Modern Mini Campaign – Fire From the East!

Brian Goodison has been preparing for a ‘Modern’ Game at the club over the last few weeks. He wanted to do a large game where the players controlled whole divisions and the on table forces where dictated by map movement.

The on-table rule systems he used is Blood and Bridges, with additional factors for Belgian and other troops not covered in the base rules.

Brian choose a boardgame map (BAOR from SPI) for the strategic movement aspects to the game, and created counters for all the forces by importing Modern Map Symbol fonts onto his PC. He then used Microsoft Excel to host the map & Symbols, as this has the facility to create an almost unlimited workspace area for the map to sit on.

Brian sent me (Barry) a copy of the Map, and NATO forces plus some indication where the Soviets would be entering the game.

Campaign Objective

NATO Win if:

I was also allowed to move my initial forces upto 12 Movement points away from their barracks area.

My initial disposition after that move looked like this:

The Soviets advanced as expected from their entry points, and were initial harassed by the NATO recce who’s main purpose was to delay the Soviet advance. At Map level everyone get 6mp per Regiment (Soviet) or Brigade (NATO). If you want to move past enemy it cost 6mp (movement points) to do so. If you want to go for a prepared assault it costs 6mp. A hasty assault costs 3 but your forces are very spread out in attack and come on to the table piecemeal. If you want to perform an overrun when you outnumber the enemy by a massive amount you can do an attack off the march. This cost you 2 additional mp but does mean you are vulnerable to counter attack by any capable forces on table.

Movement Points Terrain Effect:

Turn 1

The Soviets pushed the German and British Recce back but suffered some loss of cohesion in doing so. The British took up positions along the River, and begin a process of digging in.

Russian forces in the center of the sector move up to assault positions east of the river, while German defenders backed by Engineers plan a solid defense of the bridge. Engineers in the area have begun to dig the Tanks in and lay mines.

Turn 2

Soviet advances towards the River Crossings, culminating with a Guards Tank Division preparing for a push on the bridge area protected by the German 6th Panzer Brigade.

British forces dig in for the expected assault, and Belgians move in support of the German 6th Panzer.

Air war gets into full swing with Soviet fast movers ruling the sky. British Helicopters join the battle in the North and rush to assist the infantry in preparation for more Soviet aggression.

Turn 3

Most of the Nat forces are in position for a planned defense of the River line with only some straggling forces driving around at the rear, Ammo trucks rush to covered locations to hide and wait till re-supply is needed.

Soviet forces spread out in the South and chase off NATO recce that is interrupting their Invasion.

Turn 4

The conflict starts, with a Russian Tank Division supported by BMP’s assaults the well prepared German Defenders.

9th Tank assaults German 6th Panzer Brigade.