David R. Moody - Oct 30, 2008 12:20 pm (#25047 Total: 25397) Almost 20 years of pitiless combat! No rest, no sleep like other men. And yet the spring wind blows, Subotai. Have you ever felt such a wind? . . . For us, there is no spring. Just the wind that smells fresh before the storm. Last night at Endgame John Gibbins, Jason Pipes, and I played a scenario from Lock 'n' Load: Day of Heroes. We played "Technical Difficulty", which shows the attempt by the Chalk 1 Ranger team I think it was to get to the Blackhawk crash site in Mogadishu, Somalia, on 3 October 1993. I took the Chalk team, Jason the Delta and Ranger units around the crash site (including a Little Bird helicopter), and John took the Somalis. It went well for the Amis at first, as my men fired off grenades and set off toward the crash site, a hero wiping out a Somali half-squad in melee. Jason got his reinforcements in and sent his chopper buzzing about while John tried to put up a fight with his admittedly sucky Somali militia, though he did keep getting more troops early on (the Somalis roll every Rally Phase to see if their roadblocks generate more units). As superior American firepower began to tell, John got a bit discouraged about his chances with the Somalis and started doing stupid things like charging us, not firing when he could, etc. Jason and I maintained (and still maintained) that there's a way for the Somalis to play and win, but John would have none of it. But then the worm turned a bit. Jason got a bit cocky and landed his superstud Delta team on a building nearly surrounded by Somalis. They got hit hard as they went downstairs, and got annhilated. More and more Somalis were closing in--technicals too--and my men were getting more and more spread out as they rushed through the streets and buildings of Mogadishu. As a result, it got close near the end, with mobs closing in on the crash site, Jason's Delta sniper team, Rangers, and even the chopper crew firing point blank as the enemy rushed them. At one point they fired on a Somali technical, causing the crew to dive for cover (Shaken), then Jason sent in his chopper to blow it up, sending the mob that had gathered around it fleeing in all directions. One of my half-squads, lagging behind, took fire, got Shaken, and tried to Low Crawl to safety. I sent another team back to cover them, but John's dice got hot, as he sent up more Somalis, fired on the group, and wiped them out with rifle and RPG fire! Three US half-squads down. In the end, though, the helicopter death ray and superior US firepower proved decisive for, despite heavy losses, Jason hung on to the crash site, giving us 10 VP, for a total of 24 to John's 14 and the win. Fun game, which ended after midnight (lots of looking stuff up, as neither John nor Jason had played before and it had been a very long time for me). I'm still not sure we did everything right, but I think we did. I also think there has to be an optimal Somali strategy. John's complaint was that it's too easy to kill Somali units, too hard to kill US units, and way too hard to take back the 10 VP crash site hex. Even forcing the US to fire through Mobs (which gives 1 VP to the Somalis) is just a drop in the bucket. I think, though, if you rush the crash site, forcing the Americans to burn activations Opportunity Firing, get Mobs into position to force the American to move through (chance of melee with them, and/or Dispersal for VP) or around them or shoot through them, and get guys with RPGs around to shoot at the helicopter, you have a good chance of winning. Then again, once the American lands the team on the helicopter, he has no reason to put the chopper in Hover mode, and thus is invulnerable to RPG shots (can only shoot the RPG at a Hovering helicopter). And helicopters can move and shoot without restriction. Further play is needed--I think I'm going to have to solitaire this one sometime soon, and also play it with the group again. At home, solitaring Vimeiro from NBS mostly to learn the new rules before attempting Montebello and Marengo. Think I might set up a LnL scenario instead (only one turn into Vimeiro actually).