TF Razor vs FLA 3rd Company
Silver Star, War of Liberation and South Leon campaigns
Now we have Captain Soares' Task Force Razor fighting a rear-guard action against the Free Leon Army's 3rd Company. TF Razor is the other part of Task Group Fulgencio, which was cut off from friendly forces and is now fighting west to break out and return to friendly lines. Unfortunately the withdrawal was halted when FSNL5 decided to counterattack TF Redleg on Hill 261, which allowed the pursuing FLA3 to catch them.
This fight is occurring west to east (right to left), with the pursuing enemy insurgents chasing the Cubans, and the Cubans starting spread across the right half of the board and having to withdraw their forces off the left table edge.
Overview, north is up. There is a hardball road running from the south to northeast, with hamlets at top right and center, as well as several knolls/hillocks. Other than that we've got several cultivated fields and scattered jungle. Oh, and that giant elevation, Hill 261.
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 Soares' Task Force Razor consists of: a command stand, four rifle teams, a machine gun team, a mortar team, and a VAB armored personnel carrier with .50-cal HMG. These troops are Minifigs' Modern French.
TF Redleg has some heroes amongst its ranks, as well:
Redleg 02's team leader was awarded the Silver Star
Redleg 05's team leader was awarded the Bronze Star w/V
The Communist force consists of: a command stand, six rifle stands, a 107mm recoiless rifle team, and a 12.7mm DshK HMG mounted on a 'Technical.' These troops are Minifigs' Urban Insurgents.
*These are lightly armed and hardly trained local insurgents/militia, but don't forget these guys' zeal and propensity for charging into close combat.
The Cuban paratroopers, from top left: Razor 01, with Captain Soares' command team below them, Razor 04, the mortar team, the MG team, Razor 04 (bottom center right), the VAB (far right), and Razor 02 (bottom left).
*Sure, kinda strange, but that's what random deployment will get ya!
The Communists have rifle teams at top right (three, with two visible and one hidden by trees), center right (two in the trees, where their commander is also located), and one at bottom center, with the recoiless rifle team on the hill above them and the Technical behind.
I'm going to call that clump of trees surrounding the cultivated field at far right 'The Grove,' so as to give you an easy terrain reference.
Let us get to it then! I rolled to see which side would go first, weighted towards the bad guys (+2), but the Cubans still got lucky and pulled it out, so the fight starts in a bit of crisis when the VAB vehicle commander (bottom left) looks up to find the Communists have snuck up a rifle team (top right) and a recoiless rifle team (center right top) right on top of them (he can't see the Technical, it's behind the knoll). He jumps on the .50-cal and opens fire, pinning both the rifle team and the heavy weapons crew!
The VAB then pulled back behind a nearby hill to the west (far left, from bottom center).
The Cuban mortar team (bottom left) then opened fire on the large concentration of enemy infantry in the grove (top right).
But, being Army, they missed. Damn, if ever there was a plum target for mortars...
That pinned unit just visible at bottom left is the recoiless rifle team.
From the center of the ville, the Cuban MG team (bottom center, with Razor 02 at far left and Razor 01 at top left) cuts loose on the enemy troops in the other village (top center).
And the results are devastating, with the jungle huts providing absolutely no cover vs the 7.62mm slugs coming from the M-240G. One insurgent team is knocked out, one is 'men down' (white bead), and one is suppressed (red bead)!
And then the MG team falls back, across the street.
An enemy rifle team (bottom right) in the grove spots them (top left) and opens fire, to no effect.
But the enemy CO screams at them to keep firing as he dashes right (bottom right) to rally his flagging right flank.
And this time the enemy fire is devastating: the mortar team and MG team are both 'men down,' and Razor 4 is suppressed (red bead)!!!
The just-rallied rifle team in the village opens fire on Razor 03 (top center) and puts them 'men down,' too!
The Commies rolled up a "Firefight!" and this has gotten real ugly, real quick, and I'm worried TF Razor, with three teams 'men down' and one suppressed, is about to be overrun. The only good news is that their units in the southeast, including the Technical, weren't able to participate as they didn't have any targets in sight and aren't allowed to move.
