[Raellus]

July 29, Second Stretch

Bartosz gives the Americans a brief tour of the hamlet and introduces them to the rest of the village militia- all four of them, as it turns out (a grim-faced woman of about 25 and a teenaged boy, both armed with shop-built crossbows, a middle-aged man with a pump-action shotgun, and a Polish army deserter in his 30s, armed with a KMK). They share what they’ve gleaned from neighboring villages visited by the marauders. From their reporting, the Diamond’s get a sense of the marauders’ MO. The bandits come out of the woods around noon, rape and pillage until dinner time, then head back into the forest with their booty before the sun goes down.

The plan is relatively simple. When the marauders come, the hamlet’s defenders will be prepared to ambush them. The militia will guard the settlement’s eastern and northern approaches (least likely to be used by the marauders). Bird, Honeybear, PR, Sarge, and Sandy will occupy fighting positions concealed in a small wood at the hamlet’s SW corner, overlooking the marauders’ most likely route of ingress (the forest is 620m to the southwest). Pole Position, crewed by Grease (driver), Capt. Walker (gunner), and Deacon (passenger) will be located centrally, on-call near the village church. Those who are able spend the rest of the day preparing concealed fighting positions. Sarge and P.R. continue to rest and recover from their recent bout of radiation poisoning. By the end of the day, both are feeling considerably better, and are able to eat a light dinner (and keep it down).

July 30, 10:45 hours (2nd Stretch)

The marauders, 18 of them, amble down the road, conversing loudly, half of them carrying their weapons over their shoulders. They appear completely oblivious to the awaiting ambush, or any potential danger whatsoever. When the marauders are strung out along a slight jog in the road, roughly southwest 100m from the copse where the Diamond’s lay in wait, Bird initiates the ambush, dropping a machine gunner with a headshot. Honeybear mows down two more, including the bandit’s RPG gunner. Sarge, P.R., and Sandy all add to the carnage, scoring hits of their own. (The opening fusillade produces 4 KIA and 3 WIA, one mortally).

The survivors, caught in the kill zone, belly flop onto the road, half of them frozen in fear, the other half returning fire. P.R.’s head snaps back and flops face-first into the dirt. The team translator is completely unresponsive.

Sarge picks up the unit’s AN/PRC-77’s handset, shouts into the mouthpiece, “Diamond actual, send Deacon! P.R.’s hit. Over.”

At the same time, Honeybear takes a bullet to the left shoulder, knocking it out of its socket. He growls in pain, stops firing.

Only Bird and Sandy are still shooting. Bird misses his target- a RPK gunner in the bandits’ point element. Sandy lands a 40mm HE round near a cluster of rifleman at the rear of the enemy column, temporarily quieting them.

Capt. Walker relays Sarge’s urgent radio call for the team medic, then orders Grease to high-tail it towards the fighting over the vehicle intercom. As Pole Position starts rolling, Deacon hops out the back door and sprints into the woods. Grease pulls out of the village church’s grassy parking lot and races towards the action. Capt. Walker hunkers down nervously behind Pole Position’s DSHk- she’s only ever fired an HMG once- a US issue M2HB- and that was years ago, in training.

The marauders continue to return fire, burning through their ammo. A few take advantage of the lull in incoming to run for cover beside a low berm running parallel to the road along its southern edge.

The two sides exchange fire for the next sixty seconds. Honeybear fights through the pain of his dislocated left shoulder to pour fire into the kill zone. Bird coolly picks off several more bad guys. Sarge’s M16A2 jams. He clears it, but after the next burst, the rifle comes apart in his hands.

As Sarge slides P.R.’s rifle out from under his motionless body, the radioman cries, “I can’t move!”

“Hang on, kid. Deacon’s on his way,” Sarge says, trying to reassure the young man. The grizzled combat vet is worried, though- there’s not much the team’s amateur medic can do if P.R.’s hit in the spine.

The Diamonds’ marksmanship is better than the bandits’. Several more of the latter are hit, some fatally. When only half of the 18 bandits that walked into the ambush are still alive, panic starts to set in. Several of the survivors break and run- using a dry irrigation canal behind the roadside berm as cover- leaving a couple of stranded comrades behind.

