Race to the Wesser- First Battle

On the Fistful of Tows Yahoogroup I found a set of rules for a campaign called "Race to the Wesser."  It's author is someone named Bry B and it's a simple campaign set in a hypothetical war in 1985.  The campaign is about the Soviet 3rd Shock Army's drive to the Wesser River in Germany. The Soviet objective is to make it to, and over, that river, and the Nato forces (West German and British) are trying to stop them. There are only 6 campaign turns representing 3 days, so it's something relatively manageable.

The Soviets are advancing along two axes, north and south, with 2 divisions on each axis moving forward in 2 columns.  The forces available and support available depend on the type of battle being fought (e.g. Hasty Attack, Prepared Attack, Meeting Engagement, Counterattack). The Nato forces are randomized.

The campaigns starts with Soviets making Hasty Attacks on both axes, in their two columns, so four Hasty Attack battles on the first Campaign turn.

This report is about the attack of the 55th Gd. Tank Rgt. of the 7th Gds. Tank Division on the Northern Axis.    There are 3 battalions of T-80B and one battalion of infantry in BMP-2.  There is one battalion of 2S3 152mm Self-Propelled Guns and Nine (!) airstrikes in support (.  On the first two campaign turns the Soviets get 2D6 of airstrikes per battle.).   The regiment's quality is Fair.  (the Soviet forces are random quality.  You roll for each regiment before its first battle).

Facing them are 2 battalions of Germans. One Panzer battalion with 9 Leopard II's, rated Average and one Mixed Battalion --5 Leopard II's and 3 Infantry in Marders, rated Excellent.   The Germans have a battalion of M109A 155mm SP guns in support.

Victory points are scored for capturing the geographical objective (placed by defenders), controlling 2x2 table sections and, for the Soviets, exiting formations off the Nato table edge.

The Soviet plan was to make its push on the right flank with 2 Tank Bns. and the BMP-2 bn.  There was more open ground and the objective was on this side, in the town.  Plus, reconnaissance said the Germans had no infantry in that area and so the infantry should be able to hold the town from the German armor with relative ease.

On the left the Soviets would try to sneak the other Tank Bn. off the table into the German rear.

The battlefield:

View from behind the German left flank.  Objective is in the town in the foreground

View from behind the German right flank.

Germans deployed in defense:

Panzer Battalion hull down on the left flank

View of Panzer Bn. from the Russian table edge

Mixed Panzer/Inf Bn. on German right

Roland SAM's deployed in German Center

The Battle:

Soviets advance.  Two Tank Bn.'s on the right, on the left side of photo the BMP-2 Bn moving quickly up the road toward the town

On the Soviet left a Tank Bn. hurry's up the autobahn, hoping to advance off the battlefield before the Germans can react.  One platoon destroyed by overwatch fire from the Leopard II's.

On the Soviet right the BMP-2 bn rushes up the highway in an attempt get into the town and seize the objective. Several platoons destroyed by overwatch fire from the German Panzer bn. in hull down position on the ridge. 

German infantry on German right flank (on the right in photo) move up to seize the town and block the advance of the Soviet Tank Bn. 

Panzer Bn. fires on the Soviet advance on the left. 

The results of the German fire.

The Soviets bring artillery down on the Panzer Division, suppressing a number of platoons and knocking one out.  The Soviets also called in air support, two flights of SU-25's.  Both strikes were driven off/shot down by the German SAM's. 

On the Soviet left the Tank battalion, seeing the German infantry entering the town, decides to divert around it.  This battalion comes under fire from the Leopard II's of the mixed battalion with disastrous results.  The T-80 battalion is reduced to 1/3 strength.  Miraculously, it passed its Quality Check (needing a 6 ) and continues to fight.  It will likely need to withdraw to stay in the fight and keep the Germans on the right flank pinned down and incapable of reinforcing the German right. 

 This is where things stood at the end of Soviet 2nd turn.  The battalion on the left is in serious trouble and will likely have to withdraw to keep alive so as to  pin  the German mixed battalion and keep it from reinforcing Panzer battalion trying to hold off the WP advance on the right.

To be continued.

Arab-Israeli War 1973-Fistful of Tows 3- Solo Game Conclusion

This is a follow on to my previous post where I described a small solo game I put together to try Fistful of Tows 3.

The game was quickly concluded on the Syrian turn.   On the Syrian right the Infantry moved to get into position to fire their RPG's.   They were just out of range however.

On the Syrian left the Tank Battalions advanced into effective range of the Centurion Sh'ot in their prepared positions and unleashed a furious fire. This time the cover of the positions did not save the Israelis and three out of the four tank platoons were eliminated.

With those loses there was no way the Israelis could hold off the Syrian advance and the Syrian formations were able to advance into the Galilee. (very bad for the Israelis).

Observations

FFT3 provides a very quick, clean game. The mechanics are very simple, which may not appeal to rivet counters, but I think they're appropriate for a game in which each model/base represents a platoon of troops. In that context, the rules feel "right" to me. 

One thing I do wonder about is the  lack of command & control rules.  There are some optional rules that provide some very minor limitation on troops' freedom of action, but generally speaking your troops will do exactly what you want them to do when you want them to do it. My personal preference is that rules have some mechanism to represent the possibility that orders are misinterpreted or simply not followed in a timely fashion.   While some hate that sort of thing, I find it both fun from a game standpoint and a bit more "realistic."  

I might just take the C&C rules from Cold War Commander and graft them on to FFT3.  The C&C rules in CWC are a simple way of introducing that command uncertainty. 

As for this particular scenario, even though I rated the Israelis "Excellent" there weren't enough of them to deal with that size force.  Even with a ROF of 4, the best they can do is attack 2 different targets per shot.   That's just not enough to whittle down the Syrians before they close into effective range.  At that point the weight of numbers overcomes the Israelis' qualitative advantage.  

Paul Minson (one of the rule's authors) suggested on the FFT Yahoo Group that I rated both forces too high.  (So the Israelis should have just been "Good" and the Syrians "Fair"). 

 I chose "Excellent" for the Israelis because I wanted to represent the desperate nature of their fight.   This was for them really a no retreat situation.  They had no choice but to hold out to the bitter end.  Maybe it would have made more sense to give them a bonus on their QC roll to represent that instead of rating them "Excellent" which also provides a better rate of fire and better chance to hit.   

I chose "Average" for the Syrians because I thought making them "Fair" or "Marginal" would make things too lopsided in favor of the Israelis (and make for a not very fun game).  

 Next time I will add artillery, airstrikes and ATGM's, but the basics of vehicle to vehicle combat and infantry combat felt "right" to me.