AAR - Of Bunnies and Badgers

Hello you cutesy, wootsy, squiggly, bunny friends! Sweet Little Granny here. Welcome to the Fluffy Bunny Show. Shall we sing our song?

Fluffy fluffy bunnies bouncing in the wood.
Fluffy fluffy bunnies bouncing as they should...

Um... No.. Sorry, wrong blog... Let's start again.

The Hotakistani Badgers' BMP's coughed to life, and moved out against the French, who appeared to be making a lot of noise,  but showed no inclination to get closer.

The Hotakis take on the French

Lt Brock waited for the Hotakistanis to be fully commited to driving off the French feint attack, and then ordered his men forward towards the compounds. However, as one of his teams passed close to an isolated house, they spotted a Hotaki who was supposed to be keeping watch. As he raised his weapon, he was shot; a follow-up team stormed the building to capture him, but he was 'discovered' to be dead. The rest of Brock's force continued to advance.

However, the Hotaki main force had been alerted to the British, and tried to fall back to counter them. One BMP shot up the Eryx team, causing them casualties - and then pulled back across the field. A second BMP tried to do the same, but the French 300m team's AT-4's succeeded in killing it as it tried to back over a wall. At this point, the Hotaki infantry section with it suddenly decided they needed to be elsewhere, and left... to the fury of the Hotaki commander (An event card caused this). The last BMP and its accompanying infantry - one of whom fell to a French sniper - withdrew to the edge of a field, from where they could take the British advance in flank. The Hotaki infantry fired as they advanced, killing a British soldier, and avoiding all return fire.

Hotakis disengage - the burning BMP is next to the house.

The lead British fireteam also shot at the Hotaki infantry, again without effect; shots were returned, leaving another Brit dead. Lt Brock began to get a feeling that today would be a bad day - at this point, he did not know how bad.

The British advance, the BMP's on their flanks

Action then came thick and fast - a Hotaki sniper appeared on a rooftop, but was quickly gunned down. The northernmost BMP came under fire from two British teams with AT-4's. The first missed, and the British team received a 100mm shell for their troubles, which killed one and lightly wounded another. The second AT-4 was fired by the team in the isolated house, and caused the BMP to burst into flames.

Hotaki infantry skirt the field where their BMP burns

A British fireteam tried to rush a building in the main compund, only to discover that it was occupied by Hotaki gunmen. A firefight ensued, leaving one Brit wounded, but the Hotakis were both down, and were easily overpowered when the British stormed the building. Inside, sat against the walls with their hands and ankles tied, and hoods over their eyes, were the eight hostages. Quickly, their bonds were cut, they were assisted outside, and hustled away to safety.

Meanwhile, Brock was trying to fend off the Hotakis, who seemed to have seized the initiative; the enemy were boldly moving through the field, putting down heavy and accurate fire, supported by the sole BMP. They had already exacted revenge for the loss of their BMP by gunning down his team in the house between the fields, and several other fireteams had men down. Brock's last AT-4 had bounced off the front armour of the BMP, as had a rocket from the LAW. AK74 rounds were impacting all around him, and the BMP's turret was turning towards his HQ team. Corporal Fisher shouted that the hostages were safe. Brock opened his mouth to order the withdrawal, when something punched him hard in the chest, and he fell...

A major British victory, but at a severe cost. All the hostages were rescued unharmed. However, they suffered 4 dead, 6 seriously wounded, and were unable to retrieve their 2 of dead and 3 of the seriously wounded (the latter fell into Hotaki hands, and were reported to have died of their wounds shortly after...). The Hotakis lost 5 dead, suffered 1 serious wound, and lost 2 BMP-3's.

(P.S. the French suffered no serious casualties... even cheese-eating related ones...  )

Lessons learned - once again, the Hotaki sections are hard to stop, and pump out a lot of killing power, simply due to their size. Perhaps the larger teams should only be TQ6, or the section broken into squads. Personally, I like the larger team - it gives less flexibility, but is extremely dangerous. The British were very unlucky both with their defence dice, and also with their casualty checks - even when the medic was on hand. Cynics might link this with their failures to take any Hotakis prisoner - perhaps they should use band-aids rather than knives on wounds... It was also suggested that the casualty check should use a D10, to be less bloody.

Both sides again forgot to use smoke until late in the game...