Fall In 2023 – review of my games

Fall In! 2023 is over, but I had a great time. Although there were many great games at the con, this post is just to review my two games. Both games were set in a small town in Helmsland Province in Afghanistan in 2011. The rule set was Force on Force and the games pitted the US Marines against the Taliban.

Game 1 scenario at Fall In 2023.

The first game scenario was that a US Marines convoy was passing through a village that was sympathetic to the Taliban, but not overtly supporting them. The USMC had an entire platoon of infantry, consisting of three squads of 13 men. Each squad was carried in 4 HMMWV. There were also three supply vehicles.

The lead convoy vehicle became suspicious of a minivan parked at the side of the road ahead; this was due to the lack of civilians in the area. He called the convoy to a halt and that is where the game started. The mission for the US Marines was to firstly establish a 5 meter perimeter around the convoy, and then expand it to 25 meters. They were then to carry out an optical surveillance of the minivan to confirm their suspicions using binoculars. If they still believed there was an IED they were to call in the bomb squad to deal with the situation. The lead platoon also deployed their radio jammers to reduce the possibility of IED detonation.

The bomb squad would firstly set up advanced optical sights to view the IED, then send in a robot to deal with it and finally send a team member to the IED in full blast gear to remove the explosives. Once the explosives were removed. the convoy could get underway.

Of course the Taliban had other ideas and although their IED was prevented from taking casualties, a stopped convoy was an attractive target.

Game 1 action.

We had five players for the game, all with some knowledge of the rules. This allowed a fast paced game. The USMC quickly dismounted their vehicles and started to establish the initial 5 meter perimeter around the convoy. One of the lead HMMWVs kept a man back from the fire team to main the Heavy Machine Gun to provide heavy weapon support.

The initial Taliban teams near the ambush site started to lay down fire on the US Marines, but this was meet with some accurate shooting from the Marines. There were some serious casualties for the Taliban but the Marines had no injuries.

The problems came as the Marines started to expand the perimeter to 25m and Taliban’s reinforcements started to arrive. The Marines at the front of the convoy started to take fire from all directions in an ambush down a side street. One team took several casualties and had to rush for cover while waiting for support.

While things were going fine for the Marines at the tail of the convoy, the situation continued to deteriorate near the front of the row of vehicles. Taliban in the upper floors of a building over-looking the street managed to get off several unsuccessful RPG shots at the lead HMMWV. However a technical showed up with a ZSU in the back along the alley with the pinned US Marine team. The pinned team could do little to prevent the ZSU putting down some devastating fire on the lead vehicle which then brewed up.

Despite the chaos going on around him, the lead squad commander had managed to get optics on the suspicious mini-van and determine that there was a potential IED. He then called the bomb squad.

After several rounds of fighting the bomb squad arrived on the scene in an MAT-V.

By the time the bomb squad arrived, the Marines, despite taking several casualties (including 4 dead), had secured the right hand side of the convoy. They had also suppressed all the Taliban units in the buildings near the middle left of the convoy.

However, they had not secured around the front left of the convoy. The Taliban took full advantage of the situation and managed to get a unit to attack the bomb disposal team. The MK19 gunner in the MAT-V turret mount was also killed.

With the four hours approaching the game was called as a Taliban victory. It was nice to have an excuse to get my bomb squad on the table in a real scenario.

In real life the bomb squad would not have been deployed until the area was secured, but the time limitation of a convention game really tied the hands of the US players. Every one said that they had a good time and I certainly did.

One of the highlights of the convention for me was at the very end of the game. A gentleman stood looking at my table for about ten minutes and then finally came over and confirmed with me that the game was set in Afghanistan in 2011. He then told me that he had served in Afghanistan in 2010 and that the table top and the scenario reminded him so much of his time there.

He then pointed out in a very kind manner a couple of things that I had got wrong. This type of information is invaluable to me and was very much appreciated. Two of the things were that a civilian motorbike and an oil drum cart were near the convoy and in real life they would never have been allowed there. He also let me know that the moment the convoy halted or shots were fired a fast mover (F16 or the like) would have been assigned to the area to provide ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance). This would have prevented a lot of the hidden movement that the Taliban used successfully in the game. The F16 would also have been armed with 500lb bombs which could have been used as a last resort if everything went to *!?*. I now plan on adding an F16 to my collection.

Game 2 scenario at Fall In 2023.

With three hours break after my first game, I started the second game. I had six players most with no experience of the rules. This gave a completely different, but no less enjoyable vibe to the game.

The scenario was that the game started just before dawn with two 4 man Force Recon teams assaulting a small compound to capture the IED maker who build the bomb for the morning game. A convoy of 7 HMMWVs with 2 USMC squads was then sent in to secure the egress route and extract the Force Recon units and the target.

The Force Recon team had night vision and breaching charges to assault the compound.

Game 2 action.

The game started with the Force Recon teams explosively breaching the two compound buildings and surprising the Taliban units there. However even with all the advantages of a surprise breach and night vision goggles at night, the Taliban got off a lucky shot and instantly killed a member of one of the Force Recon teams. The Taliban then paid for this shot and were then quickly disposed of by the elite operators. The IED maker was then taken into custody.

With the noise of the compound assault, Taliban units started to slowly appear on scene and react. While the one USMC squad successfully secured the extraction route and went on overwatch, the other squad ran into a hail-storm.

One of the lead USMC teams got pinned down in the local gas station and started taking casualties from the Taliban who had taken elevated positions overlooking them. Three of the four man team were killed. The final member of the team was hit twice but on both occasions he rolled a six and bounced up. Having had just about enough of the situation he got into one of the HMMWVs, which promptly received an RPG through the rear deck armor. His luck ran out as the vehicle exploded.

Meanwhile the Force Recon units started to make their way along the extraction route, realizing that the HMMWV team was not going to be much help. Suddenly a couple of Taliban units appeared and set about their plan to ambush the Force Recon teams. Luckily the Force Recon team had deployed a sniper team on overwatch on the roof of an apartment building. With them was a Forward Artillery Officer.

The sniper team dealt with one of the Taliban units and the M.777 artillery pieces demolished the other. The luck was with the Force Recon units as the artillery barrage came within 0.5″ of causing friendly fire under the danger close rules.

With time winding down on the convention game, the Taliban disabled another HMMWV with a recoilless rifle firing down the street.

The USMC did complete their mission of capturing and extracting the IED maker, but at the cost of seven dead (including one Force Recon operator) and the loss of two HMMWV. Overall I gave the game to the Taliban, despite them having more than their fair share of rolling 1s.

As you can see from the above photo, it was particularly enjoyable to teach the Force on Force rules to some young players. Now it is time to move on from Fall In 2023 and start preparing for Historicon 2024