Thus far, in this semi-solo campaign, there have been 7 battles on the Island of Ishtar, with the rebels winning 5 of them. I spoke to the President-For-Life of Ishtar, Colonel Balu Babu, about why his troops seemed to be continually losing battles against the insurgents. Babu told me that the USA was pouring in some 5 million dollars every year into Ishtar, and that a portion of this was devoted to equipping his army with the latest in weaponry. But he carefully explained that his first priority was to build at least one Presidential Palace per year, so that his people would love him all the more. Whatever was left over, he said, went to arms for his troops. Babu’s statement reminded me of one made several years ago about Mbotu, the leader of the Congo, Zaire, by a State Department representative, to the effect that Mbotu was unable to distinguish between the funds in his own pocket and those in his country’s national treasury. But now to battle. The revolutionaries, the Brotherhood of Love (BOL), had struck in Sector 29, and were quietly massacring the population. Rather than a solo effort, Brian Dewitt appeared at the right time, and commanded the BOL rebel troops, 9 units strong, with each stand defined to be a company. I took the troops of the Local Government (LG), and after Brian had set out his forces in secret, the better to ambush the LG units, my 10 companies came onto the field. The forces of both sides were LG BOL 3 tanks 2 tanks 2 armored cars 1 armored car 5 infantry companies 6 infantry companies I’ve described the rules before… the casualty-producing procedures concerned firing, close assault, and morale tests. When targeted, each of these phases resulted in one or more casualty figures set out by the target unit. These casualty figures were then assessed every half-bound, when, for each affected unit, the number of figures were added to a 10-sided die roll and referencing the following chart: Chart 1 1,2,3 : Lose no Efficiency Points (EP) 4,5,6,7 : Lose 1 EP 8,9,10 : Lose 2 EP 11+ : Lose 3 EP Each type of unit had a number of EP associated with it. Infantry had 6 EP, tanks had 8 EP, and so on. When all of a unit’s EP were crossed out, the unit was destroyed. Since the number of casualty figures attached to a unit added to the damage assessment, it was important to try and remove them. That’s when the ‘Field Orders’ phase was important. On its half-bound, the active side had a phase during which it could ‘issue’ field orders. One of the choices was to remove a casualty figure. Another choice was to ‘repair’ a unit by giving it another EP. Immediately after the Field Orders phase came damage assessment. Thus by selecting a field order to remove a casualty figure, the resultant damage to the unit could be reduced. There were other field orders, such as ‘receive Coordinative Fire (CF) tokens’. During a side’s fire phase, an officer located within 5 inches of two firing units could coordinate their fire. Normally, if both of the firing units hit the target, they would each place one casualty figure on it. But by playing a CF token, if both hit the target, 2 additional casualty figures would be assigned to it. Which meant that on the damage assessment phase, the results of Chart 1 would be that more horrendous. Back to the battle. My LG troops came on the field on three sides of the table. I had no idea of where the BOL forces were located, and so I assumed that everytime I passed within 20 inches (rifle range) of a wooded area or a town, BOL units would open up on me. This occurred on the western side of the field. From a nearby woods: BAM! BANG! One of my infantry companies took losses and received a couple of casualty figures. After the opposition fired, I had a ‘reaction phase’, during which I could reply, or rather, attempt to reply, to the enemy’s fire. Each turn, each side was given 6 Reaction Points (RP). First, I assigned a unit a couple of RP to indicate the order was given, and second, to see if the order was actually delivered (80 percent chance of success), I tossed percentage dice. The order got through, my unit fired, hit its target, and the BOL unit, lurking in the woods, failed its morale test, and ran back. During another one of my reaction phases, I gave a unit an order via its RP to enter the woods from which the previous BOL company had fled… my unit passed both its RP test and its ‘rough terrain test’ (70 percent to enter the dark woods), and into the woods it went… to suddenly bunk up against an enemy infantry unit plus one enemy tank. Not good! During a reaction phase, a unit may be issued a maximum of two orders. And so, having issued one reaction order to the company, I expended more RP and issued a second order to the unit, to run like crazy out of the woods. I was successful, and the unit reported back, quite breathless, that a huge enemy force was sitting deep in the woods. But, in general, the battle did not go well for the LG forces. Despite that fact that I had 3 tanks to the BOL’s 2, and 2 armored cars to their 1, I couldn’t dislodge them from their emplacements in the woods. At the time the LG had lost one of its tanks (8 EP crossed out), its other heavy armor wasn’t in such great shape, either… another tank had lost 6 of its 8 EP, and the armored cars and infantry had taken a heavy pounding. The deciding factor, to me, was that none of the BOL units had taken any appreciable hits, and I ordered the LG forces to call it quits and retreat from the field. Enough is enough. I’m afraid that Colonel Balu Babu will have to concentrate less on his Presidential Palaces, and more on his army. One of the things that I’m considering to help the Colonel out is to toss in an ‘air support’ phase. This will give the LG a couple of air strikes during a battle, helping to even out the sides. Back to PW Review August 2000 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com