Operation Chunky Bandit #3

All,

Current situation: It's 2100 on 29 July 1990 in South Leon.  Lt Gouveia's TF Black has moved into an area northwest of Pendrakenville, just east of Route 1.  To their immediate northwest is Hill 114, the dominating terrain feature they're looking for to establish an OP on and call in Cuban tactical air.  The past two days have seen South Leon Army forces attacking  FSNL troops occupying Hill 114, to no avail, and so the Cubans have stepped in to take over the area of operations.  Knowing they have time as freshly landed Cuban task forces (Hammer, Bowie, Dusty, Hawk, and 23) form up and prepare for the attack on Pendrakenville, and being severely outnumbered, Lt Gouveia has made the choice to carry out operations to reduce the enemy forces in and around Hill 114 only at night, where he figures his highly trained Special Forces troops will have a significant advantage.

Two nights ago Lt Gouveia led a 7-man patrol out to Hill 45/Siagnoa, where they ambushed a Free Leon Army (FLA) patrol slinking about, trying to recover a weapons cache.  The enemy guerrillas were sent packing, having not reached the cache and leaving three of their comrades dead on the battlefield.

Last night MSG Soriano led another combat patrol out, this time to Hill 30, where they entered the Church right before encountering an enemy patrol closing in, on their way to recover a weapons cache.  The Cubans executed another flawless ambush, halting the enemy and costing them two more men.

And here it is, our little patch of No Man's Land in South Leon, north is up.  The enemy entry point is in the northwest (top left), on Hill 114, and the Cuban entry point is in the southeast (bottom right).  A deep, swift river crossable only at the four bridges (left, top center, center, and bottom center right) dominates the landscape, running north to south, with a branch heading west (left) to the sea.  There is an old colonial, bombed out church atop a small hill (Hill 30, bottom center), and there is an old garage/junkyard suspected of harboring insurgents in the northeast (top right), aside from four villages spread across the landscape (far bottom left, bottom left center, center left, and center right, atop Hill 45).  There are also two weapons caches on the table, one in the northeast, in the junkyard, and one just east of the bottom right bridge.  A dirt road traverses the terrain from west to east, with a feeder coming in from the southwest (bottom left).  Villages:
Far bottom left: Village 1 (Danfra)

Bottom left center: Village 2 (Marambokro)

Center left: Village 3 (Lasau)
Center right (atop Hill 45): Village 4 (Siagnoa)

The Cuban forces, stepping off in the southeast (bottom right), a seven-man force carrying out a patrol to snatch a prisoner to bring back for interrogation.  The patrol consists of:

1st Lieutenant "Lobo" Gouveia, Detachment Commander (SS/V, PH, WLC, SLC)

SFC "Carpet" Marichal (WLC, SLC)

SSG "Starburst" Aparicio (WLC, SLC)

SSG "Tahoe" Galarraga (WLC, SLC)

SSG "Gundog" Baerga (WLC, SLC)

SSG "Expo" Minoso (WLC, SLC)

SGT "Racer" Palmeiro (WLC, SLC)

Here is the Cuban patrol route.  The numbers represent where the patrol will be during each turn; for example, their starting and end point is F4, where they begin the game (Turn 1) and end the game (Turn 20).  The plan is to move to The Church, camp out for a bit, move into Lasau, camp out a bit, move up Hill 45 to Siagnoa, camp out a bit, move down to where intel has said the enemy has a weapons cache (E3), camp out a bit, then come home if they haven't spotted anything by that point.

The enemy is a bit frustrated; the past two nights they've headed out, trying to pick up some ordnance, but been ambushed both times, losing five men and not getting anywhere near the weapons caches.  So tonight they're going to move off Hill 114 (A1), cross the river at Bridge #2 (D3), service the cache at E3, then plant some mines in Siagnoa (E2), then cross Bridge #1 (D2) and move south, planting some more mines on the east slope of Hill 30 (near the Church, D4), before heading home.

The game is afoot: Lobo leads the Cubans up to Bridge #2 (center), while the FLA guerrillas move south off of Hill 114 (top left).

The Cubans are across Bridge #2 and moving up Hill 30 to the Church (left), while the bad guys are crossing Bridge #3 (top left).

