Op Corporate in 6mm

Operation Corporate, the British Army's campaign to re-take the Falkland Islands has always appealed to me. As an impressionable teenager with aspirations of joining the army from early childhood, I remember racing home from school to catch the news each evening. What I saw on my TV only made me more determined to join as soon as I physically could.

I have always thought it strange that I had never seriously tried to re-enact any of the engagements through my hobby of wargaming until now, 27 years later. In a way I think one of the primary reasons for not doing so much earlier, is that there never seemed to be a rule set that captured the feel of battalion actions. That fact, coupled with so few military miniature manufacturers producing Falklands ranges probably restricted my choices.

When Cold War Commander was first released a couple of years back, it was with great delight that I noticed the Falklands Conflict was covered in the army lists. A few hours of internet surfing later and I was left feeling disappointed that even fewer miniature manufacturers were producing a range that covered the conflict. 20mm seems to be relatively well covered but its not a scale I particularly like. Once again the desire to recreate an engagement of the conflict came to nothing.

It was only recently when I caught the two part series on Sky about the Falklands that my appetite was re-wetted. I dragged out my Cold War British army in 6mm and realised that at 1-1 scale I pretty much had the vast majority of kit used in the conflict. Further digging (to find figures to represent the Argentinians) highlighted my WW2 Red Army and WW2 Late War Americans as potential stand in's.

An hour or so later I two workable forces at roughly battalion scale with infantry stands representing infantry sections. Using CWC's battlegroup creator I had two opposing forces to pitch against each other - 3Para going up against B Coy of the Argentinian RI7 supported by Argentinian Marine Machine Guns on Mount Longdon, 11th June 1982.