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Miniatures Adventure => The Conflicts that came in from the Cold => Topic started by: brasidas19004 on March 10, 2025, 01:48:24 PM
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Looking at some of my aging novels, like "The Wild Geese" and FF's "Dogs of War" I like the idea of a relatively *small* conflict involving larger international and national government, corporate, and domestic concerns of the location as a setting for a fictional military solution.
ERGO, I am looking for an historical military event / intervention, that involves less than a battalion or so of "professionals" with support, so say 1,000 in the force altogether [but preferably less, more like 200-400].
I have zero concern for the relative merits of the historical conflict in the eyes of anybody at all.
Truth be told, I intend to use it as inspiration for an ongoing Traveller 1e campaign that I am running for a group of similarly aging grognards. I want them to recognize the themes, but not the specific sci-fi conflict which will be set 4,000 years in the future... or so.
So, imagine that someone comes to you and says, "Hey, we want to re-write a classic cold war novel like Wild Geese or Dogs of War, perhaps use it as a script for a movie... where should we get inspiration for the setting?" and you'll be on the right track.
If you feel your suggestion is too modern for this board, just PM me instead, not interested in getting anyone "moderated".
Thanks for your informed suggestions!
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Nothing wrong with that idea as a setting. mike hoare "commando" is a good read for such a setting. Along with anything about executive outcomes.
If you going for a future setting I know in the movie Elysium has mercy named Kruger who was a vet for the South African border wars in 32 Battalion. And kept youthful by means of an advanced medical bay that uses space magic.
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Plenty of inspiration for obscure small scale combats arising from the break up of the Soviet Union;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_territory_of_the_former_Soviet_Union (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_territory_of_the_former_Soviet_Union)
This one would give you the sort of numbers and political background you are after:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Ossetia_war_(1991%E2%80%931992) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Ossetia_war_(1991%E2%80%931992))
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I assume you mean the book by Mike Hoare, "Mercenary"? Commando is used in a lot of other titles.
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Lots of Cold War scenarios can be generated by looking at major countries' operations outside the NATO area (e.g., Belgian Congo, Malaya, SW Africa involving the South Africans, Portuguese in Angola, French and Spanish in North Africa, Brits in Oman, Arab-Israeli wars and raids, or - farther afield - China-India border, USSR-China, and Iran-Iraq). All could be scaled as needed. Lots of fictitious possibilities too. My favourite part of 'Hunt for Red October' was the fighting in Iceland - from skirmish upward.
Dunnigan's "Quick and Dirty Guide to War" is a bit of an encyclopedia, with lots of possibilities.
Good luck!
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You could also just create a country. Place it in Latin America, Africa or the former Soviet Union.
That way you can create it the way you want. The troubles in the country, the world response,
why certain corporations are interested ect.
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You could also just create a country. Place it in Latin America, Africa or the former Soviet Union.
That way you can create it the way you want. The troubles in the country, the world response,
why certain corporations are interested ect.
That's what I do/did. Soo far, we've had fights set in Balczakistan (former Soviet republic in 1991 - in which we are currently playing) and Northern Gambola in 1993 (equatorial African state that belongs to the Coup of the Month Club), in my "Modern Stuff" thread. And there's also La Republica del Perdomo (Central America) in 1987 (which so far has been played in out Top Secret RPG campaign, but I'm planning a transition to wargames later his year).
Real history (that outside the fictional country) plays into things, but we have some latitude on local events...it works very well.
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Either Antarctica or the Moon seem logical places to present a too likely future conflict. First you have to survive and only then can you even consider fighting. Of course, you could update one of those balkanized maps of North America.
And if you want to go down the terror road, some force is going around the planet and completely destroying data centers, especially back-up centers. Imagine the resulting chaos from that - whole generations won't know what to do with themselves!
