AK-47 Original

Yesterday we tried out the original AK47 Rules for the first time. Peter Pig have released these as a pdf and I bought a set for the princely sum of GBP10.00. 

After a quick read through I found myself asking why they ever bothered writing a second edition? The rules are really good - simple, and fun to play - definitely a game rather than a simulation, but who cares?

One nice touch is the pdf is personalised with a neat little cross reference to Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket: 'this copy of AK47 belongs to John, there are many like it but this one is his'.

There are enough web accessible modifications for anyone who wants more complexity or chrome to add as they see fit, even extending the rules to other periods like the Russian and Spanish Civil Wars and World War II. There is even a Cold War Central Front variant that looks very intriguing.

Our game pitched the Cubans and SWAPO against the South African and Namibians in northern Namibia in the mid '80s. The background was a major SWAPO incursion had attracted a lot of attention from local forces and their South African backers and the Angolans and Cubans had got  in involved in a fit of internationalist solidarity.

 As a result of the political flowchart being played out in the pre-game sequence, the SADF/Namibian forces benefited from increased determination, resulting in their one militia graded unit being regraded to regular, . For their part the two big SWAPO militia graded guerrilla units acquired an HMG apiece. The flowcharts worked well, gave a few laughs and resulted in the SADF/Namibians being on the offensive. Much better than the clunky pre-game in second edition.

Above: the table after The Cuban/SWAPO deployment. Comrade Jeff was terribly unlucky and only started with one - three BTR 60s and six stands of infantry- of his five units on the table. This meant he could only secure one of three objectives. He elected to deploy on the reverse slope of the hill in the top right of the photo; leaving the road junction in the village unsecured and the hill in the top left corner exposed to the South African advance which would begin from the board edge on the left,

Uncharacteristically, SADF Colonel Chris was very cautious, advancing slowly down the centre with three armoured cars and even more slowly towards the village with three Buffels full of troopies. 

In the photos above the South African armour is grinding its way across the board whilst a small unit of Special Forces walk up the hill top left, thereby securing the objective, and lie down in the grass to watch the fun. Comrade Jeff was frantically throwing dice to try and bring on his troops but the commander of those T55s must have failed his map reading course. We know that this part of the word is big and easy to get lost in but this was beyond a joke.

The South African Buffels finally make it to the village about the same time as a unit of friendly Land Rovers and a bunch of local forces infantry arrived from off table. The infantry were short of a truck and were presumably late because half their number (probably the native troops...) had to walk. I'm unsure what excuse the guys in the Land Rovers had...

About the same time a large group of SWAPO guerrillas chose to appear, took one look at the dust cloud heralding the advance of the SADF armoured cars, and promptly ran for the nearest area of thick bush to hide in. Three GaZ jeeps toting heavy machine guns drove on the table at high speed and promptly got stuck into the Land Rovers and the territorials. Clearly their commander had been schooled in the Che Guevara heroic style of leadership. Sadly he and his brave men came to the same sort of sticky end, despite inflicting some casualties on the enemy infantry, for once Chris found his mojo and started using the recoiless rifle on one of the Landies it was all over very quickly

The clock was ticking down rapidly and it was only after the Commissar riding with the Cuban tankies demoted the Lieutenant in charge and grabbed the map and compass that the T55s made an appearance. They were all set to shell the living daylights out of the SADF Kommandos sunning themselves on the hill when darkness fell and hostilities ceased.

By the time we'd totted up the victory points, even after penalising Chris for all sorts of trumped up transgressions (chief among which was him playing cautiously for once), the South Africans could claim a decisive victory. In fact, as the rules put it 'the victor will be writing the history book on this'.

I'm sure we'll be doing this again soon.

Somewhere North of the Border...

Chris and I had a game of DBR on Sunday. It was a 300 pointer on a 3 x 4 foot table - a bit of a practise for the forthcoming Harquebusiers & Hussars gathering that the indefatigable Keith McNelly organises.

Chris played Montrose, leading an army of Scots Royalists against my Covenanters in 1645. The terrain was pre-set but as Chris was the defender he got to choose which side of the table he would deploy on. He wisely chose the table edge with two closed flanks, a wood and a steep hill, leaving me to deploy with an open flank. 

This meant he could do what Montrose and McColla do best - a head on frontal attack (in DBR the fact you're the 'defender' doesn't stop you taking the offensive tactically). I anticipated this and opted to greet his massed warband and fast shot with a line of frame guns and then massed ranks of shot deployed in depth.

In the picture above the Covenant are in the foreground with the frame guns on the left enfilading the McColla's Irish foot as they charge in. A couple of hundred Irish have swung away from the main body to get to close quarters with their tormentors- the attackers they are about to die gloriously in the face of grape shot. To the right the massed Highlanders are advancing on the Covenanter position.

Whilst the Covenant eventually fought Montrose's Highlanders to a standstill,l the Irish Brigade hit the defenders at the boundary between their two commands - McColla himself, accompanied by 200 of his best men led the charge through the Covenanter ranks and fell upon the baggage train. The screams of Covenanter merchants and their wives rent the air and led to a thundering collective nervous breakdown in the ranks of Hodden Grey. 

It was a close run thing - Montrose was only an element from breaking - but victory went to the Scots Royalists....

A Clear Victory - Now the People Demand Investment in Infrastructure!

