Cangames 2015 - Force on Force Battle Report...part 1

Howdy folks,

Welcome to the second game I played on the Saturday of Cangames...just like last year, Cangames gave me the opportunity to get some Force on Force gaming in.  Without a doubt, I think I do enjoy this ruleset the most...I continue to have a lot of fun, regardless of the scenario, and the action always seems fairly balanced.

This time, I had the chance to play a modified Takur Ghar scenario...the Enduring Freedom book brought Afghanistan to the FoF world.  As well, there are a couple of Takur Ghar scenarios in the book.  My buddy Bernhard opted to follow the book scenarios with some modifications for his own taste and for the con.  For those not familiar, Takur Ghar was a pitched battle fought between US forces and Taliban insurgents on a mountain top as US forces were trying to evacuate and rescue aircrew and special ops personnel (Osprey publishing "Raid 39" covers this battle, here).

In gaming terms, this is how the battle looked:

Looking from table right...

 

Looking 'uphill'...Razor 01 crash site near mid-table on the left...heavy snow covering most of the field, rocks and crags on the perimeter and near the top of the hill.  Fortified position with Dshk 12.7mm at top left, 2 bunkers at top right, and trenchline connecting both positions. 

the heavy snow had a movement restriction for all players...everyone ended up avoiding the snow...as the view from the bunkers point of view shows...the snowfield was less than appealing with no cover and no line of sight blockage...

View from the Dshk position... 

 

US force deploy...Rangers hit the crags on the perimeter, find cover in the nooks and crannies...Spec Ops reach the Chinook and rally survivors near the tail...

 

 

I played the Talishit on this one...for the most part we had a simple strategy...the objective for the US was to rally survivors and ground search for 2 missing personnel.  The Talishit just had to harass and interfere as much as possible.  For the majority of the fight, I laid fire down from my fortified positions...I had 4 groups that I combined into 2 large sections and then put into hides (1 section near the Dshk, the other on the perimeter at 3 O'clock position from nose of the Chinook).

 

The combined fire from the Rangers and troops at the perimeter very quickly took out the Dshk position...my section of troops that were near there remained hidden behind cover.  The fire from the bunkers definitely stymied the US forces...they chose to hunker down and only conducted minimal searches down the slope... 

 

View from second hidden section... 

 

The US players did a great job of keeping the pressure on the bunkers, calling on a handful of JDAM strikes to break the bunkers down...unfortunately for them, the one thing I rolled really well were the defensive dice...the bunker teams attrited but not fast enough for the US...

 

Finally to get things moving more, I elected to pop my hidden teams...the team at 3 O'clock popped and then tried to hightail it to cover...they eventually reappeared in the trenchline near the top of the slope.

 

They definitely felt the love...The JTAC was unable to make the call on this one and was then taken out the following turn...

 

The endgame proved fairly bleak for the US forces...the Rangers were whittled down, the JTAC was dead, and the machine gun team was taken out.  I think the biggest hindrance for the US players was their lack of fire and move.  They spent a lot of the game hunkered down without moving from line of site, or assaulting up the slope...

Easy enough for me to say...regardless, I did enjoy the scenario...flubbed up a bunch of rules (which is maybe why I won, lol) and saw 3 new players try Force on Force.  Oh, as well, this was the first time I'd played FoF in 28mm...