All,
It's 14 August 1993, and the Legion is in action in defense of Estonia's fledgling democracy once again. Major Louis-Louis was intent on having his battalion press home its efforts to find, fix, and destroy Colonel Sirel's headquarters, when those plans were scrubbed due to reports representing an imminent threat: sources loyal to the liberal government reported the Sirellists had established a Surface to Air Missile (SAM) north of the capital, with 2km of the International Airport. It would be a tragedy should this SAM bring down an airliner, and a disaster if it were to destroy one of the French C-130s bringing in men and supplies. Currently public opinion was rather disinterested in the French intervention in Estonia, but Ffom Louis-Louis' standpoint, an incident such as this would be comparable to the Beirut Barracks bombing. "Orderly! Send Captain LaPieux's Sous-Groupement a Warning Order, standby to move in 1 hour. And send for the Captain please, I wish to brief him personally."
North of Talinn, the table is 3' x 3', with North being up. Another VERY busy table, but I rolled for terrain, and the literal name of what I rolled up is "rough." So, here is my interpretation of 'rough.' Lots of trees, a few knolls, a few crop fields, a couple streams (can be forded by infantry, but not vehicles), and orchard at top center.
The French battlegroup: The CO and his group in a Land Rover driven by Cpl Methot. Two HMMWVs, one with .50 cal (Cpl Navarre) and one with Mk19 (Cpl Desjardin). two "AMX-25s" (AKA, LAVs in French service, wink, wink), crewed by Lt Marcoud and Sgt Petit, respectively, and two AMX-10s, crewed by Lt Davault and Sgt Bernier. Four squads of infantry: Lt Bisson, Lt Harpin, Sgt Oran, and Sgt Cheauvront. There is also one Panhard available, crewed by Lt Patrie.
This is somewhat of an ad-hoc grouping as Capt LaPieux's Sous-Groupement suffered heavy casualties only a few days ago, and many of the Group's vehicles are still being repaired. As it is, the Panhard and two AMX-10s in action were only just finished being repaired.
The Sirellist force, AKA the "Bad Guys." The rebels have a squad of paramilitaries manning the SAM site, and throw together a mobile reaction force to challenge the French, in two platoons. The first has a T-55, two BTR-70s, and two infantry squads, while the second platoon has a T-72, 2 BMP-2s, and two infantry squads. All 'regular' infantry squads have RPGs.
Starting positions: the SAM site, with paramilitary squad, at top left (NW), the Sirellist 2nd Plt (T-72/BMPs) at top right (NE), and the 1st Plt (T-55/BTRs) at bottom right (SE). The French start in the bottom left corner (SW). The objective is to destroy the rebel SAM site, and the plan is simple: the force will be drawn into two forces, one (the Strike Force, with the CO leading) will charge up the road and over the bridge to destroy the SAM site, while the other (the Covering Force) will be left back to 'hold the door open,' which the entire Group will use to ex-filtrate the area, back through its portal in the Southwest.
Those are two bad guy squads in the trees, and if you look at the casualty figures, you'll notice they are friendlies. Seems close combat doesn't always go my way…
For the entire write-up, please check the blog at:
link
Stay tuned, I'm off work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so I'll be looking to get in some more fights and get them posted here. As always, feel free to throw a comment on here to let me know what you think.
V/R,
Jack