Operation Chunky Bandit #38 (Ground)

All,

2130 on 4 Aug 1990

Mini-Campaign Fight #12

TF Bowie vs FSNL 4th Company

Captain Madre-Animral

Navy Cross, Bronze Star w/V, War of Liberation and South Leon campaigns

Commander, TF Bowie

2nd Lt Peria

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 an absolutely ferocious battle the two held several hours earlier, literally fighting themselves to exhaustion.  Unable to press forward yet unwilling to cede ground, both sides called for reinforcements and dug in.  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 a decent-sized village present (right top), 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.

Captain Madre-Animral's force consists of: a command stand, five rifle teams, a HMMWV-mounted Mk-19 Automatic Grenade Launcher (AGL), and a dismounted .50-caliber Heavy  Machine Gun.   These troops are Minifigs' Modern US with a BPM HMMWV, though the dismounted .50-cal is Pendraken US from their Vietnam range.

TF Bowie also has some heroes amongst its ranks:

Bowie 03 Team Leader was awarded the Medal of Honor and the Silver Star, and was provided a battlefield commission to 2nd Lieutenant

The Communist force consists of: a command stand, five rifle teams, an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher (AGL), and a T-72 main battle tank.  The figures and tank are from Minifigs' Modern Soviets, except the AGS-17, which is actually a cut down Argentinian .50-cal HMG from their Falklands range.

Overview, this time with troops.  You can see the Cubans have occupied the ground up to the center line, while the Communists have consolidated in and around the village at top right.

The Cuban starting positions: Bowie 01 and 02 are at top left, the .50-cal HMG is on the knoll at far left, then Bowie 03, 04, and 05 are at center to far right, with the HMMWV at bottom right and their commander, the freshly promoted Captain Madre-Animral, at center right, behind Bowie 03, which has the Medal of Honor winner, 2nd Lt Peria.

The Communists have rifle teams at bottom left, right bottom, top right, and two at far right, with their commander at center, the T-72 just left of him, and their AGS-17 team just behind the tank.

It's dark, but the HMMWV crew (bottom left) are using their thermal sights and they quickly locate the enemy T-72 (top right).  The Mk-19 gunner opens fire, draping the tank in 40mm HEDP rounds that suppress the crew!

Bowie 03 (bottom right) opens fire on an enemy rifle team (in trees at top center, with Bowie 01 and 02 visible at top left).

The target is pinned down (yellow bead at right), but another enemy rifle team (bottom center) spots the Cuban Marines (top center) and returns fire, to no effect.

And with the enemy soldiers opposite them pinned down, Bowie 01 goes over the top, close assaulting the Communist defensive position.

But the Commies (bottom right) put up a helluva fight and send the Cuban Marines packing!  Bowie 01 falls back to cover (top left), suppressed.

The bad guys give chase, cresting the hill and skylining themselves.

Bowie 02 (bottom center) spots them and opens fire...

But it's not enough to keep the determined FSNL troopers from closing with Bowie 01!

Bowie 01 is knocked out and the Communist soldiers charge Bowie 02, who again opens fire...

But again the Cuban fire is ineffective and now the Communists close with Bowie 02.  The night air is pierced by furious burst of gunfire, the sharp crack of hand grenades, and the screams of men...

Bowie 02 knocks them out (casualty figures at left), then climbs the hill (top center) and takes up defensive positions.

On the enemy left, their AGL (bottom center) opens fire on the Cuban HMMWV (top left) as their commander moves over to rally his tank crew (right).  Bowie 04 is suppressed, but...

The tank crew panics and falls back (top right, from bottom left)!!!

The Cuban .50-cal HMG crew (bottom left) is astonished to see the enemy tank turn tail and run, and so they do everything they can to hurry it along on its way: the .50-cal begins pounding out tracers, chasing the T-72 (top right).

Not only does the .50-cal fire convince the tankers to quit the battlefield, it also suppressed two Communist rifle teams nearby!!!

