Collusion!

Intelligence discovered in Orlov's abandoned car has identified the location al-Zawahiri’s man in country is based. Rainbow launch an attack to catch the terrorist cells in situ before they can ship any weapons to their destination. But when Rainbow arrives, a rogue military unit, under Colonel Borokov is seen colluding with them.

Rainbow aims to capture the terrorist leader and kill, suppress or capture all terrorist forces in area. Getting hold of Borokov for intelligence purposes would be a further advantage...

The meeting site is well guarded - both Borokov and Al-Tabari have brought men to protect them

Rainbow is poised to strike behind a low ridgeline - they spring into action, virtually wiping out Borokov's squad behind the walls beyond

Al-Tabari's followers grab him and rush him out of the building, trying to avoid straying into the arcs of fire of the Rainbow fire support group 

Another group of Al-Tabari's men take cover in the upper floor of a house - and send well aimed fire down at the Rainbow team. The team leader takes a hit, blasted by an RPG round

Borokov's wasn't born yesterday! A team he'd sent out to patrol for any incursion has rushed back to the sound of battle and inflicts some casualties on the Rainbow team above

As night falls, the other Rainbow team rushes across the open ground to catch their targets before they can slip away. The advance doesn't go well for them, as three of their number are hit

Rainbow's body armour and expert medical training meant that those casualties weren't serious.
As Borokov's remaining men bundle into the APC, Rainbow assault it, taking Borokov prisoner.

It's all for nought though, as Al-Tabari has escaped...

That was it, despite wiping the floor with the opponents, Rainbow's failure to keep their main target 'Al-Tabari' in focus led to mission failure.

This was certainly a success, quite a few people have expressed regrets that they didn't get a chance to play, so I must look to run a sequel soon...

The Checkpoint

As the lead element of Team Two are making their way back to base, Yuri Orlov and his bodyguard are stuck in a traffic jam right ahead of them crossing a bridge at a roadblock.

The mercenaries must get through the crowds away from the chasing Rainbow team and through the checkpoint, keeping Orlov safe.

The logjam at the bridge has been caused by a new checkpoint - swiftly set up to look for terrorist suspects 

Orlov's bodyguard get out of their cars - they'll look to hijack other cars at the far end of this traffic

Orlov's in the Mercedes and he urges his men to advance quickly across the bridge

Three well-armed police officers await at the far end

As the engagement begins, civilians start to pour out of their vehicles. Near the back of the traffic jam, they get in between Rainbow and the second mercenary group, making life difficult for the counter-terrorist team. 

Orlov's men force their way through the civilians and take control of the truck at the far end of the bridge

Rainbow work their way around the civilians and annihilate the mercenaries taking cover behind their car

The police gain reinforcements as another patrol has arrived, and they square off against Orlov as they get the truck in gear. The police officers' fire forces the mercenaries 

However, the two late arrivals are actually working for Orlov they gun down their fellow officers, allowing Orlov and his men to run to the checkpoint

The Rainbow team get through the panicking civilians without too much trouble and have almost caught up with Orlov

Their fire takes out the mercenaries, as the traitorous police dive into the checkpoint hut for cover

But before Rainbow can follow up and capture him, two of his bodyguards recover enough to escape! 

Rainbow fail to catch their quarry, but only by the skin of his teeth!

The Factory

Intelligence gathered from a warehouse raid has disclosed several locations which have been used as a weapons manufacturing facility. Team One and Team Two have been sent to the most promising locations...

Rainbow will try to secure the main factory buildings and bring outlying buildings and any parked vehicles under control. No materiel is to be allowed to escape.

The ruined factory complex was a perfect base of operations for the arms dealer

But lax outer security allowed the Rainbow team to approach along a wall...

...while a mercenary group gathers in the main factory building's courtyard

Orlov's main technical expert, Ivanov is taking a break in the factory annex, away from the dangerous materiel in his care.

As the assault element continues up the wall, the sniper and fire support teams cut across open group to take up position overlooking the main factory 

The assault element opens up the attack wiping out a mercenary machine gun team in a ruined generator house. However as they contemplate their advance, they notice a well-situated IED against the wall

A mercenary group, racing inside the factory annex grabs hold of Ivanov and engages Rainbow outside. They're biding their time to make a run for the car to escape up the road

Rainbow's assault element races away from the exploding IED - somehow they escape with just nicks and cuts

A mercenary group in the woods is giving the sniper team a hard time, but the Rainbow machine gun team puts them down 

They decide to reposition back to the generator room (possibly to the 1st floor above) but are taken out from the Mercs in the factory

Two mercenaries turn up in a car on the road; instead of heading up to the factory to help out there, they see an opportunity to capture the two Rainbow operators who've just been shot down

Rainbow pour fire into the factory annex, preparing for their assault 

The newly-arrived Mercs capture a Rainbow operator, despite the attempts of the sniper team to stop them

Having set C4 to the materiel inside the factory, destroying the evidence, two mercenaries race out of the explosion's radius

They pick up Ivanov on the way out, avoiding any engagement with Rainbow

A nail-bitter for all concerned. It looked like the Mercenaries were being wiped out with impunity, but a little loss in focus by Rainbow resulted in the Mercs having a second bite at completing their mission.

The Rainbow team commander critiques his approach in the postmortem

Rogue Spear

NSA intercepts have indicated that notorious arms dealer Yuri Orlov is taking delivery of weapons grade plutonium from Russian dissidents. Analysts fear that he is creating suitcase nuclear weapons and selling them onwards to noted terrorist leader al-Zawahiri.

Rainbow, the multinational counter-terrorism unit, has been dispatched to interdict both parties before the exchange can take place and recover the contraband material.

The campaign will comprise three or four scenarios and is inspired by Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and the spin-off PC Games.

I'll be running this Force on Force mini campaign on the Saturday and Sunday of Leprecon (on from the 7th-9th March in Goldsmith Hall in Trinity College Dublin). Visit their site.

Tecala Rescue - Redux

Later at Hobocon, I ran the Tecala Rescue scenario a second time

With a more experienced hand running the rescue operation, things began better...

Thorne makes his way quietly up to Peter's house, without drawing the attention of the nearby rebels

Dino and friend make their way to the farmhouse, surprising the two guards

As the main group of rebels realised things are afoot, their leader urges them to get moving quickly

Thorne takes Peter out the back route, gunning down a lone rebel who was just delivering breakfast

The two main rebel groups come under concerted fire from Downtown, whose accurate overwatch knocks some of their confidence out of them

Another rebel stroller on the upper path surprises Thorne forcing the pair to stick to cover on the other (more dangerous) side of the path

Dino lays down some more suppressive fire but makes for the LZ as soon as he's rescued Calitri

Peter's limp is a lot worse than previously thought, even Thorne's expert handling can't force him to move very fast. As Thorne and Peter cross the open ground towards the Uptown slope and the safety of the LZ, they take fire.

Thorne is hit, and Peter looks around helplessly as the rebels close in

Just in time, the rest of the Downtown team arrive to drive the rebels back and they make contact with Peter and Thorne.

Despite their best efforts, Thorne was found to be dead and they retreated with Peter to nearby cover, but the fire from the rebels overwhelms the two operators, and Peter is recaptured

Alas, another 8-11 loss for the rescue team, though they can probably feel aggrieved at the straight sequence of SNAFUs going against them, as well as the '1' on Thorne's first aid check.