WHAT A TANKER! - Puma Outing

Had a fun game the club on Thursday.  Myself, Andy B and Simon A as the clean living Axis players took on John E and Theo as the Soviet peasants.

Andy took a Panther, Simon a Tiger I and myself a Sd234/2 'Puma'
Theo had a ISU152 and John took an SU100 and a KVIS
Due the points different the Axis had 5 cards (Andy had 1, myself the other 4)

Fighting over our usual 8' x 6' we had a reasonable amount of manoeuvre room for our 20mm / 1/72nd vehicles.

On the Axis side we decided to that the Panther and Tiger would concentrate on the ISU 152 whilst I tied up the SU100 and KV with my superior speed.   This cunning plan almost went badly wrong very early on the ISU152 spotted me in the open and successfully lobbed a huge shell my way.  Lucky rolling on my part meant I only took two damage which I was able to recover straight away with one of my cards.

I then powered into the town and with some good die rolling surprised the KV with a shot into its rear.  Annoying, due to its heavy armour (and bad rolling on my part) the round only lost the KV one command die.  He successfully reversed and firing back hit me the turret causing two permanent damage and damaging my optics (+1 to hit).

Meanwhile the Panther and Tiger and had been skirmishing with the ISU and shells were bouncing off all over the place.

Down to 4 command dice now and at the back of the gaming table I came round behind the ISU and with some good rolling banged a round into its flank knocking it out.  As it was almost midnight we ended what had a fun game at that point.

For those interested, the stats I used for the Puma were:

• Armour Value:  3
• Strike Value: 6
• Slow Turret.  (it doesn't have a powered traverse).
• Fast  
• Fast Backwards.  [can go the same speed backwards as foward]   (has the same number of reverse gears as forward and a rear driving position). 
• Wheeled.  [Cannot cross major obstacles, and if on a road can convert any die to a movement die, but must remain in the road, cannot rotate on the spot]
• Total Points Cost: 10

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Stargrunt II - 15mm Sci-Fi - 'Supply Column Hit'

Played a game of 15mm sci-fi using the Stargrunt II rules at the club on Thursday night, our fourth SG2 game in a row.  This was a follow-on to a game the previous week (one that I've yet to add to the blog).

SCENARIO

Planet:                  Rimstone

Location:              Outer Periphery

Date:                     Terra Year 2250 May 4th 

Scenario Name:    'Supply Column Hit'

Scenario Setting:

Battlegroup Elwen having failed last week to secure Ambassador Lauralie from a downed dropship have been re-tasked to convoy duties.  Task Force Ludlam has been given the mission to intercept them… 

Table Set Up
Lightly wooded terrain with a road running north to south.  Small village to the west.

Task Force Ludlam

Background:      

Intelligence have determined the route for a re-supply convoy belonging to Battlegroup Elwen.

Your Mission:

Ambush the convoy.  Destroy at least half the vehicles and secure a least 1 prisoner.    

Forces At Your Disposal:

Light Infantry Platoon – Veterans (4 squads of 6 men in each  (1 x SAW, 4  x Low Tech Assault Rifle + GL, 1 x MAR)).

Special Equipment:

1.            Enough (dumb) mines for a strip 4” long.

2.            Electronic stealth cloaks.  Troops completely hidden when dug-in underneath them.  Discarded once that element fires/moves.

3.            Specialist ECM Operator (2 chits per turn).

Deployment:

Mines can be placed where ever you want.

Troops can be placed where ever you want (and can be dug-in).

Battlegroup Elwen

Background:      

After recent combat activity you have been assigned a less onerous task.  You are tasked to escort the re-supply convoy from 'Firebase Alpha B’ to ‘Strong Point Dredd’.  No enemy activity has been reported in this sector.  This is a ‘safe route’.

Your Mission:

One of the soft skins is carrying valuable fuel rods for grav vehicles.  This vehicle must make it off the north table edge.

Forces At Your Disposal:

Light Infantry Platoon – Regular (4 squads of 6 men in each  (5  x Low Tech Assault Rifle + GL, 1 x IAVR or SAW)

2 x 4 wheel high mobility scouts, 4 x Low & High Tech Grav APCs, 1 x Low Tech Grav Sled with Rocket Pack (no ammo), 2 x military trucks, 1 x Piranha APC, 2 x Hover sleds (unarmed and unarmoured).

Special Equipment:

One of the trucks is a HQ vehicle with some ECM capability (1 chit per turn).

Deployment:

Enter the sector from the South and exit on the North.  Vehicles are in column.

