Saturday, December 24, 2011

Another week, another battle...

I had another game last week to try out some minor tweaks to the rules. Went alright, though ended up being more lopsided than I had expected. Still some more tweaks to make to the rules (mainly rallying and the melee mechanics). Then I can finally start on the vehicle rules! I took lots of pics of the game, and I will do a bit of a running commentary to help you follow the action.

The basic scenario was that a platoon of Colonial Marines (5 fireteams and a HMG team) are holding a valuable cluster of crystals in the ruins of a town. Assaulting them through the mountain passes was 6 fireteams of armoured Red troopers plus 2 teams of Red power armour. I gave a maximum of 20 turns for the Reds to seize the crystals, but the game ended around turn 14.

I set-up the Marines first, then I randomly determined which side the Red teams would approach from. This resulted in 4 teams of regulars and a team of power armour deployed on the western board edge, while 2 teams of regulars and a team of power armour came from the east.


The meager red forces coming from the east.

The more substantial western assault force.

2 teams of marines plus the HMG hold the west edge of town.

Another 2 teams hold the eastern edge of town.

While the 5th team is in the center of town near the crystal as a reserve.

"Hold the line!"

The HMG would prove quite deadly.

The Reds begin the advance from the west.

The reserve team moves to reinforce the western edge of town.

A single Red team from the west moved north through the woods to hit the Marines in the flank.

The assault in the west begins to get bogged down under heavy fire from the Marines.

Both Power Armour teams preformed pretty poorly, getting bogged down by both casualties and Stress Points.

The Red team begins its flank attack.

After a few turns exchanging fire, the Reds assaulted! They killed 2 Marines and forced the surviving 2 to rout.

Meanwhile on the eastern side of town a protracted firefight developed between these two units. Neither was able to inflict significant casualties, nor have the strength to try an assault.

The HMG team pulled back away from the assaulting Red team to the north.

After rallying off their Stress Points this team of power armour rejoined the attack on the west, only to get cut down by a combination of HMG and small arms fire, eventually routing.

Despite their gains, these Reds found the Marines' firepower too much to bear and were also routed.

The surviving marines on the western edge hold out together.

The western edge of town at games end. The few remaining Red units' morale broke and the assault was over. The marines held the town!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

GZG and PP Comparison

Someone on TMP asked me how well GZG and Peter Pig minis fit with each other, so here are some comparison pics. As you can see, the GZG are a bit bigger, but I find they look fine on the tabletop.


Saturday, December 17, 2011

Latest Playtest...

I finally got around to testing out the newest version of my modern/sci fi rules. This version had some pretty big changes, so I was a bit nervous about how it would work. My trepidation proved needless however, as the new mechanics worked very nicely. There's a few things that need to be tweaked, but I think I have finally made the game I have been trying to make these past few years. I am quite excited to play again.

The scenario: A humanitarian aid mission in the form of an ambulance with medical supplies had been attacked by Zekistani insurgents in a local village. As retribution, a platoon of mercenaries was then assigned to sweep through the rocky passes and clear the village of hostiles.

A few random rolls later and the insurgents were deployed, with some in the village, some in the cliffs and some in the rocky terrain in-between. The early stages of the game went very well for the Mercs. They pushed the insurgents back to the outskirts of the village without suffering any casualties. As they moved toward the village itself things began to turn against them. Casualties began to mount up fast. After some tense fighting, a few lucky rally cards allowed the Mercs to re-new the attack and destroy the remaining insurgents. Of the 20 insurgents, only 2 escaped. However the Mercs had lost 10 men as casualties and another 7 routed, of a force of 24. A very costly victory indeed.

Below are a bunch of pictures from said game. The GZG Hammers Slammers Mercs were painted by myself, while the Peter Pig Insurgents were painted by my dad. Scenery is a mix of commercial and scratchbuilt.