So, a new year dawns and our kick off game was Iran Iraq using our usual Cold War Commander rules.
This one was a narrative driven game, 12 turns long. Both sides began off table – the Iraqi 10th armoured brigade coming from the east and the Iranian 92nd armoured brigade coming from the west, and both were aiming for the main highway. The Iranians began the game with an armoured cavalry battalion on table proceeding east in column on a minor road and the Iraqis had BRDM-2 Sagger platoons randomly placed on the tabletop. Both sides had pre determined possible entry points for individual battalions but these could not dice to enter until the recon elements had reported back – a die roll for each element determined the turn number.
I wont detail who arrived when but the choice of where was critical. The Iranians could arrive on the minor road used by the cavalry, further to the south, in the corner, initially covered by a hill and north behind the river bend facing the town – in they chose this route they were given bridging equipment. The Iraqis had their own minor road facing the town, the northern end of the main highway and the far northern corner. The Iranians chose the table edge behind the river for their mechanised infantry and aimed for a small village, their two Chieftain battalions chose the minor road and the corner. The Iraqis chose the minor road for their 1st & 2nd armoured plus the 10th mechanised and the corner for the 3rd armoured, all the Iraqi armour were T72s.
In the opening moves the Iranians dithered; the infantry occupied the ruins for no real reason and then later got out and went somewhere else – apologies for the photo of the flying infantry, players just can’t resist! the M150s were under utilised – blasting the opposing BRDMs would have been a prudent thing to do. The Chieftain battalions rolled badly and so the initial fighting was over to the cavalry.
The Iraqi mechanised arrived before the tanks and occupied the town over the next couple of turns, sighting their Faggot and Sagger support platoons to cover the open ground to the south. An added plus for the Iraqis was the prompt arrival of their FAO who took up residence on the radio tower hill with a clear line of sight over most of the battlefield.
Well before the Chieftains arrived the 2nd and 3rd T72 battalions arrived; the 3rd rolled into the town and pretty much stayed there for the game – that town was never going to fall, the 2nd rolled south toward the highway intent on messing up the cavalry, the FAC found himself a nice little hillock to sit on.
Heading towards the halfway point of the game the Iraqis were doing a good job of combined arms co-operation. The FAC successfully called in the Mirages on two runs and that along with supporting tank fire eliminated the big threat of the M150s – the M150s did get off some shots and some T72s burned but there was plenty more where they came from 😁 Up in the north it became a bit of a turkey shoot, at first the Iranians couldn’t decide whether to push for the river or occupy the village so just sort of sat around and then rolled blunder upon blunder which left their HQ reduced to being essentially inactive which meant that when the Iraqis called in their artillery (one barrage of which was smack on target) a lot of M113s and the men inside died 😢 The Iraqi 1st battalion also arrived and headed south toward the sacred mosque – couldn’t be occupied by either side.
Passing the half way point the Chieftains arrived along with the FAC and FAO but it was going to be an uphill struggle.
One of the fun aspects of an Iranian force is the sight of F14 Tomcats roaring over the battlefield; what is not so much fun is when they deviate way off target and bomb the sacred mosque twice! Cries of “war crime!” echoed across the table – somewhat ironic in the light of modern day events but we are playing a wargame.
The Iraqi air continued to be more successful and pecked away at the plucky cavalry battalion.
Back on the ground the Chieftains did start to make their presence felt and the Iraqi 2nd battalion felt the heat in a big way effectively ending up as a burning screen for the 1st battalion who sneaked around the now burning mosque.
The game soon became one of cat and mouse as the Iraqis tried to stay out of the way of the superior Chieftains and hoped to score just enough hits to push the Iranians beyond their break point. If I’m honest this did become a bit ‘gamey’ but somewhat inevitable I guess.
As the game entered its final stage the Iranians had managed to avoid reaching their break point by 3 points and so theoretically it was a draw but objectively the Iraqis had scored a victory and the Iranians would be forced to withdraw.
The game played out over two sessions, that wasn’t the intent but I think on the first day we were all still suffering from ‘Christmas stodge’ so our faculties were on low power 🤣 Reflecting on the game itself, the narrative worked out fine and gave both sides a challenge; for the Iraqis, deal as much damage as possible before the big boys arrive – they did! for the Iranians, use the on table stuff to establish an early dominance – they didn’t. The die rolls for arrivals certainly favoured the Iraqis but the Iranians didn’t help themselves by dithering; they dithered about crossing the river – one of the tank battalions would have been the better choice here because even if it didn’t cross it had the range to shoot a fair way across the table, they dithered with the M150s and they dithered with the Chieftains – way too cautious about the ATGWs. A good start to the year and a game that was also noteworthy for a huge amount of blunders on both sides which provoked much hilarity all round.
Next on the calendar, and still on a cold war theme, was a personal away day down Oxford way to play a divisional level game on a 27 foot long table over two days using a set of rules under development by Alasdair Harley who came into contact with via Facebook – I went away for the weekend to meet a bloke I met on Facebook 🤣
I liked the rules. Each base (see above) represented a tank battalion for Warpac – I think NATO forces are slightly different and so you fight at a brigade level which means that some things are a bit abstracted but overall it worked well.
As the Warpac player you do feel like you are using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut and the losses do pile up, which in theory is what most think might have happened. Overall I had a good weekend and would play it again.
