Uwanda and Mugabia: The Strategic Situation

Uwanda's all out invasion of Mugabia had barely begun, but a number of significant events had taken place:

First, Uwanda had caught Mugabia flat footed.  Despite the obvious signs, the Mugabian spies, and the Soviet warnings, President Upepo-Mfuko, the egomaniacal warlord that he was, believed that he knew best. He had misjudged Uwanda, who decided to act, because of the impact that the border dispute had on Uwanda's economy, and to the well-being of those in office.  Mugabia's leader had failed to understand just how effective his ULF support had been.

Initially, Mugabia's Air Force had made a good showing, far better than Uwanda had imagined, and despite the comparative numbers of aircraft, this had given the Mugabian leader a false sense of security.  With Mugabian Air Force's numbers now rapidly dwindling, the situation was not so favorable as it once appeared.

Though seemingly of little importance on a global perspective, the escalated war surprised the world powers.  Potentially, it gave the super-powers another stage on which to fight a proxy war.  But it was not a stage on which either Cold War participant had intended to perform.  While young men followed their leaders, and people died, the power-brokers considered how to best play their new pawns.

In the UN, representatives lobbied for support, and for a moment at least, others gave consideration to the lobbyists.  Bordering nations were suddenly concerned about the spread of unrest and war, and about how all of this might affect surrounding economies, and other interests. For now, the players mostly just postured, until time might come to act, but they had at least taken notice.

The United Kingdom had maintained relatively strong ties with Uwanda, and considered the success of Uwanda in the post colonial era as being a direct result of their effort.  Much business was conducted with Uwanda, and nobody wanted to lose money.  The United Kingdom and its resources were always only a handshake away.

Though France had severed its ties to Mugabia after a messy independence, they still had interest in the region and even felt tension in the long stretched strings of colonialism.  There were those still connected to Mugabia, and poised to strengthen those connections if the opportunity arose.

Cuba had advisors and limited forces already in Mugabia, and the call to defend and extend the reach of communism was already being heard.  Within hours of Uwanda crossing the border, Cuba was re-evaluating its obligation to the cause.

The Soviet Union had no illusions about Mr. Upepo-Mfuko, and though he would always ask for more than he deserved, just how much he might be given was now a question of greater consideration.  The answer was directly proportional to just how well he would behave.  Requests for aircraft, air defenses, and even Soviet troops had already been made, but for the most part, no answer had yet been given.

Thus far, the United States had been the only outsider to act.  Though less secretly than they believe, they had been the first to violate the integrity of the conflict, and aid a nation in a state of war.  As Uwanda's troops aimed their first shots, the US was already transferring West German modified Sidewinder missiles to Uwanda, in what turned out to be a surprisingly important act, given the earliest actions in the war.

Barely a mention of the conflict had been seen or heard in the nightly news, but Yakovlev Forgers danced impressively from the deck of Minsk off the coast of Mugabia, and the USS Carl Vinson made haste to cast its shadow over Minsk.

SFB - General War: First Battle in Kzinti Space

After nearly afour month lapse, we played the next battle in our Star Fleet battles campaign.  A Klingon attack on a Kzinti battle station near the center of the Klingon-Kzinti border, hex 1405 on the Federation & Empire map.

Kzinti defenses were minimal, consisting of two police corvettes, the base, and its minefield.

Klingon forces were more substantial, consisting of 10 ships as follows:

1x D7C
3x D7
1x D6V
1x D6D
1x D6M
1x F5V
1x F5S
1x E4
plus 18 fighters

A small, but capable force, featuring 7 heavy(ish) cruiser sized ships.

The Klingon plan was simple, fly up to a safe range of 12-15 hexes out, pummel the base with drones and disruptors, and declare the hex liberated from Kzinti oppression.

The Klingons (foreground), with drones in the lead, 

then ships, and most fighters launched and trailing.  

The Kzinti base is in the distance, next to a stack 

of six drones.

