What's Different in the Falklands

[Jeff Conner]

Gentlemen:

One of the most obvious things you will notice on the Falklands maps is that there are no forests. The climate in the Falklands is very wet and very windy and not conducive to growing trees. There are a few around some of the inhabited areas that have been planted and tended, but there are no forest hexes on the game maps. This means that you will have to pay more attention to and use dead ground more then you might have in some of the other games in the series. Any of the daylight scenarios are going to be a tough advance. Use your smoke judiciously and don't forget about your WP grenades.

The open nature of the terrain explains why so many of the battles fought during the conflict took place at night. I changed the time per turn for night scenarios to ten minutes per turn rather than the standard five as every thing takes longer and goes slower in the dark. Another and more important change that you will notice in night scenarios is that open ground now has a protective value. Almost (there are some exceptions, but not many) all of the weapons used in this conflict used plain iron sights without any luminescence. Combine that with the shadows created by artificial light and it is pretty hard to shoot accurately at a target you can barely see. So open ground now has a protection of four while brush and high grass have a protection value of six for night scenarios only. It will be harder to slow down a night attacker, but once you get close, assault combat will be unaffected. To counteract this a bit, some area fire type weapons have a higher penetration value than previously.

If you take a further look at the maps, you will also notice that there are not a lot of roads. If you check the scenario orders of battle, you won't find many vehicles either. Other than Stanley, the Falklands have a very low population density with only tracks connecting the outlaying communities. The ground is either rocky or soggy and not a happy element for wheeled vehicles. There is a higher chance of breakdown in Squad Battles Falklands than in most of the other titles and you will quickly notice that your wheeled vehicles, if you should have some, don't move very far in a turn off-road. Historically, both sides were aware of this to some extent and consequently, did not send many wheeled vehicles to the islands. Both sides intended to use helicopters for logistical support and troop movement, although both sides,especially Argentina, had problems in this regard.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, inaccuracies or things that you think are just plain wrong, feel free to let me know and I will try and explain what is supposed to be happening.

Jeff Conner

[Strela]

Congrats Jeff on getting your baby out the door. I did Panzer Campaigns Kharkov '43 for JTS and I know what a labour of love these projects are.

For anyone wondering we are NOT multi-millionaires from our earnings off these games :)

That said once you finish one project you start looking for the next and want to do outdo your research, creativity etc. Just be warned that once bitten it is hard to walk away and not do another title.....!!

David

[Jeff Conner]

I have already started the research for the next project. My wife thought I was nuts when I told her.

Jeff

[TheBigRedOne]

Jeff,

During the playtesting process, you suggested to the team a few excellent titles about the Falkland's conflict. Perhaps you could share some of those with the folks, especially if they'd like to read up on the war before deciding on purchasing the game.

What was your inspiration for this title?

Now that it's has gone through the process and been released, what were your lessons learned, and what would you do differently?

[Dog Soldier]

I read the design notes posted at Faklands Design Notes

There is a list of sources at the end of the pdf file. Website, games and books. So much information and so little reading time.

The Design notes are an excellent read. Well done Jeff.

Dog Soldier

[Jeff Conner]

The best book I found on Falklands Conflict was unfortunately, the last book I bought. I wish I had found it much earlier in the process as it would have been a great help. The book is The Falklands War, Then and Now. It is probably not for everyone though. It is expensive, I think I paid about $90 for it, but it is huge. It's a coffee table sized book, crammed full of pictures and it must weigh more than ten pounds. There are lots of pictures that I have only seen in this book. The history of the war is told through the captions of the pictures while the body of the text is an oral history as told by the participants, many of them Argentine. One of the major things that the editor tries to accomplish is to find the current equivalent of the pictures taken during the war as well as showing where events took place. Consequently, there are lots of pictures of the terrain of the Falklands. There is also a complete listing of all the men who lost their lives and pictures of many of them. I found that besides being a very good historical document, it gave me a visualization of the war that was previously lacking. I would highly recommend it and you might check your local library. If they don't have it, they may be able to obtain it from another library that does.

In terms of books that most of us can afford, I would recommend anything by Nicholas van der Bijl. He was a NCO attached to 3rd Commando Brigade's Intelligence Section. His Nine Battles to Stanley is probably the best depiction of the land battles that occurred and my primary source for many of the scenarios. His other books are not quite as good, but still a very good source of information.

