Highway to Berlin 1986

Finished up my PBR boats for my brown water navy.  Considering what to do for my 2 french ships.  In the meantime I started building and painting up 3 East German T-55s.  I also have 2 squads of infantry complete with BTR-60s and a BDRM.  I tried to replicate the cool 3 color camo scheme that battlefront has on the team yankee website but didn't do a great job.  That said the results had grown on me so I thought I would get them on the table.  I decided I wanted a very small battle due to time constraints so went with a meeting engagement.  Rolled up the board but picked the forces otherwise.

FIRST DAY OF THE WAR

While Nato planners had written off Berlin they did attempt at least a token effort to keep the highway to the city open.  This involved a spoiling attack into East German territory that ran right into elements of the NVA.   As the mobile battle developed it became clear that a small hill near the autobahn and the town near it would be important to have...

SSgt Throckmorton was tasked to take two squads into town  and secure the hill to be used as a TOW sight and secure the village against possible NVA attack.
US forces  8/8   initative d10
2 US mech squads w Bradleys plus 1 HUMVEE/TOW
1 Apache on call

NVA entered 1 turn earlier.    I actually played points.  1 point for the hill, 1 point for the apartment building in the center and 1 point for the factory at the right.  

NVA enter the town going for the hill.  Don't have my East German tanks painted up yet so had to sub in Russian ones. 

2nd NVA squad unloads at the factory.  1 point comrades! 

What the ...!?!?!??!?!?!?!  
Both sides too startled to score any hits.   BDRM retreats.  2nd Bradley moves towards appartment complex and humvee moves towards hill.

The humvee never makes it to the hill.  So the German tanks move forward just as the Apache show up...

Score one for army aviation!!!!

Surprisingly the East Germans do a better job of reacting to the fluid situation.  D6 initative

1st squad unloads and enters the apartment complex.  2 points for the Democratic Republic!

2nd squad finally stops smoking and gets out of the Bradley. 

2nd squad moves up through the factory complex.  ( Who are these guys!)

Mid battle.   Things are not good for the US.  No one controls the hill.  NVA have appartments and factory.  2nd NVA squad moving up towards parking lot. 

Then I drew a very cool, very gamey random event.  Rounds cause a building to catch fire, US player's choice.  Do I put the apartment on fire?  I can't control it then but neither can the Germans. I decide to place it on fire and try to go around it toward the factory. 

A ruptured gas line in the building catches fire!  NVA troops retreat out the back. 

They take up positions across the street. 

SSgt Throckmorton moves his men past the burning building.   They run into a gun toting BTR 60.  1 KIA and 1 serious wound.

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse...

In a sign of socialist solidarity a Russian Hind shows up.  My house rules mean they immediately look for armor as it is easy to identify.  ( easier than troops.)

A Bradley is destroyed and 2nd squad pinned by fire from the East Germans.   With only 1 immobilized Bradley left, 4 casualties and no objectives gained SSgt Throckmorten signals retreat. 


Fun battle that played fast.  The US was soundly defeated.  I set it up so the US were better led ( house rules) so they should have reacted more often and faster though they had fewer assets.  This did not play out.   They consistently "missed" their move rolls and lost initiative and reaction die rolls.  Also the Apache stayed on the board for only 1 turn.   ( I TQ after each turn.)  It would be interesting to play this out again and see if the outcome would be different.  I still think the forces evenly matched despite the outcome.    If you want to try it the NVA had
8/8  initative d6
2 mech squads with BTR 60s  All poor ( Gr0) leaders.
1 BDRM Avg leader
2 T-55As    1 Avg/ 1 Poor

Enjoy

Joe

Rescue mission-- somalia

Actually wanted to take a break from the Brown Water Navy and Vietnam last weekend.  Wanted something short and different.  Found a rescue scenario in "Day of the Rangers" scenario book.  It is the first scenario book of theirs I bought ( actually paid full price, such a newbie) and is only "okay" because the scenarios are not particularly varied.  That said, they have a hypothetical rescue mission of a downed helo pilot.   So no  Platoon Forward today( I normally can't help it- it is what I actually play!)  I played this one straight out of the book! 

