Crisis Point Day One - umpire's appreciation

Overall, day one has seen a significant Warsaw Pact victory. Their breakthrough west of the Maas threatens NATO’s immediate rear area between Venlo and Jülich but also leaves open the possibility of a major strategic breakthrough to threaten Köln and Bonn and the severing of CENTAG’s supply lines.

The the most significant threat to this Warsaw Pact movement is the presence of a force of  US Rangers and an airborne battalion threatening their supply lines near Wesel.

In the central zone, NATO forces have fought a successful delaying action against a Warsaw Pact attack that now begins to have the appearance of a feint.

South of the Lippe a fierce battle continues between advancing Warsaw Pact tank forces and US light infantry forces.

If we were playing a one day game I’d have been happy to call it a Warsaw Pact win and to suggest that they had at least forced NATO to bring up strategic reserves to plug the hole in their defensive line.

However, we aren’t playing a one day game and we need to find out what happens.  From a gaming point of view it’s the Umpires’ job to make sure we can continue to enjoy tense and exciting action for the remainder of the weekend.  

It’s apparent that the Warsaw Pact forces west of the Maas will now attempt to overrun the NATO rear area table and perhaps to threaten the rear of NATO forces in the central sector by crossing the Maas at Venlo.  

The move onto the Rear Area table can be accomplished by using Mobile Deployment.  As movement between the table was originally envisaged as along the single connecting road, we need a ruling on how a broader-front movement across the “gap” will occur.

I propose following sequence:

1. We agree to improve the terrain on the NATO Rear Area table.  It never really got a decent density of terrain items. Do we also want to add another table to the edge of that one?

2. Warsaw Pact forces deploy command units along the Western edge of the table preparatory to entering using Mobile Deployment.

3. That the NATO players then deploy their Rear Area battlegroups on that table using Static Deployment (Mobile Deployment on the south edge for one reserve battalion that remains off table currently).

I propose the following adjustments to battlegroups to ensure that everyone can have a decent game:

Rob takes over the West German Heimatschutz Kommando unit.

Jamie’s Cheshires battlegroup is reinforced by 1st Lt Armoured Squadron RAF Regiment.

That the US/Dutch brigade be positioned in the rear of the Rear Area sector and attempts to rally as per the house rules.  

Elsewhere it seems obvious to me that the Battle of the Lippe should continue.

The Central Sector seems to me to have the potential to be pivotal.  Could the Warsaw Pact force a breakthrough?  Could NATO redeploy some of the forces from that table elsewhere whilst continuing to hold off the Warsaw Pact attackers?  

I need guidance from the players in that sector as to how they wish to continue.  I don’t want anyone to feel that they’re out on a limb or stuck in a quiet sector.

Finally we have the Warsaw Pact rear area battle.  Here we run up against the shortage of NATO players.  Does anyone feel able to take on the action their or should we find some way of abstracting the action on that table?

Finally, one rules adjudication.  I appreciate that bringing off-table artillery on-table in order to force commander to protect their rear areas led to some anomalies between the rules for the two ways artillery can fire.  I am ruling that artillery such as battalion mortars (even if they are 106mm or 120mm calibre) that would have been on-table under vanilla CWC cannot fire using the artillery template for the remainder of the game.  They may only target elements spotted for by the relevant CO or HQ.  Blame ammunition shortages if you wish.