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I’ve always had an interest in the idea of the Cold War going hot (thanks to books like Chieftains, Team Yankee and Red Storm Rising) but never got around to gaming it until now. Originally I was going to get into Team Yankee but in 6mm but then I found Lock ‘n Loads World at War series of games covering the same subject. It seemed a very good system that covers most things I want in this style of game and at company level which is my preferred game size these days. Gave it a go last night playing the first scenario that actually puts Team Yankee against the Russian 1st Tank Battalion. It played very well with only a few hunts through the rules to answer queries. I’m sorry to report though that the Russians have broken through…
The miniature Eisenbach mentioned by Mr Average might have been us, the Berks and Bucks Occasionals. We play it on Kallistra terrain with the re-released Skytrex 1/200 (c8mm) vehicles and figures. We use two vehicles or figure bases to represent a full strength platoon, and just remove one to represent a flipped over reduced strength platoon.
The game play is obviously just as quick as the board game version but it all looks prettier with miniatures. Having played it quite a bit, I think that the scenarios, although they look unbalanced in headline numbers, can all go either way. The US units are much smaller but more flexible, more effective at longer ranges and the tanks in particular are much better at shooting on the move. The Sovs have some serious dilemmas- they need to take ground quickly to capture objectives and/close with the Americans but that can be an expensive business. For the Americans, it’s a single static defence that often proves fatal, you need mutually supporting blocks which can cover each other’s moves. Tricky to do but given the Americans have a wider command radius and longer ranges- it is possible.
I was also one of those who always thought that NATO ground forces would be rolled over in a few days, and that probably was true for much of the Cold War until the mid-80s. But all the research I have done in the last few years including conversations and correspondence with would-be hot war participants indicates that the balance of conventional capabilities on the central front equalised a lot quite quickly beginning from about 1982 onwards. The Sovs certainly felt their traditional conventional advantage was draining away during this period, for a whole number of reasons on both sides.
Anyway, above are a few photos of the miniaturised Eisenbach. We’ll be demo-ing it at Colours in a couple of weeks and would love to chat with anyone who’s interested. Next project is the mighty Blood and Bridges.
Thanks Mr A.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the miniature bases don’t have quite enough room to accommodate all the factors on the original counter in easily readable form, so we made up some unit data cards to save our eyesight. Also, we’ve made up some wreck markers. Could have used counters but what the heck…..
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