Thoughts on Cold War Commander

 

The decision to use Cold War Commander for Winter of '79 has proved to be a good one. It has removed several of the blockers in my thinking that were preventing me from realising the open warfare elements of the full blown civil war phase of the Winter of '79 scenario.

Plus it brings with it a quick win in the ability to use Mark R Davies' British Orbats for the 1980's (including notes for 1976 onward) as is, and they are available as a pdf download from the Fire and Fury dot com forums. These include regular and TA, infantry, armour, Paras and Marines. Sorted.

Mark is one of the few 'names' on TMP that I trust if not respect for researched, informed, balanced and objective comment. Despite the good work done by Mark I would urge against treating this information as tablets of stone, but it remains the best single, coherent source I've come across.

Looking at the factors for the infantry in Cold War Commander we need to make some changes to reflect the variation in training, discipline and quality of forces in a civil war. Forget factors assigned to other nations troops - we are not comparing like with like, but looking instead within a sandbox created by Winter of '79 where the factors need to be comparative between a range British regular, reserve, para-military and irregular internal foes.

The easiest thing would be to simply trot out a series of different Attack Factors - but I feel we need to go beyond this and use the full gamut that Cold War Commander has to offer. I'm expecting a bit of experimentation during play, but hey, all armies need to shake down and absorb the lessons of the first battles in a shooting war - Goose Green being a prime example.

I'll share my draft ideas with you in a day or so.

Cheers
Mark

What About The Smaller Picture: Gaming in 1/300 & Below

Just after we started Winter of '79, Maff and I looked at whether there was any mileage in doing it, even duplicating in part in smaller scales such as 1/300 or even 1/600th. In particular, because we both liked the look of the Oddzial Osmy range of vehicles - more so once they introduce the Saracen APC and Saladin APC.

1/600th had the advantages of being cheap, easy to paint, perfect for including air power, plenty of room for manoeuvre and lose the edge of the world gaming syndrome. Plus it's perfect for gaming ontop of Ordnance Survey maps. The disadvantages being that the scale lacked the character we required. Especially in the realms of infantry. In fact as we wouldn't be using FV432's in any numbers, we'd end up using a base of Land Rovers to represent infantry units. And without any large number of MBTs in the country, we'd be reduced to actions fought between troops of Scorpions, Scimitars, Saladins, Foxes and Ferrets with the occasional inferred infantry presence. And in this case, 'infantry' represents a whole plethora of militias and rebels and everything in between, as well as para-military, part-time and regular troops. Not ideal.

But maybe as a one off, maybe this is how we play the 'thunder run' into Wales with Saladins proxying for Saxons etc Bear in the back of your mind that we are not trying to play Kursk on Salisbury Plain or Stalingrad in Salford.

Let's turn now to 6mm or 1/285-1/300th scale. This scale is popular and boasts a wide range of manufacturers of infantry, vehicles, air power and terrain. It has many of the advantages of 1/600th but in addition starts to bring in recognisable detail in the figures. I have to admit that Heroics pack M4 Modern British Infantry remain some of my favourites as they are clearly 1970/80's Brits in scrimmed helmets carrying SLRs, GPMGs and Carl Gustavs. Pack M5 is British Infantry Support and M14 are Royal Marines - with the biggest 6mm scale bergans anywhere!

 Irregular Miniatures Riot Squad

 A wider range of vehicles exist as well including the Saxon and FV432+Fox turret (Skytrex). Irregular also have police, rioters, civilians, guerrillas and generic infantry that can fulfill a wide variety of roles. In fact I'm now thinking OK, for the flash riot around an arrest, 20mm, but for full 'Red Felpersham', Borchester Burning' inner city mayhem 6mm is the way to go. I can build an entire city centre very easily in 6mm on no more than a pizza base.

Irregular Miniatures Civilians

I'm not a slave to scale. 1/300th or even 1/600th would remain subordinate to my 20mm games but still could provide a very viable means of representing some of those aspects of Winter of '79 that would be nice to game on the tabletop.

