"Cuba Libre - Liberation Batrep 14" Topic

All,

It's 1230 on 1 Feb 1990, and Golf Company, 2nd Airborne Infantry Battalion is manning a roadblock (14) to prevent the enemy garrison at Cienfuegos from attacking the Bay of Pigs landing site (4). 2nd Airborne Battalion had jumped in earlier this morning and defeated an enemy outpost (4), but now armored elements of the Castro-regime's 6th Armored Battalion have mobilized and departed Cienfuegos for the Bay of Pigs. The Cuban Army under Castro has experienced serious cutbacks to the military in recent years, and the 6th Armored Battalion is understrength and fielding WWII-era T-34 tanks.

So far we've had:
1) B Squadron SOF destroyed a radar site in support of amphibious landings at Playa Colorada (5). B Sqdn then egressed and linked up with CLA rotary wing assets for their follow-on mission in Havana (6).
2) C Squadron SOF destroyed a the Cuban military's communications center.
3) 1st Para Battalion dropped in and seized a bridge to screen the landings at Playa Colorada (5).
4) 2nd Para battalion dropped in and eliminated a Castro-regime garrison to screen the landings at the Bay of Pigs (just west of (4).
5) 1st Marine Company, 3rd Infantry Battalion, made an amphibious assault at Playa Colorada.
6) A Squadron SOF attacked a Castro-regime SAM site near Havana, which failed to clear the way for B Squadron's helo assault into Havana.
7) 2nd Marine Company, 6th Infantry Battalion, landed at the Bay of Pigs then turned east and ran into a strong enemy force, which it handily defeated.
8) B Company of the UWG pursued and destroyed an enemy garrison in the Escambray Mountains.
9) B Squadron SOF conducted an aerial insertion into Havana to seize a radio station and broadcast news of the invasion.
10) 10th Popular Force Battalion seized and destroyed the Pedroso bridge to protect the Bay of Pigs landing site from the Matanzas garrison.
11) 1st Airborne Infantry Battalion successfully fought off a regime counterattack near the bridge at Sandino, protecting the western (Playa Colorada) landing site from the Pinar del Rio garrison.
12) 6th Infantry Battalion fought through an enemy ambush while pushing inland from the Bay of Pigs landing site.
13) 8th Popular Force Battalion ambushed a mechanized column of the enemy 2nd Armored Battalion, just west of Havana.
14) 2nd Airborne Battalion engaged enemy armored forces of the 6th Armored Battalion in the village of El Rincon, en route to the Bay of Pigs landing site.

The opposing forces, with regime troops on the left and CLA troops on the right. The CLA force is made up of Pendraken Brits from the Falklands range, while the Castro-force is made up of Minifigs Warsaw Pact and Arab modern troops, and plastic Takara T-34s.

The CLA force has a Command Stand, seven parachute rifle teams, two MILAN ATGM teams, and a single leader figure (though he's not in the photo of above for some reason) representing their battalion commander. Col Carreno was wounded in the earlier battle for El Rincon immediately following the drop, but he's still in the fight. The regime force has a Command Stand, seven rifle teams, and two aging, but deadly, T-34 tanks. Well, deadly until they run across modern ATGMs, anyway…

Overview of the map, north is up. The CLA force is dug in at far left, primarily in the bottom left corner, where Colonel Carreno, two rifle teams, and both MILANs are dug in to take on enemy armor. The regime forces are entering via the road at top right. At bottom center right is Hill 29, while at top center is the village of El Rincon.

Very heavy fighting breaks out between the CLA paratroopers and regime mechanized infantry in the village…

At the end of the day, Captain Cuervesco and Sergeant Trojas and his rifle team would stand victorious among a pile of enemy casualties, resulting in Captain Cuervesco receiving his nation's highest award for gallantry.

To see the whole fight, please check the blog at:
link

Another great fight, that's the last of everything I've played, more on the way this weekend.

