Operation Tears of the Cuban News Network #2

All,

It's now 1530 on 28 July 1990, and Captain Stelosavo's TF23 is on the run in Nigeria.  They jumped into the country two days ago to save a Cuban Reporter and Cameraman at risk due to a military coup that killed the president and is cleansing the countryside of his supporters.  The Cuban commandos quickly secured the Reporter and Cameraman, but when their extraction helicopter was shot down they found themselves attempting to escape on foot to the border with South Leon with a slew of local villagers.  They'd been humping for the past two days when the sounds of gunfire met them as they crested a hill.  Captain Stelosavo, AKA "Ryder," halted the column and took a look.

Government troops were in a nearby village, rounding up the inhabitants and killing them.  Or worse...

Overview, north is up.  The table is about four feet long by a little more than two feet wide, with the villagers needing rescuing and government soldiers at left, and the Cuban commandos and refugee column at far right.

They were moving south when they heard the fracas...

Marshall, Chase, and Aarby in the lead at this point.

Ryder (top center left, with the Reporter and Cameraman) called a halt and scoped it out.

While everyone else took a quick break.

Ryder (bottom center) looked across the river and saw death and destruction in the nearby village and resolved to do something about it.

In the village there is a north end (top) and a south end (bottom), with government soldiers in both and dead bodies lying here and there.

A closer look in the north, w here the enemy has two five-man patrols and their commander.

And in the south, where there is a single five-man patrol.

But civilians continued to be gathered up by the government soldiers in the north...

And the south.

Ryder orders his refugees to take cover while they take care of business.

For this operation the team will be split up, or task organized, much differently.  Marshall (top center) will be the overall tactical commander, because Ryder wants to lead the assault force himself, as well as its an equipment issue.  At top left is Everest and Rubble, the support element.  They have an accurized M-14 and an M-60 and will remain on the hilltop in the northeast to support by fire.  At top right is Aarby and Zuma, the reserve element, with an AK-47 and an M-60; Marshall will stay close to them as well.  The assault element is at bottom center, from left to right: Tracker, Skye, Ryder, Rocky, and Chase.  Everyone in the assault element has a suppressed weapon, and this is key as Ryder wants to get as close as possible and do this as quickly and quietly as possible, cognizant that there are still government patrols out looking for them.

Ryder has a suppressed weapon and he just wants to lead the assault element, so he's turning over command to Marshall because Marshall will be able to hang back and have better overall situational awareness.  It's also of note that Everest will put a suppressor on his M-14, but if things get out of hand he'll have to blow through it, plus they'll need to get the machine guns into the fight.

Again, support element: Everest and Rubble.

Tactical commander: Marshall.

Reserve element: Aarby and Zuma.

Assault element (top left to bottom right): Tracker, Skye, Ryder, Rocky, and Chase.

Marshall and the Reserve Element set up at bottom left while the Support Element provides overwatch from further up the hill (far right) and Ryder moves the assault element into place to cross the river (top center).

The Assault Element crosses the river.

And moves into the bush.

They close on the north end of the village (top center right, with bad guys at left/bottom left).  Ryder: "Assault in position."

Marshall: "Roger, moving."  The Support Element looks on (far right, with the assault element in the trees at top center) as Marshall and the Reserve Element cross the river (center).

Marshall: "In place."  He (bottom left) and the Reserve Element (center) are looking at the north end of the village (top center, Assault Element in trees at far right top), ready to kick this off.

Everest: "Ready."  (bottom right)

Marshall and the Reserve (far right, center right) look on as the Assault element (top center) slips suppressors on their weapons.

Everest (top right): "C'mon already, let's go Boss."  Marshall (center left): "Cool it on the unnecessary chatter."

Everything is set.  What the Cubans don't know (assault element at top center, north end of village at top left, south end at bottom left, reserve at center top, Marshall at right top, Support Element off camera to right top) is that if this gets loud, two more government patrols will arrive (blue beads at bottom center and center right).

Gunfire rings out in the southwest (center bottom, with assault element just visible at top center)...

More innocent villagers are slaughtered.  Ryder comes on the intra-team net...

"Go, go, go."  The assault element clambers up the hill...