Cheers
Mark

The Bigger Picture

 

Tonight we began the discussion about the 'bigger picture'. That is, laying down the groundwork for larger company, battalion and brigade sized battles. So that by the Autumn, we are playing the full gamut from riots, to ambushes, to a battalion sized battlegroup push on Ambridge.

We agreed on Cold War Commander as our system of choice. Why? First, off we've both played Future War Commander, so the systems are familiar. Next, because it's designed to be scalable. We can group three 20mm figures and call them a section this week, a platoon the next and at a push, a company the week after that. Plus CWC also includes stats for British forces and equipment in the Falklands and throughout Cold War era. Finally but not least, it's easy to play on a weekday night after a bastard day in the office.

 That agreed we moved onto 'Red Felpersham'. Maff had an inspirational idea about running a riot game from the security forces perspective from behind the riot shields - atmospheric, quick, simple and perfect for solo play as well. He'll bash up the chassis of the mechanisms and then I'll do my Tarantino on them. Once we are happy, we'll do one from the rioters perspective.

With that sorted the troublesome issue of rioters in miniature arose. Now I have to confess that I really don't understand why with all the available OO scale model railway urban terrain and 1/76th security forces and police vehicles available, riot figures are produced in 25/28mm?

So we looked at alternatives and I've come up with a couple of solutions - cheap and cheerful but really, how much effort do I want to expend painting up rioters in jeans and a bomber jacket 50 times over? None is the answer. Imperial Guard they are not. I need figures that infer a militant mass but without the need for any real detail.

We didn't get round to having a game. Still, we had a profitable Winter of '79 centred evening.

Cheers
Mark

The Clampdown

With my rural terrain all but done - some winterised trees, a rail bridge and culvert should see it complete,  it's time to turn our creative energies to the urban "clampdown".

The Dropship 'dividend' in released time will allow me to get round to finishing my barricaded 'estate' in about a fortnights time. After that, it's a small but versatile inner city board.  

  

"The Clampdown", inspired by The Clash, obviously, will probably start as TEWTs using a Google street map of Worcester as 'Red' Felpersham whilst we work out the system. It will run something like this....

Maff will posit some trots in "safehouses". I attempt to locate them, then send in the snatch squads. I dig out the trots and the Humbers roll in. I suspect that a contact would develop very quickly – shove out some buildings/cars barricades etc and that’s what you see on the table.

Could even work in GEEZERS with a ham fisted arrest by the Flying Squad! Gives me a chance to go all Gene Hunt!  

I've got thirty or so 20mm riot troops an Internal Security Humber Pig, armoured Land Rovers, plus have some Saxons on the way...... just need some rioters - in bulk. 


Cheers
Mark

Operation Dragon Fire: The Batrep

Penny Pinch Farm: Borset

Some time back of crow fart

There's no way to hide the tell tale sound of the rotors as the three Scouts turned into the valley. Pearce, from Lough Erne was the first to wake. It was almost too late.

Mac and team one rapelled  into the field behind the Dutch barn. With rotors clear, the Scout carrying team 2 moved in and hovered in front of the barn. Team two rappelled here - but a catastrophic roll - Chas's line snags and in trying to free it he crashes 30 feet to the ground.

Team three are the last team in and drop into the field behind the farm whilst Mac in clearing the Dutch Barn. 'Badger One', the sniper OP (off table) reports lights on and quickly off in the house. "Shit!" mission is going loud!

AR15's and an FN FAL open fire from the upper story of the farmhouse. Two Free Taff's (Jones No.1 and Jones No.2) leave their quarters in the upper storey of the bothy and undecided get caught in a firefight with Mac's team.

Scotty leads the remainder of team two in the equipment shed on the ground floor of the bothy. All clear. Plenty of noise upstairs. There's a door. Sponge bursts through it and rakes Jones 1 and Jones 2 with his MP5, only to be hit in return by Dermond.

