Raid on the Safe House

The Safe House

We managed to get another Black Ops game in last week, which was great fun. The game was set in my "London Calling" setting.  It's 1979, the Soviets have rolled across the Central German Plain and it's all gone wrong.  The UK has been invaded and occupied.  Resistance is scattered and disorganised and has only limited contact with the government in exile in Canada. 

This is, of course, an excuse to pit the boys from the Sweeney, the Professionals and various TV favourites against the Soviets in a manner similar to the old Invasion! 2000AD comic strip, mixed with a good dollop of the Garnet books and some Secret Army. 

You can see some more of our London Calling games here. 

The Tooting People's Popular Front

The mission was a joint operation between the Tooting People's Popular Front (a Trotskyite group not popular with the Soviets) and the Baker Street Irregulars (a group of disgruntled former coppers and soldiers).  They had learned that an isolated farmhouse was being used by the MVD to interrogate prisoners and store intelligence. They've had the site under observation for several days and determined that there is only a skeleton crew present as there are no prisoners.  The plan is to get in, destroy or steal whatever intelligence is present and get out. 

The Baker Street Irregulars. 

The Bakers Street Irregulars are a group of disgruntled former police officers (many of whom bear a striking resemblance to a certain programme known as "The William") and army personnel who have decided to take up arms against the occupation. Led by the hardnosed DI Burnside, they approached the rendezvous.  One point which I really enjoyed was that Mr E was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't bring a vehicle on the board without raising the alarm.  We were talking about it and he realised, "Well, I could just turn the engine off, leave off the handbrake and push it onto the board." 

On the approach

This is the sort of semi roleplaying approach to wargaming that I find really interesting, so Mr. E's lads duly pushed the car on, covered it with brush and scoped out the rest of the terrain.  The discovered three things; all unpleasant.  

1. There were a number of blinds scattered around the table and they weren't where he expected them to be.  These turned out to be undergrowth laced with trip flares.  

2. There was a guard tower that wasn't there tree days ago. This was manned by a lad with a PKM.  Anyone who set off a flare was going to have a very bad day indeed. 

But thirdly and most importantly, the Tooting Popular Front hadn't shown up.  Mr E and I were chatting and having some dinner and then we began to wonder where Capability Savage was.  He was an hour late, so I called him to find out where he was.  It turned out that he had been busy with work and had completely forgotten about the game.  He couldn't make it. 

We reckoned that the Tooting Peoples Popular Front had gotten in an argument on the way to the rendezvous and had to convene a full council to discuss the distribution of ammunition to each man ("Or woman." "Thanks Stan, or woman") The result was a long row, they became distracted and didn't make it to the rendezvous. 

Mr. E decided to go it alone. This was an interesting decision as while I scaled down the garrison a bit, I couldn't do so completely.  Consequently, Mr. E ended up taking on more than he'd initially bargained for. 

Raymondo takes up position

I'm afraid I was too distracted playing and enjoying the game to take enough photos.  But you should be able to get some sort of idea of what was going on.  

Raymondo, the Baker St Irregulars sniper, moved forward, while the rest of the team busied themselves identifying and disarming the flares. It was only half way through this process that we realised that without a turn limit (which this scenario didn't have) this was only really a time wasting exercise for the attacker.  I was happy with how the mechanics worked, but I think I will have to think more carefully about how they integrated into the scenario. 

Raymondo took out the sentry in the tower with a single shot.  The attackers held their breath, but while several of the other guards moved in that direction - they weren't certain enough to raise the alarm. 

Burnside and the lads kick the door in

With one side of the safe house temporarily uncovered, the "Spud" and his GPMG team and Raymondo covered the other two sides.  Meanwhile, I moved my sentries around to try and get a bead on Burnside and his team. They decided to take a calculated risk and kicked the door in. They were lucky.  They had located the interrogation room (of which, the less said the better, but I took some inspiration from here) and the filing cabinets.  

A short firefight with the surprised Soviet occupants generated a great deal of noise and the alarm was raised. 

