Force on Force - Getting News

Today we went on with our Kharum campaign and it truly was another sad chapter for Kharum Group of unidentified gunmen took hold of one major TV and radio station. Allegedly these men were members of pro Miracle faction. Some of them were caucasian and maybe foreign mercenaries.

The game we had tonight was my adaptation of a scenario from "Gold War Gone Hot" campaign book, which is actually about Warsaw pact fighting Nato in Europe during 80's. But the scenario fitted and it had many interesting features, so it went to Kharum.

This fight was about two local factions fighting over a TV and radio station in small town in Kharum. Just before sundown well organized group of militia entered the town and started attacking TV station. Poor defenders were taken totally by surprise and quickly one out two initial guarding groups were gunned down. Seeing this overwhelming attack happen, local men joined the attackers and turned against local warlords men, maybe for a revenge or some other reasons. Soon after the fire fight broke some mysterious masked group of well organized men arrived on the high point in a roof. These men were wearing sporty civilian dress, but everything was telling they were'n civilians. More like well trained soldiers armed to teeth. This is now second time these men appear into scene seemingly supporting attacker in very similar operation.

Only few reinforcements arrived sporadically but they couldn't turn the situation. So quite soon up link house was taken and soon after that actual station fell to the hands of attacker. The remaining defenders sold their souls bravely. At some stage the pride of local warlord rolled in a form of armored car and there was some nervousness among the attackers. But after flashy entry the armored car was hit by RPG and the main gun was knocked out. After this humiliation rest of the town turned and remaining local militia withdrew into deepening shadows of African night.

TV station in a town.

Attackers move in.

Fire fight intensifies there's shooters everywhere.

Cautious movement in good cover after clearing the yard.

Mysterious group of soldiers in civilian dress on rooftop. 

Defenders running for cover.

Armored car rolls in.

Fighting in the streets.

TV uplink house and station taken.

Mysterious masked gunmen watching over everything.

Once again nice and eventful game. I was in a role of local defenders and after loosing the initiative from start never managed to gain it back. But still very good game with many cinematic turns. I think the adaptation from cold war Europe into Africa worked well. Maybe once again, bit more power for defender at start.

Now the events in Kharum will stay put over the Christmas. There will be more news from Kharum in January 16, stay tuned.

Force on Force - Closing Up Shop

After a brief ceasefire our Force on Force Kharum campaign continued. This time it was local UN troops time to go on offensive, just to retaliate last times bloody nose, they got from local warlords militia. So UN HQ devised up a raid on weapon stash off suspected enemy leader.


The location was confirmed by HUMINT and troops were readied. To avoid too much fuss and especially civilian casualties, the mission was tasked to poor bloody grunts. Operation started when three fire teams of UN troops were dropped to entry point and they started quick approach to weapon stash location. Leader knew that speed was essential, so there was no time to sneak about. All three fire teams kept close together to give mutual support. Things were looking good for now.

But UN approach was seen by locals. The militia guarding weapon stash was alerted and more militia started gathering around. First shots were fired and all hell broke loose. When first UN team reached eye contact with container of weapons they were shot from all directions. As were other UN teams soon after. This caused casualties and UN troops were forced to stop to tend their wounded comrades. Their approach stalled and they lost the initiative and seemed also lost the control of the situation. The leader of the UN troops didi brave decision and ordered one team to dash for the container, they were gunned down. Casualties started piling up and UN troop set up good defensive positions and called for help. This mission turned into a rescue.

The distress call was answered by UN troops accompanied by US CSAR medic driving by in a truck and two German sniper military trainers which entered in the area. They came in and gave valuable fire support and patched up wounded and actually turned the tide once again. By coming in they also cleared all flanking enemy elements which were surrounding bloodied UN troopers. Now local militia lost their interest for warfare and settled to stay put and only protect weapons storage. UN troops pulled out and the weapon stash was quickly removed and hidden once more. This operation ended with quite embarrassing results for UN HQ.

UN grunts enter the area.

The green container is closely guarded.

Local militia is well armed and ready.

UN approaches in tight formation.

UN food delivery in progress.

Rapid movement through narrow alleys.

Gun men gathering around to all corners.

German sniper and spotter join the fray.

QRF troop with medic unload from a truck.

Initial UN troops in defensive positions waiting for rescue.

Nice game once again but I have to say that the scenario is really difficult if not outright impossible with troops given to attacker. The starting force is way too small so if one should run this game I recommend few more assets for the attacker. I had to threw in this QRF as a ad hoc fix just to keep the game interesting. Otherwise initial force would have been annihilated by turn five. But still good and entertaining game. Now UN is really pissed off and maybe there will be even more professional troops joining.

Bolt Action - Demo game in Clubs Housewarming Party

Just a brief post of a game I ran in our Clubs housewarming party last saturday. Our club moved into premises about two weeks ago. So we had open house or housewarming party for members and interested people last saturday.

