Second IABNM outing. This time based on a battle in Battlegroup. In the book, four light role infantry companies (two Regular, two TAVR) clear the village Hehausen, the village covering a gap in minefield.
I do not have that many troops so it’s one Regular company and two understrength TAVR companies, all three are short of support so only one MILAN section for the regulars and one WOMBAT section for the TAVR. The MILAN team is short of missiles so only two per launcher and only two LAW per section. Their mission is to clear all long range anti-tank weapons from the south edge of village before engineers breach the minefield at dawn in two hours. Also to hold the junction of the Eastern and Northern roads.
I made a couple of changes to the rules. First the rules say each turn represents about one minute: change that to each turn is one minute of action within a 5 to 15-minute period. Each BV card roll a D6: a 1 means 5 minutes have passed; a 2,3,4 or 5 means 10 minutes have passed; a 6 means 15 minutes have passed. So dawn is somewhere between 8 and 24 turns away.
The second change is that artillery Illuminating rounds last one turn. As long as the battery commander is available, an illuminating fire mission is fired at the start of a turn. If his card then turns up and he has called an illuminating mission, the card is ignored.
First photo shows village from Eastern Edge. The buildings are 15mm: a mix of Battlefront, Sarissa, and 4Ground. The red roof are 4Ground.
Continuing the game. End of move six: 55 minutes of time gone. British seem in a strong position.. Already cleared one of the AT positions. But on the left trouble is brewing. One platoon is stuck can not move due to MG platoons and a couple of tanks. WOMBAT held in reserve moved up. The Soviet command has got most troops into cover except one platoon moving to cover the HQ position.
End of move 12 the two hours point. Things went for a ball of chalk. The BV card came up 3rd or 4th moves in a row. The British lost momentum. The Soviets were in cover and managed to push the TAVR platoons back.
Near run thing if not for BV card British might have pulled it off.
Phil Venables