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Even though it's part of a larger Cold War gone Hot WW3 narrative, I found that Team Yankee by Harold Coyle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Yankee) has some excellent representation of a company/battallion level combat featuring a an armoured company in a conventional warfare scenario...
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Not quite what you're after, but it might help - Spleenrippa's "New Leyland" setting is a 'Bush war in space' that seems to align well with your end goal :) https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=144387.0
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Many of the African/Asia' conflicts in the cold war likely would give you good inspiration as well.
Note, these conflicts always get more complicated (and thus more interesting) with multiple sides involved. So look for any that have 3 or more sides involved.
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It seems that the OP isn't sufficiently clear. I have modified it.
I'm looking for an HISTORICAL event / intervention that will provide some inspiration for a fictional wargame campaign.
I'm already well aware that I can make stuff up. My experience is that real life is so strange and interesting, and has so much depth, that it is better than the things that people make up.
I think Victor Hugo said something about fiction and reality that applies here...
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Nothing beats the Congo independence shitshow, from the moment that the Belgians granted them independence to today for multiple faction craziness. That's what I based my modern Africa games around, at least in the beginning.
Mike Demana
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How about Operation Eagle Claw (the US's ill-fated Iranian hostage rescue attempt in 1980)? Less than 200 attacking ground troops trying to rescue 53 hostages in multiple locations in an arid metropolitan area, with aircraft and locals involved. In Traveller, the aircraft would be easy to switch out for spacecraft of Various sorts. It's in a desert environment, which is a classic Sci-Fi trope. Ought to be easy to convert to Sci-Fi...
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Operation Barras, Operation Thunderbolt or the Battle of Mogadishu.
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Follow the Cuban FAR (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias), lots of deployments around the globe; some small, some large, but even the larger forces are fodder for small engagements. Back in the '70s and 80s, Soldier of Fortune magazine was full of tales of Mercenaries fighting Cubans in Africa!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_military_internationalism
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Many of the African/Asia' conflicts in the cold war likely would give you good inspiration as well.
Note, these conflicts always get more complicated (and thus more interesting) with multiple sides involved. So look for any that have 3 or more sides involved.
Any specific ones, aside from Congo?
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Follow the Cuban FAR (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias), lots of deployments around the globe; some small, some large, but even the larger forces are fodder for small engagements. Back in the '70s and 80s, Soldier of Fortune magazine was full of tales of Mercenaries fighting Cubans in Africa!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_military_internationalism
Brilliant!
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Any specific ones, aside from Congo?
Angola was a constant hot spot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_intervention_in_Angola
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You also have the Operation Storm-333 in Afghanistan: a soviet raid on the afghan palace, involving special forces vs palace guards. Very easy to convert it into a science-fiction scenario. :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Storm-333
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There was the war in South West Africa, between South Africa and the the SWAPO, UNITA, and PLAN guerrilla organizations.
Mike Demana
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The Salvadoran Civil War was quite a small affair, '79-92.
Operation Storm 333 seems a very small affair. Russian forces, about 650, in Afghanistan.
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The Salvadoran Civil War was quite a small affair, '79-92.
Operation Storm 333 seems a very small affair. Russian forces, about 650, in Afghanistan.
Yeah, I like both of these and am checking them out. Forgot all about Nicaragua!
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I'm working on a campaign, in part based on the much larger US Interventions in Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989 but originally inspired by Operation Sheepskin. The somewhat farcical nature of the British 'invasion' of Anguilla in 1969 and the similarly tragi-comic US interventions into the same region struck a chord with me. I also have built the neccessary forces to do a modified (ie with actual military resistance version of Op Sheepskin) for another fictional country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sheepskin
For the late 1980s/ 1990 US version I've borrowed heavily from the geography of Grenada and some of the circumstances of the period like the island being ruled by an autocrat whose taking kickbacks from drug cartels and has a dodgy relationship with the Libyans.
