23/07/2013

Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?

This scenario was one that was written by Mike Baumann for the original ColdWar: 1983 rulebook but not included (like the others) due to space considerations. As this is set during Contra War of the 1980's it falls outside the core Central Europe background of the main rulebook so we have decided to publish it here...


Background: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) soldiers have captured Lt. Colonel Paul "Paulie" South after brokering an unsavoury deal with Fuerza Democrática Nicaragüense contra rebels. Although South has little useful information an American officer in FSLN hands is a political nightmare and so a CIA Black-Ops team has been dispatched to extract him before he is moved to a more secure facility.

The CIA Team's objective is to recapture the Lt. Colonel and take him off the table edge they entered from within 8 Turns.

The FSLN objective is to drive off the extraction team and keep hold of their prisoner for 8 Turns.

Either team may force a draw by killing Paulie.

Terrain: the FSLN player should set up the game on a 4-foot square table. Near the centre of the table he should create a "village" of four houses plus any additional outbuildings, generators, etc. the players have to hand. A dirt road should pass through the village extend out to any two table edges the defending player desires. A clearing approximately 60 cm in diameter surrounds the village; everything within this clearing and the road are considered to have a clutter value of 0-1 with the exception of building interiors. The rest of the table consists of light jungle with a clutter value of 3.

FSLN Soldiers: the FSLN player sets up first. He should choose one of the houses in the village to be the building where he is keeping Lt. Colonel South prisoner and note its location on a piece of paper.

Lt. Temprano (Experienced Territorial Leader, Bottle: 8) is in charge of the prisoner until reinforcements come to move him to a secure location. He is armed with a Medium Assault Rifle and a Medium Pistol.

12 Soldiers (Normal Territorials, Bottle: 6) armed with Medium Assault Rifles and Bayonets.


CIA Black-Ops Team: the CIA Player may choose the table edge he enters from and automatically has Initiative on the first Turn. The CIA player does not know which of the houses South is being held prisoner in and must search (i.e., at least one figure must spend 1 Turn in the building) until he finds him.

Mister Bland (Veteran Regular Leader, Bottle: 10) is the leader of the extraction team. He carries a Heavy SMG, Medium Pistol and two concussion grenades.

Six Black-Ops (Veteran Regulars, Bottle: 9) make up the team. One carries a Combat Shotgun, two carry Medium Assault Rifles, while the rest are armed with Heavy SMG's. All have Medium Pistols for backup and two concussion grenades.

Lt. Col. South (Normal Regular Leader, Bottle: 8) is initially unarmed, but can be given a weapon once he is freed from captivity.

16/07/2013

Radio Dishdash Release NZ/Oz Infantry

Radio Dishdash, publishers of the excellent Skirmish Sangin, have released a set of contemporary New Zealand/Australian infantry sculpted by EBob Miniatures. Lovely looking figures, whilst they have been designed for action in Afghanistan, they would be useful for hypothetical battles all around the Pacific.

(photo Radio Dishdash)

13/07/2013

Cold War Hot!

ColdWar: 1983 has been out of print long enough. Whilst it was never intended to be anything other than a side project for Wessex Games, published following a request from a company manufacturing 28mm scale Cold War miniatures, its popularity continues to bubble away with a regular number of PDF sales via Wargame Vault and requests for printed booklets (largely we suspect due to the excellent Winter of '79 blog).


After some prevaricating a decision has been made to publish an expanded second edition, somewhat better looking than the original 'old school' look containing more stats and data for NATO, WarPac and  non-aligned forces as well as the scenarios we planned to put into the original booklet but for some long forgotten reason didn't. The current plan is to publish an A5 colour cover booklet and a full colour PDF.


But we are not stopping there! Oh no, enthused (and now less well off) with Empress Miniatures' Devil Dogs and Dragons Kickstarter we are planning an ultra-modern hypothetical Pacific War supplement called Red Dragon Rising (or Red Dragon: 2014, who knows). The idea behind this is that it will include data for the likes of the Chinese PLA, Australian army, USMC and a host of others as well as a set of scenarios and any special rules needed.


After that who knows, though we do have a list of ideas including the Falklands...


So that is the plan, the idea behind the blog is to keep you up to date with the project, the painting of the miniatures for the photos, interesting miniature and book releases etc. so lets see where we end up...