Crossfire

By July 1992, the Serbian and Croatian forces in Bosnia had occupied the vast majority of the country and had pushed the Bosnian Muslim defenders into a tiny defensive pocket north of Bihac and reduced the Bosnian presence in the rest of the country to holding major cities and towns, such as Sarajevo, Visegrad, Gorazde, Tuzla, and Zenica. In the following months, the Serbians besieged the Bosniak defenders by pounding the Bosniak-held communities with heavy artillery and mortar fire. Nighttime street battles raged as Serbs kept up the pressure through sniper fire and concentrated infantry attacks. This scenario allows players to participate in a nighttime infantry assault in Sarajevo by Serbians against Bosniak positions.

Scenario Outline

This scenario is based on a battle for a single intersection on the outskirts of Sarajevo. A small unit of Bosnian Green Beret defenders must slow down or even stop the advance of the Serbian infantry. The Serbian infantry squads are assaulting the square in an attempt to capture buildings held by Bosnian defenders. 

This scenario takes place at night with only a full moon providing illumination, giving all combatants a spotting range of 200 hexes and a -4 ALM to all fire. The Serbs cut off the electricity to the city earlier, so all visibility within buildings is at no moon level illumination, with a 20 hex spotting range and -12 ALM to all fire. 

Setup

The Bosnian Green Berets set up in the buildings surrounding the square and are allowed to set up any defences they may wish to use. These defences are detailed below. After the Green Berets have set up, the Serbian squads enter the map from the south or east edges. 

All buildings around the square are two stories tall. All of the floors are identical, except that there are no exterior doors on the upper floors. These are treated as windows. The buildings are brick (PF = 370) and the Bosnians can emplace a double layer of sandbags on up to 10 walls of their choice, which adds a PF of 48 to the selected walls for a total PF of 418. Bosnians can also place up to 10 mouseholes, 10 rubble barricades, and 6 expedient mines. These are covered below in the special rules. 

The fountain in the centre of the square provides cover for a kneeling combatant and has a PF of 900. The statue in the centre of the fountain provides cover for up to two combatants standing side-by-side and has a PF of 4000. The kiosks around the square are small metal booths, with a PF of 2 for each wall. 

Bosnian Green Berets

The Green Berets have taken the role of defending this part of the city and have spent a great deal of time preparing defences. This has been time well spent since the Green Berets are an independent unit and can expect no support or relief from anyone. Once the battle begins, they have only themselves to hold the square. The Green Berets must defend the intersection by either killing or driving off the Serbian attackers. 

Bosnian Green Beret Units

            Number             Quality              Weapon

              3                      Line                  AK-47

              1                      Green               PKM

              2                      Green               AK-47

              1                      Militia                Ultimax 100

              1                      Militia                Shotgun

              1                      Militia                AMD-65

Note: The PKM gunner must always have another combatant with him to serve as a loader. Whenever the PKM fires, the loader's CA are occupied with feeding the ammunition belt into the gun and so cannot be used for anything except for spotting targets. If the loader is incapacitated or killed then he can be replaced by another combatant.

Special Weapons include 6 M72A2 LAWs to be distributed as the Bosnian player desires.

Army of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia & Hercegovina

The Bosnian Serb Army has had the city under siege for months and has been pounding it with artillery for much of that time and making occasional infantry forays. Platoon elements have been dispatched to try to take some territory in the nightly ritual of streetfighting. The Serbian troops must capture the buildings surrounding the intersection. 

Bosnian Serb Units

            Number             Quality              Weapons

              1                      Line                  SVD

              4                      Line                  AK-47

              1                      Line                  RPK

              1                      Line                  AK-47 & M-79 Osser

              2                      Green               AK-47

              2                      Militia                AK-47

Special Rules

The following rules are optional and can be used if both players consent. The scenario may be played without these rules.

Tracers: Tracers are special ammunition rounds with a pyrotechnic composition in the base of the bullet. The pyrotechnic chemicals are ignited when the bullet is fired and show the path of the bullet in flight. At night, tracers are a mixed blessing because they not only show where a combatant's shots are hitting, but combatants can also determine the firer's position by following the tracer's path to the source. This is why tracers are normally only used once in every three shots by experienced military personnel--the one in three is sufficient to permit tracking of automatic fire while being sparse enough to avoid revealing the shooter's position.

Rules for tracers in tracking automatic fire are given in Section 6.15 of the ”Phoenix Command Expansion”. Players without access to that supplement may simply add a +1 ALM per tracer to the next shot or burst taken at the same target in the following impulse. So for example, if a burst containing five tracers were fired, the next burst at the same target in the following impulse would receive a +5 ALM.

