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I'm going to try a battle as the Soviets.

They present some interesting challenges - the biggest being the longer command cycle. At least with them defending, I will have less of an issue, I hope, with this restraint.

Here are my orders

I have fought on this terrain before - as the American and with helicopters. Here is a look at it from the Soviets perspective as they defend Westerbruck.

Tricky map for a defender. The whole eastern side is open and with 5000m visibility NATO will dominate the battlefield unless WP can field strong AA and gun-launched ATGMs. The ridge crossing is placed in the south so it's unlikely WP forces can rush forward and "close" it before NATO forces pass through it.

The real challenge will be defending Boltzer, i fear. A strong push from the south there could be extremely difficoult to stop. Maybe if the artillery has some FASCAM munitions you can mine the bridges and then bomb whatever gets stuck there.

Situation is better in the north: should be easy to set up ambushes on the northern road and on the large road that passes near the lake: there are a couple nice elevations that are covered by higher elevations, so you can fire on the road while having the western side completely covered. A nice place for some tank and infantry company to set up a killzone.

Stucco,

This is going to be an interesting battle. Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that the Eastern approach is wide open and it is unlikely that I can close off the ridge line. At this point, I'm not concerned about losing Boltzer - there are no VP locations there.

I've been mulling things over all day and hope to get back to planning soon...

All the best,

Looking forward for the rest, then. [;)]

Here is a look at what I may see from the West Germans

Attack option 1

Attack option 2

The most dangerous option - I think

Good luck Mike! Looking forward the outcomes! Nice to see more AARs from the Soviet side.

30 to 40 SPA are an enormous artillery force; trying to bunch up in Westerbruck would mean serving them too many juicy targets... And still, given how many enemies are there, and how they favor open terrain, fighting an urban battle still seems to be a good choice.

Maybe using the forests to hide several formations could be the key.

You can set up a couple defense lines 2 hexes into the city, and place further forces in the forests west and north of the city. When your units fighting in the city are too battered up to hold anymore, you can bring in reinforcements from the safe spots in the forests and reform a defense line, hopefully still intact because the enemy didn't detect (and thus bombard) them.

Another option, albeit a risky one, is to put some tank company in the forests south of Westerbruck. The wooded hill slope southwest of Halle could be a good place to hide some tank: if they go undetected, you can wait until NATO main force pass them by, then ride out of the woods and strike them from behind, or go hunting for the SPAs. It's a risky move, because they can be spotted by helos if they pass over them, though. But i'd surely try to have a hard-hitting reserve to strike out unexpected: that much artillery can wreak havoc to any defense, and NATO short command cycle ensures that their artillery strikes a lot of times and accurately.

Rincon and Stucco,

Thanks for the comments and the ideas. I've got a couple of busy weeks ahead, so this is going to take a while. That is fine as I enjoy thinking the game through!

Here is an outline of my forces. As usual, I can not just set up a defence and hold on. My troops arrive over the first 3 hours.

Thought I should take a look at what I need to do to win...

Have a nice weekend! Looking forward for the rest of the battle.

The centre of Westerbruck is the key terrain. It is where the main VPs are and, thus, what I need to hold onto. Being even more focused, it is the two Northern VPs that I really need.

I start with a MRB and my recce elements. This gives me a foot on the ground to try and build around.

As mentioned, one recce element is a BRM-1K with thermal imagery (TI) and a 73mm gun. The other two platoons are in BRDM2s.
The BRDM2s can be used to observe – I do not want them shooting.
The BRM-1K can take out some German elements.

My initial MRB will have to be spread out to cover the possible approaches. The reinforcements, as they arrive can then take over either a portion of the defence or add depth.

If I could take out the bridge South of Halle that would be very good.

I would rather have units in positions that can only be seen from about 500m.

Here are some points from this thread and another on the main screen.

A look at the recce plan

Couple of surprises:

My morale is low across my force - at 65.
My TB arrives to the North of BOFFZEN

Here is a look at my main recce vehicles

My first option

My second option

My final option - now I will think about this while at work...