It looked like such a nice place to work. I mean, the map merely referred to it as 'Delta 3', but it must really have had a much nicer name that that, something like "Happy Cow Milkery"...or something:
Sure, it was only two agro centers - Agro South and Agro North, as I referred to them - but what nice places they were. I imagined myself as someone who had to work there, imagined driving through the pastoral fields, admiring the bucolic scenery the entire way, and pulling into my parking spot with a smile on my face because I was just thrilled with working in such a beautiful settng. What could ever go wrong in paradise?
Well...this:
War. War never chan...er, I mean: WAR! War came to paradise! Right out of the blue.
This time, it started when a Warsaw Pact Ka-29TB helo was caught reconnoitering the area by a NATO (Canada) CF-116 Freedom Fighter. The helo was quickly taught a harsh lesson with missiles and 20mm slugs. It spun out of control and crashed just behind a building in Agro North:
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| At least it missed the employee's parking lot! |
Again, I couldn't help being there: running outside to the sound of the roar of jet engines and the whoosh of anti-air missiles leaving their rails. Starring in horror as the Soviet helo was smacked out of the sky...and plummeted down behind one of the facility's buildings. And the dawning realization that this was just the beginning. That it was PAST time to leave....
In real life, the people inside Agro South and North never would have had a chance to get out for soon after the enemy helo went down, Pact BTRs invaded Agro South - not a good idea to leave your building when Pact armor is on scene. Sadly, this triggered a furious airstrike with cluster munitions from a NATO jet:
Sorry to say that few people inside of that complex would have emerged unscathed from that hell storm. My dream had become a nightmare. It really makes me sad to see that screenshot.
But it would only get worse as it soon became quite apparent that this skirmish session in Wargame: AirLand Battle was going to largely revolve around the control of Delta 3.
Sure enough, before the first wrecks could even finish burning, the Reds hit Agro South with a mixed force of T-55s, BTR-60s and infantry. NATO began to move by bringing in a platoon of Grizzly APCs loaded with infantry:
Another airstrike was called in by NATO. It scattered enough of the enemy force to allow the Grizzly's to unload their infantry unmolested:
The mechanized Canuks took that large building to the right in the above picture and set about to fortifying it for the inevitable counter-attack. Meanwhile, a helo dropped off some more Canadian infantry. While those joined their ground-pounder colleagues, the helo lifted off and made sport of hitting some Pact units that were still lurking around the facility with their mini-gun:
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| Buzzzzz...got to love that mini-gun! |
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| AT Ambush! |
They wiped out the entire enemy platoon after a few minutes.
Sadly I would soon make the same mistake as my Pact counterparts. Seeing how things quieted down, I decided to send of my own tanks to the west end of Agro South to check out some motor noises that were detected:
And they fell into an ambush of their own....
Total loss of the two vehicles.
I think at this point the Reds were getting a bit desperate because they called down a heavy smoke barrage on my fortified Canuks, and launched an infantry assault from the same back road that the T-55s arrived on.
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| The T-55AMs can be seen burning off to the side |
The smokescreen didn't help. My NATO boys were on the job and mowed them down in the parking lot:
I think this was just a clever diversion as while my boys were chasing off the rear attack, a full platoon or more of infantry, with BTR and helo support, assaulted from the side - in retrospect, I should have hit that west end of the complex with arty:
My Canuks could not hold out and were overwhelmed. It's the Cross of Valour for all of them. Both out of tribute, and spite, I sent a F/A-18 to hit the enemy one more time:
Got a bunch of them, too.
My beautiful Agro South after the battle ended:
Not so beautiful anymore.
Interestingly, the surviving Pact infantry decided to leave Agro South and make an assault on a nearby farm I was using as a forward supply base. They didn't count on a platoon of tanks waiting for them in the barley:
We mowed them down with our MGs. We had our revenge.
Shortly later, I decided to try a flank assault on Agro North. NATO moved in some infantry in M113s:
The Reds must have had the same idea because, once again, we ambushed a BTR force that was probing the facility:
They must have felt cocky because they then launched a full air assault on the farm I was using for a base:
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| This tank was furiously trying to retreat. I think it did survive. |
It got so bad that my dedicated air defense units ran out of missiles! Ultimately, it was up to units such as this FV721 FOX recon vehicle, cleverly hid in a bush and amongst some wrecks, to use what they could to stop the assault:
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| He did succeed in shooting down a helo! |
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| Mayday! Mayday! Going down! |
Having stopped the Reds, I thought it was time to go back on the offensive again. So I sent some air mobile infantry to take Agro South again. On a less damaged section of Agro South, the infantry and their helo spot a Pact BTR and some infantry nosing around the rear parking lot. They would be quickly dispatched with a mini-gun and AT rockets:
More infantry watch the assault from a distance...and next to a crashed Pact fighter!
The battle got going in earnest again, with vehicles and helos fighting it out in a side lot.
Unfortunately, the battle was something of a cliffhanger as the timer called the game: minor NATO victory!
Hope you enjoyed this look at World War III...coming soon from an Obama administration near you!
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