RIP Chalky

While Burnside and his team were grabbing intelligence files and setting incendiaries on everything that they could not carry, Chalky decided to run to the next section of the safehouse.  Mr. E knew that my Ace (commander figure) was there and had raised the alarm (not hard considering the racket coming from next door) and was now calling for reinforcements. 

Unfortunately for Chalky, he didn't realise that it wasn't *just* the Ace in the radio room and the four guards came as a complete and very lethal surprise. 

With Chalky down and the Soviets on full alert, the GPMG team opened up and poured suppressive fire on that portion of the safehouse, pinning the guards within. Raymondo managed to take one of the guards on other flank, but his mates managed to spot him and return fire. Both sides ducked down and the Soviets made a run for the cover of the buildings. 

The firefight hotted up as the sentries that escaped Raymondo, roused the rest of the garrison. Meanwhile, "Spud" brassed up the side of the house again, pinning the Soviet commander, Major "Zmei" and his bodyguards.  I took a risk and took a hit on "Zmei" so that I could make another reinforcement roll.  I managed to pass the save, but did very well on the reinforcement roll. 

This put me on the horns of a dilemma.  I had done so well on the reinforcement roll that I could call them in now, but it would effectively amount to an infantry patrol.  Probably enough to mess up the partisans day, but not necessarily wipe them out.  However, I had done so well, that if I waited a turn and managed to roll even reasonably, I could call in a vehicle (likely a BDRM) which would be invulnerable to Mr E weapons.  Thinking ahead, he sent Raymondo back to start the car. 

I gambled and Major "Zmei" kept calling for reinforcements, while his escort hunkered down.  

Meanwhile, across the courtyard, a desperate battle was taking place.  The building on the left was occupied by Soviet troops, while the BSI were holed up in the one on the right.  This was really heating up and I was finally able to get my numbers to tell. I was hoping to pin them in place, so that my flanking force would be able to finish them.  Unfortunately, "Spud" and his GPMG team managed to keep up the fire and effectively suppress the flankers. 

Taking their opportunity and as the files started to burn, Reg Hollis threw a smoke grenade into the yard and the team made a dash for the car.  Lofty was hit as they made their escape, Burnside and Reg dragged him out of the burning building as the game entered a new phase.  

The smoke is Teddy bear stuffing with a couple of Euro Shop LED candles chucked underneath.  As we had done justice to the drinks cabinet at that point, Mr E and I decided to see if we could thicken up the smoke with extra cigar smoke.  It seems to have worked. 

At this point, I'm afraid I forgot to take any more pictures because I became too wrapped up in the game.  Raymondo managed to get the car up, while Burnside and his crew jumped aboard.  I rallied the remainder of the garrison and brought on my trump card, a BDRM.  This was where it got interesting.  The turning rules in Black Ops are quite strict for vehicles and what followed was nerve wracking. 

The game turned into an approximation of this scene from everyone's favourite educational programme.  Burnside and his boys struggled to get everyone into the car, while I executed a textbook Soviet forward dash.  The lads ran forward in a rough line, firing from the hip, those that could see shot at the car, those that couldn't suppressed likely escape routes, so that they would be channeled into the waiting arms of the BDRM. 

Reg Hollis was hit as they broke for cover, whereupon the BDRM opened up with it's 14.5 MG, which left the passengers unharmed, but shagged the engine.  Burnside and his team, decamped from the now dead car and ran into the woods.  They were pursued by the BDRM, but managed to lose it in the trees.  With many casualties of their own and with no night vision, the BDRM crew decided that discretion was the better part of valour.   Major "Zmei" was not best pleased. 

Gone, but not forgotten. 

The Baker Street Irregulars had accomplished their mission.  They had destroyed the intelligence cache and managed to escape with some files.  However, it had cost them dearly, losing three, very hard to replace men, Chalky, Lofty and Reg. 

Worryingly, Burnside and Chris had been trying to stabilise Chalky before the car was knocked out.  Now all three men had fallen wounded into the Russians hands, which given Major "Zmei"s hobbies was a pretty dreadful place to be. The look on Mr E's face when my troops swarmed the car and I announced that they were going to try first aid on his wounded men was priceless.  Chalky had already expired, the motor riflemen were unable to stablise Lofty, but they managed it with Reg. 