The IRA guys upstairs in the farmhouse start scoring hits on the SAS. Greaser goes down in team one, Mick, Doggo and Banger in team three are all hit. Sprouts is killed. Banger manages to wing Pearce. As Pearce stumbles into the front bedroom, Badger One takes him out. At this point things are seriously going Pete Tong for the SAS.

Mac leads Rollo and Suds in a rush on the corner of the farmhouse, where they take out Dermond in a fusilade of machine-pistol fire.

Team two make as much noise as they can to distract the occupants of the house. A long haired Taff appears at the top of the steps and fires an Armalite into the shadowy figures in the yard. this only results in him being instantly killed by Mac and co. Someone shouts "Owen! Got the bastard!" over the channel.

An Armalite fired from the house kills Mick in team three just as Mac, Rollo and Spud make a forced entry through the front door. The flash bang stuns McElhinney in the kitchen doorway and he is double-tapped. At this point the dice roll poorly resulting in an Armalite being thrown down the stairs and an Irish voice calls for surrender.

Mac shouts out for all weapons to be thrown down. A shotgun and another Armalite skid down the stairs. As Mac and Rollo reach the top of the stairs a shot rings out, a wounded IRA man fires with his pistol but misses. His last mistake. McIlroy survives - just - is hooded, cuffed and taken downstairs.

A handkerchief appears behind the door of the Bothy - the last of the Free Taffs gives himself up......

Final words from Mac.... "Target neutralised. One taff, one paddy secured. Someone tell the Paras to get over here and leave a note for the milkman! Out."

Cracking game. We both had a real laugh. Just under an hour to play on a 'school night' using Cold War: 1983. I made it tougher on the SAS (Maff) as it's about the game, the theatre and meant to be a bit of a challenge without spoiling the fun. We both agreed over a wet following the endgame, that the balance was right.


Cheers
Mark
  

Big Boys Rules

So what does our 'revolution' look like? Whats the timeline?

Well, during the course of Winter of '79 so far we have sketched out a brief series of events. In some cases we played them out the low key stuff in the fictional towns of East Whittington and Borchester. We also posted the 'revolution roadmap' from the British Army's own counter-insurgency manual.

We've decided that a timeline that has to be adhered to is too restrictive. We might want to play out a game from the easrly phase of the conflict in East Whittington this week and several linked games set around Borchester next, then East Whittington again. The world has moved on since the days of SPI's Wacht Am Rhine where you would spend months of your life pouring over maps and moving counters. Remember, for us Winter of '79 is a box within which to play our games and sometimes we just want to shake the box and see what ticket we pull out.

Campaigns, especially when blogged, also fall prey to "ah yes, but the RAF would have intervened and ......" . So we are going to play episodes from the revolution and civil war instead. Let's say we kick it off with a section patrol from 'N' Para or the government's new Raid Deployment Unit, bumping a Trot gun shipment in the lanes near the The Slaughtered Ferret. Events take their course – presume some losses on both sides but as Paras have a operating base and the Trots don’t as such. The Paras absorb the losses, take on intel and build up to a sweep of Ambridge parish. We decide if the Paras now have it in for the Trots or if they remain being professional Paras from now on….the Trots attitude to Paras is likewise determined and again, do more Trots join the revolution to become field a bigger force or do the survivors harden up and become cadre? 

So, next game is Para section doing a sweep. Or perhaps taking up a “observation/reaction position” at the anvil end of a sweep. Assets now include say a Humber, an armoured Land Rover and a qrf in a couple of Lightweights. 

We don’t have fixed “armies” to do the paperwork on or keep in command radius on map as the whole thing is “virtual” and decided by chinese parliament. Do we really need to use much more than common sense and perhaps a d6 for randomness. If I say “well, I want a gunned up westland scout” its only fair (for sake of fun game) that somehow, Maff the 'Mad Trot' get a few rpgs/Laws or perhaps a Dushka type weapon. Op Sec? lets presume it cancels out and leaks happen on both sides. 

