Ambush Alley's 'Bush Wars'.

[Dave Knight]

I was certainly impressed with the book.  It is impossible to do justice to the historical background in a book of this nature so for me it's all about the scenarios, which by and large look pretty good.

Now where can I get my hands on a 28mm T54/55 that isn't a plastic kit?

[carlos marighela]

On Ebay. Search for T-55. You'll get about half a dozen vendors all in China.

[Arlequín]

On Ebay. Search for T-55. You'll get about half a dozen vendors all in China.

I think you'll find those are real ones...  

Kidding... this one is 1/43, but with die casts it could go either way scale-wise.

[carlos marighela]

I think you'll find those are real ones...  

Kidding... this one is 1/43, but with die casts it could go either way scale-wise.

Actually, it scales out to about 1/50. I have a platoon's worth and I measured them. (Ok so I'm a prat, I know  ) They're perfect for 28mm figures and you can just respray them without stripping or priming. The one real improvement you can make is to swap the AAMG for the Eureka one but the one that comes with the model is perfectly OK.

I'm a little curious about the whole lost in translation thing, it doesn't really seem to fit with information provided. The paper org and 1970 reorg of the PAIGC's armed forces is fairly easy to source albeit Frelimo and the MPLA marginally less so. The basic TO&Es also seem to fly in the face of a fairly well known commentary by Spinola regarding the relative fighting power of Portuguese vs PAIGC forces in Guine.

Oh well. It looks nice at least.

I see they seem to have shelved their plans for the title on Central and South American conflicts. Probably just as well, caling it Contra didn't bode well for the subject matter and given the nature of much of the fighting in El Salvador and Guatemala............

 I did have a giggle about the Amazon blurb which promised scenarios set in Brazil. Christ knows what they meant by that, probably 'get the baddy' scenarios inspired by playing Call of Duty.

[Conquistador]

Computer games as historical source.   

Lovely.   

Wikipedia at it's worst level.   

South/Central America sounded interesting to me.

Gracias,

Glenn

[Hildred Castaigne]

I see they seem to have shelved their plans for the title on Central and South American conflicts. Probably just as well, caling it Contra didn't bode well for the subject matter and given the nature of much of the fighting in El Salvador and Guatemala............

 I did have a giggle about the Amazon blurb which promised scenarios set in Brazil. Christ knows what they meant by that, probably 'get the baddy' scenarios inspired by playing Call of Duty.

You've given me visions of scenarios where the police chase loggers around the rainforest! 
All joke to aside, have any modern conflicts even happened in Brazil...?

[Ambush Alley Games]

Carlos, I'm sincerely sorry if our level of historical accuracy in the Portuguese section disappointed you. That section was written by a Portuguese national and English is not his first language. Although his English is quite good, Martin and I occasionally had to interpret his exact meaning and any errors probably result from that. I'm sure he'll address the questions on his presentation of Portuguese organizations at some point.

I feel as if you may have taken offense at the section, as you seem to be a little upset with us (we do not design scenarios after playing Call of Duty - in fact, we don't even play Call of Duty, and we certainly don't use wikipedia as a source for anything but occasional amusement ). I apologize for any offense you took away from our handling of the topic and assure you it was not our intent to slight ether the subject matter or you.

We have a widely international fan base, with a surprising number of customers in Portugal. Our intent was to provide a short section of scenarios that might capture the interest of non-Portuguese gamers who might not be aware of the Portugal's fascinating military experiences in Africa. We thought it best to use a Portuguese author for the subject as he would have more access to historical resources than we would. We're not experts on the subject, obviously, so if any errors were made we were in no position to spot them (not to be argumentative, I'm still not certain there are errors - there may simply be differences of historical opinion between you and our author). I hope that some players can overlook any errors we've made and still enjoy the scenarios, scenarios we hope will inspire more interest in area that is somewhat neglected by wargamers in general.

If you have better (or just different) organizations that you would like to share with others, please send them to me at shawn@ambushalleygames.com and I'd be happy to share them with our players by posting them on our website. Likewise, if you have scenarios that you feel would be more illustrative of this conflict, we'd love to share those with our players as well.

On the topic of Brazil, btw, we've had requests from several players, including a couple in Brazil, for scenarios involving police raids against drug lords in the Rio favelas. Our game can be used for much more than major military operations, after all.

Best wishes to all,

Shawn.

[carlos marighela]

Shawn,

No need to apologise. I own the core rules, its earlier iteration and three of the genre specific supplements. On the whole I'm quite happy with FoF. It's largely responsible for renewing my interest in playing skirmish level modern games and for that I'm genuinely grateful. You can be proud  of the system you have produced. If it sounded as if I was carping then, I'm sorry, I really do like the system.

