The Journal

EditorialWelcome to this sample version of the Journal of theSociety of Twentieth Century Wargamers (SOTCW).The Society has been in existence since 1989 andthroughout that time members have produced thismagazine where they share knowledge, research andideas about wargaming conflicts from 1900 onwards.

All of the articles included here are from past Journalsbut examples of some articles have been deliberatelyomitted. Ordinarily, in addition to the types of articlepresented here, you will find reviews of books, figuresand models in all scales and some advertisements.Consequently this sample is only around half the size ofa normal issue (also you will be pleased to note thatthere are no big white spaces in the real thing). Mostissues will have a few wargaming scenarios and theeditor tries to give reasonable coverage to conflicts onland or sea or in the air across the whole of the periodcovered by the Society (pre-1914 air warfare articles are,admittedly, sparse). The magazine is not bound to anyspecific rulesets though invariably articles will betray thefavourites of their authors – not that these willnecessarily be the current flavour of the month.

Furthermore, if you get the bug, you might find thebudding author in yourself. The Editor is always pleasedto receive articles and reviews on anything of awargaming nature from 1900 onwards. I think it isreasonably safe to say that there will be few conflictswhich have not been at least touched upon in themagazine’s history.

For more information about the society, visit our websiteat www.sotcw.co.uk. You are also welcome to join ourforum at forum.sotcw.co.uk.

Membership of the SOTCW is through subscription tothe Journal. Both paper and PDF subscriptions areavailable. Paper subscriptions are available from thesociety website at www.sotcw.co.uk/subscribe. PDFsubscriptions are available from Wargame Vault.

I hope you enjoy what you see here and willing to partwith your money for a full subscription. If so, welcomeaboard…and can I have your first article by next weekplease!

Andrew LaingEditor

ContentsSample Issue

Page 1

Editorial Page 1

Ismailia Road Page 2Arab/Israeli 1967 scenario

Battle of Ap Bac Page 4Vietnam 1963 for Force on Force rules

Quick and Dirty House-to-House Page 7Fast, simple rules for house-to-house fighting

Dogfight over Pakistan 1971 Page 8AAR by Ian Dewar

The Battle of Khenifra Page 10Morocco, November 13th 1914

Arms for Spain! Page 13Arms shipments to the Republic

West of Polanow Page 15Poland 1939 scenario

Black Wednesday Page 16The Battle of Krasny Bor (10-11th February 1942)

Aegean Breakpoint Page 21Modern naval scenario

Operation Dreamland Page 25An Airwar: C21 mission

Action at Neugarten Page 27A Cold War Commander scenario

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The Journal

Ismailia RoadAn Arab/Israeli scenario set in 1967 by Sam Scott

BackgroundThis scenario is adapted from an account in ShabtaiTeveth’s hugely entertaining (if somewhat erratic) TheTanks of Tammuz about Israeli actions during the SixDay War. By the night of June 7, Egyptian positions inthe Sinai had crumbled and the first Israeli units werebreaking out to the west and into Egypt. One of theseunits was the M/100 armoured battalion advancing downthe paved road towards the Egyptian city of Ismailia.M/100 was a reconnaissance unit in the divisioncommanded by General Israel Tal and was equippedwith French AMX-13 light tanks armed with a 75mmgun. As the day drew to a close, M/100 was thewesternmost Israeli unit of all the forces in the Sinai andwas between most of the retreating Egyptian units andthe Suez Canal. Lieutenant-Colonel Zeev, commander ofM/100, drew his forces into an all-around defensivelaager because of the possibility of encountering bothfresh enemy units from the west as well as retreatingEgyptian units coming out of the east.

SituationM/100 Battalion is in its night laager astride the Ismailiaroad. At 0300 on June 8th, Zeev receives a warningorder that some Egyptian forces - including tanks - havebroken through Israeli positions to the east and areheading towards the battalion’s positions. Just as contactis made with the retreating Egyptians, other forces aredetected approaching from the direction of Ismailia.

TerrainThe Ismailia road snakes across the table from one shortside to the other. The table is a mix of shallow dunes andpatches of scrub. I played this game in 20mm on a 10’ x5’ table the action would, however, be equally suitablefor 15mm or microarmor.

Israeli ForcesI have provided a bathtub version of the battalion TOE,but it works well for game purposes.

M/100 Armour Battalion:Bn HQ:

M3 halftrack w/ 120 mm mortar Command Halftrack 2 Radio Jeeps (may spot for the 120mm mortar) 1 AMX-13

Armoured Infantry Company Command Halftrack - Command Squad (2 Uzi,

1 GPMG, LAW, Light Mortar) Radio Jeep 2 Halftrack APC’s - each with 1 heavy squad

(GPMG, Blindicide, 2 FN) and a rifle squad (3FN, Uzi)

Reconnaissance Company 2 Jeeps (1 MG, 1 106 mm Rec. Rifle) 2 Halftrack- each with 1 rifle squad (3 FN, Uzi)

3 Armour Companies 3 AMX-13’s each

Set Up: The Israelis must set up an all-around defensiveposition in the centre of the table. No units may move untilenemy forces have been detected.

Objective: Prevent any Egyptian units from crossing the tablefrom west to east or east to west.

Egyptian ForcesThe retreating forces coming out of the Sinai should enter thetable first. These units will enter in random order and willhave distinctly fragile morale.

Retreating Elements of the Egyptian Army in the Sinai(approaching from the east)1 Tank Company

3 T-34/851 Assault Gun Company

2 SU-1001 Recon Company

2 BRDM1 Mechanised Company

2 Zil Trucks 4 Rifle Squads, each with 2 AK-47, 1 RPK LMG, 1

RPG

Set Up: Enter along the Ismailia Road at the east end of thetable.

Objective: To punch through Israeli positions and exit thewest side of the board.

And what about those units detected approaching from thewest? They were elements of the Egyptian 4th Armoureddivision - one of the better formations in the Egyptian army atthe time. The 4th Armoured was equipped with new T-55tanks whose 100mm main gun would normally would be more

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than a match for M/100’s light AMXs. However, theadvancing Egyptians had no idea what lay in their pathor that any Israeli units were this far west.

Elements of the 4th Armoured Division(approaching from the west)5 Armour Companies

3 T-55 each

Armoured Infantry Company 3 BTR-152, each with 2 Rifle Squads (2 AK-

47, 1 RPK LMG, 1 RPG)

Set Up: These units should be thought of as approachingthe west side of the table in road column. It will take awhile for all the units to get on table. I wouldrecommend allowing 2 units to enter per turn.

Objective: To exit as many units as possible off the eastend of the table.

Night Battle Special RulesThis action takes place at night so it should be verydifficult to spot an enemy unit. The rules I used hadseveral different target size categories, and I used thesmallest one for all acquisition and firing unless thetarget was illuminated. The Israelis have 2 units that canfire illumination rounds; the light mortar in theArmoured Infantry Company HQ and the 120mm mortarin the Battalion HQ. I had the smaller rounds last only 1turn and the 120mm rounds last 3 turns but it willdepend on what rules you use. Additionally, the T-55 canuse its spotlight to illuminate targets. However that willalso reveal the T-55. I also gave spotting bonuses if thetarget was silhouetted by a burning vehicle.

Night actions are confusing and to replicate this to acertain extent I came up with the following table that Imade players roll on if they missed their shot horribly.

Table of Firing WildlyRoll 1d6:1- Fire at closest vehicle2- Fire at 1st vehicle to the right of target3- Fire at 1st vehicle to the left of target4, 5- Fire at the Shot Magnet6- Pass the Shot Magnet

The Shot Magnet is an old helmet with “Shot Magnet”painted on the front. This got passed around among theplayers during the game. If “Fire at the Shot Magnet”was rolled, the target must be one of the units under thatplayer’s command.

75mm Gun Vs. T-55The Israelis found to their dismay that the gun of theAMX-13 was useless against the T-55 from the front.This should be reflected in the rules of the game. Theonly chance they had of destroying the heavy tanks wasto hit them from the side or rear at point blank range. Anumber of T-55s were destroyed or abandoned becauseof this tactic. (It should be noted that the heaviest gun onthe Israeli side is the 106mm recoilless carried by theRecon Company.)

Historical OutcomeAccording to Teveth, the first units to contact M/100 weresome truck-borne infantry that came out of the Sinai. Thesevehicles were quickly destroyed and set afire. The next unitsencountered were T-55’s coming from the direction ofIsmailia. Some of the first Israeli vehicles hit by 100mmrounds were the 120mm mortar halftrack and an engineeringvehicle carrying explosives. These two vehicles blew upspectacularly, illuminating much of the battlefield for a while.Some Israeli units began to waver under Egyptian pressurebefore being steadied by their officers. The tremendousmorale and motivation of the Israeli tank crews allowed themto recover and begin to find ways of hitting back. The battleraged for a number of hours before the bewildered Egyptianspulled back a few kilometres to take stock of the situation.Early the following day, M/100 battalion was reinforced byIshermans and Centurion tanks and the advance westwardcontinued to the Canal.

The RefightsI have run this game twice and the best the Egyptians havebeen able to do was to exit 2 T-55s off the table. The rules Iused (a homebrew called Sh’ot) give the Israelis a greatadvantage over their Arab opponents in both acquiring andhitting targets. Many times the Egyptians were unable to firebecause they could not acquire any targets. This kind ofbalancing mechanism is crucial to this scenario. If your rulesare more “hardware” focused, the Egyptians should roll overthe Israelis fairly easily. When I ran this game at a convention,I had all the players who signed up play the Israelis. Theywere able to discuss their dispositions and tactics before hand.The Egyptians were handed out in penny packets to walk upplayers, so naturally they were very uncoordinated in action.The heart of this game is balance the superior Israeli trainingand morale against the confusion of a night action and thetechnological superiority of the Egyptians.

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Battle of Ap Bac2nd January 1963, a scenario for Force on Force by Piers Brand and Joe Trevithick,authors of Ambush Valley

In January 1963 the Army of the Republic of Vietnam(ARVN) launched an operation to neutralise a People’sLiberation Armed Forces (PLAF; better known as theViet Cong) unit operating near Ap Tan Thoi. The ARVNdecided to attack the unit, believed to be company size,by deploying forces north of Ap Tan Thoi and to Ap Bacto the south. The bulk of the 7th Infantry Division’s 11thInfantry Regiment, deployed by helicopter to the north,would then drive the enemy toward Ap Bac into aprovisional regiment consisting of the 4th Troop, 2ndArmoured Cavalry Squadron and two battalions of localCivil Guard.

The operation began uneventfully but what transpiredprovided a wealth of lessons learned for both sides. Itwas in many ways indicative of the subsequent decade ofconflict in South Vietnam. A victory for the ARVN, itcame at the cost of two hundred casualties, including thedeaths of three American advisors. In addition, five H-21Shawnee helicopters were shot down and a number of4/2nd Cavalry’s M113s were immobilized.

The operation was immediately hampered by poorintelligence on the part of the South Vietnamese. Thecompany sized unit turned out to, in fact, be the VietCong’s 261st Battalion. Possibly alerted to the attackthrough its own infiltration, the unit had fortified itsposition between Ap Tan Thoi and Ap Bac along theCong Luong Canal. Moving in from the south, the CivilGuard forces encountered the enemy lines first. In theopening moments of the battle provisional task forcecommander was wounded. Their advance wasimmediately halted and the units were told to formblocking positions.

In an attempt to continue the advance from the south asplanned a reserve battalion from 11th Infantry Regiment,the 1st Battalion, was airlifted in. Landing in the ricepaddies to the west of Ap Bac the force was exposed tothe concentrated fire from the enemy positions. Fourteenof the fifteen helicopters were damaged and five wereshot down. In a second attempt to regain the initiative4/2nd Cavalry was committed to try and secure the crashsites. The troop commander initially balked at theprospect of moving across the open paddies but wasprodded forward by his American advisor.

As they approached the first helicopter the M113s cameunder enemy fire. The troop commander Captain LyTong Ba was knocked unconscious and his troopsimmediately refused to advance any further. After beingrevived the unit attempted to advance into the enemypositions, but with little coordination, allowing enemygunners to focus on individual vehicles. With noprotection from the waist up, the M113 gunners wereespecially exposed. During the battle, fourteen personnel

manning the vehicle’s main gun would be killed, severelydegrading their capabilities.

Again, attempting to seize the initiative, ARVN leadersordered the air drop of a battalion of paratroopers into thebattle. The drop zone, however, was on top of the embattled4/2nd Cavalry instead of the unoccupied position to the east ofAp Bac. The paratroopers from 8th Airborne Battalion, 1stAirborne Brigade were still organising themselves when thebattle effectively ended.