We played a game of AK47 Reloaded yesterday and for the first time ever I managed a clear victory in a cross border incursion. My combined FAPLA-Cuban force successfully defeated a largely infantry SADF force despite losing two of the three objectives to the enemy.

The South African Paras were very professional, quickly occupying their objective, a built up area near a road entrance, without casualtiesand digging in. This deterred a Cuban tank unit from trying to take them on at close quarters. A good tactic for infantry faced with tanks in AK47, as in real life, is to hunker down inside built up areas so the armour has to close with them, allowing the footsloggers to close assault.

In the above picture you can see the Paras deployed in the built up area with the tanks approaching. The South Africans have just called in an airstrike, hence the explosion near the T-34s.

Elsewhere, a big unit of FAPLA militia successfully destroyed an SADF infantry unit in close combat although a second SADF unit secured the objective (the built up area with the crashed Mercedes objective marker). The destruction of this South African unit was to make a big difference to the Cuban-FAPLA victory points total.

In the above photo the marauding Cuban T-34s have just seen off a unit of SADF armoured cars. The vulnerability of armoured cars against tanks was underlined in this encounter. The South Africans were very brave in that they closed quickly with the tanks in order to maximise the effectiveness of their firepower. Unfortunately for them, this wasn't enough to knock out the  Cuban armour. What followed was swift and deadly - professional units get a re-roll when firing and armoured cars are not very well protected against high velocity armour piercing shot.

The game ended shortly after this with FAPLA having secured only one objective, digging in on the reverse slope of the gentle hill in the centre of the photograph. Communist casualties were light though and it was the body count that made all the difference in the end.

The upshot was that the SADF retreated back across the border at nightfall and the locals welcomed their liberation with calls for the Cuban engineers to sort out the roads and water supply!

Once Upon a Time on the Steppe AAR

Well perhaps not so much on the steppe but rather amongst the farms, woods and orchards of the district around Belgorod...

The above picture shows the Red armoured train 'Proletarian Hammer' about to roll across the table to pound the White troops in preparation for a Red cavalry thrust on one of the objectives in our game.

Also visible are some Red infantry, assembling at their start line in readiness to advance on the small hamlet (and objective) that can be seen in the right background. Unfortunately for them, a unit of White officer cadets are going to beat them to the objective.

The game ended in a Red marginal victory after they secured two of the three objectives and managed to destroy a White militia unit. The armoured train did dominate the battlefield, despite the best efforts of White aircraft and on and off table artillery. Nevertheless, it was a good game, with plenty of action until the high casualty rate on both sides led everyone to start to seek cover and dig in.

So the spearhead of Denikin's advance has been blunted. For now.

We used an adapted form of Peter Pig's AK47 Reloaded rules that I've christened 'Comrade Komissar!'.

Operation Crossbow AK47 AAR

I'm in danger of confusing two alternative timelines as I have a Soviet invasion of Western Europe underway in 1981 using SPI's boardgame NATO as well my continuing Angolan Border War narrative that's reached the slightly earlier date of March 1979.

Readers will recall from earlier posts that the South Africans have launched a major external, codenamed CROSSBOW, into Angola to try and destroy SWAPO camps there. We've already played one table top battle using AK47 Reloaded rules and last night we fought our second.

The situation was that a SADF mobile column was trying to seize a vital river crossing. A detachment from 32 Battalion, mounted in Landrover Technicals, spearheaded the advance supported by Eland Armoured Cars and Mechanised infantry from 62 Mech Battalion.

Above: SADF armoured cars storm into an Angolan village, at the top pf the picture FAPLA T-34s have just arrived

East German piloted MiGs attack the South African Armour

The Angolans were quick to react, deploying armour, in the shape of T-34 tanks and BRDM armoured cars crewed by Cubans, as well as a unit of Cuban motorised infantry. Two units of FAPLA militia were also part of the defending force.

This was dubbed a 'hot incursion' using the AK47 rules, and the SADF launched a feint against the objective in the village with their armoured cars before shifting the attack to the right flank against a hill held by a dug in unit of FAPLA militia.

The Angolans made the most of their assets, bringing on an armoured unit which was promptly the target of an SADF airstike. At the same time 32 Battalion's technicals entered the table behind the Angolan armour - a bold move but one that ultimately led to the liquidation of the South African unit as the Angolan tanks survived the airstrike and shot up the landrovers.

This was to prove the decisive episode in a close game - an Angolan airstrike against the SADF armoured cars knocked out one of them but couldn't stop the remainder shooting up the objective as the SADF infantry moved in. Alas for the Army of Apratheid, the game ended before they could secure the objective and once the points were totted up it was a clear Angolan victory!

Ngiva AAR

 15 km inside Angola across the South West African Border there is a road junction. In March 1979 this was the place where the front in the war between South Africa and Angola was formed. The South African 62 Mechanised Battalion, the spearhead of Operation CROSSBOW found themselves attacked by elements of the Angolan 11th Motor Rifle Brigade. In the picture above the South Africans will try to secure the junction and the surrounding high ground - three gentle rises that barely qualify as hills.

Left: A South African  command element is trying to consolidate atop a low ridge south of the road. A knocked out Angolan T-34 is on the skyline and Angolan Air Force MiG 21s are being used in the fighter bomber role against the SADF troops.

