Fight in the Finnish Forests

Taking advantage of the fact that we all had a day off (it being half term and near the end of my leave year) Andy and Richard came over today and we had a game of Cold War Commander to remind us of the rules.  Given how often I've played CWC it was scary how much I couldn't remember!

In preparation for the Crisis Point: Arctic Strike, Andy, Richard and Jamie all played parts of the forces they'll be using in the big game.  As usual I umpired; I must get some playing practice in too!

Andy had:

Elements of 1256th Reserve Motor Rifle Regiment

Battlegroup HQ  180

1x CO (CV8), FAO, ZSU23-4, Recce BRDM-2

3rd MR battalion  795

HQ (CV7), 9x BTR-70, 9x Infantry, 2x Sagger

4th Tank battalion (part) 315

HQ (CV7), 3x T-55

1st battery, 1256th Artillery battalion  55

1x 122mm howitzer, 1x Truck

1345 points, breakpoint = 13

 
Richard had:

Callsign Romeo Sierra

HQ, 3x Delta Force SF (LAW Imp)

A Coy, 10th Gurkha Rifles   

HQ (CV9), 1x 81mm Mortar, 1x Milan 2, 3x Infantry (Carl Gustav)

C Bty, 7 Field Regt Royal Artillery  

FAO (CV8), 2x 105mm Light Gun, 2x Trucks

950 points, breakpoint = 5

and Jamie had:

Finnish Forces

CO, Recce PT-76

2x T-72M1

2x HQ, 6x BMP-1, 6x Infantry w. Miniman

3x BTR-60PB, 3x Spigot ATGW

1x 155mm towed gun, 1x Truck

1730 points, breakpoint = 10

The mix of forces was partly designed to give us a chance to try out the recce rules from Future War Commander (which we're using in the big game) and to play test the Spetsnaz special rule ("have recce ability") albeit applied to Delta Force operatives!

This game being fairly quickly thrown together we used the Exploitation scenario fairly much straight out of the book with the NATO/Finnish forces attacking.

The battlefield with the defending Soviets deployed.  The NATO / Finnish alliance entered from the right.

  

The major Finnish effort on the right.

Jamie pushed his main effort forward on the right with his two BMP companies leading, followed by the T-72s to the left of the road and the Spigots in their BTR-60PBs  to the right.

A Coy, 10th Gurkha Rifles moves up on the left (HQ in the woods, FAO front right, mortar rear right).

NATO forces reach the stream.

Soviet T-55s move up.

Colonel Sangarov's Headquarters

NATO forces cross the stream and establish themselves in the large wooded
area thus ensuring at least a marginal victory.

NATO artillery fire finds the Soviet armour.

The final position on the NATO right - the smaller wood is nearly taken and Jamie's Finish T-72s may even
survive being driven past unsuppressed enemy infantry in the woods!

We managed to get through five and a half turns before Andy and Richard had to leave.  NATO had at least a marginal victory and we thought they had a good chance of going on to get the complete victory in the following two turns.

The game was very enjoyable, flagged up how much work I need to put in to get familiar with the rules, and gave us all a feel for how they'll handle infantry-heavy combat in dense terrain.