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For this game we left the usual setting of the mid-1980s and went back to the early 1970s. The scenario saw a hastily assembled US force of a mechanised platoon, an anti-tank section and an armored cavalry section on a mission to stop a breakthrough by a Soviet company of T62s with a motor rifle platoon in BMPs attached. 

The table is below , from the Soviet entry edge. We were trying out a new Cigar Box Grasslands Mat with stuff under it to make areas of high ground in the bottom right, top right and top left of the picture, but they don't don't show up so well in the pictures which is lesson for next time. The trees show the extent of a dense wood and there are two field of crops.

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The US deployed blinds. The bottom left and the 2 on the right are concealed from the Soviet side by high ground.

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The Soviets sent a blind along the road to flush out any US in the village but failed to spot anything.

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Two more blinds advanced uphill check out the wood.

The blind in the wood was found to be a dummy, as was the Soviet blind on the road. Another Soviet blind advanced through the centre to try another spot on the village.

Soviet spotting was poor but the central blind was revealed to be a platoon of T62s.

The 2 blinds moving uphill by the wood was also spotted and shown to be the infantry platoon dismounted with the BMPs behind in support.

Failure to spot the US blind in the cornfield led to an outbreak of impetuosity by the Soviet infantry who rushed forward on higher than expected movement dice followed by the BMPs on a Breakthrough card.

The US infantry platoon deployed off its blind and opened fire.

The first Soviet squad suffered badly and 2 of the BMPs were destroyed by M67s and M72s.

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Another Soviet tank platoon moved through the cornfield on the Soviet left and was spotted by a US blind that deployed as the anti-tank section. It moved into a firing position of high ground and.....

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.....made quick work of the T62s.

The US infantry's M113s had been deployed separately behind the ridge and cam of their blind to fire on the Soviet infantry, inflicting casualties including the last BMP.

The 3rd Soviet tank platoon advance over the hill past the wood and fired into the US infantry.

The M113s were spotted by a T62 who accounted for 2 with well-aimed shots from the halt.

With the threat to the US right dealt with, the anti-tank platoon moved to flank the Soviet tanks using the buildings to hide their movements.

The Soviet tanks poured HE into the US infantry's fox holes putting one section out of the battle as Soviet infantry also suffered.

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The Sheridans of the armored cavalry section revealed their position to fire at the Soviet tanks. The range was too short for Shillelaghs so they had to fire shells which immediately broke their sights. Two T62s were hit and brewed up. However the Sheridans received return fire and some uncannily accurate shooting hit all 3.

An M113 mounting a recoilless rifle was destroyed by an overwatching T62.....

......that was then knocked out by the other anti-tank vehicle.

M67s accounted for 2 more T62s leaving the Soviets down to less than a platoon and the breakthrough was prevented.

A note on models - the US are all Battlefront, the T62s are by QRF, the BMPs are by Skytrex and the Soviet infantry are from Irregular.

Nick Overland

 
 
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For the afternoon game I switched the table about a bit, reducing the built up area and adding a river complete with a bridge on one side. This is the view from the west.

I also changed the sides a lot. For this game the West Germans would be attacking with a Panzergrenadier company in Marders supported by a platoon of Leopard 2s with the aim of grabbing the bridge. The defending Soviet force consisted of 2 motor rifle platoons in BTR60PBs, the company support platoon and a weakened platoon of 2 T64Bs. The view from the east:

One German platoon advanced quickly towards the wood and ran into point-blank range fire from a Soviet platoon that destroyed all 3 Marders and inflicted heavy losses on the panzergrenadiers as they struggled out of the stricken IFVs.

The other motor rifle platoon was deployed in buildings to guard the Soviet right flank. Seeing the ambush of the panzergrenadier platoon, they rushed out of the town in a counter-attack. The Soviet army considered defence to be a temporary measure before the offensive was resumed; good to see players getting into the spirit of it!

The bulk of the German force was pushed towards the right, advancing behind a smokescreen.

The survivors of the ambushed panzergrenadier platoon were caught between the infantry firing from the wood and the counter-attacking motor platoon on their left. Casualties and shock put them out of the fight.

The motor rifles pressed forward.

As the contents of blinds were revealed, the two sides were found to have their tanks separated by a smokescreen.

The second T64 drove round the other side of the supermarket to support the counter-attacking motor rifles.

It didn't look much better for the first T64 from his side.

The motor rifles reached the wood bordering the road.......

.....and entered into a firefight with the second panzergrenadier platoon dismounted in the supermarket car park.

The Leopards picked out the T64 with their thermal imaging and knock it out.

The third panzergrenadier platoon pressed forward and reached the river.

These were better tactics than the first platoon used with Marders held back to provide fire support.

A couple of Milans were fired by Marders at the T64 but missed - the range was too short for effective guidance. The T64 responded by accounting for one of the Marders. A Leopard rounded the corner of the supermarket and ran into a 125mm fin-stabilised round.

The motor rifles pushed through the trees......

....and a major fight developed in the car park that eventually involved both motor rifle platoons, a panzergrenadier platoon and the Germany company HQ. It was carnage.

The Soviet support platoon opened fire with Spigot anti-tank missiles at the Leopards but failed to score a hit. One Leopard surged forward, over the bridge and into the minimum range of the Spigots.

This was a fantastic game to umpire. Unfortunately the pictures don't capture the mayhem around the supermarket, partly because I was enjoying it so much I forgot to take more. The Germans took the bridge as required, but it was at a high cost with just 2 tanks and 4 IFVs left.

Nick Overland

 
 
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June 6 saw the long-awaited OML3 Lardy games day hosted by the able boys of The Wyvern Wargames Club from near Evesham, Worcestershire. It featured some fantastic-looking games covering WW2, the Russo-Japanese War, the War of the Roses, the Sudan 1885, the Napoleonic War, Athurian and recent Afghanistan.

I put on two games of I Ain’t Been Nuked, Mum. The morning game concerned a Soviet tank company (T64Bs) supported by a motor rifle platoon, a recce platoon and some artillery attempting a breakthrough against a West German force of a Panzergrenadier platoon in Marders, a Heimatzschutzkommando platoon, a pair of Jaguars and a weakened panzer platoon (Leopard1A4) supported by some mortars.

By the end the Soviets were close to a breakthrough but had little left with which to exploit it.

Nick Overland

 
 
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Having spent the last few months building up my forces for the Six Day War, it was time to get the figures onto the wargaming table. For the first game, I decided to keep things relatively small and relatively vanilla: the Israelis would be attacking a UAR/Egyptian force defending a pumping station of some sort.

The Israelis, under my command, had at their disposal a couple of platoons of infantry; the company HQ with their support mortars and LMG teams; and two platoons of tanks: one consisting of two Sho’t (Centurions) and the other of a single Malach (M48). The Malach would be one of the few that had been upgraded with a 105mm gun. Each platoon would have a Big Man, with a Company Commander as well.

The defending UAR force, commanded by Dave, consisted of a single platoon of infantry; two recoilless rifles (RCLs); and two ancient Maxim machine guns (MMGs). All were dug-in either on the edge of the pumping station itself or along the spur road leading to it. As an ace in the hole, they also had a 100mm anti-tank gun positioned in its own gun pit. To emphasise the difference in quality between the Egyptian and Israeli force, the UAR side only had one Big Man available. Finally, after a random number of turns, a platoon of five ex-WW2 SU-100 tank destroyers would arrive as reinforcements.

The Battlefield

As for the terrain, imagine a decent quality highway running through the desert. As this highway veers to the right, a spur road leads off to a pumping station consisting of two huge tanks, two smaller tanks, and the pumping machinery itself. The station was decoration: neither side could deliberately shoot at it, it would not explode if hit (disappointing, I know!).

