Cleared Hot!

Ground Zero: Helicopters

JTAC: “Deuce 31, Broadsword 11, 5-line, Type 2 control, BOT, rockets and guns, my position is checkpoint 295 marked by IR strobe, northwest 200, single technical vehicle marked by IR SPARKLE, make all attacks over my right shoulder, left pull, keep all effects of fires west of MSR Clovis.”

A/C: “Deuce 31 copies over your right shoulder, left pull, keep all effects of fires west of MSR Clovis, pushing.”

JTAC: “Deuce 31, CONTINUE.”

A/C: “Deuce 31 and flight, VISUAL, TALLY, IN.”

JTAC: “Deuce 31 and flight, CLEARED HOT.”

Today I have mainly been thinking about rotary wing close air support (RW CAS). To you and me that's choppers! Here are the first thoughts.....

Helicopters: Helicopters have special capabilities and vulnerabilities. These rules modify all relevant sections above. Helicopters have three activation dice. On an odd d6 result they may only move (they cannot rally, go into Overwatch). A helicopter may not discard an odd d6 result.

A helicopter may be subject to anti-aircraft fire as opportunity fire from enemy units in Overwatch in any hex that it starts in, passes through or ends its move action in. A helicopter that does not move at least three hexes in a move action becomes a sitting target and enemy units firing receive a fire bonus when firing at it.

Helicopters ignore terrain restrictions. They may only land in clear hexes that contain no vehicles (or wrecks).

Unlike other units, helicopters may fire at more than one target if they have more than one even d6 result. They may also make an intense attack on a single target if they have more than one even d6 result.

Special actions available to helicopters include: Landing, taking off, embarking or disembarking passengers (this includes allowing passengers to disembark by rappelling) and lasing targets for air strikes.

And, yes, I'm nicking ideas off Peter again!

Next problem to solve is that helicopters don't roam around shooting stuff up for fun. The air response must be proportionate and avoid collateral damage (as well as friendly fire) and enemy anti-air assets. That's the job of the JTAC who must have eyes on target, at least for a type 1 weapons delivery (visual contact with both target and A/C). How do we represent the JTAC and their interaction with the CAS? I have a few thoughts, they make for good scenarios! 

Ground Zero.......

work in progress!

I suppose it says something if I have gone to the trouble of designing a logo for this game. My enforced absence from blogging and game related activities has spurred my enthusiasm.  

As usual, I blame Norm and Peter for ideas which have lurked for many months. This game represents, at long last, my attempt to model squad level modern combat in a simple way and in a way that I actually want to play.

I even have a blurb (of sorts!):

A nameless small town somewhere in the war zone. This game is played on a six by nine hex grid, there is no scale but each hex represents an area sufficient for the footprint of a small house, back yard or street.

There is no timeframe other than that each battle is concluded in a day. Each turn may represent anything from a few minutes of violent combat to several hours of desultory gunfire. Units are activated by random card draw and unit actions are dice driven. 

The troop types reflect what you see on You Tube videos, small groups of men, of varying commitment and training, largely fighting in built up areas. Weapons are light small arms with heavier weapons in support, with the ever present HMMWVs and improvised armoured vehicles. 

Scenarios reflect the reality of modern combat, often mundane tasks fraught with risk and unexpected dangers.

Nuff said at this stage but progress has been excellent. This time I will blog test games to show the mechanics in development.

I want some of these.....

just bigger!

GHQ perfection in 1/285, would you believe it!

I have just turned in a major piece of work on a development project so now have a short space of time to do some wider thinking before the next stage. 

My jumble of thoughts are on the subject of modern warfare, the type of small unit activity I'm working on in my temporarily paused Desert Eagle. What set off this train of thinking was the recent battle between Turkish troops supported by their Free Syrian Army proxies (Ahrar al-Sham) and ISIS for the control of al-Bab, a key town in central northern Syria. This is at the outer limits of the current Euphrates Shield operation. The Turks set out to take al-Bab and fought an intense battle for the hospital area. In this battle they lost 10 Leopard 2A4s, a Sabra M60 plus 4 APCs/armoured recce vehicles. Bellingcat have covered this here in a brilliant article.

Apart from proving that the Turkish Leopards are a bit feeble, as was seen in the earlier border fighting, it also shows the scope for using lots of tanks. I have become interested in the possibility of using 12mm scale for this type of game.

