The Troubles......

Spyros has always had an eye on trying to recreate the confrontations in Northern Ireland on the table. It is difficult for obvious reasons.

But using the basic Force on Force ruleset, with a few nuanced modifications, we think we may have got a reasonable facsimile of the problems faced by the security forces- and the actions and reactions of the local population......

The Fog of War cards gave a great deal of colour to the game. Throughout the game - as extreme pressure was put on the security forces at the three checkpoints, hostile crowds assembled as security forces attempted to stop and inspect every vehicle.

One Fog of War card allowed an IRA sniper team to begin taking pot shots at one of the checkpoints. 

One introduced an IRA four man gun team who fired at the crew of a Humber Pig and another card introduced a team with an RPG who fired at a Land Rover and badly damaged it, wounding a crewman.

The cards also inserted a BBC camera crew with the HQ of the Security forces.....and they captured some action on camera that would lead to a political storm.

Downtown Belfast

Armed group.......these guys would take some shots at one of the checkpoints, seriously wound a soldier, but take fire that killed two, and the rest vanished into the back streets.

The scenario was based on the security forces attempt to set up multiple roadblocks in a hostile neighbourhood. Solid intelligence had informed the security forces that a High Value Target (HVT) was in a vehicle moving through the area. The limited forces in the vicinity were ordered to create check points to arrest the HVT. But the longer the checkpoints were in place....the more crowds would gather...and the bigger opportunity for them to be targets by IRA gunmen who were making their way as quickly as possible to this flashpoint.

Setting up the roadblocks and checkpoints.

Cars driving through downtown.

Checking each vehicle. The method was simple. The Checkpoint threw 3D10. The car 3D6. In Force on Force less than four is a fail. These are discarded. The rest are compared. As long as the checkpoint roll was higher than the car- it was searched and deemed clear to proceed. As an example - the Checkpoint roll was 1, 5, 9. The Car 2,3 6. The car has two fails. The Checkpoint only1 fail.  Even numbers were considered a checkpoint success. 
 If the car's reaction outdid the checkpoint then the vehicle may turn away and drive off. This left Spyros ( as the security forces) in a conundrum...open fire? Let them drive off? Send a vehicle after them? In the two times this happened, Spyros refrained from hostile action.....even if it meant that the HVT could be getting away. 
As it was ...the HVT vehicle would fail its rolls....all three....and the checkpoint had three successes when crunch time came.....

Angry , hostile mobs formed- and their continued presence caused the Stress Indicator of the various security forces to rise. When it went up, the unit had to do a 'stress test'. Every figure had to roll its quality dice. As long as the majority of figures rolled above the Stress Indicator- the unit was ok. This started to become a problem when the Indicator got to 5 and 6 and higher .....on a D10 it started to get harder. If the Unit failed, it's quality dice dropped......which made it harder...and harder. Eventually one squad had to be withdrawn due to its morale breaking.

At the checkpoint, the owner of the blue and white car could not get it started. The driver and passenger exited their vehicle and were told 'push off' by the guards...the vehicle was pushed aside by an armoured car. The previous occupants joined an angry mob..and started throwing bricks.

Humber pig with crew firing CS gas. Two of these arrived during the game to help out at the checkpoints - without them, it could have been a disaster for the security forces. Firing of gas canisters was done as per firing in the Force on Force rules. The firers throw 1 dice per figure (d10 in this case). The hostile crowd threw the same number of their quality dice (d6-as if 'defending').  Any throws less than four were a failure. All successes were compared. If the crowd had more success, the gas failed to disperse them. If the security forces had more 'hits' then the crowd dispersed. Crowds could 'react' first as per the rules if they passed their reaction test. This gave them the opportunity to throw bricks, bottles etc....and that meant that the security unit had its Stress Indicator increase.

This particular unit's morale eventually broke. It was faced with several hostile mobs, which it could do little to disperse- until support arrived to fire riot gas. Halfway through the game- someone fired at them from an open window, wounding one. ( Stress Indicator went up!). They were forced to enter the building and in a sharp firefight eliminated two IRA gunmen. Shortly after they then were fired upon by a four man IRA team. One was severely wounded, but two of the gunmen were killed in the exchange and the last two ran. ....Stress Indicator went up another couple of points.....

Angry mobs throwing bottles- the white die on the vehicles indicates the unit's Stress Indicator.

The moment a vehicle, misunderstood the situation as a British squad was withdrawn- they saw a gap....and they accelerated- despite orders to stop. A British soldier was struck, and his comrades opened fire. There were six occupants. Four were killed by the automatic gunfire. This was actually a shocking turn of events- and was captured on camera by the BBC camera crew. It created outrage- and more angry mobs assembled. We hadn't anticipated this sort of action- but the dice roll gave us a situation that security forces face in this sort of situation...and frightened unarmed civilians acting in fear will behave in an unpredictable manner. At this point we paused the game- it was quite a sobering moment. 

Crowd in front of the park benches..getting hostile at a unit behind the Humber Pig's shield.

The green van had been shot at. In panic , the owner of the yellow VW accelerated to escape gunfire, but was rammed by the armoured car- causing another death and another injury. Again...all caught on camera by the BBC camera crew.

The white VW - was a vehicle carrying a cache of weapons and ammo. It attempted to ram its way through the check point- but the security forces reacted very quickly. Both occupants of the car were declared deceased after a round of fire and were later identified as members of the Provisional IRA.

By games end, seven IRA gunmen had been killed- including the two in the white VW above. Three soldiers had been wounded- one very badly. The climax...well anti-climax ...came when the HVT was recognised...and failed his three dice reaction tests....and surrendered to the Security forces without a fight.

Now that would seem to show success for the Security Forces.......BUT....the deaths of five civilians and the severe injuring of two others was combined with the fact that the BBC camera crew caught all of it on film!! 

The shocking events happened metres from where the crew were standing and filming and this meant that the Government had a political  and public relations disaster on their hands.......was it worth it???

Lots of angry people!!