14/11/1983 - The Russians have invaded, 20 Armoured Brigade has moved off. Our group of signals and base guards should be somewhere else but hasn't yet been ordered to go.
They are on a perimeter patrol when they bump into a short-handed squad of Soviets (I rolled up a military mission, in a section of prepared positions in walking distance of the base, because no transport is needed).
The enemy as rolled up has six AK-74s and one pistol. At a guess, the RPG and PK are back at the APC and the lieutenant is taking half the squad to investigate.
Motivation: 3 (chosen on the basis of campaign history) these are recce units, scouting the flanks not here for a fight, from an elite force (3rd Shock army) in the middle of a successful offensive
The terrain setup has the Soviets arrive through the woods beyond the training ground, the British patrol just inside the fence, with two prepared trenches in easy reach. This could turn into a long-range shooting match.
 |
| The trenches and the woods |
At this stage I don't have a programmed opponent, I'm just playing both sides and doing whatever seems most useful with the turn.
The Brits get first move and rush for the prepared positions.
For OHSW terrain effects:
- The trenches count as cover +2 cards and can be defended for 3" around a man (like the redoubt in the Zulu scenario).
- The woods are cover +1 card, and block Line of Sight unless the firer or target is within 1" of the edge of the wooded area.
- The site fences take 1 move to cross.
- The bushes block LoS, take 1 move to cross, but are not cover.
The first three Russians make it to the edge of the trees. Fraser & Adams open fire and two of them go down.
Three Russians target Adams but all miss. At the end of the turn, one of the Russians gets back up, but the other is a casualty.
On turn two the Russians get the initiative and all fire. Adams goes down, but the turn ends quickly and he gets up again
Next turn the Brits take initiative, Adams puts one man down, but then the turn ends & he gets back up again unhurt.
Turn four, the Russians blaze away and Adams goes down and stays down.
Then follows lots of ineffective shooting in both directions.
Green puts down a Russian, Fraser & Edwards go down, but they all get back up.
Turn 7 doesn't happen (I turned a Joker for initiative) - this should trigger a special event of some kind (e.g. 5MIN p55/56), but I was caught out and didn't roll one.
The next turn Fraser & Edwards are hit; Edwards recovers, Fraser stays down. This is looking a bit grim for the Brits.
There follows another turn of ineffective shooting.
Turn 10 the Brits have the initiative and plenty of actions. Harris charges forward all the way to the site fence. Davies & Huey provide covering fire, putting 2 Russians down.
Harris crosses the fence. He moves up through the trees and finishes off one Russian.
Davies puts down another Russian.
Harris despatches 2 more Russians and opens up on the officer with his SMG. Turn over!
 |
| Harris rushing the Soviets in the woods |
Davies & Green fire and the two remaining Russian riflemen go down. The Russian officer shoots Harris, who goes down! Edwards starts to cross the field and advance on the Russian position.
The Russian officer has to decide whether to step forward and take Harris prisoner, but expose himself to being shot at by the rest of the Brits... He bottles out and moves to the rest of his men.
Edwards crosses the fence and is right in danger. The Russian officer steps forward to shoot at Edwards - and misses!
Edwards finishes off a downed Russian. The officer and Edwards shoot at each other and miss.
Davies hits the Russian officer. Edwards runs up and captures him. Turn over!
Russian morale breaks!
It is not clear whether I should carry on and test for casualties for the two downed figures. I do it anyway, even though I don't want Harris to become a casualty after his bold move.
Harris is fine, and so is the Russian. Ivan surrenders (he could have run to the APC at the risk of being shot in the back, but he's not that committed).
Assessment: top action, very exciting, and only one rule broken by mistake (Harris entered melee twice in a phase).
If the Russian officer had stepped forward to grab Harris, he would probably have gone down anyway.
There were too few men for the OHSW squad break condition to arrive - a 7-man squad could take half losses (4) and still carry on 85% of turns, given this leadership. To increase the number of men on a side, I will allow reinforcments if down below 8 men and give the enemy 5 rolls on the force table instead of 3. Each roll is effectively 1.33 men, so this should balance the two sides.
After the fight:
The Brits have achieved their objective, completely defeating the Russian squad.
Of the 7 Russians, the officer & 1 other surrendered, 4 were definitely killed by Harris & Edwards. The remaining one is seriously wounded, but will live. 3 prisoners in all.
Fraser has a light wound is out of action for 4 days (back on 19/11/83)
Adams is seriously wounded and will be reassigned. He's not coming back to Bad Spelling.
No reinforcements are available, because we still have 5 men in the group. In future, I will change this to be 8, becausee OHSW really expects more than 7 men one a side.
Campaign events: Sgt Knight has died in action elsewhere around the town.
Cpt Johns has had his movement orders and is packing to leave as the patrol gets back to barracks. He'll take the prisoners with him. Beresford recommends Harris for another medal, if Johns will write it up.
Player action: assign Green to take a Minimi for the squad - succeeds.
Group morale: still 2 - I rolled 6 good and 2 bad dice, but was unlucky
People:
- Lotte Meierling, a refugee from Hannover
Until next time, health & happiness to you all.
No comments:
Post a Comment