This was my second game of “Black Powder Red Earth 28mm” – a modern counter insurgency game. Thanks to JB for organising and going easy on us “newbs”.

The mission or “Tasking” we played was called (Operation) “A Veiled Fever”. The scenario is about the Crisis team causing the insurgents to flee (reach 100cp loses) before they can inform their command about the Scorch infil.

The Map or “Battlespace” was “Border Glint”.

The Forces were:

Crisis Team Scorch: 5 models/units
1xOperational Advisor = 50CP
1xAutomatic Rifleman = 40CP
3xAssaulters (20CP each = 60CP overall)

For those not familiar with the “background”, Crisis Team Scorch, are covert mercenary kill teams hired by the government from “Cold Harbour”, an international “security” firm – sound familiar!

The Aayari Network consisted of 13 models/units
8xShurta Guard (5CP each, 40CP overall)
2xMusta Guard (15CP each, 30CP overall)
2xHongbin Mercs (20CP each, 40CP overall)
1xHongbin Enabler (40CP)

The Aayari Network are a group of religious insurgents trying to prevent the Awabri Unity Forces from taking control of the country. They are being used by Hongpin Alloy as proxy fighters alongside their own mercenaries.

Hongpin mercenaries or “enablers” are North Korean forces leased to the Chinese Intelligence Service to further the financial rare mineral interests of Hongpin Alloy that are threatened by the civil war and government regulatory intervention.

The mission terrain.

The initial set up for the Scorch team is pictured above. The Automatic Rifleman was positioned in the right hand window to provide a kill zone between in the reasonably open ground between buildings 02 and 06 (see schematic above).

The three assaulters were positioned in the central room to secure building 04 and to prevent any infiltration by the Aayari right flank where their better troops were located. The operational team leader was positioned behind the three assaulters to provide additional fire support if required.

Aayari right flank deployment.

Aayari left flank deployment.

Turn one saw troops from both sides moving forward and the Scorch Automatic Rifleman taking out one Shurta Guard (dotted line).

The automatic rifleman brought down two insurgents with an excellent shot through a window. An assaulter’s shot took out another Shurta, but return fire from a Hongpin mercenary shot through three windows to return the favour!

Downed assaulter. At the end of turn 2 Scorch had lost 20cp to Aayari 30cp.

Turn 3 saw a second Scorch assaulter shot while trying to set up a firing position.

Turn three saw a mercenary, a Musta Guard and the Hongpin enabler go down. Followed by two more Shurta insurgents.

At the end of turn four it was Aayari 40cp to scorch 85 cp

At the start of turn five the Scorch had three alternatives with their first initiative. To use their operational adviser to call in a drone strike on two Aayri operatives bunched in the open, open fire on the same Guardsmen with the Automatic Rifleman, or to advance on a Shurta Guardsman and open fire. The Scorch chose the later and were able to take out the final insurgent to obtain victory.

This was an exciting game where lines of fire and keeping the mission in mind were vitaslly important.

A final comment from the Aayari commander, Jason: “If Rob and I were less aggressive and had kept our casualties down, we might have been able to button down in a building and wait out the game some – doing so as the Defender, we would have won then. 

I had another guy do exactly that against me a couple of months back – as the Defender, they initially went hard only to pull back. While Scorch are the more capable force, they simply couldn’t get enough guns on target quick enough to chase down their prey for the win.”

in addition I would add the comment that advancing with team of two or three would also allowed the Aayari to suffer one casualty to take out a Scorch operative.

I can thoruoghly recommend this game system to anyone interested in modern or post modern gaming.