The Raid.

My first raid.

After taking my long flames sabatical, i was painting honest, I was finally back in the pew or driving seat. Praying to the flames dice gods has returned, and about time too, this being my third, yes third game of the new V3 rules, the club adopted the new ones within the first month of release, it shows how out of action i've been.

To the desert and my first outing of my LRDG and the mission, aptly titled The Raid. My german opponent Safetystick being the kind soul that he is gave me the option to pick, I decided on EW as I thought my oppo would get even more m.g.s for his buck, kradshutzen the idea made me shudder pre-game. I took HQ, T & G full half patrols, 2 x 0.5” vickers, four extra hull mounted m.g.s per patrol and opted for the breda over the bofors, knowing that I didn't want to get into a shoot out and that 1 extra ROF and a 360 degree field of fire (AA) would come in useful on the move. And finally and by no means least 200 points of interdiction (a raiders must). As it turned out it was never needed, but I wouldn't leave Siwa without it.

I opted for a full night raid my only major mistake (but a biggie), pre game i'd thought about how i'd play it, did I want to go night or dawn, I imagined the chevys gunning it through the desert in dawns early light with the burning objectives in the background and then preceded to see them getting gunned down in an ambush, Kufra stylee. So I went for full darkness, the sneaky option.

To the game, sorry about the lack of turn photos, you'll get the gist hopefully.

Pre game recce move, HQ & T-Patrol heads towards it's first objective on the west side of the town, G-Patrol does the same on the East.

HQ & T Patrol head out.

Turn 1. LRDG It must be black as pitch, as no one can see for toffee.

Jerry T1. They were on “recon” in the desert somewhere...

Turn 2. LRDG. more of the same, shooting at them however, T-Patrol must still have a load of sand in their goggles and can't see further than the chevy in front, G-Patrol find their mark, but the tracer rounds don't catch.

Turn. 3. LRDG. T chevys head towards objective 2 passing obj 1, unleashing a torrent of m.g. And breda fire but not having cleared that sand, strike home but not enough to get the ammo truck burning. CIC and 2IC pull up to obj 1 readying their charges, no need the gunners managed to set the truck ablaze, meanwhile on the other side of town G-Patrol do the same and gun it towards obj four on the hill, again two chevys heading towards the centre of town to rendevous with HQ and that last obj number five. Things are looking good (I was a little surprised, as I imagined pre-game that it would be quite difficult to get them going through m.g. Fire, but then when you're rolling a bucketfull of dice it pays off eventually).

Jerry. I'm hazy on whether they entered the fray turn 2 or 3 (I think it's probably 3), they appeared right at my exit point though. A unit of bikes spot the burning trucks from a long way off and head towards the town.

G-Patrol strike.

Turn 4. LRDG. The mainstay of T-Patrol carry on towards obj 2, HQ and two chevys head towards the truck in the centre of town guns blazing. Obj two goes up as T-Patrol finds it's mark again, along with the town centre obj making even more noise attracting the local garrisons attention, things are about to get a lot warmer, literally. G-Patrol makes it too the bottom of the hill, however the night takes hold again and their target is lost in the dark

Jerry. Here they come. Unleashing hell on the LRDG, the 2 R/m.g. & HMG platoons engage, on the east G-Patrol is peppered by a r/m.g. But shrugs the fire off, the other rifle m.g. And HMG platoon rake T-Patrol prior to their assault luckily the assault fails under a massive hail of Lewis, Vickers and Breda fire, they lose a few stands and unsurprisingly get pinned down which is where they stay for the rest of the game, “you know hans I think they've moved off,” “yes Fritz, so what's all that noise, it took me time to dig this scrape and i'm thinking of adding a bathroom!”.

Turn 5.

LRDG. Turn Five. Let's get the f**k outta dodge.

Turning tail and heading for the hills T patrol and H.Q. About face and head back south through the town trying to duck m.g. Fire. G-Patrol attempts the same, leaving the broken down breda truck to take out that final objective, but to no avail.

Jerry. The iron fist closes.

Here come the armoured cars, the bain of the LRDG, fast moving, armoured and bristling with automatic fire, they head into town from the west. The krads head north towards town along with the easterly R/m.g. platoon. The amount of lead that jerry unleashes whittles T almost to nothing, 2IC spends a lot of time jumping from truck to truck, the CIC is protected by a building and lots of burning chevys. G-Patrol manages to shrug off the limited fire from the r/m.g. Platoon.

The net begins to close.

Turn 6.

2IC and breda still don't find their mark, the final objective must be well hidden. G-Patrol gets into the desert with the CIC riding shotgun to face the krads coming straight at them along with the closing infantry platoon on the east. The net is closing, maybe one or two of G-Patrol could make it through the pass...

Jerry. Another 222 platoon enters the field from the South along with a pair of Pz4s who block the pass. Meanwhile back in town the last of T-Patrol burns, the breda from G-Patrol has a new pilot in the form of the 2IC after he lost his Ford trying to block the 222's in.

The r/m.g. Platoon descend on the chevys of G-Platoon and demolish it, leaving the platoon commander and one other to escape the melee.

The CIC is last seen heading towards the krads guns blazing as a bike goes up, then nothing.

Turn 7.

LRDG (or what's left)

Gunning it through the pass, what's left of G-Patrol the commander decides discresion at this point is probably best. We're a foot away and only two Pz4s to go...

Jerry.

Opens fire, the second to last of G-Patrols truck goes up, the platoon commander contemplates the long walk home, well others have made it before.

 I now know dawn would have been the best route to head down, that 8" move at night meant the infantry could keep up with me, along with everything else. I'll need to optimize my xtra m.g. layout, and get my head round the new warrior saves and think a little more about position. Overall the battle was awesome, and maybe me an Lee can squeeze a couple of games in next time, only another 5/6 raiding missions to complete, should have the Murzuq game me and Scary biscuits are working on done by then as well.

Heineken anyone...

Getting the **** out of dodge.