A Sandbox

Now that I've actually concluded a Khemed campaign, I've been wondering about what should be next. I've had tentative plans for a Khemed 85 campaign, which would  feature a 1980s MEU along with a Lebanon style Multinational Force with British armoured cars, San Marco Marines, French Foreign Legion and the like. However, these would need purchasing and painting. So, as I was musing over a cup of tea the other morning and had been looking at some of my previous forces that are in storage and my 80s 82nd Airborne forces stuck out. So I'm going to fight a mini campaign, using the Expeditionary Force campaign in Programmed Wargames Scenarios by Charles S Grant. Time and Place The location will be a Caribbean island not dissimilar to Grenada. The island is the tropical idyllic of Dos Amos (with some changes to fit in locations and  more suitable names.) This is taken from a wargames book that was hugely influential on my early wargaming career and is

Day 2 started with the dizzying highs and crashing lows of the CWC 2 Command system. The JS3 battalion attempted to get into the fight with the first dice rolls of the day. A double 1 command bonus! They then rolled a command blunder on the next roll!  More airstrikes we're called in by both sides. I don't recall any targets being destroyed, but suppressions caused the advancing Soviets to slow down their advance.  the Mig 15 was neither use nor ornament!  overall view of the action on day 2.  The JS3s finally get into action.  The battle raged on, with the Soviet T44s on the right flank making more ground and trading shots with the Czech armour. The infantry on the left finally began to benefit from supporting fire from the JS3s and some brave riflemen were seen to be shouting "urrah!" and charging some of the entrenched infantry. Break points were perilously close to being reached and breached o

DAY 1  The Soviet aim was clear- advance across the board, reduce enemy forces but bypass strong resistance and continue the push to Prague. The Soviet forces available were:  224 Motor Rifle Regiment  Mech battalion 2 HQs 3 companies of 6 infantry + 3 M3 half tracks AA M14 half-track with quad .50cals Support company of 2 82mm mortars and 1 DsHK HMG Motor battalion  As above, but mounted in trucks 2 battalions of T44 tanks. 9 tanks + 1 HQ per battalion. The latest in Soviet armour technology and basically what you would expect a tank to look like if a T55 and a T34 had a baby.  Recce- elements of the regimental reconnaissance force- 3 M3 half tracks plus 4 Recce Support T34/85 tanks. In CWC2 these recce support forces are whatever that unit is, in this case, tanks, but with the Recce ability.  Artillery- 2 batteries of 3 152mm guns each, 1 battery of Katyusha rocket launchers Regimental Command element - CO, FAO, FAC. There was a pool of aircraft that would be called on, depending on

Initial briefing and scenario details  The annual gaming meet up, hosted and curated by Richard Crawley, took place this weekend in the usual delightful environs of Dungworth, on the edge of the Peak District, west of Sheffield and east of the moon..  This year, the theme was an alternative history of the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1948, following a failed Communist coup. There are better write ups of this scenario elsewhere-   Andy Ts blog  and  Richard Crawley's blog  have more background detail of the political and military situation of the Soviet reasoning behind the invasion. Suffice to say, myself and Andy were responsible for the CWC2 game, a move towards Prague by Soviet armour and mechanised infantry against a hasty defensive line of Czech forces in entrenched positions.  Below is the Soviet briefing. There was a similar one prepared for the Czech defenders.  And here is the initial sketch that I did for the scenario. Apologies for the handwriting and simple

In between laundry duties and a kitchen DIY project, I got a game in today. I decided to use some old Soviet-Afghanistan War Russians (mostly H&R, some GHQ) against the Mujahedeen. The scenario was based on the Test of Arms scenario in the previous post, but was one that was probably repeated across the country during the 1980s: the Soviets were to advance and occupy a village in a valley and clear it out of weapons and fighters. The fighters were watching from the hills. I used the Hidden Deployment rules from CWC2 and rolled for 2 additional HD tokens for each HQ.  Soviet forces CO 2 HQs FAO 6 T62M tanks 10 conscript infantry 1 HMG 1 82mm mortar 6 BTR70 APCs Off table 122mm artillery with 1 salvo of chemical munitions and 5 HE.  Afghan forces CO 2 HQs Group 1  6 infantry 1 82mm mortar Group 2 6 infantry 1 HMG  Group 3  6 infantry 1 HMG + 6 Hidden Deployment markers. The village with Hidden Deployment markers randomly placed- I was not aware of what force was where or

The wife and kids are visiting some of her family this Friday so I am being given the rare gift of Time To Myself. So a bit of DIY and a game is the plan. I'm going to go back to the 80s and dig out my Afghan and Soviet forces. For a bit of variety, I'm going to play a variant on a scenario from this board game that I've had for about 30 years.