Edinburgh Wargames
Modern Brushfire Wars
From Belukar to Bush
The last thing I really needed was a new period. I was suckered into it by my friends at Osprey Publishing, who sent me a copy of Force on Force, their new modern skirmish rules, published in association with Ambush Alley games. Now, I've never been a great fan of skirmish games, as they either seem to be too complicated, or too tedious. Any rules set where it takes three turns to throw a grenade (one turn spent pulling the pin) is probably not going to flow well on the tabletop. I was therefore delighted to find that Force on Force was different, and while fairly "dice heavy", the system was fast, slick and well thought out. As the rules have to sell in the United States then Osprey are concentrating on producing scenario books for conflicts our colonial friends have been embroiled in, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Somalia. I've played Vietnam games before, and I even had a USMC platoon, but it never really fired me with much enthusiasm.
Then, when I was casting around for a post-war period, I picked up a copy of Brushfire Wars by Michal Howard, which covers the many post-1945 conflicts the British Army has been involved in. Sure, the book ended before the Falklands (1982), but that is too modern for me - I had friends whose ships were lost down there, or who were injured. Similarly I find Iraq and Afghanistan a little too close to home for a wargame period. Therefore I dipped into Brushfire Wars to find a period, and I came up with two - the Malay Emergency (1948-60) and The Borneo Confrontation (1962-66). I bought my figures from Eureka - the Vietnam era Australians doubling for the British Commonwealth forces, and African ZAPLA guerillas and "Mysorians" becoming my Indonesians. Grubby Tanks have just re-released Britannia Miniatures / Inkerman Castings Malayan range, so they're my source for my Malay communists.
Simultaneously, my principal gaming buddy Dougie Trail picked up a copy of the rules, and was inspired by the beautiful sculpts from Eureka's new range for the Rhodesian War (1964-79) to plump for his own modern period. That meant that my Borneo period and Dougie's Rhodesian one both "came on line" at the same time. As Force on Force games are very quick - you can usually play a couple of scraps during a normal club night, then we tend to play one game from each period in the same evening.
Before you ask, "belukar" is a Malay word for thick impenetrable secondary jungle... or in our case plastic aquatic plants!
For more on each of these two modern conflicts, click on the picture button below
Malaya & Borneo The Rhodesian Bush War
Force on Force Review
Borneo & Malaya games: Journal 59 , Journal 60 & Journal 67
Rhodesia Games: Journal 59
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Colonial The Great War Second World War Modern Brushfire Wars