Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Conflicts that came in from the Cold => Topic started by: Harry Faversham on November 09, 2024, 05:12:03 PM
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High above the valley sits the Schloss Von Obergurgle, a grim imposing fortress, built by the Teutonic Knights of old. During WW2 the Castle had been a top secret Nazi research establishment, dedicated to dark and perverted science.
By 1982 it was a deserted ruin looking down on the Obergurgle Gap. Once more conflict was coming to the valley. The Cold War's gone hot, with the Warsaw Pact determined to conquer West Germany. Colonel Akin Lysenko's columns are racing through the Obergurgle Gap. Facing them is a scratch unit of BAOR's elite Faverforce, dug in in well prepared ambush positions.
;)
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Looks (edit:
grant grand). As usual for your stuff. Now we just wait to see who comes out on top... 8)
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Thank you Cap'n.
;)
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Nice! I'm glad to see minis in "Cold war hot" interesting scenarii. :)
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A Milan anti tank missile started the ball spectacularly!
Blasting the lead T72 into scrap. A low flying Harrier joined in next, straddling the Red column with cluster bombs. Faverforce's motorised infantry swung into action as the stalled Soviet column tries desperately to deploy. Faverforce are causing very heavy casualties on the enemy, till a second T72 looms out of the smoke on A Company's flank. Point blank tank fire decimated the British troops on the hill. It's the high point of the Red offensive the BAOR's ant tank weaponry reduce the column to brewed up wrecks. The dazed survivors of the Soviet assault routed back the way they came.
"Well done chaps,"
Lt. Col. Faversham tells his orders group.
"At dawn tomorrow we'll be going down that road to take the bridge at Obergurgle. Good news is, armour will move up in the night. Right, carry on!"
;)
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My God, man. Oh, the humanity! :o
Seriously, folks, well done, lads. That's a bunch of burning wrecks...
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It's not all sunshine and roses. Wait till Flash Harry finds out his armoured support's from the Jerry's Panzers!!!
:o
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Oh, they'll be fine. The Panzer fella I talked to in the mid-80s seemed to know their business.
By the way, I don't know what the lads in the BAOR called the Bundeswehr boys then, but we in USAREUR no longer referred to them by WW2 colloquial terms. We called them "Fritz's". That still might not meet with the LAF mod's approval, though... 8)
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Interesting report! It's funny that the word "Fritz" was used in the 1980s because it was a French pejorative word for Germans during the WW2! ;)
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In the early '80s, when I was in the Army National Guard, we had a Staff Sergeant who had been in the French resistance in WW2. When we were at out 2 weeks' annual training one year, we had Bundeswehr officers and senior NCOs trooping our positions. After they went by, he referred to them as "f***in' boche"....
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Don't know wot they'll do to the enemy, but they certainly scare the 'ell out of me!
:o
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Oh, they'll be fine. The Panzer fella I talked to in the mid-80s seemed to know their business.
By the way, I don't know what the lads in the BAOR called the Bundeswehr boys then, but we in USAREUR no longer referred to them by WW2 colloquial terms. We called them "Fritz's". That still might not meet with the LAF mod's approval, though... 8)
My wife tells a story from when she was a very small child living in Germany (early 80's, dad was in the then Pay Corps, later Royal Logistics Corps), being out at a German supermarket with mum and being hurriedly rushed out when - frustrated with the crowd blocking an aisle - she rather loudly said 'what are all these blockheads doing here?'
Obvioulsy my wife no longer condones such stereotypes or language lol
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Rolling down highways in column. The Russians haven't advanced in tactics much
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A 2A4 in 1982? :o Wow, must be a test unit for the Bundeswehr... ;)
A Leopard 2A4 should do OK against the Soviet columns.... 8)
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My wife tells a story from when she was a very small child living in Germany (early 80's, dad was in the then Pay Corps, later Royal Logistics Corps), being out at a German supermarket with mum and being hurriedly rushed out when - frustrated with the crowd blocking an aisle - she rather loudly said 'what are all these blockheads doing here?'
