TY 6mm Lessons Learned 17

Another month, another day at the table pushing tiny tanks around tiny terrain. This month's game was rather shorter than last month's game, and we actually managed to finish it, but I think it was just as intense for both sides as last month's game was.

Still sticking with our theme of small, 50 point lists that are not tank focused, I offered my opponent (Brandon) choice of NATO or WarPact forces, and he chose NATO. Specifically, he had a Combined Arms (Heavy) Company, mainly comprised of RDF/LTs (which we found through Scotia Grendel in 6mm) that he'd been wanting to try for a while. That left me with WarPact and all I knew I had ready was the same East German BMP Mech Infantry force I had used two months ago facing Uriah's Brits, so I went with them. I need to get some different WarPact vehicles to make some different forces for my East Germans, may also play around with different support elements to the core Mech Infantry units. 

And the roll is 5, for...

...Fighting Withdrawal!

Where our contest will take place.

The mighty US Force.

The Unit in Ambush.

The East German BMP Mech Infantry horde. Remember, this is at 50 points.

As you have seen from the pics, WarPact picked Attack and NATO picked Defend, and the roll resulted in Fighting Withdrawal, which is also what Brandon and Uriah had played three months ago, in similar circumstances. This time, however, NATO has more than six Units to field (six being the magic threshold where the Defenders either lose a Unit off the board or get a Delay token), so this game ran a bit differently. I set out the WarPact Objectives pretty far apart from each other, but not quite as far as I could have with the constraints of the Mission. Knowing we were at fairly low points, and that the Defending NATO force would have to Deploy before I did, so I wanted to see if the NATO Units were spread out enough I could load one Objective up over the other and focus all of my Units to that one side. And that is what happened - the US Units were spread out all across the entire table, allowing me to place all of the WarPact Units on their right, NATO left, aimed at the Objective on that side. I did use my BMP recon element to Spearhead up, along with the T-72s and a Company of BMP mech infantry. Defender rolled for time of day and got Dawn, so we start the game in darkness and by Turn Three, we start rolling to see if the sun comes up.

Before I get to the pretty pictures you all came to see, I should talk about another adjustment we should make in this scale and at this point total. To make it more even between the Attacker and Defender, especially in Missions like Fighting Withdrawal, we should really have only used 3/4 of the length of the table and adjusted everything else accordingly. With only 50 points worth of stuff across 72" worth of front and a mere 30" of depth, that spreads out a defensive force too much to cover everything effectively and respond to threats in a timely manner (and remember, as we are playing at 6mm instead of 15mm, we halve all distances except weapon ranges). We do have a plan of making a true 6'x4' board we can use and then stow later, but we're not there yet, and while the extra depth would have helped, I think the still 72" of length to cover would still have been unfavorable to the Defenders. Lesson Learned - don't be afraid to make it more of an even contest by shortening the boundaries of the combat. Also, I did not place the Objectives quite as far apart from each other as I could have, so as the Attacker you can help yourself in this situation by putting as much table in between the Objectives as you can get away with, and as the Defender, instead of covering both sides of each Objective, you can cover them both from the area in between, giving you less distance you have to cross in case the Attacker does what I did.

That is every bit of WarPact Units focused for a Mad Dog Right.

Just moving down the table.

Still not all the NATO Units in view yet.

Still going...

...and finally done.

TURN ONE - I drive all the WarPact Units as far forward (Tactical for the most part, with a few Cross Country Dashes as necessary) as I can, putting my recon BMPs into position to contest the Objective right from the start, but of course, to count, the Unit has to start the Turn contesting the Objective, and then end the same Turn still alive and Mounted, with no enemy Teams within a certain distance. So, can't win at the end of Turn One, but can on Turn Two, and it forces Brandon's hand - he must react to me and go after the BMPs on the Objective, exposing them to fire from my other Units. Most of the NATO Units are outside Line of Sight, but a few are merely in Cover, and so the WarPact Units fire on what they can see. One M901 ITV succumbs to fire, but that is about it.

On the NATO side of the Turn, the last Unit of RDF/LTs pops out of Ambush, but the Harriers fail to show up. All of the NATO forces at the far end of the table drop whatever they were doing and Dash towards the schwerpunkt as fast as possible. Cursing poor Cross Check rolls that held up large portions of his Force, Brandon maneuvers as many Units into firing position as he can, Bailing many tracks and Destroying some. The recon BMPs contesting the Objective? Both Destroyed. All of the infantry Companies have burning tracks with infantry Teams scattered around them. Even the T-72s suffer losses, leaving only the command BMP and rifle Team, the Shilkas, and the Carnations unscathed in the ensuing firestorm. 

