Inspired by the recent Strong europe NATO excercise and giving my old AAR another read, I decided today would be a good day to continue the fight! However instead of choosing a diverse deck. I choose to go at it with an armored deck! So the bias lies with tanks. The Russians have also reinforced their troops. And for some reason, they too seem to have a focus on armored vehicles now, even more so than they did last time. It’s again a long one, even longer than last time actually.
Let’s get started! Another view at the AO to refresh your picture of the place.
Hotel industrial area. Golf village and Julliet checkpoint. I also added the tactically located village of Charlie. So far mayor Ivan was the boss here. Let’s see what we can do about it.
Unfortunatly no Hueys this time. It’s all about the panzergrenadiers today. They driver the Marder 2 IFV as fast as possible. Hoping to not encounter hostiles as they lock down Julliet.
The armored divisions do not embed as many flakpanzer gepards amongst their ranks as I would have liked. So they are only ordered to protect valuable assets. The troops have to rely on the FIM-92C Stinger for air defense. These are operated by specialists who come in an M113 APC wich carries some spare systems. Coming to think of it. It may actually be a better idea as yesterday proved the Gepard is not as scary to hostile air as I had hoped. They where regulary engaged by weapons like the Vikhr at standoff range, leaving troops vulnerable. Now it won’t be possible to target the anti-air effort. Engaging the village with airborne assets may still prove deadly.
Leopard II’s are on the way to hold down the woods around Hotel. Gepards will set up positions nearby to protect the highly valued assets. Tanks are also highly mobile ofcourse. Much more so than infantry is. The gepards can keep the pace and provide air defense, even when on the move. Much more useful than stingers in this scenario.
Accompanying my tanks is this so called Aufklarungspanzer Leopard 1A1. While still retaining the gun, this system has specialist sensors for detecting enemies. It will relay target info to the MBT’s.
Proven valuable during the last fight, in the open-terrain killzone, the Raketenjagdpanzer II fights another day. Again choosing positions allowing for shots longer ranged than any gun can reach.
Appreciating the reconnaissance work by my snipers last game. I decided to place recon units in many strategic positions. With Sniper teams not embedded in the armored forces. I have to rely on Bundesgrenzschützen to keep an eye out for me. Not equiped with a PSG-1, they will have to use a G3 for their personal defense, although they have a Blindicide rocket launcher to try and defeat tanks.
Leopards are enroute to reinforce the areas around the golf village. Again supported by an Aufklarungspanzer. The Roland ADS, a very valuable asset during the last fight. Is given some attention here. It will take up a position behind Golf and support the stingers and be the primary weapon to defeat and repel jets.
This recon bird will keep an eye on positions between Golf and Hotel.
First contact! Today, as expected, it’s the tanks that open up. The enemy seems to have wisened up a lot from the fight yesterday. Infantry carrying IFV’s moving up together with the tanks this time, preventing them from being cut off from support. The SHORAD is actually in the back this time.
However nothing can prevent those Sabots from getting through.
However with my tanks giving their positions away, the Russian armed forces prove the value of their doctrine by sticking ATGM’s on any mobile vehicle. I’m being faced with waves of missiles.
Despite that I order my men to move back and front in order to break LOS and confuse hostiles, this means I give my enemies time to manoeuvre. They close the distance and soon it’s not possible to dodge ATGM’s anymore. This unlucky fellows takes 4 to the face and succumbs from those wounds. The other guy managed to retreat in time.
I hurt some of their powerful T-80’s but not that many are destroyed. Soon I’ll have to hand over my positions to the enemy or risk being wiped out.
Called to work earlier than expected. The Luftwaffe gets to work and thins out the number of these valuable tanks.
My old positions burn as the Luftwaffe tries to weed out some enemies as they cross the open to take my old spot.
The enemy, steals my idea as always. A Frogfoot is sent to the frontline. Embedding those Stingers with the infantry proved useful. The Frogfoot apperently managed to cross into the WEZ of stingers positioned at Hotel. A missile is inbound on the bandit. Meanwhile, a Roland anti-air missile and 35mm shells are also inbound, seems I got this covered.
He got further than I expected. But the stinger hit and 35mm bursts and hits stressed to pilot out so bad that he did not bring weapons to bear. Noone on my side got hurt. A stinger positioned somewhere else provided the finishing touch.
During lunchtime, the Gepard crew can go and inspect the kill they took part in.
