Band of Wargame Brothers: Bolt Action - Modern Action in Afghanistan

Bolt Action - Modern Action in Afghanistan

Spyros has built up a nice force of modern Diggers (Australian soldiers!) with Bush Masters and LAVs for our country's recent combat in Afghanistan. He originally touted the idea of using them for Force on Force......but as he had well over 60 figures it may not have been feasible....well not for my feeble mind! I would lose track of all the actions and reactions! So he suggested Bolt Action. Initially I was sceptical..but he found some amendments on the net (check some of the links on his blog - No Duff gamer). So we set about organising 'equal' forces ( a far cry from Force on Force !!). The Diggers were all classed as regular and we made majority of the Taliban forces as 'inexperienced' but the heavy weapons, commanders and technicals were all regular. We tried not to fiddle too much with the rules, and although the game worked well and we had a great time, the casualty rate amongst the Spyros' forces would have been considered a major political disaster.
Aside from that, the lens of my camera had fingerprints on it....so the pictures didn't come out too clearly! No more eating greasy chips and taking photos!!

So here's the After Action Report from a very one sided view:

We were merely minding our own business in our own peace loving way when my neighbour Tafir, standing by the large machine gun on his lovely rooftop garden heard some vehicles approaching from the north. We knew, by God's Compassion, that there were drug stealing infidels operating in the area- they had shot up another of our beloved villages a week before, so it was only natural that they could come for us. They all do sooner or later. American terrorists, British terrorists and now the Australian variety were on the way. Our commander had taken the precaution of summoning some of our brothers in this holiest of struggles, and many had been arriving in past days- but now, many more were on the edges of our peaceful town...........

Pictures of downtown

I could go on in the same vein, tossing in various Arab/Afghan phrases to add authenticity.....but I won't bore you to death!! This was an interesting game which came about from Spyros' desire to field ALL of his Australian forces. It was also an interesting game in terms of rule suitability. By that I mean that what can give a great game, doesn't actually reflect the political/historical reality of a given conflict. In this game Spyros' aim was to secure three objectives within a hostile town. We decided to use Bolt Action as we knew the mechanisms really well with some modifications for modern combat.( Check Spyros' website for details- No Duff Gamer).

The centre of town.

The Aussies stormed into town and my guys didn't respond too well. Spyros got himself into position early and in the case of two of the objectives I was forced to respond with 'wave' assaults. The third objective came in for some serious to and fro as it changed hands a number of times. Although Spyros, in game terms, clearly won the game- he held two out of three objectives- the game didn't reflect political reality. With 2/3rds of his force dead or wounded I'm not sure if the Australian government would accept such a count!...not to mention all the other ramifications!