During the night of 2-3 January, the Viet Cong forceabandoned their position in the face of ARVN reinforcements,artillery fire and air strikes. They had suffered some seventycasualties. On 3 January the ARVN attacked the now emptyenemy positions and conducted an operation to secure ApBac, which had also been abandoned. They encountered noresistance.

The battle exposed serious issues with ARVN leadership andstrategy. It also showed that enemy forces had been vastlyunderestimated - in size, armament and capability. All thesewould remain issues throughout the conflict. The Viet Congcame away from the battle with a better understanding of howto tackle the armoured and airmobile capabilities of theARVN. The ARVN’s failure to deal decisively with the enemysubsequently proved problematic and another operation, witha considerably larger force, was launched against Ap Tan Thoiin March.

The vulnerability of helicopters and the M113 personnelcarrier would not go unnoticed. Armed escort helicopters hadbeen employed in Vietnam as early as 1962 and Ap Bac onlyreinforced the need for fire support and protection forairmobile operations. More importantly, in spring 1963, theUS Army Concept Team in Vietnam began a study of theoperations of ARVN mechanised rifle elements. The studyexamined various ways of protecting M113 gunners, includingfully armoured turrets and armoured shields. It also examinedthe utilisation of gunners firing from the rear hatch, which hadbeen part of ARVN mechanised operations since they had firstreceived the vehicles in 1962. This study and others wouldlead to the development of the US Army’s Armoured CavalryAssault Vehicle armour kits that would become a standardfeature of M113 vehicles in Vietnam.

The following scenario reflects the operations of a platoonfrom 4/2nd Cavalry in the rice paddies to the West of Ap Bac.

Scenario InformationDuration of Game: 12 TurnsInitiative: ARVN on Turn 1. Roll for subsequent turnsSpecial Conditions: None.Fog of War: Draw normally as dictated by Reaction TestsAsset Cards: The ARVN Player receives 2 Asset Cards forthis scenario.

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Table Set Up - 6’x4’

ARVN 4th Troop, 2nd Armoured Cavalry SquadronMissionYour platoon from the 7th Infantry Division has beentasked with making a final charge at the VC lines in yourM113 APCs. To date no VC troops have stood up to anarmoured charge, and after heavy bombing andhelicopter attacks the VC seem to be about to break.Your charge should put an end to their defence. Afterpausing to re-supply and evacuate downed helicoptercrews, your men begin the attack… Charge across thepaddy fields and take the village of Ap Bac.

Victory PointsEach building captured + 10 points

ARVN Basic Force AttributesInitiative Level: Confidence Level: Supply Level: BodyArmor: Troop Quality/Morale: D8/D8

ARVN Infantry PlatoonPlatoon HQ in M1132x Rifle Squads in M113s

Viet Cong 261st Battalion MissionYour troops are from the 261st Viet Cong Battalion andfor the whole day have been under heavy enemy attackfrom both the ground and air. You have so far held themoff all but the heavy artillery and air attacks and yourtroops running low on ammunition has caused the line towaver. Just as you think your men are about to break theenemy pauses its attack while it recovers wounded crewsfrom crashed helicopters. This lull in the fighting givesyou time to distribute more ammunition and speak with

the section leaders. Your men, now replenished, seemmore confident and as the enemy attack begins your mengreet it with heavy fire! Hold Ap Bac. All troops start intrenches.

Victory PointsEach building held at end of game +10 points

Viet Cong Basic Force AttributesInitiative Level: Confidence Level: Supply Level: BodyArmor: Troop Quality/Morale: D8/D8

Main Force Command1 x Force Leader with MAT-49 SMG1 x Runner with M1 Carbine1 x Vietcong with Moisin-Nagant M1944 Carbine

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3 X Main Force Cadres(One cadre may be equipped with anti-tank grenades)Rifle Cell1 x Leader with MAT-49 SMG5 x Vietcong with Moisin-Nagant M1944 Carbines

Support Cell1 x Leader with M1 Carbine1 x Gunner with DPM Machine Gun1 x Loader with Mousin-Nagant M1944 Carbine

Special RulesARVN Leaders - If at any time the ARVN leader iskilled or taken out of action ARVN Morale drops to D6.This is to reflect the historical event where Captain LyTong Ba, leading the attack, was knocked unconscious.Until he recovered his men refused to advance and satunder heavy fire suffering casualties. Many of thosecasualties were senior NCOs whose traditional role wasas gunner on the M113 .50 cal Machine Gun, the loss ofwhich robbed the ARVN of one of their most potentweapons on the field that day.

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Quick and Dirty House-to-HouseSam ScottHouse-to-house fighting, like hidden movement andcounteracting the “God’s eye” view of players is one ofthe chronic banes of wargame design. How can youreplicate its complexity in a satisfactory way? Whatabout accounting for troops on different floors? Or thelocation of stairways? Or furniture? Or locked doors?And can I or can’t I fire my panzerfaust in here? Theheadaches of simulating this kind of combat aredaunting.

My friend Martin Baber and I ran smack up against thisquandary when we were designing our 20mm Market-Garden mega-game which was played at HMGSconventions in 2003 and 2005. The game was played ona nearly 70 foot table that included the built-up areas ofOosterbeek, Arnhem, Nijmegen and Eindhoven, as wellas many smaller villages. We knew that extensivefighting in and around buildings was inevitable - not tomention integral to the battle. We wanted the play actionto be fast and furious throughout game. We had alreadydeveloped a very stripped down combat system that wasworking very well but our rules were bogging downwhenever anyone assaulted a house or building. What todo? Were we really going to have to develop an entireparallel rule set for this kind of action? Well, yes, to behonest, but the solution was far easier than we imagined.

Our first idea was to treat each building as a singleobjective and not to worry about its internal structure.There would be a certain number of figures inside thebuilding defending against the assault and a certainnumber outside trying to get in. That opposition wouldbe the basis of the combat and whoever won took overthe building and whoever lost ended up outside. Mostwargame buildings (at 20mm or smaller) are smallenough for this to seem appropriate. We divided the fewlarger structures we had into sections for the purposes ofassault.

But how to play out the assault itself? We did feel thatmost house-to-house fighting is a matter of personalweapons and guts, so the presence of any crewed or anti-tank weapons was not a major factor. For us it camedown to the numbers inside vs. the numbers outside. Astraight up dice off was dull and mechanical and lackedexcitement. After dozens of phone calls back and forth,Martin had the totally original idea of adapting the cardgame Uno for our purposes. For those of you notfamiliar with the game, Uno is played with a customdeck using cards with numbers and colours on them. Thebasic rule of play is that to play a card it must matcheither the number or colour of the previous card. Wedecided to use the same rule but with a standard deck ofplaying cards with play following number or suit. Theface cards and aces in the deck gave us a mechanism forcasualties. Each face card played would cause 1 casualtyand each ace would cause 2. At the beginning of theassault each side would be dealt as many cards as they

had figures participating in the combat. Defenders wouldget one extra card for the advantage of position andwould play first. The assault would be resolved throughUno-like cards play. Whoever plays the last card winsand has control of the building.

This system gave us a way of resolving several buildingassaults in a single turn without having the game grind toa screeching halt. Now of course this system is as grossan abstraction as the dice off mentioned earlier but theuncertainty of what cards you might get in your hand,the back and forth of play and the speed of resolutioninjected excitement and dramatic tension back into thecombat. Sometimes the results were determined in 3-4cards and other times each side might play up to 8 cardsbefore one side or the other capitulated. Outnumbereddefenders can pray for that one card to which the hoardsof attackers are unable to respond. A see-saw street battlewhere buildings change hands multiple times in a gamebecomes a reality. Now 2 Para’s dogged defence of thenorth ramp of Arnhem Bridge was actually playable; aswas the hard fighting of XXX Corps through the streetsof Nijmegen.

Another nice aspect of this system is that it can be boltedon to a number of different rules systems. It can bedropped in at whatever point in the turn that anassaulting force moves into contact with an enemyoccupied building. The assault gets resolved and thegame moves on. The role of defensive positions inbuildings shifts slightly in game play with this system.The positions are still terrific protection for stand-offfire, but they become much less stable once youropponent has manoeuvred close enough to conduct adirect assault. If house-to-house fighting has been aheadache in your games, give this a try!

Basic House-to-House RulesWhen an assault force moves into contact with adefended building, deal each side as many cards as theyhave figures attacking or defending.

Deal the defenders one extra card

Defender plays 1st card Play must follow suit or number Face cards cause 1 casualty, Aces cause 2 Whoever plays the last card controls the

building

There are a number of variants you can play aroundwith.

If your rules have morale checks, make thelosing side to take a morale check at the end ofthe assault

Give elite troops an extra card Give the defenders multiple extra cards for a

fortified house

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Dogfight over Pakistan 1971Report on a 1:600 air combat by Ian Dewar

I have wargamed WW2 air combat in 1:300 scale formany years but recently decided to develop my existinghome grown rules into a set suitable for the jet andmissile age. At the same time I decided to change scale,as 1:600 seemed more suitable for the larger jet fighteraircraft and the increased ranges of missiles.

The Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 lasted only two weeks.But the air war aspect of this short conflict hasfascinated me ever since I was given some 1970smagazines with a couple of articles on the war. It isinteresting because of the wide selection of British, US,French, Russian, Chinese and even indigenous Indianaircraft types involved. These range from subsonic F-86Sabres and Hunters, to Mach 2 F-104 Starfighters andMiG-21s. The air-to-air weapons used were mainly guns,but included the early AIM-9B Sidewinder infra-redhoming missiles and their Russian copy, the K-13“Atoll”.

This game was one of the first I played with my newrules, using 1:600 aircraft from “Tumbling DiceMiniatures”. My rules use movement in squares, with aD20 next to the model to denote altitude, in levels of1000 feet. In this game, gun ammunition and missilesremaining were recorded by small D6s placed next to themodel.

The game scenario was an Indian attack on a Pakistaniairfield. A pair of Indian HF-24 “Maruts” each loadedwith 2 x 1000lb bombs, are on their way to attack aPakistani airfield, which is off the far side of the table.

The Marut was an Indian design but the designconsultant was one Kurt Tank, the designer of the Focke-Wulf 190!

The Maruts are escorted by a pair of MiG-21FLs. BothMiGs are armed with a pair of K-13 “Atoll” infra-redhoming missiles, the Russian copy of the AIM-9BSidewinder. The lead MiG also has a GP-9 23mmgunpack, albeit with only four seconds worth ofammunition, but his wingman has no guns.

Determined to defend their airfield the Pakistanis havescrambled a pair of Canadair Sabre Mk 6s and one oftheir handful of F-104A Starfighters. The two Sabreshave their internal gun armament of six 0.50 Brownings,with plenty of ammunition and the Sabre leader also hasa pair of AIM-9B Sidewinders. The Starfighter is alsoarmed with a pair of Sidewinders, in addition to itsinternal M61A1 20mm Gatling gun.

The MiG leader started the fight with an aggressive headon attack on Sabre No. 2, while the gunless MiG 2 triedto work around into a missile launch position. The MiGleader managed to damage Sabre 2, but the lead Sabrereturned the compliment with a front quarter gun shotwhich damaged the MiG.

The Starfighter, which wasn’t involved in the initialengagement, started to work his way round to the rear ofthe two Maruts. The lead Sabre broke away from thedogfight with the MiGs and also headed for the Maruts.This gave MiG 2 the opportunity he had been waiting forand, moving into a perfect missile launch positionbehind the Sabre, he fired one of his two “Atolls”. TheSabre was able to evade the missile, but only by turninghard away from the Maruts and aborting his attack onthem. Unfortunately for the MiG, while he wasconcentrating on his missile shot, the second Sabre wasable to turn onto his tail and damage him with a longrange gun shot!

A few moves later, the Maruts were forced to turn rightto prevent the Starfighter setting up a missile shot behindthem. This brought them towards the Sabres, which wereable to position themselves perfectly for offset head onpasses, which they planned to follow by inward turnsonto the Maruts’ tails. Determined to put a stop to this,the MiG leader, who had been shadowing the Starfighter,turned back towards the more immediate threat of theSabres.

Meanwhile, MiG 2 was nicely positioned to fire hissecond (and last!) Atoll against the Sabre leader.

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Sabre Mk.6

The next few moves were quite eventful! The MiGleader dropped onto Sabre 2’s tail and gunned him downwith close range 23mm fire - the first kill of the game.However, this manoeuvre exposed the MiG leader’s tailto the Starfighter, who fired both his Sidewinders at theMiG. The MiG broke hard left and to the disbelief of allwho saw it, managed to evade both missiles! MeanwhileMiG 2’s second Atoll missed the lead Sabre again, butonce again forced the Sabre to evade and to break off hisattack on the Maruts.

