The bridge at Qassad Uhm

 Finally a game again, after weeks of lockdown monotony. This time a game of Black Ops. 

The story so far:

Special forces have snatched the insurgent leader Barfani and delivered him to nearby coalition forces. It is imperative that Barfani is moved to a more secure location. Unfortunately he has to be moved by road because helicopter assets are unavailable.

Syldavian coalition forces are transporting Barfani in a convoy. The insurgents have been tipped off and have prepared an ambush near the bridge at Qassad Uhm.

Drone's eye view

The Syldavian convoy enters the board while the insurgents stay hidden on the other side of the bridge.

Syldavians survey the area but are unable to spot the insurgents peeking over the stone wall. A car is blocking the road up ahead but it is not considered a problem by the LAV commander.

More insurgents are revealing themselves while the lead vehicle traverses the bridge.

The Syldavians have still not spotted the insurgents and drive on until....

Boom! The insurgents detonate an IED, setting the LAV engine on fire.

Incredibly, the explosion does not end the stealth phase (in Black Ops, the defending troops only become under control of the player after the stealth phase ends). The Syldavians are looking around but don't see anything suspicious!

Finally, after several RPG's have been fired and the second vehicle has sustained damage to the tyres, the stealth phase ends and Syldavians (still in their jungle camo uniforms from their previous deployment in Africa) become aware that they are under attack!

Troops exit the second vehicle and exchange fire with the insurgents. The crew of the LAV have managed to extinguish the engine fire and start looking for someone to shoot at.

The insurgents lose one of their RPG men and decide to rush the LAV with hand grenades while it is firing at their buddies.

The Syldavians wipe out the insurgent team with the other RPG, but the insurgents take out the crew of the LAV with hand grenades.

Meanwhile, the vehicle carrying Barfani has reversed and 2 Syldavians have deployed in the building, firing at the insurgents behind the stone wall. The APC has taken up position on the other side of the road and is firing its GPMG at the insurgents behind the tank.

At this point we decided to call it a day. 

The insurgents had lost all their weapons able to penetrate vehicle armour (in the Black Ops rules). The road was still blocked for the Syldavians, but we reasoned they could reverse the damaged Hummer and use the APC to push the LAV and the car blocking the road out of the way, driving past the insurgents and out of the ambush.

It had been quite a while since we played Black Ops so we had to look up stuff in the rulebook lots of times. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the game, especially because it was an opportunity to use a number of toys in a game for the first time (the bridge, the vehicles, the Syldavians, the gaming mat, the stone walls and the building) which is always a joy.