Something Rotten in Cronistria

[Techno]

Great report, Jack.

What with Bear, Chick & Badger in the frame....I'm beginning to wonder if the goat's someone in camo'.
I must go back and have a much slower read later on.

Cheers - Phil (Who's rushing about !)

[bigjackmac]

Thanks Lemmey, and the goat probably has earned a promotion, walking point for the team and all.

Phil, hurry up!  I didn't realize most of the nicknames were animals until I started typing the report.  But don't worry, no camouflaged goats


V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

It's 1815 on 29 June 1990 and Battlegroup Aguilera is taking up defensive positions near the Cronistrian town of Pisa.  Earlier in the day Battlegroup Aguilera seized Pisa and held open the corridor as the rest of Task Force Galban (Battlegroups Caballero and Elias, as well as the HQ and Service Support elements) passed through.  Battlegroup Caballero completed TF Galban's mission to encircle the Cronistrian capital of Miran by seizing the city of Stanje, and Battlegroup Elias moved up to them as Battlegroup Aguilera began moving east to catch up.

However, at 1710 local time, Team 3 of ODA 626, under GySgt "Turk" Dos Santos was settled into its hide atop Hill 781 (screening the left/northern flank of the Cuban advance) when it spotted Communist forces and called it in to TF Galban headquarters.  Not only was the info immediately relayed to TF Aguilera, who immediately set about preparing a reception for the incoming Communists, but Cuban F-4 Phantoms were sent in, arriving on station at 1730 and making several runs, devastating the Communist armor.

**Team 3 was compromised atop Hill 781 by enemy radio direction finding; its fights for survival are numbers 22, 23, and 25.  That may not seem to make sense, but I'm posting these in chronological order.


A HMMWV with .50 cal (bottom left, firing past the CO's vehicle) opens up on a Type 63 APC and enemy infantry in the open (top right).  To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/12/cuba-libre-cronstria-fight-24.html

In the overall scheme of things, Operation Chokehold is finished and has been a roaring success.  Task Force Galban started in the southwest, then dashed north and cut east to encircle the Cronistrian capital city of Miran, taking five enemy-defended towns along the way, then throwing back a (weak) counterattack.  There is still one more fight to go in Operation Cro-Wings, which is Recon Team 3's fight for survival in the hills north of Pisa.  Also, the Cronistrian Democrat forces are having a bit of trouble clearing Brezno (the town that started all this conventional fighting and convinced the Cuban President to allocate more forces to Cronistria), and Dubrovna, the town just north of Brezno, is still in enemy hands as well, which puts it in the bag, but a thorn in our side and a danger to try to break out of the encirclement.  If I have time I may have Battlegroup Elias take the town.

Total casualties for Operation Chokehold, which consisted of nine tabletop battles:

Cubans
180 KIA, WIA, and MIA personnel
2 x AMX-10RC destroyed
2 x HMMWV destroyed
1 x Scimitar destroyed
1 x Stryker destroyed

Communists
270 KIA, WIA, and MIA personnel
55 captured personnel
5 x MTLB destroyed
2 x T-62 destroyed
1 x ZSU-23-4 destroyed
1 x BMP destroyed
1 x Type 63 APC destroyed
1 x BRDM destroyed

Additionally, members of Task Force Galban were awarded the following decorations during Operation Chokehold:
1 Cruz Servicio Distinguido
1 Estrella de Plata
4 Estrella de Bronce

Like I said, I may play another couple fights to take the city of Dubrovna just to eliminate a pocket of enemy resistance and help out the Cronistrian Democrats, but Operation Chokehold is officially concluded.  For me it was a pretty cool concept, a lot of fun in the vein of my War of Liberation campaign (which, so far, is kind of the pinnacle of fun for me in wargaming).  The games were small and quick; while the tables were nothing to look at, they took only minutes to set up and take down, and were serviceable, as were the 6mm troops, vehicles, and aircraft.  I can definitely see myself doing more of this.

I've played the last fight of Operation Cro-Wings, still need to write that up and post it.  After that, not sure what's up next.  A few ideas:

1.  With the capital encircled from the west, I'm considering some larger-scale armor fights using Cold War Commander on the east side of Miran.

2.  I'm thinking about doing some platoon-level stuff back with in South Leon, my Imagi-nation stuff that's really USMC vs North Vietnamese Army.