Unfortunately for the MiGs their valiant efforts toprotect the Maruts were in vain as, in the next move, theStarfighter moved in to close gun range and shot downthe Marut leader. The weaponless MiG 2 now had nochoice but to climb out of the fight and turn for home.This left the Sabre leader free to turn onto the tail of thesecond Marut, which, still loaded with bombs, wasunable to manoeuvre sufficiently and was an easy gunkill.

The MiG leader, now alone, feinted towards theStarfighter but then took his revenge by turning backtowards the remaining Sabre and crippling it with a frontquarter gun attack. After a second feint to keep the

Starfighter at bay, the MiG used the last of his gunammunition to finish off the crippled Sabre.

The Starfighter and the MiG then manoeuvred againsteach other for a few moves. But it was clear that theStarfighter, with no missiles left, would be unlikely toachieve a gun shot against the more agile MiG.Similarly, the MiG, with no cannon ammunition left, wasfaced with trying to set up a missile shot against theundamaged Starfighter. Both sides decided to break offand return home, thus ending the combat.

And the outcome? Well the kills were even, with twoIndian Maruts and two Pakistani Sabres shot down. Butboth Indian MiGs were damaged and the Indian missionto attack the Pakistani airfield had clearly failed.

We therefore agreed that the combat was a tacticalvictory for the Pakistanis.

Overall the game seemed to play well, and we've sincehad more combat in Indian and Pakistani skies at mylocal Derby club. This will hopefully soon be followedby Arab-Israeli air combat from 1967 onwards. Just assoon as I get those models painted...

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The Battle of KhenifraMorocco, November 13th 1914, by Richard Baber

The French colonial campaigns in Africa during the late19th century through the early years of the 20th Centuryis a period often ignored by wargamers who prefer thefar better documented British campaigns of that period(Zulu wars, Sudan, The Boar war etc). I was looking forsomething different, Hollywood has produced a numberof inspiring (and many not so) films about The FrenchForeign Legion in North Africa and it was through thesethat I drifted into this interesting region of militaryhistory. The period covers a vast range of technology andyou can go from fielding French units with native troopsof Franco-Prussian war vintage, through early WW1types up to the mechanized columns with air support ofthe late 1920s early `30s.

My main problem is to find reasonable yet challengingscenarios, where the natives have more than a “walk-on”and “Cannon-fodder” role. This leads me to look foractions where the French (or Spanish or British) lost, soto create a scenario with better odds for the native player.This research is often more challenging than usual aswhen there were defeats, they were often covered up orglossed over to avoid hostile press reports back at home.

As part of their ongoing “pacification” of Morocco, in1914 the French moved to secure the ZaianConfederation. The Zaian were by this time hemmed inby The Middle Atlas Mountains to the east and thealready pacified (read conquered) lands to north, southand west. On the map the conquest seemed simple, threeconverging columns from north, south and east drivinginland to the Zaian capital Khenifra.

Khenifra whilst not a beautiful place had a majesticpresence, with its huge stone and mud-brick Kasbah(Ksar in the local language) dominating the blood reddusty plain. In fact the first European visitor calledkhenifra “a red city in a red land”. Surrounded bygardens and orchards the city is divided by the Oum erRbia River, narrow but swift running and fathoms deepwhich is crossed by an ancient stone bridge.

The Zaians were a nomadic tribe following their flocksof sheep and goats from the mountains (during the hotsummer months) to the great plain of Khenifra (forwinter grazing). They were a fiercely independentpeople, as are all nomads.

Their leader Moha ou Hammou was adept in bothpolitical strategy and military force; he came to powerwithin the tribe in 1877 when just a young man oftwenty. Quickly establishing himself over his rivals byforce of arms and was considered to one of the mostinfluential men in Morocco at the time. The SultanMoulai Hassan had recognized his Caidship and hadprovided him with a standing army of four hundred menand three cannon to maintain the authority of theMaghzen (Moroccan government) in his country.

This was however little appreciated by the French; manyyoung French officers saw colonial service and Moroccoin particular the way to quick promotion. It was wellknown that service in the colonies particularly during amilitary campaign could lead to promotion and betterpostings later. Service in Morocco (often called “TheBled” by veterans after the native word for land) was anactive often-dangerous posting during the years ofFrench expansion.

The French campaign started on June 10 and in two dayswith virtually no opposition they succeeded in seizingKhenifra. Unfortunately the campaign was carried out asif it was a problem at Staff College, advance your armyto a point on the map, seize your objective and win thegame. The Zaians were a nomadic people and thecapture of their “capital” meant nothing to them, in factafter Khenifra was occupied resistance actuallyincreased.

The natives began attacking French wood gatheringparties and only water supplies close to Khenifra weresecure, supply columns were also ambushed. By themiddle of July casualties mounted and the tensionincreased; morale particularly within the native colonialunits began to suffer, whole outposts deserted takingtheir rifles and cartridges with them after killing theFrench or Algerian sergeant. The French were forced todisarm an entire squadron of Moroccan Spahis and takeaway their horses, this to stop them abandoning theirallies and joining the rebels.

Then news of the outbreak of war in Europe reach thecolony, the French government gave orders to theGovernor General Hubert Lyautey that he was to sendtroops back to France and withdraw his remaining forcesback to the easily defendable coastal enclaves. Lyauteygathered his area commanders together and in a brilliantstroke of foresight changed the orders to one of holdingthe line instead of withdrawal. His reasoning was simple,a withdrawal would be a signal for the rebelliousmountain tribes to move out and ravage all theabandoned lands, all the effort and blood that had beenspent over the last forty years would be thrown away.His officers agreed, no ground would be lost and whenthe troops returned from the war the pacification wouldcontinue as before (it should of course be noted no onein 1914 expected the war to last very long). Lyautey thenissued orders to his garrison commanders that offensiveaction was to stop and that nothing should be done toprovoke hostile tribes whilst there was a war going on inEurope. Eventually Morocco west of the AtlasMountains was reduced to just eighteen French andcolonial battalions. Some of the French officers left inMorocco were exceedingly bitter at being left out of thenew war (it should be remembered that the Great Warthat started in 1914 was the first war in Europe since1871).

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On August 4 two battalions were stripped from theKhenifra garrison to be eventually returned to France.This weakened the garrison to the extent that Khenifraitself was virtually in state of siege for nearly a month.The garrison commander one Colonel Laverdure wasparticularly bitter about his exclusion from the new warin Europe. To add to his frustration he was ordered justto maintain his garrison and not provoke the natives. Aswinter approached Moha ou Hammou brought his campdown from the mountains to the plain as his people haddone for centuries. Soon there were several islands oftents dotted across the great plain the largest of whichwas only seven miles from Khenifra. Colonel Laverduresaw this as a chance to bring himself to the attention ofthe French high command. We must understand thatFrench military tradition often encouraged individualbravery and action especially by officers (Napoleon’sMarshal Ney being a good historic example of thistradition).

With this in mind it is not a surprise that on the night ofNovember 12, Laverdure divided virtually his entirecommand into four groups (each consisting of infantry,cavalry and a field gun or two). His plan was for the fourcolumns to proceed across the plain during the night andconverge on the Zaian camp just before dawn, at whichpoint all the columns would assault the camp from threesides and hopefully destroy Zaian resistance for good.The plan worked well and on the morning of November13, French shells and machine guns sweeping throughthe tents awaked the Zaian camp. The natives were takencompletely by surprise by the attack and fled in panic,Moha ou Hammou was rescued by his sons during theconfusion. Once what little resistance there was had beensuppressed, the Algerian soldiers and Goumiersransacked, looted and finally burnt the encampment,during which two of Moha ou Hammou’s wives wascaptured.

The GameIt is at this point the game starts, the French officers tookquite a while to re-organise their columns. I’ve givenrough strengths based on the information to hand andbuilt around the wargame orbats we use during ourgames.

Column 1Col. Laverdure + staff (10 officers and men) A company of colonial Zouaves – 30 men with 1 –MMGA troop of Spahis Algerian (cavalry) – 10 mountedfigures1 – 65mm mountain gun (6 crew + mules)

Column 2A company of Tirailleurs (riflemen) Algerian – 30 menwith 1 MMGA troop of Spahis Moroccain – 10 mounted1 – 65mm mountain gun (6 crew + mules)

Column 3A company of colonial Zouaves – 30 men with 1 - MMGA troop from Chasseurs d` Afrique – 10 mountedA 75mm howitzer (6 crew + limber & horses)

Column 4A company of Tirailleurs Algerian – 30 men with 1MMGA troop of Spahis Moroccain – 10 mountedA 75mm howitzer (6 crew + limber & horses)

The game calls for the four French columns to maketheir way back across the table to the safety of Khenifra,the game runs for 30 turns; during which the columnmay either move or fight. Unfortunately for the FrenchMoha ou Hammou quickly began to organize hiswarriors and these immediately begin sharp counterattacks.

Since we first played this game I ran the SOTCW gameat Gauntlet 2010, where I used event cards to simulatethe randomness of warfare. In re-visiting this battle Idecided to try the same system.

Each turn the umpire should role 1D6 for each columnthis will indicate if there is an encounter or not.

1-5 indicates an event card must be drawn

6 = no encounter and the column may move

Another role of 1D6 will indicate the direction: (on aD6: 1 – north; 2 - south; 3, 4 – west and 5, 6 east). Thisrepresents natives moving from other encampments thelargest portion coming from the original camp (west) ormoving to block the French (east).

CardsSimply printed off on my PC and laminated,approximately the size of a playing card (you can getabout 10 out of an A4 sheet).

Examples:False Alarm – no encounterFoot Warriors – 10-20 warriors (50% rifled armed)attackRiflemen – 10-15 riflemen pop up and give a volley.Harka – 20-30 warriors both on foot and mounted (50%rifle armed) attack columnConfused orders – unit stops and forms square for 1 turnBad ammunition – unit fires at half effectiveness for therest of game (only effects each column once)Cavalry – 20 or so mounted warriors (50% rifle armed)Large War-band – 40-60 warriors

Each column must fight and destroy their attacker, thuscompleting the turn; we played on a 6 foot by 4 table andallowed a column to move 6 inches (a total of 12 movesto cross the table). The table was mostly flat with lowhills and a couple of dry streambeds, these allowed thenatives to appear on all sides of the columns and alsoisolated the columns from one another. The terrain mightalso encourage the French players to fight defensively,which will prove fatal for them.

There are a couple of additional things to keep track offor the umpire:

Artillery: The French have already used most of theirshells against the camp this morning and each gun will

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only have 2-3 turns of ammo left, after which theycannot fire.

Machine guns: As with artillery these weapons havelimited ammo 2-4 turns, but this can be increased usingrifle bullets (rifles and MMGs use the same cartridge)this will give an additional 2 turns for the MGs butreduce the riflemen by 3 turns (see below).

Rifle ammo: Each man only had the ammo he carriedand a lot of this has already been used, each column canonly fire fully for 6-8 turns and after this only everyother turn or at half strength depending on your rules.

Cavalry: Mounted units can move faster than infantry, ifthese abandon their comrades they may move twice thedistance (12 inches). However if this is done this newadditional column must also dice for an encounter eachturn.

Relief: After turn 10 a relief column from Kheniframoves from the east to link up with Laverdures columns.This Column consists of a troop of Spahis (10 mountedmen) and two half companies of infantry, one Zouaves,the other Tirailleurs Moroccaine (15 figures of eachtype). This column will attempt to link up with theircomrades and hopefully assist the withdrawal back to thecity.

Morale: A very important factor will be the morale of thevarious French and colonial troops, particularly thenative elements. The Algerians are basically mercenarieshere for pay and loot; their morale will start fair butsuffer as casualty’s mount. The Moroccans are alsoMercenaries but were often pressed into service;therefore their morale starts lower and will quicklycollapse in the face of the Zaian onslaught. The Frenchunits (Zouaves and Chasseurs d` Afrique) have betterweapons and training, which should be reflected in theirmorale.

The game continues until the French either cross theboard or are destroyed.

Historic outcome Laverdure’s command began itswithdrawal back across the plain to the city; it was nowfully daylight. The French had not expected the Zaian toreact so quickly, they had obviously also not thoughtabout the other encampments either. Bands of Zaiancame from all over and began attacking the strung outFrench and colonial troops. For a while French firepower held back the attackers, but ammunition began torun out and the natives could close with the French, whohad in some instances formed squares against the nativehorsemen. A relief column formed from what remainedof the garrison attempted a sortie but proved too weakand was forced back to the city, leaving the columns totheir fate. Colonel Laverdure and some 700 men werekilled and the Zaian captured a huge haul of rifles,horses, eight cannon of various calibers and ten machineguns.

