Pfaffing About - part 1

 

This was another of our 'Cold War gone hot' games set in the early 1980s and saw the debut outing (not counting solo games) of both my Austrian mechanised brigade and my Czech motor rifle regiments.  Above is a Czecho motor rifle battalion - GHQ infantry and Scotia OT-64.  I've owned the OTs for over 20 years but painted them only in 2020.  It doesn't do to rush these things...

The field of battle.  In NBC a hex is 1km across and a stand generally represents a NATO-style company or a Warpact half-battalion.  The game featured units of the Czecho 15 MRD - part of 4th Combined Arms Army - sweeping through northern Austria and up towards Bavaria.  While casting around on Google Maps for suitable terrain I spotted the area of Pfaffing and the scenario name suggested itself!  I ran the game and hosted the Zoom call.  John A led the Austrians while Martin and Michael provided direction to the Czechos.

NATO air recce photos shared with the Austrians showed mechanised columns advancing.  This is a whole motor rifle regiment.

62 MRR trundling on from the east.

The Austrian forces represented their last remaining Mech Bde.  And advance battalion of JagdPanzer Kurassier was soon joined by a battalion each of M-60 tanks and Panzergrenadiers, as well as a battery each of AA and artillery.

The town of Pfaffing was soon swarming with motor rifle troopers.  They were immediately under fire from Austrian infantry just to the west.

The Czechos were very pleased to see their attached T-72 battalion!

Things were soon pretty warm - with the MRB in Pfaffing exchanging fire with the infantry in the marsh - though the latter declined their commander's invitation to close assault - hence the yellow marker.

Meanwhile the Au tanks had deployed on the major road junction and were exchanging fire with T-55s and Sagger operators.

But here come the T-72s!

Another MRB advances.

By now the T-55 btl was losing the battle against the M-60s - would the Czechs be able to concentrate sufficient force to prevent the advance stalling?

In Pfaffing the original MRB was looking very tatty and the engineer co had also suffered (stands can generally take two hits)

While the M-60s had taken a hit...

...the T-55s were down to 50% - but the T-72s were in range!

When the last of 62 MRR had cleared the eastern area, the bridging units came plodding on.  The Czech CO wisely sent them to park up on a side road so they didn't get in the way.

The game was played over two evenings - this brings us pretty much to where we left off on Tuesday.  What will happen next?

Soviet Independent Tank Brigade, 1980s

A bit of a change of scale now - and the first 6mm toys I’ve completed for about 8 years!
Having taken new interest in my NATO Brigade Commander (NBC hereafter) game of late, I’ve been revisiting some drawers full of bits and pieces to see if I could assemble any complete units. There was actually more than I thought so I’m currently focussed on the Cold War units. This means that we have French and West German (remember them?) units coming soon, but for now here is a ‘quick win’ in the shape of an Independent Tank Brigade. These models have actually been painted and part based for some years so I only had to finish off the basing and do some touching in of the paint.
In NBC, most stands represent NATO-style companies so Warpact tank battalions usually merit only two stands. The three tank battalions of the ITB, however, each have five 10-tank companies so I’ve represented them by three stands each. Other Brigade assets are companies of AA, engineers, recce and HQ.  The tanks are T-80U by GHQ, with other models by Heroics & Ros, Scotia, and ISM. The stands are 30x40mm cut from artists mounting board. The little squares  in the rear of the bases are bits of magnetic strip to allow the attachment of strength point markers if the toys are used in my Megablitz game.