The Kzinti plan seemed to consist of delaying destruction long enough to at least damage something, and their plan half worked.  Between scatter pack shuttles, and a the few captor mines, Kzinti drones kept the Klingons moving, so it took six turns of fly up, shoot, run away from drones, repeat, before the base finally blew up.  

The Kzinti force simply wasn't able to cause enough damage to get through any Klingon shields, their drones largely being thinned by the fighters, though slow and tactically limiting, have two phasers to beat on the drones with.

The Klingon ships making their first(?) loop, the fighters are now 

moving between the ships and Kzinti drones to intercept them.

The scenario was essentially hopeless for the Kzinti, amounting only to whether or not they would be lucky enough to crack a Klingon shield and hurt something.  They weren't.

Turn 5: The Kzinti drones are expended, the base is 

significantly damaged, and the Klingons make their 

last loop before lining up on, and destroying the base.

The police ships have just started to disengage.

Our next battle is a similar Klingon attack on the Kzinti planet in (F&E) hex 1105.  Again, ten Klingon ships, though mostly lighter F5 hulls, against the planetary defenses of ground bases and fighters.

New Arrivals from Scotia-Grendel and Shapeways

I've received a number of orders in recent weeks for 6mm miniatures for my third world imagi-nation campaign, the Uwanda-Mugabia War.  The first order came in  early August from Shapeways, and the next was my first order with Scotia Grendel.

The shapeways order was for three 1/285 scale G91R aircraft in the frosted plastic.  The ordering process went smoothly; the models took 8 days to arrive, were well packed, and are of very nice quality.  An odd characteristic (to me) is that they are hollow, such that if you look into the jet intake, you can see out of the engine nozzle.  As a result, they are exceedingly light weight.

I think that most gamers would be happy with the quality and detail, and I am thankful to have them, so that my G91 ground attack aircraft can be represented by something that is close to the actual aircraft in my game.  They do have a light texture from the printing process, and the fuselage is faceted, being made of a series of small flat surfaces, as opposed to "being" round.

The other order, received from Scotia Grendel was for some 6mm Jet Provosts.  This was my first order with Scotia Grendel, and it went very smoothly, with items arriving to me in the US in about 11 days.  The Jet Provost is the aircraft from which the Strikemaster was developed, and is very similar in appearance.  It also is the closest thing in scale to the Strikemasters used by Uwanda in my game.  Upon receipt, I was quite happy with the quality, though slightly surprised at the size.  But after comparing the 1/100 scale Tamiya models, discovered that the 6mm model is appropriately sized.

The photos below illustrate the comparative size of the 6mm models and the 1/100 scale plastic models for relative size comparison.

Shapeways G91 and Scotia Jet Provost

Next up is a follow-up order to Scotia, again with perfect service.  This order included a small number of aircraft, infantry and vehicles.

For no good reason, I have always had a bit of a thing for the SU-15 interceptor, so when I saw that Scotia offered one, I had to order it.  Again, I was very happy with the quality, and it is a beast.

Scotia SU15

In addition to the SU-15, I picked up a pair of Mig 27s.  These are a little rougher than the other aircraft that I received from them, but sill not bad by any means, and well worth it, given the price.

Scotia Mig 27, near model still has sprues attached to wings.

Scotia Mig 27 underside

I'm in the US and "grew up" with CnC and GHQ micro-armor, and for years I've heard criticism of the 6mm models from the British manufacturers, so I ordered the Land Rovers with recoilless rifles to represent Uwandas Wombat systems with some reservation, given that I bought them sight unseen.  My reservations were ill-placed, as the models came with seated crew, and featured fine and well proportioned detail.  I am quite happy with the models, and future vehicle purchases will not be made with such reservation.

Scotia Landrover with Recoilless Rifle

Lastly, I am looking for figures to represent Uwanda's infantry, which are generally equipped with British weapons.  I ended up purchasing Scotia's South African infantry, which is offered in two packs, Infantry with Command, and Heavy Weapons.  To be honest, I can't tell the packs apart, other than they seem to have a slightly different number of figs.  I received three packs of figs, two infantry, and one heavy weapons.  The first (first photo below) was marked as heavy weapons, and the other two were not marked (one pack depicted in the second photo below).  For my application, this isn't a problem, as the Uwandan infantry only carry Minimis and Law rockets in addition to their FN FAL rifles, and I expected that most heavy weapons figs would simply go unused.  So I have all of the figs that I need.

