All,
1000 on 4 Aug 1990
Mini-Campaign Fight #2
TF Bowie vs FSNL 4th Company
Bronze Star w/V, War of Liberation and South Leon campaigns
1st Lt Madre-Animral leads his TF Bowie straight east, assaulting the FSNL 4th Company's positions. This is a simple attack/defend scenario; the Cuban goal is to crush their enemies on the way to the capital, the Communist goal is to hold the ground.
Overview, north is up. There is a hardball road running southwest to northeast, with two small hamlets present (top center and bottom left), as well as several knolls/hillocks. 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.
1st Lt Madre-Animral's force consists of: Command stand, four rifle stands, an LAV-25, and one HMMWV with Mk-19 40mm automatic grenade launcher (AGL). These troops are Minifigs' Modern US with a BPM LAV and HMMWV.
The Cuban initial dispositions, from top left to bottom right: Bowie 01, 02, 03, commander, LAV and HMMWV, and Bowie 04.
The Communist defenses: rifle teams at bottom left, top center left, center, bottom center right, top center right, and far right, commander at center top right, mortar team at top right, and AGL team at bottom center. I'm a bit scared, lots of good, long fields of fire for the bad guys here.
Let's get it on! Not great news, the fight start before TF Bowie has even jumped off, when Hammer 04 (bottom left) spots some enemy soldiers milling around (top right) and opens fire.
The Communist team is pinned down, so Hammer 04 dashes ahead (center, from bottom left).
But the enemy AGL team (bottom right) spots them (top left) and opens fire, popping 30mm grenades at them.
Hammer 04 is pinned down (center bottom), but Lt Madre-Animral and his command element immediately dash forward to rally them as the HMMWV (bottom left) opens fire with its Mk-19...
The American-made 40mm grenades pin the targeted Communist rifle team (center) and the HMMWV pushes forward (top right), drawing ineffectual small arms fire from the rifle team on the hill (bottom left).
The LAV (bottom left) then opens fire on the ville (top right) with its 25mm cannon...
But its fire is off target (far right) and when it moves up to the treeline (top left) the enemy returns fire and suppresses the crew!
Just as the enemy mortar team (bottom left) begins pumping out 82mm mortar rounds at the concentration of Cuban forces at top right.
Lt Madre-Animral (far right) looks on as the HMMWV is immobilized by the HE rounds, though the crew stays with the vehicle, suppressed, and Bowie 04 is pinned again!
In the center, the enemy commander dashes forward under fire and rallies his pinned rifle team.
And as he's doing that (bottom left), another rifle team moves up (center, from far right) and opens fire on the HMMWV, Bowie 04, and Lt Madre-Animral (top left)...
Putting Bowie 04 'men down'! Lt Madre-Animral )bottom left) is cool under fire, and everywhere all at once: he rallies Bowie 04...
Then dashes across the fire-swept highway to rally the LAV crew!
The LAV (bottom left) has spotted the heavily defended enemy position in the southeast treeline (top right, a rifle team and the AGL) and opens fire.
Suppressing the AGL and pinning the rifle team!
Which clears the way for Bowie 04 to charge the nearby pinned enemy rifle team (bottom right, from left)!
The Cuban Marines are victorious, but hold fast as there's not much cover ahead of them.
Lt Madre-Animral (center bottom) yells orders for Teams 01, 02, and 03 to advance, and they dash ahead (this was a group move).
But the enemy rifle team in the center (bottom right) spots the Cuban move (top/far left) and opens fire, suppressing Bowie 03.
And then, out of the blue, the enemy mortar explodes, mortally wounding its crew! Turns out they got some faulty ammunition from China: the increments were defective, caught fire in the tube, which was fouled, and the pressure an heat caused the round to hang fire and detonate.
*I can't wait to hear all the whining about how I cheated, but I swear, I played this exactly how it happened: it was the Communist turn and they got a 'normal' activation and a 'random event,' which turned out to be "Accident, roll one Kill dice and apply to a random team." So I rolled a Kill dice and it came up a '6' (literally a "kill"), then rolled to see which team it would be applied to, and it was the mortar team. So kiss a duck!
