Glad to help. I've had many inquiries about this particular game. I've been running it for years now (I first ran it in Building 4 at Fort Benning for InfantryCon) but I guess with the BHD film out, interest is swelling. I use 20mm figures and vehicles, and have a 6x15 foot model of the pertinent areas of Mogadishu, basically Somali buildings on a tarp. I'll go ahead and send you what scenario data as I've sent to other folks.

I used 20mm scale because I needed about 40 Hummers, trucks and birds and the Matchbox and die-cast Aircraft versions from Toys-R-Us were all better and more durable than anything I saw on the wargame market. (Equally detailed, and at 1/10th the cost!) I could also then get plenty of cheap civilian pick-up trucks, local cargo trucks, and make a lot of smashed up old-model cars, trucks, and chassis/tires for the many OTHER vehicles and obstacles in town.

I tried for a long time to get enough vehicles for this scenario. I shopped for about 2 years to get mine -- finding a couple at a time in various stores that carried Matchbox cars (and others the Tonka-line had a USMC LAV, and a 2 1/2 ton Truck.) Now I'm so glad I did, since they have stopped carrying the line.

When the Matchbox 2000, and 2001 series carried 6 Military types (Hummvee, Bradley, M1 Tank, MLRS, USMC Amphib Veh. and WWII M-4 Sherman) and a Civilian Version of the Army 2 1/2 Ton Truck (Cattle Truck). All needed repainting anyway, so Civilian versions didn't matter. With the 2002 batch on the shelf, I found one "BEACH HUMVEE," and no trucks or military vehicles. It was the former Military model now all "yellow" and now named "beach patrol" (but even the Military ones need re-painting.) They had a second model, but it had a civilian-police "utility-hutch" on the back, and was unusable for Military.

Finally, 15mm seemed to small, and 25mm was too big to do everything AND build a big part of the town. I used 20mm to turn many innovatively touched up squares of foam-rubber into a big part of the streets of Mogadishu. Some buildings were made of small-upside-down boxes, which I could lift up and put troops Somali's) under. But mostly, I placed the figs on top when they were spotted, and counted cover the same for roof or inside. Certain Key buildings were made compete to open-up and put figures inside.

Thus I used 20mm/HO scale plastics mounted on pennies because they matched the vehicles and I needed to convert most figs. I used Revell Modern US Infantry, NATO, WWII and Vietnam for the UN, Rangers/SOF. (WWII German Para's make very good "Delta Force" with the small black-helmets. I used converted mixed figures for the Somali's... mostly converted and innovatively painted Air Crews, and Brit WWII Commando's with a tissue-paper/white-glue stuck over his head/shoulders and painted. I also used some converted Zulus, Colonial Arabs, and even some Wild-West Indians for others and the civilians (they all were dressed as civilians) as individual figures applied.

I like 1/76 or 20mm over 15mm. However, 15mm figures still work with these vehicles OK, but they look a little bit tiny... and are hard to find or convert in what I needed in various figure poses and styles. The 15mm's do fit better into the buildings and trucks, but they tend to get "lost" when mounted individually (Which isn't a bad game mechanic in itself, as I always have Rangers getting shot by Aircraft and left behind in 20mm anyway -- good teaching tool!) But, I think 20mm is already too small for the visual effect of a LARGE Multi-player game. I like to have players control about 10-12 men each, or a few vehicles... as the battle was fought mostly at the team and squad level. (with TF level support).

From: Simon Dennan

Thank you very much for getting back to me with all this info on your Black Hawk Down Wargame. I have a Italeri Blackhawk sitting on my work bench as I write. Unfortunately, we don't have access to all those cheap vehicle from Toys R Us. There is no Franchise like that here. [New Zealand] I have been tossing up using 15 or 20mm. I have 4 chalks of Liberation Models and Combat 20s done but the thought of so many Somalians and having to but vehicles is a bit scary. Any advice I should would love to hear it.