"Ambush!" "He Did What?"

Things went bad on the right for both sides.  Pvt. Ethan's second rifle grenade shot went wild to his left and he was cut down by deadly .45 slugs from Kindle Looslead's Tommy Gun.  Then Jeanne Mortel was put Out of Action (OOA) by a crack shot from Pvt. Lucas who in turn is dropped OOA by a rain of hot lead from Johan Himslimmer's Tommy.  Finally, after "Hot Shot" misses with his BAR, Wilt Millson falls to the accurate fire Pvt. Adian.  Three rebels down to two SAS, acceptable losses especially since four Rebels in at the forest edge have spotted both Commander Tyler Vadalink and the Countess of Nelson sprinting across open ground towards the forest...easy pickings...right?

Commander Tyler Vadalink is felled by the accurate shooting of Victoria Marksman but the Countess leads a charmed life as all the shots at her miss.  Still a win for the Rebe..."He Did What?" Yes, Cpl. Christian Bakminister appears from hiding in the shell hole and with one very accurate long and deadly burst drops Dodoje Roonveld, Blakly Hampton Quecumber-Sandwich III  and Victoria Marksman, shattering the morale of the Rebels (never should have mentioned to Thomas that he could spread his three shots into three close targets-he rolled three ones to hit each and then rolled enough damage to put them all OOA-really have to take him to Vegas)

To add insult to injury, the Countess charges Mia (who misses two shots at the Countess)  knocks the Rebel out and captures her for later questioning.

The dead and captured as the Countess readies to charge Capt. Della a' Morte (still shaken from the first round of shooting). 

While Commander Aerogal ponders what to do, Karl acts and orders the porters caring the valuable "trade goods" to follow him back to safer territory.  With losses close to 50%, the Commander has no other option than to call her troops to gather the wounded and follow the fast disappearing Karl and the porters.  "Karl will have to be dealt with later for his insubordination" the thinks to herself.  Her battle lust sated, and seeing the remaining firepower of the Rebels for the first time, the Countess is content to let them retire as she regroups her remaining forces.

The bloody battlefield with the Bren LMG team and Sgt. Perksman shown in their dug in positions near the upper middle of the field. Pvt. Bryan is in the rough terrain in the upper left corner. The retreating porters are in the lower center.

Total victory for the Imperial forces.  For the loss of two men, Commander Tyler Vadalink and Pvt Lucas (Pvt. Ethan survived his wounds),  they captured one rebel, wounded two, killed four more, Dodoje Roonveld, Jeanne Mortel, Bamse Roonveld and Victoria Marksman (Blakly Hampton Quecumber-Sandwich III and Wilt Millson were the only wounded Rebels to survive) and drove the remainder back into the jungles where they belong.  For Commander Shanee Aerogal the entire episode was a fiasco.  She intends to have a word with command about sending green troops into combat against Imperial veterans and elites!  The only plus was that the valuable goods and intel survived and will be available for a latter attempt.

This was a fast, fun battle, just what Pulp fights should be.  Things were looking hard for the Rebels when Jeanne Mortel was taken OOA but dropping three of the SAS seemed to balance things out.  Then Thomas took out almost an entire section in one round-poof there went the ball game.  Seeing what Thomas did with only six of his troops, I hate to think what would have happened if the Bren LMG and second Tommy Gun had been in action as well.  It was a well laid ambush even if I had forced my way through the ruined building I would have been caught in a cross fire between the remaining Tommy, Bren and Riflemen...ouch.