Recognizing the setback. The enemies try to find new positions. The Luftwaffe has solutions for targets in the open. They must be really damning that phantom!
Some tanks make it to the industrial Hotel area. Should be safe, right? Only hostile recon elements where reported in this area… To bad they had that Blindicide anti-tank missile!
The missile, an upgraded version of the WW2 bazooka with only 300mm of penetration, hits the T-80 where it hurts and destroys it.
Assets are moved in to keep the Luftwaffe at bay. To bad that the Luftwaffe knows no fear. and the AGM-65 has a lot of range…
The second Maverick is confused by the explosion and goes haywire. The other Strela has launched! This is going to be dangerous.
Close enough. I estimate the seperation at about 7 metres. The missile flew a few dozen extra metres before self-destructing.
If there’s a phantom in the air… Always expect another one to be too… This Strela didn’t while getting to another position. Better put two missiles on target. Just to be safe.
With a bit of micromanaging. You can get two aircraft to fly side-by-side enroute to the target. Very cool looking. And very valuable when dropping iron bombs like these guys are. Simultaneous strike and also multiple targets for the enemy to worry about. With the Phantoms rearming, it’s time to deploy these tornados!
Pickle! The targets are vehicles moving in on the Hotel industrial area. Unfortunatly one Tornado has hung stores… It was the Tornado that was supposed to lead. The bombs that did launch fall behind, damit… My forces at Hotel are whiped out.
Angered with my losses. I saw the enemy tanks retreat from hotel after cleaning it up. I assumed they would take cover in the nearby woods and wait for reinforcements and replenishments. I decided to give the rearmed tornado’s the order to perform a retalitory strike on those woods. It turns out I got danger close to their exact positions! If you look closely, you can see some tanks at the edge of the woods.
The enemy is trying to open a second front. The Golf village now also lies under siege. As per doctrine, long ranged ATGM’s anounce the start of the fight.
Leopards hidden in the woods left and right of the village remind me that they are actually the stars of todays show. Even though the Luftwaffe has been taking a lot of credit for efforts in the last few fights.
Back at Hotel.Tanks are picking off enemy vehicles. SHORAD takes care of air assets and the Phantoms pick off HVT’s like T-80’s. leaving only T-72’s for the Leopards to chew on.
The enemy is trying to use some sort of momentum to try and get around me, but they are picked of at tempo, leaving enemies only exposing their vulnerable sides to APFSDS.
With the strela underperfoming against Mavericks similair to how my Gepards underperfomed against Vickr, the enemy now deploys Zu-23-4 Afghanskii against me as well. This Shilka modification was used in the Soviet-Afghanistan war. It had all radar equipment removed as it was not needed there. This means it won’t provide emissions for the AGM-88 to lock on. The enemy will probably try to hide these and hopes my unaware phantoms fly over it.
My panzergrenadiers have retaken the Hotel industrial area that the enemy had abandoned… They spotted the enemies, still resupplying in the woods that I barely missed last time. The coordinates are relayed to the luftwaffe.
Enemy vehicles and supply trucks.
Everybody dies.
The siege of Golf conflict flares up again. A typical pattern is followed. The enemy tanks show up. My ATGM specialists start the fight. My tanks open up but are also greeted by a hail of missiles. The enemy is trying to rush it though. Getting in the range of shoulder fired misiles and exposing sides to the Leopard II.
SA-19 was send in to keep the T-80’s safe near Hotel. That didn’t work out as planned. the Tornado ECR didn’t fly over any Afghanskii positions.
Having being using the righthand bridge mostly during the assault. The enemy tries to open a third front and use the lefthand bridge as well now. The gauntlet starts to apply again and hostiles need to cross my ATGMs.
Actually getting close to my tanks in the woods. I retreat my Leopards in the direction of the village so their frontal armor faces the enemy, and the Panzerfaust weapons held by the panzergrenadiers can support the leopards. A BO-105 also provides support against exposed armor.
Enemy is sending infantry through the woods. My reconnaissance troops are still active and instead of shooting. They relay the info to the Luftwaffe. Half of this squad is scattered in the casualty radius of that explosion.
Some enemies make it through. Trying to take a position behind my front lines. They are greeted by two MG3’s wich luckily supresses the enemy enough to prevent them from aiming their RPG-7 wich would be a real threat to the M113.