If you want something a bit more shooty, have a look at British Operations in the Radfan in 1964. The targeted Yemeni tribesmen were receiving support from over the border from the Northern Yemenis and their Egyptian allies and there was at least one strike on Yemeni forces along the border. You have the possible sparks of a wider conflict there as Egypt was very hostile to Britain following the Suez Crisis and Britain funded a mercenary force fighting against them and the North Yemen army.
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I'm working on a campaign, in part based on the much larger US Interventions in Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989 but originally inspired by Operation Sheepskin. The somewhat farcical nature of the British 'invasion' of Anguilla in 1969 and the similarly tragi-comic US interventions into the same region struck a chord with me. I also have built the neccessary forces to do a modified (ie with actual military resistance version of Op Sheepskin) for another fictional country.
Sounds interesting...like it needs a thread all of its own starting Carlos 8)
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Not quite what you're after, but it might help - Spleenrippa's "New Leyland" setting is a 'Bush war in space' that seems to align well with your end goal :) https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=144387.0
I had just opened this thread in anticipation of finding ideas to steal for my own setting*, lol
Good links and suggestions, all. Clicking "complete" on a purchase of mr Dunnigan's books right now!
* I have been working on the project, I'm just awful at updating my blog or my thread here :'(
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* I have been working on the project, I'm just awful at updating my blog or my thread here :'(
Come on, give us an update... more inspiration for the masses ;)
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I've always found the Angola 'Border War' to be bloody good fun, with scenario and warfighting options ranging from small-scale patrolling and raiding, to full-scale hi-tech mechanised warfare and every level of tech and intensity in between.
https://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/category/angolan-border-war/
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There have been some great suggestions here - just took us a bit to get momentum.
To summarize:
- Operation Storm 333, successful Soviet coup in Afghanistan: "Dogs of War" on a larger scale.
- Operation Barras: quick hostage release scenario
- Mozambique Civil War, 1980s
- Dunnigan's "Quick & Dirty Guide to War" books as a resource [My library has a copy!]
- The Radfan Campaign, Aden Emergency 1964
- Nicaragua: Sandinistas v. Contras, 1980s
- the Cuban FAR (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias) activities
"Bigger" Conflicts
- Congo, 1960s [Hoare, Wild Geese, et al]
- Angolan Border War
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I'd also reccomend looking at the El Salvador Civil War. It's like a somewhat lower tech, small scale Vietnam. Battalion sized sweeps by the government forces were the standard approach but on occasion there would be similarly sized groupings of the insurgents. It's a fascinating struggle replete with battles in the hills and mountains as well as instances of large scale urban warfare.
There's a good study of the war available (or at least was, it was a print on demand type affair) and it covers guerilla organisation and tactics with illustrative examples of a range of operations:
Strategy and Tactics of the FMLN Guerillas, Last Battle of the Cold War, Blueprint for Future Conflicts; Jose Angel Moroni Bracamonte and David E. Spencer. Tends to side with/ provides an apologia for the government forces but a very useful tome.
Th natural counterpoint is to read Mark Danner's Massacre at El Mozote A Parable of the Cold War. It says what it is on the tin.
Probably a book or two in Helion's line of books on Latin American Conflicts as well.
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I'd also reccomend looking at the El Salvador Civil War. It's like a somewhat lower tech, small scale Vietnam. Battalion sized sweeps by the government forces were the standard approach but on occasion there would be similarly sized groupings of the insurgents. It's a fascinating struggle replete with battles in the hills and mountains as well as instances of large scale urban warfare.
There's a good study of the war available (or at least was, it was a print on demand type affair) and it covers guerilla organisation and tactics with illustrative examples of a range of operations:
Strategy and Tactics of the FMLN Guerillas, Last Battle of the Cold War, Blueprint for Future Conflicts; Jose Angel Moroni Bracamonte and David E. Spencer. Tends to side with/ provides an apologia for the government forces but a very useful tome.
Th natural counterpoint is to read Mark Danner's Massacre at El Mozote A Parable of the Cold War. It says what it is on the tin.
