BOHICA 2 - Search and Destroy

Our second outing for the BOHICA rules involved an apparently straightforward search and destroy mission.  We did have some armoured support this time around (in the form of an M48) but we were in for some surprises!  Our map and the real map were different in a number of ways, the road was mined and we were facing some NVA with armoured support rather than just the VC we were expecting.

We also had some clarifications on the various elements of the rules we either were not playing correctly or we confused about in the last game.

Here are some photos from the game:

Whilst the game was fun we were still not entirely convinced as some elements remained a little clunky.  Our umpire is now keen to try a game of Force on Force with the Ambush Valley supplement to see how they compare.

Afghantsy

Last weekend was our club Open Day and I put on a 28mm game from the Soviet Afghan War using the Force on Force rules.

The scenario was a sweep and clear operation by Soviet forces designed to flush out an eliminate Mujahideen fighters who had been attacking the Soviet's supply convoys.  The Soviets had a motorised infantry platoon in three BTR-70s and the Afghans had three small teams on board with variable reinforcements arriving during the game.

We played the game twice with the players swapping sides and then determining the overall winner based on the total points from both games.

Here are some photos:

Fallujah, 2004

At our club Open Day back in June I got a chance to play our next Show game, Pete's 20mm scenario in Iraq using Force on Force with a few minor amendments.

As you can see from the photos below the game looks fantastic and is the result of a huge amount of work during lockdown by Pete to scratch build pretty much everything other than the figures and vehicles (both of which he painted too).

It was a fun game with the players playing the US forces against the Umpire.

Here are a few photos:

Skirmish at Top Malo House

 

Back in May, and a couple of days before the fortieth anniversary, I ran a 28mm game of the engagement between the Royal Marines Arctic and Mountain Warfare Cadre and elements of the Argentinian 602 Commando Company.

I used the Skirmish Sangin rules as, whilst these were designed for Afghanistan, they were relatively easily adapted to the Falklands and provide a suitably crunchy game for such a small engagement with very low levels of cover.

The scenario was developed from the Mountain Commandos at War in the Falklands: The Royal Marines Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre in Action During the 1982 Conflict by Rod Boswell (who commanded the Marines in this engagement).

We ended up playing the scenario twice during the day - here are a couple of pictures from the second round

The main issue, from a gaming perspective, of using Skirmish Sangin for this period is the absence of body armour - so if you get hit you go down.

New Year Wargames Weekend - Moderns

I just noticed that whilst I had posted about the Ronin game we played during a weekend of wargaming over the New Year (that's 2016/17 just in case you were wondering!), I had omitted to post some photos from the other games.

The first was a 15mm Moderns game, although I'm afraid I can't recall which rules we were using - it may have been Sabre Squadron...

First Play: Skirmish Sangin

Impressed with the production and keen to see how the mechanisms would work on the table, Lenin and I gave Skirmish Sangin a spin.

Lenin supplied some of his Paras and I provided the Taliban figures but we each handed them over to the other for the game.  We decided to run one of the official scenarios with the Taliban moving down the board and running into my troops trying to head them off.

As you might expect things started slowly with us becoming acustomed to the rules but we quickly got the hang of them.  I moved my first section up to secure the first set of buildings.  I quickly came under fire from some Taliban - all I can say is thank goodness for body armour!  My first fireteam returned fire whilst the other fireteam secured a building to use as a base of fire.

Once I had my teams in place things got rather hot for the first group of Taliban but soon a second appeared to my flank.

When my second section arrived and took position along the nearby edge of a poppy field we began to win the firefights and I could advance one of my original fireteams.

In the end the volume of fire and having the successful hits by the Taliban absorbed by body armour mean the Taliban were in a fix and so the game was mine.

Whilst the rule mechanisms and dice roll modifiers look a little daunting at first, we quickly got the hang of things and the game flowed pretty well for a first try.  The rules certainly did what I was hoping and provided a more granular game allowing a smaller number of figures to be used.  I suspect I will replace the official markers (as you do need quite a few of them) with something a little smaller (particularly as you quickly learn the modifiers printed on them and they're also on the QRS) to help with the aesthetics.

We will definitely be using these again and I have moved my purchases from Empress up my painting priority list as a result.