Force on Force - The Package...of misery

It was once again time for Force on Force. This time the scenario was picked from the book "Classified" and was excellent three party scenario by Donogh McCharty. Nice three participant scenario of illegal arms deal interrupted by government forces. With that we went on with Kharum campaign and colonel Miracles storyline. After having sound beating twice from UN troopers Miracle went underground and disappeared to unknown. But there was certain business with Chinese to take care. So Colonel sent one of his trusted captains to make the deal. But their dirty deal was revealed by one of the Miracles captains captured from previous operation.

The deal was happening by rural airfield where Chinese seller landed by helicopter. Chinese businessman had a team of tough looking silent green men with him. Miracles captain had hand picked mob of militia as a protection. When the transaction was to take place UN troops appeared into airfield from woods nearby and Miracles men reacted firing them right away and UN troops returned fire and all hell broke loose. Green men, maybe Chinese, sprinted to their principal and one soldier started moving him towards the waiting chopper. Miracles captain took the package and ran towards a building where their escape car was parked. At the same time pilots sprinted to the helo and jumped in.

UN troops near airfield advanced and poured murderous fire into rebel troops as usual dropping them one by one. They seemed to have the same killing spree on like operations before. Chinese green men opened fire to Miracles captain and effectively shot them in back. This was most unexpected and now Miracles men found themselves between two firing parties. So while UN troops eliminated most opposition from their sector and the green men on their Miracles men were all down. Except on who tried to drag his leader in safety in large building. He was also fired down by UN troops noticing him, so only the poor captain was left standing and he surrendered  to UN. During this time chopper pilots fired up the machine and took off and after having some intense fire from ground flew aways. Now it was time to UN to meet the green men. UN troops managed to eliminate one soldier and the arms dealer and seeing this other silent troopers slipped away.

Once again glorious victory for the UN. The package captured, Miracles captain apprehended, Chinese arms dealer eliminated and one unknown green soldier KIA. Miracle is now in real troubles with his captains and supporters and wanted man by the UN.

So AAR shots from the airfield.

Green men covering the transaction.

Now in close protection.

UN troops on attack.

Arms dealer and escort sneaking to safety.

Miracles troops taking cover.

Chopper leaving after pilots lost their nerve.

All targets down for UN troops.

Chopper left, what now?

Faith of the arms dealer in the house.

Miracles trusted man captured.

Interesting game, somewhat confusing time to time because of the three different players. But went well in the end. Truly a misery for colonel Miracle.

Bolt Action - Legaspi landing

Between our ongoing modern Africa campaign we have some Bolt Action games for a change. Last week we did one from the Pacific campaign book "Empire in flames". The game was the early war scenario where Japanese forces are attacking to Luzon and are doing landings on various places. The scenario is quite interesting since it's combining nicely many different spacial rules. It has amphibious assault and night fighting rules in one package. And it also has Japanese as a attacking force, something you don't normally see in Pacific news reels. And off course on of my Club mates had just painted new Japanese landing crafts, which we wanted to put in use.

At the start of the fight both forces had half strength in first wave and rest were left in reserves. US actually had first half on table waiting for attack. All battlefield was dark and there would be flares occasionally in the sky. Otherwise line of sight was very limited and firing proved to be dangerous activity. And because of that the Japanese were able to move in shore quite safely and US troops only started firing when the first wave was about to land. It didn't helped at all to have one US squad at the shoreline, they still didn't saw anything. And once they opened fire they were seen and got returning fire from every unit running ashore. The were annihilated quickly.

After initial wave Japanese moved in land with determination and while moving fired at their targets with surprising accuracy, even it was night time. US forces weren't that accurate. While Japanese second wave was running to shore more US troops joined the fight and tipped the balance. After some heavy firing from US reserves it seemed that Japanese push slowed. The second wave landed but at the same time flare illuminated the battlefield and advancing Japanese were caught in the open beach. This started last phase of the fight, the true fight for attrition from both sides. And the result was as such, both sides suffered heavy losses. At the same time when Japanese attacker lost it ability to run over US troops US line became very thin. So in the end the fight ended tactical draw.

The beach just before everything started.

US troops on the beach waiting.

First Japanese wave.

All quiet still.

After the ramp dropped close range firefight erupted.

Attacker reached barbed wire line.

First wave on the shore.

Near miss from a mortar.

US troops flanking.

More Japanese pour in.

US officer following situation with some concerns.

Two heroes meet, Japanese sergeant won.

Nice game. We liked the night element and thought that this could easily have been played with double size of troops. And we will do it some times near future.

Force on Force - The Pit

Our last Kharum campaign game ended in a situation where UN troops were force to seek cover from a compound in a very hostile neighborhood. They were slowed by two wounded comrades and two surprise prisoners they apprehended during the rescue operation. So instead of pushing beck to base the took hold on a compound, fortified it, sent out distress call and started waiting. Their call was answered by several units which reported bit different ETA's each.

While UN troopers were waiting warlord gunmen surrounded the compound and started gathering courage to start the attack ti free their arrested friends. Suddenly they got extra boots of courage since Colonel Miracle showed up with hard looking soldiers. The colonel sent gunmen for attack as soon as he appeared and with no time the fight was on.