I have checked out what is available and I want vehicles that are quite large and the ability to use individually based infantry. 10mm is pretty barren in this respect. However, the Minifigs 12mm range is comprehensive. They do packs of three different types of arab insurgents (28 for £4.05) and US and Russian special forces. Irregular miniature do a range of large 10mm modern troops specifically to fit with 12mm vehicles which is described as Modern Bush Wars. So all set to go? Very nearly.

Minifigs do all the tanks you could ask for plus HMMWVs and Toyotas with MGs and recoilless guns. What they don't do is the new breed of HMMWV with armoured turrets which are the de rigeur vehicle for the Middle East. Where can I find something that will fit with 12mm? Not even Shapeways have anything that fits. I don't relish trying to scratch build turrets in this scale! Any ideas?

In other news.......

• Activation mechanics: Peter at "Grid based wargaming - but not always!" has come up with a very simple, adaptable die roll based activation mechanism. Simply brilliant.
• Scum...: A supplement has just been published with additional rules and units. A must for $1.49!  

OPFOR.....

here come the bad guys!

An ISIS fighter with a competency issue

Having survived the back to school period, things return somewhat to normal. My priority is to finish up the Desert Eagle draft and get in some full game tests. I've been doing a lot of thinking about ISIS and have just completed the first draft of the background to an ISIS army list. This is now on the Desert Eagle page. The detailed ratings will follow shortly.

I have also been tempted by a few different things.....

The Men Who Would Be Kings: Yes, I've now got this and its great. It will not cause me to change my direction on DE but I can see other possibilities with it. It is cleaner and more simple than Dragon Rampant so it doesn't hurt my brain. Also, I've got loads of Hat colonials, so who knows what's next!

Tabletop Wargames: A Designers' and Writers' Guide: By Rick Priestley and John Lambshead. On the one hand its seems to be designer's notes for Bolt Action (and you know what happened when I read those rules!) and, on the other, a combination of Fowler's Modern English Usage and Usage and Abusage by Eric Partridge. The only thing I have found useful about this book so far is that it recommends that original historical research should be left to others since you can waste loads of time on it. Sorry, its a first impression, I'm sure a second reading will improve it. I may have missed a semicolon here!

Sandbox: I love the idea of this, especially for $2.99. Something for the weekend I think.

New Desert Eagle stuff...

it's quite good!

NSyA top brass promo pic

Well I think so anyway! I've been doing quite a bit of work recently on the New Syrian Army (NSyA) to generate a first army list for DE. I have been surprised by how complicated the internal wiring is for Dragon Rampant and converting it into something it is not intended for is fraught with complications. Nevertheless, I have produced two things:

• An army list description which is, as far as I can see, pretty much up to date (within the last week);
• A very first draft set of unit characteristics.

You can find both of these on the DE page here. Loads more work to do on these but nearing a first playtest on a table with some counters!

My thoughts have been drawn to the impending battle for Mosul, Op. FATAH (CONQUEST). Over Christmas last I worked on the Ramadi game and found myself drawn into the conflict in quite a personal way. I was encouraged to do a similar piece of work on the recent battle for Fallujah and, in fact, have done a lot of research on the fighting as information has become available. Although I will return to Fallujah at a future point, the Mosul operation will have enormous consequences so my intention now is to work up a similar game to the Ramadi one but looking at Mosul in real time. 

Anyone with concerns about wargaming and real life should look away now because Mosul will be my immediate focus. It will also generate what young people call factions(?) for DE. I have spent some very interesting hours looking at the Peshmerga and my level of understanding has substantially increased. The ability of wargaming to gain insight into the real world is vastly overlooked so my next few months I believe will be a real journey. At the end of which I'll probably revert to playing Stratego but, hey ho, who knows!

Desert Eagle play testing.....

its all go!

Well, I have made a start. I have finished the play test counters and these have been posted on the DE page. I have even put the counters on the board, or at least the NSyA.

I'm surprised how nice the counters look and how normal it feels to have 3D scenery and 2D counters.

I have yet to cut out the OPFOR counters and will do so during the week. I'm still working on the values for the various characteristics. I'm also pondering whether the Jordanian Special Forces, who I know to have night vision equipment, should move faster at night and if so, how much?

Coming to post this I realise two things, firstly this is my 200th post. A notable event and worth a beer or two tonight! Also, I haven't posted much recently on all of my other projects and interests. I'm sure I will return to these in due course. One precursor of a change in tack is my scouring of the net for interesting stuff. Just so you know, there is a huge bundle of FiveCore rules and supplements on Wargames Vault for "pay what you want". This includes the original versions of FiveCore Skirmish and Five Men in Normandy. Well worth a look. 