3.  I'm thinking about starting my WWII USMC series of campaigns at the platoon level, beginning in the Philippines.

4.  I played out Operation Pay-Off, where Cuban SOF escorted The Ambassador to Morocco to make a ransom payment, then got ambushed.  I need to get around to Operation Pay-Back, which is exactly what it sounds like, retribution.

5.  I need to get back to KG Klink to finish up Fall of France, then figure out what to do with them.  That thing is really a bit too ambitious (following a company of armor, a company of infantry, a company of recon, and assorted heavy weapons through the entire war (already did Poland, played four games of France).

6.  I need to get back to Hakuna-Matata, my African Imagi-nations.  The hang up here is that I based them individually, which looks great, but I wish I'd have based them three vehicles to a stand.  For me, so much of wargaming campaigns is 'feel,' and playing this with individually-based vehicles just doesn't feel right.

Well, that's it for now.  Last fight of Operation Cro-Wings coming up, then more games next weekend, just not sure what yet.

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Jack.
Enemy dice were dire!

[Techno]

Good stuff, Jack.

(Wot ?.......No goat  )

Cheers - Phil

[bigjackmac]

Lemmey - Yeah, but what goes around comes around

Phil - Sorry man, I don't have a 6mm goat!

Next fight should be posted tomorrow or Thursday.

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

AKA Operation Cro-Wings #3, AKA The Death of Team Three

It's 1825 on 29 June 1990 and Team 3 of Lt Trojas' ODA 626 is sitting atop Hill 825, and they're in a bad way.  They had been performing surveillance, from Hill 781 to the northeast, on a nearby road networks, serving as a tripwire to warn TF Galban mechanized forces of enemy counterattack.  They spotted enemy armor moving in, reported it to TF HQ, and coordinated air strikes (some enemy forces still got through; that's actually TF Aguilera fighting off the enemy counterattack near Pisa).

However, enemy radio direction finding efforts triangulated the team's position and vectored Communist militia into the area.  Team 3 was able to get the drop on the bad guys, but there were simply too many, and so the Cubans abandoned their positions and moved to Hill 850 in a running firefight.  The team suffered one man seriously wounded and three lightly wounded.

Upon reaching the crest of Hill 850 the team made comms with TF HQ.  They were informed Battlegroup Elias was standing by as QRF to get them out, but the team needed to continue moving southeast to Hill 825, with a Helicopter Landing Zone (HLZ) just east of it.  The radioman informed the team leader, GySgt "Turk" Dos Santos of this development.  "Uhh, fellas, I got bad news."  Everyone turned to look as Turk showed them the problem: the team's back was to a 30 foot cliff; with enemy troops coming from the north, northeast, and southwest, the only avenue of escape was down the cliff, across a draw, and up Hill 825 to the southeast.

Turk led Team 3 down the cliff and up the slope of Hill 815.  The fighting was ferocious, and while the Communists were dropping like flies, Team 3 reached the crest with three seriously wounded men and two lightly wounded.  But tragedy struck as Turk radioed for extraction; a Cuban CH-47 carrying five crewmen and 18 soldiers from Battlegroup Elias swooped into the valley between Hill 850 and Hill 815.  Turk had just established communications with the pilot when a rocket streaked up from Hill 850; the Cuban helicopter was struck and fell at the foot of Hill 850, with no survivors.

Turk informed TF Galban headquarters, which ordered the recon team to descend Hill 815 to the south, heading for the Cronistrian town of Tulm, where a convoy from Battlegroup Elias was currently moving to effect extraction.  Turk looked at his team, half of whom could not even walk, and got them ready to move.


Overview of map, north is left.  Hill 815 is at bottom left (northwest), Tulm is at top right (southeast).  There is a shallow stream running east-west at the center of the table.  Hill 535 is at bottom right, and the foot of Hill 618 is at top left.  The team is atop Hill 815; they have to make their way down-slope, cross the stream, then get into Tulm, where (hopefully) units from Battlegroup Elias will be waiting to pick them up.


Turk and Chick taking fire.  Almost to the stream, but enemy troops in Tulm and no sight of Battlegroup Elias.  To see the bitter end, please check the blog at:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2016/12/cuba-libre-cronstria-fight-25.html

I hope you enjoyed Operation Chokehold (the 6mm fights) and Operation Cro-Wings, even though it wasn't exactly a Hallmark ending.

