Bad Spelling - Introduction

I've played quite a number of solo skirmish campaigns: 5 Leagues (the amazons), 5 Parsecs, Rangers of Shadowdeep & also this one: Bad Spelling, a Cold War gone hot campaign.

The rules

A campaign comes in two parts: the tabletop game and the campaign game.  In most of the examples I've mentioned, the two are in the same book.  However, I've played campaigns that need two separate sets of rules to be combined into the campaign, for example Joe Lengan's fine Platoon Forward campaign and scenario generator with FUBAR one-page rules on the tabletop.

I love the campaign and RPG elements of Five Men in Normandy (5MIN), but the battle on the table felt too random.  Turn after turn of dice to be rolled, with no effect.  Much of the shooting caused flinch or bail results, so the recipients fall back, then recover and move up again.  Maybe my die rolls were unlucky, but it didn't feel much like gunfire.  So I've tried several experiments to mix 5MIN's campaigns with some other tabletop rules.

Bad Spelling is one of those experiments, using 5MIN's campaign rules with One Hour Skirmish Wargames (OHSW) on the table.

Many of the campaign tables in 5MIN need to be reworked for this.  The force tables for Soviets and British are new.  Many of the specialist gear and character skills provide effects in the 5MIN combar rules that do not have equivalents in OHSW, for example special abilities that apply to 5MIN's "scurry" turns.  I've done a lazy update, changing any results that were used in the campaign while ignoring any that haven't happened.  Eventually it may become a full rewrite.

The weapons at this date are close enough to the OHSW rules for Cold War.  I've done some rough work on stats and point values for modern AFVs based on the ones that appear in OHSW and the stats they get in WRG rules, but they are not likely to appear in the campaign for a while (if ever).

The campaign

Bad Spelling itself is a fictional town, 5km from Paderborn where the British 20 Armoured Brigade was based.  The name comes from the spa waters (Bad means bath) at the source of the river Spelle, with a grand spa hotel at the site.  There is a BAOR signals training establishment in the town, along with a firing range and a British army golf club.

There is a fascinating discussion of how WW3 might have gone if it started in 1983 after NATO's joint exercise "Able Archer", including a full timeline, by Giobastia here [click].  I'm using it as the background to the campaign.

As big events unfold, a few signals personnel and base guards are left behind in Bad Spelling.  They should be fighting, but are still waiting for orders to rejoin their units.

The initial group of Brits left behind consists of:

• Lt Beresford (with his dog, Charlie) - Leader(1) - white collar professional just here with the TA, but seen battle before (Aden & North Yemen 64-70 before demob)
• Pvt "Dangerous" Davies with L1A1 SLR - Guts, from a mining family. Inexperienced
• Pvt "Eddie the eagle" Edwards with L1A1 SLR. Inexperienced
• Pvt "Doomed" Fraser with L1A1 SLR - Guts, grew up on a farm. Inexperienced
• Pvt "Huey" Green with L1A1 SLR. Been in battle before (Falklands)
• L.Cpl Adams with L7A2 GPMG. Inexperienced
• Cpl "Bomber" Harris (loader) with a Sterling SMG. Been to hell & back in Ulster & Falklands (1982). Choice of skill: Lucky

L to R: Beresford, Dangerous, Eddie, Fraser, Huey, Adams, Bomber

Group morale: 2

3 people that the group have met:

• Cpt Johns, the Company commander
• Sgt Knight, REME
• Lotte Meierling, a refugee from Hannover

Until next time, health & happiness to you all.