Lastly in terms of books, I would recommend Not Mentioned in Dispatches by Spencer Fitz-Gibbon. It only covers the Battle of Goose Green, but it is an excellent work. The author is pretty critical of Lt Colonel Jones and his command style, which didn't garner him any points with the British military, but it is kind of hard to argue with him. This battle was not Colonel Jones' finest moment. Besides a very good description of the battle, there are numerous grid maps that reference specific positions. It was a huge asset for the Goose Green scenarios.

In terms of things I learned, I found out more about the Squad Battles' editors than I ever wanted to. I also came to the realization that I don't know as much about the Squad Battles system as I thought I did. I tried to incorporate many of the chrome components of the game system, but there are a few that I just couldn't figure out how to make work properly. Blessed are the playtesters who patiently helped me through the process.

For quite some time, I didn't think I wanted to do additional scenario design, at least in a lead position. However, as the game came to a close, I changed my mind completely. It was very rewarding to actually finish something I had been working on for so long. I won't tell you how long, but it was years.

In terms of what I will do differently in the future, the one thing I can think of is to try and maintain a fairly steady work pace, with some time off. I tended to work enthusiastically for a period of time and then get burned out and not work on the project for a quite some time. I am sure I tried Rich's patience more than once.

I hope you enjoy the game and feel free to ask any questions you might have. I will try and answer them as best I can.

Jeff

[Mad_Dog]

What was the historical basis for the Argentinian Special Forces campaign? I had fun playtesting those scenarios.:)

[Jeff Conner]

The Argentines drafted a plan to parachute the 4th Airborne Brigade into the area between Stanley and the main British landing at San Carlos Water. This unit would be reinforced by portions of the two regiments on West Falkland. The intent was to break the British lines of communication. However, it soon became apparent that the British held control of the air over the islands during daylight hours and the parachute landing was not likely to be successful. In addition, there was no realistic way to move the troops from West Falkland across Falkland Sound. The Argentines had a hard time supplying these troops much less moving them and their equipment. They lost two coastal freighters and multiple helicopters trying to keep their men supplied. In the end, the Argentines sent hunting parties out into the hills and lived on mutton for most of the last month of the war.

My rational for creating a hypothetical campaign was to allow the Argentine player to command some of the best troops in his army. Since any man who will jump out of a perfectly good airplane has already proven his courage, the paratroopers are rated as mostly B troops with a few As. The Argentine Special Forces are more evenly split between As and Bs with a leader for every team. Both forces are equipped with the higher reliability FAL rifle. Man for man, they are almost a match for the British troops they will face. The scenarios were fun to design as I was not held to any kind of historical standards.

You may notice that the main characters in both campaigns are named after special forces officers who lost their lives in the Falklands. The Argentine campaign is in honor of Lt. Commander Giachino. He was a Marine Commando in charge of the "snatch" team assigned to Government House during Operation Rosario. He was mortally wounded as he tried to breach the house. As he was holding a live grenade, the British troops inside made no effort to try and provide him with first aid. Their fire kept any Argentine support from reaching him and he eventually died of his wounds. The British campaign is dedicated to Captain John Hamilton, a member of the SAS. He was on West Falkland directing naval gunfire on Argentine positions and conducting additional reconnaissance. A daylight patrol of Argentine Commandos located his hide and a short firefight ensued. Hamilton was shot and killed as he tried to cover the retreat of his partner. Hamilton had led the recon team on Fortuna Glacier (South Georgia Island) that almost came to grief as well as participating in the Pebble Island Raid.

Jeff Conner

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Thanks for your hard work on this Jeff. Wasn't going to get this but finally ended up pulling the trigger and it looks good and very challenging. Now I know why you were too busy to finish our France '14 game. :)

[Jeff Conner]

Thank you very much. If you still have that 1914 turn, feel free to send it my way. I have more time now than I did before.

I think one of the problems some people are going to have is the number of casualties the British take in the game as compared to historically. If I made the Argentines as inefficient as they historically were, it would not be much fun to play them. Consequently the British pixel warriors are going to have a harder time than their flesh and blood compatriots. Hopefully, the victory conditions will compensate, although I agree, some of the scenarios are pretty challenging.

Jeff