Today Lee Long brings us more news from the 40pt stage of the Mobile Offensive escalation league.
My plucky little US force was riding high from its win and Big Paul was looking to dust off his Soviets, so the battle lines were drawn once again.
US Forces
No change from my last game, relying on the Abrams IPM1s and Harriers to do the heavy lifting.
Soviet Forces
Paul loves his T72s and Mil-24 Hinds, so they were going to be doing the work here.
Mission and Setup
We rolled for random mission and set up for a Free For all.
Paul got the ‘best side’ of the table for cover so I opted to go to high with my IPM1s to get hull down against his T72s. I used some spearhead to push units into better cover.
Turn 1 – Soviets
Paul won the roll-off for the first turn and went straight for the jugular, throwing his Hinds at my IPM1s.
My limited Anti-Air fire (2 x HMMVW SAM and a few machine guns) were able to bring down two Hinds, and they then whiffed on their to-hit rolls! A bit of luck for the US…
Elsewhere, Paul pushed hard on my right flank but was unable to turf out any of my units.
Turn 1 – US
After a very lucky (for me!) turn of incoming fire, I set out to make the most of it. The IPM1s moved off the mountain, ready to split fire to engage the AA and T72s, whilst my Harriers moved to finish off the HINDs.
With a clean angle of fire to the rear unit, I was able to destroy a T72 and bail another with a single IPM1. Luckily for them though, they made their break test.
Against the AA units though, no shots landed against the dug in units. I risked it and my Harriers weathered their fire, losing two aircraft to then finish off the Hinds.
A reasonable turn, although my IPM1s would now have to weather some incoming fire.
Turn 2 – Soviets
On my right, Paul’s Shilkas took out my Scout unit whilst heading for the objective.
On my left, the bailed T72 remounted and Paul lined them up along with his BMPs for counter fire.
The BMPs were able to bail a team, and the T72s took out another (I love rolling 1s!). Break test? Failed…
Turn 2 – US
Well, that didn’t work!
My Harriers undertook a suicide run on the Shilkas and were removed for their troubles.
Elsewhere a sole TOW shot took out a BMP.
Turn 3 – Soviet
The BMPs fired on the remaining ITV in the open for the second time; they tried the first turn as well but still couldn’t make a 4+ roll.
Elsewhere, with no real resistance left, Paul moved onto the objectives.
Turn 3 – US
My HMMVWs moved to deny the objective to the Shilkas…
…Whilst my hero ITV took out another BMP and routed the unit 🙂
Turn 4 – Soviet
The hammer had fallen on the West in turn 2, but I finally heard the sound.
The Shilkas cleaned out the HMMVWs to take their objective.
And the T72s moved to secure theirs the following turn.
End Game / Summary
A solid win to the Soviets.
So where did it go wrong? Hubris on my part. I was convinced that I could weather the shots from the BMPs, so split fire and left myself open to reprisal. If I had moved the IPM1s behind the wood and dealt with the T72s properly, it would have been a different game.
A good win for Big Paul!
A very short but fun game.
Next game we will be moving on to 64pts and the More Missions supplement. Time to ponder my lists!
“Paul loves his T72s” Click picture. Enhance picture. Squint eyes. Count T72s… three of them.
Wait what. Mmm, I’d expected a few more T72s.
Anyway, I love this series, and although this battle was short, there was lots to learn from it! And IPM1s still rock 🙂
“Squint eyes. Count T72s… three of them.”
Squint harder–there’s another T72 under the Hind on the right.
Sometimes Air seems like a waste of points. Unless your patient? Good BatRep, look forward to more.
You don’t get many T72s and Hinds for 40pts 😉