Poor old Mr. E was looking distinctly queasy when he picked up the die to see how Reg fared. Fortunately for Reg, Mr. E rolled a one and Constable Hollis expired peacefully in a hospital bed before the MVD could get their claws on him. 

In conclusion,  this was a tough game for both parties, with wild swings of fortune. The luck was with Mr E for the first half of the game and began to slowly turn against him as things wore on.   I was unlucky not to vaporise the getaway car with my BDRM, but the result was a hard fought and engaging game which resulted in a phyrric victory for the partisans. Looking forward to the next one. 

Your file Sir

One idea that I've used for a couple of games now is the personnel card.  This is a standard 4 by 6 file card with the stats for the unit (in this case a sniper team) written out and the points included. This is handy because it keeps all the stats in one place and you can quickly assemble a force by flicking through a few cards. Tot up the points and you are done. 

An unexpected benefit is that it gives continuity between the games. Each card gets a name and they persist over time, which has led to some interesting moments in play. 

Train in vain

It's all a bit grim in the country

I've always been of the opinion that the rural idyll is a bit like thrilling to the fortunes of an association football team, a very fine thing no doubt - but not really my bag. 

However, proving that anything is possible, Savage and I packed our bags and set out for a trip to the country.  After the assassination of Foyski, local reprisals were swift and merciless. The Soviets rely on local commanders and civil servants to see to the day to day running of the Second Commonwealth. These folk, viewed as traitors by the Resistance, ensure the buses run on time and that the children get to school. Alistair McGallimaufry, a senior figure in the Loamshire local government and intimately familiar with Soviet operations has been kidnapped.  He is being held at a small farmhouse in sleepy rural Loamshire and is being interrogated by the Resistance.  Fortunately, a double agent in the Loamshire resistance organisation has leaked information to the Soviets and help is on the way. 

Savage sets his sentries out

This was an extraction mission played on the compound board. I played as the dastardly Soviets and Savage took up the cudgels for the plucky Resistance.  My job was to get in and rescue McGallimaufry while he still had some finger nails left. As the attacker, I had the choice of hitting the site either at night or during daylight. 

I opted to attack at night and took a small, high quality force of four spetznatz troopers equipped with night vision and silenced pistols.  These were led by buccaneering, cigar chomping Kapitan Gowovitch, a ruthless Muscovite, whose ancestors left their native Scotland to serve the Tsar. 

Note: During the last game, I used black and white pictures to represent night fighting. Did you think that added to your reading of the report or do you prefer this more traditional approach? 

One team of three at the front, one GPMG team at the rear

Savage set up his guards in two groups clustering them together so that I wouldn't be able to pick them off.  He used a conscript list, so we presumed that his fighters were made up of demobbed lads from the 2nd Battalion (Territorial) of the Loamshires, reservists who didn't make it to the colours in time to do their bit in Central Europe and who were keen to give Johnny Ivan a damn good kicking now that he was firmly ensconced on their native heath. 

Soviet Spetkatz conducts preliminary reconaissance

In the early hours of the morning, the Trev and Dave fingered their SLRs nervously and stamped their feet against the chill.  The thrum of a distant helicopter set their pulses racing, but soon faded. They tried not to listen too closely to the sounds coming from the out buildings where the prisoner was being interrogated. 

Looking at the board, I reckoned Savage had erred by grouping his sentries so closely together as it made it possible for my troops to avoid contact until they were right on top of the target. 

Do you see anything Dave?

I grouped my troops together and moved cautiously for the first two turns.  This meant trading time for certainty as the scenario has a seven turn time limit. However, moving slowly meant that I was able to get almost on top of one group of sentries before I had to commit. 

Did you hear something? 

Trev, Dave and Tony lurked about the entrance to the farmhouse, walking a beat and failing to spot the Spetznatz that were bellying through the trees towards them.

"Phut! Phut! Phut!"

Closing the distance, the special forces troops padded forward and drew their silenced PB pistols. Dave heard a fox barking far off in the chill night and turned to make a joke to Trev and Tony. 

As he turned, he saw four men appearing out of the shadows and his friends lying sprawled on the ground. He felt something whistle past his face as he stood open mouthed. 

