escape clubs 20mm arnhem-ski game pics, lots of them

[sandsmodels]

as some of you may know the escape club held one of their big 20mm nato warpact games last weekend, the 21st and 22nd of september 2013.
the basic game was arnhem for cold war, the russian vdv were holed up in the twon and defending the bridges and ford and trying to stop the americans from entering the town, whilst holding on until the main russian forces fought their way through the british lines to meet up with the paras.
the table was 24ft long, 6 ft wide with a smaller 6x4ft section on one side forming an 'L' shape, giving quite a lot of scope for a defence in depth for the british forces.
the sides were:
russian main force:-
3 tank companies of t64's, t72's and t80's,
2 motor rifle companies in bmp's and btr80's
they also have various sp aa inc tunguska and zsu/23/4
2s1 sp guns, at5 missiles on brdm3 and some recce brdm 2 a/cars.
the russian vdv paras force:-
a company of bmd 1 & 2 apcs,
2 d30 122mm guns
and 2 platoons of infantry with the odd grenade launcher and at4 missile in support.
the usa forces:-
2 platoons of m60a3
2 m48a5
1 company of infantry
and a recce unit with jeeps with tow's and rec rifles.
the britsh forces:-
1 chieftain squadron & 2 scorpions
1 div recce unit, 2 x scimitar, 1 x striker, 1 x sultan, 1 x spartan with radar, 1 x spartan & 2 milan teams
1 1/2 companies of mechanised infantry with fv 432 2 with peak turrets, supported with 2 x striker
3  81mm mortars,
2  105mm light guns
the british also opted for some harrier air support, (more on them later).
there was also a few ambulances and command vehicles as well as an engineer section with a cent avre and combat engineer tractor.
the bare table looked like this
the russian end


the 'L' shaped end,


the british defences





the russian vdv defences




the main russian attack


some of the tanks were taken out by milans dug in on the round bases and a few chieftain rounds,


the as the russians got closer they suffered quite a few losses to swingfire, milan and chieftain rounds,


the second troop of chieftains moved up to cover the front as ordered and unfortunately suffered some direct tank hits and were forced to abandon the tanks after only a few shots so the rhs defences were weakened, whilst on the lhs the chieftains of the second troop were hit by 2 moves of mlrs and suffered the same fate,
the nato air support finally arrived in the form of 2 harriers and sadly one was shot down before the attack went in so the damage to the russians was very light just taking out 1 bmp, 1 tank and a tunguska a/a tank
the harriers had 4 attacks planned and out of the 4 planes 3 were shot down so not having the effect the british had hoped for on the russian armour.


by now the russians were advancing quite rapidly all along the front with the main tank thrust still not blunted,

eventually all the britsh armour on the small hill was destroyed by their artillery fire and some good dice rolls!


on the lhs the russian tanks managed to break through the main defensive line of the railway embankment as one striker lost its remote firing capability and the ranges were then too close,

this was what confronted the last remaining british tank sqd and the last platoon of infantry

but the line held and after a ferocious mg, mortar and a/t fire the russian attack was halted on the low hill with both sides being ground down to a stalemate.
meanwhile on the other front

the first american recce probe onto the bridge was stopped with some accurate shooting form the vdv defenders,

so in went the armour and had the same result, and a blocked bridge

the americans then decided to use the other bridge with a better  result and also then attacked across the ford with even better results,

just like armhem the vdv were forced into a smaller and smaller pocket and only a few paras met up with the main russian armour,

all in all a great game and we considered it a draw for the main battle with a win for the americans as the vdv troops were getting less and less effective as the bmd's are not up to fighting it out with mbt's.
thanks to all who turned up to game and those that came to see.
there are more pics here;-
http://s1294.photobucket.com/user/salesforsandsmodels/library/?sort=2&page=1
thanks for looking
the escape committee club
somerset uk.

[grant]

That's a lot of tanks on the table - well done! Ain't no party like an S and S club  party!

Seriously though, really like that.