I've never been a big fan of hex-based wargames, but this one is bit special and has grabbed my attention. I bought it just before going on holidays and it runs fine on my old laptop with integrated graphics, as I sit at a beach house with the weather not good enough for swimming. Perfect diversion.
The game covers a great period (cold-war gone hot in Germany in the 1980s and ties in nicely with Steel Beasts Pro PE), but the game's dynamic and asymmetric orders periods lift it way above the pack. The game simulates the different effects of combat, losses, attacks on HQs, and enemy electronics jamming etc, on the ability to issue orders. From one turn to the next, not only is your ability to issue orders limited in number and dynamic (maybe only one order one turn, seven the next, reflecting how your forces are doing), but the periods between orders are similarly dynamic based on the same variables - so one orders phase (turn) may be 18 minutes and the next 35. And your orders cycle can be very different to the enemy's.
Makes it quite challenging, since once you have given orders, you rely on the AI to manage things until your next turn for orders. Luckily the AI is competent within your orders, and you can hand over control of your artillery to your support staff, so that during turns your HQ may relocate to avoid enemy pinpointing and your arty may shoot and scoot. However, the enemy AI is great from my experience and they can deliver some surprises in turn.
Another nice touch is the use of unit silhouettes in addition to NATO style designations, which gives the game an immediacy that would be lacking otherwise.
In this scenario, A Time to Dance, the Warsaw Pact (WP) has attacked unexpectedly and the Blackhorse Regiment are scrambling to hold up their advance, as the first NATO unit to face the enemy attack, near Bad Neustadt, West Germany.
My forces are the 2nd Squadron, 11th ACR. To start with, I have some reconn assets on the map, mostly Humvees but also a Bradley troop. Following up the road and set to arrive in dribs and drabs over the next hour or so of in-game time, are supporting infantry and mortar units, but more importantly, five squadrons of M1A1 (HA) tanks. Existing minefields and obstacles might slow the Warsaw Pact forces down, but I also have a river barrier, with four bridges in my AO to hold or blow; and which the WP will be wanting to use to move west. I can blow them (it takes 30 minutes of game time), but for 3 of them, I can't set up close enough to give demolition orders in the setup phase. I will have to try to use my limited orders capability to decide whether to blow the bridges or keep my reconn forces hidden. Ideally, I want those bridges out of action, to delay the baddies and create road congestion I can concentrate fire on.
Once I press start, I will have 32 minutes game time before my next orders because we are scrambling (and an expected 34 minutes to the next orders), while the enemy only has 18 minutes between orders. They are inside my orders cycle and we are starting in trouble - the enemy will be able to respond much faster than me.
The WP forces must be close by, because they have taken a victory point a few kms to the east. I can expect first to see enemy reconn forces (BRDM or BMPs) followed by tanks. However, we have tanks with thermal sights and the enemy doesn't.
However, a big problem is the time of day. It is pre-dawn, haze and fog, with a visibility of 1,500 metres. This is a big problem, because not only does this limit our engagement range to one that at least puts us on equal footing with the WP tanks, but as the sun rises, thermal inversions will also stuff up our optics. A big advantage for NATO, that of much longer engagement ranges than the WP (typically 3,000 metres or more for my M1s), is neutralised at the start. Unless visibility improves after the sun comes up, we will be toe to toe with the enemy tanks, and the WP relies on volume - we will be seriously outnumbered and rolled up.
However, I do have a potential ace up my sleeve. Once my mortars turn up (assuming they do), I can drop smoke in front of my positions. With our thermal optics, my Bradleys and M1s should be able to strike at blinded WP tanks. However, if i can't get those bridges blown, we may still get steamrollered.
My initial orders (unlimited in the setup phase, but only one order per unit at the moment) are for the southern bridge to be blown and the remaining units to make hasty moves to the remaining bridges in preparation for their demolition.
Turn 1
My units make their hasty moves to the bridges. The southern bridge is blown, but the Bradley I placed in the middle moves away from the bridge soon after arriving there. The stance for units given hasty moves is 'screen' and so the unit has probably detected something nasty coming along the road, heading for the bridge and is backing out of trouble. Bugger. This means I can't blow that bridge in the next turn. During the turn I get some good news. Two troops of M1s have arrived to the west, and a unit of Bradleys have arrived. No enemy seen, though the withdrawal into cover of my Bradley reconn unit bodes ill.
