Mbote Government Communique Released

In response to the blatantly false statement issued by the propaganda minister of Zubuto - Dr Spin Goballs - through the fiction of a 'home affairs correspondent', the Mbote government released the following statement.

"It was with incredulity that the 'story' created by Dr Goballs was received here in Daijones, the glorious capital of Mbote.

"Complete fiction from start to finish, this story omits the fact that the heroic Mbote Defence Force had been forced to stop the unprovoked invasion of sacred Mbote soil by the spineless minions of puppet dictator DuDu.

"Arriving first on the scene, the militia Layland Regiment was able to halt heavy armoured elements of the so-called "People's" Zubutu Army (PZA).  From this strong foundation, the armour of the Mbote Hoki-Koki Brigade drove back the vile invaders. Unfortunately, outclassed in equipment by PZA, the heroic Hoki-Koki suffered several setbacks in their efforts. However, the inspired leadership of tribal King Anndi, commander of the Hoki-Koki, drove the PZA butchers again and again off the sacred soil of Mbote.

destroyed ZPA armour

"On the very cusp of their victory, the vehicles of the Layland Regiment were destroyed in a dastardly ambush by Zubutoan attack helicopters supplied by DuDu's superpower puppet masters, proving once again that DuDu knows his minions are no match for the heroes of Mbote without outside help bought with the fruits of the Zubutoan people's labours.

"At this point it seemed that the Zubutoan criminals would be able to break through the glorious defence of the Hoki-Koki Brigade's armoured elements and pillage the valley of the river Urehavinalarf - home of the majestic spaghetti plantations of Mbote.

Mbote spaghetti harvest

"In a stroke of brilliance, King Anndi timed the arrival of the infantry component of the Hoki-Koki Brigade perfectly and their renowned anti-helicopter weaponry and training, led to the cowards in the ZPA helicopters to flee back to their homes.

ZPA helicopter that came too close to the Hoki-Koki

"With Mobote soil protected and the PZA armour all destroyed, victory for the Mbote people was assured.

"It is understood that the so-called victory parade in Mpangi was only possible because the PZA tanks wrecks were towed from the field in the dead of night, painted, and then towed through the streets of the den of iniquity that is Mpangi under the rule of the puppet dictator DuDu.

"We have learned from this unfortunate incident and will be upgrading the equipment of the Hoki-Koki heroes to dissuade the puppet DuDu and his minions from repeating their evil actions."

HAIL THE VICTORIOUS MDF!

VICTORY TO MBOTE!

Peter Pig's AK47 (1)

I played my first game of Peter Pig's AK47 Republic rules for fictional conflicts in post-colonial Africa last night.  It was put on by Jim of Jim's Wargames Workbench who provided all the figures and terrain, and he has put a short AAR with pictures in a post on his blog.

I've wanted to play AK47 for years (I bought the latest edition of the rules at Salute), but not had the opportunity to do so before last night, so many thanks to Jim!!

We didn't play the latest edition last night - we used the older edition available as a pdf, so what follows may not be relevant to the newer edition ...

The rules require you to provide 5 units in your force, but then randomise the number of them that arrive on the table. This is a 'nice' touch adding to the unpredictability of the game, but the chance of the rest of your force arriving seems, to me, to be too small. It meant that on our attacking side- the Mbote Defence Force (MDF), only 4 of our 5 units actually got on the table and 1 of them arrived on the last turn, while for Jim's defenders - the Zubuto Army of the People (ZAP) - only 3 turned up.

With the added complication of changes to your units being possible in the pre-game 'political' phase it seems that you have to prepare a lot of figures that potentially won't be used ...

Personally, I would like to see the chance of units arriving increasing as more turns pass; I'll try a bit of google-fu and see if there are some house rules about this somewhere.

Anyway, despite this whining, an AK47 force is definitely being added to the project list! I need to read the rules to work out what it might be though - recreating the charge of the light brigade in 'technicals' does have a certain appeal!