SOMALIA 1983

As wargamers we’ve all been there. That new project starts with reading a book, seeing an article, watching a TV show or as in my case, watching a film. I hadn’t got around to watching Ridley Scott’s rendition of the incident in Somali in 1993, ‘Black Hawk Down’ but then I got given a copy of it as a Christmas present. One watch through and I just knew that it was going to be the next wargames project….

After searching for information about the event I needed to find a source of figures. Deciding this would obviously be best played as a skirmish game, it had to be either 20mm or 25mm. Searching magazines & the Internet pulled up very few options, in 20mm there was Liberation and in 25mm there were Britannia, Assault Group & Devil Dog Design. Simply because of the wider range available I went for 25mm and in the main for Britannia. One phone call and a week later a box full of metal & resin arrived. I proceeded to clean and paint the Rangers first, a dozen or so is a lot less daunting then nearly fifty Somali’s! After a few months of painting off and on I had the US forces finished and a small group of militia. Several months later I had a sizeable amount of Somali’s finished plus a pair of technicals for them.

At this point I started thinking about scenery and rules. Scenery first, I had a few suitable adobe type buildings and added some from Monolith & Snapdragon that I got from various shows. Barricades & clutter were also added from various sources. These sat in a box for a while…… Modern 25mm buildings are surprisingly very rare, I may have to build some for future games.

Rules were tricky, I looked about but didn’t find anything that felt right. Then out of the blue, Flagship Games posted an article on their website of a game they ran that was exactly what I was after. Not only that but they had the rules as a free download!

It seems the rules have now gone from their site, luckily I have a copy of them here together with the record sheets.

So there I was, around twenty more figures plus scenery to paint and I’d be ready. Then Steve Jones, (having forgotten his club game) said to me, ‘Fancy running that game next week?’ The immediate moment of panic passed and I agreed if he dealt with the rules I would spend the week completing all the figures and scenery. I’ve never painted so much in such a short time…

Fellow Blockbuster member, Captain General, brought a selection of scenery as well and the table was set up. To add atmosphere we had the film running on a laptop. The really spooky thing was how the action on the table seemed to be in sync with the film…..

The US forces deployed along the main street with the crashed Blackhawk at one end, their mission to get to the crash site and secure a perimeter. The mobs of militia & civilians came from all directions. Much hilarity was had by all some mobs making a beeline for the grunts and others dithering around and finally slinking off! One player made us all laugh with his dud grenades, or did he just panic and forget to pull the pins?

At one point a vicious mob of bloodthirsty Somalis caught a Delta team just as they exited a house, it turned out they had more friends than they thought as Rangers firing all possible weapons and throwing grenades eliminated the mob leaving the way clear to escape!

Mobs appeared and faded away with the US forces slowly making their way to the crash site. Players began to panic as they realised they would have to sprint to the evac zone with time running out, Air support was called up, time after time, to try and keep the ever swelling mobs at bay. Luckily the delta teams picked off every RPG so only the patter of small arms fire was ever heard against the copter.
In the end they were close enough to call a US victory but at the cost of several casualties.

A very enjoyable game was had by all! The noise and tension in the club kept everyone riveted to the tabletop action, as the turns passed faster and faster and the rules were stretched to the limit.