Umpire Notes:

The missions for both sides were not known until after the game.
Ludlum had intel and knew the strength and composition of the Elwenian forces.  They by contrast knew nothing about the ambush forces.
Elwen secretly picked the vehicle to carry the fuel rods.
The convoy vehicle sequence had to be decided before the game started,
The convoy could not depart the road until the ambush was triggered.
Vehicle convoy spacing was 10". 

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Pictures From The Game

Ludlam's troops spring their ambush knocking out the head of the Elwelian column.

Game Result
After an entertaining game, Task Force Ludlam managed to (just) grab a victory by achieving their victory conditions.

DRAGON RAMPANT

DRAGON RAMPANT

I’ve been looking forward to the release of the Dragon Rampant rules by Daniel Mersey for some time now.  Based very much on the Lion Rampant rules (they share the same base mechanics) these Fantasy rules are set up for small Warband conflict.  I don’t intent to write a full review of the rules here, but havinge read them through and tried my first game with them (more on that later), I would make the following observations:

• The rules allow for a very scalable game, so depending on table size and time available they work equally well with 4 units per side up to 30+.
• You have to roll to activate units, and failed activation ends your turn.  Initially I wasn't a fan, but it keeps the tension and uncertainty in the game, and I like that. 
• The game mechanics at their heart are quite simple and straightforward.
• They are well written and easy to understand.
• They achieve what they set out to do.
• They provide an accessible set of fantasy rules that can easily played on a club night.
• The magic element adds flavour, but is not too overpowering. 

There is nothing like an actual game to help get to grip with a set of rules, so last night I set up some simple terrain on the dining room table for a quick 3 units per side sole game (as an aside here, as a sole game it works really well).  

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The scenario background being Warbands from neighbouring Orcs tribes scrapping over the ownership of a recently ‘liberated’ human watch tower.  Rotgut ‘The Unlucky’ (at the this end of the table above) entered the field of battle with an elite unit of Orc Infantry armed with cross-bows (8 pts), Orc heavy wolfriders (bow armed) (5 pts), and a unit of Orc bow men (4 pts) – 17 points in total.  Opposing him was Baligor ‘The Ugly’.  His force comprised a bellisose foot unit of Black Orcs with an armour upgrade (6 pts), a unit of Orc heavy foot (4pts) with an attached lesser wizard (2pts) and finally a fearful unit of Goblin Archers (2pts) – 14 points total.   

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Rotgut quickly advanced to near the tower with both Infantry and Wolfriders.  

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Baligors Heavy Infantry ahead of both the Goblins and Black Orcs moved to engagement range and the wizard fired off a fire-ball to no effect.  

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The return cross-bow fire inflicted the first casualties of the game and the unit promptly failed its Courage check. 

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It then failed to Rally, so took another casualty and shortly afterwards routed from the field when the Wolfriders charged them.

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The riders then moved down that flank with a view to coming round behind the Black Orcs.  

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Seeing this danger Baligor move the Black Orcs up...

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and threw the Blacks into combat with Rotguts elite infantry.  

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This ended very badly for them and Baligor was reduced to just having his fearful Goblin unit.  

Amazingly, some great archery from them disorganised the remnants of Rotgut’s elites, and whilst they rallied themselves, 2 salvoes of bow for routed the Wolfriders who were now in charge range.

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The Goblin’s then finished off the elite infantry by the tower, and the scene was set for the two archer units to slug it out.  A one-sided exchange saw the Goblins fail their courage check, and then never successfully rally...

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so giving the field to the only remaining unit of Baligors warband, the Orc Bow unit (Light foot). 

Overall an entertaining little game, and I’m looking forward to this Thursday for a larger game at the Harrogate Wargames club with John Savage and the gang there.        

As you may have spotted there is a bit of a mix of figures in use here:  

-  Early Games Workshop (GW) metal, 

-  Late GW metal,

-  GW plastic, 

-  Grenadier'
-  Asguard, 

-  Foundry, and 

-  Irregular Miniatures.

15mm Sci-Fi Game - AAR

Umpired a 15mm Sci-Fi game at the Harrogate Wargames Club on Thursday night.  Gavin, Mark and Simon attacking against John, Mick and Chris in defence.  Rules used - FUBAR Expanded 15mm Sci-Fi.