Scotia South African Heavy Weapons pack (mis-marked?)

Scotia South African Infantry with Command

The figs are pretty cleanly cast, no real flash, and clearly depict rifleman, prone machine gunners, and a leader figure standing and pointing.  They stand from their bases closer to 7mm, than 6mm, add not quite another millimeter with the base included.

All things considered, I am impressed with the service, and quite happy with the quality of the miniatures, and will be ordering again soon.

Irishserb's 15mm Miniatures

Over the last year and a half, I have experienced something of a revival in my miniatures hobby, enjoying my hobby time in a way that I hadn't for quite some time.  Coincidently, that time has corresponded to a couple changes in my time constraints, one of which has been producing my line of 15mm modern vehicle miniatures.

Also during this time, I've have had many requests for models, and as such, I plan to make them available gain.

Over the last week, I have finally gotten back to making molds, and prepping to work on a few new masters.  As soon as I build up some molds and  castings, I will update my sales page, and make them available again for sale.  My target to start making models available in roughly 2-3 weeks.  I will post updates here, as well as on my sales site.

Keeping Busy

I've been pretty busy lately, both in and out of the hobby.  One the hobby front, I've been ordering and painting figs for my 6mm Uwanda-Mugabia project.  Most of the orders are in route, so just been working on old models thus far.

The first batch of vehicles for Uwanda is done.

The second batch is under construction/repair.

I've also managed to finally paint my 15mm East Germans (though I haven't flocked them yet), to get them out of the way of the smaller stuff moving on to my painting table.  So far this month, between the GDR troops and Uwandan odds and ends, I've painted 131 miniatures, more than doubling my total for the year.

East Germans awaiting flock.

I'm also preparing for the next Star Fleet Battles game in our campaign for tomorrow afternoon.  Our last game was nearly four months ago, so we're past due for action on that front.  the battle will consist of the Klingon assault on a Kzinti battle station.  Should be a pretty easy time on my end, as I have a dozen ships attacking, and I think there is only a single Kzinti police boat defending.  

We'll see how it goes, the Kzinti player is a most devious fellow, so I'll need to act accordingly, or I could be in for a surprise. 

Uwanda & Mugabia: Growing Scope & Shrinking Scale

As I prepared to run the next couple of ground battles in the war between Uwanda and Mugabia, I realized that the battles have become larger than what I originally envisioned for the campaign, and potentially unmanageable in 15mm on my table. 

Originally planned as primarily infantry battles with platoons of vehicles here and there, I'm now facing two battles that could feature a half dozen or more company sized units with other supporting elements.  I don’t think that my 6’ x 9’ table can handle upwards of a hundred vehicles and associated infantry roaming about on it, and still have room for maneuver.  So, I'm going to try switching over to 1/285 scale or 6mm figures for some of these larger battles.  I've already ordered infantry, and a few vehicles and aircraft to paint up, and with any hope, will be able to move this process along quickly.

Terrain-wise, I’m not too bad off.  I need to make a few buildings, but have some Arab style buildings that gives me a start, and have both the basic terrain tiles (many are already used with the 15mm games), and trees that will work. There are a few items that I’d have to add otherwise, but at 6mm, none of it should take too much time.

My only real concern is that the games might lose some of their personality.  I'll still be using the same character/leader mechanisms, but I'm worried that since the infantry will be based as sections on multi-figure stands, that the game could become sort of impersonal. We'll see how it goes, if the flavor seems to leak out of the games, I'll have to find another solution.

In the mean time, I still have a couple of air battles to play out, and can spruce up some of my old NATO/WarPac Micro-Armor.

I'll post updates of my progress.

