Cuba Libre - Cronistria Fight #9

All,

It's 1845 on 18 April 1990, and Team 6-4 (plus two men of 6-2) is on the move.  Tico, Blue, and a squad of Cronistrian Democrat Militia (CDM) just blasted a hole in the perimeter of the enemy base at Petroika, and now Team 6-4+ is on the way to the building where Turk and Panda are being held by members of Demjanovic's Tigers, a Serbian commando battalion.  There are also members of the Yugoslavian Army in the area.

HUMINT sources have informed Team 6-4+ exactly where Turk and Panda are being held, as well as the fact they are currently being interrogated by the Serbs.  Team 6-4+ needs to hurry; no one wants to find out what happens once the Serbs have gotten what they want from the two TF Trojas prisoners.  Right now it's dusk, and while a firefight occurred on the perimeter, the enemy is not aware of Team 6-4+ having infiltrated the base.  With captured enemy soldiers on base, all enemies are on high alert, but the sun is going down and Team 6-4+ will look to move as quickly as possible to get close to the target building, making use of their night vision equipment and silenced weapons.  Once the shooting starts (i.e., the enemy becomes aware of a CLEF rescue attempt) I will begin rolling a dice each turn to determine if the Serbs execute Turk and/or Panda.

The opposing forces: there are nine Serb commandos, seven Yugoslavian conscripts, and six CLEF special forces troopers.  The two figs at bottom right are Turk and Panda, the prisoners.

The bad guys, with Serbs on top and Yugoslavians on bottom.

The CLEF troopers:  Team 6-4+, from top left: Blade, Redrum, and Rooey.  Second Row, from left: Goss, Bolt, and Rock.  Bottom, the prisoners: Turk and Panda.

Overview, north is up.  The CLEF team is entering on the left and the target building is at top right, with enemy troops and positions spread across the table.

Another look, with troops on the table.

Looking west to east at the southern portion of the board, you can see concertina wire backed up by bunkers and a guard tower occupied by FRY troops.

In the southeast corner is a stable inhabited by several Serb commandos.

The target building in the northeast corner of the table, with Serb commandos everywhere (three outside, four inside).

Back in the southwest we can see Goss, Rock, and Bolt stacked behind the house at bottom left.

Bolt moves into the house (far right), while Goss and Rock sprint left (far left).

Rock takes up position on the hill (center right) while Goss sprints across the road (bottom center left).

With Rock still covering (far right, on hill), Goss moves to the bombed out house (bottom left), with target building at top left.  Due to the poor light the guard in the tower (center) didn't spot Goss or Rock.

Looking west to east from behind the Guard Tower (left), Goss takes up position in the bombed out house (target building is off camera to bottom right).

Back in the southwest, while Bolt is on overwatch (in the house at left), Redrum, Rooey (far left), and Blade (bottom center right) come on the table.

Time to get this party started.  Rooey, the team leader, speaks into his mike: "Goss, take out the tower."

Goss (top right) takes aim and squeezes off a round from his silenced, accurized M-16: man down (explosion marker at left).

In the southwest, the other Designated Marksman, Bolt (top left) opens fire on the near bunker (far right), but he MISSES!!!  Blade (bottom left, behind shack) curses under his breath...

Then steps forward and opens up with his suppressed M-4...

Both bad guys bail out of the bunker (far right, from far left).

The bad guys rally (top left), and the FRY Lieutenant (bottom right) is wondering what is going on up there, so he sends a troop forward (center).

The bad guy in the Tower recovers from Man Down, while a sentry from the nearby bunker moves up to see what's going on.

In the north, one Serb moves up (top center) while another starts walking up the road towards the Tower (center right).  The bad guys know something is up, but not sure what as none of the guys that were shot at have been able to raise the alarm (they all had to rally first).  But with all the guys the CLEF shot at and didn't kill, that's only going to last another few seconds.  Time to go loud...

On the hill, Rock (far left) opens up on the Tower with his SAW (I think that's actually the only non-suppressed weapon the Team has in this fight); of course he misses...

But Blade (bottom center left) cuts loose on the enemy troops in the southwest (center right)...

One enemy soldier goes out of the fight (center), one is man down (bottom right), one is pinned (yellow bead at top left), and one is forced to fall back (center right, red bead).

Rooey (far left, behind house) peeks out and fires at the guy Blade (bottom center) just fired on and pinned (yellow bead at center), but he misses!

Bolt (in house at bottom left) fires on the Tower...

The sentry there has had enough and hops out of that bullet magnet, taking cover at center right (red bead).  Goss (in house at top left) opens fire on the Serb commando at top right...

Putting him out of the fight!

Redrum (bottom center) peeks around the house and opens fire on the enemy center.

