CapnJim's Modern Stuff - Balczaki-Soviet Bridge Fight Full AAR - Pg 54-10 Aug 25

[Russ justice]

The African gunmen look great, a proper mix of civilian clothing.

[CapnJim]

a great looking collection - those vehicles were a good find!

Yes, they were.  And thanks!

The African gunmen look great, a proper mix of civilian clothing.

Thanks.  They get their first blooding this coming Friday...I'll post the lead-in to the scenario, and the scenario information, here in a couple, few days.

But first:

Some scatter terrain that is pure rubbish.  No, literally.  Most of it anyway.  And it's all 28mm.  First up is a shipping container, by Reaper Miniatures.  It's a simple multi-part hard plastic kit.  As you can see, the doors can open.  The container serial and ID numbers and flag are from both Rubicon and Warlord US tank markings.  The graffiti is from a Judge Dredd decal sheet I picked up some while ago (I think as a Wargames illustrated freebie).  Some of my newly-painted African gunmen are there to show scale.





Next is a trash dumpster, also by Reaper Miniatures.  It too is a simple multi-part hard plastic kit.  It's door can flip up.  The ID number marking is from a British tank marking decal sheet.  The graffiti is from that Judge Dredd decal sheet mentioned above.





Next are 4 piles of garbage bags, and 2 piles of tires.  These I got from Miniature Building Authority.  The garbage bags were molded in those piles.  The tires came as separate resin castings, and I put them in those piles.





And here is the whole lot together.



This stuff will appear in the afore-mentioned scenario, as well.

[carlos marighela]

Cool looking scatter terrain!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looking good mate!

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice.

Interesting about the Reaper Container and Dumpster kits.

[Cat]

Lovely ambience!

[CapnJim]

Cool looking scatter terrain!

Looking good mate!

Lovely ambience!

Nice.

Interesting about the Reaper Container and Dumpster kits.

Thanks, fellas!  And yeah - I thought it interesting that Reaper did those 2 kits, given the rest of their stuff.  And that container is one of 3 they do.  They have another that is shorter, and yet another that is longer...

And I'm working on that scenario I mentioned as we speak.  Hope to have that lead-in and scenario info posted by tomorrow.  It's gonna be a Spec Ops "Grab-n-Go" mission in Northern Gambola...it'll b the first pouting for this scatter terrain, those gunmen, and those Gambolan "regulars"...stand by for further information...

[CapnJim]

And I'm working on that scenario I mentioned as we speak.  Hope to have that lead-in and scenario info posted by tomorrow.  It's gonna be a Spec Ops "Grab-n-Go" mission in Northern Gambola...it'll b the first pouting for this scatter terrain, those gunmen, and those Gambolan "regulars"...stand by for further information...

And here we go...

02 April 1993.  US Special Operations Joint Command Post, near Bangerizi Airport, on the eastern outskirts of Bangerizi, Northern Gambola.

CPT Baker and his team leaders were gathered in the CP.  The XO, S3, S2, and CSM were there as well.  Then: "Ten-shun!"  Everyone stood as the Colonel breezed in.  "At ease, everybody".  And everyone relaxed, but remained standing.

"Afternoon, gentlemen." said the Colonel.  "Let's get on with it."  The S3, a crusty-looking older Navy Commander, started things off.  "Y'all know what happened in February.  Gambolans made several attempts to move on the airport to try to disrupt our Evac Ops during the coup.  They failed, but the Rangers kinda took it in the shorts.  Intel has determined that some rogue Gambolan officer, Captain General M'Gumbo Isgood, was behind the Coup and the disruption attacks.  According to HUMINT sources, he has slithered away to a sympathetic little shithole about 24 clicks east of Bangerizi.  Look at your aerial photographs." 