I promised to run Bolt Action demonstration game as it was among the most wanted demos. So I packed my US armored and Fallschirmjägers for a fight once again. I used my new Karelia table, but I turned it to be a place somewhere in Netherlands. Actually it worked quite well with only new houses added. The game was just a fight over a tactically important crossroads which was defended by veteran Germans. US armored infantry with some tank support was attacking.

After a hard fight US won the day, but Fallschirmjägers put up a good fight before they were forced to withdraw from the village. Here's some eye candy of the game and the victory parade yanks had after the victory.

US troops taking cover in ruined house.

Germans in good positions.

Strong armored support rolls in.

Overall view of the objective.

US 2nd armored rolling through conquered village.

Another view to armored column.

We had lots of people visiting us during the day and many new people came to see the club, so I'll expect new members for the club. Bolt Action game lasted some four hours during the day, it was nice.

Force on Force - Return to the Modern

After some two years break we started Force on Force games in our club just to have some change to Bolt Action. To have some framework to our games I revitalized my previous Kharum campaign which was left to rest about two years ago.

Kharum is fictional yet believable nation somewhere in Central Africa which has recently been divided in two states. Does it seem familiar? Northern Kharum is fairly stable but South is not and our games are located there. There is various warlords struggling for power and there is also oil, which makes the place very lucrative for international oil companies. To stabilized young nation there is also African peacekeepers in Southern Kharum. This is the scene for intense action which has just started.

We already have had  two games in Kharum. First was a hit against leading warlords main man. The hit was orchestrated by rival warlord colonel Miracle, who was trying to capture the target person. The hit wasn't very successful since defenders were full awake and almost gunned down all attackers during short firefight. Only curious happening was intervention by masked gunmen who joined the fight and seemingly helped Miracles men. (This was off course caused by Fog of War Cards drawn).

Peaceful village in countryside.

Is not that peaceful, but filled with gunmen.

Who are alerted by approaching enemy.

Colonel Miracles men.

Fire support on the hill by the village.

Mysterious masked snipers joined the fight.

Second incident was attack on UN food distribution point, once again, by Miracles men. UN troops and US and German advisers put up a good defense. Then things went terribly wrong and one UN jeep was shot to flames and food truck was set ablaze. Some civilians got wounded allegedly by UN troops fire and after that four UN trooper were put to ground. So in the end food distribution ended up a chaos, and UN is now searching colonels men around.

Small town in Kharum.

UN food distribution point.

Local people are gathering to have some.

Place is guarded by local UN troops.

Gunmen moving for a hit.

And soon UN jeep is hot to fire.

Soon after that four peacekeepers are down.

To add the disaster, food truck is set ablaze by RPG.

When all ends total chaos reigns.

Nice start for our modern campaign. Eventful games and lots of plots and story lines to follow for the next games. Next will see the hunt for the gunmen hotspots.

Father's Day Present

I got very nice present for my daughter for Father's day. A while ago I told her that I would like to have  new banner for my blog, and she surprised me with this very cool graphics. I'm happy and very proud of her and this nice picture.

Thanks! 

Bolt Action - Back to the Pacific

To celebrate Warlords new campaign book Empire in Flames, we went back to jungle and had a game from out of the new book. We picked a scenario, Jungle Road, if I recall it right, where group of brits march into Japanese ambush. Once again we used my new table and tried make it look like Pacific island.

This game British changed to US Marines, cause I don't have my Indian troops ready yet. Nice scenario where US troops are marching along the road trying to exit the other end. Japanese are trying annihilate all enemies if possible. We used night fighting rules, and got flare, which made game even more interesting. This seems easy task for ambushers, but it wasn't so.

At the start half of the US troops started marching along the road and rest were following off table entering later from reserves. From turn one Japanese started firing and got some hits, but stalwart Marines pushed on and actually took offensive approach and opened quite intensive fire.  What would you expect they are Marines after all. Start of the second turn I got rest of "leathernecks" on the field and bunched them close together in order to provide concentrated fire ambushers and it worked, Japanese in stead couldn't concentrate their fire partly because dark conditions of night. Finally one Marine recon squad managed to assault two Japanese squads in consecutive turns which almost broke Japanese on left flank. US troops moved ahead and poured massive small arms fire to Japanese squads eliminating the one by one. At the end of the game four US squads left table to safe and most of the Japanese were lying dead on the ground. This night went to US troops.

Marines moving ahead.

Japanese ambushers waiting.

Dug in Japanese by the road.

US Marines bunch up for the fight.

Strong push forward and intense fire.

Marines running for safety.

Who has most BAR's wins!

Nice scenario and good game. The night fighting with occasional flare lighting up scenery was interesting and fun.