Basic Rules
By default use US rules for UK.
1. Rally: Russians add 1 to Rally dice rolls when fighting the British.
(Comment: The Berlin wall came down in 1989, Soviet morale can't be high in 1987.)
2. UK Leaders and Activation
A UK leader may reduce the cost of activation of a dismounted infantry unit or any group containing
In rule section "4.4 Leaders and Activation"
For UK leaders with Leadership rating greater than 1, replace "stacked" with "within 1 hex of".
(Comment: This gives some UK leaders the ability to consistently perform textbook fire and maneuver attacks which the Soviet player will struggle to match. The 1980's British have low budget equipment, but they were able to clear conscript trenches in the Falklands with well rehearsed platoon attack drills. This gives the UK forces a distinct flavour in Fire Team)
3. New Equipment.
All T-72 and T-80 variants use the T-80,T-72 row on the Soviet Gun Missile Table.
All T-62 and T-55 variants use the T-62 row on the Soviet Gun Missile Table.
FV432 has an AA Machinegun (20.61).
AGS-17 has a 6-gun platoon with longer range.
LAW is depleted on 1,10.
(Note: Such weapons often require multiple hits to destroy a vehicle, and a several shots to get one hit.)
RPG-16 didn't get issued much, but we can simply use RPG-16 as RPG-7V. The expansion has RPG-7VL (use the RPG-16 row on the Fire Table) teams for use on the defense, where the RPG men are organised into ambush parties.
Leopard 1, Merkava 2 and Marder are inexplicably included.
4. Carl Gustav Recoilless Gun.
Carl Gustav is treated as a "missile" (it is actually a gun), and may use 19.2 Missiles and Rockets against Buildings and Entrenchments.
5. Set Up Time
Some weapons take a while to set up. These weapons have a white "S", followed by the number of complete consecutive stationary turns it takes to make the weapon ready to fire. The weapon can move at any time after this, but has to wait the same number of stationary turns before firing again. For example, Towed Rapier has a "S2" on the counter. It moves towed on turn 1, is stationary for turns 2 and 3, and can fire on turn 4. It moves towed during turn 4, remains stationary for turns 5 and 6, firing again on turn 7.
6. Soft Targets
Trucks and towed artillery are marked as "SOFT" on the rear of the counter. These are treated as infantry using Infantry Fire Table, a step loss eliminates the soft target.
7. Towed
Some weapons cannot move, but can be towed by a Soft vehicle or vehicle with Fl armor 0. A vehicle may hitch / unhitch a towed weapon at the start / end of its move. There is no extra CP cost for this, the gun crew know what to do.
8. Bomb Lobbers:
Some weapons (AGS-17, 51mm mortar) have a black diamond, meaning that Defilade (+2 on Die Roll) does not apply to their fire.
(Note: Some weapons are capable of indirect fire, but don't have indirect fire sights. These weapons fire in a high arc, and can lob bombs over crests.)
9. Smoke Lobbers:
Some weapons (51mm mortar, Carl Gustav) have a cloud symbol, and may make smoke in one hex within LOS out to 6 hexes. This works like 10.1 "Making Smoke", including smoke depletion, and a 1/2 CP cost.
OPTIONAL RULES
Use all, some or none of the optional rules.
10. Reactive Armour and Missiles:
As well as plain steel, modern tanks often had add on blocks designed to distort or explode when hit. These blocks reduce the effectiveness of HT weapons, and sometimes even HV weapons. Often 70% of the front of the tank is covered with these boxes.
Reactive armour is indicated by a white number to the left of the HV and HT numbers. This number added to Armor Defense Value.
The T-80 has Kontact-5 armour blocks, giving +4 against HV attack, and a right shift of +3 against HT attack.
T-72A above has earlier reactive armour which gives HT protection, but no extra HV protection.
Both kinds can be "Depleted", or partially removed by hits to the vehicle.
(Note: In 1987 we have Kontact-5 Armour, but not Shtora-1 active protection. The original Fire Team T-80 has a huge Front HT value of 11, which presumably has reactive armour factored in.)
b. Armour Depletion: if the dice roll against a vehicle fitted with Reactive Armor is 1 or 2 less than what is required to kill the target, place a "Reactive Armor Depleted" marker on the vehicle. The vehicle no longer enjoys any of the column shifts in "a." above, since the Reactive armour got shot off.
b. Partial Coverage. If an HT kill is obtained against the front of a vehicle with a white HT column shift, or if an HV kill is obtained against the front of a vehicle with a white HV column shift, roll the D10 again. If the result is 1-3, the vehicle is still killed. If it is a 4-10, apply the column shift, if the result is no longer a kill, the vehicle is saved. If it is still a kill after the shift, the vehicle remains killed.
