Black September: The invasion of Jordan 1970

This week at the Wollongong Wargamers, Daniel devised a very different scenario for our Clash of Steel game: Arab-Israeli Wars sans Israelis. The Jordanians were the goodies for once, invaded by Palestinians and Syrians: 

Details of the ground were sparse so we set out some generic Mid East terrain, allowing for as much cover as possible:

The randomly drawn mission was Frontal Attack, so, playing across the table rather than up and down it, our carefully placed cover was rendered largely irrelevant. It would be a fast and bloody game! 

The mission rules card required us to place 40% of our forces in Immediate Reserve and each deploy a unit in ambush. 

Easy for the Jordanians with their British style 3 tank Troops! For my Syrians with Soviet style company hordes, it meant I had to put an entire company of T34-85s into reserve. With another in Ambush, I only had one company of T54s to deploy!

Daniel rolled to be the attacker and also got the first move. We both rolled poorly for reserves in turn one.

With my lone on table company I deployed opposite Objective 1, which had a reasonable amount of cover around it:

I also soon realised that playing along the length of the table, with ambushes only deployable in one's own deployment zone, it was better to spring it soon. Daniel had seized Objective 2, which was out in the open. Easy prey for my 10 T-54s (represented by model T-62s):

Then Daniel rolled well both for reserves and their deployment, getting the drop on the flank of my T-54s near Objective 1! 

Fortunately he had used up all his good rolls and the only outcome was a bailed T-54!

I was now in a quandary around Objective 2 - go in and seize it or sit back and get better shots at the tempting Centurion side armour? I played it safe and stayed in cover and took the shots, rolling a seriously un Sparker like crap load of 6s!

At this point things were going well for my Syrians - we were racking up the VPs for Objective 1 and a good few for wiping out entire troops of Cents...only because it was now my turn to roll fortuitously for placement of reserves right on the Jordanian flank!

I was still loath to breakout from the cover of the rocks to close on Objective 2, particularly as Daniel had a troop of hungry Cents neatly positioned to take any such advance in the flank:

So I remained satisfied to let the game time out as a long range gunnery duel, where my superior numbers inevitably told!

Although that sounds boring, it was actually a very exciting game with the habitual amount of Clash of Steel thrills and spills! Thanks to Daniel for a novel scenario which I'd like to revisit before too long!

Fulda Gap!

 

This Sunday the Wollongong Wargamers' Sunday Demo game at the Illawarra Plastic Modeller's Show was a Team Yankee extravaganza: 2 big tables, each representing an adjacent valley in the Fulda Gap:

On my table, the Rasdorf - Leibolz corridor, my Soviets would be attacking Peter's West Germans. On the next table, Ed's East Germans were liberating the Grusselbach - Ufthausen corridor from the US 11 Armored Cavalry Regiment. The mission was, of course, Valley of Death, slightly modified as a result of our previous Covering Force Battle game.

For more detail of the mission, forces and the game briefing, please checkout my batrep of the rehearsal game, which, as an evening game, only covered one valley: Rehearsal: Fulda Gap Demo Game.

The Grusselbach valley table, from the NATO perspective. More on the action here later:

Soviet preparations on the Rasdorf table. 40% of forces are in Immediate Reserve on the edge of the table:

The valley was bordered by two heavily wooded ridges:

Both within Milan 2 range of the MSR, which was mined...

My BMP-2 Scouts led a sacrificial T-55AM company to clear the southern ridge:

The NATO view. Peter's Bundeswehr were limited by the mission to deploying on the table sides:

Covered by the BMPs and T-55s, my first T-80 company dashed forwards at cross country speed, their gas turbines whining in protest. My second T-80 company and Motor Rifles followed more sedately, reluctant to leave the cover of the crop fields:

Note the lack of Soviet Frontal Aviation! I had suffered at the hands of Peter's Roland SAMs in the covering force game, so was happy for Daniel, the overall Warsaw Pact Air and Artillery commander, to allocate it in the other valley.

The Luftwaffe, on the other hand, was scornful of my Gopher SAMS...

It was all going so well, my plentiful artillery keeping the NATO Milan teams honest...

When two Tornadoes dropped cluster bombs all over my gun lines!

This was a major blow to the plan, and sure enough the West German infantry got much bolder with their Milans!

And their shorter ranged hand held AT missiles - not to mention Gepards!

Having wiped out most of my arty, the Tornadoes returned to harass my Motor Rifles and their very expensive BMP-3s!

However my initial T-80 dash had developed an unstoppable momentum...

And my Motor Rifle's humble Gremlin MAPADS brought down one of the damned Tornadoes!

The survivor continued to press home attacks against the Red Tide!

Peter then committed his last argument - Leopard 2s!

But there were enough surviving T-80s to deal with that counter attack and claim the objective!

So that was one Fulda Gap Corridor open to the Beasts from the East. But what of the Grusselbach corridor?

With the National Volks Armee der DDR, Ed had little option but to go for even more of a horde army - cheap T-72s, T-62s, BMP-1s and BTRs. But remember, Daniel was supporting him with the entire Warsaw Pact Frontal Aviation!

Actually, the action in this valley was something of a horde army show, as Stuart's US forces were also very light, as befits armored cav:

In fact the heaviest unit was a platoon of Abrams - but even these were the earlier M1 105mm armed version:

Which all meant that the fighting was protracted...

But still deadly! However, in the final reckoning, the Ossies were able to seize the objective by Turn 6: 

A rare Warsaw Pact victory across the board! Thanks to Daniel, Ed, Peter and Stuart for their efforts and enthusiasm in making this Team Yankee mega game such fun!

Culmination Kursk!

Continuing with our resolution to find historical scenarios that can be played large but concluded in an evening, I researched the culmination point of the epic Battle of Kursk...

I don't know for a fact that the StuG AT company of the 167th happened to be concentrated at the main point of impact of 2GTC, but if the staff wallahs were doing their job, they should have been!

This is an interesting stage in the Great Patriotic War as the Soviets were just starting to synthesise their combined arms doctrine hard learnt from the Germans...

Also, T34-76s make a good match for early StuGs!

This was Scott's first game of Flames of War, and we chucked him in at the deep end! He advances his T-34 company and riflemen forward on the left flank, whilst I am echeloned on our right flank seeking the cover of a convenient crop field. Arms akimbo, our German opponent Daniel is quietly confident...

We were lucky with our rolls for aircraft, but they had little impact...

The StuGs, on the other hand, were using the German Stormtrooper attribute to play hide and seek in the woods to great effect!

On our right flank, I got frustrated with them...

And moved on, just dropping off a couple of Tridsavertakas to amuse them - an expensive option...

Daniel timed his ambush to perfection, eviscerating my T-34 company. Sturmoviks provided a crumb of comfort though, taking out a couple of guns...

It wasn't enough to evict them off the objective though. Having followed my tactical advice, Scott's company was also destroyed, for a convincing German victory.