I'm quite happy to share what information I have. I don't pretend to be an expert but I have read reasonably widely on the subject and I can read Portuguese ( just as well or reading the paper would be a really fucking tiresome affair ) I did make a start on your forum and I will provide what I have both there and here when I get back to my reference material, which currently is on the other side of the world.  In the interim, might I suggest  anyone interested in the subject  takes a look at this site, which provides a handy overview of the conflict, including some TO&E information may be found here.

http://www.guerracolonial.org/home

 I have more detailed sources but this is a very useful website for starters. Even if you don't read or speak Portuguese, most web translators will prove adequate in providing a transliteration.

With regards to Brazil, well that's a matter of taste I suppose.  Wargamers are  a truly tiny community in Brazil. Due to the associated costs it's a near certainty that anyone who games in Brazil is relatively privileged.  Perhaps not surprsingly many people in that particular strata of society dont have a great deal of empathy with their less privileged bretheren. Oddly enough, I suspect I've had more contact with the poor on their home turf than many upper class Brazilians.

For me, it's a somewhat vex subject. Whilst I have zero tolerance for traficantes (I was quite happy when the police shot Matematico last week) I know people who live in these communities and I've been fortunate enough to visit a number.  I also know a few members of the police, mostly in Salvador. For me, a gringo, albeit with extensive and deep connections here, it's not a topic I have much desire to game. For starters it's a pretty complex subject, shades of grey exist on both sides. It's becoming a bit old hat anyway, at least in Rio. The continuing roll out of the UPP program has seen dramatic reductions in the sorts of scenes depicted in Tropa de Elite or Cidade de Deus. I'm not at all troubled by current levels of security here, although Salvador, sadly has become appreciably more dangerous in recent times.

 I couldn't imagine you would want to produce scenarios for the Mexican drug wars, the LA riots or clearing operations in the projects in NY or NJ. Something about being a little close to the bone.

Anyway congrats on the system. Happy to provide whatever positive contribution  I can.


Regards.

[carlos marighela]

You've given me visions of scenarios where the police chase loggers around the rainforest! 
All joke to aside, have any modern conflicts even happened in Brazil...?

Since the Second World War not a great deal. Brazil provided troops to the US occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1965 (Operation Powerpack). Brazil is the lead nation and most significant contributor of troops to the UN stabilisation mission in Haiti. The permanent commander of the UN ops in Haiti is Brazilian. Brazil has also contributed troops and police to various other UN peacekeeping and observation activities, including East Timor.

Domestically? There was a limited  rural guerilla campaign against the dictatorship in the early 'seventies, mostly in what is now Tocantins. Not much gaming potential there I'm afraid.  If you are interested, then  the best book on the subject is  Morais and Silva's  Operação Araguaia.

 There was considerable urban guerilla activity in the late sixties by the ALN, MR-8 and others which had some level of success (my nom de plume is a an odd tribute). The biggest coup was the capture of the US ambassador and the release of 18 prisoners of the dicatatorship in exchange. Not especially gameable. As it happens, this week President Dilma inaguarated the Truth Comission to look into human rights abuses under the ditadura.

In recent years the army has been involved in ops along the border against traffickers. The airforce has been involved in bombing jungle landing strips of the same. The army and marines have been occasionally used to support police operations. Earlier this year, the Fuzileiros Navais supported Operação Choque de Paz in Rio, deploying AFVs whilst the police occupied and established police outposts in Vidigal and Rocinha. The army has been involved in similar ops before but on the whole the military has been shy of getting too involved in part because of the corrupting influence of drug wars.

Then there are the paramiltary operations by various state police forces against criminal activities. The most famous of which is Rio's BOPE (the SF battalion of the state police). The two biggest grossing local films in Brazil featured the BOPE. BOPE are probably the most experienced operators in urban combat in the world. For years it's been a day in, day out affair for them. BOPE are part of the states Policia Militar but similar units exist in other states and also in the Policia Civil and the Federal Police. There's also a National strikeforce made up of members of different state PMs. They were involved in operations against traficantes in Catete, just this week. Apart from the drug busts the most notable incident was that a pigeon crapped on the state minister for public security. 

[Arlequín]

Computer games as historical source.   

Don't knock them, I had a group of 'historically apathetic' kids asking about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Castro and Kennedy, after playing 'Black Ops' and I know of a teacher who has used Assassin's Creed to bring medieval Florence to life for his students. Bland books and lectures don't cut it with many of today's kids and you have to use teaching aids where you find them!

[Conquistador]

Shawn, no insult intended to your efforts.  If my despise of some sources in Wikipedia seemed to reflect on you that was unintentional.

As for wikipedia, well I research for a living and I will continue to reject work from contractors that depict a building footprint from wikimapia with a "second source" from wikipedia quoting the wikimapia source.  

Crowd sourcing has intense value ins some scenarios (even our line of work as it has evolved since 9/11,) but wikipedia has to be confirmed by two reliable, independent (not one copying/pasting the first source,) sources before I use it professionally and only then as a tertiary source.

Wikipedia is an awareness thing but as a serious source it is "highly variable" in accuracy and reliability.  Never say never, perhaps, but never as a primary or secondary source.  Lives depend on correct identification of targets versus no-strike facilities (ask our "sister agency" about Chinese embassies...) and, while they did not use wikipedia, I find wikipedia fine for awareness purposes only.