V/R,
Jack

[fsn]

Um ... do your chaps get their backsides handed to them often?

Could it be a problem in leadership, or tactical thinking?

[petercooman]

Sad ending! But a nice game!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

"I just realized I forgot the damn goat!!!"

Well, there you go...

[bigjackmac]

FSN - "Um ... do your chaps get their backsides handed to them often?"
I dunno man, you'd have to define 'often.'  It certainly happens.

"Could it be a problem in leadership, or tactical thinking?"
More than likely!  Hell, I've posted more than 300 batreps in the past three years, you draw your own conclusions!!!   

Peter - "Sad ending! But a nice game!"
Thanks, and don't worry about sad, they're just little toy soldiers. 

I know you're not going this route, but I just wanted to take the opportunity to say, I know some folks don't like (or find insensitive) modern wargaming, it's too close.  But this is just little toys in a made up army fighting in a made up country. 

Lemmey - Yep, I'm pretty sure not having the goat is what did me in   That, and bad shooting dice.  And the millions of bad guys streaming onto the field of battle.  To take on three guys.  That were carrying three guys.  And the initial QRF being shot down.  And the follow-on QRF not showing up in a timely manner 

It was a fun series of fights.  More gaming coming up this weekend, just haven't yet made up my mind on what it will be.  I might go with some Cold War Commander in 6mm, work to close out Cronistria once and for all.  Any preferences (I listed some options at the end of the previous batrep)?

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

First, Happy New Year!  And to celebrate, I'm going to post a series of 6 or so modern skirmish battle reports, one a day until I'm done.  Thus begins the first of 6-10 modern skirmish fights; I'm playing with my 7-year old son, and we're playing co-op, so that each of us controls a 'good-guy' fireteam of four men against the enemy squad of 6 to 8 men (depending on a die roll).

AKA Cronstria Fight #26, AKA "The reduction of Dubrovna," Fight #1

It's 0725 on 1 July 1990 and Battlegroup Elias is moving up to the line of departure, preparing to jump-off into yet another attack.  It's been a busy few days, but if today goes well, enemy forces on the west side of the capital city of Miran will be totally eliminated. 

If you're a loyal follower of Cuba Libre, go ahead and skip down to the last bullet-paragraph before the map.  If not, and you're bored:

It's recently come to my attention that not all of you out there in wargaming land have bothered to read every single one of my batreps, thus you may be confused about what the heck all this talk about Cubans, Cronistrians, Miran, etc..., is about

So, for the uninitiated, here's a synopsis:

-In Feb 1990, Cuban exiles, with substantial support from several Western nations, staged an invasion of Cuba to depose its dictator and install a constitutional republic.  The invasion was a roaring success, and the war was over after five days of heavy fighting (32 tabletop fights can be found on this blog under the label "Liberation").

-A transition government was put into place, elections were held, and a new government was quickly established.  The Cuban military was essentially split in two: a Home Defense Force (about 75% of the military), which never leaves Cuba, and the Cuban Liberation Expeditionary Force (or CLEF; about 25% of the military), which is an all-arms, air-ground force deployable to all corners of the globe, fighting for the cause of freedom.

-There have been some minor operations, but the first sizable deployment was of a Cuban Special Forces A-Team to the (fictional) Balkan republic of Cronistria.  It's 1990 and the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia are falling apart; Cronistria has declared independence and is striving to become a democracy, but Communist hardliners and Yugoslavian federalists are actively opposing this.  Fighting broke out between the Cronistrian Democratic Militia (or CDM, the good guys) and Cronistrian Communist Army (or CPA, the bad guys); the Cuban SF troops were deployed to support and train the CDM.  The Cuban SF (designated Task Force Trojas) performed their mission very well, surpassing expectations, to the point Cuban leadership began to believe they might actually succeed in helping Cronistria become an independent, stable, and free state.  With this realization, the Cuban leadership deployed additional, conventional forces to Cronistria (reinforcing success).  The Cuban element in Cronistria is now known as Task Force Galban, a roughly battalion-sized element composed of three mechanized Battlegroups (Aguilera, Caballero, and Elias), and Lt Trojas' SF detachment.