Probably a book or two in Helion's line of books on Latin American Conflicts as well.
Yeah, I was looking at El Salvador, but it seemed even uglier than most of these bash-ups. I'll look for the books, however.
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Yes, no doubt El Salvador was more brutal than usual. The people on the government side were fucking horrible. El Mozote has direct parrallels to what the Nazis did in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. The cover up by the Reagan administration was obscene.
Still, if you can somehow gloss over the frequent atrocities and you aren't going to game death squads and the like. then it's an interesting conflict. The guerillas did come close on a couple of occasions, you can reutilise a certain amount of Vietnam era kit as well as adding exotica like Panhard armoured cars and home-made armoured trucks.
There was even an intersting FMLN raid on a US training base which saw the nominally unarmed USSF training team manning the defences and getting involved.
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Well, I have had some time to check into things, and it's all full of atrocities. Hispanic culture seems to green light this behavior, for whatever reason, and Africa is the same or worse [can it be worse???].
Mystery to me. FMLN is and has been quietly eliminating people they don't like, appear to still be doing it to this day.
However, as a blueprint, rendered more palatable for wargamers, Nicaragua seems like a winner, and my library even found a copy of the book you recommended on El Salvador, so may combo the two [which are inter-related anyway]. Also, Helion has two booklets [80p] on each conflict.
So, I think they will be fine, humanized for the Empire, which I *hope* would step in if things got this bad [which is also very bad for the economy, which is a T1e Imperial intervention trigger - fine with me!]
Great suggestions, very helpful.
Yes, no doubt El Salvador was more brutal than usual. The people on the government side were fucking horrible. El Mozote has direct parrallels to what the Nazis did in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. The cover up by the Reagan administration was obscene.
Still, if you can somehow gloss over the frequent atrocities and you aren't going to game death squads and the like. then it's an interesting conflict. The guerillas did come close on a couple of occasions, you can reutilise a certain amount of Vietnam era kit as well as adding exotica like Panhard armoured cars and home-made armoured trucks.
There was even an intersting FMLN raid on a US training base which saw the nominally unarmed USSF training team manning the defences and getting involved.
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There's another couple of options if you turn your attention to Indonesia.
Konfrontasi is the early 1960s saw sizeable Indonesian incursions into both Borneo and the Malayan peninsula. The Indonesians dropped a battalions worth of paras into Malaysia who were progesssively hunted down by Commonwealth forces. They also lost a Hercules in the process when it crashed evading an RAF Javelin. You also had Commonwealth forces launching pre-emptive incursions into Indonesain territory as part of Operation Claret.
As Indonesia was effectively Soviet backed or at least Soviet armed under Sukarno, there are a lot of what-if options.
Move on a decade or so and you have the Indonesian invasion of Timor L'este. The Portuguese had gone but the local forces remained. The US and Australia basically gave a nod and a wink to the invasion but it ran very heavily against popular opinion in Australia, particularly after the Indonesians murdered a group of Australian journalists. There has been a long standing affection for the Timorese lasting bac to their support of cut off Australian forces in WW2. Again some what ifs are available. Whitlam was the leader of a progessive government and you could posit a circumstance where Australian involvement takes place in part as a distraction from domestic political issues.
As for Latin Americans being more brutal, I wouldn't rush to judge or form an opinon based on cultural tropes. Britain did some pretty nasty stuff in Kenya, the French did the same or worse in Algeria and the US in Vietnam. I have visited the torture centres established in several South American countries and they are deeply moving. A question that's better posed is where did they learn their craft. Uncomfortably for the US, the answer is the US Army's School of the Americas in Panama.
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I would throw into the mix the co-called "Indonesian Confrontation" and "Malayan Emergency", lots of small unit actions there plus troops of various nationalities, infantry, some armour and airpower. The Portuguese wars in Africa ( Angola and Mozambique) are pretty exotic. Helion and company has lots of books in their various series which give a fair amount of detail even if they can be pretty expensive.
