"French Foreign Legion in Estonia, Fight 2" Topic

All,

August 11, 1993: Major Louis-Louis called Captain LaPieux into his command post: "Captain, we believe the Sirellists (rebels, named after their commander Colonel Sirel) are encamped northeast of Talinn, in some very rough ground, very swampy. I need you to conduct a route reconnaissance, and secure for the task force a means through the marshes. Take a look at the map. You'll see here (pointing to the map) is probably the most likely spot, with a semi-improved road crossing two fords through the marsh, as well as a railroad line on a raised embankment with its own bridge. Take your task force and secure our route through the marshes!" "Oui, Major."

At approximately 1530 local time the company task force approached the grid coordinates, comprised of two infantry platoons in armored personnel carriers, a platoon of light tanks (Panhards with 90mm guns), and an HQ section of the Captain, 1st Sgt, Medical Orderly, RTO, and an 81mm mortar section in Land Rovers.

The table is 3' x 3', top is east and is the 'bad guy' baseline, bottom is west and is the 'good guy' baseline.' You can see the road leading right through the two fords, the railroad on the left, and a small hamlet in the center. The 'rivers' are actually streams which can be crossed by infantry (at a small penalty) but not vehicles, which must use the fords or the railroad bridge.

The French force, commanded by Captain LaPieux. Only one carrier platoon will be represented on the table top as three of the infantry teams were ordered dismounted as the task force neared the objective area.

The Sirellist force, with a platoon of T-72s, two platoons of BMPs, and six rifle teams, four of which have RPGs.

It was great fight, this time with extra close combat ;)

So stop on by the blog to see how it turned out:
link

On a side note, if you've been paying attention here you've probably noticed I've been anguishing about an Imagi-Nation-type situation to serve as a background for another campaign in which I'll bust out my 6mm and 20mm forces. I'm starting to think it will spring from this campaign; the French are here to protect the liberal government from regressive, Soviet/Russian leaning forces. I'm thinking that Poland, Estonia, and Latvia begin banding together as a means to stave off Russia (whom they know will return to power at some point in the future) as well as the Sirellists. So my Legionnaires come in, do their job, and leave, and NATO begins pumping arms and equipment into Poland, Estonia, and Latvia, but the Sirellists become stronger and stronger, until ultimately a 'civil' war erupts. Voila, a decent amount of land to work with, and WarPac and NATO equipment on both sides, with qualitatively similar forces. Pretty clever, no?

V/R,
Jack

Whev, that's a hardcore battle :)

Love seeing the train tracks on there btw.

The legionaires certainly put up a stiff fight with much honour in this one.
Might need a new deck of cards though. I sense some fifth columnists in how the cards were dealt.

You even managed to keep some vehicles alive. When I introduce people, they almost inevitably put their vehicles too far ahead and get RPG'ed to pieces, especially light stuff like BMP and M113.

Jack,

Great stuff as always. For your hypothetical situation why not use today; a resurgent russia decides it wants the baltic states back.

Joe

Ivan – Yes, the train tracks definitely made the battle! It's like that time you used some in yours! Oh wait, I've never seen one of your batreps…

Just kidding man, thanks for taking a look and commenting, though I'd expect as much, they are YOUR rules ;)

It was a helluva fight, lots of troops on the table (for me), lots of stuff going on. And there surely was a Sirellist messing around with my deck of cards, pulling all the Red ones… But the Legion endeavored to persevere, and ultimately carried the day. And I still got my vehicles shot to pieces, even though I was generally trying to protect them!

Joe – Great to see you man, how'd you like it? Regarding using the contemporary version as my campaign background, the biggest reason is that I don't want Russia directly involved; if we're honest, they'd crush any of the Baltic states, or all of them, in a couple days; Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have a combined total of 3 tanks between them in real life! And that's not much fun on the table.

Additionally, I want to have NATO and Warsaw Pact equipment on both sides, and I don't want a qualitative difference in C2 game mechanisms, which is why the 'civil war' concept works nicely. Both sides are products of the Soviet military.

Lastly, while I don't mind gaming current stuff, I don't really want to do it and post it here, as someone surely won't be able to help themselves and will just have to make some sort of moralistic/political commentary, and I just don't need the drama. I want to play a game, for fun, so the more 'fantasy' I go, the better I suppose.

But like I said, really a civil war in the 90's between Pro-Western and Pro-Soviet factions in the Baltic States just sort of 'does it' for me.

What have you been up to lately? I always enjoy your batreps; I'd particularly like to see more of your WWII stuff, maybe the Canadians in Normandy?

Take care guys.

V/R,
Jack

Like what your doing Jack, and your right about the Imagi-Nations manoeuvre, when it comes to the politics of it all we here on TMP can be a bunch of es :)
Enjoyed your AAR ran like a tac-report great stuff in looking into doing something similar in 10mm (my preferred 'small scale') so this is cool to see.
Cheers

Zargon,

Amen regarding us getting a bit out of hand regarding politics, I'm better off just skirting the issue.

Thanks for the kudos regarding the campaign and batrep. I didn't know you're fellow 10mm true believe ;) Have you got a blog/pics? I'd love to take a look. And please share any campaign/Imagi-Nations ideas!

V/R,
Jack

Jack,

I started a new job after I retired. Now I wear a suit and it is horrible. I like the job but it is taking a lot of time because I want to do a good job for the first six months before I start slacking off. : )
Game wise I continue to play Grunts Forward while chipping away at writing down the rules. Last weekend my Italians played "Cordon" is a plaza during a civic ceremony until Ethiopian freedom fighters showed up. Fr Francesco was saved from the marauders.

Cheers

Joe

PS NATO is currently in the Baltic states. My bros you know.

Joe – "…I want to do a good job for the first six months before I start slacking off." Now you're speaking my language ;) Hope you find time to carry on, it's always interesting. And yeah, NATO is everywhere now, isn't it?

V/R,
Jack