An AAR on a game pulling together some
ideas about using Chain of Command in a modern setting. In this case it is for
the Rhodesian 'Bush War' in the 1960s and '70s.
Ambush scenario
A Bush War encounter - Rhodesia c 1977
….we tried out ideas we have for the Bush
War. Early days on this but here's the flow of the action to give you a taste
of what’s possibly with Modern CoC. No pics on this one.
Sitrep.
c 1977, a Fireforce action is underway
3 miles to the east of your current location. A ZANLA insurgent
ambush platoon has been lying in wait on what was the only road that the
Security Forces could have used to bring their ‘land tail’ into
the fight. They plan on ambushing this land tail, striking a
blow and getting out of there! They plan on a level one
insurgency action needing only to inflict modest amounts of
damage before moving off. They will use a mine so increasing their
level of success requirements a bit.
The Rhodesian force is a Troop of RLI
from the Support Commando company in three trucks racing to
reinforce a planned Alpha Stop Line location to encircle the terrs……or so they
thought…..
Action:
The preliminary Ambush phase resulted in
the Hasty Ambush not being discovered. The convoy was moved slightly
to the Insurgent’s advantage to make maximum use of the brush near
the roadside….overall, a good start for the ZANLA force.
The action opened up with the
mine exploding and destroying the second
truck. Unfortunately for the RLI player the mine did not strike
his protected vehicle but a soft skin Bedford instead. …boom…it
flipped on its side, a riflemen injured, becoming a casualty and temporarily
out of action. The rest of the Stick took some shock
but debussed on the side of the road tending their wounds.
The second phase of the
ambush resulted in the deployment of the ZANLA force
leader and his squad which unloaded their AK magazines at point blank
range into the rear vehicle…hoping to trap the RLI force and push it
into the jaws of the ambush further up the road.
…with a deafening roar the
AK riddled the side of the tail end Unimog totally destroying
the vehicle…exploding as the troopies piled out the side to
save their lives. A savage fire, one troopie went down as a
casualty and 10 shock was unloaded on the clearly unnerved
Rhodies….they broke, dragging their buddy along, they scampered into
the scrub, pinned, exhausted and for now, out of the fight.
At this point the insurgent player had
forced the morale of the RLI to drop by one (from 11 to 10) but he
had inflicted two casualties, not yet dead.…further dropping the
enemy morale and possibly enough for his mission to be complete….all in
all, the insurgent commander, whilst hoping for a better body count,
was reasonably satisfied.
….then the initiative passed to
the RLI…
The young troop sergeant assessed the
situation. He had one Stick pinned and broken, no immediate use
to anyone but safe. Another had a casualty and needed to get off the road
and seek cover before they could do anything to help, but his lead
stick was good to go. Taking the fight straight to the greatest
threat the Fns and MAG LMG poured a fire into the guerrillas in the
scrub near the road that had destroyed the rear end Unimog. Though in cover
they were easy targets with such a weight of fire at point blank range.
In one savage burst 4 terrs dropped. By getting a back to back
phases the fire continued, this time dropping another two
terrs and the leader went down with a wound. With six dead and shock
now at 4 the squad broke and ran.
The next phase saw the
ZANLA commander unable to react as his Command Dice scores built
up the CoC dice, which could be useful, but no action with any leaders as the
senior force leader did not have any troops to command! He hoped his
‘big man’ would be able to take over the action whilst he limped away….
Next phase started a ‘pepper pot’
run for the lead RLI Stick. Having
neutralised the initial ambush threat they ran across some open
ground and pushed toward a yet to be used enemy jump off point in the nearby
scrub - getting yet a further follow on phase they crossed the enemy JOP,
shutting it down, and then opening up fire on the ‘left jaw’ of the
insurgent ambush. Causing two casualties and two shock
the sheer firepower, aggressiveness and lethality of the RLI stick
was now a cause for deep concern for the ZANLA commander.
…the action now shifted to the
ZANLA commander . He needed to restore the situation and stop the lead
rampaging RLI Stick. He did have some aces in his hand however.
