Cuba Libre Using Ambush Alley

[bigjackmac]

All,

AKA, Ambush Alley in South Leon #1

So, a bit of review as I'm all over the place when it comes to projects: on 1 May 1990 Cuban Liberation Expeditionary Forces (CLEF) deployed to the west African Republic of South Leon.  A county seen as pivotal during the Cold War as a stopper to the Domino Theory in Africa, since The Wall fell it has largely been ignored by the Western Powers that propped it up throughout the Cold War.  And that would be fine, except:

1.  South Leon has a Marxist neighbor to the north, Fédération Socialiste Nationale de Leon, or FSNL.  While it is suffering as well, having lost its primary backer when the Soviet Union collapsed, that is actually making things worse.  Aside from the cultural hatred the two tribes have for each other, the FSNL regime is under pressure due to a stagnant economy, and what better way to relieve pressure then redirect the anger at outside forces, such as South Leon?

and

2.  South Leon has an internal problem, the Free Leon Army (FLA), which is Marxist and thus has problems with the republican government of South Leon and is backed by FSNL.

Both these problems were coming to a head, and so the Cubans, being the freedom-loving folks they are, decided to pitch in to save South Leon from the damn Communists!  Generalissimo Estevante authorized the deployment of a battalion-sized Task Group to South Leon.  Headed by a Marine, Major Fulgencio, the task force is built around a company of Marines under 1st Lieutenant Ordonez (Task Force Redleg) and a company of paratroopers under the recently promoted Captain Soares (Task Force Razor).  The overall Task Group is filled out by a contingent of tanks, armored personnel carriers, amphibious assault vehicles, Special Forces, Intelligence, an air combat element, and various other support personnel necessary to keep the Task Group operating at full capacity.Task Group Fulgencio landed in South Leon on 1 May 1990, with Task Force Redleg deploying north to the Demilitarized Zone (the border with FSNL), and Task Force Razor moving just east of the capital city, to the capital of the home-grown insurgency, Diwala.

Things were quiet until early June 1990, when Task Force Redleg's patrolling of the DMZ ran into a battalion-sized force of FSNL "volunteers" infiltrating south across the border.  Three short, sharp clashes saw the victorious Cuban Marines sending the FSNL volunteers packing back across the DMZ.  Again things have been quiet, but intel has been picking up on chatter to the east, and so Captain Soares' Task Force Razor has stepped up its presence patrol activity in the city of Diwala.  There have been several incidents of sniping and Improvised Explosive Devices in the city, though none of the Cuban paratroopers has so far been seriously injured.  But that is about to change...

It is now 1430 on 2 July 1990, and calls for assistance have come into Task Force Razor headquarters.  The harried voice on the other end of the line stated a South Leon National Police patrol was ambushed, and while the first two vehicles made it out of the kill zone and returned to base, they left the third vehicle, which was disabled, at the ambush site.  And it has several National Police officers in it...

Captain Soares immediately rounded up a Quick Reaction Force and headed out the door to rescue the South Leon National Police troops.


Overview, somewhere in Diwala, north is up.  Nothing fancy, just a 2' x 2' surface with plenty of buildings and walls.

I'm playing this out in 15mm using the old school "Ambush Alley" rules, as written.  The is the first scenario out of the book, "Contracting Trouble," a classic of modern wargaming.  My intent is to play out all five scenarios in the book in a row, to learn the rules, put them through their paces, and see if I dig'em.

The South Leon National Police (SLNP)'s disabled HMMWV is at center top, on the road.  Task Force Razor is at center bottom, straight down the road.  There are FLA Insurgents all over the place (atop building at bottom center right, just above that building, atop the building at top center right, at top left, and at far left.  The three civilian groups are on the road at left, on the road at far right, and in the plaza at center left.

The khaki-colored poker chips (bottom right, right, behind building at top center right, at let, and at bottom left) are "Insurgent Hot Spots."  In Ambush Alley, at the end of each turn you roll to see if the bad guys get reinforcements.  If they do, you roll to see what size the group is and what weapons they have, and lastly you roll to see where they will show up.  Each hotspot is numbered 1 through 5, and if a 6 is rolled the bad guys get to pick which hotspot they want to use.  Hotspots can be destroyed if they are unoccupied and a Regular unit physically moves onto it and stays there for a turn, doing nothing else.

The mission is for Task Force Razor to move north, recover the SNLP officers, then escort them back south off the table.

*This photo shows the Insurgent groups as they are supposed to be from the book, but before I started the game I reinforced each of the groups with more guys.

**This was my first game, and I made a TON of mistakes!!!

To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2017/07/south-leon-task-force-razor-fight-1.html

More fights coming right up!

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Jack, thought you were going to walk this one at first!

[petercooman]

Looks great jack!

Will have a read-through tonight. Especially interested in skirmish rules at the moment, made a "small" warlord games order last night.sherman, chi-ha, mmg teams for usmc and Japanese and some Japanese anti tank. So looking at pacific skirmish in the future!

Just mead to settle on rules. Have you done pacific in one of your earlier campaigns?

[ronan]

Good AAR Jack !
( good idea to play with you son in coop-mode ! )

[Techno]

Great stuff, again, Jack.

But I think your son is right......More bad guys, to make you sweat even more. 

Cheers - Phil

[bigjackmac]

Thanks everyone, glad you liked it!