Razor 01 (top center) is in great position to return fire, but their SAW jams!!!
Captain Soares (left) scans the battlefield, assesses the situation, and curses under this breath. "Alright boys, time to make the doughnuts."
*The bad guys also rolled up a random event, "Opening," which allows them to prevent one of my teams from reaction firing, and this was it.
Captain Soares dashes over to check on Razor 03 (Razor 01 is at top right)...
But they're knocked out!!!
*Yeah, when a team is 'men down' they are treated as even worse than suppressed, so that they are not allowed to self rally, they can only be rallied by a friendly unit coming in contact with them, and then you still have to roll a D6 to see if it worked. If you roll a 2-5 they're good to go, a 1 means they stay down, and a 6 means they're out of the fight, they no longer constitute and effective fighting force.
That really sucks as I've got two more teams that are 'men down,' so I needed them to be good, then they could move over to check the next 'men down' team, right?
Instead, Razor 01 (top left) gets in the fight, opening fire on the grove (top right), suppressing one enemy rifle team and pinning the other!
Before falling back (far left, from center top). Bad guys in the village (top right) spot them and open fire, but miss.
*Yeah, don't forget, this is a fighting withdrawal.
Further up the slope of Hill 261, Razor 02 (bottom left) opens fire to cover their comrades (Razor 01 and Captain Soares, center left), pouring fire into the grove (top right).
Knocking out one enemy team and suppressing the other!
*Okay, I definitely cheated there, Razor 02 should not have gotten any Kill dice as the grove is substantial cover, they should only have been firing with Shock dice. My bad, I swear it was an accident...
Razor 02 then charges back down slope to go and assist the 'men down' mortar team (right, from far left), and they're good to go, back in the fight!
Trying to help out, the VAB commander moves up the road (center, from bottom center) to try and rally Razor 04, but they panic and fall back (bottom left)! Nonplussed, the vehicle commander opens fire on the village with his .50-cal HMG...
And if the flimsy jungle huts are not going to protect you from 7.62mm rounds, they sure as hell aren't going to protect you from .50-caliber rounds! Another enemy rifle team is knocked out, and the enemy commander is pinned down.
The Communists roll up a 'Firefight!', but they don't have anyone that can fire, so it converts to a 'scurry,' which will certainly help them. They set about a round of self-rallying and everybody (rifle team at bottom left, recoiless rifle team at left, and rifle team in the grove -top center) is good, except the commander (far right), who rolled 'snake-eyes,' which caused him to stay pinned. The Communists have a rifle team just off camera to far right that is 'men down,' so it can't self rally.
Meanwhile, the Technical (left) is getting antsy, feels like he needs to do something...
*Yeah, when commanders are attempting to rally they roll 2D6 and take the better roll. I also do this for the Cubans when their CO is trying to rally someone, but not when a team is self-rallying. That's a benefit of being a better class of troop.
So he goes tearing off after the Cubans (left, from far right)!
The VAB commander knows he needs to do something to keep the Cuban right flank from crumbling. He knows it's going to draw fire from that nasty 12.7mm DsHK, but he also knows that something's gotta be done now, so he orders his driver to head back south (bottom center, from top right)...
And, as expected, they begin taking fire as soon as they come around the hill!
But they hang in there and return fire on the Technical, pinning its crew!
The Cuban mortar team (bottom left, with Razor 04 and the MG team, which is still 'men down) is now back in business, and begins pounding the grove (top right).
Where they pound another Communist rifle team into dust!
Razor 02 rallies the MG team, then advances into the street and fires a LAW at the enemy Technical...
Ka-Boom!!!
While on the enemy far right, their commander, still pinned, moves up to check on his last remaining rifle team on the right, but they stay 'men down'!
*The bad guys have absolutely no luck this game. They also rolled another 'Firefight!' and again cannot use it because no one is able to fire, so it again converts to a 'scurry.' They also rolled another random event and it's the exact same one they got earlier, "Opening." But no one can fire during a 'scurry,' anyway...
