I hope all is well on your respective flanks. The past long weekend, 18-19 May, we had the annual gaming convention Cangames in town. Always a great time to connect with gaming friends, not to mention meeting new ones, I had another enjoyable con…perhaps a little more subdued than in the past, but fun was had. One of the things I look forward to is seeing the various historical listings, particularly if there any Force on Force games on the roster. Pretty much a staple for a few of us, FoF has its following, I happily count myself amongst them.
Thankfully, this year was no different, and Chris was running another foray into “Somewhere-istan”, next to Here-istan, There-istan, and Everywhere-a-stan-stan. Given that there was a bit of an admin err, we ended up with 1 more player than Chris had planned for. Most of the crew were new to FoF, so with the extra player, it let me sit back and enjoy the game and help out on the rules and flow for the new players.
The setup was 2 x insurgent players, 2 x US players + me helping them out…which I didn’t mind, I was feeling a little slow so less stress/expectation was good for the mood. The US team had a Headquarters element that was established in a team house in the ville. There were 4 x fireteams w/ Humvees at the edge of the town. There were 6 hotspots set up, 2 were on the US end, and the remainder were on the opposite side of the table. While the fireteams were setting up, there is an explosion at the team house and all that could be seen was a lot of smoke. The immediate objective is to secure the team house and take stock of casualties from there. A landing zone has been designated on the left side of the table between the hill and grey building - opposite the team house.
This is about 1-2 turns into the game. The US players are advancing from bottom of the pic into the buildings to consolidate and remove the Hotspots. A round of fire has already removed insurgents near Hotspot 2, and another fireteam is moving towards the team house (tall building on the right side between the hills). Another grouping of insurgents is between them and the initial objective.
Close-up of the action. 2 x fireteams converge on the right building, a fireteam is in the open on the right side of the pic. These teams are engaged with the insurgents on the hill. A fireteam is in the left building, they will wait a turn to nullify the Hotspot.
While the teams are moving forward, 2 vehicles breakaway from the team house at high speed. One of the vehicles has a light machine gun in the back, and it looks like there might be uniformed personnel in the back, with the possibility that these are the HQ element that was at the house…so we cannot directly engage at this time.
The teams at Hotspot #1 have taken a few casualties, however you can see that the insurgents are having a rough go as well. The insurgent players had a rough time rolling for reinforcements; it let the US player to deliberately target and concentrate their firepower.
The US team successfully removed Hotspot #2, and the insurgent player popped up a team that was on the hillside in front of the team. Again, tough rolls on the reinforcement table helped to minimize the impacts. Although there were some dynamite rolls on both sides of the table.
US forces are deliberately moving up the table. Insurgents on both hills have been taken care of, allowing a team to reach the team house. They see signs of a fight - blood trails and dressings; while Hotspot #1 has been removed, one of the teams mounted their Humvee and is moving forward. The team on the left is advancing while also using their Humvee for cover and to provide supporting fire.
The house on the left hill is breached and taken care of. The fireteam at the team house has just had their Humvee disabled (mobility kill), so they will have to take the foot express from here on. The other fireteams that had started at Hotspot #1 are now on the move working to catch up with the insurgent vehicles. The fog of war adds have been harsh and kind…we lost all air support due to weather, but we gained a d10 quality sniper team who positioned on the roof of the grey building on the left.
This is a few turns later, again insurgent reinforcement rolls have been rough, but they are starting to get troops on the table at the top of the picture. The US teams have continued to move up; there is a Humvee and fireteam at the grey building with the sniper team. They are laying own fire on the white administration building (top left). The foot express fireteam is moving past another hill towards the HESCO barriers and laying down fire on insurgents in the red buildings to their front (top right). One of the fireteams presses on with their Humvee and find itself in a bottleneck between multiple groups.
A considerable amount of fire is layed down, some casualties are taken by the troops in the US humvee, while the green Humvee rushes in to clear out insurgents on the rooftop of the red building.
By this point, our time has almost expired…the US forces make some amazing initiative rolls, allowing them to keep pressure on the insurgents and get into a position where they mobility kill the 2 white insurgent vehicles, wipe out the last of the insurgent troops, and rescue their HQ element.
Overall, a very enjoyable game…it may seem one-sided, but the insurgents did a great job of keeping the US troops on the edge. It never felt like a clear victory until the literal end.
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