Insurgents in No-mans Land – A Fogo Cruzado Campaign

This is a version of the No-mans land Mini-Campaign adapted to Fogo Cruzado, my variant of Crossfire for the Portuguese Colonial War of the 1960s and 1970s. It is based on my previous thinking for No-mans land – A Crossfire Campaign and the Way of War in Portuguese Africa.

It is a low level mini-campaign set in the countryside. Each player is a junior commander whose job is the patrol and control the local area. Each player must plan and execute six missions from a predetermined list. The interest lies in the fact that each player is picking from a different list to that of his opponent. The key problem being addressed is “How does a commander react when faced with events not covered by his orders?”

I have tried to adapt the campaign rules so you don’t need a referee. A lot of the enjoyment of the game is not knowing what the other bloke is up to. This mechanism is explained in the Special Rules section.

Equipment

You will need:

  • Fogo Cruzado
  • Figures.
  • A map for each player.
  • A table with dense terrain.

Playing the campaign

The campaign is played out as follows:

  1. Sets up:
    1. Draw a map, print at least two copies, and set up the table to match. (or set up the table and photograph)
    2. Allocated each player their initial forces
    3. Randomly, and secretly, allocate each player a list of 7 missions from the list below.
  2. Play a mission period (until they have played six mission periods):
    1. Each player secretly chooses a mission for the period from their list
    2. Each player plans their mission, allocating troops to Sneakers, and plotting movement on their map.
    3. Play out the mission period on the table, with troops following their plotted paths until any troops of either side are revealed, after that all bets are off.
    4. Each player decides if the other player was active on the table
    5. Players reveal their objective and whether they achieved it or not.
    6. Each player replaces their casualties
  3. Determine who has won the mini-campaign

Initial Forces

Each side starts with a combat group of troops. See the Orders of Battle.

Here is a typical Portuguese Order of Battle:

Light Infantry (Caçadores) Combat Group

  • 1 x Combat Group
    • 1 x Combat Group Command Team (+1)
    • 1 x Combat Group Support Section
      • 2 x Bazooka Team or MMG Team or 60mm Mortar Team or 57mm Recoilless Rifle often mounted on a truck
    • 3 x Sections
      • 1 x Section Commander (+1)
      • 1 x Assault Rifle Team
      • 1 x Assault Rifle + LMG Team
  • Morale: Regular
  • Command and Control: OK
  • Reckless

And a typical Insurgent Order of Battle

Bi-group

  • 1 x Bi-group Commander
  • 1 x Political Commissar
  • 2 x Groups
    • 1 x Group Commander
      • 2-4 x Teams chosen from any combination of:
        • Assault Rifle + LMG Team
        • Assault Rifle + RPG Team
        • Assault Rifle Team
        • SMG Team
        • Bolt Action Rifle Team
  • Morale: Regular
  • Command and Control: OK

Mission profiles

At the start of the game each player randomly, and secretly, chooses a list of 7 missions (out of those listed below). The player will have to attempt 6 of these during the game (one in each mission period). The player chooses which mission to attempt during each mission period. Victory in a scenario is determined by Victory Points (VP); each side can gain at most 3 VP in a scenario (including guessing if the enemy was active).

Possible missions are listed below.

  • Portuguese and/or Insurgent Missions
    • Foot Patrol
    • Ambush
    • Sit tight in Camp
    • Attack Camp
  • Portuguese Only Missions
    • Convoy
    • Mounted Patrol
    • Sweep
    • Air Assault
  • Insurgent Only Missions
    • Gun Running
    • Herding
    • Sabotage
    • Kidnap Children
    • Kill Collaborators

M1: Patrol

Aggressively patrol the area to your front and report on and disrupt any enemy activity. You must plan a route that covers the entire table, entering, or getting LOS to, all terrain features.

+2 VP if patrol the whole table, or discover enemy and take less or same number of casualties;

+1 VP if discover enemy and take more casualties.

M2: Set Ambush

Set an ambush for any enemy forces moving through your area of operations. Pre-game record the feature where each stand will lay its ambush. Once a Sneaker representing a ambushing stand reaches a plotted drop off point the stands are immediately considered hidden in the feature. The Sneaker then continues its movement.