Despite being caught in the open by the MiGs the South Africans managed to avoid suffering serious losses and successfully dug in on the hill, thereby securing one key objective.

The MiGs were flown by East German pilots and it's believed that the Communist forces experienced problems co-ordinating  air support with their ground troops.



Left: Angolan T-55s are brewed up by South African armour. The South African Olifants destroyed two thirds of the Angolan tanks but were surprised when the Communists kept closing the range and knocked out several Olifants.

The Angolan armoured troops were commanded by a cadre of Cuban officers and NCOs.





Below: South African troops have succeeded in consolidating on another of the low hills south of the lateral road. The Angolans have advanced in their BTR 60s into the woods at the foot of the slope and have disembarked their infantry but cannot cross the open ground dominated by the South African machine guns and RPGs.

The game ended with a clear South African victory as they held two of the three objectives. The Angolans successfully stormed the village north of the lateral road with two inexperienced units of infantry and managed to inflict some casualties on the SADF troops. The hill north of the village was also taken by the Angolans and with some firm leadership from the Cuban advisors they stayed put and dug in.

Both sides launched abortive airstikes and artillery support was notable for it's ineffectiveness.

A good fun game of AK 47 Reloaded that could have gone either way. The effectiveness of the South African armour was a nasty shock to the Angolans but the determination with which relatively raw Angolan troops maintained their attack into the village gave the South Africans something to think about.

Contact! AAR

I played out a Falklands War scenario using Cold War 83 rules yesterday. I’ve been working on a set of scenarios that I’ve adapted from Rules of Engagement so they would work with the Falklands and Cold War 83 rules. This has meant I’ve had to produce Army Lists as the scenarios allow the players to choose a value, generally an understrength platoon, force which has a ‘combat effectiveness’ and then strengthen it using additional ‘support points’. The principle is that the better quality the force is, as expressed through its ‘bottle’ value, the fewer troops you get. There are also deployment, game length and victory criteria rules for each scenario.

The simplest scenario is ‘Advance to Contact’ as it doesn’t involve any ‘extras’ like hidden deployment, supporting artillery or fortifications. The premise is that two opposing patrols have bumped into one another in no-man’s land and win by inflicting enough casualties on the other side to break them before they reach their own break point.

Here’s the table I used.

  For my game I pitted a platoon of British Paras against Argentinian Commandos. The idea was that this could be the sort of encounter that could have happened just after the British landing at San Carlos with the Paras probing out of the beachhead and Argentine Special Forces reconnoitring to try and assess the strength of the British presence.

Both sides were of good quality with base bottle values of 8 although the British did have the advantage of 3 GPMGs and 24 men as opposed to 1 GPMG and 21 men for the Argentines, although the latter did have a sniper and a couple of grenade launchers.

The British had the initiative and got to choose which table edge they would deploy on and also whether this was a day or night action. They elected to deploy on the top table edge in the picture above and went for a daytime patrol. The roll for weather indicated this was a clear day but the roll for time of day gave me 12 turns to dusk. Given that the scenario is 12 turns long if the opposing forces deploy on the short table edges that fitted with a late afternoon encounter that would end with reduced visibility allowing one or both sides to slip away.

The Argentines had one full strength section of ten men, armed mainly with G3 Rifles and Grenade Launchers, together with a GPMG. The HQ group (commander, NCO, sniper and radio operator) was supported together with an understrength section armed mainly with SMGs. The lack of long range firepower and the terrain were to be the Argentinian’s greatest handicaps. To close with the British they had to bunch in the dead ground in the lee of the central hill in the picture, which meant that once the paras started getting rounds down from their GPMGs the risk of suppression was increased. This is exactly what happened – a few failed bottle rolls for movement meant one of two Argies got caught by GPMG fire crossing open ground with the result they became casualties and the men in proximity were suppressed.

In the picture above all the figures with a red band are suppressed and two have reduced bottle values, as denoted by the dice. The figure in the foreground has been hit so badly that any further reduction will mean he’s removed from play. In reality he’s probably severely wounded and about to die…sobering thought.

It wasn’t all one sided though. The Argentinian sniper killed one para outright with a single shot at long range and a couple of others fell victim to ‘double taps’ from commandos with G3s who got themselves into good firing positions.

Weight of fire told in the long run however and by the end of turn 7 the paras had gone firm on two pieces of high ground that dominated the battlefield and had effectively pinned down their opponents who were steadily taking more casualties.

In the above picture, taken from behind the Argentine position, the funnelling effect of the dead ground can be seen. With exception of the figure with a double 5 die next to it, all the figures with dice next to them have suffered a reduction in bottle, either because they were caught in open ground by British fire or because they were close enough to a comrade who was hit by GPMG fire. Senor Double Five has had his bottle increased as a result of a clean kill at extreme range. All the figures with a yellow marker are prone. In the background the British dominance of the two hills on the left and right respectively can be seen.

The Argentinians had taken seven casualties removed from play by turn 7, meaning they’d reached their break point (one third of starting strength rounded down) and had to dice against the commander’s bottle to see if they fought on. He was still on his starting value of 9 and easily passed. The paras had eight men removed from play but their break point was at half strength rounded down.