Fanning out (left to right across the center): Tracker, Rocky, Ryder, Skye, and Chase.  They are as yet unsighted by the enemy.

The enemy commander climbs up a nearby knoll (right), looking east, but he doesn't spot the support or reserve elements (off camera to top left), or the assault element (off camera to left).  His men (left) continue to round up civilians in the north end of the village.

Time to rock'n roll.  Ryder comes on the net again: "Weapons free."  And with that he levels his suppressed M-4 (bottom right) and fires on a government soldier near the red pickup truck...

Ryder (top right) hits the first guy (casualty figure at center) in the abdomen and he goes down, then shifts right and hits his buddy (casualty figure at bottom left) in both thighs, putting him out of the fight.  Rocky (center) and Tracker (bottom center) silently move up.

Where they both open fire, Tracker with his suppressed M-4 and Rocky with his silenced pistol, but they both MISS!!!

With Tracker and Rocky at top left and Ryder at bottom left, Chase moves up on the right (right) and opens fire...

He (just off camera to right) hits a bad guy in the chest, dropping him (casualty figure at top center, just above the villager), while Skye moves up (bottom center right), firing his silenced pistol as he goes, hitting his target (far left) in the kidneys, putting him out of the fight!

*While not so lucky with my accuracy (Tracker and Rocky missing), my hit locations/effects have been off the charts lucky, incapacitating all four men I hit.

From the northeast (bottom right), Everest sights in his suppressed M-14 and fires on the enemy commander (top left)…

But he misses, sending up showers of dirt on the bad guy boss (top center)!  The villagers in the north scatter, looking to get out of the line of fire and away from the government troops.

Kind of shocked and unclear on what the exact tactical situation up ahead is, the bad guy team in the northwest moves east, up the road (center), fanning out into skirmish line.  They've seen several of their comrades silently drop, and their commander (far right, on knoll) is busy rubbing red mud on his trousers to cover up the pee stains from Everest's near miss, so they're expecting trouble of some sort, though not fully up to speed on the fact there are Cuban commandos in their midst.

But moving up, their far left soldier (left) spots Chase (top center) in the brush!  The young Nigerian raises his AK and fires, hitting him in the left arm and alerting his comrades!

Now aware of the presence of unknown enemies, the government troops begin spotting them everywhere!  A bad guy on the road spots Skye and Rocky and cuts loose, missing.

Two more enemy soldiers (bottom center left and bottom center right) open fire, but Rocky (top center, with Tracker at top right) coolly stands his ground.

The bad guy on the far right (bottom left), moving up towards his commander (bottom center), sights in on Tracker (top right, with a bad guy right below him) and fires, but he misses too!

*There's not much of a chance of green troops hitting anything while firing on the move, even at point-blank range, which kinda sucks and surprised me when Chase got spotted and then hit.

Alerted to the trouble in the north (top) by the sudden drastic increase in AK gunfire, the bad guys in the south pause from their slaughtering civilians and look at each other.  "What the hell is going on up there?"  "I don't know, we should go take a look.  I'm sure it's nothing, no way we're all going to get shot in the face."  And with that, the bad guy team in the south begins moving north (center/bottom).

Back in the north, the enemy CO comes to his senses; he drops down, using the knoll as cover, and fumbles for his radio, intent on calling for help.

In the north, there is only one man left (center bottom) from the team that started the fight there.  He takes a look around, and doesn't like what he sees.  On the one hand, he's nearly surrounded by big men with strange camouflage and strange weapons and green faces.  On the other hand, there's a team of his countrymen advancing on him, but they're all shooting, and their bullets are coming dangerously close to hitting him.  He quickly comes up with a solution to the problem...

Leave town!  (bottom left, from top right)

*There was no way he was hanging around, one guy left to take five morale checks.

But as he's running away, the government troops in the south continue moving towards the sound of guns.  They move north, climbing up the rise (center) and suddenly finding themselves face to face with the Cuban commandos!

*The Cubans are elite, the Nigerians are green, so not much hope in the bad guys doing damage to the SOF from any range, so the solution is to use their overwhelming numbers to close with the Special Forces dudes and see if they can get lucky and rough them up.

Cresting the hill, the southern bad guy force opens fire with their AKs, turning the red pickup into Swiss cheese but not affecting Rocky or Skye (top center, with Tracker at top center right) otherwise.