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Yes, I've heard about the British success in Malaysia - I haven't researched it, but it sounds like a pretty straight up border war.
Indonesian invasion of Timor I had never heard about. Quick look shows its a very complex post-colonial ideological mess. Uncertain if it is tactically interesting or not, it certainly appears to be interesting at the operational and strategic levels.
As for the moral relativism comments, I think they're off-topic and "inciteful" rather than insightful, which is what I'm looking for here.
There's another couple of options if you turn your attention to Indonesia.
Konfrontasi is the early 1960s saw sizeable Indonesian incursions into both Borneo and the Malayan peninsula. The Indonesians dropped a battalions worth of paras into Malaysia who were progesssively hunted down by Commonwealth forces. They also lost a Hercules in the process when it crashed evading an RAF Javelin. You also had Commonwealth forces launching pre-emptive incursions into Indonesain territory as part of Operation Claret.
As Indonesia was effectively Soviet backed or at least Soviet armed under Sukarno, there are a lot of what-if options.
Move on a decade or so and you have the Indonesian invasion of Timor L'este. The Portuguese had gone but the local forces remained. The US and Australia basically gave a nod and a wink to the invasion but it ran very heavily against popular opinion in Australia, particularly after the Indonesians murdered a group of Australian journalists. There has been a long standing affection for the Timorese lasting bac to their support of cut off Australian forces in WW2. Again some what ifs are available. Whitlam was the leader of a progessive government and you could posit a circumstance where Australian involvement takes place in part as a distraction from domestic political issues.
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The British in Malaysia is more of a guerrilla war than a boarder one. The wiki is not bad on this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayan_Emergency
It's a smaller somewhat more contained version of vietnam conflict - which the government side won in the end. Still a nasty little conflict generally (which ones are not really) with both sides doing lots of nasty stuff.
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Not moral relativism. Merely pointing out that no particular race or nationality has an exclusive preserve on brutality. It's a continuam between targeted assasinations in Vietnam, concentration camps in Kenya, torture in Abu-Ghraib and what happened in ESMA, Vila Grimaldi or the DEOPs and DOI-CODI centres in Brazil. Similar shit goes on around the world to this day.
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The British in Malaysia is more of a guerrilla war than a boarder one. The wiki is not bad on this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayan_Emergency
It's a smaller somewhat more contained version of vietnam conflict - which the government side won in the end.
The second phase of the conflict actually may be more interesting than the first:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_insurgency_in_Malaysia_(1968%E2%80%931989)
I'm trying to find more info on the military side of the house, but appears to be lots of small actions.
One paper here: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA505882.pdf that is free and looks of interest.
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Not moral relativism. Merely pointing out that no particular race or nationality has an exclusive preserve on brutality. It's a continuam between targeted assasinations in Vietnam, concentration camps in Kenya, torture in Abu-Ghraib and what happened in ESMA, Vila Grimaldi or the DEOPs and DOI-CODI centres in Brazil. Similar shit goes on around the world to this day.
Quite true, but now that you have said your piece, Carlos, please leave it at that.
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Mau-Mau Rebellion 1952-1960
Hungary 1956
Forest Brothers in the Baltics 1945-1956 (Guerilla war against the Soviets)
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Two others spring to mind - the first would be a raid scenario - short duration, limited forces on both sides and clear objectives - the raid on Entebbe? The second is of longer duration, small initial forces that could be ramped up by pushing in mobile reserves and of distinctly more vague objectives - the Dhofar Rebellion. Both are similar in that they are asymmetric, smaller units of highly trained professionals outnumbered by less well trained opponents, the Dhofar Rebellion also having locally trained forces to back up the SAS cadres against the Communist backed rebels.
