Big Trouble in little Kirchheim!
[Shameless Promotion Warning] This game was my second time using the 2D CQB Terrain building tiles that I’ve been developing for the last 9 months with Joe Bilton, Deep-Cut Studio and Full Metal Miniatures and they were so fun to use. Being able to carry a full FIBUA table’s worth of buildings in a small carry case with my figures was very handy and urban combat really makes BattlegroundHD shine.
If you want to make your own 2D CQB Terrain village the packs are now available from Full Metal Miniatures’ website here: https://www.fullmetalminiatures.com/2d-cqb-terrain-packs-184-c.asp
On to the BATREP…
The East German hidden deployment within Kirchheim.
We were playtesting another new BattlegroundHD scenario this week with a US Mechanized Infantry platoon tasked with fighting through a village held by a battle-hardened force of dismounted East German Mot.-Schutzen. The NATO objective was to fully clear the central crossroads of all NVA troops and, if possible, push through to capture the road exit on the far side of the village.
My US Attackers (arriving Turn 1 from the road entrance) ably assisted by Bryn:
Platoon HQ
2 x Mechanized Infanty Squads
Mechanized Infantry Squad (Anti-Tank)
2 x M113A1 APCs
.50 Cal (SF) MG Team
60mm Mortar Team
Theo’s East German Defenders (deployed on to hidden markers within the villlage):
Platoon HQ (Hardened)
3 x Mot-Schutzen Squads (Hardened)
AT-4 ATGM Team
I’ve got a fair few games of BattlegroundHD under my belt now but 95% of them have been intro games for new players at wargames shows - not a very effective battle academy and it showed in this game.
The attack began with some very cagey probing - the assault squads dashed forwards, hit the dirt and scanned the edge of Kirchheim for any signs of the enemy. With the coast appearing to be clear the M113s slowly rolled on to the table with the platoon commander and the reserve AT squad following behind using the APCs as hard cover and the supporting teams hurriedly got their weapons set up.
Knowing my company CO wouldn’t be very happy if my men spent all game lying in a West German field, I had my right-hand squad push round to the flank, leaving a clear field of fire for our .50 cal. All hell broke loose as a hail of automatic fire erupted from the building in front of them and an RPG darted across the field towards the completely exposed infantrymen. By the time they’d hit the dirt only the NCO and one rifleman were left, the rest of the squad was dead, dying or running off the table to find cover. The .50 cal opened up but the East Germans were already repositioning (leaving only a terrified assistant grenadier behind who had an understandable reaction to nearly being torn apart by some .50 rounds).
In the centre, things weren’t looking much better. An East German Spigot ATGM team had slammed a missile through the lead M113, killing the driver and wounding the gunner who was miraculously able to return fire and neutralise the enemy team hiding behind abandoned cars on the road ahead.
To avoid losing the initiative I sent my Platoon Sergeant to lead our left-hand squad forward and had the AT squad push up with them on the right-side of the road using a VW van for cover as my second M113 maneuvered around my stricken lead vehicle, both .50 cals blazing away at anything that moved.
The table suddenly stared filling with East Germans as Theo launched his ambush. Some very enviable attack rolls coupled with some very lamentable defence ones from me saw both my squads very rapidly reduced down to less than half stregnth so, with very few losses on the East German side we called it a pretty clear win for Warsaw Pact.
The great thing for me about losing a game of BattlegroundHD is that there’s almost always a clear lesson, a tactical reason why you didn’t win, and a new approach to try out next time we play. For this game the clear areas for improvement were:
Rushing forwards without taking a little more time to try to spot the enemy, clear off some of their decoy markers and narrow down where they actually were.
Moving through open areas without using my 60mm mortar to lay down some smoke - it would have been perfect for this job but instead I tried to use it like a tiny howitzer and it didn’t prove all that effective.
