COVID cup update 1

Updates!

Only three Chieftains, but a lot of prep work in the pipe.

AHPC Roundup - not dead, not infected!

First up, not dead!

Second up, just completed the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge for the second time, and have had an ongoing, unadulterated excuse to clear as much of the lead pile as possible, in the form of Covid-19.

AHPC X output - once again a bonus points heavy strategy prevailed

It looks like the Bristol wargaming scene is taking some inspiration from the Challenge - no points, no rewards however - and is planning to share it's endevours via WhatsApp - to keep admin low. I will be reporting my progress on this blog every Sunday.

So to the various bots that regularly trawl this blog for content, and the maybe one follower who checks in for nostalgia's sake, hello again, goodbye for now, and stay safe out there!

Russian armour holds bridgehead

The Russian offensive grinds on. Abelard has regrouped with German armoured elements and is tasked with capturing a rail head recently identified as in use by the invaders. It's refreshing to be facing an honest foe, rather than one willing to pretend to be ones allies. He's excited, but confident. There are relatively few enemy troops at the bridgehead, if he moves quickly, perhaps he can capture it without loosing a man.

Setup

Abelard's group form up near an industrial park

Russian armour clusters around the train station

I decided to play aggressively; to avoid repeating the failings in my previous games and it yielded instant results.

2 T-55 are left burning

 I even got reserves on turn 1 (luckily) and a Panther platoon rushed to lock down the centre.

Stu brings on his hind wing

And pops his ambush

This is where I got lucky. Stu neglected to flank my Panthers with his ambushers, leading to only one being bailed. The Hinds also failed to cause any effect.

Pop goes the Russian

In my turn, I abandoned the centre, choosing to push up my second Panther platoon to reinforce the left flank and return fire smoked all the ambushers.

Hinds line up for kill

 Up 'til this point my AAA had been completely ineffective, but as the Hinds opened up on the second Panther platoon, a missile finally found it's mark and a Hind dropped from the sky in flames. The Hinds failed to kill a Panther again, but flanking T-55's landed a shot on the rear of a Panther killing it and force the unit to flee.

And this is when things started to fall apart

I decided to push for the objective, certain of victory. This was first turn when Stu could bring on (delayed, scattered) reserves. I didn't do the maths (it was 8 in 9), but I was pretty sure that I'd have the objective uncontested at the end of my next turn.

I even popped the Russian commander

 Things did not go well...

Surprise reserves!

OhShit.jpg

 Lets just say things quickly unwound after that.

This one genuinely broke my heart, I could taste victory, and it was snatched from me! Other than ignoring the possibility of being flanked by the ambushers (who I could see coming), I think I played the odds correctly, and it went against at the last moment.

Team Yankee Campaign - Games 1 and 2

Note: This campaign isn't a part of the official Battlefront global event, rather it's a campaign written by a friend for our club. Here's his intro:

"It is Sunday the first of July. This is the BBC.

As of four am GMT, a state of war exists between the NATO powers of Western Europe, and the Soviet Union. In the early hours of the morning, Soviet missiles struck British, American and German troops up and down the border, followed by an invasion by conventional forces. Downing Street has released a strong statement, assuring both the British people and Moscow, declaiming the use of Chemical and Nuclear weapons as reprehensible, and promising that any use against civilian targets will be responded to in kind. It is rumoured that Moscow, St Petersburg, Kiev and more would all be targets for a first wave of strikes. The Chancellor of Germany, Helmut Kohl, has declared a state of emergency, and has formally requested that all NATO member states immediately enact collective defence in accordance with NATO's Article Five. Declarations of war against the USSR have been made by Britain, the US, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Iceland. Declarations from other NATO states are expected later in the morning.

We now go live to our correspondent in Cologne, Martin White."

Captain Abelard is peering through the morning mist on the outskirts of the nameless village. British forces are nearby, as are Dutch and some Americans. But so are the Russians. A vehicle pushes up an alleyway, it's throaty roar giving it away as a tank before it lumbers into view. A Chieftain; the British then.

He watches the British tank for a moment as more vehicles appear from the mist. Something is making his forehead itch. The Chieftain isn't quite right, it's lines are wrong. The hatch on the Chieftain opened and fear trickled down Abelard's spine. The CBRN gear was all wrong. As he processed this he suddenly realised that the figure had locked eyes with him. For a moment that seemed an eternity, the two men stared at each other, before yelling at their crews. "Das ist keine Britischer! Feuer! FEUER!"

SPETSNAZ!

So this was my first game of Team Yankee and it... did not go well.

I started out by making a quite frankly insane 40" spearhead deployment down to the other (unguarded) objective. They didn;t go live until turn 6, but I thought it might be easier to defend one that try to kick Alex off the other. Chieftains are chunky bastards.

My positions at the end of my first turn

I wasn't aware when I started, and didn't really internalise quickly that tactical movement has no effect on Panther 2's rate of fire. This I spent both games effectively playing Flames 3rd ed. albeit with markedly better tanks.

Things went rapidly downhill...

Getting flanked by Alex' reserve forces didn't help.For some reason I thought I could soak them as they came on, but he got reserves straight away and within two or turns, the vice had closed, ending the battle.

***

Abelard's unit has limped away from its mauling at the hands of Zenit-6 Rota. Their ersatz Chieftains had performed almost as well as the real deal. His unit had been quickly reinforced as German forces rallied. What information was getting through told him that the Soviets were engaged in a general advance, with forces to the north and south of his position engaged. So far it had been quiet, but he suspected he knew why, and as the first Chieftain appeared on the other side of the town, he smiled. A chance for revenge.

Spetsnaz go hull down behind a hill

The Russians rolled forward but failed to land any hits on my units, most of which were in cover.

My return fire cost the Soviets their commander...

...and an ersatz Scorpion

On the left flank a Spetsnaz platoon armed with ATGMs advances

For the most part, I managed to keep my Panthers on my left flank safely out of range or line of sight of enemy forces.

Allowing me to do this on the right.

The Rolands, having done nothing for both games decided to make their presence felt and dashed for the opposite objective.

"Objective clear, where's our air support?"

For a moment I thought I had pulled it off, but Alex realised he only had to kill one tank to pull off a win, which he did.

If I'm being honest, I think I might have fallen afoul of the Tiger trap, where a new Flames player sees a monetarily cheap list with only 4 of what he has been assured is one of WW2's best tanks - the Tiger - and finds out two or three games in that he cant defend all his objectives and that there are more than enough things out their capable of ruining his day.

With only five Panther 2's in my list, every single loss counted. A Chieftain list suffers a similar problem, but are cheap enough to afford a few more, while not being significantly worse that then Panther 2. The Roland's did nothing other than their late game dash. I think I'll swap them out for Gepards or Jaguar 1's if I get a chance.

Things are looking grim for NATO, with Soviet forces surging across Germany. I'm sure this wont be the last we hear from Abelard or Zenit-6 Rota.