Clash of Steel: Long Run on the Leszno Axis

 

A quiet western Polish village, June 1948.

As the villagers go about their business, taking quiet pride in having finished repairing the ravages of  World War Two, some four years ago now, once again their land is about to become an arena of armoured conflict between the great powers... 

The lead elements of the US V Corps, pushing toward Leszno, receive intel that the Soviet 1st Guards Tank Army has de trained in the vicinity and is likely to resist any further movement west... 

For whatever reason, this village and its surrounding land have become key objectives as the unthinkable becomes reality...

As befits the Corps vanguard, they are well equipped with lighter units, but the heavier hitting newer models promised by the brand new Pentagon are less evident. The commander philosophically makes the most of what he has and commandeers the single T28 currently available as his steed.

The Soviet Commander could wish to have even just one of the new IS-3s Moscow have promised are on the way! 

No, he will have to make do with the war winning, but rather war weary, T34/85 and IS-2s, backed up with the trusty Tiger and Panther killing ISU-152s and SU-100s! 

After all, as Comrade Stalin so wisely remarked, Quantity has a Quality all of its own!

By now a hardened veteran of massed armoured battles, the Soviet commander seizes the initiative and sends in his T34-85s to spearhead an enlarged deployment zone around the centre objective. It seems the mission will last 8 turns and that reserves, SU-100s and ISU-152s, will be delayed...

The US scouts now have little remaining scope to secure a deeper start line for the US forces, who must wait for the Pershings to come up out of reserve.

Still, the US tankers are no slouches themselves and soon get stuck in to dispute the southern most objective. Unfortunately this is soon revealed to require precise locating (2 inches to claim rather than 4).

After 3 long years of war, the Soviets are now masters of the operational art, and both reserve platoons arrive on scene in good time...

Which is just as well, as on the Southern Flank, the M18 Hellcats are, well, raising hell! 

And the T-28, safely well to the rear, is making good use of its custom ammo and long range to make the area around the centre objective, which it transpires does not come into play until Turn 6, an unhealthy place to hang around!

The M26 Pershings now arrive on scene. 

Whilst the Soviet IS-2 unit leader was quite content sitting quietly on the northern objective racking up the victory points, too many of his vehicles are being picked off one by one and its time to sneak around through the village and fields to attempt some flank shots at the monster...

Hmm, that's not without its problems too...

But from the Soviet perspective things are rosy - as well as racking up lots of easy points from the undisputed northern objective, the ISUs are making a difference around the southern one - at a cost!

With Turn 6, the centre objective is live, worth double points, and the US V Corps desperately needs to put some points on the dial - the heavies muscle in...

And throw their weight around!

Finally, with some plucky assistance from the Scouts...

The US finally claim an objective and can start earning some much needed victory points

They are also now disputing the centre objective, which is where the serious points are!

As the action falls into a lull after Turn 8, whilst the Pershings and T28 have eviscerated the IS-2 company, its survivors still dispute the centre objective...

Resulting in the day's skirmish being a clear Soviet victory - 31 points to 9! In armoured battles, it pays to get in first!

A really enjoyable first game of Clash of Steel, albeit solo. The developing mission and objective parameters and tactics cards keep things very dynamic and the focus on tanks makes a big game quick and light. The large number of mission and objective permutations also suggest it will be a long time before games get 'samey'. And clearly suitable for solo play...

FOAN - The road to Damascus

Our Fate of a Nation games tend to stick to a routine reflecting the better known tank battles of the Arab Israeli Wars: The Valley of Tears, Chinese Farm, Quinetra or the Mitla Pass. So I was very grateful when Daniel came up with something completely different...

We set the table up as faithfully as possible to where the battle took place. We probably didn't show sufficient crops and orchards, but desert terrain changes radically from day to day according to rainfall...

Daniel as the Israeli player deployed first with a well balanced force, leaving the 40% reserves demanded by the Team Yankee Flanks Out! scenario spread amongst all arms.

Whereas I as the Iraqi player put as many tanks on table as I could manage!

My reasoning was that I would have to overwhelm the on table Israeli forces as quickly as possible before the Israeli Air Force could make its appearance on turn three.

If I waited for my reserves I would just be defeated in detail...

But if both my on table tank companies stormed forwards at once, all guns blazing, we might just reach the objective before the Israelis could get organised...

Turns out it didn't take long for them to get organised, and my on table T-54s were soon on the losing end of a crossfire...

The first Israeli airstrike didn't do too much harm - just one bail out...

But by the time the second one showed up my forces were already in disarray from being caught by Sho't  fire from the front and Isherman  fire from the flank...

My one consolation is that our T-54's trusty Dushka AAMGs had brought down one of the Skyhawks!

But now the Israeli reinforcements were arriving!

But so where mine, and the Motor Rifles were hastily despatched to cover the flank approach to the home objectives.

And the third, final tank company arrived - which was just as well since the original two were down to two survivors each!

I sent them deep flanking in a desperate push for the objective, trying to make use of the scant cover.

Meanwhile my Motor Rifles were receiving lots of unwanted attention from Arty and the flanking Israeli armour, whilst the Israel mech infantry made a lightening strike run for their near objective!

The third tank company managed to brew up two Shot's, but were nowhere near the objective when the mission time elapsed. At the cost of two Skyhawks and three Sho'ts, this was a convincing win for Daniel and the Israeli all arms approach!