Combatants trying to spot tracer firing troops are able to spot both the firing and target locations of tracer fire in half the required spotting time and both locations are then considered pinned for spotting purposes. Heavy tracer fire, which is more than one tracer every three shots, is spotted in one quarter the required spotting time and the location is also pinned for spotting purposes. When fire is directed at the tracer location within the next phase, instead of using a firing at muzzle flash ALM, any fire at the location is done using a -7 ALM for firing at normal tracer, and -5 ALM for firing at heavy tracer. 

Players wishing to record tracer locations should place a marker or chit in the hex where tracer was fired. Use a different marker for heavy tracer. The tracer chits remain in place for one phase and then are removed from the board.

For this scenario, both sides have access to tracer rounds and are able to use it as they wish.

Muzzle Flash: In night combat, muzzle flashes are one way in which enemy forces are spotted and targeted. Modern flash suppressors and muzzle brakes have done much to eliminate muzzle flash, but even so, most flashes still light up the night.

Muzzle flashes are automatically spotted by any combatants who have a direct line of sight to them. A quick way of determining this is to mark the muzzle flash hex with a chit or other marker and any combatants with a direct line of sight to the chit can "pin" the hex for spotting purposes. Any fire directed at the muzzle flash is done with a -10 ALM. The chits are removed at the end of the phase.  Muzzle flashes within windows are assumed to be from shots fired far enough inside the room that the muzzle flash visibility will be limited. In this case, the flash is only visible to those combatants within the central 90 degree arc outside the wind­ow. Simply mark the window with a muzzle flash chit and treat the window as pinned for spotting purposes. 

Building Defences

The Bosnian Green Berets have had some time to fortify the buildings surrounding the square and have installed the following improvements.

Mouseholes: Mouseholes are small gaps cut into the walls, allowing combatants to crawl through on hands and knees (+1AC). Mouseholes can be created in any interior wall, or on any wall where two buildings adjoin one another. In this scenario, Bosnian defenders can place up to ten of these. Creating a mousehole in the middle of combat is possible, but requires the use of an axe, sledgehammer, or entrenching tool. This requires 150 person-phases for a simple interior wall composed of wood, sheetrock, or plaster & lath. Obviously, the same method cannot be used for breaching brick walls. There, a 2 pound TNT charge is required and 6 phases are needed to set the charge. All Line-quality Serbian troops are assumed to carry entrenching tools.

Rubble Barricades: Barricades consisting of furniture, rubble, and barbed wire are often placed by defenders to limit or cut an attacker's route through a building. Common places where bar­ricades are placed are stairs, doors, and corridors. The barricade prevents movement beyond its location. These barricades can be cleared by troops in 450 person-phases (15 person-min­utes), during which they may come under fire from the enemy.

Mines: The Bosnian Green Berets have emplaced a series of RGD-5 grenades rigged with tripwires as expedient mines. A person walking through the tripwire would pull the grenade from a container, releasing the safety lever and igniting the fuse.  The Bosnian player should give a list of the hexes where the tripwires are placed to the referee, who will reveal the location to whenever a combatant crosses through the mined hex. Rules for spotting tripwires are found in Section 9.3 of the ”Advanced Phoenix Command” Rules Supplement, but players may simply have the combatant make a Success Roll using three six-sided dice. If the total on the dice is less than the Base Odds plus the combatant's Skill Level, then the tripwire is spotted. Otherwise, the tripwire is missed. The Base Odds for spotting a tripwire are 6 for an actively searching person and 3 for an inattentive person. There is also a -2 modifier to the base odds because of the darkness. 

If a mine is spotted, it can easily be disarmed by cutting the wire (6 AC), or avoided (+1 AC to movement). If the mine is not spotted, then there is a chance that the tripwire will be caught by a combatant passing through the hex. A running combat­ant has a 10% chance of triggering the tripwire, while a walking one has a 90% chance. Once triggered, the grenade explodes at the end of its arming time. Have the triggering combatant make a Success roll at Base Odds of 6 plus his SL to avoid getting tangled in the tripwire. Otherwise, he will drag the mine with him until it explodes. This explosion will occur in the same hex as the combatant. 

Victory Conditions

In order to win, the Serbians must kill or incapacitate all the Bosnian defenders, or as an alternative, they must capture all the buildings surrounding the square.  Bosnian defenders must prevent a Serbian victory in order to win.