Emboldened by their success the Zaian moved againstKhenifra itself, only a desperate defence and the arrivalof General Henry’s relief column saved the day (afurther French defeat may have led to a larger uprising).This was the worst defeat by far suffered by the Frenchin Morocco. General Lyautey did not blame the Zaianand Moha ou Hammou for the disaster but the staffofficers in Paris and their traditions of bravery andhonor. He arranged the trade of Moha ou Hammou’scaptured wives for the bodies of Col. Laverdure and fiveother French officers and gave specific orders that noreprisals should be taken against the Zaian.

The defeat left Khenifra is state of basic siege, well anuneasy truce anyway as long as each side kept out ofrange from the other. This lasted throughout the waryears with the garrison being re-supplied twice a year bya strong Group Mobile from Casba Talda.

My main source for this scenario comes from “TheConquest 0f Morocco” by Douglas Porch (ISBN 0-88064-057-X); an excellent book on the French inMorocco up to the Great War, well worth getting byanyone interested in colonial North Africa.

With additional information from:

“The Conquest of Morocco” by Vice-Admiral CVUsborne (Stanley Paul & Co Ltd, 1936)

“France, Soldiers and Africa” by Anthony Clayton(ISBN 0-08-034748-7)

Paths of Glory (The French Army 1914-18) by AnthonyClayton (ISBN 0-304-36652-8)

Les Troupes de Marine (Quatre Siecles d`historie) byCharles Lavauzelle (French text)

An article on the fighting square Vs cavalry in an oldissue of Wargames Digest (an American glossywargames publication from the early 1970s) whichmentions this action as an example of where the squarefailed due to bad tactics. (The issue number escapes meat present – sorry).

Playing the gameWe used 20mm figures from my collection:

Tirailleurs Algerian are tumbling Dice;

Tirailleurs Moroccaine a mixture of FAA and Tom’s Tinsplus the odd Friend or Foe Goumier.

For Zouaves I use FFL figures a mix of Tumbling Dice,B&B Miniatures with the odd Italeri and Airfix plastic.

My `75s are B&B, SHQ and Bandera, the limbers andhorse teams Italeri.

My 65mm mountain guns are Bandera with mules fromall over the place (B&B, Combat Miniatures, Friend orFoe and others); all the gun crews are either convertedplastics or Tumbling Dice.

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Arms for Spain!Soviet arms shipments for SCW Republican land forces by Rob Morgan. Additionalmaterial from Richard Thorpe of “La Columna”- SCW living history group

Between September 1936 and February 1939 the USSRsupplied a substantial, some might say an enormous,volume of weapons, munitions and war materials for theuse of the Spanish Republic. The list is interesting andprovides ample evidence of what must have been aQuartermaster’s nightmare in the army and militias ofRepublican Spain.

PistolsRemarkably few in number, only 1,030 of all types wereshipped. Spain, of course, was using the Astra Modelo400 9mm pistol as its indigenous hand gun and theSoviet military pistols were not at a premium. Theyincluded Nagant 1895s, old Austrian 8mm Steyr-Hahnsand a number of captured WW1 weapons.

RiflesMoisin-Nagant 7.62mm 141,580Mauser Rifles 25,000Mannlicher 8mm 10,000Winchester 7.62mm 9,000Rifles…Old, Foreign 48,835Rifles…. Unidentified 70,740Moisin-Nagant M34 and M91/30 83,500Rifles of Czech origin 50,000Lee Enfield .303 1,000

The list is awesome, almost 440,000 rifles in all, butwhat an assortment! The Moisin Nagants, the largestsingle group, were the old 1891g models for the mostpart, though some of the shorter, handier M91/30s andcarbines were also supplied. Old but sturdy and reliable,not prone to jamming and a sound weapon for a rawrecruit - a typical Russian weapon. As for the others –well many were captured from the White armies or thePoles in the years of the Russian Civil wars from 1917 to1923, such as the small number of Lee Enfields and thelarge number of Czech origin. The Mannlichers were oldAustria-Hungary Imperial army rifles of the Modell1895, another unspectacular but sound weapon, suited toconscripts and a gun which displayed few problems inservice with many armies.

The Mausers again were WW1 and RCW captures, thisnumber probably included carbine models. The Gewehr1898 had in fact been produced by Spanish armamentsfactories for decades and this was a standard Spanisharmy rifle; Spain even exported their version to China!As for the Winchesters, well these were lever actionmodel 1895s supplied by the US Government in 1914and chambered for the standard Russian 7.62mmcartridge. An amazing 294,000 were delivered to theTsar's army and so it is a little surprising that only 9,000were sent to Spain. The “old foreign” and “unidentified”weapons included some Japanese Arisakas and FrenchLebels, though others were undoubtedly fit for very littlebeyond carrying a bayonet and sentry duty. The original

“La Columna” list includes the suggestion that someGras-Kropochek rifles were included in this group.

Machine Guns Austria-Hungarian Schwarlose 8mm HMGs 88Machine guns of Czech origin 3,000Chauchat machine rifles 400Lewis LMGs 400Degtyarev DP LMGs 4,996Colt Browning M1895/14 300Maxim machine guns 1,626Maxim-Tokarev LMGs 2,578Unidentified LMGs 1,700Unidentified HMGs 2,323

Another nightmare list as far as spares, tools andammunition were concerned. Surprising perhaps thatonly around 13,000 MGs of all types were sent to Spain,though again the Red Army seems to have emptied everyfortress arsenal it possessed to accrue the range ofweapons it sent! The Lewis 7.7mm was of coursesupplied to Imperial Russian and White forces from1915 onwards and, like the Degtyarevs, was anexcellent, reliable LMG. As was the Schwarzlose 8mm,heavy to move around, but an excellent weapon intrained hands.

The 300 Colts were almost certainly 7.62mm survivorsof a large batch supplied to Russia well before WW1 andused by the Russians throughout the war and into the1920s. The 8mm Chauchat “machine gun” M1915, wasof course nothing of the sort! Probably the worst weaponever devised in war, totally unreliable, prone to jammingand cheaply made, they found their way into manyarmies’ arsenals – but not for long.

The Maxim-Tokarev was the useful MT1926, a wellknown gun and as reliable as the Lewis in action, but atthis point the list becomes a little vague to say the least.The 3,000 Czech MGs are certainly Zb vz.26s and theimproved Zb vz.30 models. These were robust weaponsof 7.92mm and an export staple of the Czech armamentsindustry – the progenitor of the Bren of course. Spainhad bought numbers of these LMGs before 1936 and theCzech design later became the Spanish FAO. The overallnumber may also have included a few ZK 383s, which.though in reality an SMG, was regarded as an LMG bythe Czechs and had a bi-pod mount fitted.

The Maxim MGs and heavy machine guns, total some3,200 in all; there were incredible numbers of the littlewheeled Maxims of the 1910 model produced up to early1943. Given its widespread use in WW1 and thesubsequent wars in Eastern Europe, this number (1,626)seems rather low. The overall HMG figure probablyincludes M1910s as well as a few Vickers guns, exportedfrom British stocks to bolster anti-Red factions. Theoriginal lists also suggest some of the unsuccessful

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French mle 1907 St. Etienne 8mm HMG, which wasgiven away to less fortunate allies as soon as sufficientHotchkiss guns could be provided. Since this lattermachine gun, the Hotchkiss 1914 8mm, was alsosupplied to the White armies in Southern Russia a smallnumber of these turned up to bolster existing Spanisharmy's M1922 versions of the gun. The La Columna listsuggests that among the 1,700 LMGs were Hotchkissmle 1909s, which appeared in several forms in manyWW1 Allied armies and air forces. Some however werethe ubiquitous Danish 8mm Madsen LMG, anothersuperb, rugged machine gun, originally used by Tsaristcavalry in the Russo-Japanese War. As far as heavy andlight machine guns supplied by the USSR are concerned.A substantial number were undoubtedly weapons whichhad been thrown into the anti-Bolshevik struggles afterWW1 and which Stalin simply threw back!

Mortars And GrenadesThe original list surprisingly contains no mortars, thoughby the 1930s a number of 50mm Soviet light mortarsexisted and the Brandt design was being actively copiedas the 82-PM-36. There are however a number of oldWW1 survivors in the list – four “mine throwing guns” -trench weapons in all probability, 50 “Grenadethrowers” and 240 “German grenade throwers” morerelics of the trenches. By the time this point in the list isreached, the maxim “beggars can't be choosers” comesto mind. There were a total of 120,000 hand grenades ofvarious types and vintages supplied to the Republicansas well; not to mention 10,000 steel helmets.

Anti-tank Guns Two calibres were supplied both Soviet in origin thoughnot surprisingly, there are no anti-tank rifles listed, sincethe Red Army neglected this aspect of warfare almostuntil 1941, as did most other armies. There were 430 ofthe powerful 37mm M30 anti-tank guns, licenceproduced copies of the German Pak 35/36 and a smallernumber – 142 of the M1932 45mm anti-tank gun.

Artillery

Another “rag bag” collection of weaponry, some oflimited use. The little 37mm trench gun was a usefulsmall piece, easily transportable and developed by boththe French and Austrians in WW1; the type saw a greatdeal of service with armies ranging from the US to theJapanese. The Schneider Mountain guns were already inservice with the Spanish army and were used inMorocco, these almost certainly were examples suppliedto Denekin and Wrangel and then captured by the RedArmy in Ukraine. The Krupps were obviously WW1relics but still a good gun in 1936. The 75mm and 76mm“mainly French” field guns and the unspecified guns ofno stated calibre, some 350 in all, may well have beenfor the most part the legendary “75”; used universally inthe revolutionary wars post 1917, as well as theRussian's ageing 02/30s, a rather poor quality field gunby 1936. Another gun which turned up, though thenumbers are not given, was the 100mm Skoda 1914 fieldgun.

The 74 “Japanese” 107mm field guns are another odditem in the list. It may well be that these were in factoriginally Russian made 107s of the 1910 model, ofwhich there were a mass surviving into the 1930s whenmost were modernised. The Vickers 115mm pre-1914Howitzers are undoubtedly survivors of the 400 Quick-Firing 4.5” Howitzers donated by the BritishGovernment to the Tsarist armies in 1916 to make upsevere losses in heavy artillery, an excellent gun. As wasthe very heavy Vickers Armstrong 127mm 60pdr fieldgun, probably the best field piece in use by either side inthe war in Spain. The unspecified 152mm howitzer wasalmost certainly the 6” MkI British design which wasanother WW1 gift to the Russians and consideredremarkably efficient. The 20 big Schneider 155s weresent to Spain because they were examples of a weaponalready in Spanish service and the Red Army had no usefor them.

ArmourRemarkably little armour was sent to Spain, though whatwas sent was good quality, the effect of say a couple ofhundred of the T27 tankettes may have proved decisivein the earlier battles of the war. There were some 314T26 light tanks, of various marks, a capable tank for the1930s, along with only 50 BT “fast tanks” which werethe best AFVs in Spain and at a premium. Surprisinglyonly 30 armoured cars – BA-6s and BA-10s for the mostpart, with a few older types were provided. Russianarmour was the strongest card in the Republican Army'shand but there was not enough to change the course ofevents.

With the exception of the armoured vehicles and anti-tank guns, much of the “Arms to Spain” sent by theSoviet Union was either old Tsarist Army or WW1Allied donations captured from the Whites and most of itcould certainly be spared from the Red Army's arsenal.

Recommended reading on this subject is “La GuerraCivil Espanol, Armas y Pertrechos I” by M. Gonzales,Barcelona 1981.

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37mm infantry support guns 30

Schneider 76.2mm mountain guns 8

Krupp 77mm Field guns 22

Field guns. - 75mm and 76mm (mainly French) 269

Field guns… unspecified 71

Field guns 107mm Japanese 74

Howitzers 105mm 8

Howitzers 115mm Vickers pre-1914 189

Field guns Armstrong 127mm 12

Howitzers 152mm 24

Field guns 155mm French 20

The Journal

West of PolanowPoland 1939, 20mm scenario by Leigh Jackson

Historical BackgroundThe great myth of the Polish campaign of September1939 is that Polish cavalry mounted a charge againstGerman tanks. As best as my research suggests, whatactually happened was that the Poles encountered aGerman patrol resting in a clearing and launched a verysuccessful cavalry charge against them. A number ofGerman Armoured Cars responded to the noise and, onarrival, quickly began to cause casualties amongst thecavalry. They dispersed and fled to the nearest woods,which, for some of them, was past the Armoured Cars.Some time later some Italian War Correspondentsarrived and were recounted a slightly embellished story,which grew from there…and the myth was born. Thisscenario is designed to recreate a similar event.

