This is around the 4th or 5th article I’ve written on events on the island Republic of Ishtar. This particular battle, as the others, was fought solo… an encounter between the rebel forces, known as the Brotherhood Of Love (BOL), and those of the Local Government (LG). Ishtar has 44 Provinces, or Sectors, and the BOL controls 4 of them, having defeated the LG units sent to quell the uprising. For this battle, a dice throw determined that the BOL would strike in Sector 16, winning the hearts and minds of the common people by massacring every fourth person in the Sector. There are 10 BOL strike forces, and a die roll decided that BOL Force #10 (F-10) would hit Sector 16. F-10 had already been in battle in Sector 31, and had done poorly, being driven from the Sector, while losing a tank and infantry unit. I keep a record of the successes and failures of the 10 BOL forces… the more battles in which they participate, the weaker they become. As the map indicates, Sector 16 is unique, being surrounded on almost all 4 sides by water. Access to the Sector is along the Obu Road, either from the south or across the bridge in the east which spans the Obu River. The map shows that Lake Obu fronts the Sector on the west. The Local Government (LG) force sent to smash F-10 consisted of 10 units… each was termed a company and consisted of 2 stands. There were 5 infantry companies… 2 had machine gun support (adding to their fire power) and 2 had an anti-tank gun attached. The remainder of the LG force was armored… 2 heavy tank companies, 1 medium tank company and 1 armored card unit. Facing them were the 9 units, 9 companies, of F-10, 6 of them being infantry. F-10, however, had an advantage… they would fire first. I had placed the nine F-10 units randomly on the field, in cover, unseen by the LG units. When the BOL’s fire phase came, up would pop the BOL companies and blast away. Dicing decided that the LG force was fairly evenly broken up into two sections… one coming north on the Obu Road, and the other entering the field across the Obu River in the east. Preceding the north-going units on the Obu Road, a reconnoitering LG armored car battalion entered the Sector, passing close to the South Woods. Not good… for hidden in the woods was the single heavy tank BOL company, which immediately opened fire. All combat procedures used percentage dice. Here the armored unit added the following percentages to obtain its probability of hit: +50 A basic probability of hit (POH) for armored units firing on armored vehicles +20 Each of the 2 stands firing contributed +10 percent +20 For a heavy tank unit firing on armored cars. The above POH totaled 90 percent, and there was no surprise when the armored car unit took a hit, received a casualty figure, took a morale test, failed, took another casualty figure and retreated 10 inches down the road. Enough is enough. Normally there would also be a range modifier factored in, but here, the range was so short (under 10 inches), the modifier was zero. A 2-stand unit that accumulates 2 casualty figures immediately places one of its stands in the Rally Zone. Later in the sequence, there’s a rally phase during which a stand has a 70 percent chance to rejoin its company. Failing the 70 percent test, it’s destroyed. The reconnoitering armored car unit, having received 2 casualty figures, placed one of its stands in the Rally Zone. Sometime later, the stand rallied, and the armored car unit again had 2 stands. Outwardly, the recce company had taken no damage, but on its data sheet, I noted the number of hits it had taken, which would affect its combat capability. Knowing that the South Woods contained BOL units, several LG companies concentrated on the woods, and the result was to cause the BOL heavy tank company to fall back, having suffered several hits, and having placed one of its stands in the Rally Zone. Unfortunately, later on, the tank stand failed its own rally test, and so the BOL heavy tank company was down to a single token, half strength, for the remainder of the battle. The sequence had 7 phases. (1) First, the Active Side (AS) moved all its units 10 inches. (2) The Non-Active Side (NAS) then had a ‘reaction move’. It diced to see how many of its units could respond to AS movement. In this battle, low dice tosses were favorable. 01 to 33 Move 4 units 34 to 66 Move 3 units 67 to 100 Move 2 units (3) Having moved, the NAS then fired. Here, I used a ‘clock sequence’. A 10-sided die was tossed for ‘elapsed time’ each time one of the NAS units fired. When the accumulated elapsed time throws equaled 15, that ended the NAS firing phase. Usually, the NAS got 3 or 4 units to fire before the clock cut it off. (4) Here, the AS fired back. And here, too, I used an elapsed time procedure. But I wanted the AS to fire less frequently than the NAS, and so the AS fire phase ended when the elapsed time totaled 10 (as opposed to the NAS 15). (5) On this phase, the LG forces (but not the BOL) could call on air support. This happened twice during the battle, and the aircraft, whizzing overhead with a 50 percent POH each time it engaged a target, proved a winner for the LG. Each time a plane passed within 10 inches of a ground unit, the ground unit (all infantry and armored companies were defined to have anti-aircraft capabilities) pounded the aircraft with a 40 percent POH). This meant that eventually, the aircraft was shot down, but not until it had inflicted damage on the BOL. (6) On this phase, close assault was adjudicated. Note that both sides could contact the opposition… the AS on Phase (1), and the NAS on Phase (2). (7) On this last phase, the AS could attempt to ‘repair’ its units in two ways… first, to rally its stands in the Rally Zone, and second, to attempt to remove casualty figures. The LG units that traveled west by coming across the bridge, easily disposed of the BOL units in the town of Obu and in the North Woods. In the fire fights that developed between the two sides (Phases 3 and 4, as described above), the LG companies tossed excellent dice… they rarely missed their targets, and the BOL units, when testing their morale level after being hit, tossed poorly. This proved quite critical, since the morale test was required each time a unit was hit and received a casualty figure. Then, if the unit failed its test, another casualty figure appeared, but the appearance of 2 casualty figures mandated that one stand be sent to the Rally Zone. Thus each time one BOL of the companies failed, and one stand was taken away, the unit fought at half-strength, until the missing stand could be rallied. Morale Level All units had an initial Morale Level (ML) of 80 percent. This was modified by deducting a -10 if a unit had a casualty figure, and another -10 if there was only one stand, i.e., the unit already had a stand consigned to the Rally Zone. For some reason, few BOL units passed their morale checks, while most of the LG units passed theirs. After several turns, the situation became quite interesting to me as the solo player. As noted on the map, Sector 16 is surrounded by water on almost every side. As the BOL force took more and more losses (proportionately more than those of the government), the BOL companies looked for a way out, for a way to retreat before the entire F-10 was wiped out. And the only way out was to run south, down the Obu Road. It was impossible for the BOL units to get across the river via the bridge, and what developed, therefore, was an unorganized attempt by the BOL to breakthrough the LG forces heading north on the road, and exit the field. Although most of the BOL F-10 force managed to exit via the southern baseline, they were in poor shape. F-10 lost its one heavy tank unit, and a couple of infantry companies. I noted down F-10’s losses, so that as the campaign progressed, if the dice decreed that this particular force ever popped up again, it would appear in its weakened state. Back to PW Review November 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