TY 6mm Lessons Learned 12

Another month, another Escalation League game day, where middle-aged idiots try to convince each other (but mostly themselves) that we are Rommel or Eisenhower born anew. Greetings! Head Idiot Bill here with yet another BatRep of 6mm Team Yankee action. We had a very short game this month at 100 points, fast furious action and some ponderings of what went right, and what was pure dumb luck.

Due to other commitments, only Uriah showed up and brought a modification of the British Chieftain list he used last month. I had created what I think is a fantastic US 100 point Patton list, with a little bit of everything, but as I try to avoid Blue on Blue or Red on Red "training exercises" and I have both NATO and WarPact forces in my mini collection, I pulled out 100 points of East German T72 goodness (I am still very short of having enough infantry stands to do a BMP mech infantry battalion justice, unfortunately).

Long, but narrow.

Lots of cover on both sides.

View from the other side of the table.

With the field set, we chose cards, Volksarmee choosing Attack and the Brits, sneaky buggers they are, picked Maneuver instead of the expected Defend, and the roll resulted in Contact. Both sides had to leave 40% of their Units in Reserve, while the Defending Brits got to slip one of their Units into Ambush. The Brits let go of their Challengers and Tracked Rapiers to add more Chieftains and a flight of Lynx helos to the list, coming onto the table with a 2 track command element of Chieftains (Deployed), three Troops of three Chieftains each (one in Ambush and the other two in Reserve), three Swingfires (Deployed), four Scorpions (Deployed), and from Divisional Support, all in Reserve, four M109s, a FV432 FOO, three Marksmen, and two Lynxes. Facing them down was 20 T72s (one commander Deployed, a seven tank Kompanie in Reserve and two six-tank Kompanies Deployed), a four BMP recon group, a three BMP recon group from Divisional Support (both Deployed), four Shilkas (Deployed), three BM-21 Hails and the BMP OP from Divisional Support (both Deployed), and in Reserve, three Carnations, two Hinds, and four BMPs with all the infantry (6 stands of rifleman with RPG-18s, and 5 stands of RPG-7 teams). A quick word on the T72s - for the East Germans, Poles, and Czechs, this is a bit of a gamble, as they are not as numerous as the T55s, though they are better gunned (far better), but only slightly better armored. The 125mm on the T72 is a terror (AT 21, Firepower 2+, Brutal) compared to the T55s 100mm "popgun" (AT 17, Firepower 2+, Slow Firing) that has to get side shots on Chieftains to do anything, but the T72's Front Armor (15) is not enough to stand against the Chieftain's high AT (22). Plus due to the cost differential, you can almost field twice as many T55s as T72s. So this is a delicate balance when running T72s and not T55s - do you hang around and exchange fire, hoping you can knock out enough machines to cause Morale Checks, or do you sprint in to close range and hope you have enough tracks to absorb the punishment before you are making Morale Checks? Honestly, I play T72s because I have yet to buy T55s ( or T62s, T64s, or T80s), but there are games where I wish I had the weight of numbers.

Deployments were as expected, the Brits sitting their Swingfires off of one Objective (to get minimum range with their missiles), the Scorpions in the middle as a reactionary force, and the Chieftain Squadron HQ sitting the other Objective. The East Germans also Deployed around the Objectives on their side, but only as that was as close as they could Deploy forward, not really expecting the Brits to charge out at the start to contest either Objective. 

Deployment.

British command element staring down East German recce.

Scorpions sitting in the middle, ready to swing towards either Objective.

Swingfires watching over the Objective on NATO's right flank.

East German T72s, BMP recce, and command tank.

T72s in the middle and Shilkas to the right.

BMPs preparing to launch Saggers at Chieftains and Hails ready to bring down a Salvo.

East German Reserves.

British Reserves.

TURN ONE - Getting no Reserves onto the table this Turn, the Eat Germans broke headlong on their left for the Objective on that side of the field, with the T72s moving forward at Tactical speed to get some shooting in, and the BMP recon element Dashing forward to surround the Objective. In the center, the Shilkas also dashed forward, to get onto the British side of the table and cover more area if the Lynxes showed up in Turn Three (Delayed Reserves). The BMPs on the right were Deployed to take Sagger shots at the Chieftain command element and then attempt a Shoot 'n' Scoot into cover, with the Hails tucked in nicely behind a hill on the right to provide some artillery support. The first T72 Kompanie fired three times at the Swingfires, getting zero hits (To Hit was five, rolled two ones and a three, totaling five). The second T72 Kompanie fired twice at the Swingfires, scoring one hit which is almost insta-kill (Swingfire has no armor to speak of, and the 125mm cannon of the T72 is Firepower 2+), and did result in a destroyed Swingfire. On the WarPact right, the BMPs let loose with a volley of Saggers, and got lucky to Bail one Chieftain, then got lucky again to Shoot 'n' Scoot into cover. The Hails managed to range in, but got no hits.

East German advance on the WarPact left and middle.

Shilkas advancing to a more central position.

Central T72 Kompanie peeking enough around the corner to get a shot at the Swingfires.

BMPs having shot, successfully Shoot 'n' Scoot into cover.

One Bailed Chieftain, which did not Remount before the end of the game.