With the enemy safely locked on the floor. I send in this asset to finish the job.
Unfortunatly, a Tornado of mine makes a wrong turn somewhere and passes over the Afghanskii’s… No more cool side-by-side bombing today.
Massive attack from the right-hand bridge at Golf. Some Leopards II reinforce the position, and 8 of them are shooting at their sides now, from the woods. I think I have been defending myself long enough now! Their attacks slow down and it’s time to be go on the offensive myself. My casualties have been managable so I think i can afford it.
Let’s show these russians how to do a tank assault. The trick to defeating soviet armor, in my experience, is to quickly traverse their ‘golden range’ where their ATGM’s can rain down on you but you can’t shoot back. Once in range the Leopards will have to rely on their excellent stabilizers to engage Soviets who did not unload that missile from their gun and trying to guide a weapon in guns range.
The distance is being closed as dead enemies are being passed. Stationary enemies are being destroyed. I guess they didn’t expect the counter attack yet.
I’m normally not a fan of artillery in wargame. I don’t like shooting in the air, hoping for kills. However shooting Charlie town to shake the ground and stress people out in that town so they can’t guide ATGM’s is fair use to me. This place is where I’d expect the Soviets second line of defense.
A gunfight ensues. Some panicking soviet vehicles. One guy guiding an ATGM is met with gunfire. I suffer no losses on the attack.
Enemies are mobilising to get around and flank me. This shot was not at a great angle but soon they’ll be looking at my side at a nice near-90 degrees.
I predicted this would happen and faster-lighter Leopard I’s where already enroute to secure the flanks.
Leopard I’s returning fire on those engaging the main platoons. This secures my right flank. Their own right flank is vulnerable though.
My Leopards II from Golf village move up as planned and seal the front line. I can create overlapping firing lanes from two sides. This helps quickly cleaning up the flanking effort.
It’s time for a very dirty job. With the road to Charlie-town secure. It’s time to take it… the MBT’s circle the south side of the town in order to be able to provide HE support. 8 Marder 2 IFV’s carrying 80 panzergrenadiers set out to take the town.
One click out of town, I order my grenadiers to dismount. I’m sure this is not what they thought they signed up to the bundeswehr for. But it’s actually safer to walk to town as an RPG or ATGM from the 3rd line strike is likely. Not a single grenadier dies while walking to town. Any muzzle-flash is met with overwhelming firepower.
Panzergrenadiers clean up the town as old enemy positions burn.
Another luftwaffe jet is lost as the enemy proves they have several high capability assets hidden closer to their main base. It’s to dangerous to send recon troops so I can’t get a good bead on their location.
My troops take the town. My leopards move up and are met with ATGM’s. They return fire but their positions are dangerous.
My air defenses lagged behind the attack. A pair of Hinds are hunting my troops in the town. An F4F KWS (Kampfwertsteigerung, AIM-120 capable) goes in for a gun attack actually. While not killing them he does scare them off. And they need repairs. That F4 is going to have to deal with the Sa-6 though.
Once more, close enough. The phantom took hits from the afghanskiis but dodged the Kub and will live another day.
The enemy is counterattacking the town. And fighting is hard and brutal. The enemy is using my powerful weapon from yesterday against me, fire. The ground is scorched where this T-80 now treads. It was my old position.
The state of air superiority is weird above charlie town. It’s not held by any-one. It’s not contested, it’s simply non-existant. Numerous Gepards and stinger specialist make sure no enemies survive above charlie-town.
Assets like this SA-15, the SA-6 seen before and numerous Afghanskii’s make sure I won’t bother sacrificing assets untill I can get the AGM-88 to bear.
Flamethrower tanks… My infantry wasn’t looking forward to meeting them. My heroic tornado strikes them and manages to evacuate before getting hit. But was seconds to late to prevent several soldiers from getting incinerated and valuable cover turned to ashes.
Had to retreat to ‘my side’ of the town. The enemy has retaken their side. Fighting is now short ranged. Enemy and friendly vehicles burn.
The fighting for the day ends in super awkward positions. The enemy is only at grenade throwing distance away.
The end! Thanks for reading!
I hope no-one minds it ended quite awkwardly. I play with a 60 minute time-limit. If you play with no timelimit you’ll spend a few hours hunting down the last few units. Still wanted to share all the screenshots I took with you guys 
Normally a battle is concluded in an hour, but I guess today it wasn’t.