The station was surrounded by barbed wire, with a network of rather badly maintained trenches and bunkers dotted around its perimeter and along the spur road. The only decent bit of works was the gun pit for the newly arrived 100mm anti-tank gun.

As most of the terrain was rough desert, any unit could end its movement by dropping into as much cover as possible (i.e. making it one column more difficult to hit on the Fire Table) provided it used one of its Actions to do so.

The other side of the battlefield was bordered by a long nullah that was considered effectively impassable.

The Rules

The TooFatLardies (TFL) don’t produce a set of rules specifically for the Six Day War, so my choices were really to use their WW2 rules, I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum (IABSM), or their Vietnam rules, Charlie Don’t Surf (CDS).

You might think that CDS was the obvious choice, being exactly contemporary with the Six Day War.

Well, yes…but CDS is written specifically for re-fighting Vietnam, with its unique style of large scale asymmetric warfare e.g. the tank and artillery rules are very appropriately more rudimentary than IABSM’s. Not only that, but there is a considerable difference in the type of terrain fought over (about as different as you can get!) and the types of force involved. Surely IABSM would be better for battles more akin to the fighting in the Western Desert than a set of rules for fighting guerrilla actions in the jungle?

In the end, as both systems use the same core mechanics, I decided to use CDS as my basic rules platform, and substitute anything I needed from IABSM wherever appropriate. This meant that I could use all the exactly contemporary equipment rules given in CDS (wire guided AT missiles, stats for the T-55 etc) along with the considerably more lethal Fire Table (representing the use of assault rather than bolt-action rifle teams), and yet fall back on things such as the more sophisticated tank vs tank systems of IABSM.

Army lists, incidentally, came from my own research and are available in the Six Day War section of this website.

The Israeli Plan

I decided not to try and fight at distance. Despite my superior numbers, I felt that trying to wear down troops in works from positions effectively out in the open was a mug’s game, and would lead to heavy casualties that I was pretty sure went against Israeli doctrine.

My plan was to get in close, where every volley and shot is lethal, and use my vastly superior command ability to get in my blows first.

The UAR Defences

Dave placed a squad of infantry supported by an MMG and RCL within trenches behind the barbed wire along the forward edge of the pumping station itself.

The other MMG and RCL, along with another squad of infantry and his commander, were split between two gun pits just by the entrance to the pumping station. Just to their left was the large gun pit containing the anti-tank gun.

His final squad of infantry, along with his only bazooka, were in gun pits protecting his left flank.

The Game

The battle began with a swarm of Israeli Blinds appearing at the end of the table. These moved pretty fast towards the waiting Egyptians, under cover in their works, splitting into three thrusts: one up the left, one up the centre, and one up the right.

The centre Blind was quickly spotted, and revealed as a platoon of infantry. The UAR commander uncloaked his central machine gun and a squad of infantry and punished the Israeli infantry hard despite their attempts to find cover amongst the rough terrain. They scattered to the right, aiming to come up behind the hill there, behind the Blinds of the Israeli right-hand thrust, but lost their left-hand squad as casualties. Not a good start for the attackers.

This distraction had, however, allowed the left and right-hand thrusts to get up to within about two hundred yards of the UAR position: both now lurked just behind the crests of hills looking down on the enemy.

On the Israeli left, one Blind revealed itself as another platoon of infantry which took position along the crest of the hill and began exchanging fire with the Egyptians in the trenches in the pumping station.

This looked as if it could have been a pretty fair fight, but the Israelis then revealed that the other Blind there was their two Sho’t/Centurion tanks. Unfortunately, before they could fire, the Egyptian anti-tank gun fired (it had been holding over its actions, waiting for the Israeli tanks to appear) and blew a track off one of the Sho’ts, permanently immobilising it. The crew were obviously made of pretty tough stuff, however, as they ignored this and carried on fighting from their newly-placed pillbox!

Incidentally, the anti-tank gun had been the subject of Israeli light mortar fire, but obviously had some sort of invisible shield around it, as it wasn’t until after the Sho’t was disabled that any rounds came anywhere near it. From that point on, its crew were almost permanently pinned by Israeli mortar or infantry fire, and although they managed a couple more shots, they would do no more serious damage in the game.

On the Israeli right, things had got quite exciting quite quickly. Hardly had the survivors of the central thrust reached the crest of the hill (next to another Israeli Blind that concealed the Magach) and started exchanging fire with the Egyptian infantry in front of them, when the UAR reinforcements arrived in front of them: five SU-100s.

This could have been a serious problem, but the Magach moved forward into a hull-down position and blew the lead SU-100 to bits with its first shot. It then proceeded to take out one SU-100 each turn, mostly by blowing tracks off and forcing their crews to abandon (not quite as tough as Israeli tank crews), until only one remained, skulking behind the line of its wrecked and smoking colleagues.

The Egyptian infantry squad did manage to get a couple of shots off with their bazooka, but they had a couple of squads of Israeli infantry pouring fire into them, and all that happened was that the Magach’s paint was slightly scuffed.

End Game

Back to the Israeli left, and the Sho’ts volleyed a couple of rounds of HE into the Egyptian infantry in front of the pumping station, predictably devastating at this range, which forced them to abandon their positions and flee the field.

The Israeli infantry moved down off the hill and prepared to cross the barbed wire so that they could get around the rear of the other UAR gun pits and trenches. The remaining mobile Sho’t got a bit over excited at this stage and, rather than staying safely where it was, decided to rely on the quality of its British-made armour and the ability of the mortars to keep the anti-tank gun occupied, and charged around the hill straight towards the centre of the Egyptian line.

This proved to be too much for the UAR forces and with almost nothing remaining of their flank forces, they surrendered.

Aftermath

This proved to be a most enjoyable game, for both sides!

Dave felt that although he had been defeated, he had done enough casualties and held out for long enough not to have been a total walkover.

I was happy that my tactics of quick and close assault had worked, with the only real casualties being in the platoon caught out in the open in the centre at the beginning of the game. I was also happy that I had used my tanks and infantry well together: a proper combined-arms approach.

And, finally, the terrain, figures and models looked good. What more could one want?

Robert Avery

 
 
 
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Well Deep Fried Lard took place yesterday. The chosen scenario was Aircav from the Surf’s Up scenario pack.

A dry run on Thursday saw the US dump napalm right where my mortar platoon, AAMG and a rifle section were, ruining my setup.

This time, the NVA set up the same but the US dropped napalm between them and the village. Helos then landed just in front of the napalm as the villagers who were to be airlifted were heading for the opposite side.

Despite the best efforts of Pink Teams Cobra, the cav got hit hard. Two dead Hueys later and human wave assault taking out one rifle team, and game over!

Alastair McBean

 
 
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Okay, so some of these aren't dummies, right?

Ash ran a scenario from Surf's Up, involving a Communist (run by myself and AndyMac) incursion from Cambodia into 'Nam, where the Free World [FW] forces (Pippa) were trying to deny them a river crossing.

Lots of scouting with a solitary scout platoon to start, as the Commies don't get any Blinds until the blank card starts coming up. We do get lots of Recon Bonus cards, so we did manage to spot quite a lot of the FW stuff though...

Annoyingly said blank card also starts the countdown for the Free World forces rigging the bridge to blow, so it's a race against time for the VC to get across the river and off the table.

Hah.

A bunch of FW about to get captured (I am instructed to apologies for the unpainted VC. To spare blushes I won't let on whose figures they are.).

Not so much, as they say. Once the Blinds started appearing, we basically drove a bunch of Dummies up the right with the aim of keeping two of Pippa's three sections busy while the real force pushed up to the bridge.

Given a few more turns (which obviously we didn't have) we might have got somewhere, as the FW unit protecting the bridge got first pinned in an exchange of fire and then ripped to bits and captured by a Human Wave attack. Had we had another unit to capitalise on that we might have managed it.

