The Battle
Begins
Two days following
the June 25, 1991 Slovenian declaration of independence, the Yugoslavian
Army was mobilized, with columns heading for the Austrian, Italian, and
Hungarian borders. The Slovenian Territorial Defence Force responded
with roadbloacks and partisan-style resistance. By nightfall, the JNA
had sized all border crossings, and found itself under siege in what had
become a foreign land overnight. This scenario simulates one of the
first battles on June 27, when the war of Yugoslavian dissolution
officially began.
Scenario
Outline
The Slovenians
have little more than a squad of TDF and irregular troops equipped with
military weapons, and with these they must prevent the JNA forces from
crossing the roadblock. The TDF have used civilian vehicles as a
quick roadblock, and have had a little time to prepare fighting positions,
but even so, they are outnumbered and outgunned.
The two
Yugoslavian infantry squads have dismounted from their personnel carriers
and are preparing to assault the roadblock in what promises to be a
pitched battle.
The scenario takes
place in normal daylight and starts at the moment of the JNA attack
Setup
In a
straightforward battle, all forces are placed on the board, with the
Slovenians setting up first anywhere on the northern half of the map. The
Yugoslavians enter anywhere along the southern edge.
For a more
advanced scenario, the Slovenian player can declare some or all of his
units hidden. In such a case, he may position the hidden units out of
sight of the Yugoslavian player. He does not place these hidden units
on the board, but notes their position on a piece of paper and gives this
paper to the Referee. Hidden combatants can move and engage in
actions normally, but are subject to spotting by the Yugoslavians.
Slovenian
TDF
The Slovenian
Territorial Defence Forces have managed to recover from the Yugoslavian
assaults earlier this morning. The TDF units must hold the roadblock
for as long as possible and prevent Yugoslavian units from passing.
Slovenian TDF
Units
Number
Quality
Weapon
2
Line
AK-47 (one is sergeant)
1
Line
RPK
1
Green
RPK
4
Green
AK-47
2
Green
AK-47 & M-79 Osser
3
Militia
Shotgun
Yugoslavian
Army
The Yugoslavian
Army has been called on to preserve the borders of the nation, but all the
soldiers know that this means crushing the secessionists. Two JNA
squads of the platoon have been sweeping ahead of their armored vehicles
securing roadblocks so that the column can pass safely to its objective. This
obstacle
is just another
roadblock which must be secured, with two sets of armed men facing each
other, waiting for the killing to begin.
JNA Command
Elements
Number
Quality
Weapon
1
Line
AK-47 (Lieutenant)
1
Line
SVD
Yugoslavian JNA
Squad Organization -- Each Squad of Two Squads
Number
Quality
Weapon
3
Line
AK-47
1
Line
RPK
1
Line
AK-47 & M-79 Osser
3
Green
AK-47
Sidearms: The
Lieutenant carries a Makarov PM pistol along with two magazines.
Special
Rules
Parlay and Negotiation: As
an option, the Yugoslavian player may elect to negotiate with the
Slovenian player with the hopes of getting the Slovenians to either
surrender the roadblock, or offering amnesty to any Slovenes who surrender
to the JNA. Players who are interested in a straightforward battle
should not engage in parlay.
To engage in
parlay the JNA Lieutenant must advance in the open, preferably with his
hands above his head, to within 10 hexes of the TDF vehicle barricade and
announce his intention to parlay, taking 10 AC to do so. If the TDF
player agrees to parlay, then his Sergeant must walk towards the
Lieutenant until the two are in adjacent hexes.
The parlay process
will take 30 phases per attempt, during which time, all troops may move
and aim, but may not fire or otherwise engage in combat. The
Yugoslavian may demand either the surrender of the barricade or the
surrender of the Slovenian troops. During parlay, the Yugoslav
Lieutenant must roll three six-sided dice per attempt. The Lieutenant
must have the sum of the dice be less than the base odds of 4 plus his SL
in order to succeed at the attempt, and he requires three successful
attempts in order to have the Slovenians succumb to his demands. A
failed roll is not necessarily fatal to the process--the process simply
takes more time. However, each time the Yugoslavian Lieutenant fails
his success roll, the Slovenian Sergeant makes a 0-9 roll and if the roll
is greater than his SL x 2, then he breaks off the parlay and returns to
the barricade.
If the Yugoslavian
Lieutenant is able to make three success rolls, then he is able to
convince the Slovenian sergeant to agree to his demands. If the
demand was that the Slovenians surrender the barricade, then the
Slovenians do so without combat and the scenario ends. If the demand
was for all troops to surrender, the sergeant agrees to relay the demand
to his troops. This will take another 30 phases, with each Slovenian
combatant making a 0-9 roll. Any combatants whose rolls exceeded
their SL will surrender and be escorted off the board by Yugoslav
soldiers, requiring one Yugoslav soldier to escort three prisoners. Play
is suspended during the surrender process. Then the remainder of the
troops fight out the battle for the barricade.
Although it is
Machiavellian behavior for combatants, neither side is obligated to honor
either the request to parlay, or the parlay procedure itself. The
only thing players must honor is the individual combatants' wishes to
surrender.
Optional Parlay Breakdown: The
parlay process is always tense and always has the potential to degenerate
into combat through an accidental discharge or sudden threatening movement
by one side or the other. If players wish to use this optional rule,
then every 30 phases of parlay, make a 0-9 roll for each squad or squad
element on the board. If the roll is higher than the SL of the most
experienced combatant in that squad element, then someone in the squad has
broken and may open fire. Make a 0-9 roll for every combatant in that
squad or element and if the roll is higher than 2 x a combatant's SL, then
that combatant is nervous and will
open fire unless saved by the sight of a more experienced combatant. If
there is an experienced combatant within the nervous combatant's field of
view, then make a third 0-9 roll, and this time, if the roll is higher
than the more experienced combatant's SL, then the nervous combatant
begins shooting at the closest enemy.
If shots have been
fired, then at the end of the next phase repeat the process for each squad
and combatant on the field, but this time, add 2 to each of the dice
rolls. In this way, any parlay can degenerate into a full-scale
firefight regardless of the commander's intentions. The parlay
breakdown can be avoided by judicious placement of troops; by teaming more
experienced soldiers with those less experienced, the entire unit is kept
under better command control.
Optional Mechanized
Support: At
the start of the JNA assault on many barricades, a standard tactic was to
send the armor forward to drive over and break apart the barricade. However,
the JNA was quickly educated in the vulnerabilty of their expensive
armored vehicles while practicing such tactics. Televised scenes of
tanks ramming through barricades were quickly replaced by scenes of the
same tanks brewing up and burning.
Players with the
”Phoenix Command Mechanized System” can incorporate the Yugoslavian
vehicles into the scenario. The Yugoslavians will have 3 BVP M80A
APCs with Line quality crews carrying three squads in the column. If
this is done, double the number of Slovenians and provide the whole
Slovenian force with 6 RPG-18s. Data on the BVP M80A can be simulated
with data for the BMP-2.
Victory
Conditions
The JNA win if
they capture the roadblock without taking more than a squad of casualties,
with casualties defined as combatants who are either dead or incapacitated
for more than 20 minutes. The Slovenian TDF wins by preventing a JNA
victory.
If the barricade
was surrendered as a result of parlay, the JNA win a minor victory, having
achieved their objective. In a sense, the TDF have also won a small
victory, both by forcing the Yugoslavians to negotiate before combat, and
in denying the Yugoslavians a pretext for escalating the conflict within
Slovenia.