Central Front Series: BAOR-Fifth Corps-Hof Gap Campaign

2014-06-08 22.28.36 Opening salvo. If we can cast our minds back to NATO Division Commander where the Fifth Corp – 3rd Mech were holding the line against the Communist hordes we will recall the high value placed upon Frankfurt as a reinforcement and logistics hub. 040514_0403_Scn24SITREP6.jpg   Thus Giessen on the Fifth Corp Map became critical as a town to be held. To the North and South other towns fill a similar function.

giessen In this 4km per hex game forces fight over a larger area stretching from Nurnberg in the South to Hannover in the North. This area is covered by the title called Air and Armour from West End games hit the link for an AAR. nurnberg-warburg Each of which are key to victory for both sides. Though on the BAOR map the townships of Kessel and Bielefeld form a natural break and success metric for both sides.. kessel-bielefeld The level of penetration by the Soviets based on turn # is what drives victory. The Soviets have masses of forces. The US is spread thin and it is assumed caught in essence unaware. Declassified papers from the 80’s show  that the Soviets knew their force mix and combined arms efforts were not going to be sufficient. reorg-2 This may prove to be problematic for the Soviets, but only game play will tell. The new divisions will look like this: 83-sov-tank-div The Soviets when they have Air superiority have 36 missions a turn across the 3 maps. They can also land an airborne division. US reinforcements in the few days are naturally slim as they are spun up from the US or UK. So lets see what happens with the first 6 preemptive strikes for the Soviets and where they choose to focus Turn 1. Tune in tomorrow for those results and the proposed Soviet plan of attack.