Back to gaming!

Having arrived at Rhys', the first item on the agenda (after ascertaining the state of his latest batch of stout) was to flock and affix the final woods to a couple of his terrain boards for use in (M)SH while he was finishing up at work. 

6 terrain boards assembled for action

We then made up some lists for the first game: Soviets against Americans, 1974.  I suggested this date so as to have a game with minimal ATGWs for once. Soviets are more expensive than Czechoslovakians, and I also turned out to be in a Hasty Defence posture, meaning my force was quite a bit smaller than I am accustomed to.  I had "just" a single Motorized Rifle Regiment, organized as just 3 battalions (the tank battalion was attached out to the rifle battalions). The terrain was reasonably well distributed across the board, with no particularly obvious concentrations nor open spaces.

With so few manoeuvre elements, I decided I had to deploy all 3 on board; arranged 2 up, and 1 back in the centre. Of the six boards, that on my left flank was missing an objective. I suspected Rhys might flank march, and the question was would he march on my right, to aim for the extra terrain objective there, or go on my left, because that would be sneaky?  I figured him moving to my left wouldn't be so serious, as I would have more time to react to it, while to the right would be a bigger problem.  So I put my 3 towed T-12 anti-tank guns in ambush positions on my right to cover the most logical entry points.  As it turned out, he did flank march, but on my left..

To cut a long story short, despite me failing to get any artillery into action for ages (first four roles were 1s....) Rhys managed to immolate himself on my defensive positions while his flank march stubbornly refused to turn up.  And when it finally did arrive, it had nobody to fight, and no objective to take.  He threw in the towel, and was rather surprised to learn he had managed to kill just 4 (count 'em!) of my stands, while having lost two battalions in the process, and having secured just 2 objectives (and one of those none too securely...). Lessons learned?  Hmm, Soviets are much harder to confuse with electronic warfare missions than Czechs are?   Nah, that one's obvious.  Rhys' boards are working out well? Yes!  Just the right amount of terrain density to get that 1000-metre West German average sight line...