Oscar Sierra Charlie in Soviet held Afghanistan

This was our second game of the modern and near future skirmish rules, Oscar Sierra Charlie (OSC)  from Evil Bear.

This game was a clash between a Soviet Spetsnaz (level 6) squad and Mujahideen freedom fighters somewhere in Afghanistan in 1983. Both sides rolled the 'command' scenario.

 In the lower half of the picture below you can see the Soviet deployment point is the back half of that BTR-70.

True to form, the Mujahideen are deploying out of the camels at the top of the picture.

And for no particular reason is a sniper trying to shoot out of my window.

The Spetsnaz deployed first hoping to dominate the primary objective (The rocket launcher)

With the flowing moves that OSC does so well, a Mujahideen fighter advances to cover the same ground, not noticing that Vladimir had sprinted up to 'double tap' him from the rear.

Learning the lesson, the Mujahideen positioned sniper to dominate the road, there he annoyed the Soviets for the rest of the game.

The Spetsnaz continue to spread out.

But a brave Mujahideen runs up to fire an RPG into the compound. One feature of OSC is the noone carrying an RPG lives for very long, as he is promptly shot down in a hail of AK fire.

 Nevertheless, his sacrifice rattles the Spetsnaz in the compound. They never really regain their composure for the rest of the skirmish.

The Soviets continue to use fire and movement to cover the objectives.

In desperation, they try to make a lunge for that ammo box; this solder was lucky to survive that one. The Soviet sergeant was not so lucky.

The Soviets are still trying to outflank the Mujahideen, and are gunning them down in huge numbers. If we had not added a new rule (see below) the skirmish would have ended about now.. 

 Meanwhile, the two snipers have been having their own private battle.

 At last the Mujahideen are starting to dominate the open space containing all the objectives.

When suddenly, and most unexpectedly, a herd of cows goes wandering by. This opportunity is used by a Spetsnaz to 'snatch' a wounded chopper pilot.

The cows let him get the pilot back to base. 1 point to the Soviet union.

A wounded solder is also dragging a box of ammunition back to the BTR, but being wounded doesn't make it before the battle is over.

At the last moment a brave Mujahideen dashes through a hail of fire to claim the main objective for a Mujahideen win. 

Another great game, and we all agree that OSC has a great feel to it and is enjoyable at the same time.

We realised that for this game the points system wasn't working as the Mujahideen at level 3 and 4 only had one extra soldier. But we really didn't want to mess the simple point systems, so what we did is add a new Command Action.

New Action; Call for reinforcements.

A commander can select one solder from the dead pile. He then rolls a six sided dice, if the result is equal to or greater than the level of the solder, he is placed on the friendly deployment point. If the result is less than the level of the soldier no one turn up.

Our rational was that the lower the level of soldier, the more likely he was to have some friends nearby, while better a solder gets, the more likely he is to be behind enemy lines and cut off from support.

We agreed this fixed the point system neatly and I think we will have this a permanent house rule.

I hope the evil bear doesn't mind too much.