I did a good job. I resisted Cold War for several years. But Anthony talking about his British Army of the Rhine combined with me handling a ton of Team Yankee products has finally pushed me over the edge. As with most projects I start I said “I’ll start small.” I told Evan we were doing Cold War. He didn’t have a chance to say no. I bought a Team Yankee Starter Set for us to split. Appropriately, Evan (online handle Yankee) was assigned the American contingent of three Abrams, four Bradleys, and a platoon of mounted infantry. (Evan: and now I have 30+ M60s….somehow) I took the remaining Soviet half consisting of four T-80s, four BMP-3s, and a platoon of motor infantry.

The three of us settled on Battlegroup Northag as our main ruleset with Seven Days to the River Rhine as an alternate. We plan on looking more at those rulesets in the future. There have even been some wild ideas about battle reports… time will tell on that.

One of the more interesting aspects of Cold War Gone Hot is that it’s entirely hypothetical. The war could have touched off at multiple times. Incidents could have happened all over the globe. Confrontations in Europe are obvious, but Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, and even Iceland or the United States are viable theaters of operation.

Both NATO and Warpac countries were constantly building and improving their forces with new equipment and additional men. This lead to a decision for us, what year are we starting in? Forces in 1980 and 1985 look very different as do forces in 1983 and 1989. Battlegroup Northag is set in 1983 so we decided to give that first priority but we would be flexing forces to include more basic forces for earlier and tooled up forces for later.

Anthony and I had decided to do an escalation type deal to start our Battlegroup Northag journey. He had been working on his forces for quite a while and I had to play catch up. We decided to start with a platoon of infantry, their APCs, and a Battlegroup commander. With those forces we could have a small skirmish and get things on the table “faster.”

In any case while it was designed in the late 1970s and early 1980s the BMP-3 wasn’t officially deployed until 1987. This meant my motor riflemen needed a different steed to ride into battle. Walking is for losers and poorer Warsaw Pact members. Anthony saved my butt and sold me a ton of new in box Soviets he had gotten in an auction lot.

In the mound of boxes I got 15 BMP-1/ BMP-2 kits. The basic platoon of Soviet motor rifles had their vehicles (BTR-60s, BMP-1s, or BMP-2s) and 3 squads of infantry. As with every contact with the enemy (the pile of gray plastic) our best laid plan was thrown to the side almost immediately.

Anthony was excited and he started digging around on the Internet and found the excellent Vulture’s Wargaming Blog. He located a series of training scenarios written by Tom Egan to get into the groove of Battlegroup Northag. Conveniently the scenarios featured our forces, the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG) and the British Army of the Rhine (BAoR). They focus on the Soviet spearhead’s armored probe into the screening forces of a BAoR tank division.

The first scenario required me to assemble 22 T-64A main battle tanks, three BMP-1 scouts, and two BRDM-2 anti-tank guided weapons carriers. A force like this has plenty of vehicles on the table that’s for sure. Luckily Battlegroup brings vehicles on in waves so I won’t have all 27 on the table at once. We don’t need to have Cold War Napoleonics.

The T-62 and T-64 are available in the Soviet tank formations in the Battlegroup Northag book. The T-64 is an upgrade choice and the scenario we chose calls for it to be the main workhorse of the represented Class 1 tank division of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

The Soviet T-64 and its various marks were designed to be the premier tank of their time. With a very capable main cannon and composite armor it was intended to be the spearhead of the armored divisions. They weren’t exported and were generally kept in the armored units closest geographically to Russia. From my research it seems that the Soviets wanted to keep the technologically advanced tanks for their professional soldiery. The conscripts of other Warpac countries were thought to have needed the more reliable and robust T-55s and T-72s. Additionally the T-64 had teething trouble and benefitted from being close to its logistical train.

That said the T-64 was the main battle tank of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG). It was issued to the premier armored units including 2nd Guards Tank army, 3rd Guards Army, and the 20th Guards Army. The T-64A was issued starting in 1976 and then followed on with the T-64B in 1981.

The T-64A received several upgrades including smoke grenade launchers. The Battlefront models I have are T-64A mod 1975s. Honesty, I could be wrong here but hey, Cold War armor is a newer topic for me.

As with many Soviet tanks of the time the T-64Bs development was intermingled with other tanks of the time. New ideas were tested out and ended up in other vehicles. But in any case the T-64B was an improvement on the A model. The main difference is that the T-64B had a new fire control system and was able to fire ATGMs out of the main gun. The majority of the new tanks were actually built without the missile guidance system to save on costs. These were designated T-64B1.

I think I can play with the T-64As as T-64Bs. The main difference is a a new laser range finder and the later T-64BV had contact explosive reactive armor. I’m sure I could always buy another box to supplement as T-64Bs if need be.

So off I went plucking away at 22 T-64As… I don’t have a problem. You have a problem.

I used Battlefront kits across the board. While I could 3d print vehicles, particularly the tanks, I really enjoy how the Battlefront kits go together and… I got a good deal on them.

The T-64 kit went together well without much fuss as did the BMP-1s and BRDM-2s. Any way you slice it 27 vehicles is a lot of plastic to assemble. I’ve been plucking away at it on and off for a few months. Truth be told most of my effort has been stuck in the off position.

I got a bit of a spur of motivation in early July when we did a group buy of the new Battlegroup Northag and Centag Ominbus-Deluxe Limited Hardback Edition. All said and done three books and shipping were $250 USD. Ouch. But it has some new forces in it (Evan: I am particularly excited for the excuse to assemble a Swedish force) and well we are suckers for hardbacks and all of us are completionists. So after having paid $85 for the new rulebook I decided to jump back in and rock out some Soviet armor!

I’ll update again soon!

Ben