The Commander Series Forum

Having become totally engrossed reading about the various crisis point mega games I thought "well Patrick, you have a full division of Soviets and reinforced heavy brigade of Americans to put them up against, you can hold a mega game of your own if you want" so I quickly typed out a scenario premise and thought of a couple of ideas for holding a roughly 30,000 points a side game sometime in the summer. If anyone is interested and the travel is not too far (I live in Hermitage, West Berkshire- near Newbury) you would be welcome to join in.

Here is the premise

Rolling the Iron Dice- Operation Mars 1991
“If the iron dice must role, may God help us all”- Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, before the start of the First World War.

Since assuming power in 1985 Premier Mikhail Gorbachev had embarked on the ambitious programs of perestroika and glasnost; political reform and openness respectively. To the west this was a promising and welcome thaw in the cold war and in east-west relations. To the hardliners within the communist party it was a disaster and the reason for the calamitous events of 1989: the fall of communist governments throughout Europe and culminating in the Re-unification of Germany. Now the New Union Treaty being drawn together seemed the first step to the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself. Enough was enough, someone had to act.

On the 19th of August, 8 hardliner communist government officials seized control of the Kremlin and declared a state of emergency, assuming control of all state functions. Gorbachev and Yeltsin were both arrested and quickly shot, leaving the loyalist backlash confused and leaderless. Skirmishing took place throughout Moscow culminating with the storming of the White House- the Loyalist centre of resistance by the Taman Guards. By the 22nd it was clear that the coup d’état had been success and that power had changed hands for good. Former vice-president Gennady Yanayev was appointed Premier of the Soviet Union and quickly moved to re-establish central Soviet control over Eastern Europe and the dissident Soviet republics.

Unsurprisingly the civil unrest this caused led to one sided clashes between protesters and the Red Army and in Poland, pitched battles, after the Polish military refused to stand aside and allow peaceful demonstrations to be crushed. A horrified west watched scenes familiar from the Tiananmen Square massacres in their living rooms but daren’t intervene, rightly thinking that this could quickly escalate into all-out war. Polish resistance was finally crushed at the Battle of Warsaw but the brutal tactics that were used take the city only inflamed resistance elsewhere. If there was to be any hope of pacifying the eastern bloc the Soviet Union would have to reassert itself as the dominant military and political power.

This presented the Soviet government with a difficult choice. NATO forces were at their weakest in decades following their recent deployment to the gulf, while the Red Army maintained a sizeable presence in Germany. If a lighting offense to defeat NATO on the battlefield could be successfully mounted, the eastern European dissidents would have no choice but to fall into line. At the same time the Atlantic alliance would be left humbled and humiliated and the threat of a reunified Germany would be removed. If it failed, all hold over Europe would be lost and the Soviet Union shattered.

Throughout the summer of 1991 staff planners worked in absolute secrecy to prepare the operation- to be codenamed Mars after the red planet that its success would bring. The objectives would have to be limited and obviously so, so as not to risk a US strategic retaliation and the Rhine River would serve as the stop line for the advance. The attack would be carried out by the existing forces in Germany with minimal logistical build up to ensure strategic surprise and catch NATO forces in their barracks. The operation was to take 7 days following which a cease fire would be offered.

US and British intelligence services were not caught flat footed. After the battles in Poland the victorious VII corps had been rushed back to Germany to retake its positions along the iron curtain and 48 hours before the invasion SACEUR was given the order to move his units into forward fighting positions and his aircraft to dispersal sites. Recognising that his cover had been blown C in C West asked for and was given permission to move the start date of the offensive forward 24 hours in the hope that while neither side would be fully ready, NATO would be less ready than he was . Thus a meeting engagement of apocalyptic proportions developed on the central German plains with the fate of Europe at stake.

Sounds good What scale are your minis?

6mm

Sounds good - hope you get plenty of takers!

Patrick,

I would be interested.

Pat

Very interesting, love to hear more about it.

