Humlebaek Counterattack 1985

[wulfir]

WWIII has begun in Europe.

Warsaw Pact forces have struck Denmark hard, hammering their way north through Jutland and while also staging and amphibious operation against Sjaelland, desperately trying to open up the straits.






Troops and munitions on both sides are being consumed at a staggering rate.

With some difficulty the Danes on Sjaelland fight the invasion to a temporary standstill, when in a surprising move a second Warsaw Pact bridgehead is established north of Copenhagen.

The Danish command knows this move can potentially rupture the whole Sjaelland defence. It also knows the bridgehead must be quickly eliminated or it will grow too strong for the already hard pressed NATO forces of LANDZEALAND to deal with.



The only immediately available forces to carry out the counter attack is a battalion size force drawn from a lower quality formation with originally intended to be used for defensive purposes.

If this new bridgehead can be defeated there might be time for American NATO reinforcements to arrive.

Conditions are far from ideal.

And you are the one to lead the whole thing…





- - - - - - - - - -

This is a short winSPMBT campaign, essentially a fleshed out scenario.

I like to play big scenarios where there is plenty of freedom for the player – here you’ll get the opportunity to somewhat tailor your force to your play style fighting a few battles before the big showdown on the beaches of HUMLEBAEK.

The campaign uses a fixed core and was built assuming the player will fight with a mostly leg infantry force, supported by some of the oldest tanks in NATO frontline service during the mid 1980s…

...but it is possible to “sell off” and re-equip a force of your own choosing. With minimal tinkering one can also change the settings to an open core, set build points etc…

[Suhiir]

First battle wasn't what I was expecting.

I'm very happy to see an infantry campaign added to the game.

[Anthony_Scott]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

First battle wasn't what I was expecting.

Same here. That supposedly sub-standard Danish force gave as good as it got wow...

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

I'm very happy to see an infantry campaign added to the game.

Suhiir - the USMC makes an apperance at the end of the campaign, but yeah the Danes have the lead role...

If you want you can yourself edit the campaign and change player 1 to USMC (or any other country in the game), change the core option from fixed to open, set a suitable amount of build points and go to town. It might not be perfectly balanced but battles don't tend to be, so...

...btw, most of the campaign plays out on two 200x160 maps made with the Venhola program, around Fredensborg and Humlebaek (north of Copenhagen), Denmark. Took me a while to make, would be cool if they could be used for something else too. I can send them your way if you feel like whipping together a (USMC) campaign or a scenario set in Danmark, could be any year you fancy I guess but the maps are of course summer maps...

[Suhiir]

Might look into using the maps sometime.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

WulFir,
I must say you have "peaked" my interest here mostly due to the flexibility you're allowing the player. I've NEVER downloaded a scenario before if it wasn't contained in a patch.

I might just make an exception here. I know since I was able to find a list of equipment from JANE's dated for 1981 the Danes had some decent tanks. So are any or all of these available...
MK41 BULLDOG, LEOPARD 1A3, CENTURIAN MK.V & MK.V2 (W/105mm L7A1) and MK III td (84mm). I haven't checked with SIPRI yet but, did the Danes have the TOW in '81? The tanks listed came off that list.

This for FYI only!
The CIA documents (Of which I posted many of in the Forum a few years back.) would've fully supported that the USMC would've been the first units to likely respond to Europe at the time besides the "RDJTF" one I read "suggested" an invasion on the Eastern Seaboard by Polish Marines supported by an overland invasion by the East Germans and Soviets from near Lubeck, Germany heading North.

Maybe time to look at a map of Denmark "to get the lay of the land", sounds like you've done a GREAT JOB HERE!

Regards,
Pat

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by FASTBOAT TOUGH

Maybe time to look at a map of Denmark "to get the lay of the land"

The arrow points to the area(s) I used to build the maps.

If you edit the campaign yourself - and it takes about 15 seconds - you can use any equipment in the Danish OOB.

The original campaign setup has a fixed core where the player will take command over parts of one of the Danish regimental size battle groups ("infanterikampgruppe") - Denmark fielded four of these on Sjealland and were primarily intended for defensive tasks. Each battle group had one "tank destroyer" company equipped with their oldest type of Centurion tanks.

There were other, stronger, Danish formations on Sjealland but the idea behind the campaign is to play with some of the less modern stuff. The battles have a large number of turns to make it possible to manouver leg infantry units...

When it comes to possible Allied reinforcements to Denmark the USMC is usually mentioned, along with the US Army 9th Infantry-Division (which IIRC had an unusual OOB) and the British 1st Infantry Brigade.

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by FASTBOAT TOUGH

This for FYI only!
The CIA documents (Of which I posted many of in the Forum a few years back.) would've fully supported that the USMC would've been the first units to likely respond to Europe at the time besides the "RDJTF" one I read "suggested" an invasion on the Eastern Seaboard by Polish Marines supported by an overland invasion by the East Germans and Soviets from near Lubeck, Germany heading North.

If the USMC were commuted to mainland Europe I'm pretty sure it would have been to secure port facilities for the US Army to disembark at.

[Suhiir]

Having been somewhat personally involved in operations in Norway in the late 70's I know it was anticipated the USMC would be primarily operating there. Denmark was something of an "Oh ****!" scenario on the assumption the US Army was heavily involved in Germany and the USMC forces were all that was available.

VS Soviet paratroops and naval infantry the USMC should do fine. But Soviet mech/armored formations just had to much armor and mobility for the USMC to deal with in any way but purely defensively. And Soviet air defenses would make the USMC reliance on air and helos problamatic (at best) in Denmark where there are no mountains to hide behind.

Then again, war is ALWAYS an "Oh ****" situation ... so you use what's available.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

But Soviet mech/armored formations just had to much armor and mobility for the USMC to deal with in any way but purely defensively.

This is an interesting problem. Still debated over here btw...