Month: September 2016

To culminate gaming weekend to commemorate Ma’k Morin’s visit to the Aberdeen area, Mark ran a test of his fantasy rules at Wood’s Hole (Dave’s basement).  It involved “bad guys,” like Orcs, insect men, fire-spitting salamanders, goblins, and others, attempting to capture the tower from the “good” guys, composed of humans, dwarves, elves, and Roomans.

You can see a lot of cards around the table.  Each unit in Mark’s game has a card with all its attributes, characteristics, and special abilities.  Mark wasn’t sure how many players we would have, so he planned for eight.  With only four players, we had a lot of figures to control, and it was hard to find the right card.  When players have the right number of units, I think managing the cards would be easier.

In this picture you can see Mark’s Roomans (with reddish fur) and my Roomans (in green) preparing to defend a strong position against the bad guys.  Both Dave and Eric sent forces to attack this position.  I managed to fend off the succubus and the first fire-breathing salamander, but by the end of the game, Eric’s second salamander was approach and his Elite Death Guard Cavalry was about to get behind me.

There are a few things that can be done to streamline and improve the rules, but it went pretty well as a first test.

We had been gaming since Friday evening, and we had to quit this game around 1400, so we didn’t fight the battle to a conclusion.  I think the outcome remained in doubt when we quit.    It was a fun game, and it was fun to see a lot of Mark’s troops on the table for the first time in 30 years.

Yesterday we tested Greg’s scenario and rules modifications to use Combat Patrol(TM) for Star Wars.  It’s probably not surprising that the rules worked well for Star Wars, as the film franchise is light on science and heavy on action.

Greg built the cards for the various units.  For the Rebel speeder sleds, we just used the record cards for SdKfz 251 halftracks.  For the “chicken walkers,” or AT-ST, we just used the stats for the US M-5 Stuart light tank.  Greg, who is much more in tune with the Star Wars lore than I am, said that these are lightly armored and easily knocked out.

The Rebels started in one corner of the board.  Their objective was to get the droid (shown in the APC in the picture, above) to the opposite corner of the table and off the board.  The Imperial objective was to stop that from happening.

The terrain consisted of a desert town that occupied about a third of the board.  Since the towns on the desert worlds of Star Wars look Middle Eastern, I used my Crescent Root Middle Eastern buildings.  Before he runs this scenario at a convention, Greg is going to build up some bits to give it a little more of a science fiction look, but in general, I think the Star Wars figures looked pretty good next the Middle Eastern terrain.

While the Rebels had to get from one corner to the opposite corner, the Imperial forces started equally divided between the other two corners.  From each corner the Imperial forces had an AT-ST.  These were placed in the scenario to give the Stormtroopers a chance to cut off the Rebel escape.

You can see Geoff’s reaction tot he loss of his AT-ST in this video:  IMG_0091.MOV

Kurt’s APC is knocked out by small arms fire from Eric’s Stormtroopers.

Eric launches some HE at Bill’s rebels.

I had a team of Rebel infantry that was moving into the town to distract the Stormtroopers and keep them from interdicting the path of the APC with the droid.  I got pretty aggressive, and Eric hit me with two teams and a bag full of grenades.   It didn’t go well for my Rebels, but it did stop these two Imperial teams from repositioning to fire on my APC.

In the end, despite a lot of fire from Geoff’s infantry, I managed get close to the opposite corner with the droid.  Eric or Geoff hit the driver with small arms fire, which caused the vehicle to lose an activation of movement.  I dismounted the infantry and fired on Geoff’s Stormtroopers while continuing to flee with the APC.  I was eventually able to drive off the table, so we Rebels won the game.

At Historicon this Summer I had a chance to pick up the Sarissa armored train for 28mm figures.  Though it is meant to be a German train, I think, it works pretty well as a Polish train.  In these pictures you can see that I have sprayed it in field yellow and have not air brushed the brown and green camouflage pattern.  (I got out the airbrush and found out is was broken.)   Last Friday I put the scenario I plan to run at Fall In (in November) on the table at club night.

In the scenario, a Polish train has parked on a road that the Germans need.  The leading German forces have been tasked to capture the train so that it can be moved.  The Polish platoon is trying to defeat as many Germans as possible.  The idea is that a major German offensive is coming down this road, and it is imperative to get the train out of the way.  The rear car of the train has a gun that has run out of ammunition, so the train’s only armament is a 37mm gun in the forward turret.  The Germans entered the table along the top edge of the photo.  They had two half tracks and a truck full of infantry.  They had three more infantry squads and two Pz 38(t) light tanks.  The Poles had a light anti-tank gun and an anti-tank rifle.

Note that the Germans did not have to destroy all the Poles.  They merely needed to capture the train.  Most gamers will stop and fight, regardless of the mission, but this group had seasoned HAWKs who focused on the objective of capturing the train.  I defined capturing the train as having three infantrymen in the cab.

The Poles deployed no infantry in or around the train, deciding to defend well forward.  The Germans wisely avoided the obvious killing ground in the center of the table and attacked along both flanks.  The Germans did not know that only one of the two train turrets was operational, so they moved cautiously to stay out of its lines of sight.  The shack in the center of the table was unoccupied, and the Poles didn’t really have an opportunity to occupy it.  The shack did serve to limit the Poles’ lines of sight and enable the German infantry to move forward from the corn field.

The Poles had a strong infantry defensive position in the center, but the Germans avoided the area.  On the Polish left, the green German squads in the halftracks and truck moved up through the woods.  The Poles had place a small force on the small hill just off to the right of the picture above.  Their purpose was to slow down the German advance.  They did so, but at extreme cost.  They even tried to toss a satchel charge into the midst of the advancing Germans but it didn’t land were intended and did no damage.  As we called the game the Germans were swarming over the hill and advancing toward the front of the train.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any shots of the German armor advancing on the Polish right flank.  They kept well out of line of sight of the anti-tank gun.  The ATR got off a shot, but missed.  The right flank Polish squad had been all but wiped out by the combined fire of several German squads and tank fire.  At the end we called the game a German victory, because it was obvious that they were going to get to the train.