Blast from the Past: Ethiopians vs. Somalis, Wars of Insurgency AAR

Here's another AAR from days gone by when we were playtesting what would become Wars of Insurgency -- my modern skirmish rules set. Back then, web space was at a premium so I apologize for the scarcity of photos.

Allen's mechanized Ethiopians who we would get the better of on the first evening, but struggle against on the second

Ethiopians vs. Somalis using (Wars of Insurgency)

 Our Sunday night group was shrunk to just three of us, so Joel thought it'd be the perfect time to try out his Ethiopian vs. Somali scenario using our (Wars of Insurgency) modern skirmish system. Joel had worked up a map, given us forces, and let Allen and I plot the location of our troops, and the arrivals of reinforcements. Our scattered squads would then march to contact, and the battlefield would be selected from the topographical map Joel provided each of us with. A clever scenario idea, and one that would end up taking two gaming nights to play out.

As the Somali Islamist militia, I was in an interdiction role against a more mechanized Ethiopian and Somali Provisional Government force. The way it played out, we had one small scale battle the first evening, and a much larger one on the second. It also worked out that the others weren't able to attend either night, so it was just Joel, Allen and I for both Sunday evenings. In the first battle, my squad of Somali militia held off the enemy for long enough for my Regular troops to get in position -- with a recoilless rifle in tow -- and blast the enemy militia. Allen's reinforcements of Regular troops were also mauled and retreated. Meanwhile, both our forces were marching towards the engagement, and at the end of the evening of map moves combined with battlefield action, Joel felt he had a good scenario generated for next week.

My Islamist Somali militia advance to the fight

On the second evening, Allen's Ethiopian backed force got revenge, and decimated my main militia force. My recoilless rifle proved key in chasing off his flanking force, allowing my Islamist militia to control one side of the field. Try as we might, though, we were unable to get enough troops to bear against the more mechanized and heavier armed enemy. Our mortar never found a good firing position, while his HMG-armed vehicles chewed up all who got near them. When it came time to call the evening of fun, we had a couple RPG-armed men stalking the enemy vehicles, but the chances of getting a shot off and making it score big -- plus taking the central hill which was the battlefield objective -- didn't seem good. Although Allen wanted to call it a bloody draw, I gave his forces the edge as hitting his vehicles before my RPG gunners were shot down seemed slimmer odds than him simply holding his ground.

A fun scenario, and one that proved the flexibility of the system we've developed.