Obvioulsy my wife no longer condones such stereotypes or language lol
Clearly a reference to Ian Dury. ' Cornflake jackets, catalogue trousers, a mouth that never closes'. I'd be quite surprised too if I was in German supermarket and it was filled with people from around Romford and Chadwell Heath. :D
I like the rather eclectic, come as you are, selection of kit. Clearly the war has been running for a while and the reserves have been sent to the front.
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I like the rather eclectic, come as you are, selection of kit. Clearly the war has been running for a while and the reserves have been sent to the front.
"I'm playing with all the right toys, but not necessarily in the right order!"
;D
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Great looking game! May I ask what scale and what rules?
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"I'm playing with all the right toys, but not necessarily in the right order!"
;D
I say! Have a Hart!
Oddly enough I have that very same Corgi model.
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Great looking game! May I ask what scale and what rules?
Scale's 20mm, the rules are OHW, slightly modded to add motorised infantry and Close Combat... it gives a fast and brutal combat outcome!
:o
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I say! Have a Hart!
Oddly enough I have that very same Corgi model.
I have all rhe Raff's 'silver wings' collection from Cornby. They're useful for NWF games too.
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Harry- Thanks, I thought they looked 20mm. I'm only passingly familiar with OHW. Do the rules have a set for moderns? I thought they only went up to WWII.
I would think if that's the case, you needed to come up with a lot of stats for the newer equipment.
If so, can you post them?
Thanks, Mark
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Mark, the magic of OHW is in not overthinking 'em.
If you can'get past a King Tiger brewing, from the same amount of hits as a Sherman, they're not the rools for you!
Units are Infantry. Motorised Infantry, Artillery and tanks. All I added was an 'assault table', so Infantry and tanks can get up close and personal. First game I tried six red and six black in a bag, and activated each side's units, as the dice were drawn. Didn't really add to the fun, was a bit clunky, so binned it. Secondly a command base for each side. The CO can rally off a D6 worth of hits, but must remain with said unit until it's eliminated. Every time the unit takes a hit, big six kills the CO!
Most of the tweaks are on the OHW Facebollix page. But the golden rule is still the application of the KISS Principle!
:)
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"Well done chaps,"
Lt. Col. Faversham tells his O group.
"At dawn tomorrow we'll be going down that road to take the bridge at Obergurgle. Good news is, armour will move up in the night. Right, carry on!"
Dawn found a light mist in the Obergurgle Valley, and another O group around The CO's vehicle.
"Everything's ready Sir," Major Ponsonby reported to his Colonel. "The German armour is in position. Oberst Von Richter is straining at the bit."
Lt. Colonel Harry Faversham's eyebrows nearly touched his hairline, as his face went a funny colour... "What! What!! What!!" He roared incredulously. "German armour lead by an Oberst Von Richter???!!!
"By all accounts he's very good." A chastened Ponsonby replied.
"I'll just bet he is," replied the Colonel. "I'm suspicioned his father and mine met in the last Cup Final. Send the blighter straight in!"
Surprised as Flash Harry was, it was nothing like the one the Reds got. As Von Richter's two Leopards thundered over the hidden bridge onto their side of the Obergurgle river! Pushed back in disorder, the Russians had left a scratch rearguard in the village, but had, had no time to scout the riverbank, effectively. If they had have, they would have found the NATO Bailey Bridge secreted beneath the placid waters of the river Obergurgle!
:o :o :o
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Oh excellent stuff - very nice indeed.
But Bailey bridges went out of military use in the late 40's, early 50's - its successor would be the MGB, Medium Girder Bridge or an AVLB/VLB.
I have to admit I've been looking at moderns in 20mm again - with the printed vehicles starting to look quite decent in this scale, it is getting more achievable.
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Oh excellent stuff - very nice indeed.
But Bailey bridges went out of military use in the late 40's, early 50's - its successor would be the MGB, Medium Girder Bridge or an AVLB/VLB.
