I ran a 15mm "save-the-hostages" modern skirmish game as a demonstration game at our local game shop. After running two play tests (both of which were rather high-cost US wins), I had learned a few things about how to run the terrorists in a reasonable manner and how to defend "the compound". At this point, I was pretty sure of a decent game that would keep players' interest even if they came in in the middle of the thing.
The information provided to the players was as follows:
Situation:
Enemy Forces: See attached schedule of suspected terrorists.
A band of Arab terrorists has overrun the Nevada desert retreat of Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada. Senator Ensign is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Vice Chair of the Republican Steering Committee. He has been a senator since 2001.
The terrorists are armed with AK-47 and AK-74 assault rifles (7.62mm short caliber, capable of semi-automatic and full automatic fire), RPG antitank rocket launchers (shoulder-fired reloadable HEAT rocket launchers), hand grenades (most likely fragmentation type, although smoke and/or CS gas are possible), Tokarev pistols (9mm semi-automatic), and knives. It is possible that they also have explosives for demolitions and/or booby traps.
Friendly Forces See attached schedule of friendly troops and equipment.
The attacking US forces are a heavy squad of Ranger infantry. Delta Force and most of the available Ranger forces are committed overseas, so a group of instructors from the Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia, has been gathered for this assignment. They have worked together at various points in their careers, but this is the first mission for the group as a unit.
MISSION
The US forces are to free the hostages with minimum hostage and friendly casualties. Any capture of terrorists will be an added bonus.
(Freeing the Senator is 50 points; freeing family/entourage members are 10 points each. Each friendly KIA is 20 points; each friendly major wound is 10 points; each friendly minor wound is 5 points. Each captured terrorist is 20 points.)
Weapon Notes
On the data slips for the individual troops, grenades are designated by type, to wit:
C - canister round for grenade launcher
cs - tear gas grenade
fb - flash/bang grenade
he - high explosive grenade
S - smoke grenade
CAST OF CHARACTERS
TERRORISTS
LEADER:RasheedLimbaqi (propagandist)
SECOND IN COMMAND: Ibn Had (will turn coat and spill his guts if captured)
Team One
LEADER: Sheik Yerbooti (son of wealth)
MEMBER: Hamad Mathum (not a bright man, perennially angry)
MEMBER: Mohammad Al'Traciti (takes sadistic pleasure in being a terrorist)
MEMBER: Ahmed Tuthetith (wpns expert)
MEMBER: Mahma Miya (complainer)
Team Two
LEADER: Ali Farigh (somewhat blasphemous by hard-line Islamic standards)
MEMBER: Batin diHatchiz (tends to keep his head down)
MEMBER: Hamad al Faldoun (partyer)
MEMBER: Omar Eikhinbakh (complainer)
MEMBER: Kut Mizumslakh (somewhat lazy)
RANGERS
LEADER: George I. Joseph ("G. I. Joe")
ASSISTANT LEADER: Thomas ("Hoot") Gibson
SAW GUNNER: John Little ("Little John")
RIFLEMAN: Victoria ("Vixen") Nash
GRENADIER: Roberto ("Boom-Boom") Hernandez
RIFLEMAN: Gabriel ("Angel of Death") Jackson (crack shot)
RIFLEMAN: Lee ("Jackie") Chan
GRENADIER: Joseph ("Thumper") Collins (can put a grenade in a tin can at 100 paces)
RIFLEMAN: Domingo ("Ding") Chavez (trained as a sniper)
SAW GUNNER: Martin ("Sumo") Takahara
RIFLEMAN: Peter ("Ghost") Standing Bear (expert stalker)
AAR
The players were also provided with slips showing the weapons and capabilities of each of the Rangers and a set of 3 sheets of tables that were the rules of the game. We added a "covering rule" that would allow an aimed shot at a standing, unmoving target should said target come through a doorway that the individual was stated to be covering.
The board was a set of two buildings (a 2 story main house with some 12 rooms and a 1 story outbuilding with some 4 rooms) and a parking area and yard, measuring about 3' x 4', surrounded by a dressed stone wall of 6 feet height (so that the Rangers could see over the wall but not shoot over it to anything but a second story or higher window). The two rear corners of the compound were each 4 closely-spaced trees rather than the stone wall.
