1978 The Government Offensive Begins

Here is a battle report of a game my cousin Matt and I played on Good Friday, testing out our new rules and my new terrain boards and Africa wars miniatures.

Good Friday 1978, Libatian Government forces are scouting Loseko village in the forest about 30 miles east of the capital, Jedda. Reports say that Marxist Islamist rebels are holding out in the village and planning to launch an attack on food aid convoys destined for Libasamal in the North. The government forces consist of 1 squad of regular government troops deployed in a Saracen APC, with a regular crew. Supporting the main unit are 2, 4 man, squads of elite mercenaries, ex-SAS and FFL etc riding in SUVs. The exact size of the rebel force is unknown.

Due to the rushed nature of this operation, no artillery or air support was made available. The only off table support being a government O-1 birddog.

The Government forces leapfrog through the long grass to the right of the main road, enemy positions can be seen lining the hillside.

The first rebel unit to appear was this old T34/85. It was classed as old weapons and contained a poorly trained crew. Throughout the battle this tank scored no hits, though it was weak the T34 acted as more of a psychological weapon, also the Government forces only had 1 trooper armed with an anti-tank weapon which meant the location of the T34 dictated the approach of the government forces.

"A squad" of mercenaries dismount and prepare to scale the hill overlooking enemy positions.

The Saracen backtracks out of range of the T34. In the foreground the government infantry squad becomes pinned in the long grass after some inaccurate fire from the T34s main gun.

A Squad takes up overwatch positions.

The Government commander successfully calls in the O-1. It streaks over the enemy positions but is only able to successfully spot 1 sniper hiding out in the tree line behind the hills.

The rebel sniper, shortly before being taken out by mercenary squad A.

This tree line would soon become known as the "death copse". Here Matt reveals another squad of rebel infantry. But rather than fight from there he retreats them into the large square house in the village.

Squad B remounts in their land rover and charges toward the death copse in order to engage the rebels at close range.

With the T34 safely out of sight the Saracen flanks around to the left and smashes through one of the rebels barricades.

Matt retreats one of his squads, since none of his infantry carried anti-armour weapons, his only chance to take out the saracen was with his T34.

Heres an overview of the action. Squad A had lost half its number and was pinned behind the hill on the far right.

With the T34 gunning for the Saracen the Government troops send 3 ineffective rockets toward its rear.

The rebel leader and his squad are revealed hiding out in the elevated hut.

Then the rebel leaders squad open up on the approaching Mercenary squad and takes them all out from overwatch.

After taking out 1 rebel squad and forcing another to flee the saracen rounds the corner to approach the village.

Endgame. The Government troops had sneaked around the edge of the village to avoid the 2 rebel squads hiding it out in the buildings. And with a fluke shot they took out the rebel leader sitting in his hut.

A good first game I thought, some of the rules were re-written as we went along and we had to debate the overwatch rules for a bit due to some excessive firepower on the part of the rebel leaders squad. The lack of anti-tank weapons was down to me not having any figures more than being scenario specific, which was a bit of a drag. We have also considered the idea of Anti-Tank weapons being a limited commodity represented by card chits, shared amongst the squads, rather than just being represented by figures on the table.

Now to type up the rules alterations and get them printed up. I'm not sure Mat will have the patience for me losing our rules and having to start again, again...