Thursday 8 September 2011

Operation Angel Watch: After Action Report

 
A sunny morning greeted those protesters who had camped out over night at Borchester Abbey. There had been a bit of holiday spirit around the camp fires. Numbers swelled as more protesters turned up in one's and two during the morning, though not as many as expected. Seems the local bus company had a break-in the night before and the Borchester Green Line was cancelled today. Never mind, the mood was one of firm but good natured resistance.


Don Clough felt uneasy about the car tailing him. The day hadn't started well as Brian's missus had phoned to say he was sick. That left him and Ted to meet the bloody army. Now it looked like another firm was in on contract. As the last houses of Borchester were lost from sight he passed a police car and army Land Rover in a lay by - both pulled out as he passed. The Police Car overtook and as it did so the passenger leaned out and shouted at them to pull over.


Price, made sure the transfer took place quickly. The civvies were ushered into the police car whilst Mick and Taff in suitable builders attire took their place. The fact that the third one 'hadnt turned up for work only confirmed that the mission was on. Gaz and Baz took their positions on the floor of the Army Rover, cushioned only by rolled cam nets and hessian.


As they drew up to the Abbey placards could be seen before the people. "Concentrate fellas. Plenty of the unwashed around who we don't want to hurt". Price got out to face a fusillade of shouts "Army Out!", "Save our Abbey!". In true Rupert style he tried to reason with the protesters. Meanwhile Gaz and Baz had got out either side of their Land Rover and did their best to look like builders non-chalantly enjoying the spectacle.

A banner was hurled at Price. Another hit his Rover. The crowd surged. Ginge ghillied up on some high ground shouted on the mike "Gun! Gun! Gun!". Armed men in red tops appeared from the crowd. There were screams. A shot rang out and suddenly the scene had descended into mayhem.



Time for pretence had come to a crushing end. Price shouts "Give up! You're surrounded by armed bastards!" but is winged in response by a bullet. He gets a shot off in return that wounds the Tango. Baz is hit as he emerged from the Rover and falls to the ground. Taff slotted one Tang on the right. Daz opens the drivers door of the Rover and rips into another Tango with a full mag. One of the red tops bottles it and makes a run for it using the crowd as cover. Ginge holds his breath. Squeeze. Tango down.



At this point, two Tangos in the Abbey open fire with automatic weapons Carol Neave (black leather jacket and jeans), a nurse at Borchester Childrens Hospital is hit during the exchange of gunfire. Her boyfriend runs and Price dashes to her aid.

Gaz and Daz go after the shooters. A flurry of shots and the shooters run for it, with Gaz and Daz in hot pursuit through the Abbey. One shooter goes down but the other in green tracksuit seems to be making a clear get away.



Gaz catches his breath and calls out "Army. Stop!" The runner keeps going flat out. He makes it to the gorse. Bang! Bang! Tango down.

THE GAME

20 minutes of adrenalin and quick fire decision making. Personally, I loathe skirmish games that are supposed to be no more than 10 minutes in real time but take 2 hours to play. I degraded the shooting abilities of the SAS but there were still some cracking dice rolls that saw several single shot kills. Rules, once again COLD WAR: 1983. Figures in play are all ex-Hotspur. If you haven't viewed it already, take a look at the mission briefing in the previous post.  

POSTSCRIPT

Brian Wright is arrested at his home. He is the brother in law of Michael Benson, one of the bodies identified following the action. Price and Ms Neave go out for a curry at The Bombay Nights Restaurant in Borchester.

Cheers
Mark

4 comments:

  1. A great game, Mark. What can I add? The Q car plan seemed like a cheeky idea but what it really consisted of was stopping the cars, Price getting out and simply hanging around, waiting for something to happen - and that felt a bit....tense. The negotiations were a bit of fun, Price even offered the demo leader a cuppa frnm his thermos and a sticky bun. Then of course, the sniper/OP paid dividends with a split second warning and it all kicked off. The usual fun and games ensued as Mark threw a few complications at me; my initial reading of the briefing was that this game would be best played with my inner Price fully off the leash and I was right.

    It's easy to set up a Special Forces game where the odds are stacked in the SF favour; what is more of a challenge and thus much more rewarding is a game like this, where you have to come up with a plan and make it work - and where if you dont then you'll get a kicking.

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  2. Great AAR. Reading your post have inspired me and I just got my copy of Cold war 1983 in. Thinking of doing some actually cold war gone hot red dawn/twilight 2000 action.
    Or I might do some contra war set in Nicaragua, panama, coasta rica type action. I Have a buddy who was in the rangers dearing that time and he has some crazy stories to tell about his time in the jungle.

    I just need to narrow it down.

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  3. Thanks Chris.

    I'm still hankering for some Red Dawn and Twilight 2000 action myself. We do have plans for Central America games - but still want to have a really good crack at Winter of '79 and Alcovia first.

    Cheers
    Mark

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  4. Thats a great looking destroyed building...nice work

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