but cannot reposition themselves quickly enough to reinforce the flank.

Heavy fighting on the Czech left as the tank battalions clash.  The T-55s are bringing more guns to bear, but the Americans have their best chance to inflict heavy causalties.   Neither side can land a telling blow.

This is the situation at the end of turn 8.  Two Czech battalions have been broken.  The Americans control three objectives; the Czechs two.

Turn 9

Time is running out, so the Czechs launch an all-out assault on the American left.  They successfully call in rocket fire (at last!), which causes predictable carnage.  The dazed and confused Americans are now dangerously close to breaking: one more casualty will do it.

The OT-64s prepare to assault the American positions.

One American stand and two Czech stands are destroyed in the close assault.  It is enough to force a break test.  The Americans fail!

The armour breaks another Czech formation, and is finally in position to focus on swinging the door shut on the Czech T-55s - but it is too late.  

The map below shows the situation at the end of turn 9.  The Czechs have broken the American left, and the Americans have done the same to that of the Czechs.  The American armour has once again failed to score hits on the T-55s, and this has decided the affair, for their presence means that the objective, despite being in American hands, is classed as contested.

Time has run out, and the forces disengage!

Conclusion

By game end the Czechs control three objectives and have broken one American battalion for 8 VPs.  They lose 1 VP for having taken an 'a' option in their force.

The Americans hold two objectives and have broken three Czech battalions for a total of 10 VPs, but they lose 3 VPs for having taken a 'b' option, and another for one of their objectives having enemy close enough to contest it.

The Czechs therefore win, 8 points to 7!

Thoughts

This was an excellent game.  It was in the balance throughout; one turn going one way and the next the other.        The winning of the game for the Czechs came, I felt, in the middle turns, when Luke's use of smoke bought enough time for reinforcements to arrive and evened up the firefight by preventing the Pattons from being able to bring their fire to bear while allowing T-55s and BVP-1s to get into range and gang up on isolated American vehicles.

I had a good deal of luck in that the Czech left failed to coordinate its attacks until late in the game (jamming came in handy here!), and in that the M107s were magnificent in knocking out four enemy batteries with counter-battery fire.  It was significant that the left fell only once the M107s had run out of ammunition.

Luke was a deserved victor, as his timing and skill was superior to mine.  It also turned out that he had another flank march to come on board but forgot about it, so he was actually fighting at a further disadvantage.

For myself, I underestimated how long it would take to break the Czech left, and paid the price.  It is a delicate balancing act, and I have a lot to learn yet.  So, a most enjoyable game, and many congratulations to Luke for a nicely worked victory.

Luke's thoughts can be found here.

Czechs and Americans,1980. Part I - plans.

The second of my o-bon gaming days was in Osaka with Luke, where we got a Modern Spearhead game in, utilizing his Czechs and my newly-painted Americans.

Both sides were attacking, with three battalions of the 3rd US Infantry Division, 1st Brigade, running into a force from the Czech 3rd Infantry Division, 4th and 5th Motor Rifle Regiments.

We were fighting over five objectives - four towns and one hill - each worth two victory points.  An additional two VPs would be gained for each enemy fighting battalion wrecked.  Having taken a 'b' option of extras to Luke's 'a' option I started the game down 2 VPs and would need a good performance on table to make up the difference.

The image below shows the table with objectives marked.  The Americans enter from the top edge of the board and the Czechs from the lower.

(Note that all 'map' photos are courtesy of Luke, though some will be altered by my fiddling them about in MS Paint)

To give you a quick key to the terrain, the tan felt pieces are hills while the green pieces indicate forested areas or, if terraced, wooded hills.  The yellow-brown squares are fields of tall crops; the yellow-brown squares with flocked edges fields surrounded by hedges.  Dark brown squares are ploughed fields.

My Americans were organised into one mechanized infantry battalion (1/30) and two under-strength tank battalions, 2/64 and 3/64, with the latter reinforced by a company of infantry in M113s.  I also had two off-board artillery battalions, one of M109s and the other of M107s.

Knowing Luke as I do, I expected there would be a lot of Czech artillery and rocketry to deal with, so despite the extra cost in VPs I thought it was essential to take M107s so that my counter-battery fire would pack a punch.  The extra company of infantry that came with this option would also give the armour of 3/64 a bit of extra backbone, so I felt it was worth the VP handicap.

As far as plans went, I was in two minds.  The basic idea was to use the mechanized infantry to secure one town and use that as the base around which my tank battalions could operate, but there were a number of ways that this approach could be realized.

The first option was to concentrate on repelling the flank march I expected on my left, thus:

Despite the attractiveness of securing my left, the problems with this plan were twofold: the tanks of 3/64 would likely be open to an attack on their flank over this route of advance and there would be little chance of reinforcing them.  The other problem was that the second tank battalion, 2/64, would be obliged to either sit waiting for Luke's flank attack to arrive or push ahead, through forested terrain.  That seemed to be too restrictive, and I did not have enough men to let some lie idle.  In the end, I went for a second option that looked like this:

This plan clearly had weaknesses too - most obviously in having unsupported infantry on the left - but a flank march would, I felt, give me better mobility overall, keep the Czechs guessing as to the make up of my force, and offer the chance to take up the offensive on my right without losing the ability to change to a more defensive stance if the situation demanded it.

I was not sure what Luke had (seven battalions, as it turned out), but as mentioned I figured that he would be doing a flank march - or perhaps even two - and using the rest of his force to tie me down while the rockets and artillery did their work.

I envisaged something like this:

I needed a plan that would allow me to counter an attack of this nature reasonably effectively provided that his flank march(es) did not arrive too early and that he did not get too lucky with calling in his artillery.

I reckoned it would take about six turns to wear down his left - assuming that my own flank march arrived in time - so if my left could hold out that long there was a good chance I could turn his flank and win the game.

In short, I hoped my plan would do the trick!

(stay tuned for more)

Preparing to paint my Americans

With a large bunch of 6mm Americans sitting here to be painted up as the 3rd Infantry Division (kindly organised for me late last year by Luke Ueda-Sarson) I've started doing a bit of research on how to go about the task.

The first thing I need to look at is colour schemes.

The infantry wore OG-107 utilities at this period, so they will be undercoated an appropriate drab green and washed and highlighted as needed.  The colour should look something like this, though there would be variation due to wear and tear, exposure to sunlight, etc.

Image from this website: http://armynavyuniforms.com/index.php?main_page=page_2

The vehicles however used the MERDC patterning - a much tougher proposition.  I will need a forest green, field drab, and black camouflage design, as described here, in proportions of 45%, 45%, 5% and 5% respectively.  Colours are from the Urban's Colour charts site.

 This is the forest green.

And this one is also mentioned in some sources.

 This is the field drab.

 This is Rhys Batchelor's recommendation for the field drab colour.

 This is the sand colour...

...and another variation on the sand colour.

And of course, the black.














The panzerbaer website here is a great resource for Cold War vehicles, as this image taken from the site shows:

Image URL: http://www.panzerbaer.de/colours/a_relaunch/us_merdc_apc_m113.htm

As are these sites recommended by chaps on the Spearhead yahoo group: merdccamo and armouredacorn.

Thanks to tips from various websites I also managed to track down a very useful PDF which gives paint patterning details for most of the vehicles I'll be needing to do, so there's no excuse now; I just need to match colours to locally available paints and get cracking!

Hopefully there will be more to follow on this in the not-too-distant future...