There should have been an earsplitting KABOOM. In fact, a turn later, there was :(

My first serious game of CDS, and I'm definitely liking it. There are enough similarities with IABSM not to completely rot my brain, but it's different enough to be entertaining.

Mike Whitaker

 
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"Captain, Captain, the infantry. They retreat!"

Surely not. So soon? Captain Phan Si~Dat looked out from the temple towards his left flank where the platoon of ARVN infantry were deployed in the strip of jungle along the ridge. He could see the explosions caused by the North Vietnamese artillery pummelling the position and men in olive green pouring back down the slope towards the river and the bridge at Tri-Ang.

He turned his field glassed to the west. No. No sign of the column. The column that now would be denied to bridge. Unless he could stabilise the position.

Dat was a man not used to failure, and yet his plan was already unravelling. His Ranger platoon held the centre of the ridge where he had anticipated the main enemy thrust up the road. The advance by northern armour yesterday had come from the old Dunlop rubber plantation, and he had placed his me, men he could trust, to block that line of advance. On his left the ARVN line platoon had been tasked with holding the knoll, whilst on his right a platoon of Popular Force troops were even less reliable, and with only one M48 tank he knew that he would be badly outgunned if the NVA tankers returned.

Lieutenant Wang Chung hit the Corporal with the butt of his pistol. "You stand and fight!" He fired a shot over the head of his men, they paused, momentarily, and then resumed their flight back towards the bridge. Their progress was only slowed briefly as they picked their way through the second line of razor wire with on the reverse slope of the hill.

The smoke rounds were the signal that the bombardment had ended. Commissar Me Lai ran forward as the entire Company seemed to move as one entity; this was Communism embodied in the spirit of the fighting soldier, this was the zeal for the patriotic cause that would see victory over the imperialist puppets.

The squeal of tracks on the Tri-Ang bridge was sufficient to see the retreating ARVN infantry break step and then halt altogether. The two M48s swung off the metalled road and through the shanty-town and headed towards the wire. The yellow flag of the Republic flew from the lead tank. As fire broke out from the ridgeline it was clear that the NVA were hot on their heels, already on the ridge and only one dash away from the bridge. Wang Chung took advantage of the unexpected reinforcements to rally his men and take up firing positions among the shacks. His M79 gunner fired a smoke round to mark the NVA position in the treeline and two beehive rounds tore a thick veneer of foliage from the jungle edge.

Chu-An Dat spoke clearly into the radio as the first ranging shot landed in the open ground that had been no-mans-land between the North and South Vietnamese. The mission to protect the bridge was Priority One and the artillery support had arrived promptly if not very accurately. The tail end of the NVA company were still making their way up the hill to the point where their Sappers had broke the wire. If he could block that gap then the NVA would be trapped between his barrage and the guns of the M48s.

An RPG round flew ineffectively past the turret of the lead tank, the reply was more effective by far as two more beehive round wrought their deadly work. Captain Phun Ki Tan looked to the rear, but the enemy artillery had shut off the gap in the wire and shattered the HMG platoon that had been moving up to support his company. Now it would walk across his force, trampling destruction and death among his men. There was but one hope. Moving towards the road Tan rallied his third platoon. If he could move across the ridge towards the temple then he could escape the maelstrom and outflank the ARVN forces in the village.

On the far side of the road Corporal Hung Dong checked his M60. His squad represented the left flank of the Ranger platoon deployed around the Buddhist temple, his men deployed around a large statue of the Buddha. As the wave of men came on Dong's men needed no order. The first rank of NVA went down a though an invisible scythe was at work, and yet on they came, their commander to the fore, screaming his encouragement.

It was a brutal fight. Only four Rangers survived the onslaught, but they held the line. Of the thirty four men who had begun their desperate charge only six remained, shattered by the violence of their reception.

In the rubber plantation Hoang Anh Dung watched the artillery rounds exploding on the ridge. From his position he could clearly see how the artillery fire seemed to move, searching out any survivors amid the mangled trees. He turned to the rear and mounted the T-54. He would not see Phun Ki Tan again.

A truly incredible game of Charlie Don't Surf last night which swung violently one way and then the other. Set in the Easter 1972 NVA offensive a scratch force of ARVN troops was ordered to hold the ridgeline that protected the Tri-Ang bridge in order to allow a convoy of South Vietnamese civilians to cross and escape the northern onslaught. A forty man platoon of ARVN Rangers, 27 ARVN line who were quite shaky and 40 Popular Force troops who were simply scared to death and ready to run at the drop of a hat. In support they had one tank and a Forward Observer in touch with the local FSB standing ready to assist. They also had thinly spread wire across the front of their positions and three quickly deployed minefields with mixed AT and AP mines.

The NVA had four platoons of infantry, one HMG platoon, one platoon of four T54 tanks, a couple of squads of Sappers and a preliminary bombardment from their artillery. The latter turned out to be very effective in that it completely drove the ARVN troops out of their positions in a pre-game preparation fire mission. That was quickly followed up by the wire being breached and two platoons of NVA sweeping rapidly through the jungle there to fire into the retreating ARVN troops. Only the arrival of two ARVN M48s stopped them over-running the bridge very early on.

By the time the ARVN artillery support was coming in three NVA platoons were packed into the shallow area of jungle, their HMG platoon was just stamped on by the artillery which then "shut the gate" blocking the breach in the wire. The one platoon still able to really function attempted to rush out of the jungle across the ridge, but ran slap-bang into a squad of ARVN Rangers who tore the whole platoon to bits as they attempted to cross the open road.

Total ARVN losses were four ARVN infantry and six ARVN Rangers. The NVA lost a whole Company either wiped out of captured when they were trapped between some very judicious artillery fire and the two ARVN tanks. The PF troops saw no action, they and three squads of Rangers in the temple remained on Blinds throughout the whole game. An awesome display of firepower well-used.

Interestingly the NVA commander decided not to commit his tanks to the fray, and that allowed the ARVN tanks to play the "Big Beast" role unopposed.

Richard Clarke


 
 
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It was the rumble of the M113s that first alerted Lai Chi to the fact that all was not progressing according to plan. The attempted demolition of the bridge at Ni Hi had been a challenge calculated to draw the local CIDG forces into an ambush, but Lai Chi knew that they came in trucks not armoured tracks.

The valley floor by the village of Ni Hi was where Chi had planned to catch the ARVN militia with his mortars and a hot reception from his first platoon. If they pushed on towards the brodge then the road was mined in two places. If they chose to avoid the most direct route and cross the river by the ford then that was also mined and the second platoon was waiting in ambush positions there. On the hill to the west of the river the VC mortar platoon was ready to bring down fire on the CIDG troops if they came into the village. A few civilians may get killed, but what did Chi care; hopefully the American newsman would be there with his camera to take photos.

Lieutenant Tuscadero spoke into his mic' "advance on line" and his four tracks moved forward to cover the treeline. Two M48 tanks moved forward to join them in line as the Mike Force platoon abandoned their trucks and ran for the rubber plantation. Their plan was simple, they would use their armour to cover the advance of the Montagnard troops at every step. Assembling in the rubber plantation they would advance through the jungle to the east of the road and clear the bridge.

"I have movement in the treeline" Sergeant Mason Dixon had been concerned about the mission from the start, this was clearly an ambush waiting to happen, and he had been scanning the area for potential ambush sites from the moment they arrived. In unison two 0.50 calibre Brownings on the nearest two tracks opened up and began shredding the foliage. Three RPG7 rounds came back in reply before a beehive round from the nearest Patton tank sent the VC squad reeling back towards the bridge.

