Scenario: Long Way To Rhine

[Tomas]

So here goes another one.

Long Way to Rhine

Date: May 4, 1967

Battle Location: Wintersdorf, West Germany

Battle Type: Warsaw Pact assault vs. West German defend

Czechoslovakian war plan from 1964 was rather clear on what was
expected from the Czechoslovakian front in case of third world war.
The main breakthrough force consisting of tank and mechanised
divisions was supposed to penetrate deep into southern Germany,
crossing Rhine and entering France in less than a week.

Securing the bridges over the Rhine and Neckar river was part of
the '64 war plan and involved deployment of Czechoslovakian 22nd
Airborne Brigade.

In this scenario, a reinforced platoon of Czechoslovakian paratroopers
tries to secure part of the Wintersdorf village and adjacent bridge over
the Rhine. Germany has managed to put together sizeable force, including
some armored vehicles and AAA assets. Warsaw Pact forces on the ground are
very limited, but these are one of the most elite units in the whole
Eastern Bloc. Additionally, Warsaw Pact enjoys air superiority and WP
commander should do his best to use air support to change the odds of the battle.

This is semi-fictional scenario.

Notes: If played against the AI the human player should take Czechoslovakian side only.

Sources: Internet.

If you want to dig deeper and read more about '64 war plan for Czechoslovakian front, I wholeheartedly recommend reading THIS. This is one of the most interesting "leaked" documents from the Cold War era.

EDIT: Reuploaded fixed version with fixed typos in briefing.

EDIT: Corrected version 3 is up.

- Some minor unit repositioning
- More realistic ASU-85 instead of ASU-57
- Removed soviet engineers
- Fixed Jawa 350 capacity
- Fixed briefing

[shahadi]

"In this scenario, a reinforced platoon of Czechoslovakian paratroopers
tries to secure part of the Wintersdorf village and adjacent bridge over
the Rhine. Germany has managed to put together sizeable force, including
some armored vehicles and AAA assets. Warsaw Pact forces on the ground are
very limited, but these are one of the most elite units in the whole
Eastern Bloc. Additionally, Warsaw Pact enjoys air superiority and WP
commander should do his best to use air support to change the odds of the battle."

I am enthused to play essentially a platoon sized scenario, especially with the apparent level of research this scenario remains consistent with prior Tomas scenarios.

[shahadi]

Originally Posted by shahadi

"In this scenario, a reinforced platoon of Czechoslovakian paratroopers
tries to secure part of the Wintersdorf village and adjacent bridge over
the Rhine. Germany has managed to put together sizeable force, including
some armored vehicles and AAA assets. Warsaw Pact forces on the ground are
very limited, but these are one of the most elite units in the whole
Eastern Bloc. Additionally, Warsaw Pact enjoys air super
iority and WP
commander should do his best to use air support to change the odds of the battle."

I am enthused to play essentially a platoon sized scenario, especially with the apparent level of research this scenario remains consistent with prior Tomas scenarios.

A Long Way to the Rhine Battle Notes

Consider placing a VF on top of barbed wire, where VF value is substantial as the engineers take a long time to clear wires, otherwise, I did not use my engineers.

Enable Spetsnaz Scouts to call air strikes. Add formation in Russian OOB with Unit 749 inserted in formation slot Unit 1. Purchase twice, or thrice to give each platoon a scout unit. Although having the A0 unit calling air strikes results in faster response, as I found by having the Spetsnaz G0 call an air strike took away maybe six turns waiting for a strike on a Leopard. Alternately, we may take a Para AOP, add an additional man, change the weapons loadout to correspond with the Spetsnaz Scouts so that we get air strike reponse as if the A0 unit called, but with "eyes on" targeting.

The capacity of the Jawa 350 bike at 6 bugged me to no end. I do not see how the T21 Recoilless 2-man crew rides in the side car. No way, I'm thinking can 6 men ride on that bike as specified in the game.

This scenario is described as "...a reinforced platoon of Czechoslovakian paratroopers..." When, it is a reinforced company of Czech paras. Nonetheless, Tomas has given us another intriguing scenario.

My battle:

I advanced three platoons, Charlie, Delta, and Echo (units C0, D0, and E0) attaching a tank and engineer squad to each, along the routes illustrated below:



Carefully, using the woods as cover to reach assualting positions, Charlie platoon advanced to assault position. Delta platoon used trees as cover to advance to its assault position. Echo platoon, surprisingly encountered no resistance at the outskirts of the town. Enemy forces were defeated within the objective area by turn 28. I spent an inordinate amount of time regrouping for the assault on the bridge, which may have cost me a decisive win.



Battle result:

[Tomas]

Thank you Shahadi.

1) I will probably remove engineers altogether, then.

2) Regarding the FO, the problem is that I think that there was no such dedicated position in para company and I think that A0 had to do the job. It's '67 and WP wasn't quite there yet.

3) Ditto the scouts. I might dig some more, but basically a section is "recon section" by default, there are no separate scouts in platoon.

4) Will fix Jawa capacity & description

5) I think I should replace ASU-57 with ASU-85.

[Tomas]

Fixed version is up. If the devs could include it in the patch instead of the old one, that'd be great.