Sands of War/First Battle/Battlefield Europe

Cross posted here and in on CSW.

Play two run throughs of a hypothetical engagement between Russia and a former member of the USSR. Both sides equipped with T-72M1. Russians task was to enter the map with a tank battalion and a 152mm battery in direct support. Opposing them and defending a road/rail junction was a company of now western leaning T-72M1's with the possibility of a reinforcing company, rolled for at the start of each turn, a roll of less than or equal to the turn number is successful. At 250m per hex, the map was a home brewed 6 1/2 x 7 1/4 km.

I used rule tweaks found here such as "X" damage results equalling DP except for natural "1" die rolls. petermc's activations, and I believe Steven B's unpin attempts at the start of each turn as well as revised sequence of play. Aslo all SOW movement ranges were halved and round down.

First try the reinforcing company never was able to deploy on board, and the defenders were overwhelmed.

The second try the reinforcing company arrived on T1. This tipped the balance to where the scenario was very bloody, but essentially the defenders held, but were in no position to put up much more defense should a follow on echelon arrived any time soon. The russian main effort basically expended itself in the center, while a company in a supporting effort broke through its opponent and flanked the main objective, controlling it by fire for a turn. The next turn however the reinforcing defender company rushed a platoon and its HQ to the objective hex to begin taking its lumps. Game ended in T6 or an hour and one half game time.

I really liked the activation system, gave some uncertainty to the russian advance. The X to DP rule worked well. I like to keep a natural 1 being an X where appropriate. The Russian 152mm Battery was essentially ineffective vs an armored target in woods. I/we still need to work on melding Steven's First Battle revised sequence of play with SAW, particularly with reference to artillery, when its fired vs when it strikes within a 15min turn, and 1/2 moving units, firing at 1/2 and then due to gun stabilization entering a reaction fire position.

Need to intergrate infantry and APC/IFV's. By the way I doumented many of the common tanks and APC/IFV's found in both Battlefield Europe and Sands of War, then guesstimated a number of units for the SOW platoon sized unit rules such as Leopard 1A3, Leopard 1A5, Leopard 2, Luchs, Marder, BTR-70/80, and BMP-2.