Breathing hard from exertion, Deacon arrives and starts to assess the team translator. Pole Position arrives soon after. As Grease stops smoothly, Walker takes aim at a cluster of upright figures at the far end of the enemy line, squeezes the DSHk’s butterfly triggers. Much to her surprise, two enemy runners tumble like rag dolls, slapped down by 12.7mm rounds. A follow up burst is less successful- the path of the tracers show that she aimed too high.

The firefight is over in under two minutes. Twelve bandits lie dead in the roadbed or the drainage ditch. One bandit hiding on the far side of the berm plays dead, later surrendering when the Diamonds sweep the kill zone; another dies from shock and blood loss by the time Deacon arrives. Four of the fleeing marauders disappear into an irrigation canal that runs roughly south about 675m across an open field between the road and the forest. The Diamonds decide not to pursue them. Recovered from the battlefield: 1 PKM, 1 SVD, 2 RPK, 1 RPG-7, 1 AKSU, 1 GP-25, 7 AKMs, and assorted ammunition.


Notes:
The Diamonds successfully rolled Recon (Opposed) to Waylay the marauders, so the five PCs on the ambush team drew the first turns in the ensuing combat. I had the PCs with the lowest Recon skill doing something else in the hamlet, so rolled d8s (IIRC, I pushed and got two successes).

Although I’ve read scores of non-fiction combat accounts (and seen some pretty raw combat footage), I’m never quite sure how soldiers would react to being ambushed. I decided to use the oracle to help me decide how each marauder who didn’t fail a CUF roll would respond during the first round of the firefight. Red- helpful- results mean they would run for cover. Black- harmful- mean that they would return fire (low number cards meant un-aimed fire; high number meant dropping prone and returning aimed fire). Unfortunately, most of the cards I drew were black, high number or face cards. The OPFOR rolled well during round 1, resulting in critical hits to P.R. and Honeybear.

After a great start to the ambush, in round 2, P.R. took a crit to the dome. His K-Pot absorbed 1 point of damage, but three more got through. He rolled an 8 on the Crit table (Shattered neck). Since that qualifies as a lethal wound, I started the clock. P.R. was out of the remainder of the fight. Honeybear took a crit to the arm (the roll resulted in a dislocated shoulder). For the rest of the firefight, he rolled with a -2 modifier as a result of this non-lethal wound.

After the fight, I rolled recovery time. P.R.'s is 14 days; Honeybear's is 1 day. It looks like the Diamonds are staying put for a while.

Again, Bird’s M21 was a crit machine. Despite firing only one bullet per round, he scored a hit in every round but one (the 2nd), every hit a Crit. Snipers in 4e are deadly.

Again, I’m disappointed with the rules for grenade launchers. Even though Sandy rolled a hit on the targeted hex, AND a success on one of the two Blast D damage dice, since the four bandits occupying the hex were lying prone, they took no damage. Three of them failed their CUF rolls, though, so it wasn’t a total bust.

Captain Walker, despite rolling only a single d6 (since she doesn’t have any skill in Heavy Weapons), killed two fleeing enemy with her first burst of HMG fire (rolling 4 ammo dice). IMHO, someone with no skill, and with multiple negative modifiers acting against them, should have less chance of success than a single d6 roll, but I don't know how one could do that with the 4e system without depriving them of any chance of success whatsoever (perhaps equally unrealistic). 1/6 seems too high, 0/6 seems too low.

Grease and Deacon successfully pushed Driving and Mobility rolls, respectively, helping them get into position to help the engaged Diamonds relatively quickly (4-5 rounds). I’ve learned that separating teammates by more than 50m or so during combat is a very risky thing to do, as it takes friendlies out of the fight, skewing the combat action economy in favor of the OPFOR. Even one "lost" turn can greatly affect the outcome of a firefight.

Sarge rolled so many 1s during that firefight that his M16A2 lost all of its Reliability points and completely broke.

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