Cuba Libre – Cronistria Fight #3

[Just Jack]

All,

It’s 1700 on 10 April 1990, and Team 6-2 has been lying in ambush for over twelve hours. Recently the Cronistrian National Guard (CNG), the communist armed forces in Cronistria, have stepped up patrolling on the northern outskirts of the capital. Lt Trojas, the Cuban Liberation Expeditionary Force (CLEF) Task Force commander, met with MSgt “Tico” Benitez, leader of Team 6-2, to discuss, and they decided to ambush a CNG patrol.

Tico moved his team to the northern outskirts and they took up ambush positions, lying in wait for a CNG patrol to show up. At long last one of Tico’s men called out on the intra-squad radio: “contact, enemy infantry, 12 o’clock, 150 meters.” Perfect! The enemy patrol was walking directly into 6-2’s kill zone. But Murphy made his appearance, and just as the CNG’s point man entered the kill zone from the north, a group of approximately a dozen civilians entered the kill zone from the east. “@#$%!!! Stand down, DO NOT engage.” Terse moments passed the CNG patrol hailed the civilians, halted them, questioned them, searched them, then allowed them to pass. But as the civilians moved west out of the kill zone, the CNG patrol moved east out of the kill zone…

SPOILER ALERT: an alternate title for this fight could be “TF Rojas’ first ass-whoopin’ of the campaign.”

CLEF troopers (foreground) pressing forward, exchanging fire with the bad guys. To see the disaster, please check the blog at:
http://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2015/12/cuba-libre-cronistria-fight-3.html

So, that’s game 1 of 2 from this past weekend, I’ll post the other as quick as I can. On a down note, I wasn’t able to start my 15mm campaign in South Leon; on a different note, I ended up on the couch watching “The Battle of Britain,” and now I’ve got an itch for some Bag the Hun (just placed an order for some Hurricanes, Ju-87s, Do-117s, BF-110s, and Ju-88s to go with my Spits, Me-109s, and He-111s), starting in France then rolling into BoB.

V/R,
Jack

[Rod Robertson]

Ha! I finally beat Kyoteblue to the punch! Now Jack, I just have to read your Bat. Rep.! I’ll be back soon!

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

[Rod Robertson]

Jack:

I guess the Bear has a bad case of tico-nosis. I guess you should have cooked the Commies to well done! Good report and an engaging scenario which was well narrated. I am intrigued by the WWII project. Where did you order the planes from and what manufacturer did you go with?

Cheers and good gaming,

Rod Robertson.

[kyoteblue]

Yes Rod you got here first. Man, that sucked for the team to get all shot up like that… Oh and areoplanes Just Jack !!!!!

[Just Jack]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it, and I’m glad you liked the batrep.  The team actually isn’t that bad off; Bear is immediately back in action, and two others are wounded but will be back (one is out 4 days, the other 22 days).

Kyote – They’re not called aeroplanes anymore 😉

Rod – All my planes are 1/600 (3mm scale) from Picoarmor.  Actually, technically they are from Oddzial Ozmy, a Polish company, distributed in North America by Picoarmor, who are fantastic to deal with.  Once I get this order, I’ll ultimately have:
-8 Spitfires
-6 Hurricanes
-4 Blenheims
-8 Me-109s
-4 Bf-110s
-4 He-111s
-4 Ju-87s
-4 Ju-88s
-4 Do-117s

Then it will be Fall of France and Battle of Britain with Bag the Hun (as written, no less!).  If I make it through all that I’ll have to figure out what to do with then next.  Maybe North Africa, transitioning to P-40s?  Maybe up Italy after that?  I’m really not familiar with RAF on the Western Front following Battle of Britain; as an American, I was brought up on P-51s escorting B-17s and B-24s on daylight bombing raids, P-47s shooting up the countryside.

My ignorance my seem astounding, but I assure you it’s quite real: what were all the Spit and Hurricane squadrons from BoB doing from 1941 to 1945 (on the Western Front)?  I recall reading about cross-channel support to the Dieppe raid, and of course there’s all the Mosquitoes shooting up German shipping and Typhoons shooting up German ground targets (June 44 to end of war), but what else?

My Brit squadron will be international, with pilots from UK, South Africa, Australian, New Zealand, Canada, US, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.  They’ll fly Hurricanes in France and Spitfires in Britain.

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

Sounds good Just Jack….and I like areoplanes it speaks to me…

[Just Jack]

Probably just a bit of nostalgia.  I heard one of your early jobs was cranking up the engines on the Sopwith Camels 😉

V/R,
Jack

[Rod Robertson]

Just Jack:

That’s a great list of planes. You should have great fun. But you need some French Blochs and Dewotines to add to the mix. As to what’s up after the BoF and BoB, there is the Battle of the Atlantic, North Sea Aerial operations, Taranto (does anyone make 1/600 Swordfish?), Greece, Crete, Malta (great for a mini campaign) the Battle for the Central Meditteranian, and the whole Desert War. In 1942 you can do Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma and East India. You could fly missions in support of the great Gen. Bill Slim’s 14th Army (The Forgotten Army) in Burma and support Gen. Stilwell’s men in China. Some Curtis P-40’s and an assortment of Japanese planes and the Flying Tigers mini campaign is off and running! The sky really is the limit, well that and how much the wife will let you spend on the planes!

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

[Rod Robertson]

Just Jack:

Don’t be silly. Kyote’s first job in aviation was working for Daedalus gluing feathers on Icarus’ wings – it didn’t work out well and he got fired for shoddy workmanship. I heard it was a really downer!

Oh, and the Sopwiths pulled him to the left! Torque don’t you know.

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.

[kyoteblue]

I always liked the SE5 over the Sopwith Camel…And it was the shoddy materials not my workmanship what done Icarus in…

[Rod Robertson]

Sounds of laughing from stage left.

[Author]

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