Falklands - San Carlos

Falklands - San Carlos - 1982 (Falklands War).

Become A War Blog Patreon
or

The map is a bit tight for the format but it should do.

Essentially the British land at Port San Carlos where they dig in.

After some political pressure for not advancing and out of fear of a UN resolution forcing a ceasefire and then having to accept any decisions made over soverignty, they attacked darwin and Goose Green and then moved East Towards Stanley.

its worth noting that the 25th Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mechanised Infantry Brigade starts pretty close to the San Carlos landing point. Historically this is not quite accurate as parts of the Regiment had fought at San Carlos but the rest fought at Stanley Airport and Goose Green and so the player can move them where they like. However, they did not attack the forces at San Carlos and so their placement is a bit misleading. I think they really need to be retreated to stanely asap to keep historical context, as they are not noted as having fought at Goose Green according to what I have found so far in Wikipedia.

They decided earlier on that the Argentinians at Goose Green didnt have the ability to counter strike and so could be ignored. But it was a political decision to make it look like they were doing something.

Initially I had the whole 12th Regiment in Goose Green but after reading the Wikipedia on Goose Green I split it up into 3 (stronger) Companies (Battalions) and put one in Goose Green, Darwin and also Mount Kent. The unit in Mount Kent moves to Goose Green after the first day of fighting. However, in the game you might not do that. To reflect the historical course you might want to move the 3rd Company from the 12th Regiment to Goose Green after a few turns, but its up to you.

I have added the Pucara aircraft that were based in Stanley. Currently 1 unit, however, they were based in Stanly and so it might make sense to have them as on map units although my mechanics dont support that yet, however, I might change that at some point as it shouldnt be too difficult. Either way, if Stanley falls then the player has to stop using the Pucara aircraft unit accordingly even though its still in the air pool.

There is also a composite Company (Battalion) at Goose Green that was made up from Headquarters Staff and other elements to replace the 3rd Company of the 12th Regiment that was at the time on Mount Kent.

Squad D of the SAS is included. However, they dont enter until turn 10 even though they carried out a diversionary raid on Googse Green on 21 May during the landings at San Carlos. During the assault on Goose Green there appear to have been across the bay as observers. As such, they appear on the map on turn 10 a litle further down the bay to prevent them being next to the Darwin hex and its advised that the player doesnt use this unit. I have reduced their strength factors to keep some game balance else the 3rd Copany on Mount Kent might have problems getting back to Googe Green. Unfortunalty, unless I just remove it, which I am thinking about it will still exert a ZOC, (when ZOC's are implemented). The rest of Squad D of the SAS arrives turn 15 just South of Mount Kent which they are reported to have secured in the assault on Stanley.

HMS Arrow is included although I dont have rules for naval bombardment at the moment.

Following on from Goose Green the Argentinians get their Commando reinforcements and Air Defence, which includes the Commando unit on Top Malo. The British also get the 5th Infantry Brigade. However, I leave them all in San Carlos. Historically only the half the Welsh Gaurds marched to Stanley which the other half and the Scots Gaurds and possibly the Gurkhas were ferried. However, because of the nature of the game it cant be assumed that it will go according to history and assuming that the relevent units are ferried to the appropriate place risks putting them somewhere that serves no purpose. As such, you get the choice of what to do when they land at San Carlos (which itself is an assumtion that Googse Green goes well) and can march them where you like. Currently there are no rules for ferrying units in this manner so its not an option. However, reading further, it appears that the March by half the Welsh Gaurds failed and they too were ferried from San Carlos to Bluff Cove, so I could just set all the reinforcements to arrive there at turn 15 instead of san Carlos or land at Bluff Cove turn 20 etc. Even so, there are still too many unknowns, you might still be building up to attack Goose Green at that time and so they will still land at San Carlos.

I have also added a bunch of Mirage aircraft. Historically the Argentinians had a much bigger range of aircraft in use but many of them were attacking the task force and other areas as well as defending the mainland from Vulcan bombers. As such the Mirage just represent a wild guess at the airpower the argentinians had.

Further, unless said earlier, the air defence doesnt work, but this is an ideal opportunity to figure it out as well as adding air to air combat, or air patrol options, but both of those tasks are a long way off so for now its a bit lopsided as the air defence units are useless.

As a final note on this preliminary set up I must say, again, it took longer than I thought and I have left lots out, in particular all the little units such as command units, medical units and engineers etc and have used some artistic licence in certain areas. Not played it yet, so cant vouch for playability. However, I think this is to some extent as good as its going to get. What I mean by that is that I could tweak units, add or remove them and its going to be pretty much the same gameplay. The only thing im unsure of is where all the other units were on the map as I would guess that the Argentinians had smaller units all over the Islands such as Douglas Station and Port Louis etc, but currently that side of things is not covered. Its probable that no one really knows exactly who was where. I have now however added about 5 general units that have 0 combat strength but are scattered about to prevent complete free use of the map by the British outside of the main targets and objectives. These can be interpreted as small squads, patrols, sections etc. the Argentinian player would be recommended to not move these as they are really only a buffer to the british player having free use of the whole map and to refelct the unknowns that this paragraph hints at.

see Wikipedia

see British Empire

see Wikipedia - Goose Green

see Wikipedia - Argentinian Ground Forces

see Wikipedi - British Ground Forces

Facebook Comments

Discus Comments

Units (United Kingdom)

Units (Argentina)