He could nowcall on his ‘big man’ to activate a squad and bring both
the two remaining squads into action with their RPD LMGs and a
yet to be deployed RPG…a substantial amount of firepower. If
he could just stop that lead RLI stick he might do
enough damage to then withdraw and claim a victory.
…not enough.
An abysmal command roll had only one squad activated, one more
CoC dice added (now 4) but it was all let down by atrocious shooting,
causing only one shock on the RLI Stick…defiantly not enough...
…next phase the
RLI Stick opened up again but this time caused no
losses and only minor shock…..no doubt sensing the slackening fire
the ZANLA terrs pushed in as much fire into this hyper aggressive
Stick as possible and now both sides of the jaw unleashed everything
they had. The RPG popped his head up and it went whistling by the
Stick commander (only just missing!). Whilst no wounds were suffered
they took a huge amount of fire causing them 7 shock and
nearly resulting in them being pinned….head down, stay down!!
Things were starting to get a
bit touch and go for the Rhodie commander. If his
main ‘running’ Stick was pinned that would mean two RLI sticks down, with
the third one man incapacitated and the other also with a casualty,
the RLI commander could be about to lose the initiative for
the entire engagement.
….with the build up of the
ZANLA player’s CoC dice and no end of turn on the command dice
rolls…which must surely come, both sides now figured it must only be a
matter of time before the Turn ends and the RLI casualties bleed
out…their force morale reducing. He rolls his CD and gets two more 5s
allowing him to play the CoC dice immediately and call for a Casevac.
At the same time he removes some shock off both his Sticks
in preparation for an end of turn so as to unpin one or possibly two units
so he can keep the fight going... hopefully he can get his casualties
away before that occurs….so a short period
of recovery and forward planning for the Rhodie, but
he wasn't to get it so easy off course.
…the ZANLA insurgents could smell blood.
Rolling well, both squads activated and once again fired effectively
causing yet more shock on the ‘running’
RLI Stick - it now having shock equal to its men…so it teetered
on being pinned. The Force leader ran into a nearby shack in an effort
to hook up with the main squads still engaged. The RPG failed to hit
again (snake eyes…must have been a miss fire!) but the weight of fire from two
squads on one RLI stick was having an effect. With the other sticks still
not yet active with so much else going on….they needed to get
into the fight…...
…things were getting tight!
…calling in the Casevac G-Car, which
still didn’t arrive, fortunately the phase is still a good one for
the Rhodies. They get back to back turns and with the ‘running' Stick teetering
on being pinned the Stick leader removes a shock and orders a
sustained fire…it gets the job down. Even though still carrying some shock
the shear weight and volume of fire from the FN-FALs and FN-MAGs
takes its toll on the inexperienced guerrillas. Unleashing a devastating series
of short bursts the left hand, closest, ZANLA unit takes
two dead and 5 shock…it breaks. With this the ZANLA commander can now
see he is up against it. With still one unit yet to commit he must now deploy
this unit exactly at the right place to derive the maximum benefit.
….However the back to back phase has
afforded the RLI leader an opportunity to race onto the ZANLA jump
off point and shut it down…if he falls short or fails to
get another back to back phase a ZANLA unit could pop up in
front of him and unleash a fresh unit of AK-47 armed guerrillas right
in front of his Stick….which the veteran RLI commander suspects.
…deliberating for a second, he acts.
Using his ‘pepper pot’ movement he races toward the ZANLA position…but
unfortunately the heavy burden of shock has slowed his men down too much….they
move forward to slowly, advancing little more than 10 yards before
they hit the deck and take a huge volley of fire from an unseen enemy…
….with no back to back phase the RLI
leader’s luck has run out. To his front emerges an as yet unseen (undeployed)
ZANLA unit. Rising from the ground they unleash a murderous volley. This time
they did not aim high. In a blink the RLI squad is caught and
riddled with bullets, 3 of the 4 men going down…the Stick leader
is still OK but his Stick is finished….in a heartbeat
a fleeting opportunity has turned into disaster for the
RLI commander. Further to that the ZANLA CoC dice is now at 5 and if
the casevac does not arrive next phase then there is the possibility of
losing 5 out of 12 men in this deadly ambush encounter.
