Project: Star Wars (part 1)

After endlessly drooling over the beautifully painted Star Wars miniatures and awesome looking game reports on Leadadventureforum, I finally stopped resisting the urge to get in to Star Wars miniatures and started making a plan for my Star Wars project.

Of the movies I liked part 4, 5 and 6 best, as well as Rogue 1. The Mandalorian series was also great. So I would most likely be going to play games set in the Galactic Empire period or just after. Since I already own a sizeable number of 28mm sci-fi miniatures, I figured I'd already have all the Rebels I'd need, provided they would fit scalewise with Stormtroopers, which I would have to buy. Some of the main movie characters would be nice to have, but I don't intend to replay battles from the movies so no need for a complete set.

After some looking around I bought a second hand Imperial Assault core set and compared the miniatures with other minis from my collection. I've read all sorts of opinions about scale, but as a fan of TLAR (That Looks About Right) I wasn't worried. In any case I was going to use a lot of aliens on the Rebel side and who knows how much they vary in size.

Doesn't look to bad (to me):

The Imperial Assault Rebel's head is a bit big compared to the other human figures (even to the Imperial Assault Imperial officer from the same box!), but otherwise no issues for me.

Of course the alien miniatures from my current collection aren't "real" Star Wars aliens. Although the alien on the left could be an Ongree and the alien on the right could be a Dashade, Dowutin or Boltrunian:

Anyway, with each new movie, new alien species are introduced and the universe is really big so nearly all miniatures representing an alien are plausible I would say