Assault on Hastee House Crossroads

The 60 Minute War, as it has come to be known, is over.

The captioned photos illustrate the flow of the battle while the rest of this article will be dedicated to comments by our technical advisor.

The Government First Brigade begins an assault on Hastee House Crossroads. Rebel reinforcements are rushing to reinforce their outpost.

This battle was actually the second attempt by the Government forces to sieze the crossroads. In the morning both armies, well versed in Developed Portable Warfare, were quickly going to ground under effective fire with very few units choosing to retire to a safe position. Once again, as we saw two years ago, in close terrain opposing troops would close in then take cover and could not be persuaded to even stick their heads up once in a while to shoot at an enemy in cover or to retreat but held on waiting to be rescued. Eventually at the end of the day the government forces pulled back after light casualties and no success.

The ruins of the village has been cleared but much time has been lost due to the stubborn defemce.

Once the troops had been fed and rested they were given a pep talk and ordered to forget their developed training and go back to their original, basic Portable Warfare training. The Rebels must have had a similar pep talk as the ensuing fight was fast paced and free flowing with much manouvring and hard fighting. By the time the UN team imposed a cease fire, both sides were near exhaustion after heavy casualties.

An attempt to turn the enemy's left flank has been driven back by accurate artillery and small arms fire but the armoured assault against the rebels has been forcing them steadily back.

Observers in the press corps all agree that the Government forces fought well and inflicted more harm than they received. The new upgunned tanks were disappointing though as they seemed to be unable to knock out the  enemy armour though they did manage to drive them back into the hills. Initially the enemy fire was just as ineffective but in the end their last tank was left guarding the crucial road while our wrecks were scattered across the field.

Some say though, that the fault wasn't with the tanks but that our crews were too brave and refused to pull back regardless of how effective the enemy fire was while the tricksy rebels would quickly retreat when fired on.

Both armies were nearing exhaustion when a UN observer intervened to inform the command on both sides that a new Ceasefire had been signed.  The Government controls the Crossroad but the battered remnant of the stubborn Rebel tank company still holds the East Road. 

Well, perhaps one of the shortest wars in history but who knows how long this ceasefire will last? A week? A Year?  We will have to wait and see.

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Technical Footnote: This game was played using the original Portable Wargame. Once again, (to my chagrin since I was one of those urging Bob to include a Pin rule) the Pin rule in the Developed Portable Wargame detracted rather than added to my enjoyment of the game, partly because it took yet more decision making power from me, something I used to applaud but now have reservations about from a gaming point of view but also because the game started to stall as more and more units were pinned and unable ro recover.

It was also played using my now usual system of an initiative deck with colour indicating who was to go first each turn.  I have gone from being an advocate of activation methods to being a critic of many such systems for a long list of reasons some of which were mentioned in an article in Miniature Wargames a few years ago when Henry was editor (or was it in Battlegames?  oh well).  Bob's card system works fairly well although I would be inclined to be more lenient and have it start with a chance of everyone acting but I didn't want to abandon my turn record and intitiative deck or go with multiple decks. So, I decided to try something different.

Since I have no idea what the activation deck really represents I decided it could include factors that apply to both sides. Therefore when I pulled the turn card, it not only showed who was going first but the number showed how many units each side could activate that turn with Court Cards and Aces allowing all units to act. Worked like a charm to occasionally have quiet spells and force difficult decisions to be made without slowing the game or being lopsided or having excessive effect on the game.

As of now the original PW and this Initiative and Activation deck will be my standard for this collection. Being organized, based and ready to go means that from now on it'll be easier to get this collection out when I'm in the mood.