PBEM / MBX Wargaming

Gave the Fast Attack Craft rules "Bulldogs Away" a quick run through tonight with a solitary Russian Nanuchka2 confronting a German Type 143 Albatros in the Baltic. The playing area, a 6x4' table, was determined to be fairly open seas, with only 1/6 of the surface area having a 10cm (1000m) long shoal. The sea state was rolled 1, and wind was rolled for but did not play a roll in this engagement. The Russians had a trained crew and an average command quality, while the Germans had a trained crew too but an adept commander. Each combatant and a dummy started the game represented by "blip" counters, both forces rather simplistically approaching each other at fa…

Hello all, I hope you all don't mind me posting up a PBEM game I'm playing against Dewayne Harris. It's not Harpoon but it sure has been an interesting game and I thought I would share it with you. I'm playing the ever peace loving Japanese Empire against the evil Allied Powers. Currently we're up to spring of 1942. However, I will provide all the pertient moves (good and bad) up til then. More to follow....

Here is my promised debrief of Lock 'n Load Games platoon level World War III game series. I played the first scenario yesterday afternoon. The rules take up about 12 pages, simple without being simplistic. Each hex of the map is 125m. Each turn is 5-15min. The game is set in the Summer 1985. Each unit involved in a scenario US company or USSR battalion has a formation chip which is placed in an opaque container - I used washed a cake frosting container I stashed away after wifes birthday earlier this month. Each turn chits are pulled one at a time, each time activating a formation. Once the units of a formation have been moved/fired etc, another formation c…

This is for you Brains. Al Jaber Airbase This scenario is found in the Sands of War Expansion Kit. It takes place on maps 6 and 7. The USMC player is assigned the mission of securing the airfield building on map 7 and clearing Iraqi forces from all hexes within 4 hexes of the airfield buildings. The Iraqi player wins if these conditions are not met. If, despite the USMC player achieving his objectives, the Iraqi player can cause a hesitation in either the Marine infantry or tank battalion, the game is considered a draw. The Iraqi player can set up north of the 0800 hexrow on Map7. That places them no closer than 4 hexes of the airfield buildings, and th…

Set up and played through a very small scale engagement tonight. 4x LCAC's landed a USMC Light Armored Reconnaissance Company reinforced with 1x LAR-AT (TOW-2), and 1x LAR-M (81mm mortar). The mission was to move inland gain contact with enemy forces. Prevent enemy motorized reinforcements from interferring with the landing beach. LAR moves inland and "stumbles" into an enemy BTR-90 company in a defensive coil. The enemy had won that turn's initiative, thus being in reserve fire mode, fires at the lead LAR platoon (at 1000m) with no effect. LAR returns with ineffectual fire. Turn 2, with USMC initiative, LAV-25's manuever while two platoons of BTR-90 are de…

It has been a few months since I've had the pleasure of TacOps, not knowing the scenarios I hopped into Task Force Harper. In a nutshell this is using US light forces to stop a two-pronged Russian armored column. My early losses far exceeded Russian losses but things have evened out. I'm still being thoroughly beaten and half of the map has been covered by the Russian forces in 1/3 of the game time so things are looking bad but not hopeless yet. This scenario is teaching me three key things.. 1. Artillery is nice but it helps to actually have targets, even when you have targets, they are frustratingly difficult to hit. 2. Anti-tank helos are amazing (in this…

Here is a summary of a small Indian-Russian engagement started yesterday. It is not yet complete, but the Russian side needs to determine how to proceed from where it is now. Situation: Indian Ocean. INS Delhi (Type-15 DDG), and INS Rajput (Kashin- Mod DDG) are providing protection to INS Jalashva (former USS Trenton LPD) during movement from India to unnamed islands to the SW. A Russian naval force consisting of Admiral Chabanenko (Udaloy II DDG) and Burnyy (Sovremenny DDG) has been ordered to stop the Indian force from off-loading the LPD. The engagement starts out with Sea King Mk.42’s and Ka-27 Helix’s scouting out forward of their respective forces with a…

Today's engagement was limited to the few data sheets that I had with me. A Ticonderoga Class CG took on one of its predecessors a Virginia class CGN. Hostilities had already been declared so both combatants were looking for action. Since VA had no embarked helo, and since time was of the essence, I did not launch any helos from the Tico. Both ships were on intercepting courses and at Long range, defined as 25-85nm apart - but arranged so that after the first movement turn they would be at 25nm. The VA was active while the Tico was passive. VA, shouting over here was only successful in getting itself passively detected by the Tico. Tico declares combat, and l…

Spent 3hrs of game time (<1hr) conducting cat and mouse ASW between an approaching Burke DD and Perry FFG versus a lurking Kilo. The Kilo often detected the US ships but was waiting for the prized LHD, who was trailing by 10nm. The fact that the US ships could detect a contact occasionally allowed it to warn the LHD, LSDs to stand clear and the Perry was rotating SH-60B's. Through this play through the Kilo often avoided detection, and when it could not avoid, the US ships failed their localization. Awfully Slow Warfare is the word of the day. I need an idea of how long the sub would play this game before breaking contact and try a re-approach. The sub is lyi…