Lemmey - Yeah, started off as a bit of a milk run, then quickly went to @#$%

Peter - Sounds great, just need the photographic evidence that it actually occurred  And yeah, I did some Pacific skirmish (six platoon-sized fights using "No End In Sight"), will be moving back to it soon:
http://oldleadbreed.blogspot.com/

Ronan - Yeah man, it was a lot of fun playing he and I against the bad guys!

Phil - Not sure I could stand too many more bad guys, barely made it out of there!

I should be posting fight #2 on Monday, have a great weekend!

V/R,
Jack

[Womble67]

Good report

Take care

Andy

[bigjackmac]

All,

AKA, Ambush Alley in South Leon #2

It is now 1730 on 4 July 1990; two days ago militia members of the Free Leon Army (FLA, the bad guys) ambushed a South Leon National Police (SNLP) patrol.  Task Force Razor, a Cuban paratrooper company led by Captain Soares and his trusty sidekick, Lt Hinajosa, moved out smartly, rescuing the SNLP officers, but at a cost of 1 KIA and 4 WIA to themselves.  Everyone on the Cuban Liberation Expeditionary Force (CLEF) and South Leon government side were shocked; the FLA insurgency had been but a rumor of war for years, with various low-level bombings, assassinations, and sniper fire, but nothing anywhere near the size and ferocity of the attacks on 2 July. And now it was happening again...

Captain Soares was relaxing in the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) when the radios jumped to life.  Before he could even discern what was happening, a South Leon Army (SLA) liaison officer burst into the TOC: "Sir, we need your assistance right away!"  The stuff was going down again, right here in Diwala.  More than 50 FLA insurgents were assaulting the 2nd District SNLP station in eastern Diwala; a SLA quick reaction force (QRF) was dispatched, but then they were ambushed!  Task Force Razor is tasked with escorting a three-man sniper team into an overwatch position to deliver precision fires in support of the QRF and the SNLP station.  Task Force Razor will deliver he precision fires then fall back; Captain Soares does not want to close with the SLA QRF or the SNLP station during the fight for fear of friendly fire incidents.

As Captain Soares and Task Force Razor mounted up, the SLA liaison officer informed him FLA insurgent activity had been noted in and around the designated sniper position; "to late to change the plan now, looks like we're fighting our way in boys."


Overview, somewhere in Diwala, north is up.  Nothing fancy, just a 2' x 2' surface with plenty of buildings and walls.  Task Force Razor is at bottom center, the objective building at top right.  The mission is to get the sniper team to the objective building, have them deliver precision fires in support of the SLA QRF and SNLP station, then withdraw back the way they came.  The game starts with Insurgent groups at bottom right, top center, far left, and two guys with an RPG on the roof at bottom left.  The khaki-colored poker chips are 'hotspots,' i.e., locations where Insurgent reinforcements can come on the table.  At the end of each turn I will roll to see if the bad guys get reinforcements (the Insurgent Level is 4, not 'automatic' like last game), then I roll on a table to see what the bad guy reinforcement group is comprised of, and then I roll to see which hotspot they come in on.  If I can get good guys onto a hotspot and sit there for a turn, they 'kill' the hotspot, so bad guys can't come in there anymore, and if the roll an eliminated hotspot, they lose that reinforcement group.

I'm playing this out in 15mm using the old school "Ambush Alley" rules, as written.  The is the first scenario out of the book, "Contracting Trouble," a classic of modern wargaming.  My intent is to play out all five scenarios in the book in a row, to learn the rules, put them through their paces, and see if I dig'em.


RPG!!!  To see how the fight turned out, please check the blog at:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2017/07/south-leon-task-force-razor-fight-2.html

Coming up, it turns out the South Leon Army and South Leon National Police at the police station suffered a lot of casualties.  Most of the police and soldiers were required to help evacuate the wounded and dead, leaving precious few men back at the police station.  Their morale low from the ferocity of the enemy's attack and the tremendous casualties, it didn't take much to push them over the edge, so the minute they felt like they were isolated, abandoned, and left to die, they all decided there were better places to be than the police station. 

Not wanting to sacrifice the police station (and the weapons, equipment, comm gear, and ammunition it contained), the South Leon government again reached out to Task Force Razor for help, and once again Captain Soares responded in the affirmative.  Task Force Razor had returned to base, dropped off the snipers and track, had its wounded seen to, then loaded up on water and ammo before moving out on foot towards the police station.  It was nearly 2230 before they arrived; they immediately set about organizing the defense, then went to 50% to get some rest.  Several hours later the sentries began sending in reports of movement at all quarters; the Free Leon Army was about to make a second all-out assault on the SNLP police station.

V/R,
Jack

[d_Guy]

Entertaining as always, Jack. It worth the price of admission just to see the RPG's in flight!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Jack

[Techno]

Ditto.....But I demand a shrubbery more bad guys. 

Cheers - Phil (I hope Jack gets the shrubbery bit...otherwise he'll think I'm really peculiar....Then again.) 

[ronan]

Ditto.....But I demand a shrubbery more bad guys. 

Cheers - Phil (I hope Jack gets the shrubbery bit...otherwise he'll think I'm really peculiar....Then again.) 

May be you should say Ni ?!
( or may be I totally misunderstood !  )

[Womble67]

Very good

Take care

Andy

[Techno]

May be you should say Ni ?!
( or may be I totally misunderstood !  )

No, Ronan......You understood that perfectly....I only hope Jack does, as well. 

Cheers - Phil

[Roy]