The Ogaden War some pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the games we have played over the last couple of months. No batreps but some explanations of the pictures.

Ethiopian infantry deployed on a reverse slope awaiting the arrival of the Somali armour, T54's and Centurions but no infantry support. The Ethiopian infantry have the RPG upgrade on half of their stands, there are some 57mm AT guns deployed at the bottom of the hill centre right and some M47's deployed on another hill just behind and to the right of the infantry.
The Somali armour reach the crest of the hill and fail their command roll. It them becomes a bit messy with the Somali armour being largely suppressed, destroyed or driven back with acceptable casualties on the Ethiopian side.
The aftermath, two Somali Armoured Battalions in disarray for the loss of two infantry units on the Ethiopian side. The suppressed armour is about to take another series of attacks from the supporting M47's which just about destroys them as an effective force. Reverse slope defence in action, there is of course the other side of the coin, the attacker comes over on mass with armour and infantry, faces ineffective challenge fire, makes their command roll and participates on the right side of a turkey shoot. Some you win some you lose.

Long time coming

Well the blogs been quiet for a while, not enough time to cover what I wanted to do and I'm still having problems with the camera. Some of the pictures aren't too bad but most are still a bit out of focus.

The Ogaden War campaign has been progressing steadily with a series of counter attacks by both sides with varying degrees of success. We finally ended up with a pursuit scenario followed by an encirclement as the Somali forces fled with the Ethiopians in hot pursuit. We have begun to pay more attention to the victory conditions for the different scenarios and not been so hung up on the losses suffered if they didn't directly impact on the goal of the mission or reached break point for the battlegroup.

We are currently having a bit of a break from the Ogaden War after six successive battles and played out the diversionary attack scenario from the book. It was based on the late Eastern front army lists with 5,000pts of Russian against 2,500pts of German, the Russians managed to achieve a minor victory by putting the bulk of their armour on their right flank and bulling their way through and destroying enough infantry elements to force the deployment of the first German reserves. It was at this point we were out of time so we never got to see how the T34's would have faired against the German armour, it is maybe a good thing that we had run out of time as one of the T34 battalions were currently presenting their rear armour to the German table edge and would have been in effective firing range.

Next week at the club it 's going to be a Cold War battle between Warpac forces and my Norwegians if I get the NM135's finished otherwise German Territorial's either way it should be fun 10,000pts of BMP's and and T-64's against 5,000pts of M48's, Kannones and M113's. I'll borrow my wife's camera as its probably better at close ups than the one I'm currently using.

Part Two

I thought it might be a good idea to list the composition of the battalions involved. There are also points values for the formations and some other units which were not involved in this game but will in all probability appear in later games. The basic organization was lifted from the old Table Top Games army lists which are from 1985 so a little bit later than the Ogaden War but not too radically different however the TTG lists do contain some later equipment  which was acquired to replace the losses incurred during the war.

There was a conscious intent to portray the battalions as six tanks rather than nine as I wanted to depict the smaller WARPAC style formations with 10 rather than 15-17 tanks as per company. The same applied to the infantry battalions though I think I was perhaps a little heavy on the RPG upgrades.

Somalian

Infantry Battalion

HQ Com 8

1 x Recce BRDM

7 x BTR60

10 x Infantry Regular

5 x RPG upgrade

2 x HMG

1 x 82mm Mortar

1 x 105mm RR

Points   960pts

In BTR50  890pts

 

Infantry Battalion

HQ Com 8

1 x Recce Scouts

10 x Infantry Conscript

5 x RPG upgrade

2 x HMG

2 x 105mm RR

1 x 82mm Mortar

2 x Truck

Points 685pts

If Regular 785pts

To add 2 x 100mm AT & Trucks 130pts

 

Tank Battalion

HQ Com 8

1 x Recce BRDM

6 x T34/85

Points 480pts

If T54  630pts

If M48 & AML90 Recce 760pts

If Centurion & AML90 Recce 910pts 

The troops below are regimental level troops and can be under the control of CO or attached to other battalions.

 Artillery Battalion

FAO

3 x 76mm

3 x 105mm

Points 255pts

 

AT Battalion

6 x Trucks

3 x 100mm AT

3 x 105mm RR

Points 405pts

 

AA Battalion

3 x 23mm

3 x 37mm

6 x Trucks

Points 135pts

 

Ethiopian

 Infantry Battalion

HQ Com 8

6 x M113

10 x Infantry Regular

6 x RPG upgrade

2 x HMG

2 x Trucks

2 x 81mm Mortar

2 x 73mm RR 4x4

Points 1065pts

If in BTR60 with 120mm Mortar 1095pts

If conscript – 100pts

 

Militia Battalion

HQ Com 8

10 x Infantry Conscript

5 x RPG upgrade

2 x HMG

2 x 81mm Mortar

2 x 57mm AT

2 x Trucks

1 x Recce Scouts

Points 675pts

If regular + 100pts

 

Tank Battalion

HQ Com 8

6 x M47

1 x Recce Greyhound

Points 670pts

If M24 310pts

 

The troops below are regimental level troops and can be under the control of CO or attached to other battalions.

 Artillery Battalion

FAO

3 x 122mm

3 x 152mm

Points 345pts

 

AA Battalion

3 x SA7

3 x 23mm AA

6 x Trucks

Points 315pts

 

AT Battalion

3 x 57mm AT

3 x Trucks

3 x AT-3 Sagger

Points 630pts

First Game

First game of the mini campaign with Ethiopian forces rushing head long into the Somalian spearhead for an encounter game.

Somalian Forces

CO
FAO
2 x T34 Battalions & Recce
1 x T54 Battalion & Treece
1 x Infantry Battalion BTR50
1 x Infantry Battalion foot
Artillery support

Ethiopian Forces

CO
FAO
1 x M47 Battalion & Recce
1 x M24 Battalion & Recce
1 x Infantry Battalion BTR60
1 x Infantry Battalion M113
Artillery Support


Initial Somali positions with the Leg Infantry on the right, the Mech Infantry in the centre and the three tank battalions on the left.
















Initial Ethiopian positions Motorised Infantry on left, M47 in centre and Mech Infantry on the right with a M24 Battalion to the right of them,
just out of frame.











The Somali's race forward, the Mech Infantry consolidating the small village and the Leg Infantry doing a pretty creditable sprint towards the scrub. The ill fated T34 Battalion is strung out on the road just above the village.












A closer view of the Somali Mech Infantry. Hopefully the next batch of pictures will be better, now that I know there's a macro function on the camera.













Ethiopian troops crawling forward after stopping for a picnic to celebrate their second command blunder in two turns.














The Ethiopian Mech Infantry have just deployed on the hill (bottom right) as the Somali armour prepares to charge over the rise in front of them. The T34s strung out between the rise and the village are about to advance and turn their flanks to the M47s which are lurking to the right of their Mech Infantry on the hill. This wasn't quite as insane as it sounds because it put them into the flank of the other Ethiopian Mech Battalion which had not yet debussed. They however failed their second command roll and paid the price.


There will be a part two to follow, I just wanted to get this stuck up on the site to see what it looks like.

Why a blog

I thought it would be far easier to start out with a blog than to try and produce my own website, but this could be a project for the future when I'm a bit more confident about xml, html etc. At the moment my interests in wargaming revolve around Blitzkrieg Commander and Cold War Commander two excellent sets of rules, easy to learn and play and they emphasise command and control rather than minor weapons differences. These rules have made a big difference at our local club as I now have regular opponents for modern and world war two games.