common – an attack on an isolated farmer’s home or villager’s kraal, police station, or military outpost, be it in Rhodesia or a neighbouring frontline state such as Mozambique, Zambia or Botswana.
decide on the ‘weight’ of his attack against the outpost and whether he wishes to make that the main target or simply use it as ‘bait’ for the relieving defending forces that enter the table. If an attacker chooses to emphasise an assault against the building and it’s inhabitants as his sole objective then whilst the target might be harder to ‘destroy’ it enables him to concentrate and tailor his force for that task. Conversely he can set up a quasi-ambush along the access road to the outpost as well and position his troops cross country to interdict any enemy attempting to relieve the outpost.
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Command Dice: 5
Leader), both with PPSh.
equals 6..total support list choices are 9+6=14.
- 4pts Level Two Insurgency
- 2pts Mine
- 2pts Replace one SKS sections with AK-47
- 2pts Replace all PPSh-41 in the force with AK-47
- 2pts Upgrade entire force as ‘Vakomana Shumba’ (aggressive troops)
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1pt Exchange one Guerrilla’s SKS for a RPD LMG*1pt Exchange one Guerilla’s SKS for a RPG-2*1pt Hand Grenades for one squad
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These troops suffer the (historical) detriment of three traits resulting in them being slow to act (low initiative), vulnerable in the open (Garden Boys) with bad fire discipline (Bad Shots). On the up side they have special rules allowing them to move very quickly (Tsuro) and redeploy (Shumba)…. They also have a reasonable split in the PFR to tailor their force.
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Forces – SF player
Royal Rhodesian Regiment
Regular: +2
Command Dice: 5
PLATOON HEADQUARTERS
Lieutenant (Senior Leader) with SMG or Sergeant (Superior Junior
Leader) with L1A1, One radio operator with an L1A1, One trooper with an L1A1
There are two Sections per Platoon, each
SECTION HEADQUARTERS
Corporal (Junior Leader) with an L1A1, Two troopers with an L1A1,
one as medic
There are two Groups per Section, each
GUN GROUP
L/Cpl with L1A1, Gunner with an FN-MAG, Trooper with an L1A1
RIFLE GROUP
5 troopers with an L1A1
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Scenario die roll for support equals 6..total support list
choices are;
2pts Truck to transport up to 20 men or tow a weapon x2 = 4pts
2pts Heavy Cover barricade
The Royal Rhodesian Regiment troops are your ‘plain vanilla’ Rhodesian force. Nothing to outstanding to say, they have a Bush Doctor in their platoon to help with any casualties but that’s it! Their low PFR however will keep the
enemy force choices a little under control.
Force Morale Points at start…
CT player – 8
SF player – 8
Patrol Phase
The patrol phase for this scenario is somewhat different to that conducted in a normal chain of command game. In this situation only the attacking player uses patrol markers, moving them as usual until he gets at or within 12″ of the road or the farm. At this point, the opposing player starts rolling 2D6 each time a marker has finished moving and if the distance or beyond to the patrol marker is rolled on the dice then the marker is locked down…so the closer you get to these ‘obstacles’ the more likely you are to be locked down (reflecting cautious reconnaissance near areas of ‘threat’). The ‘patrol markers’ are then converted to jump off points (JOPs) as they are shown in the pic….this is a unique sequence specific to this scenario as the attacker is the only ‘active’ player in the patrol phase…the defender doesn’t patrol as such as in reality he doesn’t really know he’s there.
In this case the ZANLA player pushed his recon elements (JOPs) up the middle of the table from the side location (one of two he may choose from), in an effort to be able to deploy to cover the road approach as well as deploy near the kraal objective.
In this pic you can see the Defender (Rhodesian) reinforcement entry point and the Building objective or target for the insurgents to hit. |
Battle!
The action opens up with the locals wandering out of their huts after hearing some rifle fire coming from the edge of the clearing in front of the kraal. With these captured prisoners the locals are a little tense as insurgents have been reported in the area…
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Note terrain is scattered about the entire table as ‘light cover’, barring the clearing near the kraal…limiting visibility but not movement. |
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Dice: (5,1,2,6,4) Note dispersal point at bottom of the pic…the three jerry cans. |
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The barricade was a support list choice…almost mandatory in this scenario for the villagers |
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Any RPG hit on the building potentially causes the SF force morale to drop. In this case the ‘strike’ has a good result dropping the SF force morale from 8 to 6…which was quite a good outcome. |
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…with all the activity and firing that the Rhodies can hear coming down the road the sergeant instructs the driver to speed up. He moves at a ‘safe’ fast speed (2D6″) but unfortunately for them the insurgents have placed a mine on the road and it is not spotted….BOOM!
