AK47 Republic!
Jonathan hosted a fictional modern Africa wargame using ‘AK47 Republic’ rules from Peter Pig, and his delightful 15mm Peter Pig figures, on Friday 10 April.
The two sides consisted of ‘Colonial’ forces on the defensive (Doug, Patrick and me), and revolutionary ‘Dictatorship’ forces (Paul, Scotty, Rob and Ian) on the offensive.
The terrain comprised open ground with two villages, a crossroads, a few hills and some woods. Both sides rolled for ‘political manoeuvres’ before the game, which led to various upgrades to troops based on dice rolls such as ‘crackdown on dissent’ and ‘appropriating World Bank money’ (!). This certainly added flavour to the proceedings!
The Dictatorship side placed 3 objectives on the table (the two villages and the crossroads). Their points value was kept secret. The Colonial side picked which side of the table the attackers would come on. Both sides rolled in three of their five available units.
The Game
The Dictatorship side advanced on both flanks.
The Colonial side were garrisoning both villages, with the armoured cars behind in reserve.
Patrick moved up the infantry on the right and the armoured cars headed for the woods on the flank.
Rob and Ian advanced on the Dictatorship left with infantry, including in trucks.
Rob soon opened fire on the Colonial riflemen with his own rifles and MGs. Patrick fired back. Both sides lost a stand – firing was simultaneous. An additional Colonial infantry stand was pinned.
Next turn, Paul advanced with the Toyota technicals and his infantry on the Dictatorship right flank, heading for the village held by Doug’s infantry.
Ian debussed his infantry on the Dictatorship left
While Patrick pushed up the armoured cars and Colonial infantry
Rob kept moving, his infantry now at the edge of the wood and soon facing Patrick’s riflemen
Scotty advanced in the centre with his infantry, through the wood opposite Doug’s village
Patrick now moved the armoured cars onto the hill on the Colonial flank. They had a commanding view of Ian’s infantry…
But the vehicles were also sitting ducks. Ian promptly knocked out one armoured car with a LMG!
Scotty fired from the wood on the Dictatorship centre-right on the large Colonial infantry garrison in the facing village. Despite using a special rule of +3 for firing this turn, he only managed to pin 2 Colonial infantry stands
Paul’s technicals blazed away on the same village but missed. ‘Deadly Doug’ was rolling high saves tonight!
Rob’s recoilless rifle fired on Patrick’s armoured car but missed. However two Dictatorship rifle stands in the woods killed another Colonial infantry stand.
Patrick’s armoured cars responded and killed two opposing infantry stands, including one of Ian’s recoilless rifles. He also added two pins to 2 further rifle squads on the Dictatorship side.
The Colonials were having a good game. Doug destroyed 2 of Scotty’s infantry stands with fire from the village on the Colonial left.
With the Dictatorship failing to roll in reinforcements (including tanks) and infantry movement too short to advance in the time available, it was clear that the Dictatorship was struggling and would not get anywhere near their objectives. But Rob and Ian kept moving, and Patrick withdrew his armoured cars from the hill.
Scotty tried a last-ditch attack from the woods on Doug’s village, but Doug again saved almost everything. Still, Paul destroyed one of Doug’s MGs in the village with technical fire. Despite Rob’s continued advance into the wood, Doug fired back on Scotty and killed another of his rifle stands with Colonial recoilless rifle fire.
We had run out of time, and the Colonials had triumphed!
Conclusion
This was our first trial of AK47 Republic rules. In sum, the consensus was that the rules were straightforward and well worth trying again. While the movement distances were short (and could be tweaked), the Dictatorship plan of attack (splitting their forces and not approaching the objectives more directly with concentrated firepower) was not optimal, and they were unlucky not to roll in their tanks – which could have made a difference. Having no artillery also made the two villages formidable strongpoints. These were circumstantial effects however, and the game itself was enjoyable. Jonathan said he hadn’t play tested the rules on this occasion, but it was more a case of simply running out of time. However, the figures were great and we had a good laugh. Thanks to Jonathan and all attendees!