I’d been playing for a little over two hours and couldn’t see much happening for the remaining turns. To cross open ground to try and close in daylight was suicide but the long range firefight was proving inconclusive as nearly everyone with a clear line of sight had gone prone and/or had lost a point or two of bottle. The Argentine GPMG was out of action and neither of the grenade launchers had been able to get within range.

Accordingly, I took a decision to end it there as a draw. The encounter had been violent and bloody with lots of fire and movement to begin with and then everything slowing down as the troops became more cautious.

Lessons from this are that machine guns in daylight quickly close down a battlefield and that Argentine Special Forces are more than capable of giving a good account of themselves.

Fiddler's Bottom AAR

Fiddler's Bottom: the village is at the top of the picture - the Scots attacked from the right - if you look carefully you can just make out the deployment zones of the two sides marked with dice. We played 300 points each on a 3 x 4 foot table.

 

The armies lined up at the start of the battle. The Scots in the foreground, mixed pike and shot in the centre, lancers on the right flank, pistols on the hill on the left flank and a reserve of pike in front of the baggage.

 

Grimstone's three new modelled infantry regiments are in the centre with 400 ironsides deployed as a refused flank on the left of the picture and his dragoons and remaining Ironsides on the right.

 



 

Early moves - the Scots pistoleers have moved forward off the hill to support the attack in the centre by the massed infantry. The Scots right flank stands firm while keeping a wary eye on the advancing Ironsides opposite them.

 

The Scots have (improbably) made havoc amongst the New Model horse on the left, in the centre they are winning the firefight and on the extreme right 150 lancers have bravely charged 400 Ironsides

 

Lancers have died bravely - the Ironsides withstood the shock of their charge and then set about them with sword and pistol. The Scots are hurridly trying to redeploy their infantry before they are rolled up from the shattered right flank. In the centre though the New Model is collapsing as the rolling volly fire from the Scots infantry takes its toll. On the right the Ironsides charge in but are stopped by heavy fire from the Scottish horse  and supporting musketeers.It's a close run thing but panic grips Grimstone's army as the losses in the centre leave a gaping hole and his right flank is shattered. Ferguson is triumphant!



AAR A Hill West of Port Stanley

Big Tony and his GPMG...

The last couple of weeks has been flat out on the day job - lots of travelling and not enough time at home for gaming related activity.

I did manage to squeeze in a solo Cold War 83 game yesterday afternoon though. I've been working on adapting the army lists and scenarios from Great Escape Games's 'Rules of Engagment' to the Falklands and Cold War 83.

My adapted 'Hold the Line' Scenario pitched a platoon of Paras with on call fire support in a night attack on a fortified Argentinian position held by a couple of infantry squads supported by two HMGs and a mortar.

Here are the Paras on the start line in canonical two up-one back formation (rather like England playing 4-4-2). In the foreground there is a firebase of two GPMGs in sustained fire mode.

The Argies used hidden deployment. The six elements in their force (1 x Pltn Command; 2 x rifle Squads; 2 x HMGs and a 81mm mortar) were deployed using hidden unit markers together with 3 dummy markers to add a bit of suspense. Given the Argies historically used a poorly deployed all round defence in most for the set piece battles I wasn't too worried where their troops popped up in the event. Here are their markers: the Brits are attacking from the right.with objective of capturing the central rocky hill. The white die marks the objective.

 It was a great scrap with the Paras going in silent on a cloudy night with no moon. Visibility was down to 100m so when the shooting started it was at close range. Things went noisy very quickly and the Paras soon moved in for some pretty desperate close quarter combat. The rules worked well with entrenched Argies holding out until the Para's platoon commander called in artillery right onto their position. The picture below shows the effect of this with the red circled figures suppressed and the pink dice showing their bottle rating (the Argies started on 6, except for their commander and squad NCOs who were on 7).

The picture below shows another British salvo hitting home - I got these markers from Early War Miniatures and I really like them.

I called it a day (night?) when the Argies started to take such heavy casualties that their position became hopeless. They had lost six killed, nine wounded and another dozen taken prisoner while the Paras had three dead and four wounded. The three British fatalities all falling to one surprise burst of HMG fire as they crossed the field of fire of a hitherto hidden machine gun...

I need to work on the orders of battle and tweak the rules for artillery support so it's not quite as devastating as it was in this game but I'm pleased with this little project so far - with a bit of work I'll have a good scenario based campaign going. And I have plenty of Argie marines and commandos to paint, not to mention the British marines and the SAS/SBS as well as some helicopters.

Now I just have to work out how to spend more evenings at home instead of in hotels like tonight...

Fighting Patrol, somewhere south of San Carlos

Yesterday evening we had our first foray into re-fighting the Falklands war. Using Cold War 83 rules, two fighting patrols clashed on a rainy night a couple of days after the British landed at San Carlos.

 

The British Paras force consisted of a platoon headquarters with a recently graduated 2nd Lieutenant, and a signaller both armed with Sterling SMGs and a veteran sergeant with an SLR, together with a rifle section with GPMG, Bren Gun, Corporal with Sterling and five toms with SLRs. All the Paras had bottle ratings of 8 (experienced regulars - they'd all done tours in Northern Ireland) and with the exception of the officer and sergeant who were rated at a bottle of 9, to reflect their leadership qualities, and a tactics skill of 2. Eleven men all up.