Lieutenant Tuscadero spoke into his mic' "advance on line" and his four tracks moved forward to cover the treeline. Two M48 tanks moved forward to join them in line as the Mike Force platoon abandoned their trucks and ran for the rubber plantation. Their plan was simple, they would use their armour to cover the advance of the Montagnard troops at every step. Assembling in the rubber plantation they would advance through the jungle to the east of the road and clear the bridge.

"I have movement in the treeline" Sergeant Mason Dixon had been concerned about the mission from the start, this was clearly an ambush waiting to happen, and he had been scanning the area for potential ambush sites from the moment they arrived. In unison two 0.50 calibre Brownings on the nearest two tracks opened up and began shredding the foliage. Three RPG7 rounds came back in reply before a beehive round from the nearest Patton tank sent the VC squad reeling back towards the bridge.

It was at that moment that the 82mm mortar rounds began exploding among the tracks, sending the cavalrymen diving for cover, however the bombardment ended abruptly as the VC platoon commander signaled to his mortar teams to relocate before the enemy could identify their positions and bring their tank guns to bear.

"I need fire now on the following co-ordinates" Lieutenant Tuscadero was in touch with Firebase Bastogne and calling for H&I fire to the west side of the river. His mission was not high priority, but it was likely that fire support could be had pretty rapidly.

Lieutenant Bon Mot moved forward with his platoon. He was sure that the enemy were withdrawing before his advance. Moving by rushes, he could hear movement ahead of him each time he moved. He waved forward his next squad to rush forward, but this time they were met with a hail of bullets at close quarters and came rushing back to seek the safety of the platoon. Mot swore; where was their support.

The tank trundled forward to support the Montagnard advance, followed closely by Sergeant Dixon's track. Again the Sergeant was on the ball, spotting a fresh VC ambush position to his left. The track swung to face the threat, it's main weapon spitting its heavy calibre rounds. The lead M48 moved up and another beehive round carved its way into the vegetation. Another VC squad fled back, its morale crushed by the devastation.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! The RPG round exploded on the flank of Dixon's M113, setting the vehicle alight. The men who had been riding on top threw themselves clear and dived into the treeline where moments before the VC ambush had been. The big Sergeant attempted to rally them and get the M60s set up to bring their fire onto the fresh VC position, however their view was blocked by another Mike Force squad charging in to attack. For a brief moment there was a violent struggle before the Montagnards began to fall back. Seeing the enemy hesitate the VC squad rushed in to close quarters, sending the CIDG troopers flooding back towards Lieutenant Bon Mot.

Now the two M60s of the dismounted cavalry squad were coming into action, their fire whipping across the road onto the flank of the VC position. For a moment it seemed likely that the VC would have to pull out, but a previously unseen VC squad now rushed in to the rear of the cavalrymens' position. Sergeant Dixon's men fought back briefly before withdrawing back from their expose position towards Lieutenant Bon Mot's men.

Artillery fire was now coming in to the west of the river. Unbeknown to Tuscadero it was obliging the VC ambush positions there to fall back as well as suppressing the VC mortar teams who were attempting to set up their pieces for a fresh attack. Two tracks trundled own to the ford, one being disabled by a mine. On the road another track was advancing rapidly forward to support the CIDG troops when it too hit a mine and was disabled. After their initial devastating success the Free World forces were now taking losses that were beginning to hurt.

On the VC side Lai Chi was happy that he had done enough damage to the enemy to claim some sort of victory and was falling back unhindered to slip away. He had lost 17 men, but the Americans had lost four men and the CIDG forces six. Neither side had secured their main objective, both sides had achieved their secondary objectives, so militarily the action was considered a draw. Politically the losses of men would rate this as a narrow win for the Free World forces, but the damage to Free World materiel tipped the balance in favour of the VC. So a narrow VC political victory.

This was a really hard fought action. The VC commanders had been expecting a force of local CIDG in trucks and were horrified when they were confronted with the array of US firepower that arrived. They were also desperately unlucky in that their initial ambush position was spotted immediately (you can't argue with double 6) and then they could just not hit anything with their volley of RPGs. What was more the US vehicles kept trundling over the mine in the road without actually running over it.

That said, after the initial shock, and seeing two squads completely routed, the VC players pulled themselves together, pulled their forces off, reset some fresh ambushes and drew the Free World forces in deeper, at which point they began to take casualties. The CIDG troops were clearly over-ethusiastic and they too kept rolling very high for movement, which resulted in some unintentional close combats.

In the end both sides were exhausted by the fight, and both were happy to break off contact. The Free World forces were able to salvage two of the M113s which had actually only been imobilised with damaged tracks. One M113 was completely gutted by fire. The Mike Force platoon was badly affected by the shock of the close combats, hence their inability to pursue the withdrawing VC. Once again the game proved that two totally imbalanced forces could compete in a balanced and very "down and dirty" game. Good fun.

Richard Clarke

 
 
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Commissar Hung Du'o'ng smiled, he had them eating out of the palm of his hand.

"..and so Comrades, I say to you that liberation will bring a chicken for every pot, a wide selection of fitted kitchens for all, stair-lifts for the elderly…what in the name of Ho Chi Mihn!" his exclamation was prompted by the newcomer who had run into the communal house that served as his lecture room at Mi Sac and fallen prostrate on the ground, as though possessed by demons.

Commissar Hung did not believe in demons, he had been to Dresden for political training and there his East German trainers had told him such things no longer existed. And yet in this case Hung was not so sure.

"What is the meaning of this intrusion? I was just getting to the bit about power showers!"

The new arrival looked up and addressed the Commissar.

"Won't you take me to Phun Ki Tan!"

The Commissar could not believe his ears.

"Phun Ki Tan?" he repeated.

Commander Phun Ki Tan and his men regularly used Mi Sac as a source of food and succour, hence the need for the Commissar to keep spreading the word about the benefits that the villagers would enjoy once the North and South were joined. Nevertheless it was most unusual for any local to ask to see the local VC Mainforce commander, a man known for his cruelty more than his military skill. The intruder was speaking again.

"I am a worker at the American base, and I have information that is valuable to the cause of freedom. The Americans will be coming here today with a convoy of their motor vehicles. I heard this from the Vietnamese interpreter. It is like you have told us, they will attack our homes. We shall be killed. Phun Ki Tan must help us".

The small subterranean command post was airless at the best of times, and this was not assisted as Commander Tan was smoking pungent French cigarettes in seemingly endless succession.

"We must hit them hard. We must fight them on our terms. We must strike and withdraw and then return to strike again. We must get in close so that the Americans cannot use their artillery or aeroplanes to hit us, and yet we must be like creatures of the forest who are there one moment and gone the next."

From the cupola of his M113 Lieutenant Randy Buckmeir surveyed the terrain with a practiced eye. This was his third month in the field and pretty soon he was expecting to be transferred to Saigon into a staff position. Ahead of him the lead vehicle was maintaining a steady speed, and to his read he could see the other two APCs heading the column of half a dozen trucks that contained the Company of infantry that were due to sweep the area around Mi Sac. Reports of VC activity in the area had been reaching the ARVN intelligence officer on the base with alarming regularity. It seemed that not all of the local population were impressed by the idea of a communist utopia.

The ambush was over as quickly as it began. A hail of RPG rounds from the treeline, all of which missed their targets, and a smattering of small arms fire were enough to get Chowalski in the last carrier firing his 0.50 cal in reply. Ahead of him Lieutenant Buckmeir saw the lead APC accelerate to get out of the ambush zone and he could feel by the increase in speed that his own driver was doing likewise. Damn! The column was stringing out badly now. He must do something.

Moments later the rounds from the heavy machine gun were ricocheting off the front of the M113. Buckmeir cursed, this was a new enemy position; he could see the muzzle flashes directly ahead where the road bent round at the base of the hill that dominated the road all the way to Mi Sac.