"Oh Gawd, it's the Rooskies!"

Now this was where things were about to get interesting. My flurry of silenced pistol shots had been quite effective downing two out of the three sentries and hitting the third, who made his save. Savage opted to have him use his action to yell and immediately put two noise counters on the table.  The card draw would be key here, if Savage got another activation, he would be able to open up with Dave and put more noise on the table. I might be able to weather two noise counters, but four would be a much more difficult prospect. 

"Phut!"

Unfortunately for Dave, I drew a Red Joker and was Gowovitch was able to transfer his activation to his men and the dumb struck young territorial was silenced by eight rounds of 9mm Makarov. 

Spetnatz stack up at the rear of the building

However, Dave's sacrifice meant that Savage was able to roll to see if his commander had noticed the ruckus. He had, but just enough to arouse his suspicion, not sufficient to raise the alarm.  While I stacked up my lads at the back of the farmhouse, Bill Savage roused himself and went to investigate. 

"Phut! Erk! Phut!"

I had hoped to avoid raising the alarm this early, but decided to stick with the plan and eliminate the GPMG team that was covering the rear of the farmhouse.  

"Get moving you horrible bastard"

"I've a feeling in me water," said Savage fingering his shotgun and went to the outhouse where he rousted McGallimaufry out, just as the Soviet commandos stormed the building. Unable to get through the doors, they hurled grenades into the buildings, but their bird had already flown.  The game was well and truly up. 

A one man Bonegruppa

While the commandos tried to force their way into the out building, Gowovitch pelted for the side door. With only three turns left on the clock. things were beginning to look a little tight. 

"Urrah!" 

Casting caution to the wind, Gowovitch booted the side door in and charged into the yard. Bill Savage opened up on him having retreated to the outbuilding, but missed. Gowovitch fired his Tishina from the hip and the grenade skipped across the window sill to detonate inside the building. 

Yelling the traditional "Urrah" of the Russian infantry, he charged across the yard and shot "Bludger" Collins who was herding a limping McGallimaufry towards the door. 

Things were looking pretty grim for the resistance, but they still had a lewis gun team in the main

building overlooking the yard. If they got an activation early in the turn, they could riddle McGallimaufry and Gowovitch, denying the Russians an important victory. 

All was not lost. 

Get ze pekege!

Fearing this I charged the group of troopers, after they (finally) managed to batter the unexpectedly stout door down, into the yard and unloaded as much suppressive fire into the farm house as we could muster.  This forced the British to hunker down, while their radio man called for help. 

Oh I think they heard us. 

Operational security meant that the Septznatz were operating without the co-operation of local forces and so were out of reach of help.  Unfortunately for Johnny Soviet, Savage rolled very well on the reinforcements roll and got a full 25 points worth of troops. 

Here comes the cavalry 

(note the spetznatz smoke in the distance)

These turned up on the road leading to the farmhouse, but as footsloggers weren't able to get into the fight fast enough.  The Spetznatz deployed smoke to cover their escape.

Thinking about it now, an MG team in a vehicle might have been a better choice. 

Follow me!

With the clock almost out of time and the troopers covering their escape, Gowovitch got McGallimaufry away and we called a halt. 

But all for naught

So in the post game washup, we rolled for Intel and I managed to get a blunder which gave a point of Intel in the Resistance. It appeared that while we had managed to extract McGallimaufry, the leaked information blew the cover of a Soviet agent in the Resistance. This led to a major housing cleaning in the Loamshire cells and the rolling up of Soviet infiltration network. 

Curses! Foiled again. 

We rolled up the next mission, which will be a surveillance job at an airport. I'm not entirely sure how we're going to set that out, but I'm sure we'll have fun doing it. 

London Calling

I always enjoyed the old "Invasion" comic strip in 2000AD. It was created by Pat Mills, the man behind Charley's War and a man for all his faults, knows how to write a good yarn. The central conceit was that in the late 90s, the "Volgan Republic" was set up after a military coup in Russia. This state then invaded Britain (led by Ken Livingstone!) seeking to control North Sea oil. 

