Quote:
"On the 2nd July, Irish Defence Forces launched one of their few counter-attacks of the campaign, aimed at seizing the Dublin-Waterford railway line. This attack conincided with a number of Soviet advances to seize strategic areas to use as fortified positions during the forthcoming attacks by British forces advancing from the North."
The second game in our linked Soviet-Irish campaign featured an Irish platoon attack meeting a Soviet thrust head-on. The first game had meet with a virtual massacre of Soviet troops as they tried to capture a vital bridge. This time the Soviets would be trying to take control of a factory area that sits next to the Dublin-Waterford main road. The Irish objective would be to get atleast one of their units to the opposite side of the railway line.
The game was played using the latest playtest version of
Force-on-Force from Ambush Alley Games.
The Table
Soviet forces began as the 'aggresor' and they would indeed hold the initiative for the entire game, forcing the Irish to act aggresively while on the backfoot. Due to the close terrain the first two moves saw the two sides closing with each other. The Soviets had their airborne troops in BMDs moving on the eastern flank as their unit on foot with the heavy weapons squad moved on the western flank. Irish forces split to face these threats and the Irish platoon HQ took what would turn out to be a vital position on the roof of the old brickworks.
Irish troops on their start line...
Soviet troops cross the railway...
Irish troops take up position in the woods...
As several units of Soviet VDV reach the factory entrance...
...The Irish HQ with their Carl Gustav takes an exposed, but vital position.
The third turn began with the theme that the rest of the game would take. One of the beauties of the F-on-F system is the way the turns blur together. Rather than feeling like you are playing a game, you feel like you are involved in an ongoing and developing action. Turns blur together as both player act and counteract to each other. This also forces the players to adopt real world tactics of dupport and fire as units advance, and it soon became apparent that those units without coverinf units, soon came off worse. Both sides engaged in heavy small arms fire, with the Soviets gaining a slight advantage due to ther plethora of special weapons. At first things seemed to go all the Soviets way and accross the table Irish troops became casualties. Along with this the Irish AML-90 lost its main gun to a hit from a BMD. Things looked bleak for the Irish.
Irish troops in one of the factories...
Soviet support weapons cover the main road...
Irish troops move past fallen comrades...
BMD troops move along the road...
A section of Irish Rangers occupy the ruined house...
In response to this fire the Irish could do little but did cause some Soviet casualties. As the next tuned started Soviet fire laid out yet more Irish troops and the entire Irish HQ were down. Then it came to the Irish to roll for casualties. Flyer115 did his usual trick with the dice when playing Irish. With 8 casualties to roll for out of his men, he promptly threw 8D6. With the casualty chart, rolls of six see the casualty get back uninjured. He rolled six 6's! As the Irish stood back up, you could detect that the Irish side had just won the moral victory with that one dice throw! The rest of the Irish troops had similar luck and many got back up. Due to this the Irish were able to let rip with a fusilade of fire. The Irish Scorpion tank destroyed the main gun on one BMD, which quickly drove off to see use as an ambulance, and in the following turn despatched a second. The HQ unit rained down fire from their position and hit a BMD with a round from the Carl Gustav. As the round hit, the unit still in the BMD quickly jumped out, straight into the line of fire of a hidden Irish unit. Utterly exposed, three of the five VDV troopers lay bleeding in the road. Things got worse as the Rangers wiped out another unit.
Whoosh goes the Gustav!
Rangers take the fight to the Soviets...
BMD takes on a new roll as ambulance...
Some VDV get in to the old complex managers office but draw more fire...
The climax of the game saw the Rangers take the railway line with no oppostion. As Soviet troops carried wounded to the rear, some finally made it into the factory complex but the irish had enough troops still in the area to contest it. Indded by the end of the game the Scorpion was firing rounds across the yard at VDV in the large factory. At this point our six turn limit was up and we pronouced an Irish victory, though at heavy cost.
Irish firing from their defences...
VDV finally secure the large factory...
Well this is about our sixth playtest of F-on-F and as the rule get revised they get better and better. The game gives such a sense of realism due to its mechanics and every action needs to be considered. Units have to support each other and a player is awarded for using real world actions. Get caught in the open and be prepared to die... Hold a strong position in a building and you can trade fire for quite a while...
This game gets better and better with each revision and its gonna make Modern and WW2 skirmish gaming something real special...
