The Legion: MISSION 3 - “The Million Dollar Colonel”

[Whiterook]

The third scenario, this time a rescue mission: U.S. Army “Green Berets” of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), better known by their nickname, “The Legion” are deployed in country, Vietnam, on a rescue mission deep behind enemy lines. Colonel Arnold Farnsworth, a lead intelligence officer under 9th Infantry Division commanding general Maj. Gen. George S. Eckhardt, was instrumental in operations in Dinh Tuong and Long An Provinces (6 January-31 May 1967) in Operation Palm Beach. However, he’d made a critical mistake in chosing to hitch a ride on an I’ll fated flight, who’s navigational instrumentation FUBARed so badly, in a most magnificent series of bad luck and a happenstance assignment of the most inexperienced flight crew, to find himself not only flying far behind enemy lines, but in the path of a lucky SAMs strike. One of two survivors, he and the pilot were quickly captured within a week and are being held in a fortified bunker, awaiting transport to an interrogation cell in some godforsaken shithole. Not only was Eckhardt a fountain of knowledge the US did not want in enemy hands, but he was the son of a very influential family with direct ties to the White House.

Sent out to infiltrate the holding holding zone, the Legionaries must rescue and exfiltrate the Colonel to a hot LZ for extraction. The mission of stealth is lead by Captain “Dix” Dixon (red), leading three Weapons Sargeants: “Coop” Cooper (white), “Enzo” Edleman (blue), and “Ziggy” Zigarelli (Yellow)…

The colors denoted above correlate to ring markers that sit around their bases to help keep track of who’s who; I have no idea what the plastic rings were from or went to…I found them in the basement of treasures!

This is the battle map…




The Legion lands at pre-dawn and sets out for the objective



Strap into your Huey and head out to the LZ, soldiers… the Legion will be waiting for you at the end of the mission, hopefully with package in hand.

[Whiterook]

…note the new road tiles!

[Whiterook]

Turn 1 - The Legion immediately find themselves with some Viet Cong in the area and take cover, with the exception of Enzo, who nevertheless remains out of sight, as far as he knows, but feels rather exposed as the sun rises. The VC appear o be on random patrols and so to seem to suspect Green Berets have landed in a dark LZ an hour ago.

[Whiterook]

Turn 2 - Ziggy, sensing that Charlie has shifted away from his position moves forward and shifts to the cover of a hit ti the left. Captain Dixon moves forward and hides in some jungle cover. Coop and Enzo stay put. The two forward most VC keep on the move in the general area, while the VC that was at the concrete bunker has move to the rear, probably looking for some chow!





Action always seems to start slow in the game, but that speaks to the stealth nature of the mechanics… go in guns blazing, and Charlie will be all up your ass in a New York minute!

[Whiterook]

Turn 3 & 4 - the first turn had the guys maintaining their position and minimal VC movement. On the next turn, Dox and Ziggy make a bold movement into the open, but felt somewhat confident with no evidence of enemy movement nearby… it’s a risk, but the sun is rising higher and it’s just gonna get hotter! Coop is still in cover; and Enzo is still in the open, but edged forward. Parallel to Coop. The VC meanwhile, pull back for some reason.

[Whiterook]

Turn 5 - Dix moves past the road and into jungle cover, while Ziggy hangs back. Coop, being Coop, flies up and to the left, in the wide open clearing by the jungle road (you can hear Dix grunting!); Enzo at least, has the good sense to hide in the jungle… even though he can’t see Captain Dixon, he knows a ration of shit is coming down the pike for bold assed aggressiveness by one of his men and Enzo doesn’t want to be the remotest of targets of Dix’s wrath! Meanwhile, Charlie starts shifting in a more aggressive posture, however, they sense nothing thusfar.

[Whiterook]

Turn 6 - Captain Dixon maintains jungle cover and tries to get his men in cover. Ziggy swings around Coop and jumps in the jungle for cover, whispering to Coop to move his ass; Coop runs right, along the road but doesn’t make it to cover yet… is that the heat of the sun from the mid-morning, or Dix’s body temperature? Enzo moves up and ducks into a large hut. Meanwhile, the VC to the far left moves back, but the VC next to him moves into the bunker… did Coop draw his attention? …everyone’s holding their breath as Charlie is just outside Ziggy’s position in the jungle.

[Whiterook]

Turn 7 - Finally, Coop makes it to the cover of jungle! Everyone else is holding position, as a VC is outside the bunker.

