Fought At Leipzig
2250 days 6 hours ago
Tell the Boss we did our best: A furball near Leipzig
50 POINTSCaptain Dale Buchanan stared glumly at Top Herrick’s report. “My God Top, is it really that bad?”
The old top sergeant, Sergeant First Class Herrick, a scarred veteran of the ‘Nam, nodded. “Yes sir. First Platoon is gone. The medics are policing them up and there are survivors, but not a lot of them. Lt. Spenser is KIA, as is Sergeant Phillips. I might be able to put together a squad out of the walking wounded and that’s about it.”
Dale shook his head. 50% losses…
First Platoon gone and Second Platoon was without their tracks. They were part of the desolation that covered the fields heading north towards Leipzig. Dale supposed that he could cobble together a short mech platoon out of the survivors of the company. The war was grinding Bravo down with each engagement. More losses, more ghosts to add to his nightmares.
Dale finally looked up from the report, “Well Top, that’s it. Round up whatever you can and deploy them into defensive positions near the shopping center. I imagine Charlie Team will be up soon and then we can LOGPAC. In the meantime we’ll have to let Dreadnought Six know that Bravo is combat ineffective.”
That was easy enough, thought Dale. Dreadnought Six probably already knew that from listening to the team’s push. Soon though it would be time, again, to get out paper and write the families. But that wasn’t for now. Time to regroup what’s left and prepare for another battle, and probably another after that.
“I guess Big Six will be writing my family soon enough…” he mumbled.
“What’s that sir?” replied Herrick.
Dale sighed, “Nothing Top. Let’s get moving…”
Man, what a fight! I just managed to squeak off a 4/3 win over Brandon. I’m really wondering when I’ll actually play a Team Yankee where I win big. Not any time soon I guess.
Rather than play the Leipzig scenario we decided to play a quick pick-up game with 20 points each. Unfortunately the report editor doesn't allow for smaller games so I marked it as a 50 point engagement.
The die tossed out the Free For All scenario which we played on a small 3′ by 3’ table. The south side of the table was lightly forested as was some of the north. To the east was a small shopping district with a car park and an old fashioned mill. Further west was a gasthaus with a small out house that sat right across from the northern forest. The objectives were placed in the deployment areas with the buildings cutting off LOS between them. Another die toss gave me the role of attacker.
The battlefield looking east. The shopping center is straight ahead. The Gasthaus is in the center and just across from the northern woods.The game opened with both of us pushing out our scouts with Bran pushing into the shopping district while my battalion scouts secured the Gasthaus. We then wound up with a roughly parallel deployment with infantry on the flanks. I pushed my second platoon dismounts into the Gasthaus and left first platoon hiding in the woods to cover my objectives. Brandon crept up his infantry into cover behind the shopping district and placed his others in the woods across from my dismounts. That set-up, along with the small battlefield, ensured that this would be a real knife fight.
I grabbed the opening turn and made the best of it with a withering volley of rockets and ATGMs against the motor rifles in the forest. I guess Ivan walked right into second platoon and didn’t even realise they were there. That was the first time that I have ever had the chance to hit BMPs with LAWs! Other dismounts and M113s joined in with a fusilade of small arms and heavy machinegun fire. Red tracers tore through Soviet infantry and sent them toppling into bloody heaps. Rockets and missiles ripped BMPs to pieces and littered the fields burning wrecks. In one swift barrage I badly savaged Brandon’s right flank platoon. My M60s quickly joined the hunt and trashed a scout BMP. Not bad for a first turn.
Ambush on the Left. You can make out Bran's right flank BMP company in the background. I guess they blundered right into my second platoon and their supporting M60 section. The first round of firing was brutal!Brandon was a quick study though. He quickly rallied his shattered company and hustled infantry from his other company into the shopping district.
His return fire was equally devastating. 30mm rounds ripped into my carriers, destroying all of second platoon’s transports. A RPG team rushed forward and took cover behind some rocks and sent a rocket flying into one of my M60s, killing everyone on board. Russian dismounts scurried into the shopping center and then poured a nasty suppressive fire barrage into my defensive line forcing my troops to take cover.
The next couple of turns were a vicious fight for fire superiority. I finally massed enough suppressive fires into the shopping district to pin the Soviets down and then I rushed my infantry forward in a bayonet charge! Wicked hand-to-hand fighting ensued in the battered store, but my grunts just couldn’t force Ivan out.
Brandon regrouped his infantry, and with a terrifying "URRAH!", counter attacked! My first platoon was wiped out to a stand and his troops rushed out of the shopping center and raced for my objective.
They were stopped butt cold.
I was able to turn what was left of my company and poured fire into the motor rifles. I also unleashed my remaining anti-tank assets against his surviving BMPs. When the smoke cleared his infantry laid in crumpled heaps and his BMPs were burning wrecks.
My Bravo team stood terribly bloodied, but unbowed!
Undaunted Brandon sent what was left of his other company rushing out of the woods and after my second platoon. Twice the motor rifles swarmed out of the woods and twice withering fire sent them packing. It was a brutal fight but second platoon held out.
The rest of the game was anti-climatic. Second platoon advanced and mopped up the stragglers and took the objective that was hidden just inside the forest. It was a win for Team Dreadnought, but honestly we can’t afford another like it. 4:3 win for NATO.
