A victory of sorts

We tried another web-cam game, with our West Australian player taking the part of the insurgents, with good local knowledge, but poor command and control; and a local player playing the Australian (UNSAF) forces, who would have better communications and overview. However, we were thwarted to some extent by 'technical' issues; the web cam kept seizing up. We ended up using an iPad and skype. The board was set up as below; the road ran through a shallow valley, with a village in the centre. The main compound was just outside the village to the left. All woods were average, restricting line of sight to 3". There was a legacy minefield that the insurgent player was aware of - the large poppy field, surrounded by walls, between 2 woods and the compound - but was unknown to the UNSAF player. 10 turns were allowed on a 6 x 4 board.

The insurgent brief was as follows :- You've been informed that the westerners are going to search your compound for drugs and weapons, so you've moved everything out in advance, and decided to give them a little surprise... Your aim is to kill, wound or capture the westerners. Your men are hidden in ambush around the area, and ratlines enable them to move between positions without being spotted. Some other local groups have also promised to assist, including a mortar team. You, of course, are 'supervising' from a nearby hill (bottom right corner in the first photo); be aware that the westerners are likely to be monitoring your communications.

The UNSAF brief was simple :- Your platoon is to raid the compound of a suspected local drug lord, and confiscate any drugs or guns you find there. You are not expected to encounter anything but token resistance; the main suspect has shown pro-western sympathies in the past, but must be taught that poppy cultivation is not acceptable in the modern Malikastan. There are also believed to be civilians in the village, so be on your best behaviour. (UNSAF to enter from the top of the photo, and advance to the compound).

Here is one side's version of the events that followed...

The valley from the south

Ubadul Hin-D’most’s satellite phone rang, it was the interpreter from the local UNSAF base, the man earned his drugs by quickly saying, “Ubadul, they are coming to get your guns and opium.”  With that said the phone went dead.  Ubadul swore, the damnable drug-stealing crusaders had not been in his valley for months.  His latest lecture on the pro’s of Holy War [to ensure the crusaders stayed away from his compound] had put the new batch of international volunteers to sleep.  This bunch were even worse than the last batch, lazy drug-dealing thugs from Australia and across Europe.  All they did was steal his drugs and eat his food and kick his dog.  He sighed, “O, for the good old days.”… when he had well trained, well indoctrinated soldiers to protect his poppies from the Russians.

Ubadul's compound, with flag flying...

He shouted his Holy ‘Warriors’ awake; “Brothers, I need to head over to town to buy more…food.  While I am away please go to your rooms and make sure your weapons are in good order.” With that he mounted his donkey, called his dog, and with a few slaps of his fly-switch was off in the opposite direction.  He eventually reached his hide, well stocked with hashish, beer and literature (porn). He then phoned the idiot…his second in command…, “Hey, Rubesh bin-Sidni, bad news man, some soldiers are coming down the valley, there are only…hmm, 4 of them, get your boys into ambush.  I am riding as fast as my ass can carry me.”

Rubesh was over the Moon: he could fight the UNSAF without having to go to “El Stalingrad” and test his faith against a 2,000lbs JDAM. He ordered his men to take up positions around the village, and sniggered, this was way cooler than being arrested for selling drugs in King’s Cross! Rubesh ordered his PKM man to setup the machine-gun on the top storey and then sat back and had a smoke.  He did not even look over when the PKM gunner got his finger jammed in the feeder.

The Australian advances (blue) and the Insurgent responses (Black)

The first sign of trouble was when Rezikel bin-Brisbani, the brave fool, opened fire from his forward position on the advancing UNSAF only to be met with an accurate fusillade from the UNSAF troops.  Rubesh laughed, Rezikel was a fool, not like Rubesh himself who was way back from the fight.

Ubadul sat miles away from the fight munching on a Hershy bar.  Ah, contact! He got on his radio to some Hotakistani soldiers at the border post to the east, “Hey, can you send over some mortars?”, “Eh?”, “Send over some fncking mortars.”  “Hey, is that you Ubadul?”  “No, it's your bloody mother.”  “Hey Uba, the hashish you sent us is all finished.” “So, what, I want mortars…”  And so on, as the UNSAF advanced Ubadul spent the time arguing over how much a mortar was worth in hashish-dollars.