The attackers had a Hvy Grav tank and 5 Walkers + 2 Armoured Inf Squads and 1 x Power Armour squad against the defenders 2 x Heavy Grav Tanks, a Armoured Grav Flyer, couple of scout vehicles and several squads of Inf with ATGW teams scattered amongst them.
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(Walkers all by made by Critical Mass Games as are a couple of the tanks.  I Grav tank by GZG, as are most of the Infantry and wheeled vehicles. Flying Grav Jet tank by Blade Miniatures)
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An engaging game with an early exchange of Railgun rounds seeing one of Gavs Walkers knocked out and one of Marks damaged (seen below with Railgun KO'd) .
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A further exchange saw both Simon and Chris losing their Grav tanks with my new Walker 'Vera' in action for the first time.
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'Vera' piloted by Jayne

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Mark brought his Power Armour Infantry up through the wood (seen below) and along with the damaged walker chewed out the opposing Infantry and then jump-packed into the town.
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Micks wheeled scout vehicles getting destroyed in the process as Marks armoured Infantry advanced as well.
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Gavin chewed up some Infantry and then moved his other Walker up.
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Johns reserve squad kept its head down amongst the rocks supporting the flying grav jet.
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Gavin then jumped 'Vera' into close proximity to Johns surviving Grav tank, but this brave effort to breach the enemy line was in vain as John made his Initiative role and then destroyed her. 
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At that point we called an end to proceedings.  With regard a result, I judged a slight edge to be have been with Gav, Simon and Mark at the end.   A good game overall :)

Post game notes/thoughts:
1.  A slight tweak to the rules explaining Line of Sight (LoS) with regards to looking in and out of woods is required.
2.  The Infantry ATGW groups should have a +1 sight bonus to hit.

FUBAR - 28mm Sci-Fi - 40K

Last night at the club we had a another FUBAR 40K game.  Further tweaks to the rules were experimented with, namely:
a)  Adding an activation system as per the Bolt Action rules, and
b)  Adding proper penetration charts for armoured vehicles, like with the FUBAR 15mm expanded rules our club uses.
c)   Use of a slave Psyker.
The penetration charts worked fine but the Bolt Action system of pulling dice out, to then prompt an activation role was deemed a failure by all involved.  In future where multiple players per side are involved (as they were in this instance) we will use a system where at the start of each turn both sides roll to see who goes first, highest on a D6 winning.  Every player on that side then gets an opportunity to try and activate a unit.  It then switches to the other team, who then get to try and activate a unit each etc etc.  The Pysker rules were fine as well, and detailed at the end of this posting.

The scenario last night saw the Emperors forces fighting on the fortress-world Jago against the dark forces of Chaos.  It had become know that a lost relic associated with Saint Sabbat had been found in a small village.  A mixed mech platoon of the 53rd Cadogus Regt (Imperial Guard) was despatched with a small Pysker unit from the Sanction Division to secure the artefact before it was desecrated by the unbelievers.  The enemy forces also despatched forces to the village, in the shape of an Ork Platoon and two Chaos Space Marine squads.  

Battle was joined when the 53rd were disturbed searching the village.  One section of Guard held up the Orks north of the bridge, but were ultimately wiped out to a man.  The Chaos Space Marine advance from the West was disrupted when a Pysker took control of a squad member with a missile launcher.  This and a Lee-Man Russ tank saw that squad being eliminated, but the mental effort was too much for the Pysker who suffered a melt-down.  A 2nd Chaos squad made it into the village but was unable to stop the Guard locating the artefact and escaping off-board before they too were wiped out.  An entertaining little game overall  
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Here's some pics.


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Slave Psyker Rules for FUBAR 40K (Expanded)
Slave Pysker is chained in a cage and has to be attended by at least 2 member of the Sanction Division who will be armed with Laser Pistols and Flak body Armour.
1.  Must be activated in the normal way.  Initiative roll 4+.
2.  Range of use: 36:
3.  Can attempt mind control of any individual (not another Pysker).  Is successful on a roll of 2+ on a D6.
3.  The following turn(s), provided the Pysker activates the individual under control can be given any normal action, including a new one of Suicide.
4.  Once under mind control, if the Pysker does not successfully activate, the individual does nothing.
5.  Each turn the Psyker uses his mind control there is a chance he will go mad.  On a roll of 6+ each turn this happens.
6.  If the Pysker 'goes mad' the following happens:
a)  The individual under his control reverts immediately to the original players control.
b)  His attendants are automatically killed by a Psychic blast.
c)  Any other troops within 12" must make a D6 roll, and on a 5+ go mad and go over the enemy's control where they must try and fire on their old team mates.  If no targets can be seen, they commit suicide.