Skirmishes

[Abbott]

As an old Tabletop gamer I look back on many years of fighting what we termed “Skirmish” style battles. We mainly gamed small-scale African encounters set in and around The Congo and Rhodesia. Two to five people would participate in these sessions, which would include maybe 15 to 40 miniatures representing individual men.

Sometimes vehicles would be on the table, which may have included anything from Mercedes automobiles, Toyota pickups, Land Rovers, Flat bed trucks with, or without a mounted automatic weapon, an armored car of various types or sometimes even a T-55. Now and then a support weapon would be present such as an M-60, 60mm mortar, Light Anti-Tank weapons of various makes or .50cal. or a 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

Scenarios were designed to mimic survival skills, patrolling, sentry removal and shock operations. The flow of the battle depended on individual men making individual decisions as part of a team, squad or Platoon level. With Shock Force’s theater of operations I am looking forward to seeing some scenarios set in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran that may be able to mimic small unit operations within the combat Mission II gaming engine. How small of "small-unit operations" that can be supported I guess remains to be seen.

[ May 05, 2006, 03:55 PM: Message edited by: Abbott ]

[Gpig]

I second that.

Check out this low-level skirmish terrain (Sudan)

Sudan, Darfur region . . .

[Abbott]

Originally posted by Gpig:

I second that.

Check out this low-level skirmish terrain (Sudan)

Sudan, Darfur region . . .

Nice shot. Thanks Gpig.

[Peter Cairns]

I started out doing much the same thing with friends some 30+ years ago, and we actually used rules from a book called "Skirmish" by a guy called David Featherstone.

To this day I can tell you that at short range theirs a 60% chance of hitting someone running, and that at Short Mreium and long ranges an SMG gets +30, +10, -10, on chance to hit.

The book had a core set of rules and a set of special rules for periods from I think the Romans, through to WW2.

Great days, for a kid in his very early teens.

Peter

[Cpl Steiner]

Small unit actions are great in this time period. Mercenary units, such as the one portrayed in the film "The Wild Geese", spring to mind, as do elite behind-the-lines teams of SAS and Delta operatives. I would like to see scenarios like this, pitting the "Best of the West" versus hordes of poorly-trained and ill-equipped Third World militia. I know it sounds corny and politically incorrect but it would certainly be fun!

Another good reason for having these sorts of scenarios is that they would be an antidote to the US firepower superiority play-balance problem. Small teams on "deniable" operations would presumably be on their own without the backup of artillery and air support.

[Peter Cairns]

Actually it was Donald not David and It was published in 1975, I just checked it out on Amazon, and can you believe someone wants $185 for it. We got it out of the libaray and it must have cost about £1.50 then.

Still a great little book though.

Ah Nostalgia ain't what it used to be....

Peter.

[John Kettler]

Peter Cairns,

Don't know where it went (suspect one of my several gaming brothers, though), but we used to have one of Featherstone's books called DESERT WARS or somesuch. In many ways, it was the ancestor of the CMAK Companion, being full of juicy little quotes depicting armored warfare while providing some rules and clever techniques for battles in miniature. Believe nonopaque dust clouds were simulated using roughly shaped acrylic blocks roughed up with steel wool.

Abbott,

When I first really got into gaming with armor miniatures, initially with Roco Minitanks and later with MicroArmour and CinC 1/285, it was skirmish games all the time on our sand table, using TSR's Fast Rules, then Tractics when it finally arrived. I used to put together diabolical tactical problems which were so carefully balanced that they went down to the wire

and are still talked about to this day.

In one, an all but spent German spearhead KG (a few Panthers and ACs) was on hasty defense, and its problems were numerous, to include limited and widely varying ammo loads, limited gas (expressed as can only move so far), and other problems I don't recall. A special rule allowed cross loading of ammo and fuel for units in proximity, but at the price of time. Balancing this, the Americans had to ram through the counterattack, in difficult terrain, before the German main force arrived. Victory was within sight for the brave Americans--until an AC on a hill fired down onto the engine grates of the lead surviving Sherman, killing it as time ran out. Glory days!

Regards,

John Kettler

[ May 06, 2006, 12:00 AM: Message edited by: John Kettler ]