Monday 12 December 2011

Campaign Week 6 - Mission Googly 4 AAR

At BIG Sunday Meeting Mark, Bill and Kevin played the fourth mission of Campaign Week 6.  The battlefield looked amazing due to Bill's amazing textured playing mat.  I will ask him if I can post his instructions, have a look at the mat below and you will certainly want one too!  It was a bit of a strange mission, it felt like the regulars were a steamroller, but Mark was able to use his sparse insurgents to not only slow the advance but also to inflict significant losses on the regulars.

With the sun rising in the east the two forces silently marched towards their objective.  The US Army platoon advanced from the north east, the hammer.  The USMC performed a long flanking march and came on the objective from the south west, the anvil.  Operation Googly 4 was underway.
The UAV flew over the compounds and reported the objective abandoned.  Nonetheless the two forces advanced with caution.  The US Army platoon sidled up to the NE compounds walls and started to set the breaching explosives.  One squad headed south along the edge of the compounds to secure the flank.
 The USMC advanced through open grain fields with caution, it seemed too easy.  There caution paid off, three insurgents flung a camouflaged tarp off a 23mm ZSU and commenced to crank the barrel towards the marines.  The marine’s response was a devastating fusillade which immediately killed two of the insurgents.  The third was killed a moment later as he tried to pull his dead comrade off the gunner’s seat.  With the gun neutralised the marine platoon advanced rapidly on to the SE compound and set breaching explosives.
The silence following the marine’s initial contact was blown away by three breaching charges exploding.  A fourth charge proved to be a dud and the US Army soldier frantically began setting a new charge.

The UAV flew several fly-overs but spotted no suspicious activity.  The two platoons quickly secured three of the compounds, while a brief one sided firefight erupted in the SE compound.  Though the insurgents put up a fight they were unable to bring effective fire to bear.

A marine squad moved northward along the western edge and prepared to blast into the next compound.  A small squad of foreign fighters ambushed the marines from the orchard.  The insurgents proved a nasty surprise and dropped several marines.  The foreign fighters showed revealed their skill and proved a difficult challenge for the marines.

Meanwhile, it soon became evident the majority of insurgents were in the north west, a large group soon advanced on the US Army platoon and a prolonged firefight ensued.  The initial attack killed two US soldiers and severely wounded a third.  But following the initial contact the fight became one sided and the US soldiers were able to whittle down the insurgents until they were ineffective.  A special force unit from SASR pitched up to assist, only to have one of their members wounded.

A Hellfire from the UAV destroyed what the UN forces thought to be the remaining fighters in the ruins.  The marines and army then advanced towards the ruins in the NW, the final strongpoint.  An insurgent forward observer bought down inaccurate fire on the marines, which rounds hitting his own forces and the special force fireteam.
 With both platoons streaming towards the ruins the platoon commanders battled to get their units clear lines of fire.   When the end seemed nigh the insurgents were emboldened when the large haystack in the NE proved to be an old T-55.  However, before the barrel could rotate to bring fire to bear on the marines a Hellfire from the UAV smashed into the engine deck blowing most of the rear off the vehicle, the crew bailed out but were dispatched by the marines.
 The fire fight for the last two ruins was just beginning to hot up with what appeared a suicidal attack on the UN forces when a local woman walked out into the field between the insurgents and UN forces and set her petrol soaked burka aflame.  Both sides watched stunned at this protect, by the time the woman had died the surviving insurgents and slipped away into the surrounding green belt.  Two supply dumps were found, but in the ensuing pursuit of the insurgents it was realized, too late that one of the insurgent supply dumps had not been blown.

ICOM chatter showed that Akhbal had arrived on the battle late in the day and on seeing the large force arrayed against him slipped away to fight another day.

The UN had won a marginal victory, but had failed to bring enough of the insurgents to the fight and as the UN forces marched back to their patrol base many felt that the price had been too high for the largely non-existent gains.

UN Losses:
3 KIA
3 Serious Wounded
4 Lightly Wounded`           

Estimated Insurgent Losses:
20-40 KIA/MIA
1 ZSU-23
1 T55

Result: Marginal Victory in favour of the regulars.

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