On The Road Again - a Force on Force AAR

This week's game at the club was a return to Murdistan and the Royal Marines pushing further into Murdistan. The scenario was the Marines had to try and escort two Challenger IIs through an area of known enemy activity. Mustered in front of them were a mixed bag of Murdistani Jihadists and a rag-tag bag of regulars. Plenty of RPGs awaited the tanks as usual, while at the rear lurked an 82mm mortar. George took the British forces while Nick and I split the Murdistanis, Nick taking the regulars and I the Jihadists.

The Jihadists lie in ambush. They are positioned to create a stubborn 'road bump' and soften the enemy up before hitting the regulars.

The regulars are entrenched in the rear.

The game began with the British advancing cautiously, suspecting an enemy surprise, which was duly delivered. Fortunately, the resulting fire was sporadic and the transports were only lightly damaged. However, the effect was to make the infantry start to de-bus to dig out the resistance, thus slowing the advance down. And that was pretty much as far as they got! In an incredible twist of fate, the Murdistanis managed to seize the initiative over the next two turns and they just poured the fire on making the British react with fire and thus losing their ability to move forward with any purpose. Critically, it meant that the British couldn't make use of their superior firepower on overwatch. And, to add insult to injury, the mortar displayed some scarily accurate fire and began to pick off some of the transports still carrying troops. The end result was 2 British dead and several seriously wounded. The Challenger IIs did start to make their presence felt, knocking out the two obsolete T-55 tanks that the Murdistanis brought up, but it was not enough.

A direct mortar hit sets a Viking APC ablaze., while the Challengers rumble up the road.

Another mortar strike brews up another APC. The crew and passengers suffer 50% casualties.

Looking up the road from the British positions at the end. The Murdistani positions are mostly intact.

The same cannot be said of the British!

At this point George decided that the losses were way too heavy and withdrew. I have to say, I haven't seen dice rolling quite as bad as George displayed during this game! Losing two turns of initiative is almost unheard of and there were several times that Jihadist cells were actually untouched by the incoming fire. It just goes to show that the superior training and organisation of the Western forces doesn't always triumph. George was really unlucky throughout the game, but things just went pear-shaped and started to snowball. As is usually the way in wargames!