“Lariet Advance!”, the charge of quarters or CQ yelled as he moved from room to room in the barracks of the 1st Battalion, 33rd Armor at Ayers Kaserne in Kirch Göns, West Germany. The first sergeant’s duty roster randomly assigned a Sergeant or Staff Sergeant in the company to serve as Charge of Quarters after duty hours. This junior NCO was responsible for the unit while the company commander and first sergeant were relaxing at home.

Within the hour, the entire 1st Brigade, 3rd Armor Division was on the road headed to their General Deployment Positions near Bad Hersfeld, Germany in the Fulda Gap. Upon arrival. They would receive an upload of their Basic Load of Ammunition (BLA) and receive their orders from higher headquarters.

Although the entire USAREUR (US Army Europe) conducted alerts once a month at 0230 hours, this was no drill. The WARSAW Pact was threatening military action and declaration of war by the US Congress was imminent. All of NATO was on alert, tensions were high.

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The Deutsches Demokratische Republik’s (DDR) 91st Panzer Regiment as well as the entire 4th Motorized Rifle Division reacted with professional skill as they rolled their tanks and infantry fighting vehicles out of their respective cantonment areas. They would move to attack positions along the 1K zone on the West German border. The soldiers of the 4th MRD could feel the tension of what they were about to do. No one was speaking.

The Soviet Army was well known for rehearsing battle drills until their execution was as rote as breathing. It was with precision and professionalism that the Soviet units could move into a battle efficiently. Their East German counterparts were no different; exercising that cold Germanic professionalism during the art of war.

The East German and Russian forces positioned themselves along the 1K zone waiting for their orders to push forward. Like their American, British and West German counterparts, they also had received a Basic Load of Ammunition. Their commanders were confident they could roll right over the arrogant Americans in their steel death traps.



Town names as listed on the map include


The number in parenthesis is the number of hexes the town occupies.

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Notes
1. I will serve as the Game Referee. I will use the rules of a war game called, “Assault: Tactical Combat in the 1980s.” I will also provide you with reports and messages from your subordinate leaders as though I were Role playing those NPCs.

2. In order to maintain the Fog of War, we will communicate via Private Messenger until contact with the enemy is made. You tell me where your units are moving along what route and who is firing at whom. I can answer questions related to the gaming system to help facilitate who is doing what, when and where.

3. I will use the gaming system to determine the outcome. Please do not argue about the outcome of an engagement.

4. There are several dice rolls to be made throughout this game. I may ask you to roll as many as twenty or thirty different rolls of 1d10 or more during each turn. I will use your rolls to determine the outcome of engagements. Since both commanders are giving me instructions at the same time, I will play one full turn to determine the outcome and then communicate this individually to each. If a Soviet unit can see a US unit and vice versa, I will post a map of what is seen on both sides in the In Character tab.

5. As you create dice rolls in the RPG forum’s Dice section, link them in the OOC tab for all to see. You can label them or compartmentalize then however you see fit. I will tell you how the dice rolls relate to the outcomes. I may come back and ask for more dice rolls if needed. In fact, I will need new dice rolls every game turn.

6. As I am made aware of outcomes of combat, I will communicate them to the respective player(s) so they can post them in their own style preferably using a role playing style. Create characters and tell a story about these character; about their life and maybe even their death.

7. The maps I will use have a hexagonal grid overlay which depicts sections of terrain that cover 250 meters.

8. Each game turn is 5 minutes. I will use both the NATO and the WARSAW Pact orders/moves/dice rolls as though everything is happening at the same time. I will post a timeline of each game turn below; broken down into 5 minute increments.

9. You do not need to know how to play the game. In fact, possessing a grasp of the game might interfere with your ability to enjoy the aesthetics of this role play.

10. You have the option to enlist (a) friend(s) to role play (a) subordinate(s) unit if there are too many units for you to manage.

The scenario we will use is a probe on the part of East German Forces. The element of the US 3rd Armor Division (Spearhead) will be in a defensive position in the vicinity of the Fulda Gap and will have been there for 24 to 72 hours prior to contact with East German probing forces. Their intention is to prevent East German forces from bypassing their defensive position. The East German army forces in the Gap are probing the strength of US resistance and are searching for an area where US forces are weak in an attempt to push through, continuing their advance to the west.

A few things you may need to know about the gaming system…

1. I will ask for die rolls for your HQs and TOC units (Tactical Operations Center).

2. Units move either in column formation (one behind the other) or in Line formation (vehicles are abreast). You may need to specify which you are using as column provides fastest movement speeds over great distances, but lacks combat power. Line formation provides the best combat power, but movement is slowed.

3. Units in column formation will not shoot. They must switch to combat formation. All you need to do is give me the instructions to have your units automatically switch to combat formation when fired upon.