The Cubans camp out in the Church for a bit (far left), hoping to run into the enemy, whom they don't spot moving up to Bridge #1 (center top left).

The Cubans are still camping out in the Church (far left) as the enemy creeps south along the west bank of the river (center left).

The Cubans even put a man up in the tower, but it's dark (about 2245 by now) and the bad guys are super sneaky (center top).

And the Cubans in the Church (far left) don't spot the bad guys crossing Bridge #2 (center), closing in on their weapons cache (just east, right, of the bridge they're on).

It's 2315 and the Cubans are still in the Church (far left), while the bad guys have finally gotten to their weapons cache (center) and they're digging it up.

Pulling all kinds of nasty stuff out of the ground.

And while the FLA patrol is doing that (center), the Cubans begin moving north into Lasau (left).

The Cubans are checking the village (far left) at midnight as the FLA troops begin moving up Hill 45 to Siagnoa (center top, just right of the river).

On opposite sides of the river, the Cubans (bottom) find themselves searching Lasau as bad guys are just across the river (just right of the bridge).

The Cubans fan out in the village, hoping to find them a prisoner...

As the bad guys move up the hill into Siagnoa (top right).

Once there (top right), the FLA troops begin planting land mines for the Cubans to find...

The Cubans prepare to move out of Lasau, when they hear something.  Lobo pumps his fist right, signaling the team 'ambush right.'  The Cubans fan out, from top left: Gundog (in the trees, with the M-60), Carpet, and Lobo, with Tahoe and Racer on either side of the bridge, Expo below Racer (hiding at the hut at bottom center), and Starburst behind the drums at bottom right.

As the bad guys begin moving down Hill 45 towards Bridge #1 and Lasau (top)…

The Cubans look on patiently, preparing to spring another ambush.  They're going to let the enemy get as close as humanly possible, so they can grab one and take him home.

The bad guys continue diddy-bopping up the road...

The enemy pointman pulls even with Racer and Tahoe...

Lobo (red beret, with Carpet above him) lets out a scream: "Go, go, go!!!"

From the far left, Gundog (bottom left, in the trees) opens up with his M-60 machine gun.  The idea is for him to initiate the ambush, firing allowing the point man to get deep, then firing behind him to pin down his follow-on comrades, isolating him so he can be grabbed.

And Gundog's fire is quite effective, knocking down the enemy leader (white bead at right) and pinning the slack man (yellow bead at far left).

As the gunfire shatters the silent night, Racer (bottom right) looks on as Tahoe emerges from beside the bridge to grab the enemy pointman!

Racer (bottom right) fires on the pinned enemy slack man (top right) as Tahoe subdues the pointman and drags him back into cover (far left)!

*That wasn't automatic, I rolled like a normal close combat, even rolled to see if things would get out of hand and Tahoe would have to kill him, but it all worked according to plan.

Racer drops the slack man and the light machine gunner behind him, leaving only the knocked down enemy leader on the bridge!

Enemy troops further back belatedly react to the Cuban gunfire!  An enemy rifleman (center bottom, the one with the furthest left on the road) sights in on Racer (top left) and cuts loose!

Racer (far left) is pinned down, as Expo (bottom left) returns fire.

Expo (top left) knocks down the bad guy (bottom center right, white bead) that pinned Racer (top center left), while the rear bad guy (bottom right) opens up on Expo...

Driving him back (red bead at far left, from explosion to his right).  On the Cuban far right, Starburst (bottom center) gets into the fight, emptying a magazine back across the river...

Dropping one bad guy, pinning another (yellow bead), and knocking down the RPG gunner (white bead)!

Lobo and Carpet dash up to the bridge to help Tahoe secure the prisoner.

As the pinned enemy rifleman grabs the knocked down RPG gunner and runs like hell (top right, from bottom center left), leaving his boss knocked down on the bridge (far left)!

The Cubans quickly secure the area.

Four dead bad guys and one with a busted jaw.  Hope it doesn't affect his ability to answer the interrogator's questions, time to head home!

The Cubans have had quite a streak, three successful missions in a row without a single casualty, with another mission coming up tomorrow night.  The boys were in high spirits on the march back to base, blissfully unaware everything was about to change...

V/R,
Jack