There Will Be A Welcome In The Hillsides

After a year of failed dates for another get together I managed to join my good friend Gareth Lane in the Shed of War for an Soviet Afghan extravaganza on his superb purpose built terrain.

Our game was a snapshot from Operation Panjshir VII when Soviet forces attempted to root out the Mujahedeen of Ahmad Shah Massoud from Panjshir valley. I commanded the Afghans and Gareth took the Soviets. The rules were the Bolt Action Modern supplement which work really well for this level of mass skirmish.

To simulate the leaky ship that was the Soviet military command the Afghans know that the motorised infantry elements would be approaching along the road from the south via the bridge and/or across the shallow river and also knew that airborne detachments would be landing at the northern end of the road at some point. To add to this advantage the Afghan player could be pretty flexible about his deployment; the table length was split into 3 zones and the Afghans had to deploy at least two elements in each zone plus the captured T55’s had to be in the southern zone, the rest could be in any zone of the player’s choice, BUT those elements weren’t in any specific place so the Afghan player could declare their presence from anywhere in the zone – once declared off course they were on table and couldn’t disappear. This idea was very different from the usual hidden deployment were you have marked on a map the exact building a unit is in and simulated the Mujahedeen ‘owning the ground’ very well.

Troop deployment noted off we went and what a game we had!

The Soviets started cautiously by sending a dog & handler over the bridge to sniff out any mines – I had anti tank & anti personnel planted so not wanting the one at the foot of the bridge discovered up popped one of the snipers and no more dog team! The RSPCA have been informed 😂 Undeterred the Soviets sent their scout element forward and the unfortunate BRDM went up quite spectacularly. Game on!

A blow by blow description of the game would be a bit of a bore so I’ll reduce to the high points.

The early turns were taken up with the Afghans attempting to block the Soviets on the bridge which they had rather obligingly used as their main thrust of attack. The first T55 was revealed utilising the cover of a building to shoot at the first T64 onto the bridge (there were 3 all with tank riders) but although it hit there was no damage, fortunately the return shot missed. Foolishly the T55 stayed in place to duke it out with the T64 and although it did have the desired effect of creating a traffic jam and some tank riders were machine gunned to death ultimately it lost the fight and brewed up.

On rolled the Soviet advance with tank riders spilling into the dust and the second T55 manifested itself with a point blank shot on the lead T64. AND MISSED!

The T64 didn’t miss and that was the end of the Mujahedeen armour. “oh well” said I “we never had to pay for it”

As the armour rolled down the road the first Mujahedeen fighters declared themselves in the buildings flanking the road off the bridge and made the Soviets pay a high price in a gun battle which saw the tank rider squads virtually wiped out before the Afghans finally succumbed.

At the other end of the table the thwack of rotors heralded the deployment of the airborne elements who proceeded along the valley floor and onto the high ground but all was quiet except for some long range sniper fire from the town. But as they advanced heavy machine gun fire opened up from a hillside building; the airborne had a fight on their hands!

Initially the airborne weathered the storm despite some losses but finally had to resort to an artillery strike to silence the HMG position but no sooner was that silenced than the Afghan mortar team opened up dropping shells into the valley; they would have to be silenced too.

Frustrated by the slow progress, Soviet command radioed in for the big stuff and after a slight delay on came the HIND……..

And up popped the man with the (very expensive) STINGER and he bloody well missed! Gales of laughter from Gareth and the HIND hovered on station…….

But the Mujahedeen were not done and from it’s hidden position in a back alley the technical with the mounted quad revealed itself and sent streams of heavy calibre fire into the great bird….

What a catastrophe! The HIND took several critical hits and crashed to the ground narrowly missing a T64 and blocking its progress. Highlight of the game for me but there was definitely more to come.

Back at the northern end of the valley the airborne had some success in locating the mortar teams and opened up but were obviously rattled by the demise of the HIND and inflicted limited casualties but it did look like curtains for the mortar guys.

Not so! The valiant technical roared out of it’s alley and up onto some high ground with a clear field of fire on the airborne section and shredded them. The mortars were saved and continued to drop rounds on the other airborne sections in the valley albeit at a reduced effect. The technical team were definitely the men of the match 😃

Back in the town the one remaining complete Soviet infantry section moved further into the town knowing damm well it was risky but having no real choice and obligingly another Mujahedeen section popped up for another gunfight. Despite being in the open the Soviets performed well and did have the support of a deployed HMG of their own further back on the roof of one of the captured buildings from the earlier firefight.

While small arms fire and the screams of the dying filled the air the now somewhat vulnerable T64 column continued it’s cautious advance down the road seeking to link up with the battered airborne but another mine and another burning hulk put paid to that. It was all looking a bit dire for Soviet command.

Back down in the valley there wasn’t much of the airborne left and shit was still coming in, forward progress was definitely not an option. Time to radio for extraction.

And we were done. The Soviets were down to two T64’s and a BMP1 with virtually no infantry support and Mujahedeen were still popping up. It was time to get back over that bridge. A crushing defeat.

What a great day we had. Many thanks to Gareth for hosting and the beer and bangers & mash. Hopefully we wont leave it a year until next time 😀