AAR: Americans vs. Russians vs. Germans vs. Americans

The US paratroopers ran towards the hamlet, when they got close they slowed and moved forward gingerly, the 101st on the right side of the road and Sergeant Trudeau's 82nd men on the left hand side.  Sergeant Trudeau had asked the 101st men to flank to the right or find a good overwatch position and give enfilading fire.

We played the three way mission yesterday (from: https://bigfof.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/mission-briefing-americans-vs-russians.html).  Please excuse the lack of painting, though luckily we played a moonlit
 night mission so not too bad.

The three Russian teams, the unconcious US Paratrooper McBride in the shadow, and the dead Fallschirmjäger sergeant against the low wall.

At the T-junction the Fallschirmjäger sprang into action, they would rescue their fallen commander (and take revenge) and capture the US paratrooper.

The four Fallschirmjäger units at the T-junction and at the bakery.  In the top middle you can see the seven Ost Truppen, and if you have good night eyes you may even be able to see the unconcious McBride.

The German paratrooper team of two and the three man team from down the road moved to gain LOS to the Ost Truppen behind the bakery, their combined fire bowled over the three closest Russians.

German paratroopers firing on the Ost Truppen.  In the distance (top right) the US Paratroopers slowly move forward, happy to let the German paratroopers and Ost Truppen slug it out.

The German team outside the front door of the bakery entered the bakery and moved to the rear door, each pulling out a grenade.  Two grenades went out the door, but, unfortunately for the attackers one grenade was fumbled injuring their own man.  Two Russians went down in the concussions.

Two Russian casualties outside the rear bakery door, and two Germans down on the inside, one self-inflicted wound.

The Russians around the unconscious US paratrooper galvanised into action and charged into the bakery, the last surviving German paratrooper was stunned by the sudden attack and went down in a flurry of rifle butts.

The US paratroopers deemed it what time to strike, they rushed up to the wall and sent a rain of grenades down on the Russians (10 DICE worth!).  The surviving Russians, who were still busy sorting themselves out from the casualties caused by the Germans, fell in the explosions.

The US paratroopers move into the yard and fire at the surviving Russians.  The 101st Airborne move up and pour in enfilading fire.

The US decide it will be easier to just annihilate all the enemy rather than grab the injured paratrooper (the local professional hand model joined us...sigh.)

The US paratroopers seeing the power of their SMG and grenade attacks decided it would be safer to annihilate the enemy than try grab their fallen comrade, they charged in hurling grenades, knocking out the Germans in the ditch across the road.  The 101st Airborne continued to pour fire into the Russians before moving up and spraying the Russians in the bakery.  Eventhough the Russians shouted, "Komeraad! Komeraad!"  The US were no mood to take prisoners, enemies were left to die without aid and some were helped along.

The small teams of German paratroopers melted away in front of the heavy US attack and Sergeant Trudeau was able to give Private McBride the aid he needed, the paratroopers formed a litter and headed back the way they had come.

The next morning Leutnant Merkel awoke.  With his head pounding from his night of "passion" he found Madame Sophie and her girls outside cleaning up the bodies from inside the goat pen.  All his squad lay dead.  And so did at least a squad of German paratroopers.  Madame Sophie was pestering him about her dead goats.  He rubbed his chin, then shrugged, when his head was clear he would need to fabricate an excuse.  He waved at Madame Sophie and trudged back to his camp.  He heard gunfire in the distance.  "Odd," he thought, shrugged and continued on his way.  Until he was shot by a US paratrooper.

Well.  Nasty.  The big US paratrooper team with SMG and optimum bonus (plus grenade bonus) proved extremely nasty vs. the small 3-4 man units.  Basic lesson: Do not get close to these big groups. The US lost no one to injury or death.  So good for the campaign.

Far far in the future in our own galaxy...

... a unit of planetary militia are ordered to clear a nameless ridge 40km's outside of the human settlement of Neuamazonia.

The human reconnaissance units report that the ridge is held by six Donusa chaos warriors.  They report that two of these warriors are searching the destroyed militia vehicles.  The militia commanders orders his last armoured car to flank around the ridge and approach from the north.  He then divides his platoon in three, one squad flanking to the right, one to the left and he commands the third squad straight on in.

The mission briefing: https://bigfof.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/mission-briefing-force-on-force-on-40k.html

Another learning game, before we head into WW2, we played a mission from the Tomorrow's War rulebook, changing the figures to be GW Chaos Warriors and Victoria Miniatures Arcadian infantry supported by the GW armoured car (with Victoria Miniatures wheels).

The game would turn out to be quick and one sided.

The bare ridge before the fight.  Two Chaos warriors amongst the wrecks, two in the middle of the ridge, and the last two over the ridge on the border of the thick forest.

The Left or West Flanking group approach the Chaos Warriors.

This is a fairly hard mission.  Keeping the Power Armoured warriors alive will be difficult.

The militia were cautious in the beginning, moving carefully and firing, only when the Chaos Warriors took their first casualties did they move in.  All six of the would blow themselves up.

Heavy fire is exchanged between the warriors on the hill and the two central militia fireteams.  With Advanced Medication and some lucky rolls their are few casualties.

The armoured car moves up, but the Chaos Warriors are only able to destroy its main gun. With the armoured car and four fire teams the fire proves too much for the 4 chaos warriors.

The militia were able to take advantage of their wounding of the chaos warriors and managed to get men into close contact, surviving the suicidal blasts they managed to ensure no survivors for the next turn.

In the end it was a resounding defeat for the Chaos Warriors.

If we played this mission again I would drop Advanced Medication for the militia, and probably give the Chaos Warriors the ability to assault the vehicles using half strength or something like that.

Still fun.  And Mark Junior continues to ace all the Reaction Checks!  Spooky stuff.

They just wanted a hug

The URFKD office workers in the buildings across the way from the Colonial Prefab Fabrication Works stood in silence.  The terrified screams from the C.P.F.W. had pulled the office workers from their offices, most halted in the street, a few had run into the works to render assistance for what sounded like a terrible accident.  Their screams were now silent.

Colonial civilians and police watch the C.P.F.W. building as aliens explode from its innards.

The police and medics arrived, the first to arrive were the first to die.  The last to arrive took up a position across the road from the C.P.F.W.  After a strange robot was seen lurking in the the dark doorway of the C.P.F.W. they called the local Colonial Legionaries.  

When the Legionaries were in sight of the C.P.F.W. dozen of "robots" streamed from the doors.  The police sergeant quickly contacted the Legionary Captain, "We have dozens of loping robots."

The captain felt his blood run cold, he had been privy to Top Secret documents which described, these were not robots, these were Xenomorphs.  Creatures bio-engineered millennia ago for some forgotten war between two forgotten races.

He shouted into his komzband, "Get your people out of there, those are not robots those are the the Demons you have heard rumour of, get your people to the space port.  We will cover you."

We played the mission from the Tomorrow Wars book, the alien scenario.

Mark vs. Mark.  Mark took the aliens, and Mark took the humans.

The mission is straightforward: The human player must get the humans off the one side of the board before they are eaten.  The alien player has to eat.

Civilians (A and B) and police (A), and a dozer armed with Fab-Laser watch on as xenomorphs disgorge from the warehouse across the road.

The police officers and Legionaries moved quickly to evacuate as many of the colonists as they could.  On seeing the xenomorphs they knew they would not save everyone.  Some of the Legionaries ran to help the police direct the colonists to safety, others moved to take up positions to cover them (Overwatch was to be of prime importance, the aliens also reacted with movement and assault.  The aliens needed to run, but this was risky as it made them more vulnerable).

The aliens move out running towards the colonists (A) and also start to flank the humans (B).  Aliens who B-lined towards the colonists were shot down by the legionaries (C).  At D the police start to herd the survivors towards F.  The colonists at E were about to come face to face with the Demons

With the arrival  of the soldiers the xenomorphs poured over the C.P.F.W.'s fences.  Some colonists stood mesmerized, others took images for their Social Posts.  A reporter stood filming.

Two groups of aliens started to "mop up"  stray colonists while a group of police officers and colonists were set on by a small group of aliens.  The police very unheroically threw the civilians on the aliens claws as they opened fire, five civilians died, as did the aliens.  Not the greatest moment for the Colonial Law and Order.

Aliens swarm forward again, blocked by friendlies the overatch team (blue disk) us unable to bring fire to bear.  The overwatch teams all soon climbed up the buildings to gain better line of sight.

The legionaries hit the Queen four times, but she shrugged it off (Hard to Kill), but who luck ran out later going down.  Overwatch teams start to have an impact, mowing down aliens by the droves.

The race is on, humans rushing to the right, aliens trying to catch and outflank them.  The humans fire is telling, in this final image on three aliens are left alive, one in the Prefab, one in the fields to the top and one on the road.

Though lots of colonists died, 17 in all.  More colonists made it to safety.  A human victory.  The King alien ran off into the outback,  s/he hermaphoditised (new word?) into a queen and start laying the next wave.

The government preacher told the press at the orbital station, "I think they wanted to make contact, all they wanted to do was hug, then someone opened fire."  He stopped the interview with heartburn...

A fun game, Mark Junior had amazing dice rolls, shrugging off fusillade after fusillade.  His Queen surviving a wall of bullets was just the start.  Mark Junior picked up the game very quickly (though I think he may have his pocket money docked for uncanny dice rolling!).  Overwatch was at its best through the game, though many units fell off overwatch in the end victory went to the humans due to lots of their units getting into good overwatch positions.

I hope everyone had fun.

Next time - A few heavily armoured marines take on a horde of light infantry on a nameless hill in a forsaken forest.  Force on Force in 28mm.

Chef Pierre Piper went Poppy Picking

A composite force of French and South African UN soldiers advanced on an opium producing village which had failed to pay the local warlord his dues.  The warlord told the local army commander who reported to the UN that the village was "financing the local guerrillas with their misbegotten opium money".  The UN reacted by sending in soldiers armed with Jerry cans of petrol.

[1] A French VAB enters and engages a VBIED, the VBIED reacts with an assault but is short on movement [2].  A Rooikat enters and destroys the VBIED [3].  In the distance a P4 Peugeot, a VBL and infantry on foot advance and engage a hidden group of guerillas armed with two RPGs

We played a second Force on Force game, introducing Breaching, Hotspots, Vehicles and Irregulars.  I realised how hard it is to play irregulars for a new player, they only react once, sometimes don't have leadership, die like flies and the only medics seem to be flies.

The local army commander's "lie" held some truth.  A group of guerrillas had moved into the area and were building up their force for an attack on the local city.  The attack by the UN was a surprise and the guerrillas were caught with only one "roadblocking" unit in place.  A suicide-bomber in a VBIED saw his chance at immortality and drove a B-line straight at the first UN force he saw, a French VAB.

The French VAB, commanded by Chef Pierre Piper opened fire with its Remote Weapon Station, peppering the car but not stopping it, the car got within 4m of the VAB but the occupants were suppressed.  A UN Rooikat then appeared on the road and with a single round hit the Golden Holden VBIED which exploded, luckily for the VAB the explosion did no damage.

On the French left flank a P4 Peugeot, a VBL and a unit of infantry spot and engage an ambush.  In the ensuing firefight (over two turns) the guerrillas are all killed, a VBL is destroyed and two crew are seriously injured.

Firefight between the French and the ambushing unit.  A VBL is hit and destroyed by an RPG.  At this moment the guerillas have 7 Points and the French 2.

The French continue their advance without any visible opposition, a fire team moves to the smaller of the poppy fields and using an petrol and phosphorous grenades set it on fire.

The French set fire to the Poppy plantation.  The last surviving guerrilla in the compound is hit.  In the distance a group of French snipers moves into the compound to setup an overwatch position.

On the left flank the P4 Peugeot advanced to protect that flank and was engaged by two units of guerrillas.  The guerillas suffered from indecision (hotspot spawned units without leaders, a harsh reality of an insurgency).

The Rooikat, a second VBL and a P4 move up to cover the compound entries [1], and fire team moved up to the nearest compound [2] and breaches the wall advancing into the compound.  A fire team of French advance to the main poppy field and set it on fire.  The local guerrilla leader assaults the breachers, but the French are victorious [4].  Meanwhile a massive mob of guerrillas with no leader attempt to flank the French.  Without anti-tank weapons the best they can hope for it so assault the infantry or cars.

The French then continued their main drive to the large poppy field.  Using three vehicles to cover the advance infantry breached the first compound and advanced on the fields setting fire to the last crop.  Four guerillas led by the local leader assaulted the team which had breached their compound.  French were surprised and a vicious melee ensured ending with the death of all four guerrillas.

With their objectives secured (i.e. on fire) the French began their orderly withdrawal.  Though a group of 20 enthusiastic leaderless guerrillas ran to get into the fight.

The Rooikat intercepted and the twenty guerrillas after taking a few hits ran for cover allowing the French infantry to fall back unharmed.  Except, as they crossed the road an IED was set-off hitting two teams of French soldiers, the first team was hit three times, the second escaped without harm.  Miraculously for the French all three hit men escaped with minor scratches.

And thus ended the poppy picking patrol.

Once again lessons were learnt.  The main one I was reminded of was how hard it is too play irregulars in Force on Force.  Hard from a morale point of view.  Who really have to think of your men as lunch money, without spending it you get no lunch...but you have money....

Next week we will just have a fun little game to reinforce the lessons, this time involving prey, hunters and hunter's of hunters.

A lesson learnt - An introduction to Force on Force in Bunbury

I ran a platoon vs. platoon Force on Force game, for Mark&Son in Bunbury, as a second introduction to the game. Force on Force has a short learning curve with lots of tactical decisions.  The only complexity is the action-reaction system which unfortunately is not written that well in the rules.  But, once you write it out it is easier.  Mark&Son picked up the rules quickly.

With the 28mm WW2 still a work-in-progress we used modern 15mm miniatures for the teaching game.

UN convoy dismounted to inspect an abandoned T-55.  The attack commences with Russians moving through the fields and through the warehouse.

Mission: A UN convoy, on an approach march to an airport that has been captured by Russian paratroopers, has stopped to investigate an abandoned T-55.  The Russian force, had also spotted the tank and a platoon was tasked with destroying the tank.  The Russian platoon leader contacted his commander and reported he had eyes on a dismounted UN convoy.  The platoon leader was ordered to degrade the UN convoys mobility.  While the UN commander was questioning the civilians the Russians attacked.

VP:

T-55 Destroyed by Russians: 5

Per UN vehicle destroyed: 3

Dead: 2

Wound: 1

Mission Special Rules: Russians start with initiative and hold it automatically for first 3 turns.

Russian Force: VDV Platoon minus the Weapons squad.  TQ8/MOR10

UN Force: UN South African platoon mounted in wheeled IFV (Ratel): TQ8/MOR8

The UN force was set up dismounted, with one section in the sand-bag emplacement, and the rest in the road in and around the convoy.  The platoon leader was in the tall building with one fire team having moved to the top storey.  

The Russians advanced on the convoy from three sides, the first actions occurred when the Russians engaged the emplacement and the one fire team at the concrete chicane.  The Russians having surprise and good fire power wound 5 of the UN force.

The UN force reacts, but in the process lose an armoured vehicle.  The UN pour a lot of fire into the orchard which eventually knocks out a fire team.  A Ratel moved forward and the commander kept his head out to help get first reaction, unfortunately he lost and the Russian sniper seriously wounded him.  Serious wounds on the Russian and UN side caused a units on each side to delay.  

Eventually the Russians had destroyed or damaged all the UN vehicles.  In a bold move the Russians assaulted the sand bag emplacement and in a brutal hand-to-hand fight they killed all the UN soldiers.  The first RPG to hit the T-55 failed to kill it.

The Russian paratroopers charge into the sandbag emplacement, after a bitter fight, where both sides gave and received, the Russians are triumphant.

With the heavy losses of the vehicles and the lost fire team in the melee the Russians were triumphant.

With three burning Ratel's and one Ratel commander out of action the Russians have successfully fulfilled their mission.

Hopefully a fun and educational game.  Other than learning the rules, lessons learnt included the danger of staying unbuttoned and the vulnerability of IFV to man-portable anti-tank weapons.

Next mission will be asymmetrical, with a UN French platoon on a flower picking mission.  The Poppy pickers may have a rude reception when the flower-growers take exception to their guests.

So the next game will cover:

• Hotspots
• Irregulars
• VBIED/IED

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.

99 Luftballon (15mm Force on Force AR)

The ambush was sprung, the infiltrator in the crowd of protesters revealed a Skorpion SMG and opened fire on the US Government agent.  A large front-end loader parked in the field on the left of the convoy surged forward attempting to ram the HUMVEE and cut off the retreat of the convoy.

It was a fun game.  The board was setup in Western Australia and the two players were in Queensland (nearly 3,700km apart).  I used a smartphone with Skype to show the two players the board.  It worked very well.  We have done a few games like this (Pulp Alley see here) and FOF.

I think using a small number of troops makes this style of play possible.

The outcome was very close, down to the end of the final turn, it could have gone either way.  I think when the ambushers lost initiative it became a lot harder to control.

I was hoping the ambushers would win, getting a few tactical nukes into their hands would have been fun.  Though, I have heard that this was one of two ambushes of convoys carrying tactical nukes...

I do not think we have seen the last of Mr Pig either.

Still Crazy After All These Years (Part 2)

For this three-sided game (aka 'Black Prince Down'), the Regulars have a Scimitar AFV, and 4 WMIK Land Rovers (each with a fireteam of 4 and armed w/SA80's). The WMIKs have M2HBs and a pintle mounted GPMG). They are TQ/Morale D8/D8, Confident, with Body Armour. The official ROE are 'Only return fire at identified hostiles', but, privately, they have been told 'Shoot anybody you see who is armed'. They have 8 turns to rescue the Prince, and get off table.

Ronnie Kray (w/SA80, RPG 7V and body armour) and 2 teams of 4 (w/SA80's) are TQ/Morale D8/D8 and Confident. Their aim is to get the truck off table within 8 turns.

The Rowdy Rabble (w/AK74s, w/Molotov cocktails in close assault on vehicles) start with two teams on table, and the rest are treated as irregulars, emerging via hotspots. They are TQ/Morale D6/D6 and Confident; they have to prevent the Regulars from achieving their mission.

A mob by the road. Kray's men are in the factory.

Sitrep

The Scimitar led the column as it raced along the road, heading for the crash site. Spotting an armed mob in the woods by the side of the road, it opened fire with its main gun; one of their number fell,  and the rest scattered in terror. The lead WMIK raced past the fleeing hoodlums and up the road. The wall by the road gave way to a chain-link fence, through which it identified more unfriendlies in military fatigues by a black Mercedes in  front of the factory; the WMIK opened fire, but missed. The return fire from Kray's men (they had finally made it to the factory, but too late as far as they were concerned) was just as effective. (Ronnie looked at his RPG, and then again decided that there was too much fire power coming his way, and pulled his men back, through the factory and into the woods. They'd get their investment back another day, when things weren't so hot).

The cavalry to the rescue

The other WMIKs were close behind the first. Suddenly, from behind the red-brick building, a group of yobs with Molotov Cocktails charged into the road, but they were dispersed by a short burst from the top-mounted machine gun of the second vehicle. The lead WMIK could see a plume of smoke from the vicinity of the railway overpass bridge. The commander pointed, “That must be the chopper”.  They could also hear gunfire from that direction.

Looking up the road - smoke rises from the helicopter

The Scimitar commander rushed forward crashing through the chain-link fence and opened fire with its RARDEN 30mm cannon at a mob by the gate, which quickly took cover.

Two WMIKs then moved up to the bridge, spotting a tail rotor.  They could see a crowd on the opposite railway embankment, but were unsure if they were unfriendly. A debate ensued, which was finally resolved when the Scimitar then joined them by the bridge. The mob on the other side of the railway opened futile fire at the light tank. Having confirmed that they were, indeed, 'hostiles', the return fire from Scimitar and both WMIKs was punishing... (The commander of the tank had a surreal moment when he realised that they were using heavy force against their own countrymen, rather than against Malikastanis. However, when bullets pinged off the hull, he shrugged off the thought. In all the months in Malikastan nothing had ever pinged off his vehicle. He ordered his gunner to open fire...)

Meanwhile, further mobs appeared, from across the railway line, from inside the factory yard, and from down on the railway track itself. Movement was also spotted in the gardens of the houses to their right. Things were starting to look dangerous; the WMIK stationed outside the fence returned fire on the mob charging out from the factory, knocking two of them over; as they ran, their exit was hastened by more fire from the WMIK at the T-junction. One of the WMIKs on the bridge moved so it could see down onto the railway line, but the crew could not verify if the mob on the railway were belligerent, so they held their fire. The crew of the other WMIK on the bridge disembarked, and moved to the edge of the railway embankment to see if they could spot the Prince.  They were taken under fire from a reformed mob on the opposite embankment; their fire, and that from the Scimitar blasted the mob to smithereens. The sound of heavy machine gun fire - supplemented with 30mm Rarden cannon - was almost continuous. (One of the WMIK drivers could not believe that so many armed and dangerous men could roam the streets of Grand Brexitia. What had happened to his country while he was away in the Middle East ? How could a 21st century, First World country, run by a bunch of coke-snorting, pig-molesting ex-Etonians, be reduced to this level of anarchy so quickly ?). Ammunition started to run low.

The fireteam reaches the Prince; hostiles gather in the factory yard and in the gardens

Covered by their mates in the vehicles, the fireteam on foot slid down the embankment, engaging mobs shooting at them from the far side, and from the gang on the railway line. Even when conserving ammo, their shooting was still too much for the armed civilians. They managed to make it to the wreck of the helicopter, and found the Prince and his friends, unharmed except for grazes and superficial cuts. Prince Roger himself was cowering behind the helicopter, and it took some effort to persuade him to scramble up the embankment, towards the parked WMIK. As they climbed, fire from the 'hostiles' lightly wounded one of the rescuers, but return fire caused the armed civilians to go to ground. Another large mob approached from the gardens of the houses with the intention of charging in to the Prince's protectors, but Scimitar cannon and WMIK fire knocked some down, and the rest took cover behind the walls. This enabled the Prince, his chums, and the fireteam to make it to their vehicles (one of the chums had to travel in another WMIK, as the first was overloaded; the Prince insisted on being first aboard, taking cover in the floorwell...)

A mob approaches from along the railway tracks.

While this was going on, more mobs closed on the scene. The WMIK at the T-junction spotted some movement behind them, but its machine gun fire missed. The exposed WMIK crew suffered wounds; one was a mere scratch, but the second was more serious. The vehicle was starting to resemble a Swiss cheese, with one dead, and one other out of action. The last unwounded man frantically manned the gun; the lightly wounded man took the wheel as the order to pull out came over the air. Shooting in all directions, the convoy pulled out and raced back to barracks, the Scimitar covering the rear. Prince Roger was safe. 

The troops prepare to pull out.

Casualties

Regulars - 1 dead, 1 seriously wounded, 2 lightly wounded.

Kray's Gang - No casualties

Mobs - An estimated two to four dozen wounded or killed (?)

Newspaper headlines next day - 'Our hero. Brave Prince Roger single-handedly fights off hordes of criminal scum hell-bent on terror rampage'. (Of course, 'The Daily Heil' is always entirely truthful, accurate and unbiased in its reporting...)