The S2, an tall stout Marine Major, went on "He's holed up in the compound at the north side of said shithole.  We believe he sleeps, with his personal guard in the building marked "F" on your photos.  More Gambolans are billitted in Locations "E" and "G".  We believe the on-site Gambolan force is platoon-strength in size.  At night, they keep sentries at or near locations "A', "B", "C", and "D".   As the Commander said, that area is sympathetic to Isgood, so you can expect local reinforcements to show up if word of this raid gets out.  We do not believe there are any civilians in that village, but watch out for them, and try not kill any of 'em."

The Colonel chimed in  "Your mission, CPT Baker, is to SP in your vehicles at 0500 tomorrow, and set up a vehicle laager just south of the village.  You will approach the village, dismounted, from the south just before dawn, conduct a breach to secure General Isgood, remove him from the compound, and exfil back to your vehicles and RTB.  G2 really, really wants him alive, but if that proves not to be possible, you are authorized to terminate him." 

The S3 then took over  "Move in from the south, through the location marked on your photos, with 2 assault teams and a breach team.  Set up your support team at the location marked on your photos.  You will have a JTAC attached to your task force, to coordinate supporting fires.  The best place for him looks like with the support team. You have indirect support from both a section of 155mm howitzers, and a Navy F/A-18.  Do not call for them until after you have conducted the breach or the sentries manage to raise the alarm.  It seems the Gambolans don't like us blowing their shit up willy-nilly"

"Do not leave any of your men behind.  Bring them all out with you.  Report your SP from the vehicle laager, report BINGO when you have the General secured, report IRVING if you KIA him, and report RP when you leave to come back here."

The S2 then added "If you take any EPWs, bring them back here.  It ain't necessary, but it could prove helpful, especially if you have to KIA the General".

Then, the Colonel "That about wraps it up, men.  Any questions?"  Nobody had any.  "OK.  That's it.  Task Force Baker SPs tomorrow morning at 0500.  Best get ready fellas."  Everyone snapped to as the Colonel turned and left the CP.  And everyone went about the business as well.   

This scenario is based on one included in the Operation: Uruzgan supplement to the original Force on Force rules.  I've tweaked it a bit by adding in a few other tidbits from Force on Force, and then adjusting things for Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles.  Here are the Scenario Sheets:

Page 1



Page 2



Page 3



We'll be playing this scenario this Friday coming at 11am.  As usual, I'll post an illustrated battle report afterwards.

           

[mikedemana]

Looking forward to the battle report! Sounds like a lot of fun...and vaguely "Black Hawk Down"-ish with the kidnapping the Somali warlord from his car.   

Tell Ted not screw things up with his dice rolling...

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Thanks, Mike.  We'll have to wait and see how Ted rolls.  He does have his moments, though...

I forsee me playing the Gambolans, with Ted and Miek running the SpecOps guys.  I can see them getting in fine.  Depending on their exact assault plan, getting out could be interesting....I do now have figures and helos for a QRF...

[AKULA]

Nice job on the scatter terrain 

[CapnJim]

Nice job on the scatter terrain 

Thanks, AKULA!

And now, read on for the HVT Grab-n-Go battle report.  But first, a few administrative announcements:

A.  Ted and Gene took the SpecOps boys.  Ted took the 2 assault teams and CPT Baker, and Gene took the breach team, the support team, and the JTAC (Joint Tactical Asset Controller).  Of course, then, I took the Gambolans.

B.  As I mentioned, we used Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles.  We used blue and/or green microdice to mark Shock on units, and black microdice to mark Low on Ammo units.  We marked downed Gambolans with small MDF crosses.

C.  We fought the game to its tactical conclusion in right around 3 hours.

And now, on with the show.

Dawn would break soon at our little village east of Bangerizi.  Everything was quiet.  For now.  The only occaisional stirring came from the 4 sleepy Gambolan senties posted around the village. 







That peace and quiet would not last long.  Unbeknownst to those entries, they were being watched.  Five US Special Operations men were lying on a hilltop just southeast of the village, keeping an eye on things.  Two of them has sniper rifles, while a third had an M60 machine gun.  A fourth had binoculars, while the fifth had a radio.  All had night vision devices.

And so did the 13 men moving up toward the village from the south - 3 teams led by a Captain.  Two teams, assault teams, each had 3 M4s (one with an M203 UGL) and an M249 SAW.  The third, the breach team, had 4 M4s and breaching gear.

No one heard the shot from the suppressed sniper rifle that felled the sentry at the east end of the village (except maybe the men on the hill next to the sniper).

 

No one heard the second sniper shot.  The sentry on the balcony of the big building in the compound may have heard the round hit the wall behind him.  We'll never know, because the sniper dropped him with his second shot.  While the snipers on the hill were shooting sentries, those 13 men moved up on the village under cover of darkness.  The assault teams moved up on line first, followed by CPT Baker, followed by the breach team.  Nobody saw the dog lying curled up under a vendor's stall.  It saw them, got up and started barking.



While he briefly considered it, the lead team leader decided not to shoot the dog, as it was probably already too late.  It was.  The 2 sentries still up and moving, alerted that something was afoot by the dog's barking, reacted.  They moved toward the barking, yelling at the top of their lungs and firing their weapons into the air.  This woke everybody up.  As the 3 teams with CPT Baker bypassed the dog, the men on the hill saw Gambolans come out on that balcony,weapons at the ready.  The JTAC was able to raise TacAir on the radio, and an F/A-18 screamed in low, aiming for that big building with the balcony.  The bomb missed, but not by much.  And it landed between that building and a shipping container, right on top of some Gambolans that had come out of the building's side door.  Too bad for them...

 

By now, the compound courtyard was full of Gambolans, reacting to recent events



The support team and the JTAC watched over things.  They took the men on the balcony under fire, while the maneuver teams, well, maneuvered.  CPT Baker took an assault team into the village, getting behind the building in the center of it.  The other assault team cut into the village, and headed down the "street" at the west end of town.  And the breach team moved up the west edge of the village.







It was then that the first rays of sunlight broke through the darkness.  The advantage of night was gone...

The left assault team moved through the village, and took up a position near that shipping container...



...while the Gambolans got their shit together.  One group hustled the HVT toward the front gate of the compound (and the car waiting outside), while another got up on the roof of another building in the compound...



...while yet another Gambolan group, led by their officer, moved out through the rear gate of the compound.



CPT Baker and the assualt team he was with stayed near the building in the center of the village...



...while the Gambolan officer and the group he led out of the rear of the compound moved to try to outflank the assault team set up near the shipping container.  It was then that more gambolans started to come in from the west, led by a sniper, while the breach team worked their way up the west end of the village.





While all that was going on, the JTAC on the hill finally raised the artillery battery, calling in a fire mission on the building at the southeast corner of the compound.  One round went a bit long and left and fell relatively harmlessly into the middle of the compound, knocking down the ladder to the roof of the target building.  One went short and right, and landed in the "street" in the east part of the village (which would make escape by car a bit tricky for the HVT).  And one did land on the roof of the target building, taking a couple Gamolans out and raining debris down around the building.  And blowing the tarp off of the .50-cal up on the roof. Once the group with the HVT recovered their senses, they hustled the HVT out the front gate to the car outside.  Right into the kill zone of the breach team, who had moved up to the east end of that "street".  2 Gambolans and the HVT went down.



More Gambolans came on from the west.  The SpecOps assault team by the shipping container now had 2 groups of Gambolans to content with.



CPT Baker led the assault team he was with out to the west edge of the village, just in time to see even more Gambolans coming in from that directions.  It seemed that the Gambolans in the next village to the west had heard the ruckus here, and came running to the sound of the guns...and that dog still barked.

 

The remaining Gambolans with the HVT grabbed him and got into the car.  Only to have it shredded by fire from the breach team down the "street".  That fire also shredded the occupants of the car.  The breach team moved up to the car to check on the HVT.



Then it happened.  The assault team by the shipping container went radio silent, all down due to the combined weight of fire of the 2 Gambolan groups they were facing.



Oh my!  What will happen to that assault team?  What did the breach team find when they looked into that car?  Will Task Force Baker complete their mission?  And what about that dog?

