Our first game of Modern Rapid Fire using the 'Peace in War' supplement was a scenario set during a hypothetical WARPACT invasion of West Germany in 1984. The game was a fairly small affair using a West German Territorial Brigade (infantry backed up with M-48's, JagdPanzer Kanone and Jaguars) and awaiting some possible reinforcements from a German Panzer unit. The Soviets attacked with a full BMP2 equipped Motor rifles Regiment (with T-62s in the tank battalion) plus elements of the Divisional recce battalion and some off table Div artillery. The scenario was briefly as follows: A Soviet thrust has approached the Sibesse Gap (south of Hannover and opening onto the River Leine), catching the British 4 Armd Div on the wrong foot. 4 Armd won't be in a position to counter attack for about 18 hours and in the meantime the local Bundeswehr troops have to hold the Sibesse Gap. The Territorial Brigade is tasked with delaying the Soviet advance for 6 hours (6 turns) to prevent any formed Soviet units from breaking through into the gap and to gain time for German heavy armour (elements of 1st Panzer Div) to redeploy and secure the gap. The Soviets will win if they exit any battalion sized units from the table into the gap. The German troops deployed making maximum use of the terrain to ambush the leading Soviet units. At first the German attacks caused some confusion in the Soviet formations but by turn 4 the Soviets had learned how to manouvre around the enemy positions and outflank them. The German infantry used shoot and scoot tactics, opening fire, and then falling back to their next defensive position - this worked well until the Soviets began using the BMP combat teams to race them back and one German company found itself cut off in an orchard, a couple of hundred metres from the small town which was their destination. Long range anti-tank fire was provided from the West German Jagdpanzers and Jaguars. The fire was not particularly effective, as each time they fired it provoked a storm of return fire, but by ambushing and "shooting and scooting" they managed to slow the Soviets at minimal casualties to themselves. By halfway through the game the Soviet formations were all spread over the place but, by using fire and manouvre, and leapfrogging the BMP companies, the rate of advance was increasing. Most of the German infantry and anti-tank positions had been discovered and the Motor rifle units were driving fast into the gaps between them. Soviet artillery fire was also taking effect. At this point the German M-48 battalion was committed to attack the leading Soviet battaion group (which was about halfway to its objective). However, at about the same time the Soviet Div recce troops discovered a weak point on the German left flank and the reserve 3rd MR battalion group was ordered to drive fast for the weak spot (held by a single platoon of Jagdpanzers), smash through and drive straight for the Sibesse Gap, about three Km further on_..it seemed as though the Germans would lose__. We halted the game at this point (we ran out of time for playing) and when we checked we found that a mixed armoured battalion from 1st Panzer Div would actually be in a position to block the new Soviet thrust - thus the game was considered a narrow win for the Germans, snatching a victory at the last moment. Comments on game mechanics Formations and Manouevre - the nice neat lines of assaulting armour look great in the pictures, however what works fine on the wide open training areas in the Soviet Union and the Letzlingerheide in East Germany do not work so well in the narrow confines of western Germany, with a dense tree line every few hundred metres and a farm or built up area every kilometre! By turn four I had learned that, once contact was made with the enemy, to manouvre by company, with one or two BMP companies giving covering fire whilst another moved. By leap frogging the companies past each other I managed to build up quite a speed and driving full tilt into the weak spots I managed to give the Germans a nasty shock. However, I was attacking against a reserve formation - it remains to be seen how well this would work against a first line German heavy armoured unit. Recce - The Soviet recce troops did quite well (only two platoon stands were actually lost during the game). By advancing from cover to cover (and making the maximum use of tree lines for concealment) the div recce battalion had reached almost two thirds of the way across the table top by the end of the game. In the early-mid 80's Soviet div recce bns included a tank company - during the game the two tank platoons provided some welcome backup for the lighter BMPs and BRDMs and even allowed them to hustle a couple of platoons of German armour out of position. Recce vehicles must however be prepared to risk everything - one platoon cleared two town sectors but was attacked and destroyed by infantry when it pushed on into a third. The combination of light armour, and a couple of tank platoons, spread across a frontage of a several kilometres proved quite effective at both locating the enemy and finding gaps in his defences. They even managed to call in some artillery on one occasion. Cover - We set up the terrain with LOTS of cover - tree lines every few hundred metres, built up areas every 1000-1500 metres, lots of fields and copses etc. The overall layout was based on a modern map of the area to ensure that the major built up areas, woods and roads were correct and we added the rest around it. The tree lines proved crucial to both the attack and defence. The German troops would initiate an ambush from a tree line and then bug out, usually falling back to the next obstacle having slowed the Soviet advance. The Soviets also used the tree lines, both for covered movement, and to use as fire support positions to give covering fire for friendly units. Artillery - The Soviet artillery worked well - slow to arrive but pretty effective when it did! In our orbats we allow a command vehicle (ACRV series) per battalion. This is allowed to act as an FO according to Soviet practice. During the game the Regimental 122mm SP battalion was placed on-table in general support with the Bn command vehicle/FO attached to the leading battalion group. This allowed rapid fire support from the regimental artillery with a high chance of getting it when required. The battalion 120mm mortar companies were dropped off and fired in support of their own battalions, usually controlled through the bn command stand. Two battalions of off-table artillery were also allocated, with a battalion of 152mm 2S3's being dedicated to counter battery fire. Requests for fire from these units were made through the battalion and regimental commanders. At one point, a German battery was detected firing for a second turn from the same location and the resulting counter battery fire destroyed it - the German artillery was a bit more cautious thereafter, only firing on alternate turns. I will definitely keep counter-battery fire as a priority in future games. I didn't use the Soviet tactic of deploying artillery with the leading battalion groups to fire over open sights - I'll save this for another time. Back to Frontline Vol. 3 Iss. 1 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Rolf Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com