…from a rapidly deteriorating position
the engagement has turned on its head. The ZANLA commander now senses victory.
…on the next phase the G-Car does not
arrive…it is fatal. Stick 1 is pinned, Stick 3 is pinned and
broken and Stick 2, now leaving behind their wounded comrade,
races to aid Stick 1 which is in so much trouble. As they run through the
bush they hear yet more AK fire….
…the ZANLA commander pushes his advantage.
He now rejoins the last squad on the hill in the scrub and screams at
his men to fire. The bullets fly into the hapless, brave, yet
foolhardy, Stick 1. Taking a further 4 shock and a loss
the entire Stick is now down wounded…
…at this time the ZANLA player plays
his CoC dice and ends the turn…no G-Car in sight. With that
there are multiple losses on table for the RLI
player resulting in his Force morale dropping from ten to one!! The
end of the Turn also saw the the broken ZANLA units scamper which
also caused their force morale down from six to one!!
…so began the next Turn with
both sides well and truly exhausted, neither capable
of achieving any outright victory. Stick 1, lamenting the loss
of the riflemen pushed on and spied the lone RPG gunner in the scrub…drawing
a bead, the MAG gunner fired a volley and RPGer dropped to the
ground…another team lost and ZANLA’s force morale drops to
zero…the engagement is over.
The remaining ZANLA squad, force
leader attached, slinks away knowing he has dealt the RLI a savage
blow even though it cost his men dearly as well…
..battle end!
OBSERVATIONS
..as close an encounter as you can
get!
Perhaps the RLI commander was
over playing his hand with the final attack knowing there could
have been more enemy yet to deploy, but a rush of blood to his head let the
ZANLA force back into the contest when maybe they shouldn’t have been
allowed. Even though the casevac didn’t turn up, if Stick 1
had reducing their shock some more and brought forward support troops in
Stick 2 to go on overwatch they could have moved on the enemy jump
off point whilst Stick 2 provided covering or overwatch
fire.
If that had occurred it would
likely have resulted in only a a force morale drop of 4 points
or so based on the losses up to that point.That alone would’ve gone
close to the Level 2 insurgency victory condition being met so that was still
on offer for the ZANLA player. As it was for this scenario the RLI
rolled 6 for his force morale so starting at FM 11, which was going to
be a hard ask to get them to 4…losses were the only way that was going to
happen.
For the RLI Player he would
likely have been able to keep his force morale around the 5 he needed
for victory and still be able to reduce the ZANLA FM to zero..that to
was finely balanced and possible also.
So from a balance point of view,
the scenario played out very well.
The opening ambush produced marginal
results really, bad tactics here, and the response by the
RLI was very positive with a number of back to back
phases in a row..three at one point, so whilst this denied the
RLI player of lots of activity in any one phase he was able to push hard
where he wanted with a successions of move and fire actions
that enabled him to wrestle back the initiative after
the initial ambush….turning into the ambush historical tactics
worked though his command dice really helped him recover
The Ambush worked very well. It
was quick and easy to set up and all flowed nicely….tick! The
deployment to ambush and double phase also worked really well to allow the
ambushing force that chance to try and dig in at the enemy. I think the
ZANLA play in future should be to get on as many troops as
possible and lay down as much fire as they can in those first two phases.
One thing that is of note is the power of
those RLI Sticks …they really are lethal, if a little brittle. It
really does capture the effectiveness of these small but powerful teams
on the COIN battlefield. They can take a lot of shock
(Aggressive trait now allowing for double shock to
accumulated)) which had the absolute desired effect. It all
hung together very well and captured the period well whilst both
sides were in it right to the end.
The ZANLA player probably could have spent
more time trying to remove off shock but with 4 command
dice he really had his hands full just staying with the RLI
player if he pushes…a tactic for the SF player for sure…grab them by the
horns and do not give them a chance to rest and recoup.
So, all in all, a cracking good game -
fast fluid, brutal. Historical tactics worked and the mistakes made
by both sides made the difference. The game played out in less than 2
hours and rumbled along with lots of tactical decision and
game ‘high points’…all excellent stuff!!
...and here is a real report that is kind of similar!
Great Report! Very inspiring!
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