Mogadishu.  target building in the center.  Nice small board

The US gets 2 sticks of rangers and 8 deltas.   They have to rescue the pilot and evac him out by turn 10.   They lose points for casualties of US personal and civilians.  

Target building up close.  Durant is inside with 6 bad guys.

Rangers fast rope down from a Blackhawk.  No Jack, that is a Blackhawk! 

US gets air support every turn which is good because the Somalis get fighters every turn.  At the beginning of turn two a gunship ( yes Jack that is a gunship) strafes fighters drawn towards the commotion. 

The gunship does a fine job clearing the street!

Delta quickly prepares to enter the target building.  FOF has very good rules for this sort of thing.

The Somali guards keep their wits and lay down fire but it does them no good.  Delta is too fast and soon Durant is back in US hands! 

Situation at the end of turn two.  I often place figures on top of buildings rather than in them because I am lazy.  Rangers bottom left and right with delta in target house.  Helos overhead. 

Unfortunatly my brilliant pictures of the next two turns didn't come out.  Sorry.

Situation at the end of turn 4.  US in the same positions but more Somalis massing along bottom of table.  Also Civilians showing up and they are NOT pro-US.

They didn't teach us what to do in ranger school about this.

An NCO attempts to disperse part of the crowd.  He fails.

The Somalis finally feel strong enough to have a go at the target house.  (The crowd in the picture two above is still blocking the LMG.)  They fail.

With that a blackhawk ( yes Jack, still a blackhawk) comes in to load Durant.

Mission accomplished!    US sustained only 2 lt wounds.  Fun, short game and I got to use my Delta figures.  

Enjoy

Joe

Brown Water Navy sweeps a villiage; Rung Sat 1967

Wanted to get my brown water navy into action and finally got a chance this weekend.  Have to say it was great fun and I was able to really enjoy the efforts I have put into the various aspects of the hobby that allow me to play a game.  When you are able to sit back and rest on your laurels for a minute.  What the Italians call "Dolce Vita"; the sweat life.   I was able to really enjoy:
1. The rules I use to drive the action.  I use a combination of Force on Force and Combat Patrol with a couple of house rules thrown in. I like the flow and pace of the game with the decisions I have to make.
2. The campaign rules Platoon Forward/Grunt Forward. Many of you know I wrote these for my personal use and then my brother encouraged me to get them published.  I played the scenario Village sweep which I worked on forever to get the right feel of searching a village but coming into contact with something to ensure a fun game that wasn't just a meeting engagement.  When I wrote this up I hadn't even considered using boats but it worked well.  The only tweak I made was I added 2 "B"s and one was automatically a 75mm recoiless rifle.
3. The models themselves.  I made the leap to miniatures from boardgames in 2006.  I think my modeling skills have continued to improve to where I put on a decent table now.  The board looks cool. 

Situation:
The US Task Force really got up and running early in 1967 and started out with several sweeps of the Rung Sat area using ARVN troops to help act as blocks.  The scenario replicates one of those sweeps.  I haven't rolled up a platoon yet and I am glad I hadn't.  Ever leader I rolled up was a poor one except one ASL!  Yikes.  I guess this is their first time in combat.

US forces     8/8

1 LT and medic
2 10 man squads that are each a man short.  These can break into fireteams.
1 Monitor and 1 Tango
1 Huey hog on call
2 ARVN ACAVs (6/6) enter from north on turn 4.  They will not enter the village as they are they to seal off the village only.

An isolated village in Rung Sat.   Check out my homemade rivers!   

The monitor leads the way!

Tango bringing in the troops!

Another view of the monitor.  It just looks cool!

Several VC lurk in the bamboo. 

My "free" recoiless rifle decides to fire at the monitor.  It misses!

