In early 1999, I was commissioned by NATO to wargame its ground attack on Belgrade, assuming that our President, William Jefferson Clinton, Great Warrior and Man Of High Morale Values, would, in the near future, give his approval. NATO was worried that Clinton would appoint Barbra Streisand as Commanding Officer of the ground attack, but I ignored this troublesome problem, and, for my wargame, appointed as the NATO commander, the best General I knew... General Jim "Scorched Earth" Butters.
I gave "Scorch" a total of 7 brigades for the attack. As defending Serbian commander, I took 6 brigades. There were four types of brigades, each represented by 3 or 4 stands of troops:
- Infantry Brigade 3 infantry stands
Supported Infantry Brigade 2 infantry stands, 1 tank stand
Armor Brigade 3 tank stands
Artillery Brigade 3 or 4 gun stands
Note that with 7 brigades, NATO had a total of 21 stands on the field, while I, with 6 brigades, had 18 stands. Each brigade had a data sheet... instead of taking stands off, losses were tracked, and only when a brigade had reached a critical loss point, was the unit removed from the table. These critical values were:
- Infantry Brigade 12 hits
Supported Infantry Brigade 14 hits
Armor Brigade 16 hits
Artillery Brigade 10 hits
The field of battle, my ping pong table, had some 12 Serbian towns on it, with Belgrade situated right in the middle. NATO forces could come on anywhere along their baseline, one long edge of the table.
Initially, I had 3 brigades showing on the field. In addition to the visible units, I placed about 6 markers to indicate where my remaining three brigades (2 armor brigades and 1 artillery brigade) 'might' be located. Scorch's NATO Air Force, consisting of a grand total of 4 aircraft models, was first tasked with conducting aerial recon to find out the location of my hidden units.
During the sequence, each time an Air Force (NATO or Serbian) took to the air, dice were throw to determine how many of its 4 planes actually took off:
Table 1
- 01 to 33 All planes take off
34 to 66 All but 1 plane take off
67 to 100 All but 2 planes take off
Planes didn't really 'fly', they were simply placed at their target locations. A plane had a 50 percent chance to spot one of my hidden forces... but none of Scorch's aircraft was able to discern any units on the ground.
In a lower-level tactical game, wherein an infantry stand is, perhaps, a company, I have the aircraft models actually 'fly' across the field toward their target. In these tactical games, the plane moves 10 inches, the anti-aircraft opens up, the plane moves again, it strafes or drops its bombs, and so on. In this higher-level game, however, wherein only 3 stands represent an entire brigade, it was unnecessary to go through the nitty-gritty of aircraft movement.
The majority of Scorch's force headed straight for Belgrade. On his right flank, he assigned one infantry and one supported brigade, just to 'keep me honest'. And about 3 turns into the battle, because of the advance of this flanking force, I had to reveal one of my hidden units, and so the 30th Serbian Armored Brigade advanced to defend its motherland.
But not for long. The 30th Armored Brigade was trounced by one of Scorch's supported brigades. In combat (any type of combat... air-to-air, ground-to-air, air-to-ground, ground to ground), each side started with a Basic Combat Value (BCV) of 30 percent.
Added to this BCV were points proportional to the combat values of the involved stands. For example, in Scorch's supported infantry brigade, he had
- 2 infantry stands, each adding +10 totaling +20
1 armor stand, adding +15 totaling +15
This gave him a total of 65 percent to hit my 30th Brigade. We then referred to a damage chart:
| . | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| . | No Effect |
| BCV | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| . | 1 hit on target |
| 1/2 BCV | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| . | 2 hits on target |
| . | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
Scorch tossed below half his BCV and the 30th took 2 hits. The percentage for the 30 itself was the basic 30, plus 15 for each of its 3 tanks, giving it a total of 75 percent. Needless to say, the 30th didn't score at all.
Now we determined who won the encounter, and to do this, summed the following
- S Your own side's strength points:
- Each infantry stand added +2 points
Each tank stand added +3 points
For NATO
- S = +4 (2 infantry stands) +3 (one tank stand)
H = +2 for the hits on the 30th
For the 30th
- S = +9 (for the 3 tank stands)
H = zero (no hits on the opposition
Each side then combined its points in the following manner:
- For NATO 10-sided die x (S = 7 + H = 2) = Die x (9)
For the 30th 10-sided die x (S = 9 + H zero) = Die x (9)
Even up as we were, my die toss was insufficient to win, and the 30th Armored Brigade retreated.
