"Cuba Libre - Cronistria Fight #8" Topic

All,

It's 1830 on 18 April 1990, and Task Force Trojas is a flurry of activity. Turk and Panda of Team 6-2 were captured approximately two and a half hours ago, and Lt Mikey Trojas, the Task Force commander, has been working non-stop to retrieve his men. First and foremost is the issue of location; where would Demjanovic's Tigers, the Serbian commandos that captured the Cuban Special Forces men, decide to take Mikey's men?

Mikey immediately met with the Cronistrian Democract President, Andraz Gregor, and the head of his military, General Miroslav Denis, both of whom pledged their support. Mikey impressed upon them the urgency; Mikey figures the Serbs' most likely course of action is either to interrogate then execute Turk and Panda, or whisk them out of Cronistria and back to Serbia as soon as possible. In either case, time is of the essence. Mikey informed the President and the General that his Task Force is acting to find Turk and Panda: Team 6-1 is on the street pressing its HUMINT sources for any word of their location, and 626-Forward's SIGINT element has discovery of Turk and Panda's location as its top priority. Gregor and Denis agree to immediately press their informants, moles in the Yugoslavian Army, Cronistrian National Card, and Cronistrian People's Army, and to use Cronistrian Democratic Militia to aggressively scout for the location of Turk and Panda.

Within 45 minutes a TF Trojas source pointed to the area southeast of the capital city of Miran. 626-Forward's SIGINT element did some pattern analysis and laid good odds that the missing CLEF members were being held at the FRY (Yugoslav Army) base near the village of Petroika, five miles southeast of Miran. And then General Gregor's men came through: a mole in the FRY, stationed at Petroika, walked off base, found a payphone, and breathlessly reported to his handler that '…two of our friends were just brought to the base by the Serb scum, and one is hurt pretty bad.' CDM scouts were able to confirm on VHF that there was increased activity at Petroika, and the Serbs were present there as well. Shortly thereafter SIGINT traffic showed a Serb Lieutenant at Petroika contact Major Demjanovic in Miran, and then Demjanovic immediately radioed Belgrade.

Mikey: "Get your stuff together, I think this is it."And with that, a detachment of CDM troops and the remnants of TF Rojas loaded into trucks for movement to Petroika. Once there, Mikey met with President Gregor's nephew, who had just debriefed the CDM mole in the FRY's Petroika garrison. Gregor's nephew pointed out the building Turk and Panda were being held in, and informed Mikey a Serb interrogation team had just arrived and begun working them over. Mikey then convened a meeting of the small unit leaders, in which he literally drew his plan in the dirt. His initial inclination was to leave Rock and Bolt, the two remaining members of Team 6-3, back at base camp, but they pleaded to be a part of the mission and so he gave them the thumbs up. So the mission would go down in three phases:

1. The initial breach: Tico and Bear of Team 6-2 would lead one squad of CDM troops to force a hole in the FRY's base perimeter. Team 6-4, along with attachments from 6-3 (Rock and Bolt) would infiltrate through the penetration towards the target building. Team 6-2/CDM 1st Squad would continue to demonstrate in order to draw enemy attention.

2. Team 6-4 (plus attachments) make the direct action assault on the target building to secure Turk and Panda.

3. Team 6-4+ departs objective area for rally point. All teams rendezvous at rally point, return to base, with Team 6-1 covering withdrawal.

-CDM 2nd and 3rd Squads take up blocking positions along fast routes into Petroika in order to keep enemy QRF from Miran from reinforcing.

-Team 6-1 takes up position near initial breach and is assault force reserve.

**Game note: 1, 2, and 3 above are played out as three separate games. This batrep is for #1 above.

CLEF and CDM forces approach the line of departure, with FRY defenses in the background. To see how it turned out, please check the blog at:
link

Well, the first phase of the operation is finished, next is on to the target building for the actual In Extremis Hostage Rescue mission, conducted to secure Turk and Panda, currently being interrogated by a Serbian team. I've already played this, just need to write it up; I'm hurrying!

V/R,
Jack

Jack:
Good write-up and an engaging game. You gotta give some credit to that die-hard in bunker three. That guy wouldn't stay down! The locals acquitted themselves well and really won the battle on their own for all intents and purposes. The Cubans did not do so well. But the battlefield has been prepared for the main event so we shall see how the other team does. Thanks for posting this.
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.