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After having fun with A time to Dance, I'm going to try my hand at the West German defence of Hamelin.

Once again, I will post my planning thoughts and then screen shots and comments as the battle progresses. Hopefully, I will hold off the Soviets.

Have a good day,

Mike

To start with a look at the terrain that we will be fighting over...

The objectives

The Soviets

Intel says that I'm facing elements of the 11th Guards Tank Division of the 1st Guards Army is a second echelon attack, although there is some confusion over what enemy force is moving in our direction. It is likely that it is the 11th Guards Tank Regiment.

11th Guards Tank Regiment
Guards forces are elite forces – morale and readiness should be high
Equipped with the latest T80s and BMPs
Structure is likely
3 Tank Bn
1 MR Bn
1 SP Arty Bn
1 AD Bty
1 Recce company
May have 1st Guards Army support
Artillery
Helicopters
CAS

Early Int reports show a force of
Over 80 tanks
70-80 Armoured Personnel Carriers and Infantry
With usual Recce, AD, and HQ support

No indication of soviet fire support resources, although Soviet artillery is already engaged – suppressing friendly forces across the front.

MikeJ19,

you are spoiling us with these AARs.

Thanks.

All the best,
kip.

Kip,

Thanks, I really enjoy exercising my mind with these scenarios. The ones that I have tackled so far are fun and challenging.

Have a good day,

Mike

Here is what I think is the most likely Soviet option - especially given the VPs along the routes.

Here is a second option - I think this one would be more dangerous as to respond I would have to spread out my forces more widely.

Friendly Forces
4th Pz Bde (-) really I have 4 company size units and a battery of M109s

Force composition
1/66th Panzer Grenadiers (PG) (Marder company)
1/4th Panzer Bn (Leopard 1 company)
2/66th PG (Marder company) arriving in 150 min (around 0830)
2/4th Panzer Bn (Leopard 1 company) arriving in 120 min (around 0800)
6 M109s – from two different batteries arriving in 50 (0750) and 60 min (0800)

Tasks
Hold crossing over the Weser River in Hamelin
Delay Soviet advance
Identify Soviet force
Destroy enemy units

Option 2

Final option

Thoughts

I like the idea of shaping the Soviets to my plan, and thereby gaining the initiative, so will go with Option 2.
I will modify the plan slightly, with the 1st Pz company falling back to the woods along the Holtensen approach
Hopefully, I will not lose too many tanks during the delay phase.

I’m concerned by a couple of things:
No recce elements – to keep track of enemy actions, this will make things harder
Lack of a real reserve – I need to figure this part out, to give myself some flexibility of things go wrong

So, I set up and tried this option and had most of my tanks destroyed in the first 16 minutes... The Soviets start much closer than I thought. My Intel was off.

I started some of my tank platoons off with Move tasks that were delayed - not sure if this meant that they did not benefit from being in a hold position to start?

So here was my initial deployments... The two tanks pl on the right got hit really badly. I tried playing with a couple of things - changing their positions slightly and their orders, but they still got hit really hard.

Here are the PG

Enjoyed that.

I'm glad you are enjoying it - and that you liked the Time to Dance one too. Hopefully, my plan will work out better moving forward. I tweaked the set up of the panzers.... Hopefully, they will live a bit longer...

And we are off - opening moves... My panzers survive the first 16 minutes!

Meanwhile, the mine fields do lots of early damage to the soviets destroying 4 tanks and a couple of HQs. Too bad I did not have fire support at the start, I could have thumped the soviets as they came through the minefields... Oh well.

Those Leo1s are no real match for the Soviet tanks pouring in. This is a fun scenario to play.

Things are going well - big battle underway in Grob Hilligsfeld

Now, I discover how poor a match the Leos are....

The plan called for the Pz pl to defend in location, I'm now wishing I had them screening.... Oh well, we will see what happens next!

Good news is my Arty has arrived.