The Cassinga Raid, 4th May 1978 (My Demo Game for 2019/2020)

[Jemima Fawr]

Over the last few months I've been building terrain, troops and aircraft for a demo-game that I'll be taking around some of the shows, starting with 'Warfare' at Reading in two weeks, then 'Crusade' at Penarth in January and 'Partizan' in Newark next May.  It's now 99% finished and ready for the shows, so we did a little play-test at the club on Saturday and it went very well, so I'm happy.  I've posted on my blog about the terrain-building.  I'll follow this up with a report on the play-test, the full scenario and then the actual show games:

http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/2019/11/04/my-2019-2020-demo-game-the-cassinga-raid-angola-1978-part-1/

[Digits]

Looks superb !

[Paul @ Empress Miniatures]

Looking forward to seeing this at Warfare.

[Captain Blood]

My kind of terrain board! That looks very good indeed. Top job 

[Jemima Fawr]

Cheers all! 

While it's a 'demo' game, anyone's welcome to come and shove troops around and roll dice.  We should have room for plenty of players.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Very nice.

[Jemima Fawr]

Cheers!

Here's the report from the play-test game:

http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/2019/11/05/my-2019-2020-demo-game-the-cassinga-raid-angola-1978-part-2-the-playtest/

[Captain Blood]

Great write-up.
Love the mechanic of literally 'dropping' the paratroopers, to gauge where they land

[Jemima Fawr]

Great write-up.
Love the mechanic of literally 'dropping' the paratroopers, to gauge where they land

Cheers Cap! 

I can't claim credit for that idea... It was always a part of the old WRG WW2 rules that we cut our teeth on and was always good fun!

When they land they roll on the BF:WWII 'Bail-Out Table' and modify it according to the terrain:

Table:
9+ = Land absolutely fine
6,7,8 = Land Suppressed
3,4,5 = Land Disordered
1,2 = Knocked Out

Modifiers:
Land in Bush or on open terrain/roads: add +3
Land in woodland, hedges, trenches or swampy ground: add +2
Land on buildings or get hung up in model trees: add +1
Land on water or within 1 inch of the enemy: add +0
Land on the crocodile: Auto KO  

[Jemima Fawr]

In reality, some of the drops landed well south of their intended DZs, due to a mistake in translating the scale of the pre-mission reconnaissance photos.  I'm therefore considering allowing the SWAPO players and any random passers-by to stand on the northern table-edge and blow... 

[Sparrow]

Looks brilliant!!

[Ash]

What a superb table; great project . I particularly like the trench system.

[Danger Close Miniatures]

This is impressive, I'm looking forward to seeing you with it at Newark. I've tried gaming the similar Rhodesian cross border raids, the problem I found was making it interesting for the terrorists and keeping it fairly historical. Not much fun dying in droves against a seemingly invincible enemy.

[has.been]

Well done. I hope to see it 'in the flesh' at Reading.
I too remember the WRG paper square para drops. It does recreate the chaos
that such events would have had. My first wargaming opponent (Steve O'Leary) put on a demo
game with his younger brother (John), so I could see these 'new' rules in action.
It was his Airfix Germans trying to cross the Airfix Bailey bridge with his brother's,
you've guessed it, Airfix British. The attempted Blitzkrieg rush by two (scratch built)
sidecar combinations (Airfix didn't,& still don't do sidecars, but he used the wheels
from some spare Airfix Roman chariots & the crew were Airfix) failed & he threw in his
Paratroops (each lovingly converted, as at the time Airfix didn't do them).
The drop was with the paper squares, and was a complete failure. Some landed in the
river, some off table (and were gobbled up by the pet dog) One very unlucky individual
dropped right in front of a British trench which held a full section & LMG. Game over.
Fond memories.

[Jemima Fawr]

Cheers chaps!