Red Tide: Soviet Naval Infantry - Part 2 Companies, Platoons and Support

Team Yankee is a game, not a simulation. While working on Red Tide, I was forced to make some unpalatable compromises. Each time, I reminded myself that TY is a game. It is OK to include (or exclude) something that would make a professional analyst snicker and a neck-beard huff if the overall gaming experience is preserved. Now, after several revisions, I feel the few remaining compromises are justified. Declassified information concerning Soviet Naval Infantry is incomplete and often contradictory. It is almost as if the Cold War were ongoing. I believe it is more important that Red Tide gives the player the feel of the the SNI rather than focusing on the minutiae of their TO&E that have minimal impact on the game.That does not mean that long hours of research weren't spent to achieve reasonable accuracy based on the available data. What it means is that some inaccuracies were permitted to allow Red Tide to fit within the bounds of TY (exactly like all the other TY armies). Ultimately, I believe Red Tide introduces SNI to TY as a viable and balanced force that is also hopefully enjoyable to play.  

David Dean 

9/21/2019

There are supposedly stories of non-coms telling new recruits that the SNI never venture beyond the range of the 152mm naval guns. This makes a good story, but of course is untrue. However, it does show the dependence on naval guns. Although an SNI battalion does have organic MRL and howitzer support that a motorized rifle battalion lacks, it comes up short compared to the MR battalion when division resources are included in the equation. Naval fire support, provided primary from Sverdlov class light cruisers, brings the SNI back to parity with the MR battalion and arguably gives the SNI battalion the advantage.

  

Red Tide: Soviet Naval Infantry - Part 1 Brigade and Battalion Structure

“The primary mission of the Soviet Naval Infantry (Morskaya Pekhota) is to seize control of territory adjacent to important straits and other waterways. This can be accomplished by independent amphibious landings, by spearheading combined marine-army operations, or in combined operations with airborne troops. The secondary mission of Soviet marines is to defend captured coastal territory and naval bases.”[1]

The Team Yankee period Soviet Naval Infantry is composed of a single independent infantry division and four independent infantry brigades. The Pacific Fleet’s NI division is based in Vladivostok. The Baltic and Black Sea Fleets each have one brigade and the Northern Fleet has two independent brigades.

The Baltic Fleet’s 336th Naval Infantry Brigade along with the Polish 7th Sea Landing Brigade can be expected to lead the effort to secure the Denmark Straits. The Soviet 7th Guards Airborne Division and the Polish 6th Airborne Brigade would likely coordinate with amphibious operations.

Coming soon... Red Tide: Soviet Naval Infantry - Part 2 Companies, Platoons and Support

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[1] The Soviet Navy: Landing Their Landing Force By Norman Polmar, Editor, Guide to the Soviet Navy, January 1987, Proceedings Vol. 113/1/1,007

Battle Report: Israelis vs. Czech - Bohemians can't hit with Sagger and Spiral or are all those Skyhawks on fire?

Two Weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a game with Kel at my place. We used the Quick Missions from the TY website. Kel rolled “Seize the Bridge” and I didn’t want to add a river to our table, so he rerolled “Annihilation” as our mission.

We played 60 points and the table was a 4x4 using modular tiles I had scratch built for micro-armor. The roads weren’t to scale so we called them single lane country roads. Kel rolled high and was the attacker with his Israelis and I was the defender with my Czechs (go figure). Kel wisely chose the most defensible side of the board and dug in deep.

Unusual, but still Kosher, the Israelis fielded Magachs and no Merkavas. This proved to be another wise decision (or Kel is a disciple of Kabbalah?). The standard Perah and mech units supported the Israeli armor with napalm armed Skyhawks waiting to strike. In the pic above, the ZSU-57 are actually VADS.

