FireForce
The Horror of Guerrilla Warfare in Rhodesia
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Rhodesia
vs Mozambique
January
- March 1978
3
Commando, Rhodesian Light Infantry
On
November 11, 1965, Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith unilaterally declared the
country independent from British rule. Over the next fifteen years, an armed
resistance campaign by several liberation groups, Marxist-socialist in nature,
grew steadily until the entire country was embroiled in a brutal "Bush
War".
FireForce,
a method of combat developed by the Rhodesians and perfected by the Rhodesian Light
Infantry, involved troops being helicoptered or parachuted into an area
immediately after a guerrilla sighting had been detected. The combat strain on
an individual soldier was almost unbelievable, for the Rhodesians, who were
always desperately short of ground troops to deal with guerrilla incursions,
sometimes parachuted the same men into as many as three contacts a day.
Please
keep in mind that although the situation is authentic, the individual scenarios
are fictional. Most fireforce contacts involved a tiny number of troops and are
not well suited for gaming with Steel Panthers. The chosen scenarios are meant
to represent the major actions that a unit might see while the minor actions
are left unplayed. The intent of the campaign is to give the player a
highly-trained, elite force to experiment with the tactics and techniques of
the fireforce concept.
Gameplay
Notes:
1.
The player is given a reinforced company consisting of two platoons of
parachute infantry, one platoon of heliborne infantry, and a supporting heavy
weapons platoon.
2.
Few support points are generally available in individual battles. Often,
Rhodesian Air Force spotter planes and K-Car light support aircraft will loiter
in the area to provide direct support.
3.
The enemy consists mainly of poorly equipped, highly motivated light
guerrillas. Expect a few surprises as the campaign progresses.
4.
Use the weapons platoon to suppress enemy infantry while manuevering the
regular infantry platoons in for the kill. This campaign is a good place to
learn basic infantry tactics.
5.
Enemy artillery is rare but extremely devastating to infantry in the open.
6.
Rebuild points will be few. Be very careful not to incur unacceptable losses.
Sources
and extra information:
FireForce
by Chris Cocks.
Mukiwa:
A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin.
SPMBT ver 2.01 Campaign
Complexity:
Medium
Unit
Types: Company level
Fixed
Force
Rhodesia
is the human player.
Campaign
Design:Travis Hilterbrand (travis_hilterbrand@yahoo.com)
SPMBT v2 plus the "v2 supplement" must be installed!