Polish Briefing2nd Lieutenant Rydz, Pomerania cavalry brigade, youare to take your platoon forward and locate and recordthe size and extent on the initial German advances.It is the 3rd September 1939 and you are at war. Theruthless Germans have invaded. As a regular armyofficer you are trusted by your superiors and so havebeen sent out to locate the enemy. You finally findapproximately a platoon of Germans resting by a roadjunction just west of Polanow. The Germans are unawareof your presence so you dispatch a messenger to yousuperiors and draw up the rest of the platoon along theedge of the woods, leaving the BAR section to cover thewithdrawal and the Bofors 37mm anti tank gun to watchthe road the rest of the platoon prepares to perform asabre charge against the doomed Germans

Your command consists of yourself, your second incommand, the three other members of your commandsquad (less the messenger you have sent) and foursections. Three of the sections consist of six men each,which dismount to four foot troopers. The second sectionincludes an anti tank rifle and the third a medic. Thefourth section is the BAR section which is five men anda packhorse. It dismounts to three men including the

BAR gunner. All men are rifle armed and carry bayonetsand entrenching tools and have sabres on their horsefurniture. You also have a Bofors 37mm anti tank gunwith four crew. The gun has twenty rounds.

The Poles are good regular army troops defending theirhomeland from the invader. I would count them as TAC6, Morale 5 in Arc of Fire terms.

German BriefingHauptmann Kluger, 3rd infantry division. You are tomove off the road by the junction to permit the passageof elements of the 2nd motorised division.3rd September 1939, and you, and your platoon aretaking part in Fall Weis, the invasion of Poland. Yourmen are already weary and are glad of the rest when youare ordered off the road to permit tanks and motorisedinfantry to bypass them.

Your force consists of three slightly under strengthsections, a MMG34 and a couple of mortars (the supportweapons are not set-up). You are deployed in groupsaround the junction. The men are relaxed and drinking oreating rations.

The force from 2nd division consists of a troop ofPanzers (specifically two Pz II and one Pz I) the force iscommanded by a Pz III (as a command vehicle - themain gun is dummy. DO NOT let the Polish player knowthis). It also includes a section of infantry in half-tracksand a towed 37mm anti tank gun plus a selection of menon cycles and motorcycles.

Morale is high, as so far little resistance has beenencountered. I would count them as TAC 6, Morale 6.

Umpire’s NotesThe Poles can spend up to seven turns moving intoposition. The Germans must roll under this number onD6 to be alerted, roll once per group. These turns counttowards the number of turns until the armour arrives.When the Poles charge, if not alert, the group must rollunder the distance the Poles moved on a D20 to react. Iwould also impose a –2 morale roll on any Germans whoreceive the unexpected Polish Cavalry charge. TheGerman 2nd Division armour takes twelve turns toarrive.

The RefightIn my refight the Poles were just plain unlucky. TheGermans spotted them moving into position, respondedexcellently (and where a little lucky with the cards) andproceded to massacre the disorganised cavalry. Thearrival of the German armour should have sealed things,but for a plucky Polish gunner who hit everything hefired at and made the German armour very hesitant aboutmoving forward.

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Polish Entry

German Entry

German Deployment

Polish Entry

The Journal

Black Wednesday - the Spanish in WW2 The battle of Krasni Bor (10-11th February1943) by Richard Clarke. Additional notesby Richard Baber

Like many battles the fight for Krasni Bor is less of acoherent single battle and more a succession of variousphases, with peaks and lulls in the fighting making itnicely dissectible for rule sets that focus on the detail ofcombat at Company level, which is where my preferencelies. It is, of course, a matter of horses for courses, butfor me I like to know that the three men on the MG34are exactly that and not simply representative of a“battalion asset”.

I first researched the battle for the TooFatLardiesChristmas Special in 2004 and settled on representingthe battle in the shape of three scenarios that I felt bestencapsulated three of the key phases of the battle. First isthe action on the Moscow-Leningrad highway around‘El Bastión’ which is ideal for a solo game. Second is‘Save the Hospital’ which is a much lower level gamewhich was originally written for I Ain’t Been Shot,Mum! but has here been re-written for Troops, Weapons& Tactics - our Platoon level rules (by which I mean thegamer controls a force of up to and around platoon size).Finally there is the ‘Defence of the Paper Mill’ which isa more typical size for a game of IABSM. Hopefully allwill provide something a little different and challengingfor gamers.

Scenario One - The OnslaughtThe game begins with one whole company of Spaniardsdeployed along the main road and in the ‘bastion’emplacement to the rear of the old anti-tank ditch. Oneplatoon should be placed in the bastion with two Pak 35anti-tank guns, whilst the rest of the company should bedeployed along the road at regular intervals. The troopsare considered to be dug in, or at least making the mostof the shell holes for cover.

The table, which in our game with 15mm figures was7’6” by 6’, should be a mass of craters. I have not drawnthese on the map due to a complete lack of artistic skillbut the Soviet bombardment had been so severe that theanti-tank ditch had completely disappeared, so badly wasthe ground churned up. The main road is slightly raisedso that troops around it will benefit from their dug-instatus whilst having excellent visibility across thebattlefield.

‘El Bastión’ is an earthwork position with a roof. Itcounts as good cover, although all of its firing positionsface north, east and west, and not to the south whichcould be an Achilles’ heel if the Soviets work around it.The Spanish player will be aware of this - however theSoviet one should not be.

Once the Spanish troops are deployed we need toascertain the effect of the Soviet bombardment. Likemost bombardments the effect seems to have beenvaried, with some units completely destroyed whilstothers escaped intact. We assume that all named leaders,

Big Men in the rules, survive but all squads and weaponsteams are diced for as follows:

Roll Result

1 or 2 Unit is intact

3 or 4 Unit is reduced by 50% strength

5 or 6 Unit is entirely destroyed

MMGs that roll the ‘reduced to 50% strength’ shouldhave one figure removed from the team, whilst anti-tankguns should be reduced to three men crew.

Unlike normal in IABSM this scenario allows partlydestroyed units to join together if they can assemble onthe same spot. Units reduced to half strength functionwith the relevant dice appropriate for that number ofmen, i.e. one for an infantry squad, until they are able tolink up with another in the same situation. This willpotentially mean that some units are overrun early in thegame, but that’s all part of the fun. Infantrymen can beused to crew AT guns and MMGs.

As the game progresses the Spaniards will get otheropportunites to reorganise their men, as the Big Men willbe able to use their turn to bring squads up to strengthwith men from under-strength units.

Once the above dice rolls have been made the gamecommences. One player or the umpire, if present,controls the Soviets. The objective is to break throughthe Spanish defences and overwhelm the isolated units.One company of Soviet infantry will start the game onthe northern table edge on blinds. A SovietReinforcement card will be included in the deck andonce this is turned a second company will arrive on thesame edge.

At any point in time the Soviet player may have twocompanies of infantry and a platoon of three tanks on thetable. When the Soviet reinforcement card is dealt the

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Soviet player may ignore this card if he is at full quota orhe may remove one of his existing companies andreplace it with a fresh one on the northern edge. Beforehe does this he should roll a D6 to see what is potentiallyarriving. A roll of 1 indicates a Platoon of three T34s, aroll of 2 to 6 is an infantry company. This mechanismwill effectively represent the wave attacks employed bythe Soviets.

By way of example, player one has two companies ofSoviet infantry on the table. Thus far no tanks haveturned up. On his reinforcement card he rolls a 4, so hecan see that a fresh infantry company is available asreinforcements. His lead company has been shot up bythe Spaniards, but one platoon that is relatively intact hasworked its way around the flank of the bastion. He nowneeds to weigh up whether to remove that platoon andthe rest of the company and benefit in terms of numbersfrom a fresh wave, or to stick with the potential forsuccess that the one platoon has.

Spanish ForcesCommand ElementsCapitán Oroquieta D6+1Teniente Blesa D6Company HQOne sniperTank Hunter team

Platoons 1 to 3Three 8 man rifle squads each

MMG PlatoonFour MG34 teams (3 crew each)

AT sectionTwo Pak 35 AT guns (5 crew each)

The Spanish may have three anti-tank minefieldsanywhere on the table, each being 6” by 3” in size.

Their troops are rated for IABSM as follows:

Troops 0 1 2 3

Spanish 1, 2, 3 4 5 6, 7, 8

Soviet ForcesCommand ElementsThree per company

Each CompanyPlatoons 1 to 3Three rifle squads (8 men each)

Machine Gun PlatoonFour MMGs

Their troops are rated as follows:

Troops 0 1 2 3

Soviet 1,2,3,4 5 6, 7 8

During the game the Soviet player is limited to using a total offive companies. It, at the end of that period, any Spanishsurvivors are still on the table then the Soviets have failed intheir objective of totally breaking through in this sector.

CardsThe following deck is required for this scenario:

Spanish Big MenSpanish Company HQSpanish Platoons 1-3Spanish MMG PlatoonSpanish AT guns x 3 (including a bonus card)Spanish Dynamic LeaderSoviet Big MenSpanish Platoon cards x nSpanish Armour cards x nSoviet Heroic leaderSoviet ReinforcementsSpanish BlindsSoviet BlindsTea Break

Scenario Two – Save The HospitalProbably the best briefing for this game is simply toquote from Gerard Klienfeld’s book, Hitler’s SpanishLegion.

“Lieutenant Constantino Goduidionachvili was withMajor Bellod when the attack started. Legionnaire Lt.Constantino had just returned from scouting towards ElBastión. Ever since the breakthrough the former Tsaristcavalry Captain and veteran of the Spanish Civil Warhad been scrambling to help hold the second line. Hewas discussing the situation with Bellod in the Major’sCP when, at 1615, a KV-1 rounded the corner fromSovietskii Prospekt and, firing its 76mm cannon, beganclanking down the street to Popovka Railway Station.

Capt. Muñoz Garcia also saw it coming. He ordered hissappers to strew the street with T mines, but the tankcommander, cautious without infantry escort, turnedaround towards the two-storey hospital near RegimentalHeadquarters. Inside the wooden schoolhouseLieutenant Garcia López watched as the KV-1 advanced,cannon booming and machine gun chattering. It wasrolling right towards the main door of the field hospital.Many of the wounded, unable to move and fearing thatthey were going to be squashed be the tremendous treadsas they lay on the floor or in their cots, beganscreaming. Others dived out of the rear windows.

Individual divisionarios, gripped by the sheer horror ofthe scene, tried to stop the iron monster by flingingMolotov cocktails and affixing magnetic mines.Invincible, the KV-1 crunched on. Suddenly, out of theshadows, rose Bellod’s runner, Sapper Antonio PonteAnido. Seizing two T mines, he coolly slipped up to thesteel sides and shoved them into the whirling tracks andbogies. A searing blast shook the street. Tracks flailinglike a dinosaur. Both Ponte and the tank were finished.Confronted with courage such as this in dark, narrow,rubble-strewn streets, the Soviets called off the attack.”

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Essentially a game for Panzerknackers, this is a smallaction but one that can be provide an amusing diversion.We played this in an area of about 3’ square in 15mm,with 28mm I’d increase that to 4’.

Lieutenant Goduidionachvili has four Panzerknackerteams who must try to stop the monster tank fromdestroying the hospital. All of the sappers start on blindsand once deployed will operate on one card per team.The Soviet player will have one tank only which,starting at point A, is specifically tasked with destroyingthe railway station and the hospital. The Spanish will notbe aware just what the tank’s objectives are.

Spanish ForcesLieutenant Constantino Goduidionachvili D6+1, GradeIIISapper Ponte Anido D6, Grade IIIThree additional Big Men, all Grade II

Four panzerknacker teams

The panzerknackers have a total of six Teller mines andsix Molotov cocktails that they may allocate between theteams as they wish at the start of the game.

Soviet ForcesYefreitor Uri Glasnostovich D4, Grade IOne KV-1 tank

The hospital can be knocked down by driving through it,as can most of the buildings. The town is made up of abrick built high street, not represented here, and theblocks or buildings and gardens are enclosed by woodenfences. The station is brick built and needs to be reducedby cannon fire.

CardsTactical Initiative CardsBig Men cardsSoviet BlindsSpanish BlindsTea BreakPanzerknacker Team cardsHeroic Spanish LeaderKV-1 card

Scenario Three – Trouble At MillThe paper mill at Iam Izhora lay on a peninsula almostenclosed by the Izhora river. For much of the year theonly access was via the road that ran through the thinneck of land that led to the high concrete walls thatsurrounded the wood yard. Here the 1st Squadron of 250Reconnaissance Battalion under Captain Ortega held outagainst Soviet charges across the now solid ice of theriver.

