Wednesday 30 March 2022

A Target Of Opportunity

After the last mission, the squad needed a boost.

They acquired two new members:

Cpl Vikenti Novikoff has joined the army straight out of school, and was a fresh-faced youngster of 19. Despite this he'd already been in a few fights and was a corporal; his unwavering enthusiasm for Stalin had obviously made him a few friends in high places. Vikenti was armed with a rifle.

Pvt Vova Pavlov was another accountant, who had been called up recently. Lonely in his job, he saw the army as a chance to make friends and comrades. He was armed with an SMG.

A few days after the last mission, the squad were on patrol again. Sgt Petrov led the way, of course, along with Oleg and the two new members, Vikenti and Vova. It was Oleg, sent on ahead to scout for the enemy, who rushed back with exciting news. Just over the next rise was a road, and on the road was a broken-down German staff-car. There was an officer sat in it who was a colonel at the very least. And the escort was mostly nowhere to be see; they'd obviously rushed off to get help, leaving a coupleof soldiers on guard.


Quickly the Russians moved into position; killing a senior German officer would more than make up for the mess that was their last outing. 

Alexsei and Oleg approached the car along the cover of a wall. Meanwhile Vova and Vikenti moved into some trees on each side of the road. There was no time for a stealthy approach, and the Germans were quickly aware that they were in danger.



One of the sentries lost his nerve straight away and ducked into cover. But another soldier came running back along the road; obviously there were still some other Germans nearby.


Vova and Vikenti popped out of hiding, but the German response saw them both fall back in panic; for Vova this was the first time anyone had shot at him!


The Germans pressed forward aggressively, and even Alexsei found himself having to seek the protection of a wall.


Oleg wasn't having any of the Germans'  nonsense, though, and ignoring the bullets flying around him, he dropped the lead sentry. He them moved up to the car, providing covering fire which allowed Alexsei to move up as well.


In the background Vikenti was working his way back into the fight. The two sides exchanged fire over teh car, whose occupant wisely kept his head down.

(I treated the officer as a mostly non-combatant target, hidden in hard-cover in the car. If the Russians got within a couple of inches, or lobbed grenades, then they could attack him. But he would become an active fighter - armed with a pistol - if there were insufficient Germans to activate around the vehicle at any stage.)


Oleg threw a grenade towards the car, but misjudged the distance. It bounced past and instead took one of the sentries out of the fight.


Vikenti's fire caused the other sentry to seek better cover. The German officer, now basically unguarded, was forced to fight for his life, firing his pistol at Alexsei.


He got off a couple of rounds before Vikenti shot him in the back.


With the target killed Alexsei ordered the squad to fall back. This had been a good patrol and would help the squad's morale. Sadly Vova, who had cowered in fear through most of the action, departed the field somewhat faster than Alexsei would have liked. It would go into his report.


Vikenti crept away as the Germans fired a few half-hearted shots at him.

The squad has achieved their mission with no casualties, which gave them a welcome morale boost.

Vova's precipitous departure didn't attract any censure. And still down to four men the squad got the promise of two new members. Vikento acquired the Motivator skill, whilst the squad were given a freshly stocked medical kit. And it turned out that the officer they'd killed was very important indeed, and his death had severely dented German morale in this sector of the front. Finally, the day after the mission, Evgenii returned to the squad, recovered from his minor wound.

So all in all a good mission for our heroes. Who knows what adventures they will see next.

3 comments:

  1. I am enjoying the battle reports of these games.

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  2. Hi Kaptain,

    Can I second what Shaun just said? These are very entertaining reports. But then FiveCore games are just that, entertaining. That whole family of rules gives good games, as do most of Ivan's other rulesets.

    But jeepers, Kaptain, you're prolific. You play games and write posts faster than I can read them, let alone comment on them. Nevertheless, keep up the great work and I'll read them as fast as I can.

    By the way, earlier today I found the questions about Five Men in Normandy that you posted at TWW. I've given my twopennyworth of repsonses there. They're actually based on my experience with Five Core Skirmish Evolved but that set is essentially a direct descendant of Five Men in Normandy so I hope they're helpful but don't bank on it. If you want to see any of the homebrewed clarifications and adaptations that I mention in those posts, email me at this address and I'll be happy to share them with you.

    Also, apart from thanking you in general for all the trouble you go to in maintaining blog, I'd like to thank you for all your posts on Galleys & Galleons, most of which I've read through over the past week or so. I have never up to now been really interested in naval warfare for the age of sail but you've just gone and hooked me in. I've already been and bought the rules and now I'm going to have to go and try my hand at scratch-building some ships, inspired by your hugely appealing, "cheap-arse". scratch built fleets of floating lolly sticks. Brilliant! So thanks. I think. ;-)

    Regards,

    Chris

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you're enjoying the reports.

      I get to leave games set up, so it's easy to set up a new one using the terrain and figures from the previous. And fairly quick to play them as well; the Target of Opportunity one was set up and played in my lunch-break (I work from home and, more specifically *in* my games room).

      I have picked a few clarifications out of some of the other Five Core games, either from comments made on other blogs, or a copy of Company Commander I discovered that I owned. They have helped keep how I am resolving things fairly consistent.

      As for Galleys & Galleons - good luck. I go back 40 years with naval wargaming in various forms, but I think G&G has given me the most pleasure in that time.

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