Force on Force: Modern Skirmish game.

My son, Nick, has always been a big fan of computer games like Battlefield and Call of Duty Special ops and those sorts of games- principally those with more modern settings. So my journey was on to find something like that for the table top. Last year we went to MOAB, a convention here in Sydney and there was a display game (I can't remember by whom) of the game  Force on Force by Ambush Alley games and published by Osprey. Well he and I played the Vietnam War scenario and we were hooked. We bought a copy of the rules from the War and Peace Games stand and then a whole stack of modern US Marines and Taliban from Nick Robson of Eureka Miniatures. Within a few days we had them painted and ready to go. Since then we've played quite a few games.
US Sniper team on Over watch



My DSHK 12.7mm MG Team that threatened much but did little.

In this scenario two USMC fire teams and a sniper team were tasked with holding the approaches to two bridges open, which were situated in a hostile town. They were to hold this position until the arrival of a convoy consisting of two Hummers and a M2A2 Bradley. Once the convoy arrived they were all to withdraw from hostile territory across the bridges.

Taliban Cell Six takes up firing positions


Nick (my son) deployed the two USMC fire teams to cover the two roads leading to the two bridges. His sniper team covered both roads and the fire teams. The Taliban had the advantages described in the Enduring Freedom  scenario booklet. The Taliban (me) started with three large fire teams and an IED on table. The IED was placed near the main approach road to the bridges with one Taliban fire team close by.


US Marines in their compound

I didn't wait for more Taliban to arrive before I went for the bridges. I was to pay dearly for my impetuousness. The Sniper team was on overwatch and the moment the first team showed itself, they took casualties from the snipers and were pinned down. The second was hit by fire from the two fire teams and lost its initiative rolls. They failed to even get a single shot in before they took heavy casualties and the final two men failed their morale test and fled.

The Bridges that the USMC Recon team had to protect


It was three turns before I had sufficient forces to try to put pressure on the Marines again. And this time I had a DSHK 12.7mm team. They managed to get onto a rooftop, set up and get off a couple of rounds before that **&*#^&!!! sniper team took the crew out. I did manage to inflict a casualty on USMC Fire Team One by my fifth Taliban Cell who then pulled back after taking a casualty from  USMC  Fire Team Two.
The Taliban Cell that detonated the IED
At that moment the convoy arrived on table. The Bradley was in the lead- and I had guessed well. The large IED detonated right on time and on target and the Bradley came to a grinding halt.



The M2A2 comes to a grinding halt.

 The crew jumped out- and after a brief firefight with the Taliban Cell nearby, got away after jumping into the Humvees without any further problems. From then on I had a tough job trying to slow down the fast moving convoy. There were still too many Marines- and I was short on troops.
Nick won with a comfortable margin- he got 8 of his 10 marines off table unharmed and two out of three of his vehicles. Next Blog- more Jacobites!


Th Hummers drive past the tower in the center of town


The Taliban surge forward after the withdrawing Marines


Taliban Cell four lost their initiative roll and failed to fire at the passing Humvees


My Mortar team that turned up on the last turn- they fired at the withdrawing Marines.....and missed




Lone Taliban moves cautiously into the Marines compound

11 comments:

  1. The first photo with the sniper team is great- real atmosphere- would love to see more.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks David- Keep watching the blog- I've got a couple more Blogs on the Jacobite Rebellion and then I'll get some more Force on Force done. Thanks for looking in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. good to see the tallyman took control of the village and sent the infidel dogs running scared! Will your liberation teams now restore the "Ibrahim" fighting vehicle to send more Marines to Allah?

    ReplyDelete
  4. You're a funny man Balthazar....but sadly no..the M2A2 Ibrahim was too badly damaged...and the locals quickly stripped it down to it's constituent parts...not a good idea to leave a performance vehicle in a bad part of town

    ReplyDelete
  5. What brand of figures are they?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi James, they are all Eureka Miniatures- there is a link on my page. Thanks for lookng in!

    ReplyDelete
  7. The first picture is really good! Can you give me an opinion about Force on Force ruleset? Should I give it a try?
    Me and my friends we usually use a different ruleset called "Breaking news" (unfortunately it's available only here in Italy), but we want to try something different.
    We also run a blog..It's brand new, but you could find it interesting as we posted some pics of my middle east themed table.
    http://taleofminianddice.blogspot.it/

    Uopo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there,
      I would recommend them...but they are a bit hard to get your head around initially as they are not a traditional set in that you don't wait until someone goes and then you gou...you have to react to every move, so you can't walk away from the table.. Thanks for looking in. Your blog looks great

      Delete
    2. Sounds interesting. We sould definitely give it a try.
      Thanks a lot

      Delete