M3: Stand By

Stay in your defensive positions and keep watch to your front and flanks. Don’t let your opponent know you have chosen this option. Play out the scenario as if you are on table. You get +2 VP if none of your Sneakers are revealed.

M4: Snatch Squad

Capture one or more prisoners for Intelligence to interrogate.

+1 VP for each successful close combat (up to 2);

-1 VP for each of own killed stands (up to 2).

M5: Escort Infiltration Team

Escort a reconnaissance platoon to a position 3/4 of the way across your area of operations and then return to your defensive positions (+1 VP) leaving them to cross the remainder of the table in their own time (+1 VP).

M6: Cloak and Dagger

With only yourself and a single squad, escort a single infiltrator to a position 3/4 of the way across your area of operations, avoiding enemy contact while you do it, and then return to your defensive positions without casualties (+1 VP) leaving the infiltrator to cross in their own time (+1 VP). In Crossfire the infiltrator counts as an FO with no guns, i.e. has no combat value.

M7: Escort Mine Laying/Clearing Team

Escort a Engineer squad on a mine laying/clearing mission. A Engineer stand must remain stationary in or adjacent to a feature for 1 hour to lay/clear one minefield. +1 VP for each minefield laid/clear (up to two). The minefields remain active in subsequent mission periods until removed. You can’t lay a minefield in a feature which already has a minefield.

M8: Recovery Mission

Recover something valuable (e.g. an abandoned tank, car, horse, buried treasure, drugs cache, boyhood mementoes, food) from just in front of the enemy lines (i.e. a feature adjacent to the enemy base line). This might be for personal use or to placate some senior commander. +2 VP if recover the item and receive less casualties than the enemy; +1 VP to recover the item in other circumstances.

M9: Set up Observation Post

Escort an FO to a forward position where he can observe enemy base line. Once in position the observation takes 3 hours.

M10: Flank Security

Provide flank security for a friendly company sized unit who are moving across your front to mount an attack elsewhere on enemy lines. +2 VP if the company exits with no casualties; +1 VP if the company exits in other circumstances.

M11:

M12:

M13:

M14:

M15:

M16:

Guessing enemy activity

At the end of any period where the two forces did not make contact, each player must decide if the enemy was active during that period (i.e. not on Stand By). Guessing correctly is worth +1 VP.

Victory conditions

At the end of each mission period the players reveal which Mission they had tried and how many VP they gained.

The player who won in the most mission periods wins the campaign as a whole.

Replacing casualties

A commander is automatically replaced at the end of the period in which he is killed. Other killed stands (squad, HMG, etc) are replaced at the end of the period on a roll of 4-6 on 1d6. If a stand is not replaced at the end of a particular period, then the player can roll to replace them at the end of subsequent periods. All replacements are Green (as opposed to Veteran or Regular) regardless of the morale of the original stand.

Scenario Special Rules

Given this campaign is aimed at a platoon in Crossfire, then using the standard rules would be a bit brief and brutal. I suggest you use one of the 1:1 scale versions instead.

You will need to use:

  • Special Rule: Sneakers to provide a Hidden Movement Mechanism for Crossfire. There are some additional rules:
    • Each player gets 6 Sneakers in each mission period, irrespective of the Mission and quantity of forces available.
    • One Sneaker of the player’s choice can call down one medium artillery barrage (one FM of 4/2 HE/EFF) during any mission period, irrespective of whether there is an FO in the Sneaker. This is primarily to sow confusion, and reflects random artillery shelling.
  • HTD Special Rule 4: The Moving Clock is in use. The Scenario begins at 2400 hours and ends 0800 hours. The clock advances 30 minutes on 5+ at the end of each defender initiative.
  • HTD Special Rule 1: Night fighting is in use during between 2400 and 0500 hours. Stands are limited to one move action per initiative. A stand that is in cover and has not yet fired during the scenario may not be fired at, except form within the same terrain feature. A stand in the open is fired at normally. All stands get the direct fire cover bonus, regardless of where they are located.
  • HTD Special Rule 5: Bogging down is in use. Tanks bog down in woods, rough ground, rock fields, boulder fields, streams, and anti-tank obstacles (ditches, barricades) on 4- on 1d6. They unbog on 5+, becoming permanently mired on 1.
  • Reconnaissance Troops RBF on 5+.
  • It take an Engineer Squad 1 hour to lay/clear a minefield.

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