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Of course there's always the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Amphibious landings, paradrops in battalion strength, heli-borne airlanding. Lots of mix and match kit, including T-34s on the Cypriot side. There's also the slight chance of UK intervention as the Turks encroach upon the British SBAs. It got quite hairy for a while.
There's also quite a bit of gaming fun to be had into the two Indo-Pakistani Wars. If you want to spin things out of control, you have the historical fact of a US Navy Carrier Task Group crusing in the area with a watching brief and Soviet naval units deployed to watch the US.
Perfect battalion scale action is the Mayaguez Incident and the USMC landings on Koh Tang Island that proved to be quite bloody. It's a bit of a cluster fuck for the US but woud make for a fun game and potentially the start of a limited mini campaign. There's a whole Osprey in the Raid series devoted to it and it's actually one of their better tomes.
My favourite what-if, possibly of all time, is Operaci?n Sobrerania in late 1978. Argentina came within hours of launching a full on invasion of Chile. Only bad weather cruelled the op before the Pope and coller heads intervened. It had the potential to draw in a number of the neighbours. Peru was quite likley to have intervened if things went well for the Argentines (ask any peruano how they view chilenos). Brazil even mobilised along its south western border, in response to Argentine mobilisation.
The world really is your oyster.
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Two others spring to mind - the first would be a raid scenario - short duration, limited forces on both sides and clear objectives - the raid on Entebbe? The second is of longer duration, small initial forces that could be ramped up by pushing in mobile reserves and of distinctly more vague objectives - the Dhofar Rebellion. Both are similar in that they are asymmetric, smaller units of highly trained professionals outnumbered by less well trained opponents, the Dhofar Rebellion also having locally trained forces to back up the SAS cadres against the Communist backed rebels.
Entebbe was suggested previously by its codename, Operation Thunderbolt.
The Dhofar Rebellion is actually very interesting - I have done a bit of preliminary reading, and it looks very promising! More to follow...I've ordered this book: "SAS Storm Front: the Regiment's Greatest Battle" by Rowland White
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Heh - I also found the Dhofar Rebellion quite interesting, but I found out about it by a more roundabout route - I had a dvd of 'Killer Elite' which is loosely based on Ranulph Ffiennes book 'The Feather Men' which has some interesting bits on the conflict but the plot should be treated as fiction rather than believing everything the author stated!
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I can think of a few I read sometime ago
French Foreign Legion Indochina
Devils guard
Street without joy
Africa
Mad dog killers
32 battalion
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What are the Africa ones about? And we're talking history or historical fiction?
I can think of a few I read sometime ago
French Foreign Legion Indochina
Devils guard
Street without joy
Africa
Mad dog killers
32 battalion
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Reading Dunnigan's "A Quick and Dirty Guide to War" has been interesting - periodically, a country or region provides an interesting "what if" situation.
For example, Suriname. There are a number of players at the table, and an important mining industry - bauxite - in relationship to world production. There has been some instability and one significant internal "war":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surinamese_Interior_War
While neither the scale of the fighting nor the internal turbulence are anywhere near most similar conflicts, there is potential for it to get bigger / worse altho that potential was not realized.
Overall, this is a perfect "what if" for a wargame set in that country, and it is also a perfect blueprint for an "imagi-nation" of almost any kind, in the modern period, or in the far future if propelled into science fiction.
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Back in the news late last year but if you look across the border into Guiana you'll see there was just as much potential there. Following independence there was a genuine threat of war with Venezuela with Venezuelan troops taking over disputed territory in the Essequibo. The Venezuelans maintain a presence on Ankoko Island to this day. Had things heated up just a little further, it's quite likely Britain may have felt obliged to intervene. If you want a third dimension, Suriname also has territorial claims on Guaianese territory.
Actually if you go a bit further north you have almost the perfect cold war era setting. Guatemala has long held a territorial claim to much of Belize. In 1972 this saw Britain despatch HMS Ark Royal and her air group at speed towards Belize, amid the threat of a Guatemalan invasion. Buccaneers did overflights of Belize City as a show of force. The Guatemalans backed down.
