The Mugabia Situation (African Imagi-nation Fuff)

I've rolled some dice, and offer the following as a follow-up to the last battle in the Uwanda-Mugabia War, AAR-37: The Mouse Roars

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A satellite watched a seemingly unimportant event in a place called Mugabia.  For a few American intelligence analysts, it was another boring day of watching nothing happen in a place no one cared about.

Then, via real time satellite imagery, in a room in Washington DC, an intelligence team watched a battle unfold.  Quietly watching as a column of Soviet vehicles exploded one by one, and the men in and around them silently died in the surreal imagery.  

The Soviets had barely pulled out of the compound, when the fighting erupted.  The attack executed by those with whom the Soviets had just met.  The ambush was obvious, but what precipitated it was a mystery. 

After a few minutes, helicopters arrived, with one touching down, while another circled the area. Survivors were picked up and whisked away.

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Word of the attack on the Soviet mission in Mugabia quickly reached Moscow.  The initial reaction was utter surprise.  What outcome could they possibly hope for?  How could this have seemed a good idea?  

The Soviets were compelled to respond. But how? Should they send forces to fight in a place they already control, against an enemy that has nothing, and with nothing to gain, when they win.  Could the inevitable result even be called victory.

And, what to do about Uwanda?  A nation occupying a third of Mugabia's land.  The Mugabian President no doubt will expect Russia to fight his war for him; a conflict that would simply be another drain on the Soviet economy.  And one that Moscow simply had no interest in.

If only the incident could be kept quiet, proper punishment could be applied and much suffering and expense could be avoided.

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The Mugabian President hung up the phone, and wondered if this was a good or bad thing.  He considered that nothing was really inherently good or bad, it was just the manor in which the thing was received, so he decided to receive news of the attack on the Soviets as a good thing.  

He might lose the utility of the ULF, but he might gain an ally in his failing war against Uwanda. Surely the Soviets would now understand the need to help their friend on the ground and in the air. 

He smiled as he realized that recovering the territory lost to Uwanda was already resolved, and began to consider how to get the Soviets to leave once they rebuilt his military to the standard that they should have already met.

He knew that he was getting ahead of himself, but he just couldn't help it.  As always, he just couldn't help but be impressed with himself.  His smile grew.

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Resulting after, A European Getaway:

When the plane carrying the ULF leadership returned from France, it was stopped on the tarmac by forces of the Mugabian army, surrounded, and all of the passengers and crew were arrested and taken away.

The ULF leaders didn't know about the incident with the Soviets, and didn't suspect that they were the reason for this odd event at the airport.  And, they were most unfortunate that they had not planned or even known about the attack on the Soviets.

Everyone was restrained, put on trucks, and taken to prison, where the truth would be extracted, and not believed.

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The US intelligence regarding the attack in Mugabia was quickly shared with the leadership of the United Kingdom, who maintained very close ties with Uwanda.  This event could completely destabilize Uwanda's situation with Mugabia, depending on the Soviet Reaction.

The US considered publicly shaming the Soviet Union with the event, but the British "suggested" that maybe allowing the Soviets to take the initiative in responding might be better.  The British didn't see an upside to the Soviets investing heavily in a response to what was essentially a very small, if unpleasant, event, and suspected that the response may not be too heavy handed.

Afghanistan was not going particularly well for the Soviets, Breznev was obviously in declining health, the Soviets had bigger issues to deal with. Maybe they wouldn't use this as an excuse for another Cold War confrontation.  This would likely benefit both Uwanda and in the longer term, the United States.

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In a small town in Uwanda, a bedraggled soldier, a member of the Preisidential Guard no less, staggered into a cafe.  A reporter from The Times, stared at the battered soldier for a moment, and just knew there was a story standing in front of him.

After a drink and some urging, the soldier explained what had happened to his unit, about the meeting with the ULF, the Soviets, the ambush.  An hour later, the reporter and his photographer buddy, took pictures of the still smoldering personnel carriers, the dead paratroopers, the broken trees, and ruins of the building surrounded by bodies dressed in the uniform of the Mugabian Presidential Guard.

Tomorrow morning, dead Russians in Mugabia would greet the world on the front page.

AAR-37: The Mouse Roars

The following battle was the result of my previous post, Out of His Element.

The situation was simple, the Soviet Union was not willing to be dragged into war with the west over the interests of Mugabia, nor those of the ULF.  The Soviet Colonel didn't expect the ULF leader to like this, but had expected that he had enough sense to understand the situation.

As the Soviet Colonel ordered his forces to mount up, the Mugabian representative chased after him, attempting to salvage the situation.  This resulted in the Soviet delegation pulling away from the compound; while, the the Mugabians were still standing around watching the Soviets leave.

Hurriedly, the Mugabian tried to get his forces to mount up and catch the Soviets.  He certainly didn't want to be caught alone at the compound, given what had just happened. 

Colonel Petrov, the Soviet Commander, hurried to the SUV and considered the situation:

"I thought the their leader would be a more sophisticated man.  He is a warrior, certainly not a politician; dictating terms to him is pointless.   The sooner we get out of the here, the better."