CHARGE!!

The gap in the T72s allowed the BMPs to Dash to the Objective.

Full court press.

The laid down flame tokens denote the Units that have fired, due to Night rules.

These BMPs fired at those RDF/LTs on the crest of the hill.

Americans return the favor.

Americans shooting at East Germans.

Let the carnage begin.

So many Bailed and burning vehicles.

Even all the way back here there are losses and damaged vehicles.

The few unscathed WarPact Units observing the carnage.

Different angles of the Objective and surrounding environs.

This American recon Unit bravely charged in, firing their MGs the whole way, to make sure they were near the Objective if the US failed to destroy the BMP recon tracks.

TURN TWO - The East Germans Remount every Bailed vehicle and lift the Pins on every Company except the one on the extreme right (NATO left). Everything still standing, excepting the command track, pushes forward, driving towards the Objective or covering Units on the flanks. A wild melee ensues - tanks and tracks brewing up, infantry Assaulting a bogged down M901 ITV, lots of Units firing into the night. The East Germans are no where near breaking the Americans Morale, but are grinding their way forward to envelope and invest the Objective to make them nigh impossible to pry off of it.

The Americans remain resolute. Calling the Harriers onto the table, they continue to move distant Units forward (losing the furthest set of M901/M113 recon to the Fighting Withdrawal) trying to get everyone they can into the fight. The Shilkas light up the Harriers, bringing one down and leaving three to Salvo the Units near the Objective, Bailing a T-72 and destroying two BMPs. The Carnation artillery, being unsuccessful in their Direct Fire mission earlier in the Turn, get almost completely destroyed when the RDF/LTs return fire. Cover, I need to put my self-propelled tracks into Cover before I start using them as mobile derp cannons. 

Turn Two begins.

East Germans consolidating and moving up.

More forward movement. That US recon team does not survive the Turn.

Infantry being left behind by their transports so they can Assault into the woods.

The Carnations try some Direct Fire on the RDF/LTs, to little effect, other than sending their crews into "brown alert" with 152mm shells whizzing past. The infantry in the background fires at the RDF/LTs as well, RPG-7s at the ones in the open, and the RPG-18s at the ones on the hill.

One of the ambushing RDF/LTs burns from combined fire.

This is confusing - the BMPs close to the infantry in the woods belong to that Unit, and are empty; the BMPs on the hill are the ones from farther back and still have their infantry (minus the poor bastards on the left of the picture, who are hoofing it to catch up), they have Dashed to make the crest of the hill.

Americans continuing to close the distance and trying to get into the fight.

RDF/LTS Blitzing into position to get shots on East German Units and retain their stationary Rate of Fire.

The Harriers bring the Hate.

RDF/LTs firing on the East Germans.

Before the Harriers get their Salvo off, the Shilkas throw up some defensive fire. Yes, that is 24 dice. Still only got one Harrier after all that.

One Harrier down, three left, and the Salvo goes off.

Having successfully Assaulted the M901 recon element, the infantry in the woods loses a stand to RDF/LT fire.

Salvo gets one T-72 (Bailed) and two BMPs (Destroyed).

Two Destroyed Carnations and one Bailed.

Closer look at the carnage.

TURN THREE - The dawn has still not arrived so the game finishes in the dark. The East German forces consolidate on the Objective, throwing men and vehicles into the meat grinder, and shooting at any enemy Unit they can see. There is no finesse here, I am pushing everything I can get un-Pinned and Remounted towards the Objective, in the hopes of surrounding it under enough Units that Brandon can't destroy enough of my Teams and can't also get close enough himself to contest it. I manage to (FINALLY!) remove a RDF/LT Unit from the table, but really the ammo moving downrange is just there to keep the Americans hopping.

With the Unit of RDF/LTs nearest to the Objective removed from the equation, and the East Germans not in threat of winning the game this Turn (I did not start the Turn in possession of the Objective, so I can't win at the end of the Turn), Brandon is trying for a longer game - can he destroy enough Units to give him a chance at holding me off until Turn 8, the winning state for the Defenders in Fighting Withdrawal? With no Units able to get close enough to the Objective to contest it this Turn, he holds off Dashing his RDF/LTs so he can fire with them, and if he gets his Harriers in (he does), the ground Units don't cause him to shift his aim due to Danger Close. Between having to move his RDF/LTs (lower ROF for having moved) and the various Infantry and Armor saves, the Americans only manage to Destroy or Bail some BMP-1s and remove only one stand of Infantry from the fight. 