The enemy rifle team in the ville (bottom right) fires on the LAV (top left)...
The fire is ineffective, but they do manage to make it up to the treeline (center, from top right).
As the enemy CO dashes south (center bottom, from top center) to rally the troops there, getting the rifle team back in action but still needing to travel a bit further and rally the AGL crew (red bead at bottom left).
A Communist rifle team creeps out from behind the knoll (far right) and launches an RPG at the LAV.
It misses, but the explosion is close enough to pin the crew again. Lt Madre-Animral (bottom left) rallies the LAV crew and Bowie 03, then screams for all Bowie callsigns to go cyclic (everybody fire)!
*The Cubans rolled up a 'firefight.'
The LAV (bottom left) opens fire on the distant treeline (top right).
Knocking out one of the enemy rifle teams there, but leaving the other untouched.
Bowie 03 (bottom left) engages the sneaky little RPG-shooters (top right), pinning them.
On the far right, Bowie 04 (bottom left) fires on the southeastern treeline (top right), to no effect.
As do Bowie 01 and 02 (bottom left, also firing on the southeastern treeline at top right, with Bowie 04 at far right).
The enemy returns fire on Bowie 04 (top left), putting them 'men down'!
The enemy CO rallies the AGL team (bottom left) as the rifle team on the hill (bottom right) engages the LAV (top left) to no effect.
Then the AGL crew (bottom center, sorry, haven't removed the red bead yet) opens fire on the LAV (top left), but the 30mm grenades bounce off harmlessly and fail to negatively impact the crew.
The LAV (bottom left) immediately returns fire with its 25mm gun, suppressing the rifle team in the southeast treeline (top right).
Meanwhile, the sneaky Commies at the knoll (bottom right) have reloaded and fire another RPG at the LAV (far left)...
Smoking the steel beast...
Lt Madre-Animral, dodging enemy fire and falling chunks of the burning LAV, dashes back across the road (bottom right) to rally the HMMWV crew. They snap to, getting the Mk-19 back in action, firing on the enemy's central position (top center), pinning a rifle team.
As Bowie 03 charges (center, from the trees at left) the exposed enemy rifle team that just smoked the LAV...
The Communist AGL crew (bottom left) spots them (top left) and opens fire, trying to save to save their pinned comrades...
But the incoming grenades have no effect and the Cuban Marines get stuck in!
They finish off their foes (far left) and continue their rampage, charging another pinned enemy team (to right)!
Putting a second enemy team out of the fight (far left), Bowie 03 continues pushing east (right).
Having sustained heavy casualties and now with Cubans on their exposed right flank (top left), the remaining enemy forces (CO, AGL Team, and two rifle teams) retreat, ceding the battlefield to the Task Force Bowie.
TF Bowie wins and holds its ground (E3), forcing FSNL4 to fall back to the east (E4). Next turn TF Bowie is free to do as it pleases, while the enemy will be most likely to continue retreating, likely to hold, and less likely to counterattack (courses of action for the die roll decision process).
Another short, sharp fight that saw a Cuban victory based on some Hollywood-style heroics, though not as short as the first fight, and kinda painful with getting the LAV knocked out and the HMMWV shot up (it will have to be totaled). A good seesaw fight that could have gone either way, with the difference being Lt Madre-Animral's ability to keep running to and fro to keep his various team sin the fight. It was much harder for the Communist commander to do that as his teams were much more spread out. Oh yeah, and the enemy mortar blowing itself up helped, too ;)
Casualties:
Cuban: ~10 men, one LAV-25 and one HMMWV destroyed
Communist: ~25 men
Decorations:
Tm 3 Leader was awarded the Silver Star for leading two close assaults that eliminated two enemy rifle teams and flanked the enemy defensive line, compelling the Communists to withdraw rather than be destroyed.
Next up we have 1st Lt Espinale's TF Hawk attacking the FLA's 2nd Company.
V/R,
Jack
Excellent report! It's inspired me to dig out some of my AK47 units to try out the 5 Core rules. :0)
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Jim, can't wait to see them!
DeleteV/R,
Jack