Turn 2
Bad news. I can give only one order this turn. Even though I have some M1s I could push down the road, I decide to use my only order this turn to blow the bridge to Rodelmaier. This will mean the enemy has two bridge options in the north. If I can get at least one of those blown after this turn, I may be able to channel the enemy tanks across one location, which I can cover with my tanks and drop a bunch of smoke on.
Rather than the expected 34 minutes, our next orders phase will be in 27 minutes, meaning we are in more reasonable shape (though the enemy's order phase is still heaps shorter than ours).
While during this turn I got some more M1s, I also got a very nasty surprise. One minute before the end of the turn, the enemy appears. The only problem is that instead of some lightly armed reconn elements as Soviet doctrine leads me to expect, the WP is leading with tanks - 10 of them are spotted approaching the northern bridge at Heustreu! I have nothing in place that can stop them, and with visibility still around 1,500 metres in a hazy dawn (0459), there is no chance for a long range engagement, keeping them at arm's length. To further complicate things, the next orders phase is 38 minutes away. There is every chance the WP will brush aside my recon unit and get right among my arriving units while they are still off balance.
I have just three (3) orders. First, I give 1/D/2 M1A1 unit an assault order down the road to a location with good visibility on the bridge, as a desperate gambit to blunt the enemy's tank attack. I roll the dice with my second order, to the reconn unit holding the northern bridge to blow it. I doubt they will be able to before they are destroyed by the approaching tanks, but I must try. BMPs can swim, but it should take 30 minutes or more for the WP to get a bridge up for tanks if I can blow it. I really need some artillery!
Turn 3
While some artillery support arrives right at the start of this turn, everything is going seriously pear-shaped in every other respect. My reconn unit at the northern bridge is wiped out before the bridge can be blown and enemy tanks are across in no time, turning south toward Bad Neustadt. My 1/D/2 M1A1 unit gets down the road and fights hard, destroying a number of enemy tanks and some reconn units which are inexplicably following the tanks, including some flank shots on tank units heading south on the road towards Bad Neustadt, but is quickly outnumbered and destroyed. Four tanks and crews gone.
As reconn units are seen on the road approaching the second bridge my Bradley unit protecting that bridge gets a few shots in with 25mm and TOW before it is destroyed.
My mortars fell under the control of my 2IC (the game has an option for AI or player control of fire support), who ordered some HE strikes on potential enemy HQ locations, but the turn ended with the mortars in the middle of a relocation movement (to avoid counter-battery fire). This is a problem for me, because it means I can't give any smoke barrage orders during the next 36 minutes!
So, at the end of the turn, I am in big trouble. While I have two bridges blown in the south of my AO and have a mess of tanks arrived in the rear of my position, the enemy is across the river in strength, is holding two crossing points and has started a strong thrust south-west.
I have seven orders this turn and being unable to order any smoke I intend to focus on getting some M1A1s into position to take some flank shots at the southern thrust and to block any move up the centre (I decide not to turn off staff control of my arty this turn, in the hope they may order some smoke independently).
I give 5 orders, concentrating on getting my tanks moved out and getting some Bradley scouts into cover, as well as moving HQs.
Turn 4
The WP drive toward Bad Neustadt continues and I realise, even as my M1A1s start firing into the flank of the enemy tanks heading south-west, that I have left the way to Bad Neustadt wide open. My M1A1s to the south have a keyhole view of one of the two routes west, but the southernmost of the two east-west roads is effectively open. I will have to scramble some forces south to stop them.
An enemy AA unit spearheads the thrust to Bad Neustadt and the final victory point, with nothing but some HMMV reconn units to stop them. They brush aside one and at the end of the turn I expect the final unit between them and Bad Neustadt to be quickly killed. I lose no M1A1s this turn and they kill plenty of WP tanks on the SW road, with a tally claimed of 24 kills. It's good, but nowhere good enough.
