Monday 8 April 2013

Compound 17

This Skirmish Sangin scenario was played out at my club a week ago, its taken from the rulebook and we put it on a 3' square terrain tile. Using 20mm figures I use a ground scale of 1cm = 1m so the ground scale and figure scale are the same.
For those who haven't got the rules, why not!, I'll do a very short overview.
Compound 17 is currently occupied by a local Warlord who is sitting on the fence, not helping the Taliban but not supporting  ISAF either. Intel has suggested that a local Taliban leader is going to visit the Warlord to convince him to assist expelling the infidels and as a sweetner he will be assisted in selling his opium. As a result a UKSF OP team has been covertly inserted and is watching the compound, intel has proved acurate and a QRF is to be inserted at dawn and search compound 17 to arrest the Taliban leader.
We had 4 players, I had the 4 man UKSF OP team, with Chris running the 2 Airborne fire teams landing as the QRF, there were other teams coming from other directions but these weren't gamed. Andy and Les were running the Taliban, 4 fighters and the Warlord and his entourage, 6 fighters.
Due to the nature of the Op  ISAF also had an attack helicopter, callsign Ugly51 on standby in the vacinity.
Read on to see what happened. Dougie
The table, Compound 17 is the large compound with the domed roofed buildings on the right of the photo, its just before dawn the Warlord and his fighters are in the compound together with the Taliban forces, all are still asleep following the shura the previous evening. The UKSF OP team is hidden in the treeline on the left side of the irrigation ditch, the open area at the bottom left of the photo is where the QRF fireteams will enter from.
Another table view.
My UKSF hidden prone in the treeline with a great overwatch position on the compound
The QRF chopper set the dogs barking and woke the compound, the QRF advanced by rushes towards the treeline and irrigation ditch, as this was happening Andy had some of his folks get up on the compound roof but unfortunately my OP team spotted them straight away, 2 were dropped almost instantly by rifle fire, forcing morale tests galore and one of my guys got off a 40mm grenade from the UGL which although not on target put the cat amongst the pigeons!
The QRF were now moving forward across the irrigation ditch and to try and stabalise the situation some Taliban moved into a small compound infront of 17 using a blind spot.
One Talib got on the roof but was prone not wanting to raise his head over the parapet, his oppo stayed in the courtyard while the QRF skirmished forward.
The ORF cooked a grenade and posted it killing courtyard guy and severely affecting the morale of his mate on the roof.
The small compound was surrounded and on clearence the roof guy surrendered having hidden his AK and gone into innocent farmer mode. A couple of the fireteam were lucky having poked there head around a corner and being on the receiving end of a near RPG strike! This caused a morale check but luckily no injuries.
While this was happening the Warlord had made some futile attempts to spot were the fire was coming from to his front, the UKSF, but these prone hidden operators weren't seen and were in the process of calling in Ugly51. The ISAF consensus being Compound 17 was now very much hostile and an AH was the best asset to use in this situation. The QRF went firm in the compound arresting and plasticuffing the "farmer" and after some delays in the arrival of Ugly51, some bad forward observer dice rolls! The Bowman system was obviously playing up again, the AH arrived and gave the people in Compound 17 running around with AKs the good news by way of 30mm HEDP.
The narative of the system came in at this point with the Warlord claiming he knew nothing about his visitors being Taliban and the Taliban not saying much as they had large holes in them.
The system again played well with Andy trying his best to get some sort of injury on one of the ISAF troops, this can alter their focus to casualty extraction, but unfortunately not being successful. Once ISAF had the enemy fixed the firepower was deceisive!

25 comments:

  1. Very interesting, very tempting too to to think of it. Quick question- how many scenarios come with the rules?

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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    1. Pete,
      there's only 2, however its very simple knocking one up from the now massive range of books released on the conflict, I flicked through "Attack State Red" the other day and its literally full of suitable engagements.
      Later, Dougie

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  2. interesting. very interesting. nice set up and good scenario.

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  3. Very nice terrain, most impressed.

