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".

Flags of Jakalistan

I'm tinkering in taking part in a small Flames of War campaign with some wargaming friends using version 3 of the rules fielding a mix of platoons from the Arab-Israeli and Vietnam Wars source books. The slow-burn project stalled in the second half of last year (each of us painting a little bit between other projects), but one of the guys thought the Infantry Aces campaign might be an easy way for us to start actually gaming with these miniatures.

The rules for the campaign can be found on Battlefront's website here:
https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=2666

Instead of being set during World War Two, the Arab-Israeli or Vietnam wars, we wanted something in an imagi-nation that would allow a greater element of fun. Something in a Central Asian former Soviet Socialist Republic would give us a good mix of terrain, forces and equipment. I came up with suitably-sounding "Jakalistan" (using the first two letters of each of our names).

Jakalistan lies somewhere between the Caspian Sea and the Pamir Mountains. It's a micronation that has a semi-arid desert plain in the west, where the Jara River meanders into the Caspian Sea. There's snow-capped mountains in the centre of the country and jungles in the south east. This pretty much copies the campaign map in the link above.

If you have a country you should really have a flag. So the first thing I did was look at Soviet Republic flags (along with googling some other Soviet and communist flags people had designed online):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Soviet_Republics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Soviet_states

The Jakal Soviet Socialist Republic was created sometime in the 1950s - no one is exactly sure why this was, some say it was to give greater control to Moscow of the genetically modified pink quinoa crops that had been designed by Soviet scientists.

Flag of the Jakal Soviet Socialist Republic (~1952 - 1991)



The flag was the winning design after a competition was held, as it was in all the other Soviet Socialist Republics at this time. The blue in this design represents the Jara River, while the white represents Jakalistan's snow-capped mountains.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the First Secretary of the Presidium adopted a new flag to represent the peasants and workers of the country, who are said to be as tough as its mountains. The red was retained, representing the fields of quinoa.

Flag of the Republic of Jakalistan (1991 - present)



Things have unfortunately gone downhill in recent times. For a number of reasons the workers and peasants have split into two broad factions that are in open conflict with each other: the first supported by the democratic west, the other by eastern communist countries like China and Vietnam.

Workers faction flag/symbol



Peasant faction flag/symbol



Probably a bit simplistic, but I wanted to keep them useable as general symbols used during the current civil war.

Sources of inspiration of what I imagine life to be like in Jakalistan include Mitchell and Webb's 'Ambassadors':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassadors_(TV_series)

Pretty funny in my opinion, but an aquired taste.

Wargaming wise I have already glued together some unused prepainted Il-2 that will proxy as Skyraiders from 'Brown Water Navy'. I'll probably repaint them with the worker's faction symbol.

Edit: and here's a campaign map using the Infantry Aces one from Battlefront:
https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=2666

Place names inspired by locations in Melbourne, Australia.