I. Introduction
For those of you who have played Gators! and would like to put some spin on the ball,
I offer you a variation on the opposing force (OPFOR).
The basic OPFOR used in Gators!, Airborne!, and Rangers! is based on
American equipment from the 1950's and 60's.
These new additions to the OPFOR are based on 1980's-vintage weapons from the Soviet Union,
and they pack a lot more of a wallop. Most of these vehicles were exported to other nations,
so your scenarios can still be based on brushfire wars anywhere in the world.
I haven't written any scenarios, but this document includes a few general suggestions.
This new OPFOR provides vehicles and aircraft to replace their equivalent units in the basic
OPFOR. You will still need that OPFOR to provide soldiers, light vehicles, and counters.
The new units follow the standard rules for the game without modification.
II. The Units
If a vehicle can carry a "special team," that means a mortar team, Dragon team, or Stinger team.
A heavy-weapons platoon is equivalent to an infantry platoon.
- BRDM is an amphibious scout car with two machine guns in its turret.
One of the two is heavy enough to pierce light armor.
- BMP-2 is an amphibious armored personnel carrier that might be the most versatile
unit in the game. It's armed with a 30mm cannon that can be used against aircraft, and can carry
one Ground-Attack Marker (an AT-5 antitank missile), which can be used once and not reloaded.
Three of them can carry one infantry platoon, or one can carry a special team.
- T-72 is a fairly powerful tank. Its gun is equivalent to an M1A1 Abrams cannon,
but its armor is not as good.
- PT-76 is a light amphibious tank with a 76mm cannon.
- Mi-24 Helicopter is the famous Hind armored gunship. It can carry a substantial
load of bombs and rockets; if it carries no Air-Attack Markers, two of them can carry one
infantry platoon, or one can move 2 special teams. It isn't drawn as an armored unit because,
if it was, no ground unit could shoot at it.
- MI-8 Helicopter is a heavy-lift chopper. It can carry a cannon or jeep as a sling load,
or it can carry an infantry platoon or four special teams.
- SU-25 Frogfoot is an armor-plated strike plane that can drop quite a load of bombs
on a target, and can also defend itself against air attacks. It is drawn as unarmored for the
same reason as the Mi-24.
The counter sheet also includes Armor-type Air-Attack Markers and Ground-Attack Markers.
The Ground-Attacks are for BMP-2's. The OPFOR never had an anti-armor attack from the air
before; only the Mi-24 and SU-25 can use these.
Some of the new air units are better defense ratings than the other air units in the game.
How this will affect ground-to-air and air-to-air combat, I'm not sure.
III. Setting Up the Game
At present, I have provided no special scenarios for this new OPFOR. Here are a few general
suggestions for using them.
- Use the new units in the existing scenarios to make things tougher for the Americans.
The T-72 replaces the M48 tank, the BMP-2 fills in for the M113, the Jeep A's and R's become
BRDM's, the Helo's get replaced by MI-24's, and the A-4's and/or Fighters turn into SU-25's.
Don't use all six of any of them, or the Americans won't have a chance.
- Because so many of the Soviet vehicles are amphibious, this suggests a river-crossing attack.
- Or how about a nation in turmoil, facing both US intervention and a simultaneous
OPFOR invasion across the beaches? Perhaps the OPFOR has to sieze a coastal city,
and then can bring in a given amount of reinforcements each turn through that seaport.
- Consider a 3-player scenario -- the USA, the locals using the standard OPFOR,
and the locals' unfriendly neighbors with the new units, with some
kind of pen mark on their infantry and similar units to tell them apart from the locals.
Say the neighbors are looking for an excuse to move in on the locals, the Americans want
to prevent this, and the locals don't want either of them around. Kind of like Harold
Coyle's book, Sword Point, about a USSR invasion of Iran and an American counter-invasion.
- For the ultimate, combine the last two ideas. The Marines invade an island from one side,
the new OPFOR swims ashore from the other side, and they have to race each other to secure the
capital city in the middle.
The local army gets sandwiched between them, and can win by delaying them enough.
IV. Game Tables
| Player 2 Units |
|---|
| Unit | Qty | Type | Attack | Atk Range | Defend | Move |
|---|
| BRDM | 6 | Amphib | 1/0/0 | 1 | 1A | 4/1 |
| BMP-2 | 6 | Amphib | 1/1/1 | 1 | 1A | 3/1 |
| T-72 Tank | 6 | Land | 1/3/0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| PT-76 Tank | 6 | Amphib | 1/2/0 | 1 | 1 | 3/1 |
| Mi-24 Helicopter | 4 | Air | varies | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Mi-8 Helicopter | 4 | Air | 1/0/0 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| SU-25 Jet | 4 | Air | varies | 1 | 2 | 8 |
- The three numbers for "Attack" are anti-soft targets, anti-hard targets, and anti-air.
- In "Defend," an "A" means an armored target.
- If two numbers are given in "Move," the first is for land movement and the second is for
water movement. All other move limits are for the unit's normal medium of movement (land for
land units, air for air units, water for ships).