They massed troops along the border again in 1975 and Britain deployed a battalion group to Belize as a deterrent. This garrison was largely maintained up to the 1990s. It's an ideal gaming sized force. A infantry battalion (thinly spread) a troop of Scorpion light tanks, a Rapier battery and a reinforced flight of Harrier jump jets.
The Guatemalan's are an interesting Opfor, being equipped with an eclectic of WW2 era kit as well as modern Israeli small arms and patrol vehicles. In the early to mid 1970s they still had P-51 Mustangs on strength which they traded in for for A-37 Dragonflys. There are few cold war armies you can fit out not just with US WW2 era halftracks, armoured cars and tanks but also WW2 era 75mm German infantry guns (purchased through Czechoslovakia in the 1950s).
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I saw some of the reports of tensions in that area, inflammatory remarks made and, thankfully, a cooling off - although nothing has really been resolved in the long term.
Chechoslovakia did quite a bit of trade post-war, what with producing their own versions of the German 251 series and artillery pieces - lots more got sold off around the world.
South America has been seen as a series of hotspots for potential, and actual, conflicts for quite some time - vested interests in the area appear to prefer cooling immediate tensions while not resolving long-term grievances, perhaps to play each country off against each other.
Now, having veered further into politics than I should have, it's time to get back to the wargaming!
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Considering the size of the continent and complexity of the geography, surprisingly few unresolved territorial disputes, at least ones that might lead to unplesantness.
Probably the best known was the Beagle Channel. Argentina and Chile almost went to war twice, the last time in 1978. Now resolved. Then of course there was the Chaco but that resolved itself about 90 years ago.
The Essequibo is still a live issue as noted above. Hell of a place to fight a war though, it really is the middle of nowhere. If you thought Jonestown was remote it has nothing on the Essequibo frontier and likely flashpoints.
Of less potential for war but long held and painful grievance is the dispossession by Chile of large chunks of southern Peru and the associated loss of a Bolivian access to the sea. Chances of it reaching a military confontation are pretty minimal.
Peru and Equador did go toe to toe over the Cenepa as late as thirty years ago but that was resolved in 1998.
The you have the Falklands/ Malvinas. Chances of that kicking off again, even with the current lunatic in the Casa Rosada are virtually nil. Argentina's current military capacity against anyone with guns or an armed aircraft or two is negligible.
The continent is more closely bound by international trade these days. The husband of my wife's favourite cousin used to regularly deploy to Amapa and Brazil's northern borders when he was in the Fuzileiros Navais but that was largely a watch on smuggling. Any incipient threat of war would have been forestalled by Washington opening his mouth and boring any potential intruder to death. We once stood outside a bedding store in Rio and Washington launched into a 20 minute conversation about the remarkable nature of a bedding store selling mattresses.
Cross border drug smuggling and international drug cartels remain the biggest threats, apart from internal dissent and there's much more co-operation between countries than antipathy, as it's a shared problem. Last armed incursion on to Brazilian soil I can think of was FARC attacking a Brazilian army post in the early 1990s and the response was a pretty decisive joint op between the Brazilian and Colombian militaries.
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The you have the Falklands/ Malvinas. Chances of that kicking off again, even with the current lunatic in the Casa Rosada are virtually nil. Argentina's current military capacity against anyone with guns or an armed aircraft or two is negligible.
