12 Bravo

[MikeJ19]

It feels good to be playing again. Here are my initial thoughts on this scenario:

I have an M1 Armd Bn and a M113 Inf Bn – with my Inf in M113s I am not as mobile as usual and do not have as much AT power. This will make things difficult until the AT resources arrive.

My Artillery, a lot of AT resources and AHs start arriving in about 80 minutes

There are a lot of reinforced positions for me to use for defending

There are many obstacles placed across the front – along with some nice natural obstacles.

The majority of the VP locations are in the centre and I start holding most of them – there are a couple in my rear area that are unclaimed, but my reinforcements will pick them up.

Although I like the idea of defending along the first line of reinforced positions, I think it is better to pull back and set up some more coordinated defensive locations – creating some nice kill zones (KZ) (engagement areas (EA).

The Soviet force is a little bigger than me – points wise. I suspect that they will have lots of Artillery.

I see two main avenues of approach for the Soviets:

1. Along the Kahl river into the middle ground
2. Along route St2443.

There is a third route to the North, but it takes them away from main VP locations.

The Soviets could try to go through the woods, but that will be slow and would mean that they will arrive piecemeal. I think they will end up doing that once they hit my initial defence line, but hopefully I can damage them enough initially to make this move one of minor forces.

VP requirements 82% 73% 62% - there are a lot of location VPs (11,600) so if I can hold most of them, plus take out the Soviet forces, I should be able to win well.

[MikeJ19]

A look at the deployment of the Inf Bn

[MikeJ19]

Here is a look at what the Armd BN is doing...

[MikeJ19]

The battle has begun...

[MikeJ19]

45 minutes in...

[MikeJ19]

After another 30 minutes of battle...

[MikeJ19]

30 minutes later - the Soviets are funneling to the bridge...

[MikeJ19]

This is getting tense...

[MikeJ19]

The Soviet attack is faltering

[MikeJ19]

A few minutes later ... the game ends

[MikeJ19]

AAR

Things I did well:
My overall plan was good. It was a hard decision to pull back from the fortified positions along the obstacle belt, but I think that was the right move.

Having the two M1 companies attack into the flank of the Soviets was very good.

Eyes forward, I was able to consistently observe the Soviets coming forward – since they only went into the centre, having observation allowed me to move my reserves into the battle without worrying that the Soviets were going to come around the edges.

What could I improve on:

The movement of my reserves – I thought that they would move faster than they did – need to keep playing with this.

When I sent A Coy (M1) forward, I should have given them Assault orders rather than Move – deliberate. They would have then moved through the Soviet Inf along the route instead of halting and taking them out.


Final Thoughts

My Inf were not very powerful, but were very good at slowing down the Soviets.

I’m surprised by the limited amount of artillery the Soviets used in the scenario. This may have been a product of the long command cycles, but my forces never really were hurt by the Soviet artillery.

Overall, I enjoyed a relatively quick battle.

[CapnDarwin]

Mike great AAR! Thanks for posting. [8D]

[MikeJ19]

Capn Darwin,

Always a pleasure. It was fun playing again.

All the best,

Mike