 

The Argentinians fielded a platoon command group of one pistol armed officer, a radioman and NCO, both with FALs plus four other soldiers armed with FALs. A sniper armed with a Mauser bolt action rifle completed the group.

 

A full strength section of ten men led by an SMG weilding NCO completed their force. One MAG LMG, a rifle grenade launcher and seven FALs equipped the balance of the section.

 

The Argentinians were rated at a bottle value of 6 as conscripts, with the exception of the officer and the NCOs who were rated at 7. The Argies lack of training and experience was partially offset by some better kit, particularly night sights and goggles.

 



 

The paras' platoon sergeant follows two toms as they advance to contact. The leading para is armed with a Bren gun.

I'd not had time to write up a formal scenario so the two forces were simply instructed to advance to contact and to try and inflict enough casualties to break their opponent. The Brits had to roll against their leader's bottle once they sustained 50% casualties rounded down i.e. six men and the Argies had to do the same at 33% or six casualties. A failure meant the force broke. Further rolls were to be made at 66% and 50% casualties respectively and so on.

The two little armies could only see one another at around 100m on a dark, wet night so we only diced against bottle for movement once contact was made. Until that point both sides were walking. There was a little positioning as this occurred - obviously the players could see their opponent's figures - but by alternately moving units no-one gained an advantage and we felt that the two sides knew the enemy was about and could probably hear them on the wind so this wasn't entirely unrealistic.

GPMG gunner Big Tony goes 'firm'.

 

Once contact was made the initial exchange of fire was brutal. Barry the Bren Gunner tried to fire the first burst as an Argentinian emerged out of the darkness in front to him - critical failure! Dud rounds meant he pulled the trigger and nothing happened!

 

After that debacle the paras reacted characteristically and got plenty of rounds down range and moved quickly and aggressively to close. Barry ran straight at a terrified Argie conscript swinging his Bren like a club and was promptly shot dead at point blank range...

 

 

Argies taking fire

 

The Argies were taking hits though and a number were suppressed and one killed- SMG fire being particularly nasty at short range. Our intrepid young para officer climbed up some rocks above three of Galtieri's finest and pulled the pin out of a grenade...which promptly exploded killing him instantly. Sergeant Watson immediately assumed command and the toms began working round the Argies right flank in a series of hand to hand fights. It wasn't at all a pushover - another para was down, wounded by a desperate Argentinian conscript literally fighting for his life. There was a nasty little episode as two paras bayoneted their opponent in revenge.

 

The action began to slow as both sides drew breath and nearly everyone went to ground. NCOs on both sides could be heard shouting orders and as dawn approached the Argentinian casualties reached their first break point. The bottle roll was duly passed but, using his night vision binoculars Lieutenant Tevez had spotted a para armed with a GPMG hiding in a cluster of rocks. He rightly decided that it was time to break off before the light improved and his men were both outgunned and out ranged.

 

The butcher's bill was two paras killed and one wounded and two Argentinian dead, three wounded and one missing. The missing man was later found hiding behind a gorse bank half way down the road to Darwin...

 

Thanks to Chris and Jeff for being so sporting and patient as we worked through the adaptations we'd made to the rules and learned about the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing sides.

 

Next time we might introduce mortar fire and hidden deployment and once the slit trenches and foxholes arrive that I've ordered then the Argentinian prospects of survival will increase.

 

What was realistic was that with poorer quality troops the Argentinian ability to manoeuvre was heavily restricted and they did better if they simply got their heads down, stayed put and fired when they could.

 



Ambushed on the Way to the Border AAR

The day job has been getting in the way of gaming lately, although I have been doing some painting for a project that will see War for Slow Readers move into another theatre...watch this space.

Three of us did play a game using the modified Cold War 83 rules a couple of weeks ago though. This pitched a mercenary led platoon of the FNLA against an advancing Cuban company.

The Cubans were spearheading the FAPLA offensive in northern Angola and their objective was to cut the dirt road that can (just) be seen on the extreme top left of the picture below. The FNLA had three entrenchments located on the low ridge between the road and the advancing communists. HMGs were positioned in the flanking trenches and a couple of assault rifle stands were in the central trench. Behind the ridge the mercenaries, armed with FN SLRs were positioned so they could co-ordinate the defence. The only reserve was a stand of assault rifles and a GPMG armed technical.

None of the FNLA were revealed to the approaching Cubans until they opened fire or moved while in line of sight.

Comrade Chris duly tried to walk his troops on the table in a two up one back formation right into the killing zone. One platoon took casualties in a hail of .50 cal fire straight away, the survivors were suppressed.

It looked like it was all over for the Cubans. One platoon was decimated and had gone to ground, their comrades on their left knew someting very bad was happening and the third platoon hadn't even got over the start line i.e. on the table.

Chris kept his cool though and got his left flank platoon moving using the cover that was available. He managed to reconfigure his advance and push his third platoon up on the extreme right where thick bush gave some shelter from FNLA spotters.

Jeff opened up with everything he had and what followed was a desperate firefight as the relatively poorly trained FNLA attempted to get rounds down from the security of their trenches while the Cubans tried to suppress their tormentors and move forward.

