Blasts from the Past: Ambush of the Minister, Wars of Insurgency AARs

Knowing that one day my old Earthlink-based Lead Legionaries website is going to die, I saving some fun After Action Reports. Here is one from the early playtesting days of Wars of Insurgency. We didn't call it that then, the final title being the third working title I used. The pictures are neither large nor numerous, as this was in the early days of website hosting when space was at a premium. I hope you enjoy them!

Ambush of the Minister of Interior (March 25, 2007)

My friend Joel offered up another interesting scenario set in modern Africa using our (Wars of Insurgency) skirmish rules. It was meant to be a small game, four players, lasting perhaps two hours or a little more. Each side had only 100 points of troops, roughly 50 per player. That translated into two small squads of 3-7 figures each. Allen and I were the rebels set to ambush the returning Minister of the Interior in his fancy schmancy new car. Tom and Keith were the local police force and the National Security troops, respectively, out to protect him as he drove down a dangerous stretch of road in the Congo.

I'll let Joel take it from here, with his tongue-in-cheek report:   

Modern Africa: A delicious mix of small arms, ambush & greed

 PopoBawa and his sidekick Ruben vs. Local Police/National Security forces

Friday's troops check out the Lushoto Leisure Lounge prior to the shooitng staring

"...My name is Friday Ibo and I carry a badge (....most of the time).

"I am a cop, this is one of the stories from the dirty streets of Tanga where I work. The National office put an alert out and our entire substation found ourselves working a lonely stretch of Lushoto/Tanga Parkway. With orders to stay on point, eight hours of hot dusty work only turned up...a stolen pickup truck. I decided to question Madame Fifi at the cat house. The other police of the station thought the roadside Lushoto Leisure Lounge, across the street look suspicious, so we split up. Time passed slowly, Madame Fifi claimed to know nothing, I vowed to get to the bottom of it. Headquarters called on the radio and told us to look alert, the Chief of Staff for the Dept. of Interiors was returning from an OPEC meeting.

The Minister of the Interior and his escort on their way back from the OPEC meeting

Rebels lay in wait for the Minister and his convoy to arrive on the lonely stretch of road

BOOM! A lucky, long range RPG shot takes out the truck carrying troops escorting the Minister

 "We moved to the roof and watched the truck escort and his new Roll Royce raise an ample dust cloud. That was when Mhamed spotted men with rifles and movement in the palm grove. I gave orders to open fire, then a burst of AK-47 fire came from the old brick factory across the blacktop, too. It was an ambush, and only PopoBawa would be so stupid (or drugged out) to try it. The parkway was a perfect crossfire hurricane as everyone went to full auto to kill the rebels. The heavy truck escorting the Chief of Staff swayed and bucked from bullets, but didn't slow down. We killed three or four rebels as the National forces sped under our position. The truck stopped next to the palm grove, security men jumped out, fired into the grove, and hastened back to the truck.

"The Rolls Royce had long ago turn off the parkway and pull in behind the Lushoto Leisure Lounge. That was when I first saw the red berets of the National Security forces as they slowly made their way toward the old brick factory. Then the shot up truck crawled back onto the blacktop and began moving down the road again....until a rebel pickup truck pulled into a blocking point and more men opened fire. The men in the truck and the pickup traded fire up until the time the RPG from the left (long range shot) hit the truck on the extra jerry can on the side. Everyone in the truck was lost, the few rebels left alive got away in that pickup truck. It was much later that we learned the Chief of Staff was on the floor of the truck, along with all the important contracts with ExxonMoble..."

The scenario was a blast, as Tom summed it up the next day on e-mail:
"Thanks to Joel for running and everyone else for playing this scenario. It was a hoot and I recommend it for convention play. It would easily be finished in a 3 hour time slot. Between the incredible good and bad luck that was going on in this game. The out-of-control truck (driver shot on first round as it sped down the road at 18") the fact that it slowed to a stop without crashing with the HMG gunner still firing at the rebels on both sides of the road, and with the troops hopping out of the back to dispatch one rebel before hopping back in to continue driving down the road to their doom only inches short of escaping off board, I have to say this was one of the most hilarious evenings I have spent in a long time.
 
Well done PoPo, but we still have the Rolls Royce!" -- Tom Graves