"Get off the Goddam road! Head for the elephant grass"

The two M113s swung to their left and the two infantry squads spilled out as the fire from the VC HMG scythed above their heads.

It was a moment of madness, and Lieutenant Buckmeir was not sure then nor later that it was the right thing to do, but he did it. Running forward, his two squads following him, he ran into the ambush. One section went to ground in the ditch at the edge of the road, the fire too intense to allow further movement, but Buckmeir was not to be stopped. Men were going down around him, but others were keeping up with him and the enemy position, a small bunker, was now only feet away.

"Fire in the hole". The explosion was muffled, the firing stopped for a moment and then began again. A second grenade however ended its chattering, five dead VC and two dead Americans, but the enfilading position that could so easily have destroyed every truck on the road had been silenced due to the Lieutenant's speedy reaction.

An explosion on the road. Buckmeir looked back. Two hundred yards away an M113 was burning brightly. My God. He prayed that the men had got out before the RPG had hit, there could be no survivors in that inferno.

Jesus H Christ. Ray Chowalski could see them now. The second RPG round had given away their position on the edge of the road. Smoke was billowing from Schmidt's M113 but a could see as clear as day. He had watched, for a moment not comprehending what we was seeing, as the man in black pyjamas aimed and fired his rocket. Now the belt fed 0.50 cal was firing in response. Where there had been two black clad figures was just a fine pink mist as the RPG team were simply torn apart by the heavy calibre rounds.

Towards the rear of the column Captain Rock Gonads was on the radio. What in Hell was happening? Nobody seemed to want to tell him.

Second platoon leapt from their truck amid a hail of fire. As the first squad raced for the treeline two men went down. On the road Lieutenant Hooper was calling for a medic while applying the tourniquet. Sergeant Burlesque braved the fire to bring in the abandoned truck under fire and the badly wounded man was loaded on board. To his left the M60 squad was now in action. Thank God.

On the ridge Commander Tan signalled a withdrawal. The Americans were getting organised now, and the firepower coming is way was terrifying. Slipping into the tunnel complex he watched his men drag in three dead men as their comrades attempted to clear up the blood trail that could lead the Americans to their nest.

On the road Captain Gonads was now pulling back the squads that under Lieutenant Hooper had begun to sweep up through the dense undergrowth towards the ridgeline. He had fast movers in the air and needed to get his men back away from the target. Pink coloured smoke was now pouring from a smoke round up among the trees. Let's see how Charlie likes Mr NP1.

This was a frantic and action packed game of Charlie Don't Surf. The scenario was designed to test the skills of the VC to the extreme, and their commanders were briefed pretty comprehensively on what they could do in order to get the drop on the US players. This was done as the forces were completely unbalanced. The US had a Company of leg infantry in trucks and with a four M113s providing fire support. The VC had just thirty infantry in three squads, one RPG team, one recoilless rifle and one HMG in a bunker crewed by rear-enders who ignore Shock due to them being mad buggers.

So, the VC hit hard and disappeared, hit hard from another direction, hit hard again from the first direction and so on. This plan worked well while there was initial chaos amid the US ranks, immediately after the first ambush the M113s became strung out - Lt. Buckmeir's heroics up front did a heroic job in silencing the HMG, but left them isolated as Chowalski at the back of the platoon had been obliged to enter a firefight due to a near miss.

Once the US got a base of fire established then the table turned. The VC could not stand up to the firepower being dished out so they did what they do best, slipped away. By that time, however, the balance of casualties was well stacked in their favour as a direct hit on an M113 had wiped out a whole US squad and other casualties brought this up to about a dozen US dead compared with about five for the VC. The lesson learnt was that as soon as bullets begin to fly it is time to get out of the APC!

Top game, and a good test of the rules. We had a thirty minute de-brief at the end and everyone was pleased with all aspects of what happened. I am persuaded that with the work we've been doing the rules are now robust, but I do need to completely re-arrange them as they don't flow in the way they are set out. However I am not doing that for a couple of days as I am sick of the sight of the computer screen! This week will be spent making jungle and rubber plantations. Much more fun.

Richard Clarke


 
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I hadn’t gamed with old friend Neil for at least 18 months, so it was a pleasure to get a date into the diary and push some lead around the table again.

We decided to have a battle set in the 1967 Six Day War between an Israeli and an Egyptian (UAR) force. The game would be a fictional encounter battle using the TooFatLardies Charlie Don’t Surf Vietnam rules adapted for the theatre and available elsewhere on this site.

The set up was fairly simple. An Egyptian position protecting a railhead has been abandoned by its defenders. The Israelis have spotted this and are rushing a task force forward to take the now-undefended base. At the same time, Egyptian High Command has dispatched a task force of their own to re-secure the rail head.

As you’ll see in the photos, the Egyptian position was at one end of the table (the far end in the picture above) and consisted of few buildings surrounding the rail head, all surrounded by barbed wire. The Egyptian task force (played by me) would enter the table from the end of the road on the top edge of the table.

Note: on reflection, limiting the Egyptian entry point to the very narrow axis described above came very close to unbalancing the scenario. If I played this again, I’d have the Egyptians able to enter the table anywhere along the top edge.

Immediately outside he base was the small town of Rumi El Bakhara. This consisted of a mosque and marketplace surrounded by dwellings, with a slum/shanty town nearby. Once out of the town, it was rough desert terrain all the way to the other end of the table. The Israeli task force (played by Neil) would enter the table from the desert, and have to make its way through the town in order to get to the base.

As Neil was playing the Israelis, I produced a full briefing for him:

Israeli Briefing

Our pre-emptive strike against our Arab enemies is going very well. Their air force has been largely destroyed, and we have penetrated deep into their territory. This rapid advance has led to an opportunity that I am keen to exploit.

Stunned by an attack from the skies and overawed by our rapid advance, the Egyptians have abandoned a small base protecting the railhead near the town of Rumi El Bakhara. This leaves it open to a quick coup de main, something that would effectively give us strategic control of the immediate area.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that other elements of the UAR army are rushing towards El Bakhara in order to re-secure the base. Reconnaissance reports indicate truck-borne infantry and some armour will arrive there imminently.

Your mission is simple. Take your force to Rumi El Bakhara immediately and secure the railhead. Engage and destroy any Egyptian forces encountered.

Your Force

One Blind per platoon (6) and three Dummy Blinds.

You have Force Morale of 10.

Mobile Recon/AT Platoon

  • Big Man IV (Level II)

  • 4 x M40 106mm RR mounted on Jeeps

Attached Armour HQ

  • Big Man 5 (Level III)

  • 1 x Magach III Tank (105mm)

Attached Armour Platoon

  • Big Man 6 (Level II)

  • 3 x Magach III Tank (90mm)

Company HQ

  • Big Man 1 (Level IV)

  • 2 x Light Mortar Team

  • 2 x LMG Team

1st Platoon

  • Big Man 2 (Level III)

  • 3 x Assault Rifle Squad

  • 1 x Blindicide Bazooka Team

  • 1 x Light Mortar Team

2nd Platoon

  • Big Man 3 (Level III)

  • 3 x Assault Rifle Squad

  • 1 x Blindicide Bazooka Team

  • 1 x Light Mortar Team

The Israelis also benefited from Rapid Deployment, Recon Bonus Move (the Jeeps), Recon Bonus AT Fire (the Jeeps), Dynamic Commander, and Rally.

Egyptian Briefing

As I was playing the Egyptians, I didn’t produce a full brief, but I am sure that should you want to play this scenario yourselves, then you can cobble something together from the rest of the information given here.