For the Spanish headquarters group to the rear, with nocommunication with Krasni Bor, the preservation oftheir positions southwards along the river wasconsidered critical, as Soviet penetration here wouldexpand the breach in their lines even further.

In this scenario Ortega’s men are occupying the variousbuildings of the paper-mill supported by a battery of105mm guns firing over open sights. This scenario ismore of a traditional head to head game of IABSM, withall the normal rules applying. The Spanish must maintaintheir positions in the mill, the Soviets must remove them.Like all winter battles the bareness of the terrain presentsproblems for the attacker, but he can only hope thatweight of numbers can tell.

Spanish ForcesCommand ElementsCapitán Jaime Ortega D6Alférez Ricardo Ospietta DAvTwo other Big Men, both D4

Squadron HeadquartersTwo MG 34 teams (3 crew each)

Platoons 1 – 3Three rifle squads with one PzB30 each

Artillery BatteryAlférez Simon Porcino D4Four 105mm Field Guns

Troops 0 1 2 3

Spanish 1,2,3 4 5 6,7,8

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The Spanish may deploy anywhere on the table and maybe considered dug-in.

The buildings of the paper-mill are a mix of constructiontypes, the large mill building itself and the walls of theyard being high grade reinforced concrete, whereas someof the outlying ancillary buildings are of woodconstruction. The mill itself can never receive a criticalhit, as it is considered too strong, whereas the woodbuildings will simply collapse if any critical hit isachieved. Any troops inside them at the time will dicefor one hit on each man inside if that happens.

The artillery is dug into pits which provide good cover.If they are over-run by the Soviets and close combatoccurs the gun crew will reduce their dice by 50% toreflect their lack of close quarter weapons to deal withthis type of combat.

Soviet Forces1st Company

Command ElementsTwo Big MenOne sniper

Platoons 1 – 3Three rifle squads each (8 men each)

Machine Gun PlatoonFour Maxim MMGs (3 crew each)

2nd Company

Command ElementsThree Big Men

Platoons 4 – 6Three rifle squads each (8 men each)

Tank PlatoonFour T34-76 tanksFour squads of SMG armed tank riders (8 men each)

Mortar SupportThree 82mm mortars (off table)

The Soviets will arrive in the north-eastern part of thetable – as marked on the map – at the start of turn one,all on blinds. Tanks may cross the ice without a problem,but to keep the player on his toes warn him that the icecould well crack under the weight of the tank. A boggingin test should be taken if a tank attempts to cross the icewith failure meaning that the crew abandon their tank fortwo turns, after which they may somewhat shamefacedlyremount.

CardsThis scenario requires the following cards:

Tea BreakSoviet BlindsSpanish BlindsSoviet Platoons 1-6Soviet MMG Platoon

Soviet Armour OneSoviet SniperSoviet Big MenUhraah!Soviet Armour BonusSoviet MortarsSpanish Big MenSpanish Platoons 1-3Spanish Support WeaponsSpanish Heroic LeaderSpanish Artillery 1-4Spanish MMG Bonus

ConclusionThe three scenarios above, all quite different, willhopefully allow the gamer to get the feel for theSpaniards’ desperate struggle in that cold, inhospitablepart of northern Russia. I have rated the Spanish as beingrelatively good, resilient troops. Even Hitler had toadmit:

“The Spaniards are a crew of ragamuffins. They regardthe rifle as an instrument that should not be cleanedunder any pretext. Their sentries exist only in principle.They don’t take up their posts, or, if they do take themup, they do so in their sleep. When the Russians arrivethe natives have to wake them up. But the Spaniardshave never yielded an inch of ground. One can’t imaginemore fearless fellows. They scarcely take cover. Theyflout death. I know, in any case, that our men are alwaysglad to have Spaniards as neighbours in their sector.”

The Battle Of Krasni Bor – Historic Notes ByRichard BaberThroughout January 1943 it became noticeable todivisional staff that enemy activity was on the increasealong the sector held by 262nd Regiment. The Spaniardsstepped up their ‘golpes de mano’ in an attempt to gatherprisoners and to gain a better understanding of Sovietintentions. It quickly became obvious that a major attackwas to fall upon the 262nd. In an attempt to reinforce thesector division moved the 250th Reserve Battalion into aposition between the 262nd and the 269th. The 262ndRegiment’s front now covered five kilometres from theIshora River to the railway line that ran from Krasni Borto Leningrad.

Day by day pressure upon the regiment’s front continuedto mount, intelligence identified that the Spanish facedfour Soviet divisions - 43rd, 72nd, 45th and 63rd. Also insupport of these units were two armoured regiments, 187artillery batteries, two mortar battalions, two anti-tankbattalions, one motorised brigade and two skicompanies. Facing this the Spanish had an InfantryRegiment, the reserve battalion, six batteries of 105mmartillery and regimental anti-tank; infantry gun andengineer units - a combined total of 5,600 men. Divisioncommitted all the reserves it could; an assault engineercompany commanded by Capt. Aramburu was placedbetween the reserve battalion and the 262nd Regimentand a cavalry squadron was placed in immediate reserve.The Germans too tried to provide assistance withadditional stocks of artillery ammunition, signallers and

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intercept specialists and 3 - 75mm anti-tank guns crewedby Norwegian SS men.

At 0800 on February 10th the storm broke and the wholesector exploded. For a while the Spanish artillery (sixbatteries) attempted to vainly counter the Soviet guns butwithin thirty minutes nearly every Spanish gun wasknocked out! The front collapsed under the combinedtank/infantry attack, the Cavalry Company was almostcompletely wiped out counter-attacking into the Russianmass. 3rd Company, who were defending the OctoberRailway Station, had been decimated and was left withonly 40 men and they fought to the last. Theircommander Captain Ruiz de Huidrobo, who had beenoffered the chance of leave a few days earlier, was killedin the fighting. He was posthumously awarded theLaureate Cross of St Ferdinand.

All around the Spanish were being cut down undermassed Soviet assaults but, by mid morning, a smallnumber of men had managed to break out of theencirclement and retreat towards Krasni Bor. Despitethis, isolated units had managed to hold out on theMoscow to Leningrad road and at Podolovo, repeatedlyfighting off Soviet attacks. In Krasni Bor itself theartillery, engineer and other assorted stragglers cameunder attack from Soviet infantry and armour. Soviettanks deliberately shelled retreating ambulances as wellas the hospital there, but the Spaniards, armed withMolotov Cocktails and hand-grenades, eventually beatoff these tanks.

In the afternoon belated support came in the form of aLuftwaffe fighter-bomber attack, that bombed Sovietpositions and troop concentrations around the town ofKolpino. All around the situation looked grim for theSpaniards. In and around Krasni Bor the small Spanishpockets of resistance were gradually being overrun and itwas not until 4.30pm that day that the German 212thDivision supported by the new 112th Division whichwas made up of Latvian and Flemish volunteers, came tosupport the beleaguered Blue Division. The Spanish

were ordered to deploy along the Ishora River and toprevent an encirclement of their positions taking placeand all Soviet attempts to achieve just this wererepulsed. At Krasni Bor the last remnants of the 262nd’sartillerymen and engineers retreated, leaving only the 1startillery group who were to retreat later that night. More Soviet attacks took place early the next morningalong the River Ishora near the paper factory and men of3rd Company, 262nd Regiment and other personnel fromvarious Spanish units drove all attacks back for the nexttwo days. Soviet assaults then abated somewhat and thelast major attack came on 19th March but that too wasbeaten back by the Spanish. At the end of the battle theSpanish losses were extremely heavy - 75%. In total3,645 men had been wounded or killed and 300 takenprisoner.

The battle can be fought in many ways, multi playerseems best with the Spanish commanders needing towatch their flanks and to cover each other, whilstwithdrawing or counter-attacking. Units will findthemselves cut off and be forced to fight their way back.A strict timetable should be placed on the Russianplayers, rewarding the Spanish with German fighter-bombers if they hold up the Russian advance. The fouraccounts I’ve read of the battle often mention thebravery of the Spanish (they are all Spanish accounts!) intaking on Russian tanks with mines, magnetic grenadesand Molotov cocktails, some allowance should be givento aid the Spanish in this.

Wargaming The BattleNow I wanted to write a scenario based on this largeimportant (to the Spanish) battle, but found that the scaleand complexity of the action was beyond my abilities.Others however have been able to transfer this actioninto forms through which we can re-enact thosedesperate events of 10th – 11th February 1943:

Richard Clarke was kind enough to re-write his excellentoriginal piece entitled – “Underpants of Dread” which Ifirst read in the TooFatLardies “Bumper FestiveStocking Filler 2004” – this was (and is) an impressiveattempt at writing a usable wargaming version of part ofthis battle.

The Gamers Inc. produced a board game (No7 in theirTactical Combat series) called Black Wednesday whichcovers the battle in fair detail – the maps alone make thisworth buying in my opinion. You can often find copiesappearing on Ebay, many in mint condition, unopenedand still shrink wrapped!

Another member Steve Thomas has a great website withsections dedicated to all things Spanish:www.balagan.org.uk

This includes TO&E info and history on the BlueDivision plus some scenarios for Crossfire rules. Mostimpressive of all is a very detailed, excellently laid outmini-campaign for this battle – check it out. You’ll beimpressed, I know I was.

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Aegean BreakpointModern naval game for Task Force by Scott Fisher

This scenario was developed for my favourite modernnaval boardgame, SPI’s Task Force, which I convertedfor miniatures, but can be easily modified for Shipwreckor any other modern naval game. Optimally this scenarioshould be played with a game-master so that the secretelements (both Greek and Turk) can be represented (toadd confusion for both sides). The map is represented inthe classic Task Force hex and Megahex fashion but forother rules could be converted away from hexes. Enjoy!– Scott Fisher

GreeceOperational SituationIn the spring of 2000, responding to increasing tensionsaround Cyprus, the new (Conservative Party) Greekgovernment has decided to fortify its island possessionsalong the frontier with Turkey. Recently, Turkeychallenged the deployment of Greek Cypriot anti-aircraftmissiles to Cyprus by military force. The confrontationthat followed cost both sides many lives. TheGovernment is fearful that Turkish aggression in Cypruswill be the precedent for further challenges to Greeksovereignty in the south Aegean. It is becoming moreand more clear that Turkey does not recognise thetransfer of these islands from Italy to Greece in 1947 (infact, the Turks never signed any agreement recognisingGreek sovereignty over the islands). In reaction to thislatest Turkish aggression, Athens has ordered thatseveral air-defence systems as well as significant Armysupplies should be secretly deployed to the south-eastAegean. The Conservative Party has been elected on anationalist platform of “holding firm” on Greek controlof the southern Aegean. To keep the current governmentin power, it is critical that Turkey not be given anyreason to believe that they may profit from militaryadventurism.

Tactical SituationCertain islands in the southeast Aegean have beenidentified by the Greek General Staff as “PrimaryDefensive Points (PDP).” These islands are to receiveshipment of anti-aircraft systems, prepositioned militarysupplies, advanced communication equipment and land-based anti-ship missiles. Ayios (MH 9g) and Kalimnos(MH19g) have been identified as PDP islands. Someshipments of this material were made to the PDP onAyios on 1 September. This shipment is currentlyunloading. Another critical shipment of equipment andsupplies has been loaded onto Greek military transportsand is due to arrive at Kalimnos on 2 September. It isimperative at this stage to keep these shipments secret.

EnvironmentIt is 1 September, at 1800. The Sea State is 2, visibility isnormal and there is a half-moon. Wind is 15 knots from200 degrees (true). The forecast for the next 24 hours isfor clear skies and consistent wind from the Southwest.Visibility is same hex only (roll d6 (per action); 1-2Precise Report, 3-4 Accurate Report) night turns 2000-

0600, automatic Precise Report in same hex for dayturns.

ForcesA part of the forces taking part in the exercise will beavailable to duty to escort the freighter and to runinterference with the Turks.

Task Force 12 (start in Megahex 1 or 2)Commodore +1Captain +0Kimon (CF Adams) Elli (Kortenaer)Hydra (MEKO 200)Mamatas (weapons transport, Flot 2, speed 2)Emanuel (weapons transport, Flot 2, speed 2)

Task Force 34 (start in Megahex 10)Adrias (Kortenaer)Salamis (MEKO 200)

Task Force 27 (start in Megahex 16 or 20)Aegeon (Kortenaer)Limnos (Kortenaer)

Naxos Airbase (MH 3c)1x P-3C Orion (ASW 1; unlimited range; night/allweather)2x Mirage 2000 (3 – 2, M-strike; 5 megahex radius;daylight only)-Naxos has 8x AS39 Exocet ASM (D missile) for oneMirage 2000 strike (requires one of the two aircraftabove).

