*Lt Col Nick Vaux, CO 42 Commando April 1982
Well its been a while since I was last in here and much has happened since my last visit, both personally and in the world at large.
However, now I have a bit more time and commitment I would like to start chronicalling a gaming project that has long intreged me, but never seemed achievible for various reasons up till now. That is, as you may gather from the title above, the 1982 war between Britain and Argentina for the contol of the Falkland Islands/Malvinas.
So why that conflict?
- Well I have my own reasons for having a reasonably keen interest in the conflict, but it's long enough ago (where did those 38 years go??) to now be regarded as history. I don't care to game current or recent conflicts as to me they are purhaps a bit too close to today's news headlines.
- The Falklands conflict was fought between two fairly evenly matched adversaries and potentially encompasses land, sea and air forces. Both Britain and Argentina only deployed limited forces during the conflict.
- There is a lot of information available about the war online, and much has been written about the subject as well, from a general as well as a gaming prospective.
Firstly I will say that while I was born in the UK I have much respect for all those who took part in the conflict on both sides. Eventually the islands were retaken, but it was a very near run thing indeed for both the British and Argentinians.
While the group I normally game with are a fine body of men we already play many different periods using many different rulesets. Add to that the fact that many of them have limited (or less) interest in anything that occurred after 1980 and my pool of potentially available players drops down to one - me...though I am sure if I can put my intended project together a few will be (hopefully) more than keen to play. Hence I am designing this project towards solo play, though it can be also be played by two or more players if required.
While I intend to experiment with the land battles using a modern adaptation of Too Fat Lardies "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" WW2 rules I have yet to come across a set of company level modern rules that I really like, so I am setting aside the land based side of the conflict for the moment.
Even before the British can get ashore at San Carlos they must first get to the islands and run the guantlet of the Argentine Navy (Armada de la República Argentina or ARA) and Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Argentina, or FAA) who are stoutly defending their newly won territory. So it makes sense to concentrate on the naval and aerial battles first.
For the naval side of things rules wise I have gone for Shipwreck by Vandering Publishing, a fairly detailed but easily played set of modern naval rules. The main selling point for these to me was the 14 or so Falkland War scenarios that they have available (at very reasonable rates) at the Wargames Vault.
I also have a copy of GDW's 1991 "South Atlantic War" which was originally intended for use with Larry Bond's complex "Harpoon" ruleset, but its fairly easy to adapt the scenarioes to other rules.
Model wise I will be using my preferred 1/3000th scale using Navwar stuff as they make virtually every ship needed to game any naval actions you need to portray.
For the aerial encounters I am trying Flames over the Falklands from Tumbling Dice Games, which are part of their Wings at War rule series. I have a mixture of 1/600th planes on order from Picoarmor and Tumbling Dice to slug it out in the air.
So let the games begin.....