The Brits respond by springing the Chieftains out of their ambush on their far right, aimed squarely at the T72 Kompanie heading for the Objective on that side of the battle. The Scorpions in the middle shift to bring their 73mm cannons to bear on the BMPs that are surrounding the nearby Objective. Failing to Remount the Bailed XO tank, the Commander drives his tank forward to try and get a shot at something, either to his front or closer to the middle of the battle. The newly revealed Chieftains outright Destroy 3 T72s to their front, while the Scorpions and Swingfires Destroy two BMPs on the Objective. The Formation Commander, not having any shots on the Hails behind the hill or the BMPs behind the woods, takes a shot at the Shilkas, but fails to connect (we postulate that several Shilka crewmembers are in need of a new pair of trousers as a result). 

Ambushing Chieftains.

Chieftain command moving forward to get a shot at the Shilkas.

Scorpions adjusting to get a shot at the BMPs on the Objective.

After Destroying three T72s, the Chieftains successfully make their Cross Checks and Shoot 'n' Scoot out of the trees.

Between the Scorpions and the Swingfires, two of three BMPs on the Objective burn merrily.

The command Chieftain fails to destroy any of the Shilkas, and Shoots 'n' Scoots into a better shooting position.

TURN TWO - At the end of the British attacks, one lone BMP is still on the Objective. Per the Mission's rules, the side who Controls any of the Objectives they placed on the table (Control means you start the Turn within so many inches of the Objective, and in this case, end your Turn with no enemies within so many inches of the Objective - and that Unit cannot be Bailed and has to be In Good Spirits), and I had that one BMP on the Objective, but they were alone, forcing a Morale Check. If I pass the Morale Check, the BMP stays, and since none of the Brits got to within range of the Objective to Contest it, all I had to do from there was... nothing. Leave the BMP on the Objective, end my half of the Turn, and I win. But if I fail Morale, the BMP goes scampering off, I am no longer in Control of the Objective and we have to start again. No Remounts, no Rally of Pinned Infantry, just one Morale Check... and I got lucky and rolled a six.

"Turn Two!" the herald exclaims.

The winning roll sits proudly by the brave BMP crew that watched their fellows turn into burning wrecks, but stayed in position anyway.

We stopped at that point, but we did ponder what would have happened had I failed Morale and we would have had to continue. First would have been what Reserve Units, if any, I would have gotten. Attacker enjoys Immediate Reserves in Contact, so I would have rolled twice. Let us say I got one Unit from Reserves (I did not get any first Turn, and gained a little kharma losing the Morale Check - remember, hypothetically - so one Unit is about right), which would have been the seven tank T72 Kompanie. They would have come in on the WarPact left and been sent to hunt down the Chieftains that had come out of Ambush on that flank. The three remaining tanks in the battered Kompanie, along with the battalion commander would have Dashed to envelope the Objective again, while the other Kompanie of tanks would have continued moving and taking shots at the Swingfires and Scorpions to their front. The Shilkas would have moved to get into cover, but mostly stayed where they are, while the BMP recon element on the WarPact right and the Hails attempt to finish off the Chieftain command element. This is at Turn Two, and the Brits would be rolling for Reserves halfway through Turn Three, so I would have this Turn and the first half of Turn Three to try and win again before more trouble showed up facing me. This is where I failed in that big 150 point game several months back - I did not go after the Objectives fast enough from the start and got bogged down by terrain and my own dead tanks. In this game, I put the "pedal to the metal" and went all out after one of the Objectives from the start. I would have continued that if the game had continued, pushing Units onto Objectives until I was forced to take Formation Morale from the attrition. I think in that last game that I spent too much time trying to destroy enemy Units, when I should have been forcing them to react to me and pry me off Objectives. In that kind of contest, my opponents have to win every time, but I just have to get lucky once, like what happened in this game.

What do I think Uriah could have done as the Brits? That is always the question, as the Brits are so expensive, even without the Challengers, that a large sized chunk of your Force sits in Reserves most battles. I think Uriah did what he could - covered both Objectives as best as he could and tried to hold the line. Even without T55s, I still outnumbered him, tank-wise, nearly an exact two-to-one, and quantity has a quality all its own. One thing I think he should have done was instead of attacking my T72s with his Ambushing Chieftains, piled them on to wipe out the BMPs around the Objective, using overwhelming firepower. Maybe put the Swingfires closer to the middle of the board, if there was a spot that had a firing lane at both Objectives, because you can turn vehicles up to 90 degrees and still count them as Halted, and cover down on both Objectives while keeping outside that minimum shooting distance of the Swingfire missiles. All in all, it was a hard tactical problem, and Uriah did a great job with what Units he had available, and I got very lucky with some of my rolls (the all important Morale Check, and the Shoot 'n' Scooting BMPs back into cover). 

There you go, nice short little game, aided by lack of a sizeable table and playing area. The table we play on is only a little over 30 inches wide, but a full six feet long, so in Missions like Contact where you are playing across from each other on the long edges of the table, even with the half distance moves we use in our 6mm scale version, you end up getting deep into your opponent's territory pretty soon after the start of the game. I have been looking around online for ideas on creating inexpensive tables of sufficient size, or table toppers to put on the existing tables we have, turn our play area into the true six feet by four feet that the rules call for, with a little extra space on the ends to put books and dice. Until I have something more definitive, though, we are stuck with what we have available. Enough for now, get out there, push some minis around a table and roll some dice with your friends, and we will be back next month.