AAR29: A Good Showing by Mugabia

With the exception of the Mugabian counter-attack at Objective 21, which caused Uwanda to alter plans slightly, things had pretty much gone Uwanda's way thus far.  The second day of the war opened with a series of morning attacks by Uwanda's forces, both on the ground and at in the air.  The battle at objective B29 would be key to the success of Uwanda's plans.  Surprisingly, the battle consisted of the smallest forces on both sides to fight on this day.  Uwanda had air cover with two F5As, but no ground attack aircraft committed, and neither side had artillery support.

The black line running roughly down the center of the map is the

 border between Uwanda and Mugabia.  The Battle takes place

 at Objective 29, center right.

Uwanda's forces consisted of:

1 Armored  Company with 13 Sherman Firefly
1 Motorized Infantry Company in trucks with 12 infantry sections and the CHQ
1 Recce Section with two Ferret armored cars.

Uwanda's view of the battlefield, looking generally north.

Mugabian forces:

1 Mechanized Infantry Company with nine squads in BTR152 and the CHQ
2 BRDM in an ad-hoc recce section
2 ZU23/2 anti-aircraft guns towed by trucks.

Mugabia's view looking south.  In the far right, the little 

white puff is a Uwandan Ferret armored car burning.

The Mugabian forces had some time to dig in, and had created two lines of defense, the first a lightly manned screening line, the second a more solid line of infantry, running diagonally towards the first to the extreme right.  The BRDMs would act as a mobile reserve to try to patch any breeches.  The Mugabain commander expected that Uwanda would employ armor, and the best that he could hope for was to embroil any enemy tanks in an close range skirmish with RPG wielding infantry.

From overflights, Uwanda knew that there was a significant infantry force located at the objective, but feared that by the time that they arrived, reinforcements with heavier equipment might be waiting.  The Uwandan commander regretted that one of his two assault groups had been recommitted to fighting elsewhere, as his force was now the lightest of all Uwandan attacking elements, and was in the position of making the deepest penetration into Mugabian territory.

Though still mounted, Sergeant Okoye's recce section was at least now moving at a more reasonable speed and cross country, rather than simply racing to their death on the road.  He intended to follow orders exactly, barely making contact, and then letting the heavier forces do the shooting.  His Ferret slowed to a stop, as it approached a tree line.  "Time to have a look...again", he thought, as he prepared to climb down from the turret.

Uwanda's scouts slowed as they approached each line of trees and bushes separating fields, taking time to scout out the next line of foliage.  Unfortunately both scouts were spotted by infantry, prior to seeing anything, and one was hit repeatedly, first getting immobilized, and then destroyed by RPGs.  The other scout was fired upon, but at much longer range, and skedaddled into cover along the river.

Sergeant Okoye's armored car smoking after being hit by RPGs.

In time, the Fireflies advanced, moving cautiously, trying to find the elusive Mugabian infantry.  After advancing into the field with the destroyed Ferret, RPGs opened up, killing two of the tanks.  Their positions given away, the tanks were free to engage, firing cannon and machine gun, and killing a number of infantry.  Quite a number of RPGs were fired, but most missed as the Mugabian infantry started to fall back.

Fireflies advance, the Mugabians still haven't been sighted.

The advance continues, more Fireflies pass those killed by RPGs. 

Uwanda's infantry follow in trucks at some distance.

During this exchange, another platoon of Fireflies advanced into battle, with Uwanda infantry in trucks following behind.  Finally in range, the Mugabian anti-aircraft gun on the hill opened up on a truck and demolished it and many of its occupants.  Additionally, in rapid succession, three more tanks, including the one ridden by the battlefield commander,  were hit by RPGs during the slow advance.

Despite Fireflies dropping high explosives in close proximity, 

the ZU23 continues to fire.

The remaining tanks focused on the AA gun, as well as, the sources of RPGs.  Though the AA gun got another truck, it and many of the RPG gunners were knocked out of action, and the Mugabians withdrew completely from their first defense line.  However, chaos ensued as some of Uwandas forces continued to follow their last orders, while others reacted unpredictably to the specific events involving them.