(About 70% of the front is covered by reactive armor. All reactive armor protects against HT, some also protects against HV)
c. Tandem Warhead: If the attacking missile (Such as MILAN 2T) has a red "HT" value, it has a Tandem Warhead. Tandem Warheads always ignore Reactive Armour column shifts.
(Note: Red "HT" missiles have two warheads in Tandem, the first makes a hole in the reactive armor, the second warhead attacks the bare metal underneath. After year 2000, a scenario may give any missile a red "HT" value.)
d. Top Attack: If the attacking weapon (such as Javelin. Note that the British have an anti-aircraft missile called Javelin, which is not in this expansion) has a red "TA" on the counter, it always attacks the flank "Fl" HT value, never the front "Fr" value, regardless of target facing. This is because the "Top Attack" missile attacks the thinner top armor of the target.
e. Gun Missiles: Some Soviet Tank counters have 2 white numbers on the rear side, top right. The first number is the HT value of an anti-tank missile fired out of the gun barrel. The second number is the maximum range of the missile. Use the Spiral MSL row on the Soviet Gun/Missile table. Ammo depleted on 1,9,10. For example, T-80U above is 13/50 HT , so the HT value is 13 (using "Tandem Warhead" rule because of the red "HT"), you use the Spiral row on the Soviet Gun/Missile table. Optional rule: changing the "9-55" to 9-X, where X is the second number in the 13/50 HT . So "9-55" would become 9-50" for T-80U.
If the vehicle fires a Gun Missile it may not fire another weapon during the impulse. Gun missiles may not employ moving fire.
e. (Optional) Javelin Dual Mode: Red "HTTA" Javelin uses Tandem Warhead at range 2, and Top Attack at range 3 or more.
f. (Optional) Javelin may attack helicopters like a SAM, but shift an additional 2 columns right on the Gun/Missile fire table. Unlike SAMs, Javelin must have the target in view for 2 consecutive hexes to execute opportunity fire, and it costs 1cp for Javelin opportunity fire against helicopters.
11. Vehicle Damage and Turrets:
On the Gun/Missile Fire Table, always add 1 to the HV. Always add 2 to the HT differential. Use the HV column for both HT and HV.
(Note: Differential is increased to compensate for damage. Also, HT is never better than HV in the basic game, so it needs an extra bonus to be worth having.)
If the result is a kill, roll the D10 again. A 1-4 hits the turret, a 5-0 hits the hull. If the target is in Defilade/Fire Ramp, 1-8 is a turret hit, 9-0 is a hull hit.
If the result is an odd number the vehicle remains killed.
If the result is an even number (0 is even), the vehicle was not killed, just damaged.
If the turret is damaged, place a "Damaged" marker on the vehicle, it has lost all its weapons permanently.
If the hull is damaged, place an "Immobile" marker and a Vehicle Fear marker on the unit.
An vehicle with an an "Immobile" marker cannot move or change facing.
If the vehicle already has a Immobilized or Damaged marker, it is killed.
Some vehicles have extra turret armour, indicated by a "HV X/Y/Z" and "HT X/Y/Z", where "X" is the front turret armour value, "Y" is the front hull, and "Z" is the side armour. If a front facing turret hit the extra turret armour value is added to the HT and HV.
(Note: Leopard 1A5 has much thicker turret armour, and is meant to operate from defilade/Fire Ramp.)
12. Passenger Survival:
If a transporting vehicle is destroyed, the occupants are not automatically killed as per (5.43).
Roll the D10, on a 1-3 they are killed as normal, otherwise they take a +1 Infantry Fire table result as per (6.33).
13. Thermal Imaging:
UK & US only: Infantry and turreted armoured vehicles, and observers can see through smoke, with a +3 right shift on the Gun/Missile table or Infantry Fire Table.
Exceptions: not Infantry fire on move. The Soviets have Infrared, which can't see through smoke.
14. Chits (optional):
Don't use the CP's allowance/remaining counters. You put the chits in the draw cup and you draw them out until it is empty.
15. Gun Advanced Range Modifiers is wrong:
Advanced Range Modifiers (18.22) is wrong. On the Gun/Missile table, a column shift represents a change in accuracy, a row shift represents a change in penetration. Instead of a column shift, subtract the column shift number on the "*Advanced Range Modifiers" table from the HV firepower. Example: at 18 hexes, the T-62's HV value is reduced from 14 to 12, with no column shift.
