Sweep and Clear- AAR

Right, finally we are back in the groove, and can play some AARs!

Craig H and Colin came over to my place, to play the Sweep and Clear scenario, using the excellent 15mm Flytrap Miniatures, and on terrain from Gamecraft Miniatures .

This was the first time playing 15mm for Colin and Craig, and it went pretty well. Colin took charge of the Grey Pashmina and his forces, while Craig and I took a squad of Panzergrenadiers each, as well as their Fuchs armoured vehicles.


Looking down the German lines of advance, the table looked like this:

The Taliban were in defensive positions, waiting for the German arrival.

My Germans took the left hand flank, while Craig's squad advanced up the right hand flank.

My Fuchs rolled on, and quickly the infantry dismounted into cover:

Once my Germans dismounted, they immediately came under small arms fire from the rooftops

Luckily, the grenadier returned fire with his AG36, dropping a 40mm directly on the firing point!

Scratch one Taliban, first blood to the Germans!

Meanwhile, Craig was taking his Fuchs on a merry ride through the village

He dismounted his grenadiers, and began to search the mosque for the Grey Pashmina.

This was about the point where our advance all went wrong.

The Taliban began to swarm out of their hidey holes

And as Craig's Fuchs rounded the corner, it immediately got an RPG round straight through the front, completely destroying the vehicle!

The destruction of the Fuchs immediately pinned Craig's advance (it didn't help him that his morale rolls completely deserted him)

Seizing the advantage, the Taliban surged forward, trying to push the Germans back and catch them in a crossfire along both flanks

My squad was bogged down too, pinned in place by PKM fire. The Fuchs drove up to act as a blocker between the PKM and the Germans. Unfortunately, the plan went awry when the PKM put holes in the front of my Fuchs, destroying it!

The Taliban then started to swarm out of other bolt holes, effectively pinning both German squads in place. My forces took to the poppy fields for cover, engaging the Taliban.

Craig's MG gunner sought the high ground, trying to hunt the Taliban on the rooftops. Craig's dice had deserted him by this point, requiring THREE turns to hit the Taliban on a 90%. At that point, you know you are not having a good day with dice...

My attempt at getting to the high ground resulted in my Obergefreiter killing one Taliban, and getting shot and killed in return.

And at the end of the second combat turn, it was a clear Taliban victory, and time to call it a day.

The net result? The Germans lost two Fuchs and three soldiers killed. The Taliban lost 10 of their fighters, but crucially the Grey Pashmina escaped. Colin played the game well, as we have come to expect from him!

Sources indicate this is the Grey Pashmina, but the Germans never got close enough to confirm!

And as for the Germans, we really paid the price for not bringing in the Show of Force. Remember kids, if you have an asset to use in the game, never save it for a rainy day. We needed to use the show of force early, so that the Taliban heads were down, and were unable to snap fire on our advance. That way we would have gotten further up the table, before getting caught in the fire from the Taliban. It might have even kept our two Fuchs alive!

So all up, an interesting and challenging game. Now I know we are months behind with playing our free scenarios, so we are already planning the next game.

Oh and I had better get writing the next free scenario!

Chris

The Germans side of the battle of the Arms Cache

As promised, here are Craig H's images from the game we had last week.

Below: So this is what it looked like from the german edge of the table, crops and compounds everywhere.

Below: The early German moves were to secure the first compound and get their Marksmen on the roof, ably supported by his team members as they secured the first building.

Below: The marksman scanned looking for  the enemy but failed his spot roll. Unfortunately he was too mush of a target and was killed with a RPG round from the Taliban in the corn/poppy field

BELOW: In the meantime the Taliban Olympic sprint champion had crossed 36" of terrain to move into hand to hand combat with the German NCO. A vicious fight ensued that went on for a while.

BELOW: On the opposite side of the table the Germans were gaining ground, fast moving toward the second building, Each man covering the other.

BELOW: Unfortunately one German was a little too eager and was hit, his team mate quickly running up to administer first aid, rolls a 00 a fumble, so he actually made the wound worse and the screaming German now made everybody in his team take Morale rolls.... they made them as they are made of stern stuff.

BELOW: In the middle of the table, the more cautious Germans used all available cover to move towards the enemy.

Unfortunately that's all the images we have, but the Germans did well for over 3/4 of the battle when eventually their casualties began to tell, as they moved men to the rear for CASEVAC. It was a narrow victory for the Taliban.

Craig H - Research on the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan

Craig has undertaken some serious research into the Germans in Afghanistan. Please note these are Craig's ideas and we like them but this is not to say we will not supercede them as more information becomes available.

In thinking about what unit to use I was very interested in German light infantry, particularly the paratroops, or Fallschirmjager. Armed with Google, Wikipedia and my 20-year old, first year college German I scoured the internet for information, hoping to come up with a rough ORBAT for a Fallschirmjager zug (platoon).

