Musings on the next campaign

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 a much cherished part of my collection. 
(I have both the First and Second books, of course!)

The 82nd have been despatched after a local political opposition group has brought damning evidence to the UN of the activities of the Cuban and Russian 'agricultural consultants and advisors' and so the US has authorised a intervention in order to restore a government that is more closely aligned to the interests of Washington. The forces are easy enough to muster from my existing stocks. 
The brigade forces of the 82nd Airborne 

Forces of the Cuban-equipped and mentored army. 
The campaign map, I shall make a copy and laminate it for my use. 
In order to make it more interesting, I've used some random names to establish commanders for each unit plus the overall CO's and then used the Character Traits generators in CS Grants 'Wargame Campaigns', so as to give each unit commander a command trait (bold, rash, useless etc) and experience level (novice, veteran etc.) I will type them up and post them as and when I've figured out how to apply them to the CWC2 rules. If that works, I might set them up for lower level commanders down to company level. 

So, that's my plans for the summer. And, given the glacial pace of my gaming, the autumn as well. 

Comments

  1. Tales from Shed HQ9 April 2024 at 09:16

    Excellent 👍 That book was my first ever Wargaming book and I always thought that island would make a great setting. May have to position it off the coast of San Theodoros

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Somewhere in Austria, 1985

Image
Andy T voyaged over the passes today to Sheffield, via the less travelled route of Winnats Pass, due to the Snake Pass being shut (for who knows how long?) Andy was keen to give his NVA army a run out, a Panzer Brigade that has been prepared for the Cold War Commanders big game next month at The Unit in Staffordshire. Facing them was a hurried deployment of the 82nd Airborne, deployed from Italy into Austria as part of NATO's southern flank, where the decision to override niceties such as neutrality has been taken, in order to stem the WarPac advance.  The table. NATO would advance to contact from the left.  A rough TO&E: EAST GERMANY: 2 Panzer battalions of 9x T55AM2 AA of Strela SAM for 1 battalion, a ZSU23-4 for the other. Supported by an infantry battalion in BMP1 IFVs. Artillery support came from a 2S1 122mm SP guns. Air support would be randomly picked from whatever we could find.  USA 2 battalions of infantry, 1 in Gama Goat transport, 1 in UH-1 Huey helos. 1 t...
Read more

Dos Amos campaign - first encounter

Image
With the wife and children away at the East Coast for the bank holiday, I am using the time to get a summer holiday solo game in as well as undertake some DIY by painting the bathroom. Dropping and spilling a massive tin of paint in the shed was a good start...  However, I have begun the opening moves of the Dos Amos campaign. Using the rules laid out in the Programmed Wargames Scenarios book, the US 82nd are to follow a strategy of a twin pronged assault on the east and west coasts. They aim to capture the settlements at A6 (Carriafou) and F4 (At George) before moving to the main objective at G9, Mount Argyle. A small screening force will push to the bridge at E5.  The Cuban 'volunteers' are screening with patrols along A3, B3 who will not engage but shadow any Americans.  The first engagement was on Day 2. task Force Kroesen entered St George, where the combined forces of F3 and F4 were to fight a delaying action. I decided that the Cubans would be happy wit...
Read more

Crisis Point- forces and Day One

Image
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 woul...
Read more