Team Yankee: The Battle of 73 Easting

 

So what constitutes the perfect wargame? The company? The size? The standard of painting of the minis? The attention to detail with the terrain and scenery? The tactical richness and challenge of the scenario? The historical accuracy?

I don't know the answer, but I do know that last night's game laid on by Ed was one of the most enjoyable wargaming evenings I've had in a long time! (and I've had some pretty good games recently...) and more than ticked all those boxes...

Apart from the terrain cloths, Ed did all the research, devised the scenario, printed/made all the terrain, and painted all the minis. He was inspired by Captain H.R McMaster USA 's account of the battle.

We played the battle on a 8 x 6 table:

Above we are looking over Box 'C' (the Iraqi HQ coil and objective) in the SW corner, out over Boxes 'A' - 'B' to the town in the NE corner, with the US Start Line on the far narrow table edge.

The US had 8 turns to seize the objective in the Iraqi HQ coil in the far SW of the table. The two low ridges provided short terrain cover but no impediment to movement, the entire area was hard desert sand. The Iraqis were able to lay 3 minefields, which were laid on the road and at the opposite end of the table to seal off the flanks.

The Operational premise of the battle is that the Iraqi command of the elite Republican Guard Tawakalna Mechanised Division expected the US attack to come from the south... 

Instead Eagle Troop 2nd Armored Cav went deep left flanking and attacked from the east, hoping to obviate the challenges of dug in enemy sheltering behind minefields and reverse slopes...

However, to make a game of what must be the mother of all asymmetric engagements, it was assumed the Iraqi's had made an attempt at all round defence and a few revetments did happen to face east...

Darren and Peter M shared command of Eagle Troop between them, Peter taking the northern platoon and Darren the southern platoon and HQ section. They each had two TOW armed Bradley M3s accompanying. 

Whilst Ed and I, as the Iraqi team, had scads of BMP-1s, our technical/logistics tail was unable to supply us with Sagger ATGW, which was unfortunate...The US team had the first turn, which I won't pretend was very pleasant for Ed and I...

Quickly realising that even our front armour was useless against the Abrams M1A1s, we considered our options - fall back to the far ridge? Would we even make it that far? We got into a 'T-34 vs Tiger' mindset: 

1. Just knocking out a single Abrams was a victory of sorts... 

2. Do the unexpected, attack and hope to breakthrough and take 'em in the rear!

Yeah...that didn't go well for my company of T-72s. Paraphrasing Monty Python, my tank company had passed on! It was no more! It had ceased to be! If Ed's company went the same way, we might be staring down the barrel of a Formation morale check and an early night...

However, Ed's second company and BMP-1s had (relatively) greater success, knocking out not one, but two of the mighty M1A1s! Truly Ed was channelling the sword hand of the vengeful and noble Prophet!

In the meantime, with our Iraqi HQ alerted to the somewhat revised geography of the battle, the reserve company had uncoiled itself and taken up a defensive position that actually faced the right direction! All they had to do to win was keep the US from claiming that objective in the two moves that remained to them...

Aware that time was pressing, Eagle troop pressed on. Unfortunately I too hastily opened fire with my 14 (!) T-72s at long range, so the Abrams armour was barely dented...

But eventually even the might Abrams armour couldn't withstand a 125mm APDS at close range! Finally I got one too!

In their final move, to win, Darren and Peter had to both arrive at the objective and knockout all Iraqis contesting it...by dint of cannon fire and long range TOWs, they achieved it in the nick of time  -  Victory to Eagle Troop!

What a game! A cliff-hanger right to the end, but full of thorny tactical challenges throughout, played in great company with lovely minis over superb terrain. More soon please!