Team Yankee: A Brew at Sehlde

 

Looking from the East across Sehlde to the NATO position on the wooded ridge

I was itching to get my 12mm British Army of the Rhine Cold War collection out in public for the first time. 

British infantry assume all round defence of the objective

With the Wollongong Wargamer's weekly theme being Team Yankee, the time had come!

Daniel kindly came up with the scenario, based on the Buying Time scenario from FOW Berlin: Soviet book. 

This mission, with its realistic attack/defence force ratio and rushed time scale, seems ideal for Soviet Attack/ NATO Defence games. 

Hinds stalk Chieftains!

Particularly for 12mm evening games when we like to put lots of toys on the table but clear them away again just a couple of hours later! 

Daniel opted to be British and deployed most of his forces echeloned in depth on the forward slopes of the wooded ridge giving superb fields of fire right across the table . 

He also scattered mines liberally around the streets of Sehlde and stationed his forward screen of Scorpion light tanks in the outer suburbs.

This left me no choice but to divide my Soviets either side of the town. The annoying little Scorpions in the town itself would be summarily dealt with by the Motor Rifles in their BMPs, prior to securing the objective.

A powerful and intergrated Ground Based AD system meant that NATO air strikes were expensive and had minimal impact.

The British Swingfire Long Range ATGWs however...well they made quite the impression!

Not to worry, I ordered up the second wave...

My trusty old T55AM2s with their Stabber missiles were doing well on the right flank - so much so that Daniel laid down two successive smoke barrages to contain them - damn!

He then sprung his Milans from ambush into the sides of my follow on T72 company - well that made my eyes water!

It really was just my Hinds that were doing all the work - my arty observer got taken out by Milans and the Frontal Aviation cowboys consistently failed to turn up after the first mission!

The first part of the plan had gone well - the Scorpions were toast! But thereafter it was my tanks that were brewing...Despite having twice the points, it really is a hard job evicting British infantry and Chieftains from a good defensive position.

That said, we both enjoyed the game and this scenario is worth repeating - perhaps with 3:1 points in the attacker's favour?!