I recently had a chance to wargame part of the “battle off the coast of Abkhazia,” using Bulldogs Away! 2nd edition, a set of miniatures rules (currently in playtest) for modern fast attack craft, 1950-present. Two of us commanded part of a Russian amphibious landing force—some Ropucha and Alligator-class landing ships, escorted by a group of four corvettes. Our Georgian opponents had a few missile boats.

Most of our force approached with radars off so as to not give warning of our advance, with one corvette forward and emitting as a radar picket. This ship also sought to stay close to a civilian vessel to confuse the defenders.

Soon, however, the two forces spotted each other, and missiles started flying, and guns opened up. We also discovered an unexpected sandbar, forcing us to divert from our planned landing zone.

We were doing well until a Georgian Excocet hit and sunk one of the landing ships, with a terrible loss of personnel.

The first salvo of Georgian missiles misses their targets. Flares and chaff can be seen being fired from the centre ship.

A Georgian FAC takes a hit.

The rules played very well for the most part, capturing the importance of ESM, ECM, and modern radars, targeting systems, and SSMs.