TF Bowie vs FSNL 4th Company
Navy Cross, Bronze Star w/V, War of Liberation and South Leon campaigns
Tm3 (Medal of Honor, Silver Star, battlefield commission to 2nd Lieutenant)
Captain Madre-Animral leads his TF Bowie against the FSNL's 4th Company, with whom they are very familiar. That familiarity is born of two absolutely ferocious battles they've faced each other in previously. Having pushed the Communists back earlier, TF Bowie now finds itself on the receiving end as the Communists mount a last-ditch counterattack! This is a simple attack-defend scenario: the Communist forces are seeking to eject the Cubans from this particular piece of real estate, while the Cubans are seeking to hold it.
Overview, north is up. There is a hardball road running north to south, with a decent-sized village present (bottom right), as well as several knolls/hillocks, to include the prominent Hill 182 at left. Other than that we've got several cultivated fields and scattered jungle.
The opposing forces, allies on left and Communists on right.
The figures are all 10mm from Pendraken, Minifigs UK, and Butler's Printed Models. I'm using Ivan's "5Core Company Command," playing on a 3' x 2' surface with simple terrain to speed up the process. The hootches are from Jimmi at Flashpoint Minis, the roads are from Fat Frank, the hills are from Warzone, the fences are from Sarissa, the fields are from Hotzmats, the trees are cake toppers, and when you see the rivers, they're from Wargamers Terrain. I'm playing solo and will randomize enemy deployment using a system of blinds borrowed from Joe Legan's "Platoon Forward."
In terms of caliber of forces, the SLA, FSNL, and FLA troops will all be treated equally, except for the fact the FLA troops will be treated as fanatics, in terms of their willingness to advance into close combat. The Cubans are more tactically and technically proficient, and so they will receive extra firing dice, better rallying capability, bonus in close combat, and sometimes will have a second command stand on the table.
Captain Madre-Animral's force consists of: a command stand, six rifle teams, an LAV-25, a machine gun team, and an 81mm mortar team. These troops are Minifigs' Modern US with a BPM LAV.
*There is also now a separate command figure for Lt Peria, who was the Bowie 03 Team Leader but has now been promoted to Executive Officer.
TF Bowie also has some heroes amongst its ranks:
-CO Captain Madre-Animral was awarded the Navy Cross and a Bronze Star w/V
-XO Lt Peria was awarded the Medal of Honor and the Silver Star, and was provided a battlefield commission to 2nd Lieutenant
-
Bowie 02 Team Leader was awarded the Bronze Star w/V
The Task Force Bowie Executive Officer, hero extraordinaire, and now living legend, 2nd Lieutenant Ray Peria.
The Communist force consists of: a command stand, five rifle teams, and a BMP-2. The figures and BMP are from Minifigs' Modern Soviets.
It doesn't really look like random deployment, but it was: the Communists have all five rifle teams on Hill 182, while their BMP is on the north side (bottom left).
The time to fight is upon us! Despite being on the defensive, Captain Madre-Animral remains aggressive: as soon as enemy troops were spotted behind them on Hill 182, he ordered the mortar team (bottom right) to begin firing and he led Bowie 04, 05, and 06 forward (bottom center).
The mortar rounds managed to suppress one enemy team (red bead at bottom left) and pin another (yellow bead), while the rifle team on the military crest opened fire on the advancing Cuban Marines (top right)
Bowie 06 went 'men down' (white bead at bottom center) and Bowie 05 was suppressed, as the Cuban MG team (top right) returned fire, pinning the enemy rifle team atop Hill 182 (top left).
On Hill 182, the Communist Commander (center left, the stand with three figures, one with a light blue beret) gets to work: he rallies the two pinned and one suppressed rifle teams...
And then orders everyone forward, including the BMP, which moves up on his far left flank.
The Communist infantry, streaming down the east slope of Hill 182.
On the Cuban left, Bowie 04 continues to push ahead (bottom left, with Hill 182 visible at top left) as Captain Madre-Animral falls back and rallies Bowie 05 and 06 (bottom right).
They immediately push ahead (center/left), as does Bowie 03 (top right), spotting enemy infantry nearby (top left).
On the far right, the LAV zooms up (top left), past the MG team (bottom right) and Bowie 03 (center left).
Lt Peria dismounts with Bowie 01 and 02.
The LAV spots the Communist BMP and opens fire with its 25mm auto-cannon, suppressing it!
As the Cuban MG team (bottom left) and Bowie 03 (center, with the LAV, Lt Peria, and Bowie 01 and 02 at far right, and Bowie 04 and 05 visible at top left) open fire on enemy infantry on Hill 182 (top center right), pinning a rifle team.
On the Cuban left, Bowie 04 and 05 also fire on enemy infantry on Hill 182, pinning another rifle team.
The Cuban mortar team (bottom right) fires to the north (top left), seeking to separate the Communist infantry from the suppressed BMP..
But the rounds are long and do not affect the intended target...
The enemy returns fire*: on their right they fire on Bowie 04 and 05...
*The Cubans rolled a 'Firefight!', then the Commies did, too.
And a roll of 'boxcars' means both are suppressed!
*Yeah, two rifle teams each rolled a single Shock dice, and both rolled sixes.
The Cuba MG team (bottom right) returns fire (top left), keeping them pinned down.
While the LAV continues firing on the BMP, keeping it suppressed.
*That was a fancy way of saying neither the MG team nor the LAV hit anything...
The Cuban mortar team (bottom right) adjusts fire and sends more 81mm HE rounds downrange...
And this time they're on the money, putting the rifle team 'men down' and forcing the suppressed BMP to fall back (bottom left0, from top center)!
