AAR - Ambush in San'boks City

With Kevin running off to 'forn parts' (well, Western Australia), we haven't done a lot of FoF in Brisbane recently. So I was more than happy - as well as a little anxious to see how it would play - to run a scenario for some new players to FoF. They were an enthusiastic bunch, who have done great job of building their forces and terrain (all in a very short time), and were keen to get to grips with the rules.

The scenario was fairly straightforward - a platoon of Americans in their Bradley IFV's are en route back to their base after a routine patrol. Passing through a small village, however, the third vehicle in the convoy is hit by RPGs and disabled; several of the occupants are wounded, and must be evacuated to safety. The insurgents close in, hoping to kill or capture Americans...

The leading Bradleys pass though the village...

The US commander was at the tail of the convoy, blocked off from the rest of his unit - the insurgents had pushed a car (the legendary Golden Holden, no less !) across the road. He quickly decided to dismount the fireteams from his vehicle to establish a perimeter. The other squads and their vehicles would help to secure the area, and recover the wounded. Once they were safe, he intended to evacuate them by the quickest route out of the village.

However, one of the premises of our campaign is that 'the enemy gets a vote'... RPG's and Dshka rounds rained down on the Americans from all sides. One fireteam was pinned down by a hail of fire from an alley, and took a further casualty; dragging him into the nearest building, he was discovered to be dead. Squad two backed their Bradley up next to the disabled vehicle, and debussed; one team decided to charge into the nearest group of insurgents hiding behind a truck, fully expecting to be backed up by the rest of their squad. The ensuing knife-fight left all four team members down; the other fire team remained in the vehicle (failed TQ to assault) - one man even claimed to have been wounded (Fog of War card, 'Man Down'), but was found to be unharmed when checked.

The combat around the truck

Another view of the failed assault

 At this point, superior discipline and firepower began to assert itself. Squad one established itself in a building overlooking the 'square', and provided effective overwatch; its Bradley levelled a building - together with a group of insurgents manning a Dshka - with a well-placed TOW missile (overkill, perhaps, but very effective). The team from Squad two was rescued and medicated, and all casualties were transferred to its vehicle.

The building after the TOW demolished it.

The platoon leader ordered his Bradley to push the Holden out of the road; its cannon made short  work of the insurgents in the alley.

The platoon leader cleans the alley of insurgents

 At this point, discretion was judged to be the better part of valour, and the Americans decided to withdraw with all their casualties. The insurgents were not able to hinder them further, as they had taken too many casualties themselves. However, the Americans had lost one killed, and six seriously wounded - a marginal insurgent victory.

Overall, an enjoyable game, and fairly tense at times when it looked as if the insurgents were going to overrun the Americans. The new recruits had some appalling dice rolls, but persisted in completing the mission, and will hopefully contribute to the new campaign that our 'evil genius' (Kevin) is putting together - see recent posts on this blog. I'm looking forward to it !