(Sent out by Critical Hit Games)
SHOCK & FLAW: AFGHANISTAN EDITION
One of the main reasons wargaming is fun is the research that results. If you consider the light that can go on when you buy a historical module, consider the immersion that designing and development calls for. Another word for that event is FUN. Flat out, fun.
Another word that comes to mind is "perspective." Obviously, the average man on the street is likely not assessing what he hears about the current conflict in Ukraine, or the many other hot-spots in the world today, based on much more than what he read on the back of a cereal box. If that. Our audience is different, repeatedly proven to the publisher via private correspondence.
Let's run down the Soviet version of "Shock & Awe", circa December 1979:
A. Soviets launch impressive invasion, seize Kabul, Bagram and other important locales. This is the SHOCK portion. Perhaps some experienced "AWE."
B. A century earlier, British General Sir Donald Stewart said (of the country), "I am in difficulty to know what to do with the country now we have got it." What followed for the Soviets is the FLAW portion.
1. Soviets relied on their own version of the Afghan Army, the DRA – 100,000 man force melts away by 70% and the rest would rather exchange religious tracts with their fellows, than fight them. Fail.
2. Soviets can't keep the roads, supply routes open after air-lifting troops to various outposts. Fail.
3. Soviets try to just LEVEL every village, move in to mop up. Fail.
4. Soviet soldiers WILL NOT EXIT their APCs, like rolling bunkers. Mujahideen can creep away easily to fight another day. Fail.
5. Soviets hand out ribbons, like those attached to Iron Crosses late in World War 2 — to TRUCK DRIVERS running the road gauntlet. Fail.
6. Soviets try to interdict caravan routes in from Pakistan, Mujahideen simply hear choppers way off, "would fall to the ground and cover themselves with their patou (earth-colored cloaks)." and "…Soviet helicopters flew over (his) group's position at an altitude of only one hundred feet without detecting them. One on the scene report states, "a man standing still or squatting just ten yards away was nearly invisible." Ultra low tech defeat of the Hind gunship. Fail.
7. Soviets leave, but film nice closing footage as they pull out.
The Soviets were forced to hunker in their firebases, only supplied by helicopter. Our readers would be forgiven if any of the above sounds familiar, looking back or forwards.
In terms of the impending NAT Sets and the expansion, "Graveyard" –
NAT_Enh_Pak_2_web.jpg
… the orders of battle, soldier and vehicle-wise, pretty straightforward. Our Battalion has been pushing a lot of this 'iron' – in cardboard – for a while now, with some additions. The threat of the Hind helicopter, a weapons-system without an answer, really began to be solved via sustained fire from NSV and other 12.7mm heavy machine-guns, before the infamous Stinger MANPAD was put into the hands of the Mujahideen.
From where I sit, however, the most notable and remarkable similarity is the existence of the isolated firebase. Mainly, if not only supplied by air. What is also notable, IMO, is how attacks on villages, once the Soviets moved operations out of the main cities and airfields like Bagram, would consist, reportedly, of 'flattening everything', then moving in to seize ground. That approach, not unknown to combatants in modern times, seemed to be absent, especially in the first 100 days of the current conflict, aka Eastern Front 2022.
With a well-read audience, the rhetorical question regarding what was learned from the Soviet experience in Afghanistan, and put into successful use following it – will be left to the Battalion and their military history reading AND the U.S. Vs. Taliban scenarios in the modules. You can count on our own conclusions, communicated via the tactical-level metaphor.
(This is part of the announcement of their 1980-2021 Nationalities Pack for Afghanistan. Thought that the bullet points would interest some folks.)
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