Heaviest attack stated from east side of the compound and UN troopers holding that side started getting hits. They returned fire but firing from gunmen AK's was so intensive things started looking pretty bleak already at the start of the fight. This situation was relieved by truckload of South Kharum regulars who were working with UN in joint operations. They rolled in and attacked rebels on east side and turned the tables. While Kharum regulars were engaging rebels UN troops in compound were patching the wounded best they could and hoped the CSAR team would arrive soon. The empty UN truck rolled east side of the compound to load the wounded and prisoners.

While fire fight on east side was on colonel Miracle made his move and cleverly slipping through yards and houses approached the compound swiftly. And with no tike he and his tough guardsmen opened murderous fire on UN team on west side and dropped two out of three immediately. After that Miracle sent guardsmen to attack what was left standing on west side. Situation was were confusing since the compound was now filled with soldiers, prisoners and many wounded blue glad soldiers. There was countless attacks and counter attacks and righters fell while prisoners were watching amazed.

Once again Un troops seemed doomed. But then resourceful UN troopers started evacuating wounded and prisoners to street on east side while Kharum regulars were suppressing Miracles warriors. During that CSAR team buzzed in with Little Bird chopper onboard sniper did his peace on Miracles gunmen. The little chopper was chased away twice by intensive ground fire but it kept flying in on and on and finally managed to drop CSAR team on compound perimeter. The like finalize the defeat of colonel Miracle Warrior APC drove by and started peppering Miracles elite with 30 mm cannon and MG fire. One by Miracles guardsmen were dropped down and it even seemed Miracle got one, but he was never found and UN later counted six Miracles guardsmen from compound as casualties.

So two phase operation was over and after a hard fight UN managed to get most of it's men safe. Only two were KIA's. UN got also several gunmen leaders as prisoners and two western mining engineers were saved during this successful operation.

Some AAR shots fro the location.

Kharum regulars roll in.

UN troops look relieved familiar truck to approach.

Kharum regulars starting a fight.

Gunmen pushing in the compound.

CSAR team buzzes in.

Miracle and his loyal guard attacking compound-

Enter Warrior.

SCAR team on location and ready go in to start first aid-

UN truck leaving with prisoners and engineers while Warrior's providing cover.

Truck speeding to safety.

A picture of a man allegedly colonel Miracle.

How interesting game. At first it seemed that UN troops will be overrun at turn three. Then things changed. Then Miracles successful attack on compound changed the situation once again until sure victory was taken from poor colonel. This is Force on Force!

Bolt Action - Road to Belgium

Back to Bolt Action in quite special way. Yesterday we had very nice game of BA with a Club mate. We've been planning this long and finally we got to have the actual game. The game was a hybrid of Tank War and regular BA game, since we both had a platoon of tanks along with normal l infantry units. We also did this on double size table, so in effect we had six by six foot table. 

The game was about US platoon backed with Shermans pushing through a small town to take vital crossroads (we always seem to fight over a crossroads). On the opposing side, there was a combined kampfgruppe of Fallschirmjägers and army to defend the town. US got double amount of infantry units to Germans since they were attacking. So it wasn't "fare" game, but war isn't. Starting positions were taken from the excellent Tank War book scenario "Bastogne". In it Germans got infantry and one other unit already in town. US troops had initial wave on board and rest units were coming from reserves.

Small advance troop of German motorized recon had slipped in a ruined building to set eyes on vital crossroad.They had MG team covering them house nearby. So positions supposed to be good, but it wasn't so. US started the push with full platoon of infantry supported by HMG team and AT team. The infantry advanced quickly in good cover and neither recon team nor MMG couldn't take a shot on them. They could only call in for support from Sturmgeshutz abteilung and two squads of Fallschirjägers who hurried to stop the American advance.

When German recon team was looking out from a ruined house they saw the US troops pouring along the street backed by some Shermans and before they could even take a shot they came under massive fire from US Garands and tank machine guns. And this actually went on throughout the fight until the poor recon team was annihilated without being able to fire a shot.

While US infantry was concentrating to fight with the Germans in town Stug abteilung rumbled in and just after them two squads of Fallschirmjägers. But at the same time US Shermans were fanning out to meet the anticipated German armor. One of the Shemans got in a good position and took accurate shot on column of advancing Stugs and knocked out one. Two other Stugs rolled in town to start a fight. Howitzer armed Stug 42 started punishing advancing US infantry and other was trying to find a place to shoot at Shermans. Later the Sherman that killed a Stug was knocked out by accurate Panzerscreck shot. There was lot of "movie moments" during the fight, like German sniper dropping US Bazooka team hunting Stug in a town. And later the very same sniper eliminated by other Shermans machine gun. Finally US overwhelmed German defenders who never managed to reach good defending positions in town, but they tried very hard and fell down trying. The fight ended few Germans surrendering and Yanks taking hold on vital point of approach deeper in Belgium.'

Here's some shot from the fight.

US troops advance in town covered by some Shermans.

German recon team in ruins waiting.

Stugs on the road to have a fight.

Sherman taking vantage point.

Stug htt by Sherman and bursting in flames.

Later the Sherman faced the same faith.

By this team.

Tanks meeting in the town.

Tank standoff.

German lieutenant one of the few survivors. 

Situation at the end of the fight.

Americans pouring in.

German transport wait.

Finally the town and objective was at US hands.

Absolutely great game and fight. Long and enjoyable strongly themed game with nice historical feeling and and lots of events and happening throughout the game. Bolt Action at it's best.