The hero was a foul mouthed, Sun reading trucker named Bill Savage, who joined the anti-Volgan resistance after his family were killed by a stray tank shell. He wrought grim vengence on the Volgs with a shotgun and whatever else came to hand. My enthusiasm for Bill has led to some interesting Elhiem figures. 

There's a large element of slapstick in "Invasion", but my thoughts have been turning to a slightly less cartoony Soviet occupation game. With that in mind, Du Gourmand, Capability Savage and I played a game of Black Ops on the 28th. 

Somewhere in the Soviet Second Commonwealth of England circa 1980

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After the brief, but bloody war of 1979, the Soviet occupation of what is now called the Commonwealth of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales has begun. While the phony war continues between the US and the USSR in the Atlantic and the government in exile in Canada gathers itself together, resistance is growing to Soviet rule.  There were many acts of brutality, heroism and cowardice in this clandestine conflict and somewhere between London and the Liverpool Rad Zone, yet another is being played out. 

We played this as a variation of the Assassination scenario from the Black Ops rulesbook. I mustered 60 points of Soviet conscripts, while Savage and Du Gourmand raised 30 points of Militia each. This was our first time messing with the stealth rules (not solo) and on the whole I think it went rather well.  The resistance had learned that a particularly brutal and hated Soviet commander, Maximilian Foyski, was on a tour of inspection in the area and resolved to assassinate him. 

They had information that he would be in the pub for a pint after a hard days secret policing. 

After dark, a sentry walks his beat outside the Peoples Militia station 

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I set up the game and the boys started grappling with the stealth rules. One thing that I thought they handed very well was taking a good look at the ground before deploying.  I had snuck a small surprise into the game, by purposely putting two pub models on the board.  The boys quickly realised that there were two potential sites for Foy and adapted their plan according. 

The lads jump an unfortunate Russian

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Du Gourmands boys led by "The Guv'nor" sneak on to the board and run slap bang into a Russian sentry, who promptly fluffed his observation roll. He went down in a hail of rifle butts. 

Meanwhile, Savage's forces scout out "The Hare & Hounds"

(click to embiggen)

The boys had a number of close calls during the stealth portion of the game, which weren't helped by that we managed to balls up the rules at a couple of points.  I had played these before solo and had misinterpreted some key points, not realising that sentries were activated on their own cards and not by enemy action. We also forgot the cumulative effects of noise, which gave the attackers a bit more of an advantage. 

The guvnor plays it cool after being spotted by a Russian sentry

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Du Gourmand's boys surround "The Red Lion" when a Soviet sentry makes an observation check to spot the Guv'nor covering the rear exit. Fortunately for Du Gourmand, my observation check matched rather than exceeded the target number, so all the sentry could do was turn to face and then hope to spot something more damning on his next activation.  We worked this out after a hurried consultation of the rules, at which point Du Gourmand announced, "So I've been spotted, but not made? Excellent. I'll knock politely then."

The lads surround the pub

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One thing we weren't sure of was what to do with the bodies of deceased sentries. It didn't come up during our game, but I didn't see anything in the rules covering this particular situation. We decided that a common sense approach would be best and that bodies could be picked up as part of an activation. 

While the guv'nor covers the back, the boys go in the front and discover that the pub is full of locals rather than Russian troops. A jammy roll on the civilian interaction table reveals that Foyski is in the other pub. 

The balloon goes up - Savage (with shotgun) running from the scene

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Meanwhile, a recce of the Hare & Hounds led to a frustrating series of observation rolls for Savage.  There was no telling which part of the Hare & Hounds, Foyski was in. A resistance member entered the pub and tries to suss out the locals. This goes spectacularly badly with the inebriated local loudly announcing " 'ee's got a bloody gun under 'is coat!" 

This generated a noise marker (white block) and finally raised the alarm. Foyski, who was in the back lounge, immediately made a break for the police station. 

Shots ring out inside the Hare & Hounds

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But before he managed to get out of the pub, the rest of the resistance cell bailed into the lounge and riddled him with carbine fire. 

Savage had selected carbines for his troops for reasons best known to himself, I was wondering what that would be in the late 70s context.  Privately held .22 birding or small game rifles I'd imagine. 

Soviet reinforcements dashed out of the old police station and started for the two pubs. 

