The war on terror continues

   As my November painting has been almost non-existent (definitely nothing to write a post about) and it doesn't look like there will be anything post worthy for at least another week I thought I might dedicate a post to a couple of the cool looking games of Sangin Skirmish I have played over the last two Monday evenings.

   The first was a two-part mission for the British regulars. Seek and destroy the weapons cache and clear a path through the town for a safe withdrawal. I didn't get an overhead shot of the board but I took a few close-up photos as the game went on and I have included a few of the better ones below.

The two British fire teams advance into the town to sweep for the weapons cache aware that any building or group of civilians might be hiding a Taliban fighter.

I had spent the first few turns moving the civilians around to either look slightly suspicious or as though they were interested / scared of the British troops coming into their town depending on how I felt the people would act. The guy in the red hoodie was the only civilian that was stop checked and turned out to be a complete red herring.

The first shot of the game - my concealed sniper had lined up a perfect shot and killed his target outright.

   The game ended with two dead British troops compared to a lot of dead Taliban, but the weapon cache had not been found and the road through the town had definitely not been cleared.

   The next game carried on from the last one but we used a mission out of Dispatches 2 - Hold the Ford. The British's mission was to get their wounded, starting off the board on the town edge, to safety on the river edge of the board (the line of sandbags*), while the Taliban do everything they can to stop this from happening. To make it possible, the British get access to a few toys - the wounded are transported in the husky from the last game, which is supported by a warrior tank and the ford is being held by 2 fire teams of British Commandos.

* We couldn't find any river sections!

To stop it being a quick game the convey only gets to come on from turn 2 (in Sangin Skirmish each turn is made up of 10 phases with models activating for 4 phases per turn - determined at the start of the game) and Taliban can place a road block and a medium IED anywhere on the board*.

* The sofa represented the IED in this

game. Something the British 

player came to regret.

The Taliban machine gunner sets up in heavy cover on the Mosque and opens fire at the advancing Commandos, wounding his target and killing the man next to him.

As the warrior appears on the board the Taliban scramble for cover.

The warrior managed to get a single shot off, killing the Taliban hiding behind the well before two hidden RPG armed men came out of hiding to take it out*. New toy syndrome strikes again.

* Playing the Taliban takes

a lot of self-control!

   While the husky made it home carrying the wounded men from the last game, the cost to the British was massive. One dead Commando, one destroyed warrior tank and two men who were so wounded they won't make it home without their comrades coming back for them, while I had lost 11 Taliban. This game while technically a victory to the British was pyrrhic at best.

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