6mm Modern Command Decision AAR

Advance Guard

Yesterday I played a scenario from the table-top teasers set entitled Advance Guard from C. S. Grant. The situation was two balanced advance guards were tasked to secure vital ground for the upcoming offensive. There were two objectives, a small town and a bridge crossing a river. Here is the table layout at the beginning.

Small town where Americans enter on bottom and river crossing with Chinese entry top left.

The forces used were:

Stryker Battalion with attached recon platoon and Stryker ATGM.

Chinese Mechanized Battalion with attached Type ZTZ 99A company and ATGM vehicle.

I had one mech infantry company each side and an attachment come on as the advance guard on turn one. 

2nd Company with attached ATGM comes on table towards the bridge.

Turn One: The roll for who has initiative came up Chinese. The Chinese company commander knowing he needed to secure the bridge and the small town decided to strike immediately for the currently unsecured town in hopes of being able to keep the Americans out the town until his re-enforcements arrive. 

The Americans move directly for the town to secure it and send out the recon element to scout out the bridge.

Chinese attack

A Co moves to town, recon moves out.

Turn Two:
The roll came up again for the Reds who continued to press on looking to drive out A company. They came under fire from A co Mortar which only slowed them down a bit but did no damage. No other fire was exchanged and the US recon element continued it's move toward the hill overlooking the bridge.

Chinese top left under mortar fire.

Turn Three:

The Chinese continue to get the rolls to start off! The drive at break-neck speed toward to town as the A company sets up and starts to open fire (though there are no hits including the mortar). The ATGM from the reds wants to fire into those soft strykers but is suppressed by the recon element's mortar which inflicts a hit and causes it to go pinned!

Recon element on bottom corner of hill near river laying down fire on the red ATGM.

Turn Four:

The Chinese again get the roll for initiative! They continue to roll forward but are now in range of A company's guns. The mortar lays down fire but no damage and the MGS takes out an apc! It's not looking good for the Americans. But then A company's infantry platoons open up wiping out a Chinese platoon. The Chinese return fire scores two hits on one American platoon but it rolls for no effect! Both sides take morale tests and everybody passes! The Chinese roll a 1, so the fight continues!

Turn Five:

The Chinese assault on the town continues as the ATGM can't get in because it is still pinned by the recon's mortar. The Red infantry supported by prep fire from the apcs moves to close assault the nearest American building. One platoon makes it and then wipes out the Americans by rolling a 10 on the hit result table! The other platoon doesn't make it and is left in the open taking fire from A Company. The MGS takes out another apc. Both sides check morale and the Americans pass and the Chinese finally fail sending them falling back demoralized.

Chinese fall back.

 Turn Six:

The American continue to pump fire into the broken Chinese company without scoring hits and the mortar from A company keeps up the pin on the ATGM of the Chinese. That allows the recon element to make a sprint for the bridge! The morale test for the chinese company comes up roses as the are not wiped out but are still pinned and demoralized.

I rolled at this point for the reserves for both sides and they both rolled to come on! Just in time for the Chinese!

Turn Seven:

Both sides reserves roll in but this time the Americans get the iniatitve to move first. B Company moves double time to secure firing positions in the woods halfway to the bridge, as C Company and HQ move to the center of the board to form a broad front. The Chinese let off a mech company and ATGM into the small woods along their road for a firebase and the the other mech company, HQ, and tank company move directly for the bridge which the US recon element just crossed!

Chinese positions after movement. Note the small recon element on left of bridge! uh oh.

B Co in woods and C Co with Hq in center

B Co position waiting till next turn to deploy infantry and hopefully light up the reds with their Javelins!

The only firing took place when finally the broken Chinese platoons succumbed to American fire.

Turn Eight:

The Chinese get to move first and deploy their tanks to take out the recon element. In op fire the recon squad fires its Javelin which misses! The Chinese tanks then open up and only cause one hit for a forced back! The Chinese mech company and HQ race over the bridge and deploy their infantry. The Americans deploy and open up but they are too far away to score hits! The only American fire that hits was the mortars which did a good job suppressing the Chinese mech company in the woods but little else. The morale phase brought grief to the Chinese when their tank company fell back and went pinned along the road from fire, but the rest stood firm as well as the Americans.

Only a force back.

Deploy and fire taking out the recon stryker but doing nothing to the mortar stryker.

Turn Nine:

With movement by the Americans first the Chinese hold up digging in waiting till the Americans come within range. In the general fire phase B Company scores two solid hits on the Chinese tank company destroying two tank platoons but also lose a platoon to tank

 return fire. The mortars actually cause hits this time on the Chinese infantry in the woods and with great dice rolling wipe out two of their platoons! All other fire is ineffective except the MGS from A co takes out the still pinned ATGM in the middle of the board. The morale phase was good for the Americans who passed handily all the checks but the Chinese tank company became demoralized after being decimated by the American Javelins.

Turns Ten through Eleven:

The following turns saw the destruction of the recon element by the Chinese forces at the bridge and the reduction of the Chinese company in the woods by effective combined fire from two American companies. The Chinese ATGM though finally did something and took out C Company's MGS platoon causing them to fall back. At that point we saw that the Chinese had been reduced to an effective fighting force of one mechanized infantry company and battalion HQ. The Americans had lost a total of 2 infantry platoons, 1 MGS, and the recon element. We called the game then as the Chinese battalion commander wisely retreated leaving the bridge and town to the American Stryker Battalion!

ATGM taken out.

MGS from C Company taken out.

What's left of the infantry company in the woods.

The Chinese finish off the recon element.

The table at the end with the US of A in control.