Soviets reinforcements brass up the rear of The Red Lion

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With Foyski dead, the resistance started to pull out, but didn't quite make it entirely unscathed. Savage's GPMG team who were covering the retreat were hit by a hail of Kalashnikov fire and went down, while Du Gourmand's boys in the Red Lion were subjected to a barrage of RPGs, grenades and bullets. Luckily for them, they managed to make their saves and fled the pub as quickly as they could. 

On the whole, we were very happy with how the game turned out. The stealth rules once we worked them out properly, there is no substitute for playing a game against an opponent, were slick and added a drama to what could have been a dull exercise for the defending player. The common sense approach employed in the rules was good and all concerned were eager to play again. 

The boys rolled for Intel and gained a point. Intel points are accumulated over a series of loose campaign games and are spent for the opportunity to trigger a final showdown scenario. We rolled for the next scenario while tidying up and got a hostage rescue scenario set in a rural farm, but with the resistance defending.  

We shall see how this plays out. 

Black Ops with Savage - First Impressions

I hope the Russians love their children too

It's been a busy week and to be honest the world is too much with us, but we had the pleasure of Capability Savages company. Mrs Kinch and Tootsie put the world to rights over a bottle of pro secco while Savage and I gave Black Ops from Osprey a shot. 

Not exactly West Germany

It was only later that I realised that the cars were all on the wrong side of the road. By which I mean the left hand side of the road, which is of course the correct side, but not for Germany. 

It's all too confusing. 

We picked the encounter battle scenario and 50 points of Conscript Soviets versus Professional BAOR.  The setting was 1979, the balloon has gone up and two sections of infantry find each other in some nameless German truck stop choked with abandoned cars. 

 

Probably not coming to a cinema near you if the Red Army have anything to say about it.

I really like Savages bill boards. They are top notch. Not least because using steel paper and magnetic sheet it is possible to change the movie poster as you wish. Alien next time I think. 

Looking at these Dark Future roads reminds me that Donogh very kindly gave me some felt road, damned if I can find 'em though. 

The field of battle

We set up the game. This was a starter battle and half of it was spent struggling with the rules rather than each other, but on the whole a very positive experience.  The British advanced from the bottom of the picture, while the Soviets were a bit more spread out and controlled the garage. 

Sneaky motor rifle men

The game ticked along at a decent pace as we worked out the systems for shooting, moving, suppression and so forth.  Aces are extremely useful for "pushing" because of their ability to give groups an extra activation. I used this to enable my GPMG crew dominate the centre of the battlefield. 

Savage used it to organise colossal firepower from a group of AK47 armed squaddies hiding out at the pumps. At close range, massed AK fire can be devastating and effectively silenced my GPMG, unfortunately Savage was unable to capitalise on that suppression due to casualties in his flanking forces. 

A manoeuvre group under Corporal Gruber move to flank 

While the GPMG created a base of fire, Corpora Gruber of the Loamshires moved to flank the Russian position. This was moderately successful and ensured the Russian couldn't rush the GPMG. 

Soviet PKM team lights up the GPMG team suppressing them

On the whole, we were happy with Black Ops.  It seemed more intuative and less abstract than Force on Force, though Savage observed and he's absolutely right, that our 50 pt forces seemed very small on a 4 foot by 4 foot board. I think we will need to look at the options for creating more movement in the game, such as smoke. 

But rapid and accurate SLR fire thins the Soviet ranks

I think a change in mission from a straight up fight might also make the situation a little more fluid. We haven't tried any of the Stealth missions yet. The rulebook was easy to navigate and well laid out.  I believe there is a QRF available from the Osprey website, which I will probably download. 

Pavel, more brave than wise, launches a solo flanking attack

The game ended with the Soviet centre disintegrating a hail of accurate SLR fire, while the GPMG prevented a close assault where the Soviets might have been able to use their numbers.  

On the whole, it's too early to tell whether Black Ops will become a regular visitor to the War Room, but there's more to like than dislike and I'd certainly play it again. It should be said that our first game took an hour and a half, which is quite speedy given that a lot of it was spent flicking through the rules. 

More play is required I think.