Some good news is I have control over my mortars and I can give them smoke barrage orders at 3 TPs along the route south-west.
Turn 5
I push tanks south with assault orders (they will go firm with Hold orders at the end of their move), give a smoke barrage order which I hope with save my tanks as they reposition and give me back some stand-off advantage (visibility is still 1,500 metres - it is hazy and foggy at 0613), but if I can't stop the enemy push in the next 38 minutes, the game will be over. Ammo is still okay, my orders cycle is lengthening (not good) and while the enemy's has extended to 25 minutes, they are still in much better shape orders-wise than me. I haven't hurt them enough yet.
I have 8 orders to give, but I can't really find more than 5 critical orders to give. The more orders I give, the greater risk that the enemy will be able to pinpoint my HQs and drop HE on them. This is such a great feature of this game - it really forces you to prioritise orders and avoid using all your possible orders up. As it is, we are giving orders at a rate of 112/hr which i worry is high enough to result in an HE drop on my head.
As the turn starts, my dug-in M1A1s covering the eastern end of the route to Bad Neustadt keep smashing WP tanks and BMPs with mech infantry for no further loss, but in the south-west my woes continue. My tanks resposition south a bit and do good work, but the AA unit quickly destroys my HMMV reconn unit at the southern bridge, takes the VP and then heads west - the southern route to Bad Neustadt is wide open!
Disappointingly, my mortars can deliver only one TP with smoke before runing out of smoke rounds and the tempo of the WP advance is such that the hex that did get the smoke isn't the one I most needed to be covered. What saves me is some of my tank units have had time to dig in and they dish out some damage to the flanks of WP tanks moving in the open, without taking effective counter fire.
Turn 6
This is the critical turn. I must get some tanks south to cover the route to the final VP or I'm well and truly done for. I have 8 orders. I give assault orders to three M1A1 units holding the road to the north (and protecting my infantry and HQ units near the western crossroads) to assault south to cover the roads to Bad Neustadt. As a measure of my desperation, one of the units I move is the A/2 HQ tank, which I shift to cover the western VP. The armour HQ unit will be positioned to ambush WP units emerging from the built-up area. With the loss of my reconn units, I am blind to their positions west of the third bridge. Another unit is a half-strength M1 unit that has been in action firing on WP tanks from a dug-in location at the east end of my line and has expended half its ammunition. The main game seems to have moved south-west of it and if i shift it just 500 metres south, it will have a good view of the right flank of the WP advance.
To hopefully cover the possibility of a pincer movement to the north of the main thrust, now that I have realigned my tanks south, I also shift mech infantry units south from their covered positions in the woods north of the road to Wollbach.
If I'm right, and the main WP thrust to Bad Neustadt is along this road on my side of the river, I have a chance of stopping them before they take my final VP. I give up any real chance of recapturing lost VPs and concentrate on retaining some small vestiges of dignity.
My gamble pays off. My M1s get in place north of the road to Bad Neustadt just in time and while the units at the east end of this new line slam flank shots into tank units moving west, at the western end of my line of Forlorn Hopers my HQ unit ambushes the WP AA unit as it races for the final victory point and kills it. Phew. It also deals with some hitherto unseen reconn units, while my eastern tank units put so much punishment into the assaulting WP tanks that two units are destroyed and one retreats!
At this, the scenario ends (before my dug in M1 unit can displace and add additional pressure on the flank of the WP thrust) - the enemy had lost some 30% of its strength and I had retained a single VP.
The debrief gives me a bollocking. I received a Tactical Loss with a 36% rating and some pointed comments on my performance:
"You should be aware that the Inspectorate considers your performance, on balance, to be very disappointing. Need we remind you that you must outperform expectations if you expect to keep your command.
Your force has claimed 9 Recce, 50 Tank, 7 APC, 4 Inf, 9 SP AT, 3 HQ, 5 AD and 4 SP Arty enemy subunits."
Despite a less than stellar performance, I am incredibly happy. What a great game. Clever AI and nail-biting suspense from start to finish. Every turn presented a new challenge and a mix of satisfaction and dread. Recommended.
00ps posted in wrong place Sorry