Roadblock on Highway 120 in the Mukha Valley

Jakalistan, 29 November 2000: There have been reports of an escalation in violence in the east of the country when an United Nations-led checkpoint was ambushed by militia from an unknown faction.

The UN peacekeepers were accompanied by police from Serbia, who are working in collaboration with the UN-stabilising mission as part of JFOR. The international forces were overseeing the recent elections , the first since the country was plunged into war following the breakup of the Soviet states, in the Mukha Valley.

The attacking force included armour, most likely T-55 tanks, along with infantry armed with RPGs and mortars. The official death toll has not be confirmed, but unofficial reports are stating around 20 men were killed or seriously wounded.

Serbian Prime Minister Minić, also facing turmoil back home since the Bulldozer Revolution, denounced the attacks and vowed to send more troops to support the humanitarian response in the tiny republic nestled in the Caucasus mountains.

Jack, Liam and I met up to play an introduction game of Crossfire, using the 'Roadblock on Highway 120' scenario from the 'Hit the Dirt' scenario supplement. With Jack umpiring (of sorts) Liam took on the role of attacker, with myself defending the roadblock. But as we were all so excited to wargame for the first time in months (as Melbourne had been in lockdown due to COVID-19), we forgot the minefields and barbed wire I was supposed to have to help me defend. That didn't bother me.

Some photos of the game (Liam attacking from the top of the screen towards me):

I defended in depth, which worked to a degree, but my fields of fire weren't as good as they could of been. The mortar and HMG on my left flank held up Liam's attack there all game. I also found it challenging (in a good way) to really think about the sequencing of orders (like in Blood Bowl), there was many frustrating moments the initiative passed between us.

Dinner was a chicken wrap from Knafeh Nabulseyeh, a Palestinian place up the road. Perfect modern conflict-themed interior and great food. Will definitely go back.

Eventually the weight of Liam's attack broke me, as his T-55s pushed their way down the road, weathering the completely ineffectual RPGs (they needed 6s to hit - we proxied them as Panzerschrecks - this worked well). Worked out to be a slight victory to Liam, I needed to have a little more reserve to counter this punch.

A note on the name of the valley the battle took place in our imagi-nation - Mukha is "Oak" in Georgian to match the location of the game (Oakleigh/Hugesdale) and I substituted "Valley" instead of "-dale".

A Small 15mm Moderns Batch (T-72, BTR-80A, BTR-80 and Modern Soviets)

The last couple of painting sessions was for a small mixed batch of moderns, consisting of:

• A Battlefront T-72 painted in Indian United Nations colours (Somalia, Congo and Sri Lanka),
• Two Zvezda BTR-80s converted to BTR-80As in generic camo (but based on what the Hungarian army used in the Balkans in the 90s),
• A Zvezda BTR-80 in generic Soviet green, and
• Some Eureka Miniatures modern Russians as Serbian police in Kosovo in 1999 that needed touching up after I dropped them about a year ago.

The BTR-80As were easy to convert, using some spare 2cm WWII German AA guns, some plastic sprue cut to size and greenstuff.

A slow burn project is Haiti in 2004 when the UN (mainly Brazilians) went hard into a shanty town to get a drug lord, but the reporting on the event has conflicting accounts - shooting innocent bystanders, etc. I find it interesting in that respect. That and white vehicles and blue helmets. So I’m just adding random stuff to that now.

For the Balkan theme I just started collecting for the conflict, but realised no one really is interested in it so my modern Americans will be an OpFor the Serbs. There’s a great Hollywood film with Owen Wilson, 'Behind Enemy Lines', that shows off some nice kit and has a great antagonist (Sasha the sniper) - he's the guy in front.

I sort of imagine these for an infantry-heavy company level game (originally Flames of War, but I guess Team Yankee with minimal tanks/AFVs, etc). Or a skirmish game like Ambush Alley on a grander scale.

Cthulhu: Death May Die Board Game Round Two

With restrictions lifted to allow us to go to other people's homes again, both Mark and I were keen to play something and another scenario from Cthulhu: Death May Die seemed perfect, following on from our gaming session in June (has it been that long?!).

We played season 1, episode 6: "Unspeakable Hour" with the one himself, Cthulhu. I played Borden and Alex, while Mark played Sister Beth and Scarlett Hayes.

After last time of multiple long range weapons, we went for females that didn't mind getting their hands dirty with monsters.

Playing it safe, but more fearful of last time that were weren't going to complete the mission in time, we managed to win without losing anyone. That's a double win.

It feels good to be gaming again. Really good.

Last Game I Played - Among Us

The screaming and scheming. Kept a lot of us sane in lock down.

A Shattered Union - Civil War in the USA in 2021

I think everyone in the world is watching the US election results. It has spawned a fair few memes, like this one:

This has led to me pondering wargaming a conflict (too soon?), a modern take on a Very British Civil War (VBCW) and its Australian counterpart A Right Bloody Mess (ARBM). Considering the country faced a bloody civil war only 150 years ago it's not too hard to imagine.

There's been plenty of fiction over the last 20 years to imagine what this would look like, including the 2005 video game 'Shattered Nation':

Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beYDa8B82tA

The Reddit user VengefulMigit has created these lovely detailed maps:

Source:
https://www.reddit.com/r/imaginarymaps/comments/jl823q/a_shattered_union_the_pacific_northwest_theater/

There's enough there to imagine a platoon of Abrams tanks flying red Anitfa flags or American pick up trucks with black and yellow trim with a whole lot of hunters on the back. Plus the lovely flags. With the work my Balkan / Kosovo / Jakalistan imagination gathering pace, I can see myself getting distracted.

Wargaming Table

After years of having terrain, but never really being able to play a game on a 4x6 foot table at home I decided to build one. I started of with one 4x8 foot sheet of 6mm MDF (this size comes in Imperial measurements at Bunnings), cut at the store into two 3x4 feet sheets and a 2x4 foot sheet (to use for BBDBA at a later date with a sheet of static grass glued to the top surface), along with some battens and four bolts with wings nuts (went with 3/16” for the most economical option).

Drilled four holes (including counter sinks), spaced so the battens would hold the two halves together and also act to stop the board sliding on the fold out table.

 Pretty happy with the result - cheap, sturdy, practical and easy to store.