The international Holy Warriors held their fire as Rezikel took the hits.  But when targets appeared they fired, but were truly terrible, they exposed themselves, and even before they could fire were pummeled with a rain of bullets and mortars.  Ubadul watched the clown show through his binoculars.  He sighed.  He received a few calls from his men; they begged for help; he told them they were doing fine - "I can see the UNSAF falling like wheat before a [blunt] scythe". He phoned the mortar men again but the phone was engaged. By now UNSAF mortars began to pepper the town, a few of the buildings collapsed.

 

UNSAF mortars destroy the village. (Note Ubadul's Golden Holden)

Ubadul cursed; he could see UNSAF troops advancing in the open and the mortar men’s phone was still engaged. He was happy to see a UNSAF solider go down on the broken down wall, but cringed to see the heavy fire hit his men’s positions.  He watched with silent anticipation as the UNSAF advanced through the Russian-Italian minefield… Gah!  His sheep regularly blew up!  Not even a little smoke.

He phoned each of his teams, but found most were silent.  He heard an explosion as UNSAF breached his compound wall.  He phoned Rubesh, “Rubesh, keep them away from the dr…weapon cache.” Rubesh was frantic, “They are killing everything!” “Who is doing the killing? Us?” “No.”

An insurgent sniper team is spotted, and comes under punitive fire.

By now more mortars smashed into the town, and whenever Ubadul’s men tried to shoot they received x10 in return and soon the town was full of the dying and dead.

Then Ubdaul saw an amazing sight; six of his idiots were charging up a hill, in the open, bullets landing everywhere, somehow they made it to the woods at the top of the hill.  Moments later he saw them reappear, once again with UNSAF bullets landing all around them, but dragging an UNSAF prisoner.  “Sweet, that will keep my masters happy.”

Udadul watches helplessly as the Australians head into his compound. All defensive fire is met with withering overwatch

Rubesh looked out the window down into the colonnaded lean-to in the compound.  There, below were Australian soldiers.  He counted two of them trying to medicate two of their fallen comrades; he whooped!  But he then realized that meant his friends down stairs were no more.  He looked around and thought, two UNSAF…and he had 6 men and himself.  He pulled out his knife, and with much ululating ran down the stairs to finish off the two soldiers.  Unfortunately it was a gunfight.  And ululating sought of killed the advantage of surprise...

As Rubesh slumped to the ground his last thought was, “Damn...I thought I was...”

An Australian soldier walked up to the bodies, “Holy Shit mate, this dead fucka has a Manly shirt.” His mate looked over, “Ha, Manly always loses.  Fucker should have known better.”

Ubadul finally saw mortars raining down from his friends across the border, but instead of landing on the UNSAF troops crossing the street they landed amongst his herd of goats. Ubadul cracked a beer and sighed; these volunteers from Australia were crap; he had lost 29 “soldiers”, and the interpreter reported that amongst the Australians two were dead, a few wounded and one missing.  He asked himself what would having one warrior like old Ubadul be worth?  He laughed, “Hell, if there were two of me I would be sitting here sharing my shit.” All in all a good day. Though Ubadul had lost lots of AK’s and bags of opium he now had 29 fewer mouths to feed.  “Always look on the bri...”  

Then he cursed - he had a whole herd of goats to eat this evening.

Ubadul's goats...  :~(

Mission Briefing - Cake Walk/Milk Run

The plan: The UN force will steam-roller a motley collection of routed rabble and capture the small airstrip between the half-built presidential palace and the Ma'tafil dam.

The UN SOFORCE will advance along the southern route to the main airfield to the west, the first step of this long sweep will be the taking of the Ma'tafil airstrip, power plant and dam.  To the north NOFORCE and the Russians will attempt to advance through the city of Hotakimadina and take the shorter northern route to the airfield.  The Russians are not under UN command.  A light paratrooper force followed by an airlanding force will assault, take and hold the main airfield until relieved by NOFORCE and/or SOFORCE.  Good luck....you poor bastards.

The mission is designed for 4-players and contains a hidden agenda on each side.

The route of Soforce and Noforce around the Kabir Massif - Target - The main airfield soon to be renamed UN Base Heidi Clare.

The first step in SOFORCE'S advance: The Ma'tafil industrial park, airstrip and dam.

The UN Vanguard, SAS in WMIKS leading an Australian force of Abrams and MRAP Infantry, along with the first of the British Warriors.

The Mission Map

I forgot to add that all units of Hotakistani Player 2 (Technicals, Golden Holden and BMP-1) enter on turn 1 within 6" of A on the map.

On patrol with the Broke Bone Aussies (aka BrisBane)

After Kevin has been quoting Bruce Shakespeare - William's lesser-known antipodean brother - I thought that I'd also provide a quote from the same play, "Barry V" (where Barry and his mates are trying to get back into the pub after being thrown out for being pissed)...

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the door up with our Aussie pissed.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the wombat, and pass me another stubby of XXXX..."

Sadly, Bruce's poetry was not quite as good as his brother's... However, Eureka's 15mm Australian figures are works of art in their own right - "A thing of beauty is a joy forever". I thought that I'd add a few pictures of the ones that I'd painted up. Like Bruce, however, my artistic abilities are sadly lacking, so I use these as a challenge to everyone else out there (Shane, can you hear me ?) to do better.  ;~)

No longer do you need to hold your manhood cheap - Eureka 15mm Australians now available to all

 And gentlemen in Australia now-a-bed 

 Shall now no longer think themselves accurs'd that they did not join the 300 Club at Eureka, 

 And need not hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 

 That bought the 15mm Australians upon the 300 club.

Good news, Nic Robson has made the 300 Club 15mm Modern Australians available for order for everyone.  No more holding your manhoods cheap if you missed out being part of the 300 Club.

http://eurekamin.com.au/news.php?newsid=EupkEZZFApRShfTQFq

AAR - Operation [REDACTED]

"What happened at Malika Airport last week?"

"Nothing happened." replied the US Spokesman to the press at the UN HQ.

The truth is more terrifying than anyone could imagine.

The Russian kill and wound the South African guards and steal the UN QRF Medivac helicopter

A heavy firefight is believed to have occurred at the western edge of the airfield.  A three way struggle occurred between the Russians, the UN and the Hotakistanis.  A fourth force was also rumoured to be involved, and this was confirmed by a release from Wikidrips.  We played a massive 4-sided mission.  Operation Democritus begins (see Mission Briefing here)

Unknown to the UN forces the Russians had discovered a stolen nuke (of Russian origin) on one of the crashed aircraft at the airfield.  The nuke "belonged" to the Hotakistanis.  As the Russian moved to recover it a secret force of Hotakistani revealed themselves and a race was on, the Russians to recover the bomb and the Hotakistani to set off the bomb.  The UN, unaware of the nuke, raced to turn the Russians back to their part of the base.  In the vicinity of the aircraft was a secret NSA base which would result in the operation being removed from all the annals of the world (or so they thought!).

The fight started with a section of Russians attacking the helipad at the southern end of the airfield.  Their plan was to steal a helicopter, retrieve the bomb and then fly it back to Russian territory.  The South African guards at the helipad were taken by surprise by the Russians and they fell quickly.

Meanwhile at the west end of the airfield the Russians advanced on their secret objective, the nuke in the crashed airliner.  The nuke had been stolen by the Hotakistanis and crashed on the runway on the first day of the invasion, their plan had been to explode the bomb if they failed to secure the main UN base.  They had been defeated and the bomb had never been set-off.  The plane had then been dragged to the wrecking yard at the airfield, the UN unaware it contained a nuke.

The Main Maintenance Workshops and the wrecked planes.

The Russian rushed into the Main Maintenance Workshops, they heard the helicopter had been captured and that their comrades had also captured a BMP-1 which would soon arrive (Turn 4) to assist them in their task.

The Russian arrive at the MMW

The Russian paratroopers catch sight of their objective, the crashed airliner is in sight.

On a course to intercept the Russians was a motley UN force thrown together from the remnant units at the airfield.  The UN force included a section of South Africans, a section of British, a squad of Americans, a P4 Peugeot with French special forces and a fire team of Australian special forces.  The UN force moved into the buildings overlooking the main wrecking yards.  They battled to breach one of the buildings but were soon in overwatch positions above the yards.

A team of South Africans show the Aussies how to break in to a building.  Mark has painted his Eureka Miniatures Australians (most envious!)

Unknown to the Russians or the UN a third force was hiding just over the outer fences of the airfield.  The Hotakistanis had come to the realization that the Russians had discovered the bomb and they now raced forward to arm the bomb and deny the airfield to the UN.

The Hotakistani platoon run through a minefield losing three men, and cut through the chain-link fence.  The race is on!

The Hotakistani swarmed from their hideout, ran through a minefield, losing three men seriously wounded, and then breached the outer fence.  The Russians soon came under fire from the Hotakistanis.  This would turn into a bloody fire fight ending with only one Hotakistani left alive and only four Russians.

The Russian run towards their objective, but accurate fire from the Hotakistani stops them in their tracks

Unknown to the Russians they had run past a hidden group of Hotakistani agents from their Special Activities Detachment (SAD).  The SAD team had been hiding in one of the upper floors of a workshop, from where they could observe the wrecked jetliner.  The SAD men popped up and poured fire into the running Russians.  The Russians were soon able to neutralize this threat but at a cost.

Russians ambushed by the SAD men.  The Russian leader, Lt Razputin flexes his muscles.

The UN could see the firefight from their positions in the office blocks.  The commander ordered the French patrol to make contact with the Russians.  The French Special Forces moved forward to order the Russians back to their compound.  The Russians failed to move, saying they could not understand German.  At about this time a runner brought up a decoded message which showed the UN commander that the Russians were attempting to retrieve a Empty Quiver - a stolen nuclear bomb.

The French drive up to the advancing Russians, a tense stand-off ensues.

The firefight near the workshops intensified, with the Russians losing a few men.  The French supported the Russians by firing at the Hotakistanis THROUGH the Russian forces, but miraculously no Russian went down to this "semi-friendly" fire.

The firefight grows in intensity.  The French come to the Russians assistance, but fire through the defending Russians.

After softening up the Russians the Hotakistanis charge in with grenades and bayonets, killing four of the Russians.

The first of many close quarter combat.  In this one the Russians are wiped out.

The gunfire and explosions had a dramatic effect in the NSA Darpa base at the other end of the wrecking yard.  Several containers started to shake and blood curdling screams could be heard from within their confines.  Soon the containers failed and out poured a fourth force.  Within the container cages were torn and smashed.  Unfortunately, the nature of this new force has been redacted by the NSA.  The first casualties of this new force were the two NSA agents in the building.

Unfortunately the image of this event has been redacted.

[REDACTED]

Luckily the NSA is a sieve, and we can therefore show you these images:

NSA DARPA EXPERIMENTAL ALIEN DIVISION

The fourth force was some form of alien or synthetic lifeform.  They surged forward, loping, skittering, hunting any human they could sense.  The UN force was the first to see them, the men either puckered up or lost sphincter valve control.

The stolen helicopter lands, the Russians as yet unaware of the new nearby threat.

The Russian helicopter and BMP arrived around about now.  The BMP was soon to become a thorn in the UN side, it main gun a threat to the advance of their troops and a threat to the UN vehicles.  The South Africans had been checking through the vehicles parked in the yards and found a Ratel and a Rooikat in operable condition, they mounted these vehicles, though only the machine-guns could be operated.

The Russian BMP arrives, it survives the operation, but gets hit by 3 to 4 RPGs.

The firefight in the centre continued with multiple casualties on both sides.  The UN taking pot-shots at the participants.  The Hotakistanis realised that the central yard was becoming too dangerous and began a flanking move to get to the airliner.

Hotakitanis begin a flank move to reach the airliner

About now the aliens started to disgorge from the NSA buildings, the shocked UN force poured a withering fire killing into these horrific beings as they ran across the road towards the UN position.  One of the alien queens mounted a wall (and rolled a 1 for the Reaction test, received a card, Man Down, rolled a D10 for the ten alien teams and rolled a 9!  The queen.  She died as she fell from the wall.  Rather anti-climatic to the mirth of the other players.  Especially as I have had a uncanny ability to fall off walls in another game we play!)

An ignominious end to one of the alien Queens

The Aliens swarmed forth, though many died, many advanced on the Russians who had just debussed from the helicopter.

The Aliens rush the Russians

The Aliens began to suffer from an inability to martial themselves to charge into close quarters (by the end of the game I had rolled at least ten "1s" with a D10 for the close combat TQ check.  Not just failing but failing with 1s!)

One successful assault out of four attempts!  The Hotakistanis attempting to range in on the aliens, but the UN intervened shooting down the two Hotakistani snipers before they could fire on the aliens.

The Aliens attacking the UN forces faced a wall of overwatch fire.  Very few aliens made it, most dying in puddles of acid.

A wall of overwatch lead puts an end to the alien advance on the UN forces

The Russians, ignoring the UN request, breached the airliner and advanced to the bomb in the centre of the aircraft.

The Russians ignoring French order breach the plan and advance to the bomb, but suffer wounds and cannot carry the bomb.

The aliens now spotted that there were walking incubators in the airliner and started to breach the aircraft, but once again they failed to muster the will to attack the Russians in the aircraft.  The Hotakistanis also breached the plane but were ambushed by FBS Russian agents, but they overcame the two Russian agents and attacked the fireteam at the bomb, wounding two of the Russians.  The Russians could now not retrieve the bomb with the four men required to retrieve and evacuate the bomb.

The aliens once again failing to muster themselves to assault the walking incubators.

The UN now suffered two setbacks, both their overwatch buildings caught fire and the UN had to rapidly evacuate their advantage points (both Reaction Cards, one played by the Hotaksitanis and one by the aliens, the UN player was not impressed)

Bad luck, the first of two fires in the UN held buildings

The Russian now joined the alien killing spree, firing on the aliens.  They wounded two aliens, then the aliens charged them, losing two more to the Russians, and then in close combat the Russians dispatched the last alien.

Russians wiping out the aliens.

The Russian, after killing the drones, turned on the queen and quickly killed her.

The Alien queen dies.

The firefight in the yard continued, devastating both the Hotakistanis and Russians.  A team of Hotakistanis entered the plane and took down the Russians with UN "assistance" (the Rooikat and P4 had moved up to fire on the airliner).  The aliens clawing at the outside of the plane once again fail to muster the will to charge into the plane!  The Rooikat was destroyed by the Russians.

The South Africans engaged the Russian BMP with an RPG, but after two hits could not penetrate the armour.  The BMP responded to the fire, also with little effect.

The Hotakistanis clear the plane with UN assistance, while the aliens twiddle their thumbs!

The aliens now exacted some revenge on the UN, a group of five aliens surged into a fire team of Americans, killing them all.  The aliens were soon killed by the Australian SASR.

Aliens munching on the US fire team

The aliens finally entered the plane and killed the Hotakistanis in the plane.  A final Hotakistani surge to breach the aircraft and set off the nuke was withered under heavy fire, but in the end one of the Hotakistani agents got to the bomb.  He started to arm the bomb but was interrupted by incoming UN forces (he required a full turn so he was too late and the mission ended).  The bomb was captured by the UN. Only four Russians were left standing and the last Hotakistani killed himself rather than be captured.  The surviving Russian fell back over the perimeter fence and were extracted by a Russian force later in the day.

A reporter at the airfield reported that the Russians had attacked the UN.  The Russians said that the bodies in the reporters photographs said to be Russians appeared to be a Malikstani militia men, pointing out that none of the uniforms contained Russian badges or flags.  The UN reported that the photographs were fakes or were taken during the initial invasion a month before.

There was never a fight.

There was never a bomb.

The UN and Russians are still on good terms.

There were certainly no "unexplained" events.

Period.

The aliens [that never did exist] were also all killed, though one [of the non-existent] aliens had escaped with a victim...

A bloody four-player four-sided game that ran very smoothly.  Probably our biggest game ever, with over four platoons of infantry.  The Force on Force rules held up well and we finished the game in good time.  Initiative was gold during this game, the ability to have overwatch was precious indeed.  Initiative bounced around, but the UN was able to hold it for most of the game.  The UN captured two vehicles which helped them hold on to initiative for most the game.

The aliens inability to muster themselves to attack and the ignominious end to the one queen resulted in lots of [rude] chortling.    In the end it was a UN victory as they received a bonus 20VP when the Russians and Hotakistanis failed in their missions.  But it was still narrow, with the UNs 57VP vs. the Russians 51VP.

The secret arrival of aliens in the campaign certainly led to shock among the three regular players.  I wish I had a picture of their faces as I setup the 40 drones and two queens.  It was classic.

Sadly, this is going to be my last game for a long time to come, though I hope the campaign will continue.  I will see if I can get players keen in WA, and I hope the Queenslander's keep it going.

Force on Force has enabled us to play some truly enjoyable games.  At least 41 of those games have been reported on this blog.  Not to mention the excellent players Mark, Bill and Shane.  And all the other guest players that have been involved in the 3 years we have played this campaign.

To anyone who has visited our blog I hope we have been able to entertain or inspire you to further gaming.  I hope this is not the end and we will soon be playing the campaign in both Queensland and WA.  If anyone this side of  Sagittarius A wants to join in to play missions in the campaign please PM me.