On the Communist left, their rifle team (bottom center left) and recoiles rifle team (center) move up, hoping to cause some chaos for the Cubans.
But the Cubans wisely use the lull to begin falling their troops back to the west. The VAB moves over to Razor 04 (bottom right) and rallies them.
*This was in response to the bad guy 'scurry,' so now it's the good guys' turn, but they roll a damn 'Firefight!' That sucks, they really need to keep moving west...
But, no matter. Since we're stuck and have to fire anyway, might as well bring overwhelming firepower to bear on the few remaining enemy units. Razor 01 (far left) opens fire on the Communist recoiless rifle team (top right), suppressing them.
And then Razor 02 (bottom center left, with Captain Soares at far left) opens fire on the enemy rifle team (top right), suppressing them, too. Hell, didn't even need overwhelming firepower.
The Communists are now down to a commander that is pinned (top right), a rifle team that is 'men down' (top right), and a rifle team (bottom left) and recoiless rifle team (center) that are suppressed. They roll a 'scurry,' which is not bad, since they need to rally their troops, but it's not going to help them keep the Cubans from withdrawing. The Commies also rolled another random event, "Ouch!", which calls for a random team to go 'men down,' but they're in such a bad spot already that I just ignore it. The rifle at bottom left and the recoiless rifle both manage to successfully self rally, as the enemy commander (top right) checks his 'men down' rifle team...
And they're out of the fight!
*I can't remember if that's three or four times this game that 'men down' teams were knocked out when checked. Wow...
But hey, good news, the Cubans roll another damned 'Firefight!', so they still can't escape, and we go through the same damn process... Razor 01 (far left) again fires on the Communist recoiless rifle team (top right), and this time they put them 'men down,' means they're done. There's no way the enemy CO is going to be able to get all the way over there to rally them, and even if he does, they'll probably just die anyway ;)
Razor 02 (bottom center) again fire on the enemy rifle team at top right, suppressing them again!
*Man, the Cuban shooting dice have been on fire! I need to save some of this for the next fight!
The bad guys finally roll a normal activation, but they also roll another random event, which doesn't apply in this situation. The enemy CO begins moving (top right) towards his 'men down' recoiless rifle team (center), as his suppressed rifle team (bottom left) attempts to self-rally...
But they fail and have to fall back (far right, from bottom left)!!!
*Look at all those 6s!!!! If only they got those when shooting, and not when rallying, they've be killing the Cubans.
That's enough, the Cubans fall back in an orderly manner, having busted up the Commies pretty good.
TF Razor successfully carried off their fighting withdrawal! So successful, in fact, that not only do they get to follow in trace of TF Redleg (F4, from F5), but the Communist battlegroup needs to fall back in order to regroup (F6, from F5)! FLA3 will be more likely to hold next turn, likely to continue falling back, and less likely to pursue.
Well, that was interesting, but kinda broke down on account of terrible rolls for the bad guys, both in terms of activations and rallying dice. They hardly got to fire at all, and less than half of their rally attempts were successful! No sweat, sometimes war bees like that. The only thing I wish I'd have done differently is to put more pressure on the Cubans, which I think could/should be done by replacing every enemy team that gets knocked out. Every time a Commie rifle team got killed, I should have 'spawned' another one at table's edge to make things more urgent; this was supposed to be a fighting withdrawal, after all!
Communist: ~55 men and one 12.7mm DsHK-armed Technical
The VAB vehicle commander was awarded the Bronze Star w/V for continuously exposing himself to enemy fire in attempts to rally suppressed friendly units, and for charging into an enemy flanking attempt, at great personal risk, in order to engage an HMG-armed Technical and defeat it.
Next up we have Lt Madre-Animral's Task Force Bowie in a re-fight against FSNL's 4th Company. Earlier this morning TF Bowie defeated FSNL4 and forced them to fall back, and now they are in hot pursuit, hoping to roll them before they get a chance to recover.
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