The weekend’s plan was to have as much Modern  gaming as lack of sleep, bubbly and red wine would allow.

The Friday commenced with a repeat of the Wednesday night F.U.B.A.R. game that ended in the same result.

A mini campaign was organized for the Saturday with the objective to gain “political points” over a series of games to determine the winner. The insurgent, Blake, definitely started on the right foot by bribing the provincial Governor’s wife with chocolate and even having the audacity to try (and succeed I may say) and corrupt the Governor with high class champagne and red wine. The result being a very quick gain in enough political points to achieve victory without a shot being fired.

Despite this, the British had a quick brew (code for more champagne) and tried to claw back enough victory points to at least gain some modicum of respect.

Scenario 1: The Patrol

The Patrol was a simple game where the British had to pass through 3 points on the table to achieve victory. A very aggressive start by the insurgents forced the British to deploy Sergeant Gainsmith forward to “sure up” what was a very precarious position. He fought off two insurgent groups before being medevaced to recover from serious wounds.

The British were always on the back foot and were forced to retreat leaving their ANA partners to hold the ground over night. With only one area being patrolled by the British the victory points were:

British 1 VP

Insurgents 2 VP

Scenario 2: Interrogate the Locals

With enough civilian groups scattered over the table now was the chance for the British to hit the lead in political points. The insurgents declared their tactics early by shooting at their own townspeople to make them disburse off the table. The tactic back fired when they soon realised that they can only gain political points if the “good guys” (Rule 1 – he who has the blog password writes the history!!!”) failed in their interrogation.

In between taking the odd pot shot at insurgents the Platoon Sergeant and “Terp” went from group to group. After rolling two ones in a row the “bad guys” (see rule 1) had two more political points to zero. The result could have been far worse as a further roll of 1 for each group would have meant that one of the civilians would have been a suicide bomber and unleashed carnage on the interpreter and any in close proximity.

Finally, the Sergeant who grew up on a farm, was able to obtain some important information from one of the local goat herders.

The damage had now increased with the totals:

British 2 VP

Insurgents 4 VP

Scenario 3: Recover the Scimitar

Alas the scenario was not as romantic as the name conjures in the mind. No trying to recover some long lost weapon of the prophet, because whilst you could argue that it was technically owned by “Big Tony”, you could hardly call the British PM a prophet, although some die-hard supporters might.

After falling way behind in the political war the British were determined to succeed.

With higher morale and the associated initiative, and some aggressive and enlightened patrolling, the Scimitar was only just outside the deployment range of one of the drop-off points. With the hero from Scenario one, Sergeant Gainsmith, now returned to duty things were looking bright for the British.

Sergeant Gainsmith repaired the vehicle in two phases and had it roaring on its way off the battlefield.  Even some hasty RPG shots failed to stop the British from achieving a quick and decisive victory.

British 4 VP

Insurgents 4 VP

With the game over so quickly the insurgents decide to enable the British to recover from the initial bribery and corruption scandal if they achieved total victory.

I am sure that the Governor’s wife would argue that the corned beef and roast vegetable dinner had already made up for the chocolates, if not the champagne and the red wine.

The Scimitar was allowed to return and the game continued as an encounter battle.

The British patrol phase had allowed them to command the cover of the irrigation ditch, whilst their 82mm mortars were able to bombard targets at will. Insurgent team after insurgent team were destroyed with the battle ending with only the insurgent leader and junior leader left (amazing how these the guys in power always survive).

With both sides remaining on 4 Victory points the weekend was declared a draw and a complete success.

As I was having a Modern Gaming weekend I wanted to start getting organized so a game of modern Fubar was set up for David K and Andrew W to play while I heckled and umpired.

The scenario was an escalating one where the British forces were trying to evacuate 2 wounded from a newly built mosque (see a previous blog). Random forces were being sent to aid in the rescue whilst a rag tag group of insurgents were trying to prevent them.

The early arrival of two “technicals” did not help the British, although a Scimitar did even things up causing damage before suffering an RPG hit.

Instead of evacuating the wounded their number was gradually increasing as members of the rescuing force came under heavy fire.

Even the arrival of a an RAF Reaper UAV with two “hellfire missiles” was unable to turn the tide. A decisive victory to “Insurgent Dave”.

Andrew, if it is any conciliation, I suffered the same fate on Friday night against Blake!!!!

Well it was time for another of those damned patrols in the green zone. Insurgent  forces were known to have infiltrated as far as the major irrigation canal through the normal patrol zone and were causing problems for the locals.

Both Dave’s were up for another game of modern Fubar this time using the optional morale and ISAF casualty rules they had just discovered.

Dave K had his usual insurgents with 2 only 6 man green units with RPG and a veteran unit also with RPG. These were lead by a veteran tribal leader.

Dave S had a British force led by Sergeant Aitkin a veteran of twenty years and two squads of 4 veterans armed with a variety of weapons.

As normal the patrol began with Dave K’s insurgents charging forward and the British of David S advancing cautiously trying to position one section on a hill that would provide flanking fire. Suddenly as they rounded a bend in the irrigation ditch both forces ran into each other. With the Desert Hawk airborne providing positive identification (PID), Sergeant Aitkin quickly seized the initiative and the insurgents were quickly in trouble as Alpha squad rained a torrent of fire  down on them.

When the dust settled no insurgents were left standing.

Alpha squad moved in position to direct suppressing fire on the insurgent veterans on the hill while Bravo squad failed to activate for the third turn in a row. Massed fire from two insurgent squads caused a hit on one of Alpha squad which Aitkin diagnosed as a T2 (rolled a 3  with a plus one for diagnosis in the field without a medic) requiring medical evacuation (Medevac) as soon as possible.

Aitkin held their current position while Alpha squad escorted their wounded comrade back to the Medevac area (rear centre of the table).

Bravo squad finally earned their pay with devastating fire on the insurgents on the rocky outcrop leaving only a single survivor.

With Alpha squad temporarily out of action and Sergeant Aitkin out on a limb the situation was in the balance. David K, seeing his chance, charged Aitkin with his leader and Veteran squad.

Whilst crossing the open ground Bravo Squad was able to bring down the insurgent leader.

Despite this the veterans continued the charge and leapt into the irrigation canal.

Bravo squad moved to reinforce Aitkin, who brought two insurgents down before they reached him, and another in close combat before he fell.

Bravo squad could finally draw a line of fire on the insurgents who were about to dispatch Aitkin. The Bravo squad marksman (DMR) fired two shots and Aitkin was safe.

This was enough to break the morale of the two surviving insurgents who ran to fight another day.

When the Bravo squad finally reached Aitkin they found him dazed, but otherwise AOK (rolled a one on the casualty table!).

With his head aching from the graze on his forehead Aitkin lead Bravo squad back to the Medevac area where they were informed that their colleague had been wrongly diagnosed as a T2 and would be back to the unit in a couple of days (rolled a three with a medic present = “return to combat”).

Although the patrol was a complete success the result was so close to being FUBAR!!!