For most of the battle, I had better luck than Scorch in getting my Serbian planes off the ground. In the sequence, each side has an opportunity to react with its air force, and the entire sequence is:
- a. A 10-sided die is tossed to determine the Elapsed Time (ET) of the cycle. If the ET is more than 15, this is the last cycle in the turn and damage will be assessed.
b. Non-Active Side determines how many of his artillery batteries can fire. These units can reach anywhere on the table. The determination of how many batteries can fire uses the same table as that of Table 1.
c. Active Side moves all units, ground and air.
d. Non-Active Side determines how many of his planes are available, and moves them to react to the Active Side's movement.
e. All combat is resolved
f. Damage assessment (if this is the last cycle in the turn)
I had assigned the 1st Infantry Brigade to defend Belgrade proper, and it was on this unit that Scorch concentrated his artillery fire and his aircraft. The Fighting 1st took lots of hits, and at the end of the 2nd turn, when the time for damage assessment came, the 1st referred to the following table, which translates the number of hits a unit receives during a turn to actual loss points.
Table 2
- 01 to 33 Each hit counts as 1 loss point
34 to 66 Each hit counts as 2 loss points
67 to 100 Each hit counts as 3 loss points
The 1st Infantry Brigade had 3 hits on it, and when I tossed the dice, the toss was extremely high, and each hit thus translated into 3 loss points, giving the 1st a total of 9 loss points. Since a total of 12 loss points eliminates an infantry brigade, I quickly pulled the 1st back, and replaced it in Belgrade with another, fresh, unit.
Armored brigades can take more punishment... they require 16 loss points to destroy them, and supported brigades are destroyed when they total 14 loss points.
Due to the scale of the game, there's no intra-unit fire. A brigade moves to within 5 inches of the enemy, and that's termed 'close assault'. They trade fire, the winner is determined, and the loser retreats.
When artillery batteries fired, they, too, started out with a Basic Combat Value (BCV) of 30 percent, and added +10 for every gun firing to get the probability of hit. This BCV applied to all combat.
I wanted to plug the concept of supply into the game. One possibility would have been to actually determine the number of supply points assigned to each unit. This, however, would have required quite a bit of paper work. And once the supplies were distributed, they would then have had to be translated into 'ammunition points'. Way too much trouble.
My thought was the effect of supply, or lack of it, could be introduced by simply varying the BCV number. This effects the probability of hit for all units on the table. More supply, more bullets, and there's more chance to smack the enemy. Less supply, and the ammunition goes down, there's fewer bullets, and the probability of hit decreases.
At the beginning of each turn, in addition to damage assessment, the sides diced for their BCV number.
Table 3
- 01 to 33 BCV = 30
34 to 66 BCV = 15
67 to 100 BCV = 5
On Turn 4, the Serbs were unlucky enough to find out that their supply lines had been cut... their BCV was reduced to 15 for the turn. Scorch's supply dicing was fine... the NATO BCV remained at 30.
In retrospect, the outcome of Table 3, above, should have been influenced differently for the sides. NATO, for example, with its unending supply line, could have always subtracted -10 from its supply dice throw, thus biasing the throw toward a lower result. Low tosses are good... and NATO's BCV might have even increased above the basic 30.
In contrast, the Serbian's supply dice toss could have added +10, thus biasing the Serbian BCV to provide less ammunition.
For the final assault on Belgrade, Scorch assembled four brigades... but four were just too much to smash into the city at one time. The rules allow a maximum of 2 brigades per side to engage in close assault. The lead unit moves up, and then there's a 70 percent chance that a sister unit, within 10 inches of the assault, will join in and support the lead unit.
Here, Scorch selected a supported infantry brigade as his lead unit, and an armored brigade as a potential supporting unit. He tossed his dice, was successful, and both NATO units were in combat.
At the same time he attacked Belgrade, he also close-assaulted a nearby Serbian unit to pin it and not allow it to act as a support for the Serbian troops in the city.
This secondary assault proved unsuccessful... the NATO unit was driven back... but it prevented a fresh unit from reinforcing the defenders of Belgrade.
And in the city itself, not only did Scorch use his ground troops, but he assigned all of his available aircraft to support the attack. In reaction, I managed to get the entire Serbian Air Force, 4 planes worth, in the air, to try to inflict damage on the attackers.
My 4 planes started with a BCV of 15 (my ammo was low), and added +10 for each of the 4 aircraft, giving me a total of 55 percent. I think I placed a single hit on the attacking brigades.
We followed the combat procedures I described above... each participating stand contributed points, the hits on the units were counted, the dice were tossed, and the result was... Belgrade fell to NATO! A job well done, and Scorch immediately flew off to Brussels to collect his medals.
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© Copyright 1999 Wally Simon
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