4. Units that are in cover can execute Opportunity Fire which is similar to executing an ambush from a covered and concealed location. You must tell me before a battle which units and where are in cover. These are units which are in the defense. They may be dug into the ground and invariably are using some form of camouflage.

5. I will also ask you to give me locations of where you want your indirect fire (Artillery) to land, depending on whether you have artillery assets. Artillery is fired at a location on the earth. If enemy or friendly units happen to occupy that location, they must accept the consequences they receive.

6. Pay careful attention to the maps I provide you. The colors depicted on the maps refer to different elevations. Your HQs units need to be able to see their subordinate units in order to have a more efficient and positive effect on them. I can provide you with a guide to determine a clear Line of Sight (LOS) if you need one.

Note on Characters…

You will not need a character sketch for this role play. Feel free to name the characters in your command element and develop their characters throughout the game. The US or Bundeswehr commander will hold the rank of Captain, Major or Lieutenant Colonel. The Soviet Commander will hold the rank of Major, Lieutenant Colonel or Colonel. I will let you know when we know what size element you command. I encourage you to name the NPCs subordinate to your commander, whom I will play as when reporting to you about sightings and combat action.

If you have any questions, please ask. If there is something confusing in this OP, please let me know so I can clarify and maybe edit to this passage.

@CaptainBritton@Andreyich

Next step is, I need a number of 1d10 die rolls for your HQs as stated in the PMs. The number of rolls is listed in the PM. Please link them there, instead of here, if you please and thank you.

I'll be working on this tuesdayish

I found this meme on the "I served in Europe with the US Armed Forces" site...

Turn 1 has begun.


NOTE: For turn 1, since neither side has seen each other yet, I will leave the option to post up to you. Please be aware that I have taken some lengths to preserve the Fog of War. Neither side knows what the other looks like yet. Once you post, you may be giving clues (intelligence) to your opponents.

Good luck and have fun!

@Andreyich@CaptainBritton

I posted in the 0th post. It doesn't register as having posted there. Maybe I should move it to post 1? Does it matter?

I Have a new cell phone which has improved detail in the images. I may or may not replace existing images with ones from this phone or simply give you better images in the future as the situation changes.

Based on what I have seen so far, we may be ready to advance to Turn 3. I will wait to hear from both of you. If you do not want to change anything, simply write, "Continue to March." If you want things to change, please inform me in your Private Message.

@Andreyich@CaptainBritton I updated the maps in the OP. You can read the Hex Identifiers with relative clarity in Maps A & B, but not in the combined map.

Unfortunately, @Andreyich will not be able to continue with his role in this War Game. I am looking for someone to take on the role of the Warsaw Pact nation. Andreyich opted to go with the East Germans. If you would like to role play as the Soviets, that would be easy to accommodate as well. Once a new person has offered to take the Warsaw Pact role, I will share what has happened so far. We have only progressed through two game turns and there has been no contact with the enemy, I see no reason to start over. If you would like to use a different route(s) to move your unit(s) along, please let me know. I will give you a brain dump on your unit and its capabilities in a large Private Message (PM).

If you are interested in taking on the role of the Warsaw Pact Commander, please state your intentions below.

Thank you.

DIST:
@CaptainBritton

Might be interested...

@Landain I can send you a PM with the details for the East Germans. Do you mind using the roll(s) Andreyich got for his Command Ratings?
I will need you to make 20 combat rolls. Do you want to continue with the East Germans or make them Soviets?

East Germans works for me.

Should I post anything in the IC tab?

Should I post anything in the IC tab?

Yes, by all means do so. If you can write something without giving too much away, go for it. Then, once it is known by both sides what you are going up against, you can write more detail.

@CaptainBritton Good luck to you, sir! ;)

@Landain to you as well.

In an attempt to alleviate any confusion, this is what both of you are able to see at this point in the battle. I placed orange explosions on the hexes that formerly contained a recce section and a DDR tank platoon.

@CaptainBritton I love your Status. I know it has been there for two years and I've seen it before, but it is so true. You could make a Role play based on that statement. Your Player Characters are either Targets (T) [Target Dummies (TD)] or Real Fighters (RF) and your character is the Warrior (W) [or Lead Warrior (LW)]. LOL I'll join and make ten Ts (NPCs) and one RF (PC). All my Ts will die in a loud grotesque manner.

I currently have 44 dice rolls from the US and 47 from the DDR. I should have enough to get to Turn 7. Hopefully there will be more left over. What this is doing is teaching me how to run another war game. Who knew it would require so many dice rolls?! In fact, this scenario is 18 turns long. We haven't even hit the halfway mark yet.

The East German Commander, Herr Oberstleutnant Heinrich surveying the remains of his command: