Up the Junction - AAR

Corporal Unishment sat in the turret of his Warrior as it clanked along, watching the streets carefully.  It was quiet - too quiet.  There was nobody around, and it was close to mid-day. Burned out buildings around him gave a hint of earlier violence.  The mosque was visible ahead.  He told the driver to pull over just short of the junction; the second Warrior halted just behind. 

"Section 1 will approach the mosque; Section 2 - take up covering positions on the left side of the street".  His men debussed swiftly, and took up positions on either side of the road.  Away from the vehicles, he became aware of angry shouting, growing louder. Suddenly, close by, there were gun shots. 

Unishment's training took over - "Section 1 - take cover in the pub. Section 2 - cover my left. Warriors - move up to the crossroads". 

He kicked down the door, stationing Delta One on the ground floor, while he led Charlie One to an upper floor.  He glanced out the window at the mosque directly opposite; the flat roof was packed with armed men !

Bilal was the first to see them. Helmets and guns. Right across the street from the mosque. Wretched infidels.  Well, there would be no desecrating the mosque today.  Hunched beside him were nine armed men: AKs and an RPG.  He didn't wait to see what the men on the other side of the street were doing: clearly they were coming to cause trouble.  He raised his AK, but before he could fire they were hit with a cascade of fire from the soldiers opposite.  Two of Bilal's brothers dropped in that first fusillade and the rest fired wildly.  In the next minutes they found themselves swamped by the weight of fire coming from the house.  Each time they attempted to fire on the soldiers, another one or two of their men would drop...

Nobby raised his AK and squeezed off a burst at a group of 'Hotakis' trying to get away from him and his men.  One old man went down, and a young boy ran back to help him up; Nobby fired again, and the boy fell over - it was just like one of those video games, or rifle range at the fair ground.  From ahead, up by the mosque, there was more gunfire; for a second, he thought it might be some of his men who'd got in front of him.  And then a tank - a f*cking tank !- poked it's nose around the corner !  Well - the Army wasn't going to protect those 'Hotakis' from the Orkshire Brigade; he sent one team round the back of the school to shoot up the mosque from the apartment opposite, while another moved into the cover of a ruined church.  From the ruined office, he could look up the street and still take potshots from there...

"Corp. Charlie Two here.  Delta Two are in overwatch in the small offices at the junction. They report a bunch of civvies moving your way that someone is shooting at.  My team are overlooking the church yard from behind a wall.  There's a group in the ruined church - can't tell if they're armed or not. We'll keep an eye on them".  Unishment glanced out over the mosque; the guys on the roof were all down, but there were more armed men approaching from his right; he warned his section to keep an eye out...

Aatif was leading another group of Maliki towards the mosque when the firing started.  He ducked off the main street and through the Hotel.  As his men reorganised themselves in the mosque courtyard, they took heavy fire from the upper storey of the pub. Half his men went down; the survivors ran for cover in the mosque. Bursting through the door, they discovered the bodies of Bilal and his team...

Pete Atkins mob charged out the the church, and into the offices; "From there", he thought, "We'll have a good shot at the mosque". Charging up the stairs, he heard voices - were the 'Hotakis' already there ?  Automatic weaponry peppered the wall next to him, but that only angered him.  He and his 'boys' returned fire into the poorly lit room, and were rewarded with screams and yells from inside.  They kept firing; after a few minutes, it was very quiet from inside the room.  Pete cautiously peered in; there were four bodies on the floor, in camo and with helmets.  They were very still. "Oh, sh*t !" he thought. "We're up against the Army".  To confirm his suspicions, two large 'tanks' took that moment to opened up with their guns on the offices from immediately outside.  When the firing stopped, Pete and the survivors crawled towards the staircase. They were halfway down when Charlie Two burst in through the back door and shot them...

Abdul was across the street from Aatif when the gunfire started.  He saw the torrent of gunfire directed at the mosque by the wretched infidel soldiers.  He'd watched Aatif's careless leadership, leaving his men in the enemy's line of fire, and determined that he would do better.  Carefully using cover, his men followed him into the mosque.  Allah be praised, he had lost not a single man, and he was just in time.  He could hear soldiers just outside the mosque, preparing to burst in.  As he braced himself for the assault, he saw a helmeted head at the window; he froze, and, in doing so, saved the lives of himself and his men. A shrill voice, "Sarge, the mosque is packed with them. We can't go in there!"  A murmured conversation, then the sound of boots retreating across the street and, finally, quiet. Around him, his brothers lay dead or dying. But those still alive could be satisfied: they had held the infidel at bay !

OverviewArmy - 16 points
Young Orkshire Brigade - 11 points
Brexitian Islamic Front - 10 points



A close and messy three-sided game, with a bunch of frightened civilians caught in the crossfire.  Against my expectations, the Army player decided early on to employ 'extreme prejudice' against the Islamic Front, who made the mistake of attempting to shoot at him from the mosque.  Retribution was swift - the Islamic Front did not inflict a single casualty, as they were horribly out-gunned. However, they did manage to hold the mosque, mainly because the Army player realised two things; one - close assaulting a building with odds of four to one against was not a good idea. And, two - if he didn't shoot anyone else, he would actually gain points... The Young Orkshire Brigade player took great delight in shooting down unarmed civilians, successfully close-assaulting an Army fire team, and even launching RPG's at the Warriors from a distance. The Warriors extracted their revenge, and the few survivors wisely decided to keep their heads down for the last few turns. Claims of bias were made against the Army for using deadly fire against the Islamic Front, but only using suppressive fire against the YOB's... (There wasn't a lot of difference in the over-all effect). The victory points probably needed reviewing for balance, as the Army won despite inflicting the vast bulk of the casualties... So much for peace-keeping duties.

Thanks to Kevin, Bill and Liam.