Musing on Looting in Fogo Cruzado

African Looter

A feature of African conflicts was that poor quality troops were inclined to looting. So I though I’d see what that could look like in Fogo Cruzado, my Crossfire variant for the Portuguese Colonial War. What I came up with is the Looter characteristic. At some point, after play testing, these might become part of my Fogo Cruzado: Crossfire House Rules for the Portuguese Colonial War or perhaps a special rule for a specific scenario.

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Protagonists (Factions) of the Portuguese Colonial War

Flags of Portuguese Colonial War - Banner

During the Portuguese Colonial War Portugal faced 27,000 insurgents spread across three theatres (Cann, 1997). The insurgents represented a wide range of, and often conflicting, liberation movements. Factions within a wider insurgency. I’ve only listed those that had armed forces in the field. Generally they fought in small groups; a force of 200 insurgents gathered in one place was rare.

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15mm Portuguese Machine Guns – MG42, MG13, Madsen

Cazadore with MG42 Converted from German

If you’ve seen my page on 15mm Figures for the Portuguese Colonial War you’ll know that Peter Pig is the only source of Portuguese figures, i.e. with the G3 rifle and Portuguese cap. The trouble is the machine guns. The Peter Pig figures have a GPMG as the squad support weapon and some Russian thing on wheels as their heavy (HMG). That might be suitable for insurgents but not for Portuguese.

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Timeline for the Portuguese Colonial War

The Portuguese had been in Africa a long time before the Portuguese Colonial War started. The Portuguese founded Luanda in Angola in 1576 (see my African New World) and in the late 19th Century the Portuguese scrambled for the interior of Africa along with the rest of Europe (see Portuguese Scramble for Africa). There had been many wars and revolutions within the Portuguese African possessions throughout those centuries but, in a sense, the ultimately successful liberation wars really began with a UN resolution in 1955.

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UPA / FNLA / GRAE Order of Battle during the Portuguese Colonial War

The UPA (União das Populações de Angola) was a non-marxist nationalist organisation formed in 1957 (Abbott & Rodrigues, 1998; Cann, 1997; Morris, 1974). There membership was largely from the Bakongo people whose territory spanned Angola and Belgium Congo. As time went on they gained support from the more southern Ovimbundu and Nhaneka-Humbe peoples. Belgium Congo (Zaire) became independent in 1960 and from 30 Jun 1960 the new regime began to support the UPA including allowing them a radio station and training camp. The movement received support from Congo, Algeria and the US

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