Team Yankee.
I like the game, and so when Richard (I blame him entirely) said "I'm thinking about 15mm", there was no way I was going to get away without getting M1A1s.
I picked up the Bannon's Boys boxed set a while back, and had organised a game with Richard, mainly to motivate myself to get them painted!
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| F-16 on my custom built base, held on by a magnet |
You can read his write up of the
weekend's game here, but in short, it was not a glorious few games for the Americans. Dice can be absolutely heartless!
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| This was what I was hoping for. Many wrecked soviet tanks. It was not what I got. |
Our first game was a Dust Up.
Lead elements from the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment had taken up positions in and around Compound 44.
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| XO and CP, with Compound 44 in the background |
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| First tank troop moved forward to engage the enemy tanks, scoring two kills! |
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| Return fire however was crushing- 4 shots, 3 hits (on a 5+) and 2 killed outright..... |
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2nd Platoon arrives from reserve and engages the Soviets in a knife fight. 4 shots, needing a 4.
4 1's rolled on the dice. Sigh.
In case you are wondering, they died to return fire too,. |
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| But the Cobras turned up, and Compound 44 became my Alamo. |
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Soviet aviation arrived, trying to snipe the rear of the M1s. More T-72s have arrived in the background also.
One of the Cobras has split off to engage the Hind with it's 20mm |
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| As to the effectiveness of the Cobra's 20mm? You will note that there is still two Hinds flying around.... |
So how did that all end? Well, not a win to the Cav. Losing both Abrams platoons quickly and cheaply wasn't the plan at all! I did at least destroy more than a few T-72s on the way in....
On to game two! No retreat
With the blocking elements destroyed, the remainder of the 2nd Cav tank troop retired back to a defensive position around compound 49, and called for more air support (F-16s).
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| Defensive position! |
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| The soviets massed as ever, the horde of T-72s massing on one flank with Hinds in support |
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| The T-72s crested the hill, only to be met by 120mm rounds from the M1A1s |
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| What was seeming to be a typical helicopter furball happened- damn Cobras still couldn't penetrate the Hind's armour! |
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This was the end run of the game, the wrecks of two Soviet tank companies, all done by M1s, Cobras and F-16s.
Tank 22 stands triumphant! |
All in all, I really enjoyed the games. The miniatures look fantastic, I am really proud of how my Abrams came out (especially the aerials- first time I have done them!). It is a pity I can't roll dice very well!
Some notes on the games itself
- Air has a big impact on the game when there is no AA. I think that once Richard adds Zeus and I add Vulcans, the air assets won't be anywhere near as scary. F-16s firing Mavericks (because AT27 is silly) made an absolute mess of one of his tank companies on successive turns, but with SAMs on table, they won't have a chance to get in.
- NATO are an interesting force to play, and one I don't think I have right yet. Relying on their armour isn't going to work, you are basically always one turn away from it all going HORRIBLY wrong, and that is an interesting way to play. Two tank platoons are far too fragile, so I will be definitely ordering more M1s.
- Choosing casualties is fun too- I always picked platoon commander, not just because it is funny (because it is), but also because it starts splitting up the larger Soviet tank formations, and makes you more able to break them by (effectively) moving the commander away from his unit! Which sounds awesome as an idea, but I wasn't able to kill enough to make it happen properly...
- We are going to go 75 points, on a table twice as big (more or less). That will give plenty of room for maneuver and present some pretty cool tactical challenges too- not everything will be in range, all of the time!
Ah well, off to the Battlefront website to order Vulcans. And ITOWs. And more Abrams.... it is possible I might be hooked.
Cacaw!
Pooch