…mines are triggered by the speed a vehicle moves. The faster it goes the more likely a mine is to explode and less likely it can be spotted and avoided. |
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Command Dice (6,6,3,3,1) |
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…a close up of the burning chief’s hut…. |
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T’Kongo (pointing) is the junior leader (JL) of this squad. |
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(Command Dice 6,6,5,4,3) |
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Here you can see the typical layout of a Rhodesian platoon. Two section in this case, each with their separate rifle and gun group led by the platoon HQ element. |
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….T’Kongo can see the Rhodies starting to move and steadies his men for the fight. Not any ordinary insurgents these Vakomana Shumba ‘veterans’ are up for a fight….or at least will not run at the first sign of the enemy!
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….as Joost shakes out the left hand section, Shale pushes the right section up and gets on the blower, calling in to find out the whereabouts of the Casevac vehicle for the young oeun who is wounded. His condition is not yet stable and Shale doesn’t want any dead men on this mission so takes a moment of pause to call up, give a quick sitrep and get the support vehicle moving…
….The platoon shakes out before the sweep |
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..Sergeant Joost has his men in a skirmish line ready to take on the terr fighters…. |
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…the MAG gunner prepares to fire…. |
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…as do the young Vakomana fighters…. |
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Joost screams to the troopies to shoot and the MAG gunner opens up…. short, accurate burst result in three shock being placed on the guerrillas….somewhat foolishly they stand up and challenge the Rhodies to come at them….Vakomana fighters indeed!
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….note, visibility is limited to 18″ so the insurgents are just on the limit of being seen by the SF forces and vice versa…. |
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…steeling his men to the fight, and to curb their enthusiasm somewhat, T’Kongo tries to move his men back away deeper into the scrub…he fails to get them to shift however due to the effects of the heavy suppressive fire from the enemy machine gun and rifle fire…
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no sign of the Casevac vehicle, Joost gets on the radio again trying to find out what the delay is, as the young oeun starts to look decidedly shaky….
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“come on lads, let’s stick it to those terrs….grab that other ammo belt will ya, I’m runnin’ low….”
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…they’re up on that hill, just over there…
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…as the first squad heads toward their dispersal point the second squad hangs tough with the full weight of the SF force to their front…. |
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….as T’Kongo’s squad holds the line Akiki’s squad hurries along behind through the scrub… |
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“…almost there, faster, hurry….”
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The Rhodies, now shaken out into a line, both left and right, bring down a withering fire. Joost’s rifle group gets a bead on the terrorists and kills two more with accurate shooting (inflicting a further two shock as well). Then the MAG gunner opens up…..dropping a further two terrs and yet more suppression.
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…Shale’s section advances to the access road and prepares to attack the now pinned and suppressed insurgent squad…
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“…spread out, spread out…”
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….Bombshell!!!… This causes the insurgent morale to drop…bomb-shelling being the equivalent of a Section breaking. The CT force morale drops from 8 to 6. |
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“…run!!…”
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In the distance the MAG gunners open up. Despite being in ‘hard cover’ T’Kongo’s squad takes a casualty, one man dead. The rifle group adds their fire causing yet another two losses….very accurate firing!!! With only three men left, and their leader wounded the squad breaks…
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…as both units of the CT player are off table, his force morale is not reduced to zero and the enemy force morale is three or less it’s a ZANLA victory!!!…..Josiah Akiki gets both units away and slips into the scrub undetected by the Rhodie force.
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Postscript
The scenario played somewhat differently to that which was anticipated. The CT player used his Patrol Phase well, positioning his JOPs centrally to enable him to deploy straight into the action…which is kind of the idea. He was a bit lucky as he caused so much damage with his RPG attack which virtually meant he needn’t have engaged the SF forces at all. This would be termed the optimal outcome for the CT player in this scenario as he can usually count on having to fight the SF forces up to a point to cause the Rhodie’s force morale to drop.
Having achieved his objective he played smart and more or less tried to withdraw and not engage the oncoming SF Forces. He could’ve swung his first squad to support his second and try and get the enemy force morale to zero with another success which would have delivered him victory also, but instead chose to ‘Take the Gap’ (getaway) instead…ultimately a wise choice, though it almost went wrong. As Akiki’s squad was equipped with only SKS rifles they really didn’t come equipped to take on a fresh Rhodesian platoon….which was never his plan anyway.
The mine is certainly an excellent option for the CT player in this scenario and he could’ve ignored the building objective completely and attempted a more deliberate ambush of sorts vs the SF relieving forces with the way his JOPs were placed. To do so though might have meant it would’ve been hard to break contact and make it to the dispersal points….in other words he would’ve had to stand and fight to achieve his win. By selecting an Insurgency Level Two he never had the resources to do that, but the SF player couldn’t have known this but ultimately his bluff would’ve been called.
In this case the CT player cleverly used a combination of attacking the ‘soft’ target of the building and delaying the SF relief force with his second squad, which proved to be the right combination to pull off a victory and slip away, albeit with both squads bombshelling and causing a loss of force morale.