Back on the Cuban right, Chase (bottom right) quickly recovers from being hit in the arm.  He drops his silenced pistol (which is dummy-corded to him, everything is dummy-corded to him) and raises his rifle, returning fire on his assailants (three of them at top left)…

He manages to pop one in the head, killing him instantly, before Rocky (bottom center, with Skye at bottom right) gets in on the act.  Rocky fires, hitting a bad guy in the chest, then hitting him again in the head, killing him too.

While Rocky (bottom right) is shooting it out to the west, Tracker (bottom center) engages the southern bad guys that just came up the slope, but he doesn't hit anyone before his rifle runs dry and he needs to reload...

Tracker (bottom left) takes a knee and reloads while Skye (bottom right, with Rocky at center bottom) leans out and fires, hitting the enemy team leader in the head (center top) and pinning the guy behind him (top left).

Seeing beaucoup bad guys coming up the slope and Tracker down reloading (center), Ryder dashes past him (just left of Tracker) to engage them, but then his rifle jams!!!

The bad guy on the road is pinned (black bead), having just had his team leader's brains splattered all over him by Skye...

He's had enough for today (top center, from center bottom).  And once he goes, his buddy (bottom center left)…

Decides two's company and joins him!

Rocky (bottom right, with Tracker and Ryder, both unable to fire -marked with purple beads- to his left) chuckles at watching those two guys take off, all assholes and elbows, then figures he oughtta make himself useful, so he pops up from behind the pickup and cuts loose with his rifle (no need to keep up with the suppressed pistol).

He pops the bad guy on the knoll (bottom center) in both legs, putting him out of the fight, then shifts fire to their team leader (just above him) and pops him in the head, out!  Ryder (top left) and Tracker (left) both hop up and charge nearby enemy soldiers...

Ryder (right), his rifle jammed, pulls his pistol and ends his bad guy, but Tracker runs into problems: his bad guy swings and fires wildly, hitting him in the left leg!  He dives for cover behind a nearby thatched hut!

Seeing Tracker getting his ass whooped, Skye (center, from bottom left) charges past Rocky and opens fire, hitting the bad guy in the right arm.

And then Chase moves up (bottom left, the rest of the guys at top left) and sights in on the enemy commander (top right), who's screaming and fumbling with his walkie-talkie, trying to call for help.  Chase sights in and fires...

But he's huffing and puffing from the dash up, plus he's wounded, and he misses the damn bad guy boss (bottom left)!  Which means the bad guy boss has had enough time to call for help, and so now more bad guys are on the way!

*I really can't believe that Chase missed, and then the enemy commander's card came out next...

Back in the northeast, Everest and Rubble, the support element, have eyes on the north end of the village (top center), but the friendlies are so mixed in with the bad guys they are no longer in position to help, so they start moving downhill towards the river (center, from bottom right) to get into better position to help out.  Marshall, Zuma, and Aarby are visible just across the river.

It's a new turn, and since the enemy commander got through to reinforcements on the radio, I place activation dice next to the two blue beads in the south (bottom center, with Marshall visible at top right and the big firefight in the village happening at top left).

And, of course, their cards begin coming out immediately.  The first enemy reinforcement team appears in the south (center).

And then the second enemy reinforcement team's card comes and they appear on the table...

Please keep in mind these new bad guy teams have not spotted the reserve element (top right) or the support element (off camera to right top), they are only aware of the Cubans in the north end of the village (top left), so when the bottom bad guy team's card comes out AGAIN, they decide to split up, one team heading left (bottom center), the other right (right).

*I'm still not sure what the bad guys should have done: on the one hand, this makes perfect sense that they would split up, but on the other hand, it would have made sense for the two reinforcing teams to stay together, too.  With their tactic of getting as close to the Cuban SOF as quickly as possible, they should have probably stayed together, but they didn't know about the reserve and support elements.  I think it wouldn't have gone well if they'd have stayed together and gone straight north (towards top right), it would have been too many guys in too small an area, but maybe if they'd have both gone left?  The world will never know...