Op. Desert Eagle 16-1

Mission GO!

SIGINT confirms that 4 NSyA prisoners are held in compounds at al-Susah, in Syria north of al-Bakamal but across the Euphrates and close to the Iraq border. 
  

Actual compounds in al-Susah

SIGINT suggests that they are held up because of Coalition air interdiction. They are waiting for a quiet moment to slip over the border to Qaim where they will be executed on live TV.

OPFOR

ISIS are believed to have one SF team in close protection of the prisoners with support in platoon strength with heavy weapons and sniper team. They are deployed to the west of the target area suspecting action by NSyA from the Syrian side of the border.

BLUFOR

One Jordanian SF team from 71 Counter Terrorism Bn plus 2 NSyA teams and one heavy weapons support. These are in-bound from Iraq guided by the Desert Falcons, Sunni fighters from al-Waleed, so are coming from opposite direction expected by ISIS. 

All is calm at Dark o'clock...

A little more verdant than in real life...drone footage from the west (Iraq)

Remember, this is a game, its not real so no-one needs to bomb anything anywhere near al-Susah, that goes for the Russians too! 

Action this day?

hmmm, well maybe tomorrow!

I have just prepared my non-wobbly counters for some play testing which may occur tomorrow if all other jobs are completed in good time. The counters are looking quite nice...

I have realised that I haven't put beards on the guys driving the NSyA's trucks. Nevermind, they must be Americans!

Next job is some 3D card houses and some 2D palm trees.

Desert Eagle counters...

Nearly there!

Just a couple of pictures of the counters as they develop. These are for the DE1 Scenario: Al-Bakamal Rescue Mission.

ISIS counters with SF team, sniper team and three squads in this sheet. All units are six counters, the 12 SP squads have counters with a value of 1, 2 or 3 so you can "make change" as they say in the US! Printed on flimsy paper so a bit wobbly for taking pictures. 

First go at (very wobbly) NSA counters and trial vehicles with Jordanian SF, two NSA squads, one pick-up transport and one technical, two trucks.

I'm pleased with the results. Much cannibalisation of Junior general images involved in this. Grateful thanks and credits will be posted when I have finished them. Testing not far off....

More Desert Eagle...

...counters!

The actual al-Tanf border crossing...grim even on a good day!

I can't say that I have loads of toys and the ones that I do have are not quite suitable for this sort of game. So this requires improvised counters. First ones.....ISIS special forces team.

Based on designs by Delta Operator 42 at Junior General

More to come. Also, as promised, the revised NSA army list is now on the DE page.

Desert Eagle 1........

Indefensible object scenario

This scenario is based on Scenario B of Lion Rampant, Defending the Indefensible. In this scenario, ISIS have placed four NSA prisoners from the al-Bakamal attack under guard at a location near to the Iraqi border. These prisoners will shortly be moved into Iraq. ISIS have set a defensive perimeter assuming any attack will come from Syria. 

NSA plan to attack the ISIS position to retrieve their men and demonstrate they are not a busted flush. The Jordanians have provided a team from their Special Forces (Counter Terrorism Battalion 71) to assist. Aided by satellite navigation and communications plus drone data and SIGINT, the NSA force is able to approach the target area from an unexpected direction (Iraq).

NSA

1 Special Forces Team (Jordanian), including leader, armed with LAWs @ 6 points plus Thuraya at +1 point = 7

2 NSA Squads (also with LAWs) @3 points = 6

1 Toyota (Team Transport) @ 2 points = 2

2 Trucks (Squad Transport) @ 3points = 6

1 Toyota Technical (M2 HMG) @ 3 points = 3

Total 24 points

The Thuraya is a sat phone, possibly a "summoner" type characteristic (or maybe just for phoning the chopper to airlift the rescued prisoners).

ISIS

1 Special Forces Team (Local), including Emir, armed with RPGs @ 6 points = 6

3 Army of Adversity squads @ 4 points = 12

1 Sniper Team @ 3 points = 3

1 Dushka (HMG) Team @ 3 points = 3

Total 24 points

Don't take any of the above for granted, I'm just playing with the points values for now!

Victory conditions 

I'm still thinking about these. In the Middle East great store is set by ghanima, the spoils of war. This is demonstrated by the counting, filming and Facebooking of captured weapons, vehicles and people. Ghanima must be a big factor. As this is also an information war, we need to address "glory" and "boasts". 