Back on home turf we refought the battle of Nordlingen 1634, the one the Swedes should never have fought and having fought as the Swedes I can see why!
For those in need of a history lesson the Swedes under Gustav Horn and Bernhard of Saxe Weimar took on a numerically superior Imperial/Spanish force in defensive positions under the cardinal Infante Ferdinand and Ferdinand of Hungary. On the Swedish right Horn relentlessly attacked uphill against entrenched Spanish tercios for several hours while Bernhard occupied the Imperial centre and right to prevent them reinforcing the left. The disparity in numbers meant that Bernhard was hard pushed to do anything of note and so consequently Horn fell back exhausted and as he tried to disengage was hit by an Imperial counter attack which swept away the Swedes in a rout which saw the end of Swedish involvement in the war.
In our attempt at history the armies were deployed as per the historical prototypes – as much as can be determined from conflicting sources but once deployed players could act as they wished.
Our redoubtable Swedes opted for the cavalry stratagem, using Bernhard’s cavalry to batter the right of the Imperial line and to filter Horn’s cavalry across the back of the Swedish line to follow on through the gaps punched by Bernhard. Meanwhile Horn would demonstrate against the fortified hill position.
The problem with plans is they rarely survive contact with the enemy 🙄 Bernhard’s attack didn’t go quite as well as expected and was stopped almost as soon as it began. The ride of Horn’s cavalry took longer than anticipated and when they arrived there were no real holes to exploit just defeat to reinforce 😮
Bernhard did manage to commit some of his infantry but numbers told against him.
There was a bit of a fight for the hill when the cocky Spanish came down to fight like proper gentlemen and got a bit of a duffing but the death of Horn and Spanish cavalry flowing round the flanks now that Horn’s own cavalry had gone meant that history was repeated, just differently.
Our final battle was Timurids v Mamluks in the ongoing development of my rules for the period. The battle was an equal points game – refights and narratives are somewhere in the future. The Timurids featured two divisions of formed cavalry and skirmish cavalry plus elephants equating roughly to a tumen of 10,000 overseen by the Army General and his Guard plus a separate contingent of White Sheep Turcomen. The Mamluks featured the Royal Mamluks accompanying the Army General, two divisions of Emirs Mamluks, exclusively made up of formed cavalry supported by city militias plus separate contingents of Black Sheep Turcomen and Bedouin.
Looking out from the Mamluk lines a stream between two low hills flowed diagonally across the table ending in a wooded pond area on the edge of the left centre of the Timurid baseline. A track entered from the opposite corner to cross the stream and end at an abandoned crusader fort in the middle of the battlefield. A low hill extended from the Mamluk left edge centrally into the gaming area, an obvious magnet to both sides.
The Mamluks deployed from the hills/stream left to their side edge, Turcomen next to the hill, then Emirs Mamluks with Royal Mamluks behind and then past the castle the Bedouin screening the other Emirs mamluk division.
The Timurids deployed with both divisions on their right between the table edge and the wooded pond with the Turcomen out beyond the pond over the stream. The Guard sat behind the centre.
My vision for the rules and the games is lots of arrow fire with contact in the closing stages and within the first two turns the Bedouin experienced just that; they advanced up to the low hill and were met at the top by a barrage of arrows from the skirmish cavalry elements of the right hand Timurid division. Two failed morale tests later and they were on their way.
The rest of the day saw the fight on and around that hill flow back and forth with the Timurids benefitting from better armour but hampered by stampeding elephants. Eventually the Timurids prevailed and the flank was lost.
In the centre it was much as I envisioned; skirmish cavalry in cantabrian circle firing out and everyone else letting fly where they could. The constricted space between castle and stream rather favoured the smaller Timurid division, the mamluks suffered from trying to fit in the swirling Turcomen, the Royal mamluks and the Emirs mamluks.
The battle was always going to be won or lost in the centre and as we played on that became clear.
The collapse of the Mamluk right.
As we closed the day out both divisions of Emirs Mamluks are gone. The Royal Mamluks remain but the Timurids are pushing both flanks and have uncommitted cavalry. The day belonged to the Timurids.
We had the chance to fight the battle again a couple of days later with different commanders. The Timurids deployed basically the same if a bit further over to their left which meant that the Turcomen were further over the stream. The mamluks deployed differently; their Bedouin were out on the far right hoping to swing around the Timurid left, the Turcomen were on the left screening one division of Emirs Mamluks, the other division was to the right of the castle with the Royal Mamluks behind.
This time the Mamluks were not so constricted in the centre and gave a better account of themselves.
On the ‘hill of death’ honours were more even and the slow moving Timurid heavy armoured formed cavalry took too long to get in and make a difference – thank Allah for elephants!
At the close we were back in the centre again with both sides having pierced the others line essentially leaving a stalemate.
Overall I’m pleased with the rules. Some more work to be done on the command and control especially the issuing of changes of orders by drums and trumpets – stay tuned 😂
Still haven’t got my mojo back for painting and modelling, just not feeling it. My reading fell victim to socialising but I have been reading this, an excellent read about Generals doing their best with limited resources and scant direction in an important but less well documented corner of the war – the Trans Mississippi. refreshing not having to read yet another book that is all about Grant.
That’s it, so until next time, play well and be respectful.
Westbury Wargamers 