Saturday 25 January 2020

Down with the President - A Central America Caper to Spectre Operations Rules


Following on from our Christmas game, Chas thought a re-run at the club was in order. 


He wanted revenge for the dreadful beating he took last time and so had made some adjustments. It turned out that his "tweeks" included 2 scary APCs on his side this time and a load of less scary Technicals on our side (something made me think I should have skipped the sequel).

This time my kill team of Tier 1 Operators (retired and for hire) were assisting a bunch of raggedy militia in attacking the presidential palace (well Chas had paid £50 odd quid for it, so it got another outing). The militia could call on a range of cobbled together vehicles mounting unfeasibly large weapons.


El Presidente was hanging out with his cartel boys in the Palace, whilst various cartel members loafed around town. Should there be the need, elements of the army were on call just off table, in the aforementioned APCs.


Like ghosts my operators swung into action, avoiding the mobile phone armed narks on every street corner and darting from cover to cover. Through the magic of random movement, it soon became clear that most of said narks, were disappearing into the woods for unknown purposes, leaving the field clear for a stealthy approach.


Christopher arrived on my flank with the militia. My sergeant made the universal "shhhh !" signal to the militia leader, only to see him gun down the first cartel boy he saw. OK, so scratch the stealth element of the game.


With the locals interest raised, it was not long before a fire fight developed. Cartel members ran out onto the street and were met with controlled bursts of fire from my men and everything but the kitchen sink from the militia. Militia and cartel died in droves.


At this point an APC appeared at either end of the main street and both disgorged infantry. We felt help was needed, so brought on our collection of back street mechanic technicals.

With the army moving up, a few well placed bursts from the Tier 1 guys wiped out one squad.


The militia were not so well off, as cannon shells ripped through the houses they were firing from and ruined the day of many a part time soldier. 

With RPG rounds hitting the palace, the President decided to make for the safety of one of the APCs. Three technicals raced onto the street and let fly a hail of recoilless rifle and HMG fire at the APCs. Christopher rolled the dice. Net result, one flat tyre on the BTR and nothing else.


The APCs opened up and made quite a mess of the technicals. That was definitely not going to polish out.

We decided to call it a day and, like shadows, my tier 1 operators slipped away. As you would expect, no operators were hurt during the making of this insurrection.


What about your militia allies, I hear you say. They didn't even make half a column in paper I was reading, in first class section of the plane flying us home. Brutal what they do to failed revolutionaries in these banana republics. All in all a fun game, played to a nice new set of rules in the form of Spectre Operations. If you want to try ultra modern skirmish combat (not this 80s or 90s "modern"), then these are worth a look. You get all the drones, red dot and laser sights, IEDs, covert body armour, advanced comms and tandem charge devices you could want. The rules cover the range from "Tier 1 Operators" (you can join an elite unit, you have to be invited to join Tier 1) to "No Clue" militia and every weapon under the sun. Very much based on suppressing targets and intelligent use of "Overwatch", walking about in the open does not usually end well. Not a competition set of rules certainly, but played with some give and take they give a good feel to a modern skirmish simulation.

For those interested the centre piece Presidential Palace is MDF (curved MDF in wargames terrain is new to me) and can be found at: 

Most of the figures are Spectre Miniatures found, along with the rules and APCs, at:

Vince

Monday 20 January 2020

Lion Rampant Scenario - A Bloodbath! Huns v Romans


A large force of marauding Huns and their allies were brought to battle by a Roman force determined to wipe out these daring raiders.


Each side took stock of the other. The Huns had the initiative and moved skirmishers with bows into woods on their right flank to support their force of light spear. In their centre the medium spears formed shieldwalls with the intimidating Hun cavalry covering the left flank. The warlord and his companions took up position to the rear of the centre ready to support and plug any gaps.


The Romans came on very strongly sending their light and medium cavalry on their right flank against the Hun cavalry on the Hun left flank. The Huns responded by shooting into the oncoming Roman cavalry, but their arrows either fell short or were poorly aimed and had little effect.


The Roman skirmishers moved into the centre and started targeting the Hun skirmishers resulting in some modest losses on each side. The Hun left flank was sorely pressed by the Roman cavalry and the Hun cavalry consistently failed to make their shooting tell. As gaps started to appear in the Hun left flank, the Hun warlord and his companions plugged the gap and entered the fray.


Meanwhile the Roman warlord with his companions and a unit of medium spear were threatening the Hun's right flank which comprised light spear and skirmishers, no match for the heavier Roman spear and companions. The Hun right flank formed a shieldwall and waited.



In the Hun centre, the shieldwalls charged the Roman light horse and foot skirmishers who successfully evaded the charges and shot arrows into the Hun medium spear causing some casualties.


The Roman right flank was also pressing home an advantage and having wiped out a unit of Hun cavalry and reducing another to half strength, the Roman Cataphract, surged forward and attacked the Hun warlord and his companions, taking heavy casualties in the process, the Cataphracts eventually wiped out the Companion unit killing the warlord.



Despite the loss of their leader, the Hun force fought on however when their medium spear in the centre failed a courage test and fled the field, all fight went out of the badly battered, bruised and greatly diminished Hun force and the remaining units turned and ran from the battlefield.

Sunday 12 January 2020

Target for Tonight - Hannover


The fifth game of the Target for Tonight campaign was played at the club this weekend that saw a very promising bombing plan on Hannover derailed but some rather inaccurate target indicating by the Pathfinder force.


The resulting reduction in victory points scored by Bomber Command was minimised by the losses suffered in Novice crews reducing the Nachtjagd victory point tally as well.


If you would like to see more about how the game finished up and its impact on the campaign overall then just follow the link to

JJ's Wargames -Target for Tonight


Thanks to Bob, Steve L, Jack and Stephen H for a very entertaining game.