After a short break we had a total change this week, playing a 15mm AK47 game, with a typical cold war Western backed colonialist group fighting an Eastern bloc backed Government force. The one thing we changed is the combat mechanism in the game, using the same ranges and fire factors but replacing the multiple opposed die rolls with a single D10 per group firing and then consulting a hit table to get the result.

In the pre game phase the Colonialists make a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, which starts a chicken run as the supporters make a run for South Africa and their regular infantry unit is downgraded, leaving them with three militia foot units, one regular armoured unit and one helicopter unit. On the other side, the Dictatorship uses the palace guard to crack down on dissent and the dissenters are fed to the crocodiles, allowing then to upgrade one of their three militia units with armour to regular, leaving them two militia with attached armour, one regular with attached armour, one regular infantry and one unit of technicals (one HMG. one RCL and one AA). They also use World Bank credits to buy ammunition and upgrade their technicals, giving then a +2 on firing for one turn only.

In the roll-off the Government forces get to be the aggressor. The Colonialists get three units on the table at the start of the game and allocate the two militia infantry to the palm groves with objectives one and three. The armoured unit is positioned in the centre of the table near the village and objective two. The Government forces also get three units to start the game, deploying their regular infantry with no armour behind the hill facing the village, a militia unit with armour and their unit of technicals deploying on their right to sweep round to attack the village and objective three in the palm groves.

When the game starts the Government forces all advance, the Colonial armoured unit advances to bring these under fire with their guns and the HMG’s mounted on their APC’s, causing one element killed and another pinned but they pass their first but not their second morale test. In the following turn the Government get no reinforcements, but the Colonialists get their remaining militia infantry unit and deploy it on table to the rear of the Government regular infantry on the hill. In the movement phase the Government infantry turn to face the Colonial reinforcements positioning themselves behind the hill so they cannot be shot by the enemy armoured units. Their militia infantry and technicals continue their slow flank march. There is no firing in the turn.

In the next turn the Government regulars with armoured support arrive and deploy in the far left hand corner, threatening objective one held by a militia unit in the palm grove. The Colonialist militia assault the Government regular infantry, but their armoured unit does not generate sufficient movement to support them. The Government units on their right continue their flank march. In the shooting phase the Colonialist tanks fire long range shots at the Government technicals, blowing up the RCL mounted vehicle. In the close assault between the Colonialist militia and the Government regulars both sides suffer heavy losses and fail both morale tests. In the following turn both sides rout.

As the game moves forward the Government attack on the militia holding objective one continues and despite the attentions of the Colonialist helicopter unit arriving, the militia and the regulars end up holding the objective (30pts). On the right the Government militia heroically attacks the Colonialist armoured unit deployed around the village but are eventually wiped out. The technicals move round the hill to threaten objective three. In the first turn the Colonialist HMG and Government technicals exchange fire, the result of which is one destroyed HMG technical and one destroyed Colonial HMG. However, this allows the remaining AA Technical unit uninterrupted fire on the remaining Colonial militia holding objective three, eventually forcing them to withdraw.

The final Government reserves arrive too late to affect the result and only manage a few long range shots at the colonialist helicopter, which seemed to be spectacularly ineffective, only causing a couple of pins to the Government infantry and failing to hit any of their armoured units.

At the end of the game the Government forces had wiped out three Colonialist militia units and held the 30 point objective giving them a basis 51 points. The Colonialist forces had destroyed one regular and one militia unit but held no objectives giving them 34 points. The Government rolled a 12 giving then 63 points and the Colonialists rolled 28 giving them a total of 62 points giving the Government forces a 1 point victory. 

The game went well and the alternative firing mechanism worked extremely well causing less confusion and dramatically increasing the speed of play.