Fine but , instead of a "what if" , why don't you just game the historical Faklands War land skirmishes and battles (all quite small as concern troops involved) that took place in 1982..few troops, just model soldiers to purchase, very few artillery, almost no tanks, no trucks, no IFVs, occasional and limited air and naval support, lot of detailed info now available for both sides, simple (from a wargame point of view) terrain to reproduce and, in my opinion, also quite a few good maps available in exactly the right scale you need to help setting tabletop terrains
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One conflict I’ve often thought about gaming was the war in Nicaragua in the 70s and 80s. There were two different conflicts involved, the revolution itself against the Somoza regime which ended in 1979, followed by the long, drawn-out Contra War involving three forces: the Sandinista military, the CIA-backed Contras and the Miskito Indians (who really just wanted to be left alone). There are a lot of hypothetical and not so hypothetical combattants too, if you’re into that sort of thing. If you really want to get in the spirit of things, you could find a Spotify playlist of the music of Carlos Mejia Godoy to use as a soundtrack. He was really popular among all Nicaraguans during the period, but especially the Sandinistas.
At the moment, however, I’m deeply involved in putting together the forces to refight the Bay of Pigs invasion in 10mm. Yes, it was a ridiculous and utterly hopeless scheme, but it’s full of interesting features and satisfies my interest in obscure conflicts. Plus, I can always use the troops later for other conflicts in Latin America or Africa during the 60scand 70s.
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At the moment, however, I’m deeply involved in putting together the forces to refight the Bay of Pigs invasion in 10mm. Yes, it was a ridiculous and utterly hopeless scheme, but it’s full of interesting features and satisfies my interest in obscure conflicts. Plus, I can always use the troops later for other conflicts in Latin America or Africa during the 60scand 70s.
Needs a Peter Falk as CIA agent figure a la The In-Laws .
Sheldon: 'You were involved in the Bay of Pigs?'
Vince Ricardo (Falk): 'Involved? That was my idea.'
One of my favourite films and as an absurdist comedy, it's closest to the thought patterns that inspired the Bay of Pigs. :)
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Needs a Peter Falk as CIA agent figure a la The In-Laws .
Sheldon: 'You were involved in the Bay of Pigs?'
Vince Ricardo (Falk): 'Involved? That was my idea.'
One of my favourite films and as an absurdist comedy, it's closest to the thought patterns that inspired the Bay of Pigs. :)
That is a sorely needed figure. What a great movie. My father took me to see that as a child. I’ve rarely heard him laugh so hard. :)
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brasidas19004
Like many of the others I too am looking for ideas to grab me channel my energies to create a suitable locale and environment for an on going campaign. Also like you I am into Traveller. I saw a youtube video by a guy, Seth Skorkowsky, who reviewed an adventure in a recent copy of Mongoose's Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society. The adventure is called Ship In The Lake and is a rewrite of a much older adventure published in the original JTAS. The adventure is set on a back water planet which has been experiencing a long term (decade long) insurgency. I ran the adventure and ended up detailing the world to a large extent. We have played a couple scenarios using Stargrunt II, a handful using Ambush Alley and one using Battlespace. If you want to kick around ideas on detailing worlds in Traveller or thoughts on adapting conflicts you can discuss them here or PM me.
Stephen
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You could do worse than the Jerry Pournelle books that describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. Interplanetary travel, lots of asymmetrical warfare themes, slug throwers rather than lasers etc.
Falkenberg's Legion (Falkenberg's Legion #1)
Prince of Mercenaries (Falkenberg's Legion #2)
Go Tell the Spartans (Falkenberg's Legion #3)
Prince of Sparta (Falkenberg's Legion #4)
There's a compilation called The Prince (Falkenberg's Legion #1-4)
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You could do worse than the Jerry Pournelle books that describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. Interplanetary travel, lots of asymmetrical warfare themes, slug throwers rather than lasers etc.
Falkenberg's Legion (Falkenberg's Legion #1)
Prince of Mercenaries (Falkenberg's Legion #2)
Go Tell the Spartans (Falkenberg's Legion #3)
Prince of Sparta (Falkenberg's Legion #4)
There's a compilation called The Prince (Falkenberg's Legion #1-4)
I read those books quite a while ago, they're very well done. After reading 'West of Honour' I just couldn't shake the feeling that Pournelle had based the story on a historical campaign, but never could work out which.