Here we are with the final 10 weeks of the Six Months in the Sahara French Foreign Legion campaign. I'm playing this using graph paper, Risk pieces and the superb Small Wars book from David Thomas and the History of Wargaming project. It has been written so that it can actually be played out solo. I don't have enough FFL figures for the game and anyway, it's freezing in my gaming hut, so I'm reverting to Risk pieces. Sue me.
Let's get onto the action: the Legion finally put down the long-running revolt in the oasis, which was a relief. The Kasbah riot was also over, so the gun was recalled to the fort. Captain Macron's platoon has been decimated, however, forcing me to merge his survivors into Verte's platoon. Macron assumes command of the new platoon, with Verte as his XO.
Regimental HQ in Algiers then recalled one of the platoons for service elsewhere. This was a major problem since it meant I was no longer able to keep one platoon in the fort as a tactical reserve in case anything gets out of control. I'd just merged two platoons, and now LeJaune marched off into the sunset with his men, leaving me with just TWO platoons.
At this point the Kasbah chose to riot again and there was more trouble in the oasis. Macron took one platoon and the machine gun team into the Kasbah to deal with that problem, successfully this time. He is ably assisted by young Verte who is looking more likely to get a promotion when he gets back to HQ. As soon as the Kasbah looked quiet, I withdrew the men back to the fort.
A change of tactics
I'd changed my tactics now, as I had only two platoons. This meant I did not have the luxury of keeping one platoon on call in the fort. I attached the MG to Macron's unit and sent the valiant captain back to the Kasbah. He again finished off the rioters, took some losses in the process, and withdrew to the safety of the fort. I was sending units in to fight the fires of rebellion when they broke out, then quickly pulling them back to respond elsewhere. Thus, Rose was sent to deal with the problems in the oasis, and when another revolt broke out in the village, Macron was dispatched again.
This time Macron was ambushed by the Bedouin in the hills on the way to the village, but dealt with that attack. Once the village was quiet, I pulled the platoon back to the fort, then sent them back into the Kasbah again. Rose's platoon was left in the oasis as the situation there was not back under control.
Both platoons were now taking losses and indeed Rose's platoon had taken numerous casualties (he was down to about 35% strength). Because I was no longer able to rest troops at the fort, morale was beginning to slip as well. This eventually led to some desertions from Verte's platoon, which were my first desertions of the tour.
I continued to try to react to building unrest in the village by sending troops in before things turned violent. In this simulation you have mixed success: leave it too long and you're pretty much guaranteed to face hostiles when you get there anyway. The trick is responding while the hostility level is still low, pacify the situation, and get out.
We were into the last few weeks of the tour now and things were looking a little stretched. My tactics had changed as I really only had half the men to play with than previously. Luckily things were quiet for the last couple of weeks and the relief column arrived on time! Thus ended the game. This area of the desert becomes someone else's problem!
A few observations:
Six Months in the Sahara is a delightfully simple little simulation at company level in North Africa circa 1900. The legion commander pursues a delicate balancing act, deploying platoons to different district areas in an effort to prevent a more widespread revolt, which I could see could easily have got out of control. Luckily it didn't!
I was also lucky to receive Rose and his platoon early on in the tour, and lose a platoon to HQ with less than two months to go. The timing for this could have been a lot worse.
The attack on the fort by the sheikh, when it came, was easily coped with and not as widely supported in the district as it could have been. If it had come late in the game, with more hostiles, it could have got interesting.
I crucially managed morale well and kept desertions to a minimum. They only became a big issue when I ended up under-strength. And that was near the end.
There is a balancing act to be achieved between keeping troops out on patrol and keeping them in the fort. This becomes harder as you lose men. I tried to pre-empt some of the revolts, but it was hard to get men into an area before things got out of hand, usually because they were busy mopping up elsewhere.
Taking the locals on 1:1 is not advisable; the Legion still has an intrinsic combat advantage in these situations, but it is not a large one, and the Bedouin vastly outnumber the Legion strategically. This is something I learned after the first couple of battles. It is far better to take two platoons into a battle, or indeed ensure that they bring some heavy weaponry. The MG team was invaluable.
Tune in next time for:
- More counter-insurgency Small Wars, this time with the Soviets in Afghanistan. Adding more complexity to the above simulation, including tanks and air power!
- Captain Dread meets the Necrons in Stargrave!
- We give Combat Commander Europe its first outing, on the Eastern Front in 1941!
Comments
Post a Comment