Hey all! I've recently built some terrain for use with shanty-towns, slums, favelas, etc. I love the idea of gaming firefights in twisting alleyways and shacks, with units getting lost, firing at point blank, etc.---I guess it was all those games of Space Hulk as a teenager!

Anyway, I'm curious as to how other gamers treat terrain in such areas. Do you treat it as area terrain? As a bunch of small buildings?

I've restricted movement to the alleyways themselves, and have declared the shacks in the slums as impassable. A unit can gain regular cover from the shacks, but only if at least half of his unit is behind a building. This is mainly to create what I think is would be the main problem of fighting in such terrain---the highly restricted LOS and often dubious value of a piece of sheet metal or rotten plywood as cover. The alleyways are only wide enough for one team to deploy (in a 2-up/2-back formation). The end effect is visually pleasing (the figures are stacked up in the alley, trying to grab cover from garbage and random bits) and makes the slum into a maze with tactically interesting chokepoints, intersections, etc.

This already created one fun instance in a game of different units of D6 TQ insurgents bludgeoning themselves to death trying to break through a 4-man team of SEALs blocking the alley---those badasses inflicted about 15 casualties in one turn, as insurgents cycled through one at a time!

I'm curious how everybody else does it, partly so that I can ruthlessly steal any cool ideas

It really depends on the locale. A favela in Rio for instance can be very different to what passes for one in Salvador or Recife. Go to Alagados in Salvador for insatance and parts are like those waterside shanty towns in Lagos (think Waterworld). As it happens, I was up in Cantagalo this very morning, which is a small favela in Rio's Zona Sul.

If you are talking about a 'typical' favela (if such a thing exists) in say Rio, then many if not most are built on hillsides. There's typically at least one major entry point. Many of the larger comunidades have stores bars, sometimes a little square and there's usually somewhere to kick a football. As you ascend most pathways tend to to winding flights of steps sometimes not wide enough for two people to pass. Dwellings tend to abut the next. It's more of a vertical enviroment as a horizontal one and as often as not dwellings are split level ( to exapnd you need to go up). Typical building materials tend to be terracotta breeze block style bricks. Not as permeable as wood or tin but a 7.62mm round will puncture one with ease ( I've seen the effects at a friends house).

If you are talking about this sort of community I would treat it all as area terrain, with a few separate buildings.

Search Youtube for favela and you'll get an idea. If you look for BOPE you will fins a number of videos showing them in action in the favelas.

when the book on Falujja comes out you will be pleasantly suprised , It will have all the rules needed to fight a very close very tense megga urban fight.
But to your question tight twisting urban terrain disrupts LOS and reduces OR to the point where units may get to fire and then find themselves in close hand to hand fighting very quickly.
So you look for Enemy avenues of aproach and try to sight your support weapons to cover them.
Use booby traps and command detonated IEds to channel them into you covered aproaches.
Look for rooftops close to you position that are free enough from obstructions to allow a helo to land or fast rope troops into your defended area and collaspe or rig them with explosives. or defend them with HMGs and or Manpad SAMs.
Mouse hole buildings that are strong enough to allow the rapid shifting of forces so you can reinforce or attack as and where needed.
Use Live utilities as weapons a little water and some live power lines droped on troops moving down an alley will slow or stop the enemy from using certain routes but beware once he starts to get reports of you doing this he will disrupt the power to your defended area . Gas mains can opened and small devices left nearby to couse explosions again care is needed if you intend to continue to occupy the area as destruction will be wide spread once the battle is over..

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"All Men for the rights of Every man, every man for the rights of all Men"

How would I fight in a shanty town: a cluster bomb or MICLIC.

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You don't need a parachute to skydive,
You need a parachute to skydive twice.

Don't the Israeli's just use an armoured bulldozer ?

As Bob says ''what would the Romans do'' ..

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'' I love my models , they are made of swiss cheese ''

Lots of armies use Bulldozers, Nothing is invincible simply using a gas main can easily destroy an arm bulldozer....so In some circumstances where the level of economic prosperity allowed more extravagant construction methods with more Utilities coupled with a fairly well trained opposition and modern weapons can make urban warfare extremely costly . Some examples may include Chechenia, Iraq, Lebanon,Gaza etc .

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"All Men for the rights of Every man, every man for the rights of all Men"

Just finished re-reading "House to House" by SSG David Bellavia (which I highhly recomend) about the Second Battle of Fallujah. For those of us who have not been in combat, it is an unapoligetic view of the war by a grunt. House clearing, and urban warfare.

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You don't need a parachute to skydive,
You need a parachute to skydive twice.