My other issue is improvising enough stuff to be able to give it a go. Fingers crossed!

I'm in the process of updating my NSA army list as more information comes to light. The situation is extremely dynamic and clearly shows that something is going on driven by the big players (US and Russia). I'll put the updated version out tomorrow. 

Desert Eagle progress...

scenario!

Well, I have put up a new page for Desert Eagle (DE) and posted a revised version of the NSA army list. This is still a work in progress.

I'm now working on the first scenario. This will pit the NSA against ISIS in a (fictional) attempt to rescue NSA prisoners from ISIS following the al-Bakamal disaster. In this scenario, based on Scenario B: Defending the Indefensible from Lion Rampant, the NSA return with Jordanian Special Forces (Counter Terrorism Battalion 71) to get their men back.

I am really excited about this. You will now see some massive improvisation from me so I can get this thing play tested. Highly likely to involve a lot of cardboard!

New Syrian Army....

first Desert Eagle faction!

It has been really busy recently with work and summer child care activities. In my spare time (having fixed the fence, the washing line, front door etc etc), I have been pottering with Desert Eagle. 

NSA troops May 2016

Following my last post, I figured that I needed to work out troop types and special rules using some real world examples. I'm not sure why I started with the New Syrian Army (NSA), possibly because they are current news, also perhaps because they are small and self-contained as well as being quite a good model for other factions. I have had a go at an initial army list for the NSA, you can find it here. 

I have to report something very strange. I'm 58 this year and have been studying this sort of thing for what feels like forever. I used to read Rand reports on the Vietnam war when I was a teenager. Researching the NSA brought everything back and I suddenly realised it's like 1968 all over again. Or is that 1975 and the CIA intervention in Angola? Currently I'm overcome by a very weird feeling of deja vu all over again. Bay of Pigs anyone? If Donald Trump wins how long before he gets assassinated?

Anyway, I've gone over the top on the army list, I found myself becoming more and more interested in the subject and what happened in the NSA's recent unsuccessful battle. I think there is a fundamental problem trying to design something that is currently happening in real life, its quite difficult because all the parts are moving. Nevertheless, a start has been made so lets see what happens!

Desert Eagle.....

will it fly?

I'm beginning to think the answer is yes. That's YES!

Up-armoured HMMWV, this one from MoI Emergency Response Unit

I'm grateful to Le Duc for his recent after action report of Dragon Rampant. I have now obtained a copy of this from Amazon and I'm very glad I did. 

Before it arrived I had reached some conclusions about units and vehicles that I think will solve the issues I was having defining them. DR has opened my eyes to some further opportunities for defining units as well as new areas such as the use of the DR leadership characteristics and spells (alright not quite spells but summoning up a drone strike is quite spooky!). From my point of view DR opens up wider horizons than LR, which was properly focussed on historical models. Its great so if you haven't got a copy, get one now!

Today's thoughts are around units:

Team: 6 SPs (DR influence!), six men with small arms, LMG and AT weapon. These can be elite Special Forces, Counter-terror troops, Police SWAT teams or terrorist cell, foreign fighters or Iranian Qods Force commandos. Don't forget Presidential body guards or Spetznaz. Special rules apply such as Fleet Footed, Invisible, Evade, Skirmish amongst others.

Squad: 12 SPs, up to 12 men with full range of small arms, LMG and AT weapons. Variable characteristics such as Army, Police Commandos (Emergency Response Units), Militia (tribal or PMF), Army of Adversity etc. Big range of capabilities and potential upgrades.  

Iranian ZSU 23-2

Weapons team: 6 SPs, around 6 men with specialist weapons. These include HMG (.50 cal or Dushka), recoilless rifle (106mm or SPG9), AA gun (ZSU23-2), sniper and support. I'm thinking about some rules around "news gatherers" and potentially IED controllers or S-VEST teams. I see that DR has exploding rats, nuff said.

ISF special forces 2015

Vehicles: These are separate units and, like creatures in DR, have their own SP. Currently these look like:

• Light vehicles: 6 SPs, may be transports, technicals or VB-IEDs. May be ugraded with armour or weapons.
• Medium vehicles: 12 SPs, trucks, IED resistant vehicles of all types, APCs or large VB-IEDs. Options for upgrading.
• Heavy vehicles: Tanks, upgrades for professional crew etc. There will be limited definitions here since the usual reaction from anyone in the real world is "WTF...its a tank!" even if it isn't. 

Lots more to do on this but it is looking very promising.

A little light dusting....

and another idea!