Thanks for that Rick, never knew that. Did you know you can still see one of the first built Bailey bridges over the canal in Rotherham?
:)
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Thanks, Harry! I'll look into the FB page.
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Oh excellent stuff - very nice indeed.
But Bailey bridges went out of military use in the late 40's, early 50's - its successor would be the MGB, Medium Girder Bridge or an AVLB/VLB.
I have to admit I've been looking at moderns in 20mm again - with the printed vehicles starting to look quite decent in this scale, it is getting more achievable.
Actually, no. I don't mean to cast any aspersions here, but Bailey Bridges were still in use (at least by the US Army) into the '80s. I was an enlisted combat engineer from '80 to '84 and we trained on laying Bailey Bridges. In fact, my Ohio Army National Guard unit actually placed a real one at a temporary bridge site on a county road in Ohio in 1981 (a flood had washed out one of their bridges, and we put one in until they could replace it). So a Bailey Bridge in 1982 is entirely feasible...
We did also train on the MGBs...
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Plus, for gaming purposes, I have the old Airfix Bailey Bridge...it has seen action on my gaming tables...
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Ah well - I did mention 'military use' did I not? Bailey bridges were replaced by the MGB in most militaries (esp NATO, which was the point in question) around that time but have continued to be used as replacements for civilian bridges until very recently: I stand by my original statement. Iirc there were quite a few ex military Bailey bridges stored for emergency civilian use after the war - my guess it that there were hundreds put up over USA, Canada, UK and Europe, not counting the many more that were built as exports to the rest of the world. The humble Bailey bridge has had a huge worldwide impact.
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Clearly nobody told the Australian Army about Bailey Bridges' expiry date. They were laying them in Vietnam, alongside the Yanks. In fact, I'm fairly certain that they stayed in inventory into the 1990s at least.
As for MGBs... Well in the absence of a dedicated model, I'm sure you'll agree that a Baliey Bridge is a reasonable proxy in for an MGB. It's a military bridge and it's painted green after all. In a game that mixes 1990s era Leopards with 1950s era Soviet tanks and APCs, I'm sure some latitude is merited in bridge selection. ;)
For interest's sake here's an MGB being constructed on Ex Lionheart in 1984 by a TA unit (from around 6.29)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLPO7bb24bA&list=PLXfy-6JidhovxfrS3F4wY7-5f0KhoSbOb&index=10
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Oh I know - I looked it up. There is a company in the US called the "Bailey Bridge Company" that's been making 'bailey bridges' (ready to assemble girder bridges) for both civilian and military use. They might not be anything like the WW2 British bailey bridge but they're definitely a 'bailey bridge' - it's the company name! ;)
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The Bailey Bridges we trained on and built in the early 80s were the same ones used in WW2. IIRC, the ones we trained on at AIT in 1980 were literally the ones used in WW2... :D
The US Army was just fielding the MGB in 1980 (the Marines fielded it before the Army did, for once...) - they said we were one of the first combat engineer AIT training cycles to train on it...
In any event, one was apparently used by FaverForce in the Obergurgle Gap in 1982, wherever they got it from...
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In any event, one was apparently used by FaverForce in the Obergurgle Gap in 1982, wherever they got it from...
For the uneducated among you, I will translate...
The Bailey Bridge used by Faverforce was built and lowered into the depths of the river Obergurgle in the 70's. Never used and secretly maintained in case the Cold War turned hot.
;)
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Sounds like a prime example of good prior planning! :D
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A great looking game 8)
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Thanks Sir, we were told in the 70s, that submerged bridges and totally unused tank 'hides' existed.
???
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For the uneducated among you, I will translate...
The Bailey Bridge used by Faverforce was built and lowered into the depths of the river Obergurgle in the 70's. Never used and secretly maintained in case the Cold War turned hot.
;)
Which remained a source of enduring mystery and some annoyance to German anglers, canoeists and the occasional metal detectorist of the time. :D