-CDM and Cuban forces had been marching on the Cronistrian capital city of Miran, but had become stalled by heavy fighting in the village of Brezno, just southwest of the capital (see map, below).  Upon arrival of the mechanized elements of TF Galban, they were immediately thrown into battle.  Two days ago they conducted a series of lightning quick attacks to encircle Miran from the west (eight fights in "Operation Chokehold," on this blog they are Cronistria fights 14-21, and 24, with 22, 23, and 25 being a Special Forces operation gone wrong).

-So, this blog concept, 'Cuba Libre,' is really nothing more than a vehicle for me to play out whatever modern ideas and scenarios I feel like playing, in the overall concept of a single 'history,' if you will, as I follow the exploits of the various units and leaders of the Cuban Liberation Expeditionary Force.  To illustrate, I felt like playing some skirmish-level games using my Peter Pig US Marines and my Eureka Russians.  I didn't really care about climate, so I used Cronistria.  If I wanted Arctic or desert, I would have just made up a new operation somewhere in the world (like I just played out Operation Pay-Off because I wanted to play Special Forces against terrorists in the Middle East).  It's great!

-I'm a big fan of Ivan Sorensen's "5Core" series of rules, having played Five Men in Normandy (skirmish), 5Core Company Command (company/battalion-level), and 5Core Brigade Command (brigade/division-level).  I love the activation process, which puts limits on what I'm able to do and forces interesting decisions to be made, and I love the combat processes, which are simple, quick, and to the point.  Most recently, Ivan put out a new/updated/modified version of 5 Men in Normandy, known as Five Men at Kursk (5MAK).  I modified these slightly to play out modern games, and that's what I'm using for this set of skirmish fights.

-CDM forces currently have their hands full clearing Brezno, and have asked for Cuban assistance.  Colonel Galban acquiesced to this request, sending Battlegroup Elias to aid their allies.  Battlegroup Elias left Stanje (see map, below), heading south to attack the rear of the Communist defensive positions, located atop Hill 489 and in the town of Dubrovna.


Overview, north is up. Shown is the slope of Hill 489; the Cubans will enter from the south/southwest (bottom/bottom left), while the Communists enter from the north/northwest (top/top left).   The situation is Cuban infantry of Battlegroup Elias are dismounted and conducting a movement to contact, when they run into a Communist patrol in the early morning mists of July 1, 1990.

The Cuban mission is to defeat the enemy patrol in order to clear the path to this morning's first objective, the enemy defensive line atop Hill 489.


The opposing forces, with bad guys on the left and good guys on the right.  The Cubans will always have eight men (so that my son and I can always control four guys, each), while the bad guys will roll to see if they get 6, 7, or 8 guys.  Here they got eight...

The Cuban squad is eight men in two fireteams, 15mm Modern Marines from Peter Pig, painted up in temperate MARCAM, with each fireteam containing a grenadier, a SAW, and two riflemen.  The bad guys are 15mm Modern Russians from Eureka Miniatures, painted up in 'Sun Bunny' camo.  Each game we roll to see how many bad guys there will be on table, with the options being 6, 7, or 8 men.  With eight men they get two whole teams, each of a grenadier, a machine gunner with PKM, and two riflemen with AKs.


Team 1 in the thick of the fight, laying down fire.  To see the whole fight, please check the blog at:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2017/01/cuba-libre-cronstria-fight-26.html

Team 1 moves up the slope to capture the last enemy soldier, officially ending the fight in victory for the good guys!  Cpl Lira calls in for CASEVAC with two WIA, as well as a SITREP to inform Battlegroup Elias HQ the way to the crest of Hill 489 is clear, though it appears the enemy has established a bunker line there that is going to need to be taken care of.

The boy and I are quite pleased with ourselves, getting away with 7 bad guy KIAs and 1 EPW for only two WIA.  Not just winning, but winning in style, accomplishing the objective of defeating the enemy patrol to clear the approach to the defensive line atop Hill 489.  Which, as luck would have it, is the next fight, so stay tuned

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Jack and the Boy!

[fsn]

Great game rep as always.


I googled "sun bunny"

[Techno]

Enjoyed both of those, Jack.....
Think I 'lost' the earlier one due to EE losing all my 'unread  posts'.....So it got missed until now.

Great reports, as always.

Cheers - Phil.