I'm waiting to go out to collect one of my kids so have just been doing a little tidying up. I have added a page for my attempt at the FiveCore Company Command hex grid conversion. The rules are on at Wargames Vault at the moment for under $5 so if you don't have them now's the time to invest.

Competent looking ISF in May 2016 near Fallujah. Who are these guys?

The idea....well. Each unit has an activation rating: 2 best, 6 worst. Each side rolls a d6 at the start of its turn. Only units = or < than the score can activate. If one side is on the offensive or has a major advantage give them +1 or 2 on the die roll. If defending, you may have one or more d6 in reserve that you can throw (and use up) to see if you can improve a critical score (i.e. if roll 1 when you need a 4, use your reserve die and see if you can better it). 

Really competent sides might be able to re-allocate a successful roll to a unit that is not activated (e.g. score 2 and your special forces guys are good to go but if you really need a militia unit to move you might re-allocate that success on a die roll). This needs some officers to achieve I think.

Idea brought about by trying to simplify the Rampant rules. Of which I should mention ordering Dragon Rampant on the inspiration of Le Duc. Creatures = tanks? I don't know yet but will give it some thought.

What's in a name?

...quite a lot actually!

Russians in Syria attempting to defeat a VB-IED

I have started calling this project Desert Eagle. To be certain that it still gives due regard to the original Lion Rampant, which I think is only polite, the full nomenclature is now: 

Desert Eagle: A modern warfare implementation of Lion Rampant

Other nomenclature issues requiring beer and deep thought have been raised by the Duc. The key one is "toughness" what is it and what should we call it? In the rules it is used to assess the degree to which the target unit can resist the effects of combat. So, how many hits convert into casualties.

Some of you may find this discussion a little near the edge of acceptability but we live in an age where we can see much of what is happening on the ground (like it or not) and it makes sense to try to interpret it. The photo above is a still from a newsreel showing Russian troops with a technical attempting to destroy a VB-IED coming fast in their direction. The VB-IED was successfully destroyed but not early enough to prevent the indicated soldier being killed in the blast. The story is here.

These troops demonstrated great courage (and confidence in their abilities) but were vulnerable to the effects of the enemy weapon. These are the concepts that I am trying to get across in Desert Eagle but am currently failing to adequately describe. 

Lets start with "toughness". This was used in the Eagles Rampant adaptation in WI to replace the medieval characteristic "armour". This indicates the level of protection of troops defending themselves from shooting. In the original Lion Rampant this is about arrows and the defensive effects of body armour ranging from none to full plate. In the case of Desert Eagle, this is about body armour which ranges from none to (again!) plate carriers. It also includes ballistic helmets and additional armour on vehicles. This is for protection against bullets and bombs (IEDs). But it is also about tactical issues such as dispersal and use of terrain. In fact with VB-IEDs it is also about throwing up earth berms to keep them at a distance.        

VB-IED going off

I have therefore done some more research about terminology and what we might call survivability. Wikipedia gives us this:

In the military environment, survivability is defined as the ability to remain mission capable after a single engagement. Engineers working in survivability are often responsible for improving four main system elements:

• Detectability - the inability to avoid being aurally and visually detected as well as detected by radar (by an observer).

• Susceptibility - the inability to avoid being hit (by a weapon).

• Vulnerability - the inability to withstand the hit.

• Recoverability - longer-term post-hit effects, damage control, and firefighting, capability restoration, or (in extremis) escape and evacuation.

The European Survivability Workshop introduced the concept of "Mission Survivability" whilst retaining the three core areas above, either pertaining to the "survivability" of a platform through a complete mission, or the "survivability" of the mission itself (i.e. probability of mission success). 

My vote therefore is to replace armour/toughness with Vulnerability for Desert Eagle.

ISF troops approaching Fallujah (AFP/Getty)

The other issue is the courage rating. How many hits can you take before running away? This in LR is a reaction test to casualties or other criteria, such as loss of a leader. I think that in DE it might have wider application. In the example above, would your troops have stood and contested a VB-IED? Other video shows that apparently rag-tag ISF units are not only alert to VB-IEDs but identify them early and seek to engage them. We see individuals running towards them and shouldering rifles and RPGs to lay down defensive fire.

Le Duc has come up with the concept of Willingness to Fight, or WTF! In the case of potential reasons for testing morale, a WTF test might well be very appropriate. I'm therefore going to use WTF in place of courage, representing the ability of troops to withstand threats other than simple reactions to casualties.