Whiskey on the Rocks - Cold War Wargaming

Summer 1981 - “ Admiral Ivan Kapitanets was relieved the briefing was over, finally the commands to launch the offensive against the West. The political animal Major General Vladimir Platov's 11th Guards army is to take the Swedish mainland. The Naval Infantry to the island of Gotland; the key to the eastern Baltic. Then there establish the installation of Surface to Air missile batteries, controlling the skies over the Baltic and Northern Europe.”  The Russians are coming….

 A  weekend gaming scenario - “What if the invasion of Gotland circa October 1981? For those with long memories a Soviet Nuclear Whiskey class Submarine S363 grounded itself off the coast of Sweden in October 1981. The Swedes decided they wanted to keep the grounded submarine and stop it from departing until investigations were completed. 

The game plays out the scenario's: The Russians begin operations to recover the submarine and invade Gotland and Mainland Sweden. The game will concentrate on the Russian invasion of Gotland, with airborne and amphibious landings. The goal to take out the Swedish early warning radar, air assets, and the Naval gun 152mm locations defending the ports and channel. Capture the port, airfield and barracks of Visby, Närs coast guard base, the island of Faro with its anti shipping missile batteries and take out the Bunge airfield, all before the Swedish Marine and army reserve can arrive to tip the balance. 

I have researched available 1981 orders of Battle to create the game. To expand the scenario to a weekend game, some elements will take place on the board game 'Next War, Deadly Northern Lights'. This will track off table Air assets, naval combat and reserves before the game begins etc. The table top will fight the ground actions with or without air support as per earlier map movement.

Gaming across 3 - 4 tables, broken into three phases, the opening moves are VDV spetsnaz assaults on radar installations, electrical supply, communications and the air bases. Followed by missile bombardment of the air bases, the VDV parachute - air landing assault, and Marine Sea landings. Each will carry over casualties and losses so the order of battle will be fluid. Each phase has the possibility to include a reinforcement phase for each side.  

Stay tuned for my next article covering 

 # The breakdown of the Orders of Battle

 # The tables layout using Force on Force 

 # The order of Battle for the small element games

 # Rapid Fire Able Archer for the larger games. 

Cheers 

Matt Williamson