After a well-earned Christmas break, and having shed the excess weight associated with mild over-indulgence, our indefatigable reporter was back on the road. This time his assignment was Berlin in the early 1980s. The Balloon had gone up and the Red Machine was on the march. For the beleaguered Allied forces in Berlin, this meant big trouble, even if it did mean the British could put to the test their natty “Berlin Brigade” urban camouflage scheme!
The British decided to try and hide their Striker in the Churchyard covering as much of the table as possible, positioning their MILAN team and other LAW-equipped infantry in the houses. The mighty Chieftain lurked menacingly in the rear. GSFG roared on with the T72 platoon taking the more open Northern route, the BRM and a BTR advancing cautiously to the south and the 2nd BTR parading up the road. Apparent madness!
The Russians got lucky. The tank platoon commander spotted the Swingfire-equipped Striker, and opened fire. A hit! This was never going to end well. 125mm smooth bore vs the 8- tonne Striker. The inevitable result was the addition of a plume of oily smoke marker to the table.
The Brits responded by moving the Chieftain to face the MBT threat. The Chieftain’s engine managed to not break down and it crawled into position behind a house facing the T72s.
The still-jubilant Soviet T72 platoon commander became the next fireball.
In the centre, the MILAN team were having a real problem acquiring any targets, much to Rob’s frustration. Where is the much anticipated MIRA sight the crew could be heard asking? Euromissile were probably running late with the development programme. How typical!
Tony pushed on in the South, taking the Churchyard and managing to outflank the outnumbered British units.
His infantry de-bussed from the BTR-60 and deployed with their RPG-7 along a hedge facing the Chieftain’s side-armour.
The result was another dead Berlin Garrison vehicle.
With the British down to two infantry elements and light armour...
the Umpire declared it a Soviet victory. The road into West Berlin was open.
This was the first run-out of the Joe Legan’s “Cold War Tanker” modifications for WAT. Probably still a work-in-progress but worth the $1 expended on them. At only 5 pages they provide some nice ideas, particularly about introducing infantry and ATGMs, and should provide the basis for a “Black Wolf” homebrew set that match how we think WWIII would have played out. Assuming the various ex-missile engineers can ever agree on how their favourite bits of kit would have really fared on the battlefield!
Simon
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