Operation Dragon Forge, Fight #4

All,

AKA, Unit 101's 4th Fight of Operation Payback

It's 0430 on 8 Jul 1990, and Unit 101 is on the way to take down The Bomb Maker.  The raid to capture his associate, Vito Squirreleone, didn't quite work out as planned, but Cuban Intel was able to exploit personal electronic devices (yeah, I kinda forgot about the fact this is 1990, but whatevah) found on Squirreleone's body and determine the likely location of The Bomb Maker.  Major Villanueva: "Well, Dozer, you found him, now lets' go get him."

"Boss, is this kill or capture?"

"I'm told he's not likely to have any info to help us out."

"So?"

"So, whatever's easy."

Overview, north is up.  The Bomb Maker owns a garage on the outskirts of Formaggio.  The compound is at top center, while Major Villanueva and Team 1 enter from bottom left.  Their mission is to kill or capture The Bomb Maker.

I'm playing these fights using Ivan Sorensen's rules "Five Men at Kursk," modified a little to make them a bit more modern and deadly.

Opposing forces, with bad guys on the left and good guys on the right.  On the right is the entirety of Unit 101, though they will not all be participating in this fight.  Unit 101 is composed of:
Commander
Platoon Sergeant
Two five-man teams
1 Sniper team
1 Machine Gun team
*Most of the troops are 15mm Khurasan, but the shooters have two Battlefront figures, and the sniper and MG teams are Eureka.

The Major (bottom right) and Team 1 (Dozer, Tank, Cypher, Switch, and Rung).

The bad guys: ten Albanian gangsters and The Bomb Maker (bottom center), all Eureka Minis.

The board is set, now with troops.  The bad guys are spread from 9 o'clock to 4 o'clock.  The Cubans are at bottom left.

The Cuban assault force.

A closer look at the bad guys.

The northwest, with bad guys at bottom left and top left.

The northeast, with The Bomb Maker and a buddy chatting at center, two bad guys at top right, a bad guy at right, and a bad guy at bottom right.

Southwest, with bad guys at bottom right, then the guys you saw from the previous pic at right, top right, and top center.

Time to fight!

Major Villanueva (bottom center left) makes a startling discovery as they approach the garage: "All 101 callsigns, all 101 callsigns, eyes on X-Ray 1.  He's standing in the doorway of Building 1, shootin' the breeze.  I can end this right now."  The Major raises his rifle and fires on the Bomb Maker.

"Dammit, I missed!  All 101 call signs, X-Ray 1 fell back towards building 1, move up and get him."
The Bomb Maker is suppressed, cowering behind some garage clutter.

With the Major at bottom left, Rung dashes right (center right), but he runs into two sentries, who open fire on him.

Forcing him to fall back (red bead at bottom left), suppressed.

With the Major at bottom right, Switch (bottom center left) spots two bad guys at top left and fires.

Dropping one and suppressing one.

Switch moves up (top right), but spots another bad guy at top left...

Just as a gangster fires on him (bottom left) from the garage (top right)...

Putting Switch on his face (with Dozer at bottom right).

Tank moves up on the hillock (center), next to Switch, with Dozer (bottom left) and the Major (far right) looking on.

A bad guy in the northeast (top right) spots him and fires (bottom left).

With rounds chopping leaves and bark off the nearby tree (bottom left), Tank turns, leveling the team's Mk48 light machine gun at the enemy and returning fire with a long burst of 7.62mm rounds.

Tanks' assailant is killed (bottom center), and a nearby bad guy in the line of fire (top right) is suppressed.

Cypher (bottom left) scans for targets as Dozer (bottom right) talks: "Cypher,, I'll work the garage, you check Switch!"  Dozer looses a burst at the garage (top center).

The enemy gunman is forced to fall back, suppressed (top left, with The Bomb Maker hunkered down behind the red trailer at top right).

Dozer crosses the street (left center, from bottom center), still popping rounds at the garage (top right).

Dozer (left) keeps laying it down as Cypher moves to Switch (right).  He rolls his buddy over and begins to check him for wounds.

At which time Switch busts out laughing and pops back to his feet.  "Scared ya, didn't I buddy!?"
"You're an @#hole Switch!"

Switch: "Cypher, I meant to warn you, there's a Tango..."

"...across the street..."  The bad guy at top left fires on Switch and Cypher, pinning Cypher.

Looking west to east, a bad guy in the northeast (top left) fires on Major Villanueva (bottom right, with Rung, with red bead, just above him), missing.

The bad guy's partner, also at top left, fires on Tank, on the hillock at bottom center right, pinning him (that's Major Villanueva to his right).

Three suppressed bad guys (top left, top center, and far right) attempt to self rally.  The top left guy only gets up to pinned, but the other two are good to go.

On the far right, Rung is still suppressed (bottom left).  A bad guy creeps up to finish him off...

But then he (top right) spots Tank (bottom left), and decides he's a juicier target, so he opens fire on him.

Enemy rounds again narrowly miss Tank (bottom right), and again Tank's machine gun sends rounds down range...

And again an Albanian gangster goes down in a hail of lead.  His buddy, RPG in hand, creeps forward, hoping a new angle will result in a different result.

But Tank (bottom left) turns the gun on him (top right) and continues firing, dropping the RPG gunner.

But Tank's machine gun (bottom right) has drawn attention, and a bad guy in the northwest (top left) fires.

But Tank must have a rabbit's foot crammed in his keister; enemy bullets, for the third time, impact nearby but miss Tank.  He returns fire, but this time he's a little high.