Greek OrdersGreek orders are twofold:Primary Objective: Secure safe transport of the militaryshipment to Kalimnos. Both transports must beconvoyed safely to the harbour at Kalimnos (MH 19g)and unloading begun before 0600 on 2 September.

Secondary Objective: Maintain sovereignty of GreekTerritory. Patrols must ensure the integrity of Greekterritory.

Rules Of Engagement1) No Greek ship should enter Turkish land-sea hexes. 2) Greek ships may only fire if fired upon (exception,see point three below). Ramming, threats of force andother non-violent measures are sanctioned. If violentactions commence, visual identification of targets ismandatory - there is too much civilian traffic in this areato risk undue civilian deaths that will complicate post-conflict diplomatic negotiations. It is the position ofGreece that it is our right to arm our sovereign territoryin any way the government wishes - though we mustmaintain the diplomatic and legal high ground. 3) Greek forces may fire on any unauthorized ships thatclose within visual range (same hex) of the transports

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that are shipping the military supplies. The secrecy ofthese shipments must be maintained.

Victory ConditionsFor a decisive Greek victory, the Greeks must deliver themilitary shipment to Kalimnos by 0800 on 2 Septemberand maintain the sovereignty of Greek territorial waters.If both transports are sunk or the content of thetransports is revealed to the Turkish player (by boardingor capture), Greece automatically loses the scenario.

Setup/Special RulesAA Missiles in Ayios Shipment: The AA Missiles atAyios (MH 9g) will be operational at 0600 on 2September. These are four mobile Crotale launchers thatwill be deployed around the harbour at Ayios (AA valueof “3”).

SSM Missiles in Ayios Shipment: The SSM missiles areon two mobile launchers (4x Exocet each) and will bedeployed and operational around the harbor at Ayios(MH 9g) by 0400 on 2 September.

Greek Coastwatchers: Every Greek harbour or port (thestars on the map) have a Greek Coast Guard/Customsstation. These stations monitor all traffic within visualrange of the station (in the coastal hex at night and inhex and one adjacent hex during daylight). They haveline-of-sight across sea hexes only (may not look acrossland hexsides).

Helicopter Identification Flights: Helicopters may beused for close-range fly-overs to determine the exactnationality and type of ship in a hex. To conduct such aFlight costs one action; the initiating player must pickthe specific hex to conduct the search. These flights aresubject to anti-aircraft fire; treat the helicopter as amissile in AA combat. In daylight a helicopter mayidentify the exact nature of the target from an adjacentarc in the tactical display; at night the helicopter must flydirectly into the arc of the target to identify it.

TurkeyOperational SituationRecently, Turkey has challenged the deployment ofGreek Cypriot anti-aircraft missiles to Cyprus bymilitary force. The confrontation that followed cost bothsides many lives. In Turkey, this valiant stand againstGreek encirclement is seen as a precedent for futureactions. Turkey does not recognise that the islands in thesoutheastern Aegean are Greek territory. Turkeypreviously accepted Italian domination of these islands(1923) but not the transition of these islands to Greece in1947. In the weeks following the confrontation inCyprus, Turkish intelligence has obtained information ofincreased Greek military movement in the southeasternAegean. Politically, the current Turkish governmentmust maintain its “iron hand” doctrine against Greekencirclement, or it will surely be forced from office bymore conservative elements. Within a week of theCyprus clash, the government ordered thecommencement of “Operation SkreechOwl”- aimed atdetermining Greek intentions and capabilities in thesoutheastern Aegean. Turkey will no longer accept a

military containment of its frontiers at the hands of theGreeks. To ensure the most complete basis for protest inthe UN, and, if necessary, to prepare for the militarydefence of Turkish interests in the Aegean, SkreechOwlmust be a success.

Tactical SituationOperation ScreechOwl commenced on 17 August withseveral covert penetrations of Greek-claimed waters.Several fishing trawlers and inter-island trawlers havebeen converted by the Turkish government forintelligence gathering in and around the islands of thesoutheastern Aegean. The operation has been onlymoderately successful up until this point. No keyinformation has been gained, though it is clear thatGreece has increased warship patrols in the area. Earlyon 1 September the intelligence trawler Kaloss,disguised as a Greek fishing vessel, was patrolling nearan island in the centre of the Dhodhekanisos Channel(MH 15g). She was monitoring Greek naval shippingwhen at 1400 she ran hard aground. With a falling tideshe is still hard aground and taking on water. Her captainreported that he did not believe he could refloat beforedawn, if at all. He has darkened the boat and is awaitingrescue. In addition, two Turkish submarines and onesurface ship are, at this time, en route to three locationsto disembark Turkish commando teams on several Greekislands. The objective of these teams is to observe Greekmovement and military deployment. There is alsoinformation that a Greek task force is being assembledfor some unknown mission and will be at sea bymorning - its intentions need to be assessed.

EnvironmentIt is 1 September, at 1800. The Sea State is 2, visibility isnormal and there is a half-moon. Wind is 15 knots from200 degrees (true). The forecast for the next 24 hours isfor clear skies and consistent wind from the Southwest.Visibility is same hex only (roll d6 (per action); 1-2Precise Report, 3-4 Accurate Report) night turns 2000-0600, automatic Precise Report in same hex for dayturns.

Turkish ForcesA part of the forces taking part in the exercise will beavailable to duty to escort the freighter and to runinterference with the Turks.

Task Force 124 (start in Megahex 18)Gemlik (Perry) Zafer (Knox)

Task Force 52 (start in Megahex 13)Comodore +1GAzinatep (Perry) Barbaros (MEKO 200TN)

Task Force 23 (start in Megahex 20)Orucreis (MEKO 200TN)

Sub 1 (start in Megahex 22 or 23)Sakarya (Type 209/1400) [Commando Team on board]Sub 2 (start in Megahex 12, 17 or 18)Preveze (Type 209/1400) [Commando Team on board]

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Akkoy Airbase (MH 18b)2x F-5E (2 – 2, L-strike; 3 megahex radius; daylightonly)1x F-16A (3 – 4, M-strike; 4 megahex radius; daylightonly) 2x Spy Aircraft (3 megahex radius, see special rules)

Special Team Delivery Unit (start in Megahex 18)SC-107 (Scarab speedboat, speed 3, any hit destroys)[Commando Team on board]

Spy Trawler 1 (start in any Megahex)Bdrovny (fishing trawler, speed 1, any hit destroys)Spy Trawler 2 (start in any Megahex)Lavega (fishing trawler, speed 1, any hit destroys)Spy Trawler 3 (start in any Megahex)Kamino (fishing trawler, speed 1, any hit destroys)

OrdersTurkish orders have three objectives:Primary Objective: Rescue the crew and code equipmentof Kaloss and destroy the vessel. The crew must berescued before Greek patrols discover her fate. They willsurely offer help and in doing so board the vessel anddiscover her identity. In addition, the ship must bedestroyed (burned) to prevent any evidence of her realpurpose. It will take approximately two actions for thecrew of the Kaloss (MH15g) to set the fires, abandon-ship and row to a rescue vessel.

Primary Objective: Disembark three Commando Reconteams. Three Commando Recon teams must bedeployed; one on Ayios (MH 9b, 9g, or 5c), one onKalimnos (MH 19a or 19g), and one on Amorgos (MH11b, or 11g). These teams take one action to disembarkfrom any vessel (on the surface).

Secondary Objective: Discover the intent and capabilityof the assembling Greek Task Force. Intelligenceinformation has discovered that a Greek Task Force willbe assembling in the region of Amorgos Island by dawn.Discover the intent of the Task Force via visual means.This will require closing to within close-visual distance(1/2 of the current max visibility) of the force andobserving it for one action. This may be done by ship,aircraft or submarine.

Rules Of Engagement1) Absolute Priority: Turkish forces are authorised to useany force necessary to repel Greek forces that haveentered Turkish territorial waters or airspace.2) First Priority: Turkish ships should not open fire ifopening fire would reveal their identity. It is paramountthat the Kaloss rescue and the Commando Recondeployments are kept absolutely secret. Greece will useany evidence of military occupation (men landing onshore) to discredit the Turkish position in any post-conflict UN debate. 3) Second Priority: Turkish forces may only open fire toprevent the capture of the Kaloss crew, the Kalossherself, and the capture of the Commando Recon teams.It is deemed acceptable to use force to prevent thecapture or to effect the recapture these personnel. Otheruse of force is prohibited.

Victory ConditionsFor a decisive Turkish victory, the crew of the Kalossmust be rescued (and the ship burned) and theCommando teams must be deployed. A Turkish minorvictory may be achieved by rescuing the crew of Kaloss(and burning the ship) and discovering the intent of theassembling Greek Task Force. If the crew of the Kalossis captured alive or if any of the Commando ReconTeams are captured alive, the Turkish player loses thescenario.

Setup/Special RulesSpy Aircraft: Two converted civilian Twin Commanche250 twin-turbo prop aircraft have been converted for usewith electronic direction finding equipment and nightvision devices to act as spy aircraft. Each turn theseaircraft fly the Turkish player may search one hex peraircraft and receive a Precise Search Report if they enterthe same hex as the target ships. The aircraft have beenregistered to Argos Aircraft in Athens and have beenleased through several front companies. Thesecompanies include; 1) “Conways Naval Vessels of theWorld”, 2) GeoMapp software, 3) Soros Investment Ltd.Spraypaint and stencils are available on each aircraft torepaint them in two actions. The pilots are some of thebest in the Turkish airforce. The planes are based inAkkoy and have a 3-megahex flight radius.

Spy Trawlers: Three spy trawlers, equipped with radiodirection finding equipment, and night vision devices areavailable; these vessels receive a Precise Search Reportif they enter the same hex as the target ships.

Commando Transport: Two submarines have been taskedto deliver the Commando Recon teams, in addition, oneconverted civilian high-speed powerboat (Scarab) hasbeen converted for delivery of a team. Each of theseplatforms has been equipped with a special self-destructmechanism to destroy the vessel in case of imminentcapture.

Helicopter Identification Flights: Helicopters may beused for close-range fly-over to determine the exactnationality and type of ship in a designated hex. Toconduct such a Flight costs one action; the initiatingplayer must pick the specific hex to conduct the search.These flights are subject to anti-aircraft fire; treat thehelicopter as a missile in AA combat. In daylight ahelicopter may identify the exact nature of the targetfrom an adjacent arc in the tactical display; at night thehelicopter must fly directly into the arc of the target toidentify it.

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Operation DreamlandAn AirWar: C21 mission based on Red Storm Rising by Steve Blease

IntroductionTom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising is one of the mostreadable Cold War invasion novels and chock full ofpotential wargames scenarios for land, sea and airwargamers.

Re-reading the book recently I was struck by the factthat whilst many scenarios were easy enough to replicateon the tabletop, this would only tell half the story,especially for those involving air strikes. This wasclearly evident in the Frisbees of Dreamland chapter,telling of the USAF strike on targets in East Germany inthe early hours of the war. Whilst the bombing of thebridges across the Elbe at Hohenroarthe would be fairlystraight forward to recreate on the tabletop, the funwould surely be in the flight across enemy territory tothe target zone and the return to base. Consequently Iwas inspired to try and come up with some way ofincorporating this into the game.

Frisbees Of DreamlandFor those of you unfamiliar with what happens in RedStorm Rising, NATO is on a heightened state of alert andas soon as Soviet Spetsnaz units attack targets in WestGermany, and before Soviet armour crosses the WestGerman border, massive airstrikes are launched into EastGermany hitting ground targets in an attempt to preventthe second echelon of the invasion being able to followthe initial wave and depriving the Soviets of vitalsupport equipment and reinforcements for the earlybattles in West Germany. Further attacks against Sovietairfields would also give NATO parity in the air.

Operation Dreamland (as it is called in the book) isundertaken mainly by US F-111F Aardvarks andLuftwaffe GR1 Tornados, with a number of F19AGhostrider stealth aircraft (Clancy’s books predates theofficial unveiling of the F-117A Nighthawk in 1988) andin 27 minutes over 200 Soviet fighters have beendestroyed along with 30 bridges for the loss of 13 NATOplanes.

Clearly this should make for a great game with lots ofpotential variation in outcome for the players, but whatis the best way to translate this into a wargame?

