Red Dawn #263 Antonito

[Old Gamer]

Red Dawn Series #263 Antonito

As with all of the Red Dawn scenarios I had no idea what to expect. The description told you where the event was at and what you had and what would be attacking you and that was about it. The map helped clear that up some as there were victory hexes already keyed to the Nicaraguans on the south and one to the west. The map has a town in the center with roads coming up from the south that cross a stream with three bridges. They were in range of some recon and some of an infantry platoon in houses at the south and southwest edge of town. The stream came in from the east and then curved south after the three bridge crossings.

On the west side a paved road came in from the southern middle of the board and then curved up toward the town. There was also a second dirt road from the west from the middle of the map. The western side had a wooded area 15 to 20 hexes in and about 2 to 6 hexes wide. This wooded area stopped on the south end at the paved road from the west. Just above the paved road was a low ridge that blocked view from the north. This ridge was discontinuous along the road and switched sides as the road turned north to the town. The whole area except the southern area south of the stream and on the west was flat open with a few trees and scattered building. The US defenders had a company of infantry, two TOW jeeps and a platoon of M60 tanks. In addition it had a M2 50 cal team, a couple of Dusters and a couple of stingers. Artillery consisted of the company mortars and two 105 platoons off board. A couple of turns into the game the US received two Cobras but without any ATGMS. They also received a couple of A7s ground attack jets.

The Soviet and Nicaraguans began their attack with an armored column coming in from the west on the paved road and an infantry attack up from the south toward the bridges. I had moved three of the M60s into the west edge of town and the other two into the east edge. Two of the M60s and one TOW jeep eliminated the armored attack on the west road. This left a large smoky group of wrecks that blocked view farther west. A few scouts survived the destruction and moved by foot toward the town. They had some nuisance value firing on the US infantry in that area until eliminated by the platoon MG team. A second wave of PT-76s came out of the woods, near the road on the west and was also knocked out as each came into view.

The Soviets held back Three T-62s at the edge of the board. On the south area the Nicaraguans executed an infantry attack supported by a couple of light recon vehicles and an armored car. They also had a platoon of T-55s. I dropped smoke at the bridges to isolate the front of the attack from farther back supporting Nicaraguan units. I also began targeting the bridges with the 105 platoons and the company mortars. The attack stalled under the artillery and as each individual squad crossed the bridge they came under fire from the infantry squads and the MMGs. The M60s also helped pin and damage the squads.

About this time the Cobras arrived and I was disappointed that they had no ATGMs. However I sent one down to the south to recon the cross bridge attack and see what was in support. This Cobra was the platoon leader so it could call arty if it found a good target. It spotted the armored car and knocked it out with its 20mm. A second infantry attack was forming up from the south in the area west of the stream toward the southwest edge of the town. I moved up some of the infantry and brought the sniper and 50 cal down to that area. I used the other Cobra and two M60s to stop and pin the infantry in the open and began to hit them with the 105s. By this time the 81mm mortars were out of ammunition.

This continued for many turns. (the game had 35 turns) Some of the M60s ran out of HE but had lots of MG ammunition. One MMG team at the bridge defense area also ran out of ammunition.

They tried to push tanks across the bridges but the M60s or Dragons knocked all of them out. Had to hit them more than once in a couple of cases. The A7s arrived and I ran a bombing strike down the road from the south where the Nicaraguan infantry finally got a column across a bridge. Two passes of the A7s finished this attack. On the other side of the stream on west this attack was also stalled by fire from MGs and the M60s so I sent the other A7 to hit this area. Between the 105s, A7s and the MGs the attack on the west side was halted and then broke into retreating and routing squads. I then began moving the infantry forward to recapture the victory hexs lost and to move farther west and south to get these that the victory hexes the Nicaraguans had at the beginning. I moved one platoon across the bridges heading south supported by one M60. The other two platoon went west and then one platoon turned south.

The Soviets now decided to launch their air attack. My stingers shot down one Mig 23 but the other got through and attacked the M60 platoon leader who was carefully hidden at the edge of town in woods. It was still targeted and knocked out by the 23mm gun from the Mig. They had two more runs and knocked out another M60 and immobilized another. Over all this was the best attack they had accomplished. Their tanks only died and the infantry attacks were smothered by artillery and MG fire.

As one platoon moved west on the road toward the Soviet tanks at the edge of the board the other moved south toward the victory hex in that area. The Cobras were moving around taking pot shots at the soviet tanks with the 20mm but no penetration. One was south scouting for the infantry coming the way. Both were hit and had to leave the board. The Soviet tanks moved from their reserve position and came under long range fire from a TOW jeep. The first two rounds were stopped by the close in defense system the tanks had. The TOW jeep came under fire so it relocated to the other side of the building it was using for cover. It fired once more with its last shot and took out one of the tanks.

Much earlier in the game I had moved one M60 to the woods on the west side of the board to be a cross fire for when any of the tanks on the west ever came out to play. I kept moving it south in the woods edge to both get closer and to move the view farther west. I had reconnoitered the area west of the tree line with a Cobra earlier and found no enemy in the area. Finally the Soviet tanks moved into view of the M60 and it knocked both of the remaining two tanks out.

The rest of the game was mopping up a couple of RPG teams and MG teams and I moved to the south and took all of the victory hexes. I got a marginal victory as I didn’t have the 10:1 required for major victory only 7:1.

The 105 and the amount of ammunition they had decided the game. Artillery was the King of Battle in this game. Between the artillery, sniper and MG fire the Nicaraguans could not close and use their weapons to attack the US units. As noted before in previous AARs I would include at least an ammo truck or a small ammo dump to the scenario. I didn’t even have to use the Dusters to mop up the infantry. My losses were minimal. I lost two tanks but the crews survived and one was immobilized. The Cobras were damaged but not shot down. I lost one dragon team from their arty. The rest of the infantry company was intact with only a few men lost.

The enemy artillery was ineffective. They would pin down some infantry but move to another location to fire. I could then move the pined units out away from that area. Their units on the other hand were trapped in the fire zones.

A fun game but not quite the nail biter the previous games were.