This morning I was able to get a few rounds in of my big fight in a small town "somewhere in the Middle East." American air assault into a village to seize a key road junction. Enemy forces conducting a reconnaissance in force moving down to the village to see what's there and destroy it.
Neat game so far because there are so many different kinds of troops on the board. For one thing, I've got really good American forces, with guts scores of 10 and 9, and the enemy has a mix of regulars with guts 8 and 7 as well as irregulars with guts scores of 7 and 6. All different kinds of equipment too, from Javelin ATGMs to T-55 MBTs and even an old M113 on the table! (by the way, this game has marked my very first mechanized assault using the Disposable Heroes rules).
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| Martyr Brigade troops with some Revolutionary Guard tanks move down the road... |
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| meanwhile US troops take up overwatch positions! |
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| A US Fireteam is "acquired" by one of the T-55 crews...The only easy day was yesterday! |
The enemy comes on towards the town and the troops start to spread out. The T-55 fires and misses and one of the US teams on the highest spot open fire, pinning a Martyr Brigade squad and KOing 2.
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| Meanwhile, a dismount team along with a full squad inside the M113 move up to the town. More Americans spotted! |
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| US team opens fire on the dismounts sending them packing. |
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| Another US team enters the courtyard and pours more fire on anything they can see. |
So far in turn 2, things don't look too bad for the Americans. But in Disposable Heroes, units can rally relatively quickly from their first pin...
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| dismount section scurries for cover, pinned and leaving one of their comrades KO. |
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| A masked Martyr Brigade squad also heads for cover. |
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| End of Turn 2 the tanks are a little closer and the US lead teams from 2 squads are in position to defend the crossroad! |
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| From the enemy side, so far in good position to assault the town, now that it's been confirmed that there are Americans in sufficient force there. |
Turn three seems some jockeying for positions as the Revolutionary Guards and Martyr troops move into better cover and get a toe-hold in the town.
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| JAVELIN IN FIRING POSITION, SIR! |
The US player gets a spot of bad luck and misses with the Javelin. Highly unlikely, I snort and chalk it up to either operator error, or a bad missile. Which does happen occasionally.
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| Reserve US Squad. On turn 3 they would definitely take a more active role in bailing out one of the flanks. |
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| Martyr Troops breaking from cover!! |
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| Those US SAWS (M249s) really start to take a toll on the enemy. |
Martyr guys are dropping left and right with their low Guts score they cower from the fire quickly. The Guards troops fare a little better and are using smarter tactics as well. Perfect for this scenario!
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| Martyr troops advance up to the wall and are quickly pinned by US firepower! They do have an RPK as well as an RPG! Shit! |
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| US team displaces after an errant T-55 shot convinces them to find a nicer spot to spend the night. |
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| Trading shots across the courtyard, US and Martyr Brigade men trading heavy automatic weapons fire. |
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| Meanwhile another team on the far left flank has problems of their own. "SIR WE GOT AN A-P-C ADVANCING ON OUR POSITION AT FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY METERS!!" |
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| The M113 disgorges its passengers and all hell breaks loose. While one team of Guardsmen and the NCO move for the cover of a stone wall, 4 others want to charge straight at the US team. |
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| Alright fellas, let's get in the war! Reserve US squad crosses the road, eager to get into the fight. |
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| On the right flank things aren't going that well either. The Martyr Brigade troopers pin down the US team holding down the right and they advance with tons of RPGs and crew served light machine guns. Ok platoon leader what do you do? Reinforce the left or fight flank with the reserve??? |
US Force is facing a critical dilemma here. Both flanks are in trouble with strong enemy attacks focused on each one. The US team on the right is pinned. The US team on the left is taking heavy casualties but is still in the fight and un-pinned.
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| Disposition of the enemy assault. Martyr troops in lower and left hand, Guards troopers in upper and right. |
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| A hit! The JAVELIN finds its first target and a T-55 explodes right on the road. |
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| The other T-55 moves right past him and heads straight down the road. Bigger problems now as the US fireteam on the left is also pinned and that could threaten to bust the flanks wide open! The PL decides to reinforce against the Martyr Brigade fanatics after the S2 briefed about the possibility of SBIED "human bombs" and also there are more of them... |
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| Guards troops in cover. They are content to pop out, fire a huge volley at the Americans, then take their "pin" marker and head back into cover to rally. It's a sly tactic I found out by accident that you can use in DH. |
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| Martyr Brigade soldiers and Guards troops reach the town and the US flanks are being threatened! Lots more pin markers in turns 3 and 4 now... |
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| US Team Pinned |
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| US Team Pinned |
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| US Team Pinned |
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| Martyr Troops massing for an over run! This isn't good! |
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| T-55 moving up to support the assault. This is gritty combat at its worst! |
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| THis US team has had all it can take and fails a Guts check, sending them behind the building on "FALL BACK" (2 pin markers) Note the 2 waves of Martyr Brigade troops attempting to push on to the next building. But in the lower left of the pic you can see the lead elements of 3rd Squad. Get those SAWS working!!! |
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| Luckily the Platoon Leader is close by and can assist in rallying. I think. Gotta check the rules on that one. |
The action is just starting to heat up! Tune in tomorrow as we learn the fate of these brave troopers!
Also another dud JAVELIN round?
The JAVELIN gunner spits in disgust: "You know I'm gonna call my congressman when I get back home..."
Very cool, Steve! Looking forward to the next bit. By the way, Raytheon is the bane of ALL modern wargames. Their rockets are the pits.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ski. I'll post the endgame tomorrow. Haha quite right - no joy on 2 shots after the rockets fizzled out. That's why I kind of laughed. The Javelin doesn't "miss" in the conventional sense of the word however I did find this on wikipedia:
Delete"The operator of the complex has no opportunity to correct the flight of the rocket after launch (when the target heat contrasts poorly with the terrain, the missile can miss)"
And the ACC of the firing team was 5 with no modifiers so 2 out of 4 shots were misses! Ugh! I had such high hopes for technology!