The Cubans Will Fight (15mm African Imagi-nations)

Castro had sent advisers to Mugabia almost two years prior to the outbreak of the current war, and they had indeed improved the quality of the Mugabian forces that they had trained.  They might have done more, but President Mpepo-Mfuko had been careful to only allow the most loyal units to be trained.

Colonel Kiambu was so pleased to see the arrival of the Cuban Colonel at his headquarters, that he actually smiled, a very rare occurrence.  He greeted the the Cuban, Colonel Ramirez, and invited him to sit down.  

The Cubans had already formally announced that they would help Mugabia in the fight against Uwanda, but this was the first instance of Cuban forces formally deploying for battle.  Ramirez's force was small but formidable, built around a company of T55 MBTs and a company of infantry mounted in BMP1s.  

After exchanging pleasantries, the two officers discussed integrating the Cuban forces into the defense of Objective B41, the next obstacle in the path of the Uwandan advance.  While the Cubans would make up only about a third of the total force, they represented a disproportionately large portion of the total firepower available.

The morale of the Mugabian troops grew appreciably, after seeing the Cubans arrive.  They were particularly impressed with the Cuban tanks and personnel carriers.  Mugabia did have T55s, but few Mugabian soldiers had seen them, as most were reserved for the Presidential Guard.  The Mugabians had not seen the BMP before, as the the BTR60 was their most capable APC.

The discipline and professionalism of the Cubans was similarly impressive.  With such an ally, how could they possibly loose?

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In Uwanda, the news of growing Cuban involvement came as some surprise. Mostly because the Democratic Republic of Mugabia was a dictatorship with very little communism.  That Castro would be so supportive of furthering the revolution in Mugabia seemed unlikely.

Despite the news being bad, most of Uwanda's leadership was not overly concerned, as Cuban forces in Mugabia were small in number, and for the most part, spread thinly across various training centers.

Still, there was a minority of Uwandan officers that saw this as a very unwelcome development, as there was a growing sense that Uwanda did not have the operational reach to achieve their objectives, and the addition of even a small number of Cubans would make that reach just that much shorter.