Stay tuned for Part 2: The Climax to get the answers to these and other questions!

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Excellent report.

[Kourtchatovium104]

Excellent report.

As always with CapnJim... 

[CapnJim]

Thanks, Gents! 

And now, for the thrilling conclusion to the hunt for Gen. Isgood...

Part 2:  The Climax

It is here that it must be said that, while CPT Baker and his 2 teams were working the village over (and that assault team getting worked over themselves), the JTAC was informed that the F/A18 and the 155s were apparently no longer available.  But, the snipers and the M60 gunner did yeoman's work taking care of the Gambolans on the balcony of the big building in the compound, asd well as the guys on the rooftop with the .50-cal.  Those unfortunate fellas, after having eaten a 155 round, never had a chance tp put that .50-cal in action...

Meanwhile, down in the village, things were going south for our brave SpecOps fellows.  The breach team, after having gotten to the car, discovered that the HVT was not in fact Gen. Isgood (intelligence was wrong?  Go figure...), but some other high-ranking Gambolan ne'er-do-well.  And he was quite dead.  As were the other chaps in the now-well-ventilated car with him. So, they took a few photos, and headed toward the downed assault team to see if they could help.  CPT Baker and his assault team, after taking care of the other 2 sentries and some Gambolans who had come up from the west, worked their way along the west edge of the village toward the unlucky assault team by the shipping container.  Just in time too, as some Gambolan thugs had reached the downed team, and were fixin' to drag some of them off (for propaganda purposes, for sure).  CPT Baker and his team dispatched them in due course.

But more Gambolans came in from the west.  And they got to the downed assault team too.  Luckily, the breach team made it on scene, again just in time, took out the Gambolans and their officer in the Palm grove, and unceremoniously gunned down the 2nd batch of Gambolan thugs who tried to make off with US SpecOps troopers.

   

As CPT Baker and his assault team made it to the downed assault team, the breach team got to them as well.  They took out a few more gambolan gunmen who came in from the west, and worked to get the assault team up and back into the fight.



While CPT Baker and his men were tending to the downed assault team, the JTAC and the support team, now out of targets, moved down off their hill, skirted the south edge of the village, and set up a covering position at the southwest corner of the village.  And again, another case of "just in time", as more Gambolan gunmen came in from the southwest, and shot down the support team's spotter. 



Those gunmen didn't last long, as the snipers (who didn't need a spotter for these shots...) and the M60 gunner made short work of those Gambolans.

Once the members of the downed assault team were all back up and in the fight, TF Baker began their exfil, heading south back out of the village. 



But it wasn't over yet.  More Gambolans came in from the north, and took the breach team, who was exfil'ing through the village, under fire. 



This shocked the breach team a bit, but after a few minutes of trading fire, those Gambolans were all down.  The support team tended to their downed spotter, and the whole task force headed south toward their waiting vehicles.  It was quiet now, and it seemed the Gambolans were out of men.









Not quite.  As TF Baker melted away to the south, another group of Gambolans came down from the north. 



But it was too late.  TF Baker was gone, and all those Gambolans could do was survey the carnage CPT Baker and his men left behind.  And as for that dog?  All the noise finally got to him, and he retreated to the cover of his master's market stall, where he curled up into a ball and tried to go to sleep.

And with that, it was done.

While TF Baker had taken out an HVT, it wasn't Gen. Isgood.  He's still out there somewhere.  And things got dicey for a bit, with that assault team put down and nearly captured.  But in the end, in their wake, CPT Baker and his men had taken out an estimated 65 to 70 Gambolans along with that mis-identified HVT.  They didn't get their man, but they put a big dent in available Gambolan manpower.  And they got everybody out that they took in...

It was a fun game.  The original Force-on-Force scenario pits Australian SpecOps against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and this game is more evidence that one can successfully repurpose scenarios from one ruleset and conflict to another ruleset and conflict.   

But of course, the US is still gonna be on the lookout for Gen. Isgood...