Anyway, back in the north, the bad guy that shot Tracker, then was shot by Skye, is in trouble, because the boss-man, Ryder, has just popped in behind him (Skye's base is visible at top left)…

Ryder puts the bad guy out (center top left) and Skye moves up (center right), firing at the bad guy down the slope, dropping him.

Ryder (top right) and Skye (bottom right) turn to Tracker (top left): "are you ready, sweetheart?"  Tracker slaps a tourniquet around his calf and a new magazine in his rifle and nods, "yeah, I'm ready."

While those three are screwing around (top left), Rocky moves up (center right, from the red pickup) and pops the enemy boss in the left leg.  Off camera to bottom center, Chase reloads.

While in the south, the central enemy team moves north (center right, with the southern enemy team at bottom, moving left), hustling through the heavy bush and fields, hoping to come up behind this as-yet-unseen enemy, unaware there are Cubans right in front of them (Marshall is visible at top center)…

"Break-break-break, all stations, we've got enemy troops in the south, closing fast.  Be advised, a second team has split off and is heading your way (off camera to top right)!"

"Engaging."  Marshall (center top, with Aarby and Zuma at far right, and Everest and Rubble at bottom left) flicks the switch to full auto and opens fire at point-blank range...

He drops the point man and hits the slackman in the chest, wounding him, as Aarby (right) and Zuma move left to help him out.

Aarby hits the same guy, dropping him (top left), but Zuma (top right) misses with his M-60.  Everest shouts "lets' go!" and he and Rubble, unable to see anything from this side of the river, plunge into the cool, refreshing water (left, from bottom center), which is teeming with leeches and parasites that immediately set about killing them slowly...

Everest and Rubble are studs, pushing hard to get across the river with a quickness, where they move up to the brushline and join the fight.  Everest hits a bad guy in the right arm, then Rubble hits him in left arm, dropping him...

While Zuma and Aarby (bottom right, with Marshall to their left, and Rubble and Everest at far left) continue firing, but Aarby runs out of ammo and Zuma still doesn't hit anybody, though he does manage to pin a bad guy behind the bushes at top center.

Back in the north, Rocky has just shot the enemy commander in the leg, and now he closes in and finishes him off.

Rocky (bottom left) takes a look around as Ryder clears his malfunction and climbs the knoll to get a better look around (center bottom with Chase at top left, Tracker at top right, and Skye at far right).  The assault element has cleared the north end of the village, wiping out three enemy teams and their commander, and now they're ready to deal with the enemy team heading their way from the south, the one Marshall just warned about on the radio.

Ryder (center bottom) orients his team to the new threat (off camera to right) and gets them moving with a purpose.  Chase moves up (top center) and Tracker moves up to support (center right, peering around the retaining wall) as Skye moves down (far right) into cover...

Tracker and Skye (bottom left) open up on the unsuspecting bad guys (top right), who are busy double-timing through the undergrowth, unaware all of their comrades in the village have succumbed to the Cuban commandos.  But not all is peachy: Skye runs out of ammo and Tracker misses...

But the bloodbath continues in the center: Marshall carefully sights in and fires, popping one of the two remaining bad guys in the leg, and then the head, putting him out.

Which is enough for Everest and Rubble to decide it's time to assault through.  They both rush the last remaining bad guy in the center.

Putting him out of the fight (top right), but just as Rubble and Everest are high-fiving each other and giving 'good game' pats on the buttocks, their smiling eyes catch movement further south.  "Hey, what are they still doing here?  I thought they were busting ass to get to the north (top left) to help their buddies out, but it doesn't look like they made it very far!"  The government soldiers are similarly confused: "Who the hell is that?  And where did our brothers go?"

The bad guys are first to react, levelling their AKs and opening fire on Everest and Rubble, and it's not good: Rubble is hit in the left forearm, and Everest is hit in the left hip!  The enemy team leader orders the two men at far left to charge the invaders...

And they take off, but don't make it very far in the incredibly thick jungle (you can just see them amongst the trees, at top left, from far left).

"Uh, guys, Rubble and I may have acted a bit rashly, seems there's a few more bad guys up here than we thought, and the bastards shot me!"  stated Everest (he and Rubble are behind the bushes at center top, with the bad guys behind/in the trees at top right).  "Yeah man, they shot me, too!" Rubble piped up.  Marshall: "Alright guys, go get'em."  Aarby: "Sorry boss, I'm outta ammo."  Zuma: "Hey, I can't leave my partner."  Marshall: "You know, you guys can kiss my ass!"  Marshall lets out a sigh and moves up (left, from bottom center)...