RPGs and the ZU23 took their toll.

It took some time for the young infantry captain to gain control over most of his forces, and even then, he wasn't really equipped to coordinate the armor and infantry. 

Most of his infantry had dismounted at Mugabia's first defense line by the time he caught up to them.  He had one platoon remount as a reserve, while troops to his right exchanged long range small arms fire with Mugabian infantry near the road leading into town.  To his left, he had his second platoon advance toward the small hill, now seemingly abandoned by the opposing infantry.

Second Platoon advances toward the little hill.

Third platoon advances into the open area east of the hill, and 

west of the road (lower right).  Second platoon is now engaging 

Mugabian troops on the hill (upper left).

During the lull that came after the command tank was hit, the Mugabian commander had his troops withdraw to the backside of the small hill to the southwest of the town.  He hoped that the cover would force the Uwandans to finally attack dismounted, giving his troops opportunity for a fair fight.  Additionally, if the tanks came again, the few remaining RPGs would be able to engage at short range.

When the Uwandans did advance over the hill, a furious firefight ensued, in which both sides took heavy casualties.  Both sides suffered morale failures, simultaneously abandoning the hill. 

The Uwandan Captain, sent the reserve platoon to try to regroup the remnants of second platoon, while third platoon advanced into the open area just west of the main road into town.  The Mugabians withdrew into the town behind the hill and along the road, during the Uwandan recovery and advance. 

Uwandan infantry withdrew, rallied, and attack the hill a second time.

Once again the Uwandan infantry rushed the hill, engaging in another heavy firefight, and discovering the Mugabian surprise behind the hill, two BRDM armored cars with their heavy machine guns.  Once again, the Uwandan infantry broke, causing the caption to mount up and advance with the remaining tanks to regroup his battered forces. 

Fireflies crest the hill to find the Mugabians nowhere in sight.

All during this time on the hill, Uwandan infantry slowly closed with the Mugabians in the town and along the road, finally gaining an edge, and hitting several of the Mugabian infantry in the town.  As the Uwandan tanks advanced up the hill to engage the armored cars, waiting on the other side, the Mugabian commander decided that it was time to withdraw.  His force had been reduced by half or more, but had fought hard, and stood their ground, when required.

Uwandan infantry west of the road, advance on the town.

The Mugabians took significant losses along the road, 

and finally decided to withdraw. 

Uwanda took the objective, but paid dearly during the process.  This force would not be advancing to the next fight.  Additionally, the captain's after action report, combined with observations from higher on, gave clear indication of the limitations of Uwandan command structure, and the cost of attacking without proper artillery and/or air support.

Sergeant Okoye was confused as he came too.  His last memory was of the flash and the immense burning pain in his legs, then blackness. The medic assured him that his injuries actually weren't too bad, and that he would be okay.  He asked about his driver, and the medic said that he didn't know, but Okoye already knew what the medic wouldn't tell him. 
________

This was a great game, if a little slow at the start.  The battle took place almost entirely on the "west" side of the road, but the infantry battle for the hill ebbed and flowed with multiple morale failures and rallies, spanning maybe 25 turns or more.

In the end, there were simply too many Uwandan troops and tanks, but the Mugabians fought well.

Losses were as follows:

Uwanda:
7x Sherman Firefly
3x truck
1x Ferret

17 KIA
46 WIA

Captured:
1x Zu 23-2
3x BTR152
1x GA 66

Mugabia:

2x Zu 23-2
3x BTR 152
1x Gaz 66

21 KIA
30 WIA

I'm still playing with officer command bonus/penalties for leadership quality, training, etc.  

Uwanda's primary commander was a strong leader, but the infantry captain was inexperienced and hesitant, making him slow to act. He got a one turn penalty to make decisions when changing orders.  this helped give time to the Mugabians to regroup and reposition, during the fight for the hill.   

Mugabias leader was recognized as having great character and was well respected by his men, which gave a morale bonus to his troops.

Probably going to do another battle this Saturday.