20mm 1979 Very British Civil War/Winter of 79

Last Thursday Ian, Will and I played out a couple of games of Black Ops.  We used the ideas from Winter of 79 as a starting point for an SAS raid on Border Farm, on the outskirts of Pont-y-Pandy.  The town was held by the British Army and the SAS mission was to investigate reports of armed Welsh separatists in the vicinity.


The SAS numbered 6 figures a leader (Ace), 2 man sniper team (King), and 3 troopers (Jacks), one a medic and one an RTO.  The Welsh Separatist fanatics included a Big boss and local cell leader (Aces), GPMG and Charlie G figures (Kings), 2 big boss bodyguards and a demolitions expert with large IED (Queens) and 15 terrorists (Jacks).  One third of the Welsh forces were awake and patrolling the farm.  The SAS could call up a British infantry section from the town with a Humber Pig, Saxon APC and Landy ambulance, plus an infantry section, leader and medic.  The Welsh were waiting on some additional muscle in the shape of a contingent of coal miners from the valleys, so they could mount an attack on Pant-y-Pandy.


The first run through saw Will's SAS approach close enough to toss hand grenades into the farm buildings and gun down any defenders outside the buildings, tearing into Ian's Welsh and breaking them.  The survivors slinked away as best they could under cover of darkness.


In the second run through, Ian's SAS had much less luck, with one of their troopers being stumbled upon by a sentry, who proved remarkably resilient in the ensuing fisticuffs and raising enough noise to ensure several other figures became embroiled, waking Will's Welsh garrison.  The Welsh kept up a steady GPMG fire on the SAS sniper team, gradually whittling them and the surviving troopers down to the point where the SAS leader called up the British Army reserves.  These guys piled out of the town towards the farm, only for the Pig to be shot up with Charlie G fire and the Saxon and dismounts to be caught by the IED detonation.  By this point, the Welsh figured they had done enough and retired from the farm through the woods.  No doubt they would be trying to get a message through to the contingent of coal miners to abandon the rendezvous, thereby buying the British garrison of Pont-y-Pandy some time.


The farm layout.

British security checkpoint outside the town manned by police and MPs.

The British Army relief column passing through the check point.

The scene of the ambush.

The surviving SAS and British Army take possession of the farm, but the Will-o-the-Wisp Welshmen have scarpered leaving only the dead, who somewhat obviously tell no tales.

These were fun games - the rules need a little bit of modification from the RAW as the nuances of dealing with IEDs and such are not fully explained.  However, it did give an exciting game and looked pretty cool on the table.


Thanks for looking.