The monitor fires back with MGs, 40mm cannon and a medium mortar.  It doesn't miss.  However, since the VC are in foxholes there are no casualties but they are suppressed. 

The tango unloads troops.  1st squad breaks left and 2nd squad is to go up the middle.  Speed is important as 4 sites must be searched before Charlie moves the goods.

1st squad, supported by the monitor does well and captures the recoiless rifle!

2nd squad has 3 casualties and quickly becomes pinned.  Leadership matters and there is a dearth of it in the platoon!  The Tango has left by now as 2nd squad hugs the shore.

ARVN shows up to seal the back of the village.

ARVN isn't the only one to get reinforcements.  There must be something in the village as NVA uniforms are seen advancing. 

1st Squad moves north along the tributary searching near the boats and finds nothing but advancing NVA soldiers!  It quickly becomes a stalemate.as the NVA takes positions in the jungle.

The LT knows he is losing to the clock.  He calls in the Hog and rallies 2nd squad.    He tells the chopper to fire at the biggest building in town.

The Hog complies!   3 VC KIA.     ( The black marker means it is one of the 4 sites that has to be searched.)

Meanwhile, Charlie takes pot shots at the ACAVs.  They all miss but so do the ACAVs!

With the main building destroyed, second squad is finally able to move up and conduct a search; nothing. 

With only 2 of the 4 sites searched, porters have moved what needs to be moved.  Their job done, the VC commander signals his survivors to withdraw westward into the swamps. 

Great battle!  I was wondering when I started how the US could possible lose given all their firepower.  Granted I did roll "heavy" for the communist forces but they only had 30 troops compared to 19 US.  And the US had the monitor, Tango, Huey and ACAVs.  The VC had the rifle and 2 RPGs; not even a LMG.  The VC stayed quiet unless they had a good shot and prevented the US from advancing which is what the US had to do to win.  As I said, great scenario if I must say so myself. 

The other thing I was chuffed about is my homemade river.  Now I love Wargamer's Terrain and have a lot of his stuff.  I just couldn't see spending $29 per section of river for a 6 inch wide section.  My sections are about 7 inches wide and cost me 77 cents a piece plus the paint which I already had.  Do they look half as good as his stuff?  No, but they didn't cost me close to half as much!

Next I have to paint up some PBRs.

Enjoy!

Joe

Brown water Navy

Pretty busy here painting ARVN armor and boats for my Brown water Navy; both courtesy of Combat Colours who sold me a bunch of stuff low enough that I couldn't refuse.  I have also playtested my final battle of my Kolweski campaign for Legion Forward so have to finish writing that up.  Did run a quick battle with my Tango boat from Gomi supported by my Battlefront Alpha.  It was fun and gave me a feel for the Riverine rules in Ambush Valley.  There are no rules for mines so will have to modify the rules from Charlie Don't Surf.
My Brown Water Navy now consisted of:
Battlefront
Alpha Boat plus two PBRs ( haven't painted those up yet)
2 Tangos from Gomi. ( one painted.  The other I think I will make French.)
1 Monitor from Gomi.
1 PBR from Peter Pig.  ( This one will probably end up French or Vietnamese.)

The Mekong river along My Tho.  Okay, I know I have to get a bigger river now!

My Alpha boat looking for trouble.

My Tango boat hoping to avoid trouble.   Decals are from the Battlefront Alpha boat!  Flag is scratch.
Gun barrels are toothpicks.  

The Tango unloads 2 squads.

Infantry carries the day against an LMG

This is NOT a Karstadt building under VC control.

US troops swing through a prayer garden...

Gomi Monitor done.  Figures and mortar are from battlefront as are decals.

Kit does come with a 81mm mortar but it looked really small.  A battlefront 4.2 looked bigger!

Board for the final battle in Kowleski.  Clearing the shanty town.

Gas station in town

FFL storming the church to save hostages.   They were too late.



Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Joe