The Ranger commander was allowed to see the interior floor plan of the buildings during planning and told where the latest intelligence said the Senator was being held. He was then given the choice of whether to attack in daylight or at night.
Wisely, he chose to attack at night. We assumed that night vision devices, headset radios, and climbing equipment were available to the Rangers, and that the Rangers were sufficiently cross-trained to give basic first aid for wounds.
The Ranger commander broke the unit into two teams, one consisting of G.I. Joe, Little John, Thumper, Angel of Death, Ding, and Ghost. Little John and Thumper were posted at the main gate in a position to cover the front wall of the house and the front of the outbuilding, and most of the parking area. The others were placed at the wall opposite the nearest point to the main house with orders to climb up to the attic window on that wall and enter to clear the house from the top down. The other team was posted at the opposite side of the compound near the trees, in position to cover the near wall of the outbuilding and most of the area between it and the main house (which was much of the same area that Little John and Thumper were covering).
When Ghost got to the wall of the house, he found that a terrorist (Hamad al Faldoun, who was at the window on the other wall of the house) was posted inside an open window on the first floor from whence Ghost would have to climb were he to get to the attic window. The commander opted to have Ghost clear the room, especially as a guard (Batin diHatchiz) was approaching on his walking of the perimeter. Ghost did so, then the rest of the team followed him into the room. The next room was found to hold 3 sleeping terrorists (Sheik Yerbooti, Hamad Mathum, and Ahmed Tuthetith), who had not been awakened by the stealthy ingress and dispatching of al Faldoun. Ghost was sent in and he knifed all three, again raising no alarm.
At this point, the Rangers only knew the location of two more of the terrorists, one at the opposite corner of the downstairs of the house (Omar Eikhinbakh) and one at the corner of the outbuilding closest to the trees where the second Ranger team was posted (Kut Mizumslakh).
They proceeded via the front stairs to the second floor, reaching it without undue noise. Again, the next room contained three sleeping terrorists (Rasheed Limbaqi, Mohammad Al'Traciti, and Mahma Miya). They were dispatched by knife by Ding and G. I. Joe as Ghost covered the door to the upstairs hall and Angel of Death provided rear security (as had been done during their entire time inside the house).
The discriminating reader will note that, as luck would have it, Ibn Had was guarding the Senator, his wife, and his bodyguard. As the minor scuffle of dispatching the sleeping terrorists was heard from the room across the hall where the Senator and company were, Ibn Had started thinking in terms of surrender rather than executing the hostages. His hesitation was noted by the bodyguard, who took his opportunity and jumped Had. As they struggled over the AK-74, the Senator saw his chance and beaned Had with a small piece of statuary. The Rangers entered the room immediately thereafter.
The Rangers finished by attacking and clearing the outbuilding and downstairs of now-aroused terrorists, and evacuating the senator, wife, and bodyguard from the compound. The losses to the terrorists were all but Ibn Had killed, while the Rangers had Ghost moderately wounded in the leg during the house-clearance operation at the end of the game.
End result: A major American victory at 80 points.
Game time: About 2 hours.
Lessons learned
Keep the scenario and the situation as simple as possible. A quick, fun game is better than a longer, more accurate game.
I should have had sheets with floor plans of each floor for the players, rather than letting them see the actual building layouts.
I felt that giving the Rangers whatever they needed for equipment was probably better than adding limitations, but I'm not sure that's necessarily the best way to go with more experienced gamers.
The play tests (although the Ranger tactics there were quite different and, frankly, not as good as at the demo game) were invaluable to me as the terrorist commander, and also helped spot odd results in the home-grown rules and address them.
I should have had brochures and other sorts of literature available for players and passers-by to take. I plan to have these available at our club games at the game shop from now on as well.
Biggest plus: The game going so well and the players having so much fun were great. However, the best thing of all was that one of the players had come to the shop to watch the Magic-The Gathering tournament that was going on, and he came over and participated through the whole game and the discussion afterward. He was early high school age, and somewhat intimidated at first ("This looks way too complicated for me to play."), but he was persuaded to try it and found he liked it a lot.
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