BATREP: Soviet Assault
I ran another really fun intro game of BattlegroundHD last night at South London Warlords for 5 players. The scenario was an assault by a fully mechanised Soviet platoon against a British defensive position held by a couple of sections from the Black Watch with support from a 2-inch mortar and a GPMG and we managed to play it out to a full conclusion in a little over 2 hours - not bad!
It really showed just how intense and brutal Cold War Gone Hot combat in BattlegroundHD can be.
The Soviets’ 1st Squad and 2nd Squads rolled forward and dropped their infantry behind a hedgeline and almost immediately a Carl Gustaf fired from the bushes ahead of them took the tracks off 1st Squad’s BMP. The driver bailed out but the gunner held his nerve and began laying down covering fire for his advancing Motostrelki. A well aimed shot from the vehicle’s 73mm cannon silenced the British section’s GPMG but too late - the men of 1st Squad were all dead, running or pinned to the dirt. The British decided against waiting to receive even more fire from the wounded BMP and fell back into the copse of trees to their rear.
To their left, British 1 Section was in a precarious position. They’d opened up on Soviet 3rd Squad’s BMP but their first Carl Gustaf round had missed. Now the weapon was jammed and Soviet infantry, urged on by their platoon commander, were pouring out of the vehicle which was spraying copious amounts of hot lead towards them.
Just in the nick of time, a well aimed LAW rocket fired from long-range hit the BMP, ignited its ammo and the entire vehicle was torn apart by an explosion which threw the dismounted Soviet infantry to the ground. The platoon sergeant leading the Black Watch quickly got the section’s GPMG to lay down suppressive fire to keep the Soviets pinned while the 2-inch mortar opened up on them.
Things were looking grim for the Motostrelki! But in a situation like this 2nd Squad’s sergeant knew there was only one course of action. Rely on your training - attack, attack attack!
He loaded his squad back into their transport and the driver set off.
The gunner fired off a shot with the 73mm cannon that landed amongst the Black Watch Carl Gustaf team to their right and then the vehicle sped up, it started bouncing across the West German fields and the chances of hitting anything else with the unstabilised gun rapidly evaporated.
Nobody in the BMP could have seen the flash from their left as a retreating Scot fired a LAW at them but they certainly heard the explosion and the rain of branches on the vehicle’s roof as the rocket hit a tree which exploded in a cloud of splinters around them.
They shifted into top gear, SLR rounds bouncing off the hull and tore straight through the British line.
The Black Watch had one anti-tank weapon left - an M72 LAW in 1 Section. It was fired just as the Soviet vehicle rattled past and just clipped its rear doors, sending a wave of shrapnel and fuel through the back of the vehicle and almost certainly killing and injuring all the infantrymen inside.
But the little BMP rattled on towards the Rhine.
A victory for the Black Watch but with no anti-tank weapons left operational they’ll need to be resupplied or fall back before the inevitable next wave that can’t be far behind.