One enemy soldier goes down (bottom left), while two more fall back and hunker (center left and top right, both with red beads).

A Serb next to the target building (bottom center-right) fires on Goss, but misses.

He then decides to fall back to rally his buddy (far right, red bead), but Goss returns fire and pins him (yellow bead).

In the south, one of the Serbs steps out of the stable (bottom right) to see what's going on, alerted by Rock's SAW gunfire.  He spots the FRY Lieutenant 'man down (white bead at center), but Blade react fires...

Forcing the Serb to take cover in the stable (red bead, from explosion at far right).

A Serb runs downstairs and buddy rallies the guy, but he only gets up to pinned.

One of the Serbs steps out of the target building (bottom right); Redrum react fires (top left) but misses, so the bad guy rallies his pinned buddy.

The bad guy at top left self rallies, but another tries and fails, falling back (red bead at far right, from white bead at center, above dead guy).

In the north, Goss (top left) opens fire on the two Serbs next to the target building (bottom right; there's another hunkering just off camera to right)...

Another bad guy out of the fight (center left), while the other falls back and hunkers (bottom right, red bead).

Rock moves up on the hill (bottom left) and fires to the southeast (top right)...

One Serb is out of the fight (center, while the other falls back and hunkers (bottom left, red bead).

Now we're shooting!

Blade hops the wire and moves up to the first bunker in the southwest, then fires...

Forcing the bad guy to fall back (center, red bead, from explosion at left).

The bad guys in the southeast try a series of self rallies, and they are disastrous: the FRY Lieutenant (far left) is out of the fight, two guys are forced to fall back again (center left and far right), while only one actually succeeds (bottom right).

And they have similar results in the northeast: the guy at far left rallies up to pinned, but the guys at far right and bottom right fail their rally attempts and run off the map!

Blade (bottom right), Rooey (far left), and Redrum (center) all press forward.

Redrum hops the wire, moves up (far left, near tree), then fires to the southeast (far right)...

Another bad guy out of the fight.

Then Blade moves forward (bottom right, with Redrum at bottom left) and opens fire to the northeast...

Causing a FRY soldier to fall back behind the target building (far right, red bead, from explosion at left).

Goss (off camera to top left, in bombed out house) opens fire on a FRY troop cowering in the center, putting him out of the fight (center).

I make my first roll to see if the Serbs execute Turk or Panda: apparently the guys are holding out, resisting interrogation as the bad guys decide not to shoot them.  I apologize if this seems macabre, but please keep in mind this is just a game of toy soldiers, and I'm just trying to add in a little dramatic, pulpy type flavor.

In the southeast, the last remaining Serb (bottom right) peeks out from behind the stable, and Rock (atop the hill at top left) react fires and pins him!

The FRY troops at top right and bottom right both successfully self rally.

Rooey, Redrum, and Blade (top left) sprint forward, towards the target building (off camera to top right); the Serb at bottom right tries to self rally but stays pinned.

Again the bad guys decide not to shoot their hostages.

But the pinned Serb in the southeast (bottom center) has lined up a shot on Blade (top center) and fires, putting Blade 'man down.'

Seeing Blade (explosion at center left) go man down, Bolt (bottom center, in house) returns fire on the Serb at the stables (top right), putting him man down.

The last FRY guy in the southeast (bottom right) opens fire on Rooey, pinning him.  Rock (off camera to top left) returns fire but misses.

Then the FRY trooper behind the target building fires (bottom center) fires on Redrum (top center)...

Forcing him to fall back (top center, red bead, from explosion at center).

@#$%!!!!  All three shooters are messed up in one turn!?  Redrum is hunkering at top center, Rooey is pinned at far left, and Blade is man down at bottom center.  I'm supposed to be hurrying to the target building to save Turk and Panda before the bad guys decide to shoot them...

Bolt fires on the FRY troop in the southeast (top center right, behind haystack, with Rooey at center.  The bad guy goes man down.

Rooey, pinned (yellow bead at bottom center) fires on the FRY troop behind the target building, he goes man down too (top center, with Redrum hunkering at far left and Blade man down at center right).

Redrum successfully self rallies (top left), but Blade fails the self recovery and goes out of the fight (bottom right).  Ouch...

With Goss still in the house at top left and Redrum at bottom left behind tree, Rock comes sprinting down the hill onto the road (far left).

Third check and bad guys still don't shoot Turk and Panda.  My luck is holding out!

Three bad guys try to self rally/recover: the guys at top right and bottom center are good, but the guy at center right behind the haystack succumbs to his wounds.

Bolt (bottom right, in house, with Rooey pinned at center left) fires on the Serb at top right, but misses.