The Czechs fielded two battalions of T-55s crewed by pensioners and alcoholics accompanied by BMP recon elements. A motorized rifle battalion with both BMP-1 and BMP-2 supported the armor. Artillery fire support was provided by a battery of DANA and AT fire support from a platoon of BRDM AT. Air defense duties were covered by an elite ZSU-23/4 unit that was incorrectly assigned to this category III division due to a clerical mistake.

The game started and the T-55s charged down the central valley and took heavy casualties from highly accurate Magach fire. In return, the T-55s were only able to machine gun 3 Tow Jeeps and unsuccessfully assault the fourth jeep (which fled). In the charge forward, the T-55s were unable to achieve a single hit with their 100mm guns. This was attributed to the pensioner crews lack of training with the laser ranger finders on the T-55AM2. However, they were proficient with the antiquated but still effective machine guns.

Except for two kills on Perehs, the Czech Sagger and Spiral fire was completely ineffectual and landed no hits whatsoever. Both the regimental commander and the political officer blamed the poor results on the chronic alcoholism throughout the division. It was later noted that every Sagger and Spiral gunner in the Division was intoxicated during the battle. 

Meanwhile, Kel gloriously charged his mech unit forward on the Czech weak side. The only time his troops were vulnerable, while dismounting from M113, I tried to range in my DANAs and give the Israeli infantry a 152mm H.E. introduction to Communism. However, that was not to be. With a skill of 4+ and three attempts, the DANAs could not range in on the vulnerable Israeli infantry caught in the open and the golden opportunity was forever gone. Reportedly, the aged Czech forward observers were not familiar with the new Soviet supplied radios and thus unable to timely call in artillery strikes.

Feeling the need to smell napalm in the morning, Kel brought on four Skyhawks that lined up for a napalm run that would likely burn out and collapse my entire right flank. With my right flank turned to KFC (Kosher Fried Chicken), he could possibly roll up the entire side of my army and I couldn't stop him.  

My entire army is Iron Curtain category III crap (and I love them for it). Everything except those elite ZSU crews that weren’t supposed to be here. One of the ZSUs got shot up earlier. The three that survived were pissed off and looking for payback. Now, there were four incoming fast movers. That said the chance for payback was at hand. Instead of the huge napalm strike turning my rifle infantry into a Czech Apocalypse Now, there were four airborne fireballs and three shit hot ZSU crews giving each other the Russian equivalent of high fives. The Pact’s only moment of glory this day!

During the celebrations, a lone Israeli team reached RPG range of the Czech division commander and took a pot shot that narrowly missed. All the while shouting in Hebrew, “Leroy Jenkins.” A ZSU quickly killed the team and decided it was too early to celebrate.

We called the game. Neither force was destroyed, but the Israelis were in much better shape than the Czechs.

I eyeballed the pics and going from memory…it was ugly.

Killed

Israeli

2 Pereh                                    5 pts

3 Tow Jeeps                            4.5 pts

4 Skyhawks                            6 pts

Most of mech inf plt            ~7pts

                                             22.5pts

Czech

17 T-55                                   17pts

1 ZSU-23/4                               1pts

4 BMP-1                                   2pts

3 BMP-2                                   1.5pts

3 inf stands                                2.5pts

I think there was some more     3 pts

                                                 27pts

The points killed are deceptive. The Israeli advantage was more than shown by the points killed.

Kel’s shot selection was very good. Choosing Magachs instead of Merkava’s proved to be a good choice in this case. The extra guns were much more important than the armor. His mech infantry charge would have likely won the game if the Skyhawks had a good napalm run.

I should have spent less effort on the TOW jeeps and gone at the Magachs immediately. On the first turn, I should have dropped smoke for my T55 to run up behind. I should have put my DANA on the Magachs and left them there starting on the second turn. I debated about my force selection, but I think the list is fine.

The quick missions are fun. I think maybe 40 points would be interesting. I would also like to play one of the scenarios with objectives.

Category III divisions need to make do with pensioners and alcoholics. I will miss the ZSU crews when the paperwork catches up and they get reassigned.

Thanks, Kel for an AWESOME game!