Tactically, T’Kongo would have been much better putting his troops in a tactical stance to minimise shock and casualties in the opening firefight, which would have made his job of slipping away much simpler…but he forgot in the heat of the action!
Fortunately the CT player had the luxury of high force morale toward the end of the action due to virtually no losses which enabled him to ‘burn’ some of it as he approached his dispersal points…it’s always good to have some force morale left as you approach your dispersal points as you never know if you can ‘take the gap’ (which causes no force morale drop) or if you will bombshell (which will cost you force morale)…which could lose you the game right at the death when victory seems assured……..this is always a potential problem for the CT player and reflects that the battle is not fought in a vacuum but accounts for the ‘real escape’ of a CT force before the SF forces can locate them in the post battle pursuit.
For the SF player his engagement started by choosing some defensive works for the defenders of the krall/farm. This is not mandatory but is useful. Alternatively he could place his defenders in a tactical stance which effectively makes them as hard to hit but they could be easily overrun and their loss would be as damaging to force morale as the damage to the building….so this is a real consideration for the SF player….he does not want a repeat of the real life Altena Farm event so must guard against this.
The on table reinforcements were a bit unlucky in that they were not really expecting to detonate a mine, on the contrary, they might have hoped to spot it. Wheeled vehicles move fast down roads so can rapidly get to their destination. As the SF player can see the enemy JOPs once play starts (essentially reflecting a good platoon commander identifying potential ambush locations) the tactic of moving slowly makes sense, which could potentially mean seeing a mine, avoiding it, and then speeding up rapidly to move through any likely ambush area and to the krall. If he’s really lucky he might get a back to back phase to move up quickly, however in this game, the CT player had not yet used his ‘free’ ambush which would’ve enabled him to counter such a situation. As it turned out the CT player didn’t need to use it.
For the SF player to have survived the blast of the mine was a stroke of luck, though to be fair, so too the CT player had his, as the mine not only exploded with great force (6AP) as well as causing a lot of hits (10) which was a good run of hot dice rolling! This could’ve unravelled the entire SF game plan and resulted in a severe force morale loss and virtually the loss of the scenario on that basis alone….a reason to have mine protected vehicles like real life!!!…though off course in 1967 you can’t have any 🙂
As it turned out the odds swung for both sides and the SF player got his men out relatively unscathed. Shaking his troops out into formation, laying a fire base with his MAG gunner, ordering a quick reaction with his right wing sweep and calling for a Casevac, he was making all the right moves….just like he would’ve in a real contact. More than anything else he was trying to pin his enemy in place so they could deliver the coup de grace, but ultimately his fire caused an involuntary run by the T’Kongo’s squad and the CTs slipped away…albeit in a pell-mell run for their lives!!
This idea of ‘find, fix, finish’ is important for the SF player to grasp, for if his fire is ineffective (low shock) and then it slackens (end of turn) the CTs can Shumba move (be removed from play) and get away clean. They can then re enter at another jump off point (as for a normal unit placement) reflecting rapid unseen movement and then race to a dispersal point with their Tsuro move (3d6″ move with no shock effect)….usually not where near the SF forces are…something for both players to consider when the final JOPs are locked down and their subsequent in game use.
All that aside, this was been the perfect moment for the SF player to use a Chain of Command dice to end the turn, as he did, in an attempt to force the broken CT unit to be removed from play without it successfully bombshelling first. This would’ve caused a routed leader test (with a likely drop of force morale) as well as a broken section test (for bomb shelling) which had a good chance of reducing the CT force morale from two to zero…luckliy he only lost a single morale point and got off table ‘successfully’ with some force morale intact….if it dropped to zero then the CT player loses.
This last point was something the SF player had to consider because at the End of a Turn all SF casualties not yet Casevac’d must test to see if they ‘bleed out’. At this stage of the action this would have been the second attempt and this would’ve mean’t there was a fair chance one or even two SF soldiers could’ve died (though luckily they didn’t) and this would’ve likely caused his force morale to drop to zero….giving the victory to the CT player anyway, unless his morale had also dropped to zero….the only real combination for a draw in this scenario…such were the decisions the SF player had to wrestle with!!
So as can be seen the scenario produces many, many decision points or both players, starting right at the beginning with CT player choosing his force to fit the type of engagement he plans on fighting. This very much determines the type of battle that will occur. The SF player to a degree is fixed to ‘obvious’ choices to enhance his standard platoon structure…though he has a good selection to pick from.
All the above off course does not have to be aimed just at CT attackers vs SF defenders. This scenario could easily have been played out using an attacking force of SAS or Selous Scouts, who conducted many such operations akin to the outpost scenario. This changes the dynamic significantly as the SF player can really take the fight to the enemy and in fact must, as his victory conditions revolve around reducing CT force morale to zero…..no other victory conditions are available to him, unlike the CT player who can hit and run…the SF must hit and fight!
…..all very interesting options and lots of possible variation with the amount of platoon types available to both sides in the Rhodesian Bush War.