Donestk: Battle for the Airport

 

Donestk: Battle for the Airport is a small folio game by Tiny Battle Publishing (also published in Flying Pig Games's Yaah! magasine, so annoyingly I bought it twice!). It represents the multiple fights over Donestk Airport by the Ukrainian Army and Dontesk Separatists in 2014/2015. Not my usual fare but the reasoning will hopefully become clear in a few weeks!

Presentation

PDF for $17 ($28 printed). 14 pages, including 4 scenarios, game notes and a 1 page QRS. All nicely laid out. One counter sheet (double sided) and an A3 size colour map. Didn't take long to get it all printed out. Didn't bother to mount on card stock or anything.

Set-Up

I played the first, introductory scenario, where about a company of Separatists had sized the terminal buildings, and a company (-) of Ukrainians, with close air support was sent to oust them. Separatists set up anywhere (but in the terminal is the sensible place), and Ukrainians start on the board edge.

How It Played

I decided to hold the Coy Comd back on the board edge to bring down the close air support and then put a platoon in on each flank. The air support wasn't devastating given the solidity of the buildings and only 50% effective on lower floors but was enough to soften the Separatists to the point where one platoon could (at the second attempt) storm the building. As they started to clear rooms the second platoon which was attacking over more open ground in the East got repeatedly pinned by the Separatist team atop the Old Terminal and survived several airstrikes. The Pl Comd got hit and pulled back into the Metro while his BTR's gradually weakened the Separatists in the Multi-Storey. On Turn 6 the Separatist hit their hesitation level, and so on Turn 7 the Ukrainian just had to choose their positions to surround the Separatists and it was all over. 

Game Impression

Pretty good game. Interesting that the rules were a differential CRT rather than the more "traditional" ratio CRT I'm used too. A few gaps/unclear points but otherwise the core mechanics worked well and certainly gave you some sense of the battle. I'll try and play one of the more complex scenarios next week.