Following on from talking about playing with tanks a bit more, here’s the first of our games.
The Forces
My forces were fielded as mentioned previously.
Lee: US – Formation 1 of 1 – Armored Cavalry Troop
- HQ – 1 x M113 Scout – 1pt
- M113 Scout Section – 2pts
- M113 Scout Section – 2pts
- IPM1 Abrams x 3 Platoon – 27pts
Support
- AV-8 Harrier Attack Flight x 4 – 6pts
- HMMVW SAM Platoon x 2 – 2pts
Dale: WarPac – Formation 1 of 1 – T72 Tank Battalion
- HQ – 1 x T72 – 5pts
- Tank Company – 3 x T72 – 12pts
- Tank Company – 3 x T72 – 12pts
- Recon – 2 x BRDM – 1pt
- Recon – 4 x BMP2 – 6pts
-
AA – 2 x Gopher SAM – 2pts
Support
- 3 x Spandrel BDRM – 2pts
The Mission
We agreed that the Attacker /Defender would be randomised, and then rolled on the Quick Missions chart. A roll of a 2 gave us Bypass with Warpac as the attackers.
Dale spread out the objectives as far as possible to make me spread my limited forces thin or ‘give up’ on one or more of the objectives.
I deployed my forces completely out of sight, as a couple of lucky 6s on Dale’s first turn would really give him the advantage. The Abrams tanks were tucked up extremely safe behind woods, but with good striking lanes once the WarPac started to approach.
Dale split up his forces, aiming to put pressure on all three objectives and probably look to get some flanking shots on my IPM1s.
Turn 1 – Warpac
With no targets in sight, Dale threw everything straight forward to apply immediate pressure, including even moving up his AA Gophers. The middle objective was secured by BDRMs supported by his BMP2s.
Turn 1 – US
With his AA in the open, and my Harriers available, I saw an opportunity to gain air superiority.
My IPM1s moved out to engage Dale’s light vehicles, hitting the Gophers and BDRMs. They successfully disabled the AA, destroying one and bailing the other. The BDRMs were left in a similar state. In a very lucky shot, a Recon M113 was also able to destroy a BMP2.
The Harriers struck the bunched up force racing for my right side objective. Evading AA machine gun fire, they dropped cluster bombs with incredible accuracy. 1 T72 down and all Spandrels bailed.
Incredibly, both the Spandrels and Gopher units fled the board. First blood, and then some, to the Yanks!
Turn 2 – Warpac
On my right, Dale pushed straight onto the objective with his remaining two T72s. On my left, the T72s and Formation HQ nervously held back hoping for some results from the BMPs.
Unfortunately for Dale, the IPM1 armour was performing within accepted parameters. A few scratches to re-paint…
The T72s, now firmly sat on my right, had a little more luck, with a 125mm shell finding and firmly deleting one of my Recon ITVs and forcing his BMP-killing M113 colleague to flee the field.
Turn 2 – US
Once again the Harriers were available. They struck mid-table, out of the range of the T72’s AA MGs, and hit the BMP2s and remaining BDRM. Destroying a BMP2 and bailing another, the surviving BMP turned tail and ran.
Elsewhere I moved my SAM Hummers onto the right side objective to deny Dale the secure, whilst laying down fire with an ITV and the Abrams. The T72s were having none of it though and emerged with their tanks and Soviet pride intact.
Turn 3 – Warpac
Dale’s lone surviving light vehicle crew jumped back in their trusty BRDM and circled the barn, taking down an M113. The remaining ITV member of the team stood firm.
On my right, Dale decided to ignore the Hummers and go for the Abrams. As before though, the IPM1s shrugged off the incoming fire.
On my left, Dale jumped on the objective whilst aiming but failing to remove my formation HQ.
Turn 3 – US
Once again the Harriers were thirsty for action. With the HQ M113 moving clear to engage the BDRM, the Harriers once again dropped bombs and destroyed the HQ T72. The commander survived and transferred to the T72 to the side of him…
My HQ had no luck against the plucky BDRM…
…But the Abrams moved into knife fighting range and decidedly removed the threat to my right.
Turn 4 – Warpac
Dale’s hero-BRDM was able to exit the table via the middle objective whilst his remaining tanks manoeuvred to secure the remaining objective and destroy my HQ. But their shots just wouldn’t land!
Turn 4 – US
Incredibly, the Harriers once again showed up. Between them and the Abrams, they were able to bail a T72 each. The Soviets stuck around though, not ready to give up the fight. The HQ moved back towards the objective, but then managed to bog himself on the concrete wall and thus wouldn’t be contesting the objective!
Turn 5 – Warpac
The T72s remounted and moved on the objective, bailing the extremely lucky M113 HQ and then leaving the battlefield with his unit and HQ.
End Game
Dale had managed to get 3 units off the board, but one of them was his HQ. Technically this didn’t meet the win conditions, so we decided to call it a draw.
Conclusions – does the format work?
In 2 words… HELL YES. This was a lot of fun and the game was dealt with in about an hour and a half including picture taking etc. Every team on the board seemed to matter and almost every dice roll impacted the game.
I highly recommend giving this a try. We’ll be running at 40pts for a few more games and then stepping up to 64pts. I’m already prepping a recce unit or Cobras in anticipation 🙂
New format works great, unless you’ve already dropped $500 on an infantry force (and spent the time and effort to paint 360 APC wheels!). :0
Nice report, and good-looking table.
Don’t get me wrong, I do love the ‘normal’ game, but this definitely puts a fresh twist on things!
One question: what’s the Pnz IV H doing on the board? Is that terrain – a WWII monument in the middle of town?
On second look I think it might be a IV J…
Yeah we just grabbed in-Store objectives lol…