28 October, 2010

Take That Gun

Evening - Day 1
The Defence of Wilson’s Wadi

The British, though they are under severe pressure, ascertain that a heavy mortar is pummelling the airbase at Qandahar from nearby. They put together a scratch force to assault the position and put the mortar tube out of action.


The Taliban-controlled ridgeline presents a formidable challenge.

Taliban-controlled ridgeline

Aggressive British deployment – the GMPG and Sniper teams will keep the Taliban in the compound busy while the two sections rush across the canal to take the objective. This doesn’t turn out well, as before they can even cross the start-line a rogue mortar round lands amongst them, forcing them to stop and take care of their casualties.

Aggressive British deployment

Sniper team goes down under some return fire from the compound

Sniper team goes down

They’ve taken out the Taliban HMG team on the left-most spur of the ridge, but the GPMG team is also taken out

Taliban HMG shot up

A new HMG team has also appeared on the walls of the compound. This fire now hampers efforts of one of the fireteams to reach the special weapons teams' casualties on the rooftop.

New HMG pops up in compound

The arrival of another group of Taliban turns the compound into a veritable fortress, where once it was just an minor inconvenience on the flank.

Compound now full of Taliban reinforcements

The British have taken a real pasting and withdraw

British have taken a pasting and withdraw

*****

The Taliban win 8-1, at the end the British commander taking the unusual (for wargamers at least) decision of shelving the mission in order to maintain fighting strength for the ‘morrow. The British take 2 KIAs and 4 WIAs – this will severely affect their unit roster.

The opening turn was a terrible deal for the British, with Fog of War causing an early mortar round and the GPMG team and Sniper team loosing out to reaction and return fire from a single Taliban group. If the casualty rolls had gone slightly better or the Taliban reinforcements (both scheduled and Fog of War-triggered) hadn't been so strong the mission might have been pursued, but realistically this mission was over at the start of turn 2!

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