“That damn bridge!”A Team Yankee Batrep”

No Retreat: Soviet Afghansty vs. West German Aufklärungs

80 points

By c3k

After kicking my teeth in with the Volkspamee (see above), my buddy wanted to try out an Afghansty list for a prepared attack against my West Germans.

Soviet List

Compulsory Air Assault Battalion HQ (p.4) - 1x AK-74 (1 pts)

Compulsory Air Assault Company (p.5) - 7x AK-74 with RPG-18, 6x RPG-7, 2x PKM LMG (10 pts)- 1x AT-4 Spigot missile (2 pts)

Compulsory Air Assault Company (p.5) - 4x AK-74 with RPG-18, 3x RPG-7 (4 pts)- 1x AGS grenade launcher (1 pts)- 1x AT-4 Spigot missile (2 pts)

Compulsory MI-24 Hind Assault Helicopter Company (p.5) - 2x MI-24 Hind (6 pts)

Compulsory MI-24 Hind Assault Helicopter Company (p.5) - 2x MI-24 Hind (6 pts)

T-72 Tank Company (p.6) - 7x T-72 (32 pts)

BMP-2 Motor Rifle Company (p.8) - 4x AK-74 with RPG-18, 3x RPG-7, 4x BMP-2 (8 pts)- 1x SA-14 Gremlin AA missile, 1x BMP-2 (2 pts)

BMP-1 Recon Platoon (p.7) - 2x BMP-1 (2 pts)

ZSU-23-4 Shilka AA Platoon (p.6) - 4x ZSU-23-4 Shilka (4 pts)

8 platoons. 80 Points

West German List

Panzeraufklarungs Kompanie HQ (p.29) - 1x Leopard 1 (3 pts)

Luchs Spah Trupp (p.30) - 2x Luchs (1 pts)

Luchs Spah Trupp (p.30) - 2x Luchs (1 pts)

Luchs Spah Trupp (p.30) - 2x Luchs (1 pts)

Leopard 1 Panzer Zug (p.30) - 3x Leopard 1 (9 pts)

Leopard 1 Panzer Zug (p.30) - 3x Leopard 1 (9 pts)

Fuchs Panzeraufklarungs Zug (p.31) - 3x MG3 Rifle with Panzerfaust 44 anti-tank rocket, 1x Milan missile, 3x Fuchs (4 pts)

Fuchs Panzeraufklarungs Zug (p.31) - 3x MG3 Rifle with Panzerfaust 44 anti-tank rocket, 1x Milan missile, 3x Fuchs (4 pts)

Gepard Flakpanzer Batterie (p.32) - 4x Gepard (10 pts)

Fliegerfaust Gruppe – 2x Redeye Teams (2 points)

Leopard 2 Panzer Zug (p.22) - 3x Leopard 2 (33 pts)

Lars Raketenwerfer Batterie (p.34) - 2x LARS (3 pts)

10 platoons. 80 Points.

Briefing

• No Retreat: Soviets attacking West Germans• Soviets Deploy everything

• West Germans have Immediate Deep Reserves

• 2 Objectives

• West Germans must eliminateall Soviets from their side of the boardto claim victory.

A

T-72s Assault North Objective with Hind Support

Afghansty and Motor Rifles Assault South Objective

Leo 2s move advance to engage enemy armor

Dismounted Aufklärungs Zug holds objective with APC support until relieved by Leo 1s

Gepards and infantry counter enemy assault

Battle Overview

LARS Battery

Turn 1Night

How the hell do you land a Hind land in the woods at night?

The Soviets deploy forward using their recon and land their hinds in the woods by the south objective. The T-72s hold back. The West Germans try to range in artillery on the Soviet LZ to no effect. The Gepards take a gamble and rush forward, but come up short on their LoS roll. The Leo 2s aggressively push forward to try to make use of their thermal imaging, but also come up short on their LOS roll. The Aufklärungs stay gone to ground and brace for the upcoming assault.