The mortar team (bottom right) continues firing as Captain Madre-Animral moves up (bottom center left) and rallies Bowie 05 and 05.
While Lt Peria leads the troops forward on the Cuban right, where they briefly halt to allow the mortars to shift fire, having just knocked out an enemy rifle team (far left).
In the south, with the CO rallying Bowie 04 and 05 (bottom center), Bowie 06 moves up (top center)...
They (top center) draw fire from an enemy rifle team (bottom left)...
But they (bottom right) only end up exchanging ineffectual small arms fire.
On the enemy left, their CO falls back down the west side off Hill 182 and rallies the shaken BMP crew (far left, from far right).
The BMP is good to go and charges back into action (top right, from bottom left), where it rallies the 'men down' rifle team. They immediately open fire on Lt Peria's troops...
As does another Communist rifle team (bottom center, with the BMP and recently rallied team off camera to left)! Lt Peria's force suffers under the crossfire: the LAV and Bowie 01 (top center) are both suppressed, but...
Bowie 02 (center bottom) is able to return fire (top left).
Knocking out one of the enemy rifle teams (casualty figures at right)!
Lt Peria rushes forward to rally Bowie 01 as Bowie 02 (top right) continues laying down fire on the remaining enemy rifle team in the north (top left)...
But the fire is ineffective, so when Bowie 02 pushes forward (top right) the Communist riflemen are able to cut loose...
And they do, knocking Bowie 02 out of the fight (casualty figures at bottom center)! The LAV vehicle commander (top right) again orders his gunner to engage the BMP (far left), and again the BMP crew is suppressed by the 25mm rounds.
And then the Cuban mortar team (bottom right) again fires on the Communist left flank (top left, with Lt Peria's force at top center left)...
Another enemy rifle team is knocked out (casualty figures at right) and the BMP is again forced to fall back, right back to its waiting Commander (bottom left), who promptly rallies the crew...
And orders them to take up position on Hill 182 (center top from top left). This allows the pinned rifle at center to rally, but another pinned team failed and fell back (bottom left, from right).
The Communists are down to their CO (top left), their BMP (left), and two rifle teams (left and far left), one of which is suppressed, as the Cubans press forward, tightening the noose.
And take advantage of the lull in the fighting to push even deeper into enemy territory, practically on top of the outnumbered Communist troops!
*The bad guys rolled a 'scurry,' so they moved, then the good guys moved, then the good guys rolled a 'scurry,' so the good guys just closed the distance in a hurry.
The enemy CO (far left) rallies his suppressed rifle team and adjusts his lines, praying the end will come quick and painlessly, but his men aren't so content to sit back and await death. His right-hand rifle team (center, the other is just to their left) decides to take matters into their own hands!
The Communists let out a blood-curdling yell and charge Bowie 05 as Bowie 06 looks on helplessly!
Bowie 05 goes down (bottom left) in a flurry of grenades and point-blank gunfire as the enemy team pushes into Bowie 06!
Bowie 06 goes down (bottom center) and the Commies continue their rampage, plunging into Bowie 03 (right)!
A trail of death and destruction in their wake, having won three consecutive close combats with even odds, the Communist team plunges into Bowie 01 and Lt Peria...
But this time the Cuban Marines, buttressed by the Medal of Honor-winning Lt Peria, halt the Communist onslaught in its tracks! But the Cuban get overconfident, pushing ahead...
Where their LAV becomes exposed to the BMP and its 30mm cannon...
Which opens it up like a fresh can of tuna!!!
*All those shots by the LAV with 1K 2S and only manage to suppress it, the BMP Guard Fires with 1K and knocks it out...
The last remaining Communist rifle team, stunned by their comrades' sudden defeat after such a string of successes, opens fire into Bowie 01's flank...
They (behind the trees at center) miss, but so does Bowie 01's (bottom center) return fire, so Lt Peria bellows out "Follow Me!"
And leads them into close combat!
The last Communist rifle team is easily bested, and Lt Peria and Bowie 01 move up to capture the enemy CO and BMP crew, ending the fight!
TF Bowie defeats the FSNL's 4th Company for the third and final time, eliminating them as an effective fighting force. But TF Bowie is pretty beat up and needs an operational pause to rest and reorganize, so they hold tight at E4 rather than press ahead.
An interesting fight; other than the LAV's poor marksmanship (though not terrible, he still suppressed the BMP twice), everything seemed to be going the Cubans' way, particularly with those back-to back Scurries that allowed them to shoot across half the table in an instant. If things went easy from there I would have said that the Cuban mortar team was the 'most valuable player,' knocking out two rifle teams and twice forcing the BMP to fall back under intense fire, but things didn't go easy from there. Things got very hard from there, actually, and scared the hell out of me! What was supposed to be a half-hearted, last-ditch effort that lost and saw the remaining enemy forces surrender ended up massacring three Cuban rifle teams and setting up the LAV to get knocked out by the BMP! What a world...
Cuban: ~25 men and one LAV-25
Communist: ~25 men with ~10 men and one BMP-2 captured
Decorations:
Lt Beria, TF Bowie's XO, was awarded the Silver Star for defeating the enemy in close combat so stave off the collapse of the entire right flank, then leading a close assault that defeated another enemy rifle team and captured their commander and an armored fighting vehicle to seal the victory.
Bowie 01 Team Leader was awarded the Bronze Star w/V for fighting off an enemy assault that threatened to collapse the Cuban right flank, then participating in the close assault that defeated another enemy rifle team and captured their commander and an armored fighting vehicle to seal the victory.
Next up we have the Lt Espinale's Task Force Hawk attacking the FSNL's 7th Company.
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