V/R,
Jack

Ooh…awesome…I love it.

Hey, thanks Ben, I appreciate it.

I picked up your Rhodesia Bush War book, that's serving me for some of these fights (modified a bit, of course), and for some future fights in this campaign. And I still have several of your Pacific books and Normandy books to get to ;) I really love the Normandy books, they're perfect for my style of gaming.

At some point I'm going to get back to my "All Americans" campaign (82nd Airborne, already got through Sicily and Italy), and I'm going to play through La Fiere and Beyond La Fiere pretty much in their entirety.

And when KG Klink gets to Normandy, I'm going to play through select battles from Jupiter, Black Watch, Bourgebus Ridge, Arracourt, and Unternehmen Luttich. Ahh, too much to do, but having a great time!

I sure could use some Afrika Korps, Vietnam, or other Brush War-type stuff. Don't keep it a secret, man, what's in the works? I love your books, and am slowly working up to owning all of them ;)

V/R,
Jack

Jack…you're too kind. Actually, I am working on a new company level Modern Day rules set for 1:285 scale. It is still in the play-test stage, but should be released sometime in the late summer or early fall.

North Africa and Vietnam, eh? Let me start doing some research, and I'll see what I can do. Your game is truly terrific. Ben

Ben,

I've long been an admirer of your rules, both Final Combat and Micro Melee, even though I don't play them because I've turned into a 'super-fast-play' kinda guy, but I can see myself getting into some small skirmish games with Final Combat in the future. I imagine your current stuff is a 'modernization' of Micro Melee?

And Holy Cow, I'm honored that you would look into North Africa and Vietnam. Obviously I won't hold you to it (I'm sure you've got plenty of stuff to work on), and to be honest I'd probably be happy with pretty much anything you come out with, but I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm such a fan of your books as I'm a 'campaign' wargamer. I really don't enjoy 'one-off' battles, I need a group of linked fights, and you're books are great for this. Vietnam and North Africa have been particularly problematic for me:

1. Vietnam scenario books are never linked series; invariably you get one from 1954, one from 1965, two from 1967, three from 1968, a couple from 1969, one from 1970, and one from 1971, all totally unrelated, ranging from the French to USA in the Highlands to USMC at the DMZ to ARVN in Laos to SEALs in Rung Sat to Air Cav on the Cambodian border… Sorry, you get the picture.

2. North Africa scenario books tend to focus on the Italians, then skip over the Germans with a couple unrelated fights in late '42, El Alamein, then straight to Tunisia.

I don't mind being spread out over time and distance, so long as they are 'clusters' of battles that a single unit could plausibly take part in. That is, you use real units and battles, I base my campaigns on a made up unit that gets attached to real units, so, again, the books are great for me.

Thanks for weighing in here, and sorry for the long post.

V/R,
Jack

I'll pipe in and say that a book covering a single unit for a "tour" in Vietnam would be fantastic skirmish and low level gaming material.

I imagine the info could be sourced from various unit histories and memoirs?

Nice BATREP Jack. I wrote in your blog but I cannot see the message. I asked you about where did you get those lovely houses and if you could tell me what house rules you use for barbwire in previous batreps.

Cheers,

Ivan – If you don't have any of Ben's books, they're fantastic. The Final Combat-related ones have a few smaller scenarios, but most are reinforced platoon, and the Micro Melee-related books are all company level.

What you're suggesting would be cool too, maybe in a monthly Battle Pack? ;)

Javier – Sorry man, I just saw your comment. Regarding the houses, I'm not sure who makes them, maybe 4Ground? They are laser-cut MDF, but I bought them fully built and based off Ebay from a guy in the UK.

Regarding barbed wire, I keep it very simple: for infantry, troops move to it and it halts them, then next turn they can pass through it. Wheeled vehicles cannot move through it, and tracks move through with no problem.

V/R,
Jack

I replied in your blog. Thank you Jack :)