Well combining these two threads along with my re-learning, not that I ever truely learned, GDW's Air Superiority/Air Strike. The updated rules to the former Airpower series is The Speed of Heat published and still available from Clash of Arms. AS/AS models individual planes in the 80's and 90's. Each hex is 1/3 of a mile, 12-15 seconds per turn, targets, err I mean ground units (in Air Strike) include fireteams/platoons and individual vehicles, along with a slew of counters representing everything from bridges, dry docks, port facilities, POL, command postsfactory/warehouses, rail yards, power stations, airfield/facilities, shelters, etc. In planning the IP Inbo…

These scenarios, "Battle of the Garagiola River" and "Battle of the Garagiola River Revisited" are authored by LtCol. John F. Schmitt, USMCR and are found in his book "Mastering Tactics", Copyright 1994 by Marine Corps Association. The scenarios were originally published in the October 1992 and December 1992 editions of Marine Corps Gazette respectively. "Battle of the Garagiola River" - Map293 Situation: You are the commander of 3d Battalion, 4th Marines (reinforced) consisting of Companies I and K on assault amphibious vehicles (AAVs) near the Garagiola River, Company L on trucks at Androida, a light armored reconnaissance (LAR) company west of the river, and a…

Thanks to a very generous surprise I played my first TacOps battle just now. The Joint Chiefs would do well do send me to command school or leave me out on the Blue Water Harpoon Ops! Victory was mine but at an inordinate cost. Thanks to Artillery and Air Support (and using my M1 takes fairly intelligently) my forces were successful in taking the objective and eliminating the OpFor. If I hadn't already committed to some Harpoon playing today surely I'd be refining my technique, learning what the controls actually mean, etc! Note how I lost all of my APCs Time Left: 9 minutes Mission results: Blue - Mission accomplished Red - Mission failure P…

The Marine Corps Gazette Tactical Decision Game Archive url has changed to TDG Archive. A number of them lend themselves very well to TacOps scale. There seemed to be a golden era in the mid to late 1990's. Every could foresee that MCA/MCG's decision to move the TDG's from the print magazine to their website would spell doom to the "program".

Using the my TDG “Battle along the Tziepov” inspired map, pitted a USMC battalion with mech support, a tank platoon, and a section of AH-1W against an OPFOR company’s worth of BTR-80’s. Their ATGM support was in the form of AT-14 Kornets. OPFOR also had a battery of 2S31 SP 120mm Mortars. Each has a sortie of air support with the US and OPFOR having 25% and 10% respectively additional support. Changed M1A1D’s to M60A1’s. Changed AT-7 Saxhorns to AT-14 Kornets Running the 1min turns in 5min clips 0700-0705 Starting out in ageton, Heavy Guns punches out as a screen. Ends about 1km south of the Thorpe Bridge. Alpha Company moves up maintaining a suppor…

OK, I have long known of the Perry Castaneda Map Room at the University of Texas - Austin for maintaining a plethora of digitized maps. Now, through another wargame forum, I found and present to you the: University of Texas Map Room - Army Map Service The US Army 1:250,000 series. Somewhat dated but plenty of maps for all kinds of wargaming, may of which would support H4.1 littoral operations.

Cross posted from the Current Events forum (yep, I get to do that) ... The May 2007 issue of Air Force Magazine contains the annual USAF Almanac 2007, which is a collection of PDF documents detailing the US Air Force in facts and figures, its organizational structure (including reserve components), and USAF installations worldwide. Its a great source, especially for database work and PBEM/MBX wargaming. You can find it here.

Set up the belligerants tonight. Iranian airbases, aircraft squadrons, air defense brigades, naval vessels (including fast attack craft and "speedboats capable of attacking tankers with rockets, and sowing "limited" mines), and Silkworm missile batteries. Iraq, two air bases and a handful of squadrons. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman - airbases and squadrons - only Saudis seem to have really good aircraft. US: CV-63, CVN-68, SSN, BB, outside of the gulf, on the strategic map, also 2x B-52 squadrons, P-3, F-15, the US Supply Head, CH-47, and 5th Marine Amphibious Brigade on Diego Garcia. Various USN surface combatant…

Neat tittle tool for creating do it yourself wargame counters. Too bad it is rerstricted to ground units. Land Unit Counter Renderer Hmm, air-naval. Perhaps it may get Tony's creative juices boiling.

Okay, Gulf Strike arrived yesterday, maybe even the day before, I've been away house sitting for a week. The game is in pristine condition, appeared to even have the original shrink wrapping on the package. Since I found it so late in the evening I only had time to page thru each of the booklets (the box was stuffed to the brim with supplements and counters and maps galore). Hopefully I'll spend some time with the game before Pete slaughters me and place my findings as a paper wargame novice in this thread.

OK, using the Gulf Strike system I ran a short, small-scale engagement. Background: Iran has declared itself the arbiter of all naval traffic in the Straits of Hormuz. The straits have be sown with sea mines and Iranian fast attack craft have been attacking/harassing western naval assets in the gulf. Two US Carrier Battle Groups, along with an Expeditionary Strike Group are operating in the northern Arabian Sea. USCENTCOM tasks CENTNAV and CENTMC to destroy the silkworm batteries both along the Iranian coast and on Qeshm Island, and clear Qeshm Island of all Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps forces. US forces for avoid attacks into and around the Iranian militar…