Gracias,

Glenn

[Faustnik]

Greetings all,

Sorry for the delay getting on the forum.

As one of the authors, namely responsible for the scenarios on the Portuguese Colonial and Border Wars is time to also answer some questions.

First this was a project that grows up as we start to talk with the group, encompassing projects as Operation Barras in Serra Leone, plus Congo, Portugal Colonial Wars, Rhodesia and Border wars.

Soon Shawn was establishing a goal of 20 scenarios, creamed in a mere 150 pages volume.
While at first this was easy, soon the list grows up to some 30 scenario projects, plus the TO&E and background – so something had to go out.

After tying all up, we have to cut things, making decisions and sometimes sacrificing data and info.
I accept that I prefer to give more scenarios than expanding TO&E in most cases simply on paper, as on the field things tend to be different, but any one is free to post here or on the AA Forum any TO&E you feel like and consider relevant.

I agree that my language can be dry – not easy when not a native English speaker and using a more formalized writing language (I’m an archaeologist by trade) – and for that I must ask your pardon.
It’s also my mistake not to include some bibliographic references for the Portuguese Colonial Wars, even if those I’ve used where mostly in Portuguese, and not always easy accessible outside Portugal.

On the scenarios, I could have use the very same ones I helped write and play tested for the B’Maso system, but that wouldn’t be fair for Shawn and the team, also I had choose some generic scenarios based on most common operations on former Portuguese colonies, but as that was the path of Martin, I prefer a different choice.

As far as the scenarios were concerned all – with exception of the one set in Guiné – were real ones, with just some data modified, and where gathered from several previous participants on the operations – Portugal still have reconciliation with is past, and start to published some veterans memories and Retornados stories.

Are they relevant? Yes, they are! are they common? Except the first scenario (very limited in time)  yes!

Let’s admit one thing, most actions in the Portuguese Wars (and perhaps on all asymmetric  conflicts) are «a one side show» -  ambushes, raids and patrols – where for most part one of the sides didn’t detect the other, and when they did, with was too late for someone. Not exactly a balanced game for two or more gamers, only fun for solo, but if someone disagree, again is free to post some scenarios.

Then main idea behind this supplement – and I will loved to write a part II – is to give an idea of the conflict in Africa, getting beyond the concept of a Iraqi or Afghan type of war, with the insurgents replaced by Africans rebels.
Portugal made a «poor man» fighting against the liberation movements, both sides weren’t particularly well equipped, so a “light Infantry” fighting it was, but even so, some new tactics where develop based on foreign examples, and by their part also giving ideas for other armies in similar conflicts.

Some of the fighting in south Angola between SADF and FAPLA were the biggest tank battles in the continent after WW2, this conflict ranged from anti-insurgency aspects to a formal conventional conflict.

Could we have done more? Yes! If we have more pages available, or perhaps a smaller scope supplement, but I believe if we have done that people were also complaining it.

Thanks for your time

Jose “Faustnik” Ventura

[Arlequín]

Welcome to the forum Jose and I'm sorry your first post is an explanation. 

I can not speak for anyone else, but I did not find your English 'dry' at all. I thought it was well written and I have seen far, far worse from native English speakers! I do think it was a mistake to include what you did in the bibliography... to me that implies that you based your research on them, which is clearly not the case. Personally I would have given my sources, even if they were not in English... to deal with another language when researching is the reader's problem, no?

You have hit the mark with your assessment of the appeal of the wars though. It was a 'poor man's war' and the Portuguese were without all of the technology and fire power present in Vietnam. This makes it a far more appealing option to game to me. The language barrier and scarcity of material outside Portugal makes it really difficult to obtain accurate information, so many of us rely on second and third hand information and trust in the person telling us about it.

As I've said before, I was happy with what I got... but I would also have paid for a whole book just on the Portuguese! 

[carlos marighela]

José,

Bem-vindo ao LAF!  Obrigado pela sua reposta, foi muito gentil e como dizem, gentileza gera gentileza. Estou curioso para saber quais as fontes que você usado em escrever o capítulo sobre a Guerra Colonial. Pode de escrever os nomes dos livros?

abraço
   

[Conquistador]

Jose “Faustnik” Ventura,

Dude, as someone who does research myself I can say that working in another language (my employer, because of a dearth of native speakers, wants us to work in machine translation - gag - of Hausa lately... seriously?) is a real chore for me and no apologies are needed for your efforts to bring all the history into one book in English.  It's always easy to want more or to want the author to have spent more time on the our personal interests but a wide-ranging book like this will seldom (never?) cover everyone's interest like they want. 

I am sure the team you worked with found more data then could fit into the book's space/format limitations.  Isn't that the way it usually is?  Either not enough (at least in the researcher's native language) or too much information found?  With this one work alone you have surpassed the production of many of us.

Now, on to the next research project!

Gracias,

Glenn