The Painted Thumb

The "Soviet-Persian War" continues using the Gulf Strike rules . The Soviets are flooding into Iran like an avalanche of steel. The Americans have brought in the third aircraft carrier into the battle space, USS Nimitz CV-68. Turn 16 - US brings in the major ground forces into the Indian Ocean. Two Mechanized and one Armor division are loaded on transport ships headed toward the Persian Gulf. In Air; B-52s bomb the remaining Afghan air base with long range recon provided by special forces. The base is destroyed including a Backfire bomber. More air attacks pound the Soviet Afghan ground units. On Land; Soviets continue the attack on Hamadan, Mashad, and Qom. Militia units are struggling to hold those cities. At Sea; American SSNs destroy the Soviet CG guided missile cruiser. Another SSN sinks a Soviet SSN. The most of the Soviet navy is sunk and that allows CV-68 to move north safely. Turn 17 - Due to the massive damage to the Afghanistan army, the initiative move...

The "Soviet-Persian War" continues using the Gulf Strike rules .` Turn 13 On Land; Soviets have the initiative and rearrange forces to make a big push to capture Mashad. They've been trying to capture that city since turn 1 and have yet to capture it. The Soviets also deploy air bases on the evacuated airfields in Tehran.  At Sea; The Iranians reload two Fast Attack Craft (Kaman-class missile boats) with Harpoon missiles In Air; B-52s bomb the Soviet units outside of Hamadan. Turn 14 At Sea; Iranians send out the FACs in to the Arabian Sea. In Air; A combined assault from B-52s, F-4s and F-15s destroy one air base in Afghanistan. Two units of Backfire bombers relocate to the new bases in Tehran. While one Backfire remains in Afghanistan. MiGs from the Yemen base bomb the Iranian FAC and sink it. On Land; Soviets attack Mashad and destroy the Iranian armor division, militia and anti-air battery protecting the city. Turn 15 - American Reinforcments arriv...

Justin has a huge collection of 15mm Battlefront minis. For example, he has more Cromwell tanks in his collection than I have total tanks in my collection. And the Cromwells are one of the uncommon 15mm models. Justin and his wife have decided to move to a smaller house that is more manageable for their busy family. Which means his massive collection will have to be pared down. So, to celebrate before the Great Purge, Justin held a large 15mm variation of the Battle of Arnhem and invited some of the local players to participate. Five players including myself showed up. Justin commanded 30 Corp; Wes controlled Axis forces; the US 101st Airborne under the superb leadership of Chris. Meanwhile the 82nd had the tough fight led by yours truly against the SS and panthers of the German 107th hiding within the city and the Grosbeak Heights. The game took place on a 6' x 14' table and we used the Version 4.0 rules, a first for most the players. Justin setup a huge scenario wit...

The "Soviet-Persian War" continues using the Gulf Strike rules . The Soviets suffer setbacks but it is looking good for them overall. Turn 11 On Land, An Iranian armor division is forced to evacuate Rasht but is destroyed by pursuing Soviet mechanized divisions. Rasht is captured. At Sea, Soviet SSGN launches a brutal surface-to-surface missile strike on CVA-65 and almost sinks it. An undetected Soviet sub moves into the Persian Gulf. CVA-65, seemingly without concern for the submarine threat, steams into the Persian Gulf. The Soviet cruiser launches SSMs at the Enterprise but fails to sink it. In the Air, Soviets deliver air bases and planes to the former Iranian airfield in both Rasht and Tehran. Iran counters with an interdiction strike. F-4s from the Mashad air base bomb the infrastructure in northeast Iran, cutting off a vital supply route to the Soviets in Tehran. Both sides are dealing with supply issues. The US base in Konark is cut off by Soviet subs in the g...

The "Soviet-Persian War" continues using the Gulf Strike rules . The Soviet war-machine starts throttling up to full speed. The Iranians are taking far too much damage, and the Americans are still trying to get units into the battle-space. Turn 9 At Sea, The Soviets drive a transport ship to Yemen and drop off a Marine brigade to defend the Yemen base. In the Air, US B-52s continue to hammer the Yemen base. Soviet air units continue to bomb Tehran. On Land, Soviets surround Tehran and begin their ground campaign. Iranian militia are struggling to hold the city. Special Ops successfully ambush a Soviet column just south of Tabriz, thus delaying the assault on Kermanshah. At this point, we noticed a problem with the US Order of Battle. The Soviets would get victory points if they could deploy mines in the Persian Gulf. However, the US OB doesn't show any mine-sweeping capability at all! This seemed like an incredible disadvantage to the American-Iran alliance....

For this year's International Tabletop Day, my friend Joe ran an event with his home-made rules called “G.I. Battles”. It was a WWII, skirmish-level game and it was designed to provide more realism than the typical skirmish game. The game did not disappoint in that aspect. The scenario we played came out of a book from http://www.skirmishcampaigns.com. It's the same company that published "Bloody Big Battles" and "Check Your Six". This book can be used to generate balanced scenarios using actual TO&Es from the historical research. This completely takes away the concept of 'list building' and I appreciated that. List building games seem to 'gamey' to me and too much of the game strategy is spent creating unbeatable lists. I enjoy playing historical force lists and wish to play more games this way. This particular scenario simulated a typical skirmish that occurred in the bocage of northern France in 1944. Joe arrived before me and ...

The "Soviet-Persian War" continues using the  Gulf Strike rules  . The tide seems to be turning toward the Soviet side. The Kitty Hawk is sunk and the Soviets are surrounding the northern Iranian cities.  Turn 7 At Sea, CV-65 USS Enterprise arrives in the Indian Ocean to relieve the damaged Kitty Hawk. US and Soviet subs continue their duel in the Persian Gulf.  In the Air, Backfire bombers fire on the Kitty Hawk again. The missiles strike the ship and the mighty carrier is laid low. On Land, the Soviet Afghanistan army attack Iranian forces in eastern Iran. In the north, Tabriz and Zanjan are captured. American Special Forces continue to harass the Soviet supply network, but attachment #4 from the 1/75th Ranger regiment is destroyed while conducting a raid in Yemen.  Turn 8 In the Air, F-5 planes from Tehran intercept Soviet ground attack aircraft. They push back a major air assault including bombing attacks from Backfire bombers. ...