Turn 8 - Enzo flies past the road and into Jungle cover; the others hold. Meanwhile the VC that was near the bunker moves forward to investigate whether he heard something, and ends up on the other side of the road from Dix! …fortunately, Dix is in cover. Another VC moves in front of Enzo. The last VC way in the rear moves up a bit. The bonus of all this is, the bunker is clear to move into, at the moment.

[Whiterook]

Turn 9 -Dix held station, hoping to nail the VC in hand to hand combat, but was unable to get a clear chance. However, Ziggy was able to move forward and enter the bunker… knife out, he subdues and cuts the one Viet Cong captors’ throat. Moving over to Colonel Eckhardt, he assesses the shaken officers condition and renders minor aid. Zig hands the colonel his sidearm and moves to the observation skits to see if Charlie is in the area. Escape won’t be easy… there’s wide open space behind the bunker and a swamp to the left… they’ll have to make it to the jungles to the right, but there’s a small rocky mountain farther north at the potential exfil areas. It’s gonna be hairy! Coop and Enzo hold position, waiting to see what Ziggy does, and if Dix hand signals further instructions. Meanwhile, the VC next to axis doesn’t move; the VC to the left moves up, sniffing around; and the VC on the Legions’ left flank moves back into one of the exfil zones. Finally, a VC reinforcement shows up 2 klicks south from the bunker.





NOTE: I’d not really considered scale in my game until now, but the narrative above kinda called for something; so, putting a little cursory thought into it just now, I considered that the imagery on the tiles necessitates enough room per image (e.g., jungle, but, bunker) to place one 15mm miniature soldier and its base (3/4” diameter) within it (hence, a one jungle image tile can only hold one hidden soldier). But this is all conceptual in design, and limited to 2-1/4” tiles so, it is far from photo realistic! Keeping in mind that a jungle image is meant to be a fairly large area of many palm trees, it’s fair to imagine that they are about two or three football fields long or wide; and granted that using that theory, the huts are freaking HUGE, but we need them big for the minis, remember?!? So, hey, I make the rules here so… one tile is considered a military klick (that’s about ten football fields long; that’s 1000 meters). That makes the battle maps 7000 meters long… that seems to make sense in terms of how far to travel in a mission.

[Whiterook]

Turn 10 - Captain Dixon was able to engage and kill the VC on the other side of the road from him and then make cover again, dragging Charlie with him. Enzo was able to move up and through the scrum at the small Rocky Mountain and slip into the trees behind the VC, to support and clear the exfil areas if necessary; everyone else is holding position to support Ziggy and the Colonel. The VC to the left of the swamp moves down range. A Viet Cong truck flies down the road, but fortunately, Dix and Coop are in cover.

[Whiterook]

Turn 11 - nothing happens.

Turn 12 - Dix runs down the road to his right and dives into the jungle; Coop moves up and dives in the jungle; Zig and Enzo hold. The VC down range shift a bit and a reinforcement pops up to the right of Coop. 

[Whiterook]

Turn 13 - Coop moves up and into the jungle… he provides another layer of potential fire to aid Dix and a Ziggy with the Colonel make it to exfil. Meanwhile, the VC next to Dox rolls a Hunt, and fires into the trees , hitting and wounding the Captain, who staggers into the open (required ‘unhidden’ action); the other VC move down, including the one next to Enzo. Tough going for Dix, who must now try to get into cover, hopefully further toward exfil, and maybe get aid from one of the Legion team.

[Whiterook]

Turn 14 - Dix, with a gun barrel pointed at him, fire’s and kills the VC that just wounded him and kills him (VC reinforcement arrives to the left of the mountain at the exfil row); Ziggy and the Colonel exit the bunker and move into the jungle to the right; Coop shoots the VC to his right, and moves into that position, jumping into the trees (VC reinforcement arrives in the same spot! Damn!). The others stay put. VC shift a bit.

[Whiterook]

Turn 15 - Dix can’t move at the moment, so Ziggy moves down next to him, hoping he can help as quickly as possible while his tail is exposed. VC don’t move but, a sniper shot rings out from the jungles and wounds Ziggy! Yikes… this is going south.

[Whiterook]

Turn 16 - Ziggy tends to Dix’s wound and vice versa (lucky rolls! …wound markers removed. Three wind markers on any soldier ends the game, remember!). Coop shifts to his left flank and hides… he’s in position to aid Dix and Zig, but is also within rear of the exfil zone. Meanwhile, the VC don’t move, except for the one to Dix and Ziggy’s right, who moves closer to them. VC Reinforcement shows upon the far left of the road.