*Yeah, the tank panicked and fell back, then I had the .50-cal light them up and score another 'fall back,' so the tank left town!

On the Cuban left, Bowie 02 (bottom left) fires on enemy defensive positions (top left), to no effect.

While on the Cuban right, the HMMWV (bottom right) and Bowie 04 (left bottom) return fire on the enemy AGL (top center).

Knocking it out!!!

Bowie 03 (bottom left, with Bowie 05 at far right) opens fire on an enemy rifle team (top right).

But they miss and the bad guys (bottom center) return fire, missing too.

On the enemy right, an enemy rifle team (bottom left) fires on Bowie 02 (top right), missing.

The Communists' far left team (bottom center) continues firing on the Cubans opposite him, suppressing Bowie 03, atop the hill (top center).

The enemy rifle team moves up (far right), but Bowie 04 (far left, with Captain Madre-Animral next to them) spots them and opens fire.

But the Cubans miss and the bad guys make it to cover, perilously close to the suppressed Bowie 05 (far left)!

On the Communist right, a rifle team (center right top) opens fire on Bowie 02 (top left) as the enemy commander moves right (far right) and rallies a suppressed rifle team.

*Very admirable that they're not just giving up after their tank ran and their AGL was knocked out.

The fire suppresses Bowie 02 (top left) and the enemy team moves up (center, from far right), looking to take advantage of this opening.  But, the dogged Cuban Marines spot the advancing enemy and quickly rally themselves back into fighting shape.

While on the Cuban right, Captain Madre-Animral rallies Bowie 03 (red bead)...

And then Captain Madre-Animral and his command team charges down the hill to rally Bowie 05 (bottom right, from top center), solidifying the line.

As Bowie 03 (bottom center) lays down covering fire, engaging the enemy troops in the village (top center).

Catching them in the open and knocking out a rifle team as the enemy CO looks on helplessly (there's a suppressed rifle team at top right).!

Bowie 03 then begins moving down the hill (top left), but the Communist team on their far left (bottom right) spots them and fires.

It's ineffective and Lt Peria is able to get his men into cover!

And while they (top left) are doing that, Bowie 04 (bottom left) returns fire on the nearby enemy troops (far right).

The Communists are suppressed and Bowie 04 moves up...

And the Communist left flank collapses as the last enemy team there surrenders!

The enemy commander and his last two teams retreat, ending the fight!

TF Bowie defeated FSNL4 and will hold in place (E4) as the Communists are forced to fall back (E5).  FSNL4 will most likely continue to withdraw, likely will hold, and less likely will counterattack next turn.  Hmmm, kinda interesting there, I probably screwed up again.  By my count, FSNL4 has now been involved in two battles, and both times they took pretty heavy casualties, so probably I should have eliminated them as an effective fighting force from the campaign, rather than allow them to survive by falling back.

Well, not without a few tense moments, but nowhere near as intense as the previous fight, but that's okay, my heart can only take so much.  Not too much to talk about, a pretty conventional, straight forward fight, the only real issue being how the Communists can't seem to get their damned T-72 in the fight.  Now, it's true that these battles are infantry-centric, and while any tank or AFV on the table is going to be pretty powerful, the fact that there won't be many of them (a max of three at one time) means that they're certainly going to draw a lot of attention, and I think you've seen that by both the Cubans and the Communists, when they're able to isolate a tank/AFV they just keep feeding forces into the fight against it in order to destroy it, no qualms about using all their activations/troops to do that.  

Casualties:

Cuban: ~10 men

Communist: ~20 men with ~5 men captured

Decorations:

Bowie 02 Team Leader was awarded the Bronze Star w/V for fighting off an enemy assault that had just eliminated Bowie 01, then counterattacking and eliminating the threat and stabilizing the Cuban left flank.

Next up we have the SLA's A Company defending against an assault by the FSNL's 6th Company.

V/R,

Jack