The FNLA committed the Technical on their right when the .50 cal entrenched there was suppressed. A couple of Cuban RPGs went astray and it looked like another Communist platoon was going to be shot up as the FNLA gunner prepared to fire. He got off one burst before his weapon jammed, and then the technical exploded! One can only assume that the crew was careless with a cigarette butt in a vehicle that was loaded with live ammunition and gasoline...

By now the Cubans had abandoned all pretence at battle drill. Instead of fire and movement it was a case of pouring as many rounds into the FNLA as possible and anyone who could move was running flat out at the ridge.

Not subtle and not pretty, but it worked.

The Cubans suppressed each postion in turn and when they got into close quarters they were not taking prisoners.

I'd placed a 10 turn limit on the game as an arbitrary way of modelling exhaustion of ammunition and men. It was close but the Cubans got a fireteam across the road on turn 10, having killed or routed all but two the FNLA stands.

Another Cuban victory but at a high cost - a whole platoon's worth of Havana's finest were killed or wounded. The FNLA took another pounding - their poorly trained troops failing to old their ground. Another blow to FNLA morale and four more mercenaries were killed along with a dozen Angolan fighters.

AAR Triumphant March of Socialism?

A small village in NE Angola, mid November 1975

I used the above table for this battle. The rules were an adapted version of Cold War 83. Instead of individual figures I had three or two man fireteams per base. Vehicles were mounted invidually. This means I can use my 15 mm figures as they are based for the AK 47 Reloaded rules.

Cold War 83 uses an ingenious mechanism to represent training, morale and fatigue called 'Bottle'. Simply put, a figure (or base in this case) is assigned a Bottle value and all actions and attempted actions are influenced by this value. Unusually, the player as to throw a score on 2D6 below a base's current Bottle value to succeed in movement or combat actions. So, the higher a base's Bottle, the more chance it has of actually doing what the player wants it to; whether that's moving, spotting, firing and hitting a target, unjamming a weapon or just about anything else you can think of. Bottle changes during a game, usually downwards, as your men respond to the stress of combat, are wounded or, in some cases, are inspired to bravery etc.

When their Bottle falls to below 2, they're assumed to rout, curl up in a ball, surrender or othrwise find a way of no longer taking part in combat.They can also be killed outright, most often when the firing enemy scores a 'critical success' - that is a successful 2D6 score that is a double.

In my game I assigned the FNLA's two mercenary stands, armed with a total of 6 G3 Rifles a Bottle value of 8 to reflect their training in the Foreign Legion or the Paras etc, as well as their experience as hard bitten dogs of war. Their Angolan FNLA comrades were only rated at 6, indicating they are conscripts with little experience but who have gained some appreciation of the dangers of war. They're armed with a total of 7 x AK47 Assault Rifles, 2 x PK LMGs and a couple of RPG 7 Grenade Launchers, presumably courtesy of the Chinese before they lost faith in Holden Roberto. Crucially the FNLA have one vehicle that's a runner, a Toyota pick up truck armed with a .50 cal HMG, and crewed by two Angolans also rated at 6. One item there is no shortage of is hand grenades.

I decided that the village was deserted, the locals having made themselves scarce when the soldiers showed up. All the built up area, rough ground and woods templates were assigned a 'clutter value' of 3, meaning that once contact is made then a stand has to subtract that number from its Bottle value if it wants to move anywhere or hit anything in the template. There are three gentle hills to the NW, NE and SW of the village that don't impede movement but block line of sight. Most of the area is light bush with a clutter value of 1. The roads are rated 0.

The mercenary Jean Langarotti set up as all round a defence as he could manage with the resources to hand. I decided the FNLA would deploy first and then the road entrance tthat he MPLA would enter on would be chosen randomly. This simulates the 'frontless nature of the fighting' (see the previous post). The MPLA would move without dicing for success against Bottle until contact.

The MPLA were represented by a full platoon of motorised infantry, transported in three newly aquired URAL trucks, with an 8 men squad per truck split into 3 fireteams with a total of 6 x AK47s, 1x PK LMG and an RPG 7. Like their FNLA opponents they were rated at 6 for Bottle.

Six Cuban Special Forces soldiers provided the leadership and expertise. Two were in a GAZ jeep mounting an HMG on point, and another five, including the force commander, Leiutenant Alonso, in the follwing GAZ jeep, also equipped with an HMG. These were given a Bottle rating of 9.

The MPLA attempted to get on table on turn 1. The point jeep was hit by the HMG mounted in the Toyota technical, obviously the Cubans weren't anticipating an ambush! So much for their training and experience. Although they suffered some damage, neither the vehicle or the crew were incapacitated by this first burst of fire. As their comrades followed them into he kill zone however, an FNLA fireteam, emboldened by the noise and the obvious power of the technical's HMG, opened up with everything they had, namely an LMG and two AK 47s.

The leading Cuban jeep was destroyed and the following one accelterated into the cover of the buildings south of the FNLA technical. Two URAL trucks followed, taking rounds on the way in. The third URAL didn't make it on to the table, the sound of the firefight obviously leading the driver to stamp on the brakes.