Cheers

Andy

Thanks for showing interest. The game would be sometime in the summer and would be based around a battle between the 79th Guards Tank division of the 8th Guards army vs the 1st brigade of the 3rd Infantry (VII corps) plus assorted assets on each side. I have all the miniature for this but if you want to bring your stuff then just think of a plausible back story and their in. The main thing I would need from any participants is terrain but I could buy/build my own if necessary

Patrick,

Diary/family commitments allowing would be interested. However, one confession, I don't know the CWC rules, as I'm waiting for Mk.2 to be published. Played BKC so mechaincs I hope are the same or similar.
But would love to come along if able to.

Gary

Hi Patrick
I'd be interested as well do you have any idea of where the battle will take place ?
Fulda Gap? Or another place ?
Happy to help build terrain
Sean

The battle would be in the area near Sweinfurt and wurzburg between the Saale and Main rivers as I have a pretty good map of the area using the Air and Armour board game from west end games. They also have pretty detailed OOBs that I would be using.

On the topic on CWC2 it would be great if it was out then and we could inaugurate it with a big game but if not CWC is familiar to anyone who has played BKC so it wont be a problem

Hi Firestorm I've just looked at the map it's very basic the grounds ale mentioned is on Hex is a Mile so I roughly work it out at 64 by 32 miles.
Sean

I'd decide what table size is available, then it should be realively straightforward to convert table size to CWC ground scale and grab a suitable map from the area off Google Maps or Google Earth - maybe with a bit of poetic scale licence to include some key terrain features.

Cheers

Andy

Just spit-balling ideas but using a restricted section of the map we could do Bad Kissinger to Swienfurt. The reds could have broken through further north at Fulda then driven the 79th Guard down south as an OMG with the aim of crossing the Main at Swienfurt and continuing down to Nuremberg into V corps rear areas to cut off and destroy the forces down there. Still is about 15 by 10 hexes but alot more workable don't you think

Hope this site helps a little
http://www.1-33rdar.org/centralfront.htm
Sean

Firestorm try this link its for spearhead and only goes upto 86 but gives an idea
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/luke/ueda-sarson/US3rdMe...

Sean

Thanks, both the pages look really useful

that would be wonderfull

You might find this useful http://orbat.com/site/history/historical/nato/w...

Cheers
steve

In order to try out some of the houserules for the main game and because I now have a perfect scenario to game warpac vs warpac I cooked up this trial scenario

Practice Scenario: Solidarity

Briefing: Col Ludwig Porkorski 16th independent tank brigade, comanding

For too long our people have been oppressed by Moscow with we in the army standing by silently. Today we are told to stand by once more but we will not. While we still breathe there will be no red flag over Warsaw, Poland will be for the Poles and if the Russians try to take it from us they will pay the price.

The 16th Brigade is ordered to conduct a flank attack on the 79th Guards Tank division which has been taken from the 8th army to attack Warsaw from the West. Soviet forces believe us to be loyalists so should not realize that they are in danger until it is too late. The lead regiment must be crushed quickly or else we will be caught between them and the follow on forces and annihilated.


Briefing: Gen Aleksi Vavilov 79th Guards Tank Division,commanding

The Polish. Always the Polish. We liberate them from the Germans,set up a socialist utopia for the good of their workers and spend blood and treasure defending them from the west and still they are intransigent. Enough is enough- either they will bow to their rightful masters we will teach them a lesson they won't forget.

The 227th Tank regiment is to conduct a rear attack on Polish forces defending Warsaw which have been held in place by 3 divisions attacking from the East. The 216th Regiment is to be in the second echelon ready to reinforce the main attack where necessary. the Loyalist Polish 16th Independent Tank Brigade is also to take part in the assault and for symbolic reason is to be kept as unblooded as possible so that it can lead the victory parade through Warsaw scheduled for tomorrow.


Set Up: The 227th Regiment is in its staging areas in the center of the board facing east and preparing to advance. The 16th brigade arrives by mobile deployment on turn 1 on the south board edge (short). On turn 4 the 220th Regiment arrives from the west via mobile deployemnt.

The terrain is largely open with small copses of trees and streams around the area. A few villages and hills are also sactred about.

Surprise: On turn 1 all Soviet units suffer a -1 command penalty

Hi Patrick
Are you any further on with this ? How did the scenario go.
Regards
Sean
.

I do intend to complete this put to be honest I had a bunch of other stuff going on so it kind of slipped to the bottom of the pile. I will put up the reports if and when I do them.