Let's say you want a bit more than that. Maybe I do as a solo campaign whilst im recuperating. What would it look like? Let's take the example of the IRA in East Tyrone in the 1980's and transplant it to the UK.

Jim Lynagh, the leader of the IRA in East Tyrone devised a campaign based on Maoist military theory. This theory involved creating "zones of liberation" that the security forces in Northern Ireland did not control and then gradually expanding them to make the country as a whole ungovernable. Sounds right up our street in the context of Winter of '79.

South Armagh was considered as a liberated zone already, since British forces and the RUC could not use the roads for fear of roadside bombs. The strategy therefore began by establishing another area which the British military did not control. East Tyrone, a Republican stronghold was ideal. The IRA East Tyrone Brigade therefore launched attacks, mostly occurring in East Tyrone in areas close to South Armagh, which offered good escape routes across the border.

Remember that the IRA was on paper at least a Marxist revolutionary organisation and would in all probability not only have offered assitance to Marxist brothers in arms but also tried to profit from the situation on the UK mainland. This in itself offers a whole new range of potential within our games and we neatly answer the question how student rioters at Borchester Poly can be turned into armed insurgents.

Using the example of a real campaign above, we can instantly see how we can move from the 'Passive' phase box to the 'Active' - 'Insurgency' phase of the war; " a whole series of operations ranging from actions between formed units with a simultaneous situation of wide-spread guerrilla activity" (LAND OPERATIONS: Volume III Counter Revolutionary Operations (Parts 1 to 3), 1969 (revised 1973)). Or in other words, the raison d'tre for pushing model soldiers in DPM around a table. The fun stuff.

Cheers
Mark
 

Hornby buildings

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I think the excellent prebuilt range of buildings by Hornby are ideal fo gaming in the 70s and 80s. They have some interesting subjects, come ready painted and if carefully selected certainly have a period feel. The only problem is that they can be a bit fragile and pricey.




They also do a great range off street furniture.



Mike

Gaming The Winter of '79

In the good old bad old days of gaming, a C20th British Civil War scenario would see gamers dividing the UK straight across the middle, then equally dividing the armed forces, arranging for dribs of reinforcements from BAOR and other overseas deployments before bashing each other across the arbitary border in some Cold War rematch of WW1.

I'm glad to say that things are different  these days. Wargame rules such as AMBUSH ALLEY make representing the very nature of asymmetric warfare not just possible in miniature but challenging and fun. So we will be approaching The Winter of '79 from two different angles and essentially different play styles within a single overriding theme.

Maff is leading the build up in tension in the fictional amywhere inner city borough of East Whittington. These games are going to be small and probably focus around a corner pub, a used car business on an old bomb site and a railway viaduct with a few shops in it. Using GEEZERS - "SHUT IT!" CI5 and local Special Branch will be attempting to foil bankrolling raids by revolutionaries, and prevent arms deals from going down.  MI5 drones or SAS will bust armed Trot cells, bomb factories and arms caches using FLYING LEAD.

My personal gaming focus is on riot, rebellion and revolution! Civil protest and disturbance leading to armed insurgency and open civil war. Riots and running gun battles on the streets of Borchester using AMBUSH ALLEY. Union militias, Mad Trots, Very Private Armies will square off against each other and a fractured British Army using FORCE ON FORCE. A squallied war of patrols, raids and snatches across the country at large will be played out with classic SCUDBUSTERS, RECON and others.

Larger engagements between forces loyal to the civil power against rebel British Army, revolutionary and militia units are n the cards, but we will build up to these. Initially a clutch of Land Rovers, a few Bedfords, the odd armoured vehicle and helicopter, plus a gaggle of civvie vehicles is enough to get the show on the road. You'll find Land Rovers and Bedfords far more ubiquitous and versatile than a troop of CVR (T) Scorpions.

Cheers

Mark

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