One brewed up Cuban jeep in the background, the FNLA technical and fireteam that did the damage in the foreground. Note that the FNLA firteam's bottle rating is inicated by the two small green dice. It's at 7 because of the proximity of Langarotti who can be see in botom of the picture



From this point on things went rapidly downhill for our heroic revolutionaries. Of the two URALs that drove towards the village, one copped a burst from the Toyota's .50 cal and the resulting mayhem led the hapless Alonso and his comrades to go to ground and become suppressd as they were within 7.5 cm of the truck that was hit. The second URAL truck came under fire from another FNLA fireteam before it reached the cover of the buildings and the crew were killed and the troops on board all suppressed. The only postive thing the MPLA managed to do was get the third truck on the table and under cover in the woods to the north of their entry point.

By  the end of turn three more and more fire was being poured into the MPLA and Cubans either in, or just outside, the buildings and casualties were mounting. The squad in the third truck disembarked and moved forward to engage Langarotti and his men from the cover of the woods but by then it was all too little, too late. The rest of the MPLA's force was either suppressed and/or had a Bottle rating of 2, meaning there was nothing they could do about their predicament.

Here you can see the MPLA & the Cubans with their rapidly dwindling Bottle scores


At this point I decided to end my little experiment. What have I learned? Firstly, I really like the rules and especially the Bottle mechanism. At last I can see what others rave about. This is a fast play rule set that gives a flavour of how I imagine the chaos of a firefight to play out. As the player, you can see the danger your litte men are in, but getting them do do what you want to get out of it is another matter. With a little thought I think I can come up with plenty of scenarios involving all sorts of pressure on the protagonists - not shooting at civilians in the war zone, securing the merchandise from Mr Arms Dealer, avoiding being filmed by a news crew as your men go on the rampage/break and run/loot and pillage - are a few that have just come to mind. Secondly, get out off your trucks and spread out as soon as you hear incoming fire...

Action at Cassalalta 11 November 1975

''Janni, over there, by the railway line!'

'Hostiles 1 o'clock, fire at will'

'Shit, that's an anti-tank gun on that jeep...get some rounds down now'

'Peter, take your squad and work your way round them...use the buildings'

'Frank, base of fire..there'

'Go, go, go!'

*****
'Target 11 o'clock, 800, load sabot'

'Fire!'

'Sierra Five, this is two, I'm in trouble, I've lost two tanks'

Target, 700, load sabot'

'Fire!'

'Sierra Three, this is five, keep moving, you're all right, fight back'

'God, oh God, they're killing is all'

'Romero, you son of a whore, get a grip on yourself and fight or they will kill you...target 600, sabot...fire! Got him! Good lad...'

*****

'Sanchez says the Boers are in the scrub on the left, over there''

'Get out of the trucks! Everybody out, now!'

'Miguel, keep your head down and take your boys and work around their left'

'Shit...who's firing? where's that coming from? Everybody down!'

*****

I've just finished playing out the first encounter between Cuban combat troops and their South African adversaries in our alternative timeline. It saw the first encounter between Cuban T 34s and South African Eland armoured cars; a text book company attack by South African infantry that ejected Cuban recon troops from a built up area, Cuban technicals shooting up a South African Armoured Infantry Company and the massacre of a Cuban motor rifle platoon before they could disembark form their URAL trucks.

Neither side was aware what the other was trying to achieve and both were left feeling they'd taken a pasting although objectively it was a clear tactical victory for the SADF. Full AAR to follow.

Caxito AAR (2)

This proved to be a a lot of fun. The battle see-sawed for the whole game. The deployment rules ensured the shooting started straight away. The MPLA declared one of the building templates in Caxito and the large hill that dominated the diagonialy opposite quarter as objectives. The FNLA went for the road entrance at the table edge that was the most distant from Caxito in an attempt to get the MPLA to divide their forces.

This was not to be. The Cuban advisors ensured the MPLA deployed carefully, putting a full company of infantry on the hill and another, supported by the Command Group and HQ platoon, in Caxito.

The FNLA drove a company of technicals within HMG & AA range of the troops on the hill, but outside of effective range of their assault rifles and RPGs, and spent the rest of the game blasting away at them. The fact the MPLA successfully dug in on turn 1 mean they elected to soak up the pressure rather than charge across open ground at a line of Jeeps and Toyotas bristling with 30 and 50 cal machine guns and 20mm AA guns. Some losses were suffered but their morale held and the objective was never in danger.

The rest of the FNLA force focused on Caxito. Fighting in the town was bloody, largely as the MPLA elected to defend from within templates, rather than sitting at the edge and taking fire. In reality this would approximate to defenders occupying buildings within a built up area rather than on the outskirts, sacrificing the ability to fire at the attackers as they approached for the impact of ambushes with automatic weapons and grenades at short range. Most of the comabt was therefore close assaults.

The much vaunted Cuban supplied BM-21s MRLs proved largely ineffectual. Only one fire mission arrived and, as it was directed at infantry in a built up area, its impact was negligible. One can imagine the frantic calls for fire from the Cuban forward observer before his postion was overrun.

The battlefield with the MPLA postion on the hill in the foreground. In the built up area in the left background a desparate battle is raging...FNLA technicals can be seen by the road on the left.

As the mercenary led FNLA force fought their way into the township an understrength company of MPLA troops broke and fled. This proved the high water mark of the FNLA's fortunes however, for as they attempted to dislodge the Cuban Command group and HQ platoon, their advance stalled. The Cubans had fortified their postions and every building was either a strongpoint or booby trapped. Machine guns were deployed with mutually supporting arcs of fire and three or four man fireteams armed with AK47s and grenades were on hand to counter attack at any sign of the enemy penetrating their postions.