The Egyptians had the following troops:

Company HQ

  • Big Man 1 (Level II)

  • 2 x 82mm RCL Teams

  • 2 x Truck

1st Platoon

  • Big Man 2 (Level 1)

  • 3 x Assault Rifle Squad

  • 1 x Blindicide Bazooka Team

2nd Platoon

  • 3 x Assault Rifle Squad

  • 1 x Blindicide Bazooka Team

3rd Platoon

  • 3 x Assault Rifle Squad

  • 1 x Blindicide Bazooka Team

MG Platoon

  • 2 x Maxim MMG Team

  • 2 x Truck

Tank Platoon 1

  • 3 x T-34/85

Tank Platoon 2

  • 3 x IS3-M

Assault Gun Platoon

  • 5 x SU-100 SP Guns

Force Morale: 8

Eight Blinds and two Dummy Blinds

The Game

The game began with the Israelis sweeping onto the table at maximum knots. The Egyptians attempted to follow suit but, as mentioned above, were severely constrained by their deployment area: they just didn’t have the room to get their Blinds onto the table.

The lead Isareli units headed down the road as the lead Egyptians units did the same from the other end. Spotting revealed that the Israelis had led with their Magach platoon, which took as much cover a possible behind the rough buildings near the T-junction, and the Egyptians had led with their HQ platoon of two recoil-less rifles (RR) and their T-34/85 platoon.

Both sides opened fire, and soon both Egyptian trucks carrying the RR had been hit and destroyed, with one RR team actually being blasted into non-existence as well. Two of the T-34/85s survived the Israeli opening volley, but their crews then bailed due to Shock!

The Egyptians were still pouring Blinds into that narrow corridor, and soon had their IS3-Ms in play as well.

Unfortunately for the Egyptians, however, the Israeli tanks were covering both axis of their advance: if they moved forward, then the Magachs would shoot as soon as they came into view. The IS3-Ms had a go at advancing, but the lead tank lost its main gun as soon as it poked it round the corner and was forced to retreat into cover.

The only way through was to use my numbers, so a number of Egyptian Blinds shot forward, one of which was spotted as an infantry platoon, the other remaining hidden.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Israeli Blinds were sweeping through the town towards the barbed wire surrounding the army base.

The unrevealed Blind mentioned above proved vital: it was the assault gun platoon. They swept around the corner of the mosque and opened fire on the flank of the Magach holding that flank. It look six shots to do it, but the Magach was taken out!

This was, in my opinion, a major achievement for the Egyptians but was, unfortunately, the high tide of their defense.

One of the other Magachs (the command tank) had been clearing barbed wire from the edge of the compound by driving over it and literally grinding it into the dirt. This allowed an Israeli platoon to infiltrate as far as the AA weapon pit in the middle of the base. At this point, I rather unwisely chose to charge the Israeli platoon with one of my own (coming off a Blind) and got utterly mullered!

Getting the Egyptian forces moving was proving a nightmare. I only had two Big Men for the whole force, and they were spending their entire time rallying Shock. Meanwhile, the Israelis, with more Big Men than I could shake a stick at, were zooming here and there with abandon, laughing off the effects of my fire!

Well, it wasn’t quite like that: I had managed to kill one Israeli tank and one Big Man, so the situation as we went into the end game was the Egyptians on 1 Force Morale, compared to the Israelis on 5 Force Morale. A bit of luck, and I could still snatch victory.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Although my 1st Infantry Platoon overwhelmed a jeep that got too close, and used their bazooka to severely harass one of the Israeli infantry platoons (a bazooka shot into the building they were occupying blew the building to bits, forcing them to quit immediately, but only did the troops themselves a point of Shock: a lucky escape!) I soon lost my single point of Force Morale remaining and was forced to retreat.

A victory for the Israelis.

Aftermath

A great game despite the extreme frustration I felt engendered by my lack of command function. Having an army with only two Activations as well was an absolute killer.

Still, I’d had a couple of successes and, with just a smidgeon more luck I might have been able to force the Israelis back.

Something to look forward to next time!

Robert Avery

 
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The inaugural TFL Games Day at the Devon Wargames Club took place on Saturday 8th September 2018. One of the games on display was a Charlie Don't Surf! extravaganza put on in 10mm by guest attendee Dave J. Here are some words and pictures about the game by Clotted Lardee Carojon:

CDS at Clotted Lard 2018

I was really interested to see how this game would play as I have never seen or played a game of Charlie Don't Surf! although I am very familiar with it's close cousin I Ain't Been Shot, Mum for WWII.

The other really interesting aspect was that it was played using 10mm Pendraken figures, a scale I would not have thought of using for a Vietnam game, but I think you will agree that Dave J from Plymouth, one of our two visitor organised games, carried it off really well with an exquisite table to match the figures.

'Blinds' are placed as the opposing sides start to feel out each others position

The game saw the usual movement to contact using Blinds, such an important aspect in sight limiting terrain, as US forward operating teams attempted to shepherd some pigs rounded up in a hostile village patrol towards the defence perimeter of a railway marshaling yard.

All this as a North Vietnamese company attack assembled on the overlooking high-ground.
 

Pig herding whilst under mortar fire - not recommended!

As the Vietnamese infantry moved in through the close country supported by occasional mortar fire and smoke, US forces rushed forward to support their forward teams guarding the perimeter wire and the scene soon erupted to the sound of rapid machine-gun fire, interlaced with criss-crossing tracer and RPG rounds, as both sides let rip.

The detail on these little 10mm chaps is amazing and together with the terrain really created a great effect

The Vietnamese mortars drop smoke rounds to cover a hard pressed platoon on the edge of the US perimeter

The NVA are moved up to the perimeter

Yellow dice in among the jungle indicate accruing NVA shock

US troops man positions on a quiet sector of the perimeter as the battle erupts to their right.

US carriers help to add yet more hurt with their support weapons

I really enjoyed watching this game evolve and recognised a great system suitably adapted for this period of military history.

Carojon

 

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Lieutenant Randy Buckmeir crouched down on the edge of the rubber plantation and scanned the village ahead. The path through the paddy fields was straight and true, and at a run he reckoned his platoon could be across the open ground in a matter of twenty seconds. But fresh to `Nam as he was, Randy knew that a lot could happen in that twenty seconds.

Across to his right he could see Merv Schultz's platoon sweeping through Gok Wan 1 and setting up their M60s to dominate the open ground between the ridge and the riverside hamlet of Gok Wan 2. Behind him he knew that the battalion's mortars were set up ready to provide support if things got tough. Twenty seconds.

The radio crackled into life.

"This is the Green Man; what the Hell is holding you boys up down there. I have Yellow Dragon on my back, he is in position and waiting for you to push Charlie on to his stop line. Now haul ass, you no good sons of bitches!"

Sergeant Biff Stone looked nervously at the young Lieutenant. Quietly he signalled his weapons squad to shake out on the edge of the paddy field and make ready to put fire into the village.

"Let's go!" Lieutenant Buckmeir leapt to his feet and began the run down the path towards Gok Wan 2. Ten seconds. Fifteen. My God, he was going to make it.

The crackle of several AK47 assault rifles was sufficient to confirm that Buckmeir was not going to make it after all. As the lead infantry squad was within yards of the entrance to the hamlet a hail of bullets came from the hooches. One man went down dead, but fortunately the raised berm that edges the paddy field gave them cover.

Instantly two M60s opened up in reply, their fire stitching erratic patterns in the leaf thatch and corrugated iron that made up the structure of the hooches. In seconds the firefight was over. Nine VC were dead or dying, and Randolph Buckmeir the Third counted his lucky stars that he was still alive and un-perforated. He could see his Corpsman moving among the men checking for wounds and the big Sergeant moving slowly forward to re-organise his unit.

