This is another game report that goes back to a match at a March 22 meeting at the Nunawading Wargames Association, played before the game described in the previous posting. We used the No End in Sight rules by Nordic Weasel Games, which we've utilised several times as an alternative to the Wars of Insurgency otherwise played at the club for our Bush Wars campaign setting.
The scenario involved two Zevonan mercenary special forces teams in the employ of the embattled Zeebian government attempting to raid a field depot used by the Kalemnitkan army during its invasion of Zeebia. The raiders needed to get into the nissen hut to search for possible documents on Kalemnitkan (KAL) troop movements in the area. We added a limiatation rule that the KAL troops couldn't make any moves until they had spotted the Zevonians, but didn't include any modifiers around sentries or similar, based on an assumption for the game that the guards would be at least moderately on alert and observing their arcs rather than hunkering down making coffee or tea.
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The KAL were an under-strength platoon, missing their officer so having reduced C2 capacity (fewer leaders able to allocate action points). They were posted in a rough arc across the table in close proximity to the hut that was being guarded.The Zevonans moved towards the KAL position taking advantage of cover to ensure they weren't seen until the last moment.
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As is common in NEiS, once the shooting started troops became pinned quite rapidly. The Zevonans had the initiative, and started causing casualties and pinning KAL troops early and quickly. The KAL left, in cover in bush as well as some ruins, was in trouble quickly, taking fire from both of the merc teams, the second of which also put fire into the ruined hut that some KAL attempted to take cover in shortly after the fighting started.
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The KAL at that point were struggling to deal with the attack. Their right was in disarray and often pinned, their centre were generally taking cover from the mass of fire that was directed onto the dilapidated hut from which they'd tried to deliver fire from a covered position, and the left was just not able to get itself organised (kept rolling low for Action Points and so becoming exhausted early in the turn). To make things worse for the KAL, a dreaded Zevonan elephant, mounting a recoilless rifle appeared in support of the mercenaries.
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There was a moment of balance in the game when the Zevonans were not quite at the point of causing the KAL enough casualties and pinning enough troops that they could assault them, but the KAL were not able to bring effective fire to bear on the raiders. The moment hung in the air for a turn, then the wind changed direction. The merc team leader on the KAL right became disoriented due to fire (kept rolling low AP and becoming exhausted rapidly over several phases in succession) shortly after making an unsuccessful attempt to closely assault the KAL position. The KAL centre got into action with the LMG from the right and put effective fire into the Zevonan team in the centre. Then the KAL section on the left got their act together, moved quickly to a good fire position, and began to also put fire into the merc team in the centre. All this time, the elephant plodded on.
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With a withering amount of small arms fire coming in from two directions, a crossfire, the mercenaries in the centre quickly became pinned down, unable to get further effective fire happening. They managed to get a grenade into the hut to their front, but it didn't do enough to stop the KAP there. The KAL on the right were holding their own despite the casualties and pinned soldiers. The elephant then came into LOS of the hut and prepared to fire. At that point a lone KAL RPG gunner took up a position in the collapsing hut to take a shot at the elephant. The vagaries of initiative came into play, and the recoilless crew on the elephant spotted the risk and fired on the RPG gunner. They missed, but before the gunner could do anything the recoilless fired again, and missed again. At that point the RPG was fired, the rocket streaking accurately towards the elephant. It hit, and the damage table was consulted. When the result turned out to be catastrophic, there was relief that the game wasn't more visual than what is was.
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With the elephant covering far more horizontal space than it was supposed to, their assault on the KAL left halted and their centre taking casualties and pinned by significant amounts of effective fire, the Zevonans chose discretion as their best course of action. They managed to extract themselves from the fight, and the KAL troops were happy to see them off in order to attend to their own dead and wounded
This was our first game using the second edition rules of NEiS. They may have been out for some time, but we simply hadn't updated our copies until this point. The later edition has plenty of effective updates, makes for a fast and deadly game, and does a great job punishing tactical mistakes or, worse, sub-optimal decisions. I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to play Cold War era skirmish games. It's reminiscent of Crossfire, but at a much closer range and smaller scale.
Even as we were finishing this game, I was chatting to another club member in the Bush Wars campaign about another game for a future meeting.