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  4. Excellent AAR, brilliant table and colourful run out for Skirmish Sangin Dougie. In fact I was so impressed that I have shoved a short arm into a long pocket and have forked out on a PDF copy. So much work and detail has obviously gone into these rules. What a treat. I am currently reading "Dead Men Risen" which is a superb volume regarding the Welsh Guards Herrick tour. Now all I have to do is wait for my Empress Miniatures fireteams and buy some "multi-cam" paint! Aye, Rusty

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    1. Thanks Rusty, I thought you'd like them and for the price its crazy not getting them. The rules have quite obviously been a labour of love and the production and photo choice is top notch. I've read "Dead Men Risen" its on my shelves with a stack of others and I agree totally it is an excellent volume, chock full of suitable scenarios for Skirmish Sangin, the Lt Evison incident at CP Haji Alem I've thought about just the details are so sad and frustrating!
      You'll love the Empress Figures and I've a MultiCam tutorial on my blog so no excuses, keep me posted.
      Later, Dougie

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  5. Excellant looking table, Ihave only just returned from there myself and the terrain matches well...nice work

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  6. Beautiful work, you're making it hard for me to resist Skirmish Sangin...

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    1. Well its not a big outlay go on, you know you want to!
      Dougie

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  7. Chris has some further photos on the club website, here's the link
    https://sites.google.com/site/contemptables/Home/gallery/skirmish-sangin-31-03-2013
    Dougie

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  8. Dougie,
    How many players were there, and how many figures did each control?

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    1. Hi Nick, there was 3, I had the UKSF, Chris had the QRF and Andy had the Taliban, its probably better with more folks, the system works well with each player controlling a fireteam.
      Dougie

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  9. Thanks. Sounds a little smaller than I'd want. I prefer each player handling a squad.

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  10. Hi Dougie,
    Spoke to you at Salute yesterday, where you kindly explained the system to me. I'm the chap who shares your interest in the Rhodesian Bush War. I took your advice and picked up the two books. Looking forward to playing the game. It was nice to meet you.

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    1. Al nice to meet you, I'll be putting more of my 20mm Rhodesian stuff up when I get the chance, glad you picked the books up they are really excellent and you'll love the system, like I said any queries just ask!
      Dougie

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    2. Hey Fellas,
      My name is Harry Bate and My Grandfather was in the RLI and I was trying to find some miniatures to paint up and play, do you guys recommend any? and does this game work well with Bush War operations?

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    3. Hi Harry, miniatures wise you'll have to decide wether you want 28mm, 20mm or 15mm. Eureka do some very nice Rhodesian figs in 28mm as well as opposition, in 20mm there's Liberation Miniatures and Peter Pig cover 15mm. In 20mm you can also utilise the massive range of 1/72 vehicles and aircraft. You pays your money and makes your choice. Skirmish Sangin would work with the Rhodesian Bush War but you have to remember its very low skirmish level so maybe a couple of 4man fire teams aside. If your looking at Platoon actions have a look at Force on Force or Arc of Fire.
      Dougie

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  12. A great AAR Dougie.
    Just finished reading thru both books.
    Your painting is top notch btw, any chance I can pass you hard cash to paint my figures please?
    28mm Empress Brits, SAS team & Taliban to start, with others in the pipeline.
    Regards
    Darren

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    1. Darren, thanks for your comments, I do commission work for a few people but I'm not cheap, if you send me an email address I'll forward you details.
      Dougie

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    2. Dougie
      Much appreciated. Cannot find your mail so il post mine here.
      benfordbrown@hotmail.com
      Look forward to hearing from you.
      Darren

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  14. Dougie,
    After reading the AAR I went & got the rules. They fit exactly for what I've been looking for (for 3-4 years).

    Any hints as to how you made the amazing explosion markers, or where you bought them from.

    Great looking miniatures & table. I only hope my future work is 1/2 as good.

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    1. Thanks for your comments Andrew it's an awesome system. The explosion markers are very easy to do tutorial for a large one soon. I was thinking small jdam or hellfire size.

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