"Move yo ass you muttahs"!". On the ridge Sergeant Leroy Burlesque spat out his instructions to keep his men moving through the dense undergrowth. He was sure that he had detected movement on the ridge and taking a chance and running forward on the edge of the open ground would allow him to outflank his foe. This was a sweep operation, and Leroy had every intention of sticking to the plan. If Charlie was here then Leroy would find him.

By the little yellow idol to the south of Gok Wan 2, near the little marble cross below the town, Charlie had placed an anti-aircraft MG (ZPU), on a rise from which he was now gazing down. Deployed against the US infantry moving in the open the heavy calibre rounds were devastating. Sergeant Burlesque would never play new New Orleans again, and two more of his men were literally torn apart in the first moments. The rest of the platoon tumbled into the tree-line and sought what cover it could.

In the observation position on top of the Gok Wan ridge the VC Company Comander, Pak Choi, watched the American infantry sweeping up towards him. Another minute and the way would be clear. He dropped down the access tunnel into the main complex. Forty men were assembled ready to move out. Pak Choi knew he had but one chance. He had seen the South Vietnamese Paras drop to take up their positions, he had watched as they set up their weapons and beat down the vegetation to create a field of fire before their positions. Then he knew that a sweep force would be coming to drive him on to this position.

Pak Choi's Company of VC mainforce had been operating from around Gok Wan for over a month now. A small barrack complex had been dug out of the deep red soil that made up the ridge. His plan had been simple. Deploy one of his platoons away from the barracks and attempt to draw in the US force. Once they were past him his remaining two platoons would attempt to break out and head for the rubber plantation. The chances were slim, but the alternative was to be trapped between the two forces.

On his command the first platoon rushed from the concealed entrance and ran towards Gok Wan 1. A lone US weapons squad was between them and safety and surprise was on their side. The fight was short and violent. The US firepower told as the first rank of VC was literally cut down, however had to hand fighting threw the US section out of the hamlet and saw then dropping back, badly shocked, to the edge of the rubber plantation. The tattered remains of the VC platoon dropped back to the concealed bunker, the body of Pak Choi dragged behind them. Meanwhile the more circumspect second VC platoon were making their way through the tall elephant grass, heading for freedom.

At this point we called it a day. One VC platoon had escaped intact. One other squad was attempting to lurk in the undergrowth near the yellow idol. The crew of the ZPU AAMG was dead around its weapon, largely put out of action by Biff Stone's M60s. The Americans had lost five men dead, which in reality equates to two dead and three badly wounded, whereas the VC had lost about thirty men. From the pure bodycount perspective this was a US victory, however the sweep had failed to catch all the VC, so the Communist players were claiming a victory too. A good fun game of Charlie Don't Surf, and more to come next week.

Richard Clark

 
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This was a Charlie Don't Surf village sweep.

The Free World forces' objectives were to capture the rice caches and to kill Commies; the Communist objectives were to kill 30% of the Capitalist dogs and protect the rice.

The US troops consisted of three platoons of infantry backed by some on-call artillery. The PAVN forces comprised two NVA platoons, one VC platoon, and three bunkers with two light and one medium machine gun.

The US forces advanced in and got ambushed. The PAVN managed to hold out for a few turns until the superior firepower of the US forces started to have an effect on the PAVN morale.

It was a close run thing, with the PAVN inflicting 22 casualties on the Americans...but the 33 PAVN casualties and destroyed rice caches brought a win for the Americans.

Mike O'Brien

 
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This is a "Rock the Casbah" after action report. The Israelis were meant to clear a town that a small group of Syrians had forgotten to actually pull back from. The Israeli spearhead was to take the town while the Syrians and PLO were there to take what they could and hold until relieved...or at least that's what I think they were to do. As someone who played the Israelis, I found their actions and methods inscrutable, and thus do not deign to try and explain them!

It has been quite a while since we actually played this game, but it was (as per usual) a pretty great one from R.U.P.

As I've already mentioned in the captions, Israeli hesitance to move forward at speed ended up being one of the great deciders, as the Syrians ended up getting reinforcements well before the Israelis even got close to their target. The furthest advance was the recon group, which you can see in the final photo in the blue/grey building with smoke nearby it.

Credit to Anton, Housemartin and his devilish daughter for standing up and costing so many brave Hebrew lives. That day, the man in the tank was not victorious.

Anton Ryzbak

 
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This was another one of R.U.P.'s lushly pretty B'Maso games that involved a multi-layered scenario with multiple twists in the plot. I led the FFL force in an attempt to free hostages from the brewery office  (the yellow building with a parking lot in the upper right of the picture below). Of course things turned pout differently.

The upshot of the game was that the FFL was there to rescue hostages that didn't exist. The revolutionaries were there to steal the beer from the brewery and had detained the workers solely to prevent them telling the authorities what was going on. It was a fun game and presented a series of command decision to both leaders who were working to different objectives and unaware of what their opponent was up to.

Anton Ryzbak

 
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To mark Dan A's return from the Army, Rich Uncle Pat ran a Rock the Casbah game at his place. The scenario was an Israeli penetration into a PLO controlled area in Lebanon. Each side had specific, and potentially asymmetric, objectives as well as very different forces and capabilities. This promised to be an interesting game.

The Scenario

A couple of notes on the next section:  at times you will see troops (or a Blind) standing on top of a building with a small brown die next to them. This is because some of the buildings do not have internal floors (yet) and the die indicates which floor the troops occupy. Having tried off-table book-keeping of hidden troop locations I can tell you this is a much quicker and more elegant, method. Also some of the PLO assets were in buildings and on Blinds, this creates a "double-Blind" situation where even the Blind is removed, effectively making the troops invisible.

Opening Moves

We join the game as the IDF Blinds come onto the table. For those not familiar with Two Fat Lardies rules, units are represented on the game table by "blinds" - a sort of generic marker - until an enemy unit identifies them by use of the spotting rules. This helps avoid the "thousand-meter tall general" situation that plagues many rules.

For the PLO players this is often the worst part, not knowing if it is a Jeep or a Merkava until you force the Blind to reveal, often with disastrous results for the unit forcing the reveal . For the IDF it is worse, you know you are a sitting duck but can doing nothing about it but move forward, scanning every window, hoping to spot enemy activity...

Things were getting serious now. The PLO had managed to reveal most of the IDF Blinds at small cost to themselves. The problem was this: what did they have that could slow down the IDF advance?

From the Israeli point of view, their advance had been slowed and they had not yet located the main body of the enemy forces.

The Denouement

The Killdozer Rules All!

The situation thus far. 

The IDF is making a major road-clearing incursion into a PLO held area, the PLO has been tasked with delaying the intruders long enough for reinforcements to arrive and counterattack. Both sides are sure that they don't have enough combat capability for the job, this means the GM had designed a near-perfect scenario.

At this point we called the game:  there simply was nothing left in the PLO arsenal to stop the IDF, and the PLO reinforcements were too weak and far away to make any difference.

By all accounts everyone enjoyed themselves greatly:  credit again to R.U.P. for setting up the scenario and providing all the toys. The Killdozer, through a streak of luck unparalleled in the forty years that I have been gaming, tipped the balance with its indestructibility. Hit after hit generated only the most minor of damage, it was amazing.

Anton Ryzbak

 
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IDF vs. PLA, Refugee Camps near Tyre, July 1982

In our continuing Lebanese Civil War “campaign”, Rich Uncle Pat decided to put the Israelis through a wringer, giving them the densest urban terrain they had seen yet. Previously, the campaign had them in the wonderful orchards of rural Lebanon trying to push a column through, getting delayed and leading to a strategic SNAFU. This strategic SNAFU required Israeli forces to push into the nice suburbs of Tyre to secure a crossroads, allowing a Merkava I Platoon to successfully get to where they needed to be because they got "lost" trying to keep on schedule.

