CWC Soviet Invasion of Norway 1985 - Southern Table Day 1

Our latest campaign is the Soviet Invasion of Norway in 1985. The games are fought out in 6mm using Cold War Commander from Pendraken. In October 2018 we played out the battles over two days at the Grimsby Wargames Club. This post covers the Southern table on Day One

 The Southern table looking north

This table was defended from west to east by 4th MAB USMC (Andy C), Canadian and Luxembourg forces (Mark J), US 82nd Airborne (Neil M) and Royal Marines & Dutch Marines (Andy T).  All were nicely dug-in defending the airfields and the beaches.

Opposing them were Soviet Naval Infantry (Andy B) with an amphibious assault on the beaches, a Soviet MRR (Andy M) driving down from the north, Soviet VDV (Andy H) with a helicopter and airdrop assault on the Irina airfield and another Soviet VDV (me) doing an airdrop on the town of Ivana.

How not to do an airdrop - my VDV land in Ivana

My airdrop was a complete mess. Units scattered and miles away from their HQs. Next time we will parachute in a few miles away and walk to our objective!

 One of my few successes - an airstrike takes out a load of Royal Marines

The MMR advance south

Action around the Irina airfield

Andy H's VDV successfully airdrop 

 And don't get scattered to the four winds

More MMR

Looking north-west

My VDV attempts to organise itself whilst under fire from Royal & US Marines

Soviet Naval Infantry assault the beaches

The amphibious assault but does the Lighthouse block line of sight?

If only the crop circle had been an objective

 The Irina aiffield

Soviet Naval troops advance up the beach

And deploy their infantry and the treeline

 USMC occupy the docks supported by Canadian tanks

 More Soviet Naval infantry come ashore on the northern beaches

 A fresh Soviet Naval brigade hits the southern beaches

However everything bogs down at the beach head

 USMC defend the power station

 Even more USMC defend the hills overlooking the beach and Ivana

 Ivana looking east - the VDV attempt to clear the town of US Engineers

 Ivana looking west - the VDV try to organise themselves

 The chaos continues in Ivana

 A view of how scattered the VDV were - from the fields (bottom left) to the wood (top left) and west to the flocks of sheep

 The MMR continues it's advance south-west to the beaches

  The MMR continues it's advance south-east  to the airfield at Irina

 The US Airborne troops defend the airfield

 Soviet paratroopers debate the cause of the crop circle

 Dutch Marines complete the encirclement of the VDV in Ivana

 The final positions of the VDV in Ivana

The combined firepower of the USMC, Royal Marines and Dutch Marines decimated the disorganised VDV in Ivana. Having lost over 75% of their troops the VDV battalion surrendered.

So at the close of play my VDV had disappeared. The Naval Infantry were beginning to make headway on the beaches. The northern VDV force was still hanging on and the MMR were still advancing south.

All in all not a bad game even though I lost.  A big thanks to my opponents, Andy & Andy, for letting me stare at my troops for long periods as I worked out how to get them organised

There are two other posts covering the weekend at Grimsby: Day 2 on the Northern Table and Scenery