Battle of Montmirail 1814

 

The Wollongong Wargamers horse and musketeers: on the left the Prussian team, their Russian ally in the right foreground, and their three French opponents right background. Darren's Iron Cross is no accident, as will be revealed:

At first sight the Allied superiority, in the relatively bare landscape, looked unassailable:

But the French were deploying the creme de la creme:

The Allied hordes were positioned to encompass the French:

So that outnumbered though they were, deployment space was limited. Potentially, a powerful punch!

Dusk approaching, the game would only last 6 turns, so the Allies lost no time in advancing to contact:

The French team responded equally aggressively:

Sneaking the Old Guard Cavalry through the snowy, forested wilderness on their right flank to gain more deployment space and outflank the Prussians:

Hordes of Cossacks on the French left forced the Young Guard into squares. The Chasseurs of the Old Guard contemptuously deployed into line, to fight as God intended!

However it was the Prussians who launched the first assaults, on the Middle Guard: big mistake!

The Allies paused for thought...

The French Heavy Cavalry kept up momentum on the increasingly pressured Prussian left flank:

Which was being outflanked to the rear by the Imperial horse:

And thoroughly chewed up by the Middle Guard:

Over on the Allied right flank the Cossacks had now tied down the entire Young Guard with a series of Hit and Run attacks:

Whilst dispatching the Dragoon brigade away at the double in an attempt to shore up their crumbling left flank:

In the centre, the Prussians were keeping up the pressure, warily and carefully marshalling their forces to put in a well supported attack on the Grenadiers of the Old Guard. But what is this? Can it be? La Garde Recule! Hence Darren's Iron Cross!

Fortunately for the French, a series of well timed Heavy Cavalry charges restored the situation in the centre:

Whilst the Old Guard Cavalry emerged from the woods...

To complete the rout of the Prussian left flank:

With the Allied Dragoon brigade arriving just to late to restore the Allied flank, it was time to call it: The French had inflicted 4 Army defeat points on the Allies, whilst suffering none.

The French team bask in their well deserved victory!

Rehearsal: Fulda Gap demo game

Last night at the Wollongong Wargamers we set up a mini practice game for a forthcoming Team Yankee demo game at the Illawarra Plastic Modellers Association show. We were figuring out the scenario, how the terrain looked, and the balance of forces, as well as checking our pooled resources.

The basic ideal is a rehash of an old favourite when given access to two long tables: two adjacent attack corridors, one on each table, for the Warsaw Pact to advance down in the critical Fulda Gap area: Rasdorf - Leibolz; and Grusselbach - Unterrufhausen. On the day we will have four forces: for NATO, US and Bundeswehr; for WarPact, Soviet and East German.

View of the Rasdorf valley from the Inner German Border looking west.

For this evening we would just be using one table and playing out the Rasdorf valley table:

The Soviet force was mainly T-80s:

The US Force was focused on Infantry and ATGW, supported by a company of venerable M-60s:

The US team, Peter and Stuart, set up their anti-armour ambushes on both sides of the valley:

Ed took one company of T-80s left flanking along the edge of the hills, I took the other one straight down the middle:

After losing half our Fast Air and Aviation to US Air Defences, the surviving Frogfoots and Hinds made inroads targeting the US Chapparals and VADS.

At this point my 'invulnerable' T-80s started taking losses to ITV TOW-2s lining the northern side of the valley. Ed suggested I use the mobility of the T-80 to get within the TOW minimum range. Great suggestion!

It was unclear where our Motor Rifles would be needed so they kept to the middle of the valley, occasionally firing off a STABBER ATGW up at the hills on either side.

Using T-80s against the US infantry and M113s was great fun until their DRAGON ATGW joined in the fight against my side armour. ERA can only go so far and I lost another couple of tanks:

By this time the SU-25s had all crashed and burned so the surviving Hinds joined in picking off the US ATGWs up in the hills. The US platoons of two ITV proved surprisingly good at passing their last stand checks, unfortunately...

With their Cobras helos placed in delayed reserve, when they eventually arrived on scene deep in the WarPact rear they caused some consternation!

Our Shilkas, up covering the T-80s, were out of range, and our SA-13 Gophers utterly useless! But Ed recalled that my BMP-3s, loitering in the rear, had cannon with an anti-helicopter capability:

It was the turn of US aviation to crash and burn! At this point, having spent a lot of time discussing the the look and feel of the game we are going to present, we ran out of time....

Much useful experience had been gained. We are going to modify the scenario somewhat so that all sides stagger the arrival of reserves, to be determined by a smaller 'covering force' battle the week before the big game. I think both side's Forces lists will be revisited: the US gaining a Spearhead capable force to expand their deployment area, and the Soviets not wasting points on arming T-80s with AT-11 STABBER ATGW when the heaviest thing they will have to face are M-60s!