#260 Highway 77 Texas Red Dawn Series

[Old Gamer]

The second in the Red Dawn series. #260 Highway 77 in Texas. The Map is both wide and deep. The orientation is with the Nicaraguans coming up from the south or bottom of the map. The map is very open farm land with a 4 lane freeway in the center that curves to the right near the bottom of the map. There are some trees along the freeway and a couple of tree rows outlining the farm fields and a few house scattered around with some isolated tree groups. The US begins with an infantry company dismounted along the roadway. They also start with an ACAV troop on the left side of the freeway and a platoon of M48s. They have some mortars and some 105s and one OH helicopter. They also receive a couple of A10s and three F111s.

I dropped smoke about halfway down the map centered on the freeway and moved the infantry company forward to occupy a tree line running parallel to the freeway on the left side and some farm houses on the right. One platoon continued down the road popping into the woods at each end of move. The ACAV went to the left and spread out to cover that area. Moving up to about 1/3 of the map toward the south edge. They dismounted near a victory hex and hid in woods or a house. The M48s split on either side of the road in the trees. Reinforcements entered on the right side of the map consisting of AAA units and a meck company with a platoon of M60s. These formed a line from the Freeway to the right edge and advanced toward the south edge. My OH was knocked out with AAA as it scouted the left flank. There was a lot of enemy AAA missile units.

The enemy moved scouting forces up on the left which were knocked out by TOWs or the M48s. Except for one T62 was immobilized which again would come to haunt me later. The crew bailed out but eventually rallied and reoccupied the tank. I didn’t notice. On the right a major wave attack came in the form of a mechanized infantry battalion in BTRs. The M48 and M60s shot them up and destroyed this attack. The battalion was followed by a platoon or two of T72’s the M48s had a hard time knocking these out as did the M60s. I brought the A10s in on that flank using maverick standoff attacks. This reduced their numbers by 4 tanks which allowed the M60’s finish off the rest. The T72 was hard to kill the M48’s and M60’s did not have the punch to pierce the frontal turret armor. I hit one 5 times and it went into retreat but would not die. It was only when the flank of the tank was exposed that the M60’s 105’s could kill the T-72’s at the range we were firing (2000 or so).

With this attack blunted I moved the line forward to finish off the enemy infantry that remained from the destroyed BTRs. On left flank the enemy moved part of a tank company forward in another attack toward the far left side toward the ACAV the TOW jeeps killed a couple but the TOWs just were not having a good day most of the rounds missed or were dodged. Again I called the A10s in, this time on the left flank and they destroyed another 4 tanks with standoff attacks. I also moved the M48s from the right flank to the left to assist the ACAV. Between the A-10s and the M48s the enemy T-62s were destroyed. The immobilized T-62 hit one of the M48s as it was maneuvering to attack the other T-62s. Some of the dismounted infantry that remained from the destruction of the attacks on the left flank were also dealt with by the ACAV on this flank and the infantry platoon on this side of the freeway.

The right flank moved forward and had mostly cleared the right flank and was moving to the left toward the freeway when the game ended a couple of turns early. The enemy tried to attack the infantry with artillery but I mostly moved one turn forward before it would land so most of the infantry was unaffected. I won a minor victor as I did not have a 10 to one victory ratio only 6 or 7 to one. The after game look at the map showed that they still had almost a company of T-62’s guarding the left edge of the map victory hexes.

A fun game. Wide open good visibility so the M48s and M60s had a great fields of fire. The mobility of the US tanks on the roads allowed me to quickly respond to the tank attack on the left from the M48 platoon most of which was on the right of the freeway. By that time the M60s were more than adequate to hold the right flank and begin advancing.

Almost forgot they had two attack helicopters which did mostly nothing. Just moved back and forth on the bottom left edge of the battlefield. They did fire on some of my infantry as the approached the enemy edge of the board at the freeway. They fired on one of my tanks with a non-missile attack to it just moved to cover. Their air attacks decimated my air defense but mostly they moved their troops into their own air attack zone and they attacked their own guys. My F-111s did not get used as I couldn’t find an appropriate target until the very end of the game. I did have one mission for them but they did not arrive before the game ended. The A-10s were great with the maverick missiles. They also shot up a couple light armor with their 30mm.

The only issue I have with the game, which is the same with many, there was no ammunition resupply. A battalion size force such as this would have at least a supply truck if not a small dump and a supply truck. Once the TOWs were depleted they had no further use the same with the dragons. A supply dump or truck would have allowed them to re-ammunition and return to the fight. The infantry company mortars also ran out of ammunition which could have been remedied by a supply truck or a small ammunition dump next to them. Regardless of the ammunition supply the mortars did an admirable job of messing up the enemy infantry when it tried to advance.

Good game and fun to play.