War of Insurgency a review

The conflicts since the last lustrum has been a conflictive focus because some of the wargames feel the fights are very near of their common life, and the massacres and crimes are a reason to start a row... I can remember when I asked an English friend for help about the Chechen wars trying to learn something about them and he answered me that this war was a massacre of innocent people and that I was a nutcase for trying to play something like that... well I think that during the WWII died more people, and the Fascism is a danger still in our lives... but there is nobody complaining about the Nazi army from FOW or Battlegrounds... From my point of view, each war is a mistake and must be not happened, but I am a wargamer and I love to wargame, not the war; I love to read and to re-enact the actions of the Chechens, Serbians or MPLA, FLEC or ELN, not for their politic ideals, but for the experience of solving that tactical situation. These situations in which the players do not know to differentiate between the game and the reality, they make me to consider if they really are qualified to play wargames...

 Well, after this little introduction that probably will cost me a pair of friends, I would like to introduce you a new wargame published by First Command Wargames, title “Wars of Insurgency” from the veteran writer Mike Demana, probably knowledge by other books like Song of Drums and Tomahawk or For King or Empress. 

  In this book, Demana sets out in 40 pages his rules for playing skirmish conflicts in decolonized countries from 1950 to the present, all raised without names of nations and with generic factions. Although on the cover and many of the photos reference is made to Africa, the regulation can be used to play any small-scale conflict of the last 70 years.

  The profiles of the troops distinguish between infantry and vehicles, and these in turn establish three ranks according to their experience: Militia, Regular and Professional. There are no rules for tanks or helicopters, but for armored vehicles, trucks and jeeps.

  The professionalism of the troops not only affects their aim with the weapons, but facilitates their dispersion in the field of battle, morale and reach of their arms. Otherwise, the fighting was resolved with an attack roll and a defense roll, releasing a certain number of dice.

The rules present campaign rules, which allow our faction to rise from being an Obscure Movement, to Rising Faction, Regional Power, Major Power Broker, Faction Assumes Control. Increasing power allows factions to better their restraints and gain special rules that make them more powerful.

  Factions, not armies as they usually do not require more than 30 miniatures per side, will be organized in four or more units of between 5 and 12 troops. There are 6 factions, which have different restrictions and special rules: People's Popular Front, Colonial Power / Settlers, Armed Force of a Nation, Religious Movement, Superpower Backed Client Forces and Tribal Militia.

  In this aspect the rules could be criticized for losing their originality, since the experienced players of AK47 see in these factions as a copy of the rules of Peter Pig AK-47 Republic, here is already open space for personal opinion .. because from my point of view, those faction names are so gnérico and represent so clearly the conflicting factions, which would be like accusing Tolkien of being unoriginal for using the word Goblin because it already existed in the legends ... This game has a marked political character, since the factions involved are markedly political ... damn! most of them struggle to seize the power of a country.

   Although, the rulebook has rules for vehicles, not only for jeeps and trucks, but also for armoured vehicles, wheeled and trucked, armed with HMG and recoilless rifles. There are rules for embarking and disembarking. There are no rules for helicopters becuase this is a very low level combats, but I think that they could be implemented easily.
 
 On the other hand, the campaign system, with the special rules also reminiscent of those of AK47 but are presented in a much less random way, although we are not assured of success in applying them, for example, Fanaticism will allow us to overcome automatically a morale check per battle, but Carry out Atrocities may provoke us to terrorize the enemy, or motivate them to be more aggressive against us, or the Magic Rituals will help our troops only for certain moments, but when they lose their effects, catastrophic...

In summary, this regulation represents a great choice to play small skirmishes with thirty troops, which we can then climb with his older brother AK-47 Republic. The combat system is simple and easy to understand with few modifiers that are easily memorized.

  On the negative side, because some improvement has to be proposed, perhaps the fact that there are no rules for melee seems to be incomplete. Although the author told me that he did not explain them because they occur on a very rare occasion, if you need them here you have them:

“simply have figures roll their base "Small Arms" attack dice. Defense dice will likely be base, as well, unless the tactical situation would give an advantage (like one is defending a barricade to attack)”.

 I recommend to buy it because it is very suitable to represent any skirmish of the modern period in a easy, fast and flavored style.