(Note: This represents reduced penetration due to reduced velocity, not reduced accuracy. If a T-80 is shooting at an M113 the round will always penetrate the thin armour, even at 2 kilometers. This new rule reflects this, the old rule does not. Comment: this is the only "wrong" thing I can find in the rules.)
16. Landmines:
The scenario may allow the defending player to place Landmine counters on the map.
"Mine Damage":
Leg units: take a +1 Infantry Fire table result as per (6.33).
Vehicles: place an "Immobile" marker on the vehicle, it may no longer move or change facing. Place a Vehicle Fear marker on the unit.
Landmine counters are be treated as 11.3 "Hidden Deployment" with a spotting range of 4 in daylight, 2 at night. Double spotting range for "Mineclearing" vehicles. Mine counters may not be spotted by moving units, and any unit entering a Hidden Mine hex suffers immediate "Mine Damage". (Note: The faster you move, the less likely you are to end your move within spotting distance of a mine.)
Mine clearance:
At a cost of an extra 2 CP, a "Mineclearing" unit may enter a minefield and remain in that hex until the next Action Phase. At the start of that action phase, roll a D10 for that unit. Remove the Mine counter on a D10 1-3, adding any Fear points to the dice roll.
Real Landmine hexes remain dangerous until they are cleared.
Mine clearance:
Mineclearing units who end their move impulse in a Real Landmine counter hex may spend an impulse mine-clearing without triggering the Landmine. A mine-clearing impulse costs an additional 1 CP, and only one mine-clearing unit may occupy the hex. They clear the Landmines on a D10 1-4 per impulse, adding any Fear points to the dice roll. They may do nothing else for that impulse.
If a unit exits a dummy landmine hex, or the Real Landmines are cleared, the counter is removed.
18. Active Protection System (APS):
T55-AD has an "Active Protection System" (APS), indicated by a white number ("5") inside a white circle. If the vehicle is killed by a "HT" attack to its front armour by a missile or infantry anti-tank weapon, throw the D10 again. If the result is less than or equal to the white number, the vehicle is saved, the warhead was destroyed by the APS. The system does not protect against vehicle guns. The T-55AD also has Fire Control, a Gun Missile, and an improved HT round.
(Note: The number 5 is arbitary, the APS "kinda works" apparently. It doesn't work against things moving faster than 700mps, like bullets and tank shells)
---
Historical note: In 1982, the T-72 defeated M60A1 and Merkava tanks in Lebanon, but they did take losses from TOW missiles. NATO had been working on the problem, M1 Abrams had just entered service, Challenger came out in 1983, MILAN 2 came out in 1984 . Most NATO anti-tank weapons were not effective against T-T2 in the late '70s, but they caught up in the early 80's.
Soviet tanks from the original T-64 onwards had composite frontal armour with a filler such as Steltexolite fibreglass cloth, quartz or rubber which increased their HT value. Armour with many layers of thin metal plate (T-72A Dolly Parton and Abrams both have this on the turret with air in between the plates, T-55AM2B upgrades have the plates in a polyurethane resin block) would bend or bulge when hit, increasing HV defense as well as HT.
However, the Soviets decided that their HT protection against missiles like TOW was still inadequate, so external Reactive Armour was added to all their new tanks. Kontact-5 Reactive Armour give significant HV protection as well as HT, but it still leaves gaps, vulnerable to a lucky hit. In the classic Russian Horde Thru The Fulda Gap scenario, the defenders have to get "one shot one kill" to survive. Kontact-5 means the opponent will have to spend longer in the line of fire to kill the T-80U, giving the Soviets time to shoot back effectively.
Tandem warheads have a small grenade in front of the warhead which blows up the Reactive Armour, which leaves the Soviet player vulnerable again.
Top Attack missiles are expensive, but hit the tank from above, where the armour is the thinnest. Later Soviet tanks have some reactive armour on the turret deck.
RPGs need lots of ammo:
Most tanks can be killed by a flank shot from an RPG-7. But it may require many shots. In Vietnam 1 in 8 RPGs fired hit the target, 1 in 7 penetrated , causing 0.8 casualties per penetration on APCs. Overall, each round had a 1.5% of causing a casualty. Tanks had a lower casualty rate. ("The Rocket Propelled Grenade" by Gordon Rottman). That is 70 rounds of RPG ammo per casualty.
With modern fuzes, most rounds would penetrate an APC, bringing it down to maybe 15 rounds, about 40 kilos of ammo. Successful ambushes use multiple RPG-7s, with a stack of reloads. And expendable attackers.