(The Bundeswehr makes an appearance in Despatches 1, but Craig wants the Fallschirmjager, which at the time of writing, we were not able to get any good information on-Ed)

Firstly a bit of history. German Army paratroops have a long history. During World War Two they participate in a range of military operations, including the Low Countries in 1940. They led the world’s first airborne invasion, the bloody assault on the island of Crete in May 1941. As the war turned, they fought on most fronts, including at Monte Cassino in 1944 and, if you’ve seen HBO’s Band of Brothers, at Carentan in June 1944.

The Fallschirmjager were restablished in the post-war Bundeswehr in 1956 and were assigned as reserve forces during the Cold War. From 1989, as Germany started to deploy troops overseas, Fallschirmjager were present in a range of peacekeeping ops in Somalia, the Balkans and the Congo.

In 2011, German paratroopers helped evacuate foreign nationals from Libya. And then there is the Bundeswehr deployment to Afghanistan as part of ISAF.

In early 2014 the airborne and special forces units of the Bundeswehr were combined into one division of 9,500 men, the Division Schnelle Kräfte (DSK) which very roughly translates as the Rapid Forces Division. It includes two airborne brigades and the Special Forces Command (Kommando Spezialkräfte, or KSK).

Organisation
A Fallshirmjäger kompanie is around 160 men, comprising four platoons (one HQ, three combat platoons and one heavy weapons/support platoon).

A Fallschirmjäger zug consists of around 40 men, with a platoon HQ of 8-10 men, led by a captain or senior lieutenant (with medics, sniper, or anti-tank team) and three 10-man combat squads.

Each combat squad (Fallschirmjägergruppe) is led by an Oberfeldwebel (NCO) with a corporal or sergeant as assistant squad leader. The squad can operate as one group, however, more recent doctrine is for it to work in two 5-man fire teams, each with an MG4 and with the squad leader and assistant commanding the elements. This is post 2005 – previously it would more likely operate as a single 10-man unit centred on a heavier MG3.

Standard weapon is the G36 assault rifle, with the two MG4s noted earlier. One or two members may carry the AG36A as a UGL, and the squad may have a sharpshooter with a G28 designated marksman rifle. Heavier weapons such as a Panzerfaust-3, or a Military Working Dog team could be added depending on the mission.

My first go at creating a squad worked out at around 1100 points. I had every trooper as at least a Veteran, reflecting the experience associated with being a paratrooper, but this could be modified downwards to include troops of average rating.

Fire team 1
1 x Elite Oberfeldwebel (NCO) (G36/AG36A (UGL))
1 x Veteran rifleman (MG4)
1 x Veteran rifleman (G36/ammo for MG4)
1 x Veteran rifleman (G36)
1 x Veteran sharpshooter (G28 marksman rifle +P8 pistol)

Fire team 2
1 x Veteran unteroffizer (CORP) (G36)
1 x Veteran grenadier (G36/AG36A (UGL))
1 x Veteran rifleman (MG4)
1 x Veteran rifleman (G36/ammo for MG4)
1 x Veteran rifleman (G36)

Now to paint them….but that’s for another post!

Armies of Afghanistan- Craig H (Bundeswehr)

Who are you?

My name is Craig H and I’ve done a fair bit of wargaming and roleplaying over the years. Colin introduced me to Skirmish Sangin about six months ago and despite my Foreign Legion fireteam being decimated by the Taliban (We have all suffered that- Ed) I’ve been keen to get my own force together and learn the game a bit more in full.

What army are you playing?

Being a Kiwi I had toyed with the idea of running either New Zealand or Australian forces. Looking through the range of figures available, I was drawn to the Eureka Miniatures’ Bundeswehr range. It made me wonder about the non-English speaking armies operating in Afghanistan, something that gets little media coverage here or in the US. So I delved a little deeper and discovered that with over 5,000 troops deployed it is currently the third-largest troop contributor to the ISAF mission, primarily based in Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces.

I gradually came around to running a non-English speaking force, so decided to start out with a basic Bundeswehr infantry unit, or possible an airmobile force, such as Paratrooper Battalion 261 (Fallschirmjägerbataillon 261), from Airborne Brigade 26, part of the German Army’s special operations command.

I also toyed with the idea of a Polish unit, possible a GROM Special Forces team. But that’s for another day....

What are you getting with your starting funds?

With a Bundeswehr force I’m looking at the Eureka Miniatures range that presents a good variety of figures to make up at least 2-3 fire teams. A KSK sniper and MG-3 machinegunner will be essential, along with a Panzerfaust AT rocket launcher. After reading Despatches No. 1 I also like the idea of a military working dog and handler to search out for IEDs.