Hats off to Brandon and his stubborn motor rifles!
Battle Report Author
Army Lists Used In This Battle
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Tgunner91Wins
Like the narrative. Good AAR.
Nice read
I must say,forgot to commend you for the great terrain and Atmospheric pictures you took
I’ve been pestering him for a while to do it. We will see. Maybe if I annoy him enough!
Interesting fight and a good report for such a small battle, is your opponent going to do a battle report and link it?
They are 10mm cardboard buildings from Drop Zone Commander. Nice buildings that look fine with 15mm.
Awesome report and congrats on the win TGunner!
Where did you get those apartment buildings? I like them!
Good to see you again, Tgunner! A nice report, well formatted and the fluff at the start was interesting. Good job.
Great AR and nice little vignette, I like it very much – more like a skirmish (knife fight : -) )Great terrain set up & supportive photo’s
good luck in the campaign
Congrats on the win! One of the first shots of the campaign 😀
The lists are in the OOB file above. But it’s easy enough paste them here too:
Team Bravo (US Army Mech Company)
Co CP (x1 M113, x1 M16) 1pt
X2 Mech Platoons (2 Dragons, 3 SAWs, 3 M113s- 1 with Dragon) 9pt
Cav Recce Section (M113 and ITV) 2pt
M60 platoon with x2 M60A3s 8pt
Total 20pt
Soviet Motor Rifle Battalion
Co CP (x1 BMP-2, x1 AK-74 team) 2pt
X2 BMP-2 Companies (x4 BMP-2, x4 AK-74, x3 RPG-7 16pt
X1 Recce Section (2 BMP-1) 2pt
Total 20pt
We were playing on at 3′ by 3′ table so we played with very small forces. I’m hoping to get in some much larger games next weekend!
Good start for the Americans, a win! If I may ask, what were the lists used by you and your opponent?
Nice report
Thanks all!
It really was a knife fight because of the small forces and playing area. We started right in each other’s face and things went down hill for both sides very quickly. In the past small games like this could be a problem for US players because of our expensive forces. The M60 goes quite a ways towards redressing that balance. The BMP is a very nasty critter in small games like this especially against the rather poorly armed M113, but the M113 does occasionally get lucky with Ma Deuce. Second platoon’s command track had a hot run on the dice and actually managed to kill one BMP and bail another! But more typically we saw the BMPs chew up and spit out the M113s like what happened in return to second platoon’s tracks- one BMP surviving the holocaust and returning the favor! That 30mm is murder.
The short spaces really allowed both sides to bring in their short ranged rockets (RPG 18, RPG 7, LAWs, and Dragons) and use them to telling effect. In my previous games those weapons barely got into the fight because of their short ranges. Usually everything was tanks, IFVs, and tank destroyers getting all of the real shooting. Brandon really did a great job in not getting discouraged and finding the strengths that exist in Soviet dismounts. Every weapon their grunts carry can kill anything that I fielded. The RPG 18 could easily take anything I had except for the M60s… and that’s what the RPG 7 is for! It really pays to pour on the suppressive fire in this game to keep everyone’s heads down! That is where the morale of the stalwart morale of the Soviet grunt kicks in. It can be really hard to pin down Soviet infantry. They really can take a beating and keep advancing
I also have to say that I was happy with the performance of my infantry too. US infantry really do have a lot of firepower at their hands and the skills to use it effectively. I use to joke about the M72 LAW being a pretty worthless after thought, but yesterday’s game showed me just how useful it can be if you can just get it into the game. My grunts love short LOS spaces and I got to use them. I really felt like every team in my force, and in Brandon’s force, earned their keep in this game… normally it feels like infantry are just cheerleaders who garrison objectives and get shelled all game. That wasn’t the case here as the infantry on both sides really got a chance to shine. I guess it goes to show you that Team Yankee isn’t just a tank game after all!
Good to see the US High Command leading from the front. Set the bar high and let your men follow your example. Excellent report.
Nice report – good to see the strong quality from the outset… we’ll get you guys next time! 😀
Good win! Good to have you back
Congrats on the win and Keep it up!
Congrats on the win.
Congrats on the win. Keep it up.
r/OH
Nice report,
Red alert many thanks for the how
Hello,
thanks for reporting.
Grats for winning.
regards, Frank.
An interesting side note: I actually killed a BMP-2 with a Ma Deuce. Pretty impressive! Sad part though is that the Bimp’s 30mm is a lot better. One BMP pretty much killed 2nd Platoon’s tracks all by itself. NEVER EVER leave M113s in LOS of a bored BMP.
Okay, I think I figured it out. Unfortunately you have to publish before you can move sections around. It’s a pain compared to Red Thunder but it works.
Congrats! Let’s stop these red bastards
Nice battle, some good looking terrain.
Also the box for putting in text is TINY. Which makes it hard to write. I’m guessing future battle reports should be typed in a word processor and then pasted here.
Unfortunately that isn’t working right now. I can’t seem to break things up like we could back in Red Thunder. At least it isn’t working on my end. Maybe it’s a bug they can fix down the line.
Great Win for the US. Great Job!
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You might benefit by mixing the text and photos up a bit rather than having them in bulk at the end.
You can have as many boxes as you like in your report:
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Just remember to press Add content before going onto the next box.
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Congratulations on the win. But it who wins the war is more important!