Turn 2 -SovietNight

The Red Menace

Hinds drop off their mooks and swoop in to get a free shot at my Leo 2’s. Luckily the nearby trees provide cover, so they only suffer a single bail. Unfortunately the T-72s are able to swoop in and deliver 5 hits, resulting the entire Leo 2 Zug to be bailed out. On the other side the Afghansty rush forward laying down some fire on the West German recon infantry in the houses across the river. Though hilariously the stone bridge kept blocking LOS for the Soviets.

Turn 2 -GermanNight

Cheers

The fortunes of war suddenly turn against the Soviets as all 3 Leo 2s remount, open fire, and destroy 5 of the 7 T-72s. The manpads and Gepards combined to take out 2 Hinds, who were betrayed by the flash of their missiles. Fuchs MG fire and artillery combine to kill a few of the Soviet infantry.

Turn 3 -Night

Afpansies

The Afghansty move in to assault the river objective. A storm of assault rifles, grenades, and 23 mm shots. One of my MG teams takes a hit, but I pass it over to the Milan team on a “mistaken target” check. The assault claim one Aufklärungs team, but the Germans swing back to kill a couple of Afghansty teams and the Soviets failed their counterattack roll. I collapse down on the assaulting Soviets with my Leo 2s and Gepards, leaving the former stupidly exposed. One Leo 2 will be lost in the next turn with the last 2 running off on turn 5. I think they earned their keep single handedly shutting down the Soviet advance on the North objective.

Bogged

I am an idiot.

Turn 3 –ContinuedNight

Reinforcements!

My turn also brought in 2 reinforcements, so I used the opportunity to rush in 7 Leopard 1s to counterattack the river objective. During the Soviet turn I was able to be cheeky about reconsolidating after an assault, thus leaving the motorized infantry out of assault range. Gepards preceded to unleash a storm of 35 mm rounds down range, pinning the motor rifles down.

Taking 2 LARS was avery good decision for just 2 points. Salvo templates chipped away and added pins on Assaulting Afghansty

Flying V formation of Leopard 1s. Prepare to bathe in MG dice, commie scum!

Turn 4 and 5 –Dawn

Pin to win.

The writing was pretty much on the wall for the Soviets at this point. Luchs start showing up each subsequent turn. Only one unit of Afghansty unpinned to continue the assault. After BMPs bailed out the Gepards, the soviets slipped in and killed another Aufklarungsteam in assault. The bridge continued to frustrate the Soviets line of fire on the Gepards. However they once again failed to counterattack and the lone survivor from the Aufklarungs platoon decided that with reinforcements on the way, they would hold out. From their the Leo 1s crushed the ZSU and BMPs supporting the infantry and the combined weight of fire from the LARS, Gepards, and vehicle MGs

Turn 6Dawn

The End

The Soviets tried to be cheeky and kill a few more teams before retreating, but were unable to knock the last remaining Gepard out with an RPG. I should probably mention the Saggers were pretty effective sitting on hills chucking 3 AT 19 shots each per turn, but their luck ran out, and they were forced to watch while the West Germans cleaned up the last Soviets on the German side of the river. We called it at this point. Decisive West German Victory, 6-1.

Final Thoughts

I have to be humble about this victory. The odds that the Leo 2s would completely bounce back from the amount of fire they took were tiny. I was very fortunate, but it’s also a credit to the armor and firepower of the Leopard 2. They were able to overcome my poor play.

Assaulting in Team Yankee is really hard to pull off, even with Afghansty. As the soviet infantry concentrated up to assault, I was able to drop a salvo template on them each turn which chipped away at them and pinned them down. It’s also hard for the Soviets to bring enough stands into assault to breakthrough.

I think I will have to keep this list until I buy some M113s. The Fuchs aren’t the best, but they can usually survive long enough to act as a speedbump for the enemy assault. The Aufklarungs list is viable, but you need the Leo 2s and you have to be frugal with your support if you are playing at 80 points.

Minimum LARS and Fliegerfausts were great investments and I will make sure they are in future list.

Cheers

Thanks for checking out this batrep. I’ll try to type up another one for the next time we get to play. I’m sure my buddy will make some tweaks to his list and be back for blood. Until then I leave you with some words of wisdom.

Quantity has a Quality of it’s own.

-c3k