As Petrov got into his vehicle, he immediately issued the order over the radio net to stay alert.

The Soviets leave the compound.

The Colonel's vehicle made the turn onto the main road, and the radio sparked to life.  Through the chaos coming over the receiver, he immediately realized that the rebels had attacked the convoy.  

The policy in Afghanistan had been to race through the ambush zone, but Colonel Petrov could see from the fireball ahead, that that option was no longer available.  The gunships were already been called in, and Soviet paratroops were tryng to find cover along the road ahead.

The Mugabians had not followed the plan, which was simply to follow the lead of the Soviet Colonel, and not break formation.  As the ULF began to attack, the Mugabians were still attempting to get in their vehicles and get organized.  

The Mugabian leader, Colonel Kajinga, despite being a member of the elite Presidential Guard, was not a combat leader.  He had spent his career behind a desk in the Presidential Palace, saying , "Yes" to the president.  Now he found himself the leader of an unprepared force, ambushed, and in combat.  

Moments apart, the delegation meeting the ULF, found itself separated and fighting two different battles.  One group on the road to the way home, surrounded by winderness and  farms scratched out of the countryside, the other a short distance away, at the ULF compound.  

The Battlefield

The battle took place in the middle of nowhere, on an east-west dirt road through the countryside, and at a small compound located on a side road south the main dirt road.

The view looking west with the primary road in the center of 

the view.  The compound is actualy just out of view to the 

right (south) near the two trucks roughly center right

A westerly view of the table, the compound is not obvious 

in the trees in the upper left.

Soviet Forces

3x  Squads of Paratroops in BTR60

1x  Colonel with two aids in Dodge SUV

2x  Mi-24D helicopter

Mugabian force

1x Dodge SUV

3x GAZ-66  w/Presidential Guard Infantry Squads, 24 troops

ULF force 

5x  Groups of fighters, 49 men, plus the ULF leader and five guards

1x GAZ69

1x Toyota pickup.

Initial Deployment

The ULF had two sections of men along the main road, two sections along the side road leading to the meeting, one section and five guards in the immediae area of the building.  

Firing started along the primary road with four RPGs, two at the lead BTR-60 with one hit, a single RPG hit on the second BTR-60, and a miss that crossed behind the trailing SUV, as soviet paras began to bail out of the BTRs, ULF rebels unloaded their AKMs on the Paras with Soviets returning fire as soon as they got their bearings.  Though the Soviets took the worst of it, both sides took casualties.  

The Soviet column under fire, heading east on the 

primary road.

The third BTR fired its turret machinegun into the source of an RPG ahead of it, while driving into the field north of the road.  The SUV accelerated and followed, but was hit from behind by an RPG, killing the colonel and driver instantly.

The Third BTR also took an RPG, with survivors bailing out of the vehicle.  By this point, surviving Soviets on the road were firing on the rebels in the trees from behind cover provided by the burning BTRs.  Some of these men had done this in another more barren land, and against better soldiers.  The result was that in the ensueing exchange, the Soviets started to balance out the casualties.  

Chaos and death.

The survivng CHQ radioman from the SUV called for the Mi-24s, trying to direct them to the enemy.  The  firing died down, and Soviet survivors began to make their way east in cover on the north side of the road.

Soviet survivors start to move east and re-group.

After a coupe of minutes, the first Mi-24 appeared, looking for enemy soldiers, and eventually landed in the field north of the surviving paratroops, who were lifted out.

Private Zakharov was happy to get into the Mi-24, his only thought oddly removed from the situation at hand: "A year in Afghanistan, and this is the first time that I've ridden in one of these".

The Mi-24D picks up the survivors.

Meanwhile, back at meeting site:

The Mugabian, Colonel Kajinga came out of the building still trying to talk his way into another meeting with ULF leader.  Presidential Guard troops were loading into their trucks.

Mugabian Presidential Guard still loading into their trucks.

The Soviets had already loaded and moved up the road out of view, when the explosions were heard from the RPGs.  Immediately, two of the GAZ trucks exploaded as RPGs hit them, with many Presidiential Guard troops being killed or disoriented.

Presidential Guard in a hopeless situation.

ULF rebels shot several more Presidential Guard troops before they began to return fire.  The assistant to the Mugabian representative was killed trying to get in the SUV, and it took off with only Colonel Kajinga on board, followed by the third GAZ truck with a small number of Presidential Guard troopson board.

Presidential Guard trying to escape the turkey shoot.

Presidential Guards on the GAZ returned fire on the ULF rebels, as did  the momentarily surviving guard spread about the burning trucks.  Their fire made possible the escape of the third truck.  Unfortunately, as it followed the SUV into the trees behind the meeting building, a rebel with an RPG on the other side of the building scored a lucky hit, destroying the last truck.

The last truck is hit.

A rebel pickup with a machinegunner in the bed, chased after the escaping vehicles. As it passed the third, now burning, GAZ, nobody saw the surviving Presidential Guardsman with his RPK machinegun.  He opened up on the pickup truck, killing both rebels in the bed, and securing both his and the Mugabian SUV's escape.