Cypher (bottom center) fires on two enemy sentries at to right.

Dropping one (center) and forcing one to fall back (top left).

Switch (bottom right, next to Cypher) fires on the bad guy across the street (top left), as Dozer (left) reloads.

The Albanian is pinned (top left), and Switch darts across the street (bottom right).

But Switch (bottom left) is spotted by a bad guy in the garage (top right), and an AK rattles...

The rounds force Switch to dive into the bushes and hug dirt (bottom left), but Dozer (right next to him) pops up and cuts loose in return.

Driving the bad guy back (top left, from center), suppressed.  The Bomb Maker still cowers at bottom right.

Dozer rallies Switch (bottom left) back into the fight, then moves up (center right, with bad guy pinned at top left).

Tank (top left) scans for targets as Major Villanueva moves to Rung and rallies him (right), but he only gets up to pinned.

Two bad guys (top left and top right) attempt to self rally: top left is good, but top right runs off the map!

Back on the far left, the pinned bad guy (top left) fires on Switch (bottom right, with Dozer at top right).

The rounds zip by, but Switch (bottom center) calmly sights in and puts one right in the bad guy's forehead (top left).

A bad guy in the northwest fires an RPG, targeting Major Villanueva and Rung (bottom right).

The Major is knocked down and Rung is suppressed, running quite far away (top right) to find a good spot to cower.

Tank (bottom center left, with Cypher to his left) turns the gun on the RPG gunner, but he misses (top left).

At top right, a bad guy hops in the hen house.

Dozer (bottom left) spots movement in the hen house (top right) and begins ventilating it with 5.56mm-sized holes, which just so happen to knock the bad guy in there out of the fight.

Tank (bottom right) slaps a fresh belt into his machine gun and fires on the enemy RPG gunner in the northwest (top left), killing him.

Then he drops down to help rally Cypher.

But Tank's sudden movement (center) startles Cypher, and he falls back (bottom right)!  But he takes a quick breath, clears his head, and is good to go (self rally).

On the far right, Rung tries to self rally (to right, with Major Villanueva obscured by the trees at bottom left, still knocked down).

On the left, Dozer (bottom left) creeps forward, draws a bead on the bad guy behind the garage (top right), and fires.

Forcing him to fall back (red bead at center, from far left).

Dozer moves up towards the garage (center, from bottom left).

Switch follows him, moving up (bottom center) and firing past Dozer (center left) at the bad guy Dozer just drove back.  But Switch misses.

At this point, The Bomb Maker is still cowering in the garage (center right), and the only bad guy still on the table that could put up a fight the guy Dozer just drove back and Switch missed, suppressed at far left.

He tries to self rally, but @#$% this, he don't love The Bomb Maker, they ain't family!  He runs off the map, fight is over.

Switch leads the way into the garage (center top), clearing it, as Dozer (center) moves up on The Bomb Maker while Tank and Cypher take up covering positions (bottom left and bottom right).

Switch stands by as Dozer fishes The Bomb Maker out of the trash.  "Just so we're on the same page, my Boss said this was a capture or kill mission."

The team sets off back down the road with their prisoner.  "Rung, where are you?  And where's the Major, I can't raise him on comms."

Rung moves back over, rolls the Boss over to check on him.  He comes to, seems the RPG just knocked him out.  Little concussion, no sweat.

Major Villanueva and Rung link up with the rest of the team and they hop into a panel van generously provided by Ms. Scallapeni, who also assists them with arrangements to get themselves and their guest out of the country.  They move to a covert staging location where Cuban Intel worked over The Bomb Maker.  Major Villanueva spotted the chief interrogator taking a quick break: "any word, is he talking yet?"  "Major, you and your boys shouldn't unpack; sounds like you need to head to Lebanon."

Two days later, 10 July 1990, and the platoon was spread across an old Volvo, an ancient Citroen, and a beat up Mercedes bus, crossing into northern Lebanon.  Thirty minutes across the border and they were linking up with their contact, a native Lebanese.  He got the platoon to a safehouse, fed, watered, and bedded down.  The Lebanese, nicknamed "Haidar," briefed Major Villanueva on the latest information from Cuban Intel, still interrogating The Bomb Maker.

Haidar told the Major the next target was in the (fictional) village of Jezabyl, in the northern portion of Lebanon, only three miles from the Syrian border.  The village was ancient, and small; no one gets in there without the entire population knowing, and the entire population is loyal to the target, who is affectionately referred to as "The Mayor."  Syrian by birth, he'd come of age in southern Lebanon, and had spent almost four decades fighting the Israelis, before graduating to international terrorism and becoming more mercenary in his methods.

The Bomb Maker related that he was approached by The Mayor on behalf of quite an odd combination: the Bomb Maker stated The Mayor claimed to be working on behalf of someone representing the Venezuelan government, and another individual representing another government, Middle Eastern, but not clear who.  Major Villanueva: "Well, only way we're going to figure out who that other government is, is to go have a sit down with The Mayor."

Haidar nodded: "And The Mayor is not too keen on visitors, Major.  There's no easy way to do this, there's no snatching him without anyone noticing, there's no getting close to him without anyone noticing.  There's only one way to get him: confirm he is home, then roll straight through the front door and kill everyone but him."  The Major: "Bingo!  We'll two-stage it; one team breaks down the door, the other passes through and grabs him."

Next up is a quick-hitter, one team shoots the place up, the other makes the grab, and get the hell outta dodge.  Coming right up!

V/R,
Jack