So Rooey (bottom center, yellow bead, with Redrum to his left, near the Guard Tower) takes the same shot and puts the Serb (top right) behind the stables 'man down.'

Redrum moves up (far left) and fires at the FRY soldier behind the target building (top right), putting him man down.

Bad guys decide not to shoot Turk and Panda for the fourth straight roll; this is getting crazy.

But another Serb decides to come out of the target building (now there are only two left inside), and he rallies the FRY trooper Redrum just put man down.

And the FRY trooper moves up and takes cover behind the APC (left).

The Serb at the stables tries to self recover from man down, but he bleeds out.  The southeast is now clear of enemy troops, with only four bad guys left, all in the northeast.

In the southwest, Rooey (far right) self rallies his pin off, while Bolt leaves the house, moving up to the wire (center).

In the northwest, Goss comes down out of the bombed out house (top left), while Rock moves forward (center right).

And Redrum leads the way, moving up to the bad guys near the target building.

Rooey moves up (far left), drawing react fire from the Serb at the target building (far right).  Luckily the rounds miss (Redrum is at center, just above the tracer).

Rooey (bottom center) returns fire, pinning the Serb.

Redrum steps forward and spots the FRY trooper at the APC; Redrum fires, but misses!!!

And the frightened conscript's return fire also misses!!!

Goss moves up to the wire (bottom left, with Rock to his right) and takes a shot at the guy Redrum was dealing with...

Goss's fire makes the FRY troop fall back (far right, from explosions at center left) next to the pinned Serb.

What a dismal display of marksmanship...

For the fifth time the Serbs decide to keep working over Turk and Panda, rather than shoot them, even with their security force drastically reduced and Cubans nearly outside the door.

One of the Serbs in the target building (bottom right( peers out the window and spots Rock, so he takes a shot...

Rock is out (bottom center, with Goss at top).

And Redrum (bottom left) is apparently leading a charmed life as he once again weathers very close range fire with no ill effects.  But he returns fire and misses again, too...

But then Redrum moves up the road and takes another shot...

Putting the Serb on his back.

In the northwest, Goss (bottom left) takes up a solid shooting position and fires on the bad guy that shot Rock...

Down (top right, with Turk and Panda at center, only one bad guy left in the target building).

Goss pushes forward (center left, next to boulder), keeping his sights on the windows of the target building.

For the sixth time the bad guys decide not to shoot their hostages.  Go ahead Shaun and Panda, run you yaps, but I'm not cheating ;)

The Serb in the target building (center right) fires on Goss, putting him 'man down,' while the hunkered FRY trooper (bottom center) successfully self rallies.

But Redrum (far left) immediately re-engages him, putting him man down.

Before moving up and putting the enemy soldier out of the fight.

Bolt (bottom left) and Rooey (bottom center) move up to join Redrum (far right).

For the seventh time, the last bad guy on the table decides not to shoot Turk and Panda.

Rooey, Redrum, and Bolt stack on the door.

Flashbang in, BANG! they're through, digging their corners...

Redrum fires...

Bad guy is down.

Goss is up, drags Rock up to the target building as Rooey, Redrum, and Bolt pull Turk and Panda out.  Turk is okay and helps, while Rooey goes and retrieves Blade.

Everyone loads into the enemy APC and starts the getaway.

Well, mission accomplished, Turk and Panda were saved from the dastardly Serbs, despite plenty of opportunities for the bad guys to finish them off.  My boys were hampered early on by some bad shooting, which caused me to dumbly decide to use my SAW pretty early, thus making the bad guys aware of the CLEF presence (in my defense, the bad guys had rallied and were only seconds away from raising the alarm in any case).  But the point is that the early alarm gave the bad guys too many (seven!) rolls to decide if they were going to execute the prisoners; I was hoping to get much close, give them only three or four rolls.  I just got incredibly lucky with some very good/bad die rolling on their part.  It also didn't help that I kept getting fire results on bad guys, but couldn't put them out of the fight, so they kept rallying back into the fight, and in a perfect storm they pinned Rooey, hunkered Redrum, and put Blade out of the fight.  That set me back probably three or four turns, which, again, were extra die rolls to see if the prisoners would be shot.

And Sergeant "Redrum" Bello distinguished himself this day, moving through very heavy fire to clear the area around the target building of enemy troops, then leading the close assault into the target building to rescue Turk and Panda.  Redrum received the Estrella de Bronce for his actions.

Meanwhile, Blade was lightly wounded (out for six days) and Rock was hit a little worse, out for thirteen days.  So right now Rooey, Redrum, Goss, Bolt, and Turk are operating the enemy APC to escape with Blade, Rock, and Panda out of action in the troop hold.  But Serb commandos are moving to intercept them as we speak, so stay tuned for the next batrep.

V/R,
Jack