Marshall (bottom center) moved up to the bushes and fired, hitting a bad guy in the leg (top center, with more bad guys in the trees at top right).  "Hey, where you guys at?"  "Over here."  "Eh?"  "Down here."  Marshall peered over at his two comrades, bloody and pinned down, trying to hide behind the bodies of the dead bad guys.  "Get your asses up!"  Everest and Rubble in unison: "Negative!"  "Hang on, I gotcha, coming in."  Rubble: "Boss, you might not wanna..."

Marshall busts through the bush (center, from bottom right, with Rubble and Everest at right), rifle shouldered and barking.  But right then two very important things happened: 1) his rifle jammed, and 2) he noticed the bad guys in the bush (top center).  "Uh, guys, I think I need help now..."

"Dammit..."  Zuma and Aarby begin moving up to get in the fight.

"Coming in!" Zuma and Aarby bust through the bush, and now we've got those two, Rubble, Everest, and Marshall all in the tiny clearing, with bad guys on two sides.  And they were just figuring out what a bad spot they'd gotten themselves into...

*That was twice that a unit got to activate twice in a row, first Marshall did it, then Zuma and Aarby.

When the two bad guys in the trees burst into the clearing, running smack dab into Aarby and Zuma!

Aarby drops his antagonist, but Zuma is hit in the left side!

Meanwhile, back in the village, Tracker (bottom left, with Skye above him) opens fire, trying to take out the three bad guys in the open (top right) before they can move up and support their buddies in the close combat (behind the trees at top center) with Marshall, Rubble, Everest, Zuma, and Aarby, but he misses again!!!

Chase moves up next to Tracker (bottom left), while Ryder and Rocky (center left) move up and lay down fire on the bad guys (top right) as Skye dashes ahead (top center).  Ryder kills the enemy team leader as Rocky hits a bad guy in the arm and pins the guy Marshall shot in the leg.

Chase (bottom left), up higher, lays down fire as Skye, Ryder, and Rocky move up.

Skye closes in (bottom left), firing as he goes, but he misses.

Back in the clearing, Marshall moves up (purple bead) to save Zuma (yellow bead) from the still-at large bad guy...

And Marshall drops him.

And with that, the last two bad guys, both wounded, head for the hills!

Whew, that was close.  You're probably thinking it wasn't a big deal, not close, but you don't understand how lucky I was, the margin was razor thin!  Chase got hit in the left arm, Tracker in the right leg, Rubble in the right arm, Everest in the left hip, and Zuma in the left side; I let the bad guys get way too close, getting into melee numerous times, and any one of those could have been in that hit location but in an incapacitating manner, or any one of those could have got one of my guys in the head.  So I got away with a few wounds (and yes, I'm cheating, I'm not carrying wounds over from game to game), but no one is permanently out of the fight, and after Chase got him in the arm I spent the whole rest of the game puckered up, waiting for one of my guys to go down.

So with all that said, this fight went pretty much exactly as it did in the movie, where only the team leader, Bruce Willis, was wounded, and the village was quickly cleaned out and the massacre ended.  Ryder got the team back to the refugees, formed up, and got back on the trail, moving towards salvation, knowing the enemy would be hot on their heels since the on-scene commander was able to get a radio message out.

Ryder and the rest of the Cuban SOF members pushed the refugees relentlessly, marching all through the night with very few breaks, hoping to stay ahead of the pursuing government troops.  Oh, and at some point the next morning they figured out the assassinated president's son was among their group of refugees, and this helped explain why the government troops were so hot in their pursuit of this little band of miscreants.  There was serious discussion as to whether the team should break off and fight a delaying action to allow the refugees, the Cameraman, and the Reporter to cross the border, but the consensus was that the bad guys had probably figured out where they were heading, and so it was conceivable there were enemy soldiers ahead of them as well.  So the team stayed with the refugee column, providing 360-degree security as they moved.  Everything was going well until about 0930, when Tracker, walking point, called a halt; something wasn't right up ahead.

V/R,
Jack