Indian summer

This year's Cold War Commanders' game for the Joy of Six convention in Sheffield depicts a somewhat tweaked version of Operation Vijay, the Indian annexation of Portuguese India in 1961.

The game was inspired by an Indian Army training manual Sample Appreciations of Tactics by Major H W Kulkarni of The Maratha Light Infantry. I had originally hoped to persuade the guys to run the game using the TacWWII rules but on mature reflection it will be more of a visual spectacle on a 6'x4' table using Cold War Commander 2 rather than the 3'x'2' space that the former would have needed.

Sample Appreciations of Tactics sets out half a dozen situations in which the student is required to create a written appreciation of the situation along with proposed orders to the force (usually as reinforced battalion) under his command. Effectively, in wargames terms, it's a book of six scenarios along with a demonstration of the correct way to format a plan to fight the resulting battles.

As we'll need some suitable models for the game, I've been busy with the 3D printer:

These Indian Shermans are my approximation to M4A3E4s. These were VVSS Shermans with the standard 75mm turret but up-gunned to carry a variety of 76mm weapons. In this case I was aiming to represent the US 76mm tank gun. They didn't have muzzle brakes but the threaded attachment site was still present. A spot of gunmetal on the tip of the barrel represents this. They are painted in Vallejo US Dark Green to represent the jungle green used on Indian tanks at the time.

Although Kulkarni's book envisages the opposition forces being equipped along Indian Army lines, we thought it would be more interesting to imagine a scaled-up version of the fighting around Goa in 1961. As such we need some Portuguese forces to fight. Andy Taylor is providing them (mostly; my French EBR armoured cars will be joining in) but I've 3D printed an F86 Sabre to support them.

I've done some display information for the game and a suitably colonial-looking church for Goa's Christian community is printing as we speak. Now I just need to remind myself how the rules work!