The Untold Stories #5, Counterattack Countered

June 2nd, 1985. The Canadians are on the counterattack.  Aaron was the East Germans, I was the Canadians.

A very cool little battle.  Two battered Canadian formations (2nd Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry and Royal Canadian Dragoons) are attacking across a river.  One equally battered East German Regiment (29th Motor Rifle) is defending the bridge.  Two formations are rushing to its defense:  the massive 53rd Panzer Brigade, led by Hans Wolf himself, and the 116th Aufklarungs.

53rd Panzer is a big formation of T-72's that can activate twice per turn once a Canadian HQ is identified by a Pact recon asset (this never happened during our game).  The 116th is also a 2-activation unit, but it's a recon force without much hitting power.  It's on the map to spot for the 53rd and to call in artillery.

The Canadians have a few platoons of Leopard C1's, which have solid hitting power, but very weak armor (worse than a T-72), two platoons of infantry, a Lynx (recon) and a surprisingly strong little anti-tank asset:  a reduced platoon of M150 (M113 vehicle with a TOW missile launcher on the roof).  It is the only vehicle in the game that can fire through a smoke screen.

The terrain is flat, open fields with a few copses of trees and scattered villages.  Good anti-tank country.  Very exposed.  The East German reinforcements have to make their way over this ground while taking fire from the M150 and Canadian Dragoons.  These managed to kill Wolf and several T-72 units during their approach.  Off-board Canadian artillery also dropped mines onto one of the primary roads, diverting 53rd Panzer for a crucial turn or two.

On turn 6, the Canadians managed to storm across the bridge, into the East German positions before the reinforcements could arrive.

Assessment:  Fast, brutal, battle between weakened forces.  The East Germans have an extremely effective unit:  the 53rd Panzer Brigade.  The problem is that it has to cover a lot of open ground before it can get into the fight, and the unit it's reinforcing is quite weak.  The usual NATO dominance in terms of equipment and activations is significantly less in this battle than in others.  I want to play this again, switching sides.  It's an excellent battle, playable in an hour or so.