Inspiration was to come from an unusual source in theform of Matthew Hartley’s Scudbuster rules whichrecreate the SAS missions against Saddam’s Scuds in theFirst Gulf War. Matthew makes great use of a set ofplaying cards in the rules to in rules to introduceuncertainty and variety in games and the mechanism isvery flexible (I have used it for a Lord of the Rings gameand had been tinkering with it for some games of RB-50B intelligence gathering off the Soviet coast in theearly days of the Cold War – inspired by William E.Burrows’ book By Any Means Necessary). The systemcan result in some very one-sided situations on the oddoccasion, but then who ever said life was fair?

Operation DreamlandThe mission can be fought in a number of ways bygamers, either as a club event or just between a couple ofregular friends. If playing with a number of gamers thenthe NATO side can operate with all the flights listedbelow, split between the players. If there is just oneplayer a side the NATO player should choose to controlfour flights of aircraft from the list below (for varietythey can mix or match aircraft flights but not the aircraftwithin a flight):

Four flights each of 4 x F-111F Aardvarks

Four flights each of 4 x GR1 Tornados

One flight of F-117A Nighthawks

They should be loaded with the appropriate munitions todestroy the identified targets. The Soviet player takes thesuit of diamonds from a pack of playing cards and laysthem face down on a side table in a 4 x 3 pattern asbelow (the spare card can be placed on top of any othercard). The three cards on one side will represent thethree main target zones (A, B & C). The NATO aircraftwill fly from airfields at points 1, 2 & 3 and each flightneeds to be represented by a marker or coin.

1 A

2 B

3 C

The NATO player takes the suit of spades and lays themface down one each on top of the face down on top ofthe diamonds.

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The NATO player then moves his token one card at atime (in whichever direction he chooses includingdiagonally) across the cards. When a token is placed atopa card, both the diamond and the spade card arerevealed. The players then consult the following tablesand play the game using their fight of strike aircraft andwhatever is revealed by the cards on a standard table.The strike aircraft need to cross the table (losses arecumulative). NATO and Soviet aircraft that are revealedby the cards only remain in play for the game and do notfollow into the next game.

Diamond Result

Ace Two SA-8b

2 Two SA-10b batteries

3 One MiG-21MF

4 One MiG-25PD

5 One MiG-27

6 Two MiG-23BN

7 Two Su-24M

8 Two MiG-29

9 Two Su-25

10 Four MiG-21MF

Jack Four MiG-21bis L

Queen Four MiG-29S

King Four Su-27

The targets are as follows:

A – Mahlminkel airbase – large runway, 12 Su-24 onground, four batteries SA-10a

B – Hohenroarthe bridges – two large concrete bridges,four batteries SA-10a, two sections ZSU 23-4

C – Soviet Bridging Unit – five trucks, two APC’s twosections of ZSU23-4, four SA-13

Spade Result

Ace No support available

2 E3A warning – flight can retire to previouscard without engaging Soviets and try analternative route

3 Two F-16A Block 10 Export

4 Two F-4S Phantom II

5 Two Tornado IDS

6 Two F-15C Eagles

7 Three F-16C Block 25

8 Three Tornado GR.1 IDS

9 Three F-15C Eagles

10 Four F-4S Phantom II

Jack Four F-16C Block 25

Queen Four Tornado IDS

King Four F-15C Eagles

Following the destruction of the targets (or not) thereturn to the bases should be undertaken using the samemethod with the heart and club cards. The above tablescan be used or alternative ones with reduced levels ofSoviet aircraft if desired to reflect the impact of theNATO raids across East Germany.

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Action at NeugartenA Cold War Commander scenario by Paul Case

IntroductionDate: 10th August 1989

Place: Somewhere in the south of 1(BR) Corps area,West Germany

After smashing through the NATO forward line, theSoviet 47th Guards Tank Division (3rd Shock Army)replaces its lead unit, 153rd Guards Tank Regiment, withthe 245th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment, as the 153rdhas suffered heavily at the hands of the 16th/5th Lancers.Now it is time to see if all that money spent on defencewas worth it, as 4th Armoured Division's 11th Brigadetries to stop the onrushing invaders.

Focus And BriefingNATO (BreakPoint = 45)

Brigadier John Smith:Your Brigade [11th Armoured] has been ordered to stopthe enemy from breaking through.

While the Brigade's FV432 Battalion [2nd Queens] (witha Sqn from 3RTR attached) is holding the west side ofthe river, your Challenger Regiment [3rd RTR] andMCV Battalion [1st A and SH] will be the counter-attackforce.

The West German Heimatschutzkommando Companiesare for defence only. They are protecting the twovillages, their homes.

11th Armoured Brigade [British 4th ArmouredDivision]:Bde HQ: 1x CO Stand (CV= 10) [Brigadier Smith]

3rd Btn, Royal Tank Regt:2x HQ Stand (CV= 9)4x Sqns each: 3x Challenger 1 Stands

1st Btn, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders:2x HQ Stands (CV = 9)3x Coys each: 3x MCV-80 Stands3x Regular Infantry Stands (with LAW-80 Upgrade)1x Fire Sup Coy: 1x Recce Plat: 2x Scimitar Stands1x Mtr Plat: 2x FV432(m) Stands1x AT Plat: 1x Spartan MCT Stand2x FV432 Stands4x Milan 2 Stands

2nd Btn, Queens:2x HQ Stands (CV = 9)3x Coys each: 3x FV432 Stands3x Regular Infantry Stands (with LAW-80 Upgrade)1x Fire Sup Coy: 1x Recce Plat: 2x Scimitar Stands1x Mtr Plat: 2x FV432(m) Stands1x AT Plat: 1x Spartan MCT Stand2x FV432 Stands4x Milan 2 Stands

3rd Field Regt. Royal Horse Artillery:3x FOO Stands3x Btys each: 1x M109A2 Stand (Off Board)1x AD Bty: 3x Spartan Stands, 3x Javelin Stands1x AD Trp: 1x TR-1 Stand1x Eng Sqn: 3x FV432 Stands3x Combat Engineer StandsAtt: 1x Chieftain AVLB Stand1x Centurion AVRE Stand

Attached:2x Heimatschutzkommando Coys each: 1x HQ (CV = 8)3x Regular Infantry Stands (with M72 LAW Upgrade)1x Milan 2 Stand1x Field Arty Regt. (49th Field Regt RA):3x Btys each: 1x M109A2 Stand (Off Board)2x Atk Heli Flts each: 1x Lynx Stand

Note: BreakPoint is 45 if the Mtrs are onboard. Adjustdown by 1 BP for each Mtr Plat kept offboard. Bothoffboard, BP is 43.

Soviet (BreakPoint = 51)

Colonel Dimitri Petrov:Your Regiment [245th Guards Motor Rifle] has beenordered to take over the advance from the 153rd GuardsTank Regiment, after its battering from the British lightarmour. Your orders are simple - cross the river and drivewest!

I have given you some of the remains of the 153rdGuards Tank Regiment to help you. Their tanks andBMPs have no ATGW.

Division has lent you a Battalion of its ArtilleryRegiment (99th Guards) and some Frontal Aviation.

245th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment [Soviet 47thGuards Tank Division]:Regt HQ: 1x CO Stand (CV = 9) [Colonel Petrov]3x MR Btns each: 1x HQ Stand (CV = 8)3x Coys each: 3x BMP-2 Stands3x Conscript Infantry Stands (with RPG-16 Upgrade)1x Mtr Bty: 1x MT-LB Stand1x 120mm Mtr Stand1x AAGW Plat: 1x BMP-2 Stand (No ATGW)2x SA-18 Stands1x Tk Btn: 1x HQ Stand (CV = 8)3x Coys each: 3x T.80 (ERA, ATGW) Stands1x Arty Btn: 1x FOO Stand3x Btys each: 1x 2S1 Stand (On or Off Board)1x Recce Coy: 1x BRDM-2 Stand1x BRM Stand1x AA Coy: 1x 2S6 Stand1x SA-13 Stand1x ATGW Coy: 3x BRDM-3 Stands

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1x Eng Coy: 1x MTU Stand1x BTR-70 Stand1x Combat Engineer Stand

Attached:153rd Gds Tk Regt remnants:1x HQ Stand (CV = 7)1x Tk Btn: 3x T.80 (ERA) Stands1x Tk Btn: 2x T.80 (ERA) Stands1x MR Btn: 4x BMP-2 Stands (No ATGW)3x Conscript Infantry Stands (with RPG-16 Upgrade)1x SA-18 Stand

1x Arty Btn (99th Gds Arty Regt):3x Btys each: 1x 2S3 Stand (Off Board)2x Atk Heli Flts each: 1x Mi-24 Hind F Stand2x Aircraft Flts each: 1x SU-25 Stand

Note: BreakPoint is 51 if the 2S1s and Mtrs are onboard. If neither are onboard, then BP is 47. Adjust asfollows: each 2S1 Bty is 1/2 BP, and each Mtr Bty is 1BP. Do not forget to round fractions up.

AssetsThe British M109A2 [3rd RHA] Stands, and FV432(m)Stands if used Off Board, each have 4x HE and 2xSmoke.

The British attached Field Regt RA [49 Fld Regt] is forScheduled Arty fire only and each Stand has 8x HE andno smoke assets.

The Soviet 2S1 and 120mm Mortar Stands have 6x HEand 3x Smoke each, if left offboard.

The Soviet 2S3 Stands have 6x HE and no smoke eachto be plotted before the NATO set-up.

The Soviet SU-25 Stands each have 2x Cluster Bombsper turn on the table, at least one turn gap before eachaircraft may be requested for again, (ie. both on turn 2,next time they are on is turn 4. Or, 'A' on turn 2, 'B' onon turn 3, 'A' on turn 4, and so on, you get the picture (Ihope!)

DeploymentNATOThe Heimatschutzkommando Coys deploy one Coy pervillage.2nd Btn, Queens (with a Sqn of tanks) deploys in thewestern third of the map.The Lynx Flights are available on Turn 2, as is theattached Fld Arty Regt.The Counter-Attack force enters from either the north orsouth edge (decided before game start), west of the river,using Mobile Deployment, the turn after the Sovietshave crossed the river with tanks and/or Motor rifletroops.

Warsaw PactThe Soviets enter along the east board-edge, usingMobile Deployment, on Turn One (Obviously!!!).The Mi-24Fs are available on Turn 1. The SU-25s areavailable from Turn 2.

If the 2S1s are used onboard, they are treated likemortars, as long as they stay east of the river and behindthe hills. Their targets must be in the western half of theboard.

Victory ConditionsThis is pretty simple really, the Warsaw Pact win byexiting the west edge with at least 9 tanks/BMPs withInfantry and an HQ. with any other result they lose.

Extra bragging rights if: 1) they control both bridges andkeep the roads heading west free of NATO forces and 2)the more NATO stuff they kill (tanks count double).

StuffI have designed this scenario using my slightly reducedground scale for 'CWC'. This, basically, reduces theground scale by 3/5, thereby giving a scale of 1 ft = 1 km(approx). I did this because I use 6mm vehicles andfigures and I believe that Pete designed them for10/12mm. Also, being your average wargamer, I had toslightly alter the (very good set of) rules to my owntastes. I now find that the rules work out just fine for me.As played on a 6x4 table that is 6km x 4km (24sq km) ofplaying area.

The reason that the British have 2 x HQs in each Btn issimple, the second one represents the 2ic, who can alsocommand battle groups as and when needed (and allowsthe British more flexibility, which is correct). If you arenot OK with this just reduce each Btn to 1x HQ - noproblem, whatever suits you.

The map provided is the terrain the scenario wasdesigned for and should not be altered all that much.Leeway is granted but remember, West Germany is notthe Russian Steppes. Too open and it becomes a longrange spot-'em-and-kill. But on the other hand, too closeand it becomes the Ardennes and the game can bogdown. On the map most of the open ground is meadow.The river is fordable only to Amphibious vehicles (anddespite what some people think, the FV432 was notamphibious) and can be bridged by the MTU.

Fields should have gateways, obvious I know, but howmany times have you seen a wargames layout where thefields have no entrances? Also, it is up to you if theboundaries are hedges or fences or a bit of both.

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ConclusionAs you may have noticed, I have not included any pointstotals. I believe that you should play with what you have,no battle was ever fought by two evenly balanced sides,and so, our wargames should be the same. After all, weare supposed to be playing war, aren't we?

This has been an offering from the 'Gun-Pit' for use with'ColdWar Commander' rules, and as is usual with myofferings, not only has it not been playtested, but feelfree to change it to your favourite rules. Even change thecombatants, or even the war (Arab-Isreali wars or WW2springs to mind).

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