Notes and game play from my solo play of Light Division. Not to be confused with the ongoing Vassal play:
3W Edition of Joe Balkoski’s Light Division from 1989.
This production even for its time, is riddled with horrible art decisions, poor editing, and errata that if not caught changes the game [city hexes missing, VP locations missing etc, etc etc.
Despite that there is a pretty interesting system here that tries to capture the kinetics of modern combat on a 24 hour scale.
It uses a series of Operations that allow you to activate a stack or a single unit to conduct tasks, of varying nature and cost. These operation however a divined by a 1d10 roll with no real minimum….With a 5 turn scenario, shit can go sideways faster than a Mullah can say Allah Akbar. The Iranians need a minimum of 5 activations a turn to really get to and into the fight. The USA can get by if they have to with 3 or 4. But even using a Ship asset is going to cost you one… A real well-supported attack will use up nearly all your Ops for a turn. A very interesting command and control mechanism. Meanwhile, the other interesting challenge is stacking. Mandatory at all times. Such that air transport has to be sequenced just so or they cant land!
Overall an interesting experience. We might be playing opposed with the Soviet Forces this time on vassal. I’ll be sure to post up opposed play notes if and when it happens.
Scale:
1 day turns, across 1.6km hexes.
11 hexes have VP locations, and there are 4 VP’s in the interior.
Turn 1
Iranian air attacks at 1:3 NE.
US rolls 3 for operations [Ops]
US lands 22nd MEU and A-1Tank adjacent to Bandar Abbas.
They activate the Task Force.
1M 2/7 & Light MEF conduct an amphibious assault. Which ends up being a 8:1 attack +1 = a D2 result.
They pay one operation for Naval support and for the 3rd Op move 1/75th rangers.
Iran gains 5 activations – 4 for Turn 1..yep some sort of surprise penalty.
This beachhead will serve as a supply source for us now.
6 RVGD advance, end of Iranian turn.
In the 2nd Ops cycle of turn 1 the US activates a taskforce, using one of 3 Ops they use one for a tactical move of A-C /175th, the 3rd used for a hasty attack. 1st Marine 22nd MEU + the Tank company attack and take Nakhoda.
The US goes first again with just four Ops.
The aircraft is fiery dozens of F-14s are torn up the Iranian lower level tech and training, fail against the US F15 & F-16 fighters and pilots.
11MEU + B Tk sealift in. 82nd Airborne lands 3 Bns. 2 in Bandar Abbas airfield, and 1 at Cheju. US Air CAS kill off one Iranian unit.
The US moves TF Dagger to Bandar. They assault the Beachhead earning a D1. To be fair the Iranians should have used Air Support but we forgot.
In the Iranian turn, they move as many units as possible with the 5 actions and also conduct a hasty attack. They inflict a d1 result on the 12/2/75 company, even with A-6 support for the US.
End turn 2
Next cycle the US lands at TAB and captures the port with support from naval assets.
In turn three the Iranians roll horribly for the initiative, all their units flip, and they get zero actions. The US gets just one and they land 13 MEU + C Tk. 2nd phase sees no activations for the Iranians OR the US.
In Turn 4, the Iranians flip again and get zero activations.
Elements of 325th drive deep to capture the Northern most objective in our plan.
2/7 and B Tank Co plan to take out Silkworm #1 next turn.
The US steam roll on a small handful of activations. With just 3 total activations left the US cant attack enough hexes to get a decent win other than minor victory, and the Iranians are still too far away to ever get into the fight. End turn 4.
Game Over