The SUV with the Mugabian Colonel escapes, leaving 

the lone surviving Mugabian soldier behind.

On the front side of the building, the remaining Guardsmen continued to exchange with the rebels, but out numbered, surrounded, and without any significant cover, they were doomed.  No prisoners were taken.

It appeared that that the ULF had officially rejected the Soviet ultimatum.

Loses:

The Soviets lost three BTR-60s, the Colonel, and 17 paratroops KIA.

The Mugabians lost three GAZ-66 trucks, an aid,  and 23 Presidential Guard KIA.

The ULF lost 30 fighters KIA, with 9 WIA.

Surprisingly, despite the ambush, the Soviets actually inflicted more casualties than they received, excluding the lost vehicles.

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A long time coming, this scenario was rolled up over two years ago.  It was a little anticlimactic in that it was such a fast game, taking less than an hour to play out.

The Soviets faired better than I expected.  I mean it was an ambush, and brutal, but they had 8 troops survive a hopeless situation.  Their shooting (die rolls) was exceptional, resuting in the ULF losing a lot of men quickly.

I was really bummed that the Soviet Colonel was killed, hoping and sort of expecting that the SUV would get him out of harms way quick enough to survive and maybe be a recurring character.

I was also quite surprised that the Mugabian leader managed to get out.  I really expected all of the Presidential Guard and their colonel to be toast.

15mm British Cold War Infantry 1958

Sometime back I had gotten the brilliant idea of gaming 15mm British and Soviets forces in my 1958 World War III setting.   I already had Soviet infantry and most of the vehicles that I would need for both sides, but would have to start from the ground up for the British infantry.  

After some help from members on The Wargames Website forums, I settled on Peter pig WWII infantry to use as the basis for the British infantry and started to move forward.  Generally, weapons and uniforms are the same or pretty similar, and while some of the packs and pouches might be out of date, I just decided to go with most of the figs as they are.  The only big exception was that I decided to use US WWII bazooka teams with British head swaps to represent the M20 anti-tank weapons used by the 1958 troops.  The WWII bazooka is way too small, but it gives a clear indication of what the role of the fig is.

Originally, I was going to try to modify the webgear and some pouches, but after losing four monts of hobby time this year, decided to just do the head swaps and go with them.

Colors of both the uniforms and the gear were adjusted for the late 1950s, and probably should have had a lot more variation than what I ended up painting, but as time is my enemy, I opted for fast and more uniform.

In any event, right or wrong, good or bad, I now have a British infantry company for 1958 with a couple of Vickers machine guns and mortars for support.  Here are a few pics:

Above is the entire company, CHQ at the front, followed by 

the arty and mortar forward observers, the three rifle platoons 

with PHQ at the front of each, a pair of 3" mortars left rear, 

and a pair of Vickers machineguns right rear.

With the British infantry done, the only thing that I still need to do for this project is to build a couple of aircraft, and I'll be done with the 15mm version of my 1958 Cold War project for the time being. 

On Track with Levin Miniatures (part 2)

Back to work on the railroad track sections; next, I stippled some acrylic putty along the upper portion of the track bed, nearest the ties to give a hint of ballast.  Not sure that it did much to help the cause, but it is there.

The tracks were then primed and painted, and some flock was added along the lower edges of the track sections.  Here are some pics of the finished sections.

I started working on a crossing, but wasn't happy with size of its footprint, so will try again at a later point.  Additionally, I have some unused track sections left to add bits as needed in the future.

The end result will do the job, but I think they look a little "flat".  Some weathering will probably fix that, but they ended up taking a week's more free time than I had anticipated, and I'm not sure of the method for weatheing yet.  For now, I'll move on to some other things.

I should also mention that service from Levin Miniatures in getting the track was quite good, and as with their buildings, I am very happy with their castings.   Quality is good, price is very reasonable, and service has been excellent.

On Track With Levin Miniatures (part 1)

I received an order from Levin Miniatures a couple of months back to help me get "on track" again.  The order consisted of 15 packs of train tracks for my 6mm World War III games set in Germany.  

Originally, I was going to scratchbiuld all of the track, but decided to speed things along given how much time I spent away from hobby projects this summer.  The order came almost as an accident, as I was looking at the location for my next WWIII-1958 battle, and remembered that I had never resolved the need for railroad track, so I sent off the order to Levin.

Nine packs of straight track will give me about 15 feet of track for the table top, plus two packs each of turns, switches, "y"s and "X"s.

I decided to mount these on strips of .03" thick styrene and build up a little track bed around them.  

Styrene strips scored to bend and snap off of the sheet for 

straight sections of track.  

Close up of the three different lengths of straight track after 

mounting.

The track sections are about 2.5 inches long, and about 7/16" wide.  I added 3/16" to each side for track bed. the track sections were glued to the styrene with superglue, and I applied a bead of glue along each edge of the track section to quickly build up the slope to the track bed, then applied a coat of glazing putty on each side and sanded the slopes smooth.

This is the current state of the track sections.  I expect to finish them this weekend and will then post "On Track" part 2.