Battle of Alsfeld 1985

[General SP]

Sgt Teskuvich sat amazed staring at the 2 enemy tanks in the field to the northwest. They had fired smoke but only to their north and fronts leaving a huge opening. His supporting infantry opened up trying to draw there fire but they just sat there like they were abandoned. Telling tank 2 to stay put, he had his driver creep forward. Still they sat there! What was the enemy thinking! Teskuvich smelled a trap!

Gunner! Load sabot!

Sabot loaded! On the way! Hit! Crap! Nothing!

Teskuvich watched in horror as both enemy turrets started to turn towards him! Before he could react both fired almost simultaneous.

WHAM! WHAM! Direct turret hits rang the the tank like a bell! And nothing ecploded! What a miracle! Teskuvich was not a religious man but he thanked any god in shouting distance.

Sabot loaded sir! On the way! Hitting the M1 in the track destroyed the road wheels but it was stilla lethal tank. Again double hammer blows rang the T80! The armo held still! Amazing!

Driver! Get us the hell out of here! The driver made a bad mistake spinning the tank around! Crap! Again twin blows rang out and thankfully they hit the turret and glanced off!

Tank 2! Engage enemy tanks. Both shots missed and tank 2 pulled back. The M1 was a very lethal tank and his luck was great this day. Calling in coordinates he planned on shelling the hell out of the disabled tank!

[wulfir]

They were alive.

And they were angry.

The M1 had absorbed the enemy tank round, but something was wrong. "Right hand side track is out", the driver reported.
The commander, Peters, swore. They had bounced rounds off the front and rear armor of that enemy tank without success. It made angered Peters to no end. So this was what it was like to face those Tigers the last time Europe burned..., now they were sitting ducks, the Russkies would be back.

Sweeping for targets Peters was astonished to see a T80 move up behind a building to the north of their position, presenting it's side to them - the Russian had obviously not seen them or had other things to worry about...
"Tango, nine o'clock! Get him!", Peters shouted.
The turret swung around, the gunner responded quickly.
"Identified".
He sounded calm. Peters, on the other hand, was not calm.
"Fire! FIRE SABOT!"
"Sabot UP!"
"On the way!"

The round hit the side of the T80 turing it into a gigantic fireball. It brought a small meassure of satisfaction to Peters but what now...? The tank was imobilised, in the open, abandon or remain buttoned up..., no choice seemed very attractive...

[wulfir]

[wigam]

Well i think the both of you should recieve a bonus or something for this. This was one of the best reads on the fourums in a long time. I was always waiting for the next installment. Its a real bugger that there was a stop to the game.

I think i will get plenty of seconds for you both getting something for your trouble!!

Well done and as soon as you can another please!

marcus

[General SP]

The Soviet battle plan was going to be a 3 part attack.

A major attack through the south with minor thrusts to the center and north. An para drop would happen around turn 8 and this would be supported with air units. Of course in thought it sounded good :)

Forces:

Main attack:

2 companies T-80's
2 companies T-72BI's
2 companies BTR Infantry
9 platoons naval infantry
3 Naval scout platoons (1 MB-LT x 3 scouts per platoon)
2 para obs
4 marksman
2 platoons BDRM scout
6 Hinds
5 Gecko Sams
12 ZU-23AA
8 MT-LB82 SP mortars
12 BM-22 Urugan rocket launcher
6 RPU-14 Rocket launchers
6 Akatsaya SPA
12 BTR-50 ammo units

Para Forces:

20 AN-2P transports with 20 para platoons
14 AN-32 with 14 para platoons
13 AN-32 used as SAM suckers
12 ZSU-23AA

Air units:

4 Graphs
4 Foxbats


The Air drop was a disaster. The decoys did a nice job of sucking up some of the sams, but the drops themselves were so scattered that they could not produce any real threat to Wulfirs units. As Wulfir stated, the only thing that worked was running into his HQ unit and showing them home the hard way :) The supporting air attacks were timed badly and most were blotted before they could do damage.

Main forces did rather well in the south and the northern forces were decimated slowly. Northern and center groups were reduced to 6 working tanks and 2 platoons of infantry. Eventually they were in hold positions to thwart any counter attack from Wulfir. Southern mode did rather well but again ran out of steam at the end. Main losses came from Cluster Munitions and evil AT units hiding in the bushes.

My Bm-22's and Akatsayas were on a fire 2 turn and then scoot routine. Lost only BM-22 and the rest survived. Not sure how much effect they actually had as in a game this big I hardly watched the replays. Thankfully my Geckos kept his Apaches grounded as they took a toll in the initial attack. And the Bradleys were complete terrors with those kill-anything Tows.Scouts did a terrible job of finding anything so need to practice with them a bit more.

Overall an awesome game and was sad to not see the whole end. We decided to call it a medium victory for Wulfir as I had no forces able to mass any more attacks.