At Drums Along the Rapids near Toledo, OH yesterday, I played in the Thunder Run scenario (see my AAR in the FoF section of this forum). I also ran my "Bridge at Al Muf" scenario. I'll tell you - these must be 2 of the best AA/FoF games I've participated in yet. The feel and flow really went well. One other player (who played in both games, as well) stated that these two rules systems are "beautiful in their simplicity".
Anyway, on to the AAR.
Here's the field of battle, with the Marines set up at the far end. Iraqi (and Jordanian, and Syrian, etc....) insurgent positions can be seen in various points on the board. The Marine's mission was to move forward, cross the bridge, and exit the near side of the board through the village. Easier said then done, as you'll see.
Things started out bad for the Marines right from the get-go. Insurgents took out a Humvee, and caused 4 WIA right away. The Platoon Leader's truck and a gun-truck had already moved out, while the other 2 gun-trucks stayed in place to provide cover and covering fire for the stricken team.
The wounded were loaded into another Humvee, which was slowed down by all the extra weight (restricted to patrol movement for being overloaded). The insurgents and the Marines traded fire all the way to the bridge, with the Platoon Leader's truck taking some hits, slowing it down, as well.
Unfortunately for the insurgents, by the time the Marines got to the bridge. Most of the insurgents had been dispatched. So, the Marines, while getting beat up early, thought this was gonna turn out to be a cakewalk. Thus, they headed accross the bridge.
Then, just when things looked peachy for the USMC, it all went wrong. First, the insugents spent the next few turn reinforcing their numbers (I decided to let them have automatic reinforcements for a couple of turns, since up to this time, they had not rolled any reinforcements, and only had 1 teenager with an AK left to oppose the Marines). Of course, they took advantage of this by 1.) being able to "roll again" for reinforcements on two turns, 2.) getting reinforcements each turn anyway after I went back to using the Insurgency level (4), and 3.) having almost all of their reinforcements appear on the village side the river. And if that wasn't enough, the Platoon HQ truck got permanently stuck on the bridge, blocking the gun truck overloaded with the wounded, as well as the 5th gun-truck.
The Platoon HQ (and the sniper team assigned to them from an asset card), as well as the good team from the gun-truck with the wounded, dismounted to begin working accross the bridge. The broken down Platoon HQ truck was finally pushed out of the way, and the 2 trucks across the river set up overwatch positons guarding the bridge.
Meanwhile, the insurgents deciced to use this time to set up kill areas along the 2 roads the through the Village, which they had time to do while the Marines "unclustered" themselves at the bridge.
The Marines finally got everybody across the bridge, remounted their Humvees (now 2 were overloaded), and moved out along the road to their right. They rounded the corner to begin their run of the board....
...and the insurgents hit the lead Humvee (they used hidden movement to gather at the route the Marines chose).
Other Marines rushed to their aid, right into the kill zone. A 3rd Humvee was taken out, and Marines dismounted to root out the insurgents.
2 more Marines went down, and a 4th Humvee is taken out. More Marines are forced to dismount into the hail of fire, now coming from 3 directions.
By now the Marines had lost 4 of their 5 Humvees, and had suffered 6 WIA (out of 25 men), including the Platoon Sergeant. They had groups of insurgents to their left and right fronts, and another group behind them. Yet a 4th group of insurgents was across the river, between the Marines and their other platoons (off-board).
The Marines decided to call for reinforcements and go into defensive positions, ending the game. The Insugents has stopped the Marines, and images of abandoned Humvees and wounded Marines were shown on Al Jazeera worldwide....
This one went down to the wire. Even with the 6 wounded and 3 abandoned Humvee's, the Marines had worked themselves into a position to rush the far board edge on the last turn. The 1st of the 2 remaining Humvees tried to blow through the hail fo fire and clear a path off the board, but it was not to be. This was a great game, and flowed very well. The Marines had it made halfway through, but enough insurgents were able to gather in the right places, and it went from a cake walk to a ride into Hell.
Again, all had fun, and this game really captured the chaos of this type of warfare. Enjoy.
Jim
) desert village (2 sets), 15mm Miniature Building Authority middle east set, and 20mm PaperTerrain stuff. The brick walls and stone walls are Battlefield Accessories.