This year, like last, I had the good fortune to be involved in the multi player Modern Spearhead (MSH) game hosted by members of the Wellington Warlords at Call to Arms. The game, or more accurately this year the games, were set during 1986 in West Germany in the area under command of British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) following a hypothetical Soviet invasion of Western Europe. The games was primarily the work of Pete Conner as the umpire, Rhys Batchelor, as Soviet commander in chief, and Paul Reynolds as NATO commander in chief. Unlike last year's game on one large table, this year's games were to be a series of games linked by campaign events determined by preliminary moves completed using the board game "BAOR".

The players, of which there were six Soviet and five NATO, were for the first day divided between three tables. First, was the battle around Hameln, this game as a result of a Soviet Airborne landing behind NATO lines. The second a battle some distance south of Hannover, and off to the left of the map below. This game involved two Soviet Regiments which were engaged against West Germans. The third game a was a major attack against NATO forces just east of Hannover. I was given a role in this last game along with Jake Collins and Richard Browne. Our table measured 12’ x 6’ with a portion of the city of Hannover featuring on one short table edge. The portion of Hannover on table was modelled by some 40 plus MSH town sectors. A view of the table is shown above right, though Hannover is not visible in this photograph. Below, a map of the area of the battlefield around Hannove with Regimental attack arrows marked on. Each hex is around 4km. The river over which we were attacking is in fact a canal.

Due to our rapid advance we arrived near the canal outside Hannover with little understanding of the enemy forces and expected a meeting engagement. We therefore determined to quickly seize what bridges we could across the canal while using divisional and army level bridging equipment to secure additional crossing points. Due to the steep sides of the canal all vehicles were limited to crossing by bridges. Jake and I commanded formations drawn from the 47th Guard Tank Division (GTD). Initially our advance was based on two tank regiments equipped with T-64 tanks, with supporting BMP battalions, and one motor rifle regiment equipped with BMPs and a t-64 tank battalion.

Unfortunately, having drawn up a plan for a meeting engagement it was with some dismay that we then found the British deployed along in canal. Dug in were infantry, ATGWS and Chieftain tanks all prepeared to prevent any crossing. This was no meeting engagement!

In retrospect the British had perhaps too much of their force "upfront" and therefore lacked reserves and thus flexibility. Worse however was that the British had not deployed their air defences well, something that was going to cause even more problems for them later. In Hannover were deployed West Germans, some of whom were on table initially with additional forces held in reserve within the city.

The battle, due to it’s size and complexity, is difficult to describe in detail. However, a review of the following map will at least give a brief the reader an appreciation of the four planned Soviet regimental thrusts. Our attack suffered a further major disruption when several of the bridges were blown as advanced Soviet elements attempted to cross. In many sectors our crossing operation was now dependent on our bridging operations. One critical bridge was captured in the centre allowing the 47th GTD Recon Battalion to push forward. It soon from dug in British units. Now, as the recon battalion pushed forward pre-planned Hind attack helicopters, allocated from army level assets, arrived and proceeded to engage the British whose positions had been exposed by the divisional recon battalion. With a poorly positioned AA weapon screen the massed Soviet attack helicopters were extremely successful. With a gap widening Soviet armour, including the divisional reserve tank regiment, was pouring across the centre of the battlefield and the British centre and right flank collapsed under the comined pressure. At this stage there were some 20 Soviet battalions on table.

Late in the day the NATO command issued orders for an attack by at two battalions from the forces deployed in Hannover. No doubt in a vain attempt to cover the British withdrawal. This attack was funnelled across one bridge near Hannover. This attack was delayed by a lone Hind helicopters from 47th GTD helicopter squadron which engaged Leopard 1A4s as they moved down the road and casued a blockage over a bridge in the sector. This gained sufficient time for the 47th GTD Anti-Tank battalion to fully deploy and block this West German counter attack.

My next game was in a different sector and on the second day of the convention. Here Jake and I commanded the Soviet 35th Motor Rifle Division (MRD) which had pushed forward through a hole in NATO’s line. This division finally ran into NATO forces deployed along the Weser River at Beverungen, some 13km from Hoxter. Again an assault river crossing was called for. This time with a river, rather than a canal, our amphibious vehicles were more able to negotiate the river, though our tanks were still limited to crossing at bridges.

The NATO defences were based around two West German Panzer Grenadier brigades, which were reinforced by Belgian units during the game. Unlike the battle around Hannover the 35th MRD was lacking in any army level support relying instead on the more limited divisional assets.

Like the battle for Hannover it is difficult to define the various stages of the battle in any depth. However, highlights included the capture of the main bridge at Beverungen by the divisional recon battalion which was quickly reinforced by the divisional tank regiment in a scene which looked much like British armour crossing the Nijmegen bridge in the movie "A Bridge too Far"! The photo here illustrates the scene with Soviet T-64s advancing across the Beverungen bridge.

Where were the Belgians and West Germans? Well, by this stage one battalion of West Germans deployed in a wood overlooking the bridge had been on the receiving end of Soviet BM-21 rocket fire for several turns and had suffered casualties accordingly. The Belgians meanwhile had deployed in part of Beverungen's western town sectors on the left of the river. They were not however deployed to engage the Soviet T-64s tanks as they moved rapidly across the bridge!

This game featured what seemed to be a continual stream of NATO light strike aircraft sweeping down the length of the table in the form of small West German Alpha Jets. These jets were countered in most cases by the heavy Soviet SAM unbrella which had been deployed to cover the bridging operations.

With Soviet armour streaming across the captured bridges it looked convincingly like another breach in NATO defences.

All up a very enjoyable weekend with plenty of command challengers and certainly rather a lot of models to move around the tables. As always a big vote of thanks to the organisers of the MSH event. I am rather hoping for another Modern Spearhead multiplayer game at Call to Arms in 2007.