Well, did you wonder where they actually needed to get to? The real reason?

Due to the delay in the column, the mechanized platoon nearby had moved off-course in an attempt to support it. They never arrived, but their detour had thrown them into unfamiliar territory. By the time they realized they were in the wrong area, they were deep into the city and the only way to get back would be to cut through a nearby refugee camp. They were to get through the camp without leaving anyone behind, but especially getting the Battalion CO (LTC Geiger) out.  One of the few PLA units in the area would be ambushing them and trying to cause as much damage for an in-area local news crew to catch.

So the Merkavas weren't lost, the Battalion CO was. Apparently someone at HQ was covering his ass and sullying the good name of the Merkava commander. Damn politics...

For those of you who are following at home with your personal copies of Rock the Casbah, he was playing  “Peace for Galilee Scenario 2: The Al Bass Crossroads”.

We were also trying out a rules change regarding Big Men and Tactical Initiative. In previous games, the drawing of a great deal of Tactical Initiative had generally bogged down the game and was probably the most confusing part for most of the people who were unfamiliar with the rules. To make the game run quicker, RUP eliminated Tactical Initiative chits and instead gave Big Men a number of Big Men Actions equal to their number. Rallying was now replaced by a stat similar to a “Big Man Bonus”, where they would roll to see how many wounds they would take off.

A few other minor clarifications/modifications:

-  The Armored Bonus Move was taken out, and replaced by the Israelis moving on a single “Convoy” chit until engaged. They’d have to remain 4” from each other until all hell broke loose.

-   Only one MG per turn could fire from the Zeldas. If the HMG fired and shared an arc with an LMG, they got a +3 to the HMG’s total roll.

-    The Palestinians were rated as “Average” for being PLA units rather than just militia, while the Israelis were rated as “Good”.

-     The Magach’s ERA used a similar mechanic to Israeli Grenades (ENDA), where they’d have to roll under a certain number not to decrease it. Once it went below one, it was no longer effective. This was done to show ERA deterioration over time.

-    The road was a bit wider, so we could cram three vehicles at once if we took the sidewalk on either side.

If there are any others or mistakes in there, Rich Uncle Pat can correct me/insult me/assault me as he feels is necessary. I also won't be showing the deployment zones because 1) I was Israeli and 2) This is a good time to show you the hell that we had to go through. Try and figure out where the PLA was hidden yourselves!

One thing that we didn't capture in the pictures is that the rearmost Zelda stopped at the bend got hit by an RPG and had its engine shut off. We didn't know if we could get it back on (I think the roll to restart it was something like an 11 or 12), so we emptied one of the Zeldas at the edge of the board and drove it back to ferry some of the fireteams back. In the end, though, it restarted (Honest Dan came through with a roll after about three turns, at which point we had at least two fire teams out of it) and we ended up driving it off.

That situation really goes to show how close this battle was: Up until the end, it was very tense because the PLA kept rolling up new RPG teams on the reinforcements. Of course, Anton's dice were incredibly cold (apparently he saves all his good rolls for Check Your Six!, where he's an Arab Chuck Yeager), which ended up saving us from a perfectly set-up ambush at the center of the table. Given the spotting rules, it's basically impossible to see anything, even blinds, so you have to be completely reactive in everything you do. It's absolutely horrible.

As for the rules changes, the removal of the command chits made things move far faster than before. More units moved because there weren't extra chits between, and frankly the commanders were much simpler to use than previous. It's a really nice streamlining of things that, in my opinion, improved the quality of the game.

Justice & Rule on Anton Ryzbak's Blog

 
 
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B'Maso Goes Blood Diamond in Central Africa

Many years ago the Government sold the Imperial Mining Company mineral rights to the Omovodo Range, a series of small mountains in the far north. At that time there was nothing to be found there but some poor-quality iron deposits, recently extensive research by IMC has found that the area contains vast, rich fields of diamonds. 

The IMC has quietly been developing the infrastructure to begin exploiting the resource but word has gotten out (it always does) and the Government has demanded a re-negotiation of the terms of the mining rights contract and has threatened nationalization. Needless to say the IMC is not happy about this development and has "taken measures" to ensure the security of their investment. 

The government, always looking for a foreign "boogey-man" to rabble-rouse against, has mobilized the army nearby citing "rising unrest" in the area and the need to "secure the national endowment". Rumors abound of mercenaries and military equipment moving into the area from surrounding nations, the powder keg has been opened and only awaits a spark.

As usual, kudos to Pat for a well thought-out game with lovely terrain and all of those good-looking minis. 

For folks not familiar with the game system; the green chits you see in the photos are representative of held actions; the red ones are "wounds" which represent a combination of actual injuries as well as disorganization and loss of morale; blue chits show that the unit is suppressed (with much reduced fire and movement options); the green skulls show that the unit is taking fire (troops that are not being shot at are more effective than those that need to duck). 

Vehicle damage is detailed:  you can be driven off by fire, have key personnel stunned/wounded/killed, parts of the vehicle can be damaged either temporarily of permanently. This sort of thing happened several times in this game: one of the T-55s spent a fair part of the game either retreating or moving back into position as the result of otherwise ineffective RPG and armoured car fire. 

Movement is random, each unit is assigned a card which are then shuffled and drawn, there are also two "sundowner" cards in the deck which when the second one is drawn show that the turn has ended. It is possible to go several turns without your card getting drawn, it is also possible for the last unit to move in one turn and be the first unit moving in the next turn. Some people do not care for this but I think it nicely creates the random chaos of modern small-unit combat. Certain powerful leaders get a card of their own and they can activate nearby units to advance the plan.

Anton Ryzbak

More Pictures from the Game

 
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The day after the Great Hospital Raid the Rhodesians decided that the ZANLA guerrillas had gotten completely out of hand and, rather than relying on the local Constabulary, they called in the big guns: The Rhodesdian Light Infantry. This crack force of highly-trained, ultra motivated and very well equipped troops were deployed to reduce the level of rebel activity in the area. The mission was to recover the hostages (the ZANLAs had been collecting them over the past week or so), discover and destroy the rebel supply base, detach the rebels from sympathetic villagers, and kill or capture as many guerrillas as possible. The R.L.I. took that lengthy list in stride and mover swiftly into action.

Below we find the area of operations, this zone is known to be thick with ZANLA troops and there is evidence that the villagers are actively supporting the rebels.

North is at the bottom of this view

North is to the left of this view

The ZANLA players were tasked with defending their center of operations, which was hidden in the dried up river bed and the rocky ground near the southern edge of the table, they were told that there had been a fair amount of Rhodesian activity in response to the raid the day before and were expecting a counter-attack. The problem being that they had little idea where it might come from. Thus they deployed in an all-around defence, the level of success that this strategy met with will be shortly seen. Several local boys were recruited to act as look-outs, appearing to be innocent shepherds or farmers. The ZANLAs were allowed two ambushes and could place most of their units as "hidden" rather than as on Blinds (this being their home-turf and all). After much hand wringing and discussion the troops were deployed.

The R.L.I. swept in from the north, taking advantage of their superb training and drill they moved swiftly to their assigned positions and fanned out across the battlefield. 

A desperate last stand by the remaining ZANLA squad tried to cover the withdrawal of the supplies and prisoners but largely resulted in additional casualties as the R.L.I. squads moved in for the kill.

At the risk of sounding lie a broken record (dating myself, I am there) I really like the way these rules play. The random movement sequence and distance keeps thing "up in the air" and adds to the sense of chaos. The use of extra "dummy' blinds (one of the ZANLA blinds was a herd of pigs) keeps players from using the helicopter vision that so many games fall victim to. 

A fun and very good-looking game, thanks Pat!

Anton Ryzbak

 
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