The bell tolls thrice!

East Germans moving to the attack.

It wasn't until after the game that I realized I drove the command Team in their BMP right into that Minefield. Still had zero effect on the outcome of the game, as it just sat there.

RDF/LTs taking a lot of fire.

"Pour it on, boys!"

The Americans try to get into shooting positions using only Blitz and Tactical Moves.

The carnage from a different angle.

More direct shot of the Objective.

"How big is that Salvo template?" "This big!"

After the bombs drop.

View from this side.

The late afternoon light is providing some dramatic shadows.

There was a lot of carnage, but not enough.

All the East German Infantry Teams removed from the game.

TURN FOUR - Brandon, seeing the writing on the wall, and doing some quick math, realizes he can't generate enough shots to budge me and he is still losing Units from the table due to the withdrawal and attrition. As such, he concedes and we shake hands. 

What could have been done differently to change the outcome?

First off, let me talk about the horde nature of most of the WarPact countries - about the only force composition that does not come off as horde-like is the T72B tank battalions. Even if I switched from East Germans to Soviets and went for BMP-3 mech infantry, you're looking at very similar numbers and makeup of the unit. Yes, I don't get any tanks in the formation, but everything else is pretty much the same. As such, any NATO force you build, you have to keep that in mind. Of course, with our other restriction of non-tank focused forces, some of the easier builds to give you the numbers of guns and shots per Turn (West German Leopard 1s, French AMX-30s, American M60s) but still leaves several options (British FV432 infantry would be an excellent choice, both for numbers and how devastating the MILANs are in Team Yankee).

Second, as the Attacking WarPact infantry player, I totally lucked out when Fighting Withdrawal came up for the Mission - there are no Reserves I have to try and roll onto the table, I get to set up my Deployment after the NATO player puts all of their Units (minus the one Ambush) onto the table so I can see exactly where he is strong and weak, and I have the easier Victory condition (capture one of two Objectives before the end of Turn 8) and don't have to remove any Units outside of Morale concerns. Add into that the space restrictions of our play area and that combination of Forces, Mission, and size of the play area means I had the far easier job of winning than my opponent did. I am not belittling his skill, he fought me as hard as he could and did not make it at all easy for me. It does, however, make me feel as if I had an unfair advantage, and I am working on fixing what I can and have planned out a tabletopper board that will give us a true 6 foot by 4 foot playing area that we can remove and store when not in use. Until we get that made, however, I think I will be recommending we shrink the table so it maintains a 6:4 ratio, especially at these low point list games. 

Third, knowing that Defender would have to Deploy all of their Units first, if I had been Defending I would have shrunk the front I needed to cover and Deployed to as close to the center as possible, covering the two Objectives from the terrain features closest to them towards the middle of the battlefield, with an eye towards moving Units as needed betwixt the two. Of course, I knew from the minute Brandon set out his Deployment that I would do a strong-side push and completely ignore the far end of the table, and I don't blame him for trying to cover what could have easily have been a full-table push. But then, will bunching up your forces draw out the artillery sooner, causing more damage from a template attack? Gambles and trying to predict what your opponent is going to do, it's practically the name of the game.

Fourth, I know that I need to keep working over the rules, as I know I missed that I could not fire with my Shilkas during my turn if I wanted to use them as Defensive AA fire during the NATO portion of the Turn (and yes, there is a gamble there - will he get his airstrike onto the table or will I have wasted an opportunity at shooting at the enemy?) but since I only managed to Bail one vehicle with that firing, we pulled the Bailed marker and played like it had not happened. I also drove my command team right into a Minefield (we really need to 3d print some size appropriate Minefields, considering at least 2 of us in the group have printers), which neither of us realized until after the game. It had no effect on the outcome (that Unit did not shoot as it Dashed, and would not have incurred a Force Morale check if it had succumbed to the mines), but I still need to pay closer attention. 

That is all I have for this BatRep folks, we are really enjoying these low point games, and the new elbow room at the comics store is greatly appreciated as well. Hopefully we can get some spare time to do some carpentry and increase our play area soon, but I'm not holding my breath on that one, as spare time and hobbyists don't seem to intersect very often. Hope everyone is having a good month, and hope you're getting together with your friends, pushing minis around a table, and rolling some dice.