The FNLA mercenary leader, 'Colonel' Shannon had always suspected this would be a tough fight so was not unduly surprised when his usual tactics of charging the enemy in a blaze of automatic fire enjoyed limited success. The flight of the undertrained Angolan troops before his first assault was a bonus but he always expected a more determined, or better prepared, foe would put up more resistance.

Two things sealed the fate of the FNLA attack. The first was the booby trap that exploded as Shannon and his command group were clearing a cluster of buildings only metres from his Cuban counterpart's command post. The mercenary was mortally wounded and the attack lost its impetus. Shortly afterwards, a column of jeeps armed with recoiless rifles and HMGs arrived to reinforce the MPLA and took up postions on the outskirts of town, providing much needed support for the Cuban fighters. This column also ensured the third objective was denied to the FNLA.

So, the battle ended with a decisive victory to the communists. Luanda was secured and it now loks like an MPLA government will be installed in independence day on 11th November.

Caxito AAR (1)

This was the brief we used for the Battle of Caxito, played using Peter Pig's AK47 Reloaded rules with some adaptations

 

 

Caxito 3 November 1975

Situation

Task Force Blue, an FNLA unit originally of  brigade strength, has reached Caxito, about 30 kms from Luanda.

The Task Force is led by an Anglo-Irish mercenary and former Royal Marine Commando non commissioned officer, ‘Colonel’ Carlo Shannon. Since crossing the border with Zaire two weeks ago Shannon’s force has dwindled to around 1000 men, about 60 of whom are British, French and Portuguese mercenaries. They are well supplied and have plenty of transport in the shape of lorries, jeeps, landrovers and the ubiquitous Japanese built pick up trucks. There is no artillery support however, and morale is brittle.

FNLA cadre in Luanda have been decimated and guerrilla units in the surrounding countryside have been largely destroyed by the MPLA’s military wing, FAPLA. FAPLA is well armed with Soviet supplied light weapons such as AK 47s and RPG launchers. There are around 30 Cuban advisors fighting alongside the FAPLA front line units. At the end of October a Cuban registered ship, the ‘Vietnam Heroico’, docked in Luanda and unloaded a cargo of heavier weapons and ammunition. Half a dozen BM-21 multlple rocket launchers and the specialist  troops to operate them arrived with the cargo.

Against Shannon’s advice, the political leader of the FNLA, Holden Roberto, the brother in law of Zaire’s dictator, President Mobuto, has insisted that Task Force Blue launch an attack on the capital. Angola is due to be granted independence on 11^th November, although Portuguese colonial rule has effectively already collapsed, and Roberto wants to install a government by then.

The fighting is bloody and confused. As Task Force Blue makes its bid to capture Luanda front lines cease to exist and a mobile free for all of attacks, ambushes and counter attacks ensues.

Deployment

The FNLA are the attacking force. Divide the table into four quarters. The FAPLA player chooses two diagonally opposite quarters and choose two objectives in these quarters. The FNLA player identifies another objective in either of these quarters.

The FAPLA player deploys two units in his quarter(s).

The FNLA player deploys three units in his quarter(s).

Forces

FAPLA

Commander & HQ stands (prof)

1^st Company (militia)

6 x small arms

3 x RPG

2^nd Company (militia)

6 x small arms

3 x RPG

Mobile detachment A (regular)

3 x HMG technicals

Mobile detachment B (regular)

3 x RCL technicals

The FAPLA player has an artillery asset of 12. This represents the BM-21 unit. Should it come into play it has the same effect as an airstrike so as to represent the devastating effect of massed rockets on morale.

FNLA

Command & HQ stands (prof)

Alpha Company (militia*)

1 x small arms stand (prof) mercenaries

5 x small arms (militia)

2 x Unimog Trucks

Bravo Company (militia*)

1 x small arms stand (prof) mercenaries

5 x small arms (militia)

2 x Unimog Trucks

Charlie Company (regular)

4 x HMG Technicals

1 x AA Technical

Delta Company (regular)

2 x HMG Technicals

1 x RCL Technical

3 x small arms

1 x Unimog Truck

* these units fight as regulars whilst the mercenary stand remains with them. As soon as it is destroyed or lost they revert to being militia

The FNLA player has an aggressive shot asset of 12, this represents the plentiful supplies of ammunition Shannon has been furnished with courtesy of the CIA.

Arrivals

Can be diced for from turn 2 as per the rules. The table edge of any enemy quarter is an enemy base edge and there are no ‘flank’ edges.

Victory

Countdown is from 21. At game end victory points are allocated as follows:

Defender

1D6 + 3 to offset numerical disadvantage and lack of mobility

D6 + 2 for each objective held

2D6 + 1 enemy command destroyed or fled

2D6 + 1 each enemy unit destroyed or fled

+ 2 for each template occupied by foot

+ 2 for each destroyed enemy vehicle

+ 1 for each destroyed enemy foot stand

Attacker

2D6 + 4 for each objective held

2D6 + 1 enemy command destroyed or fled

2D6 + 1 each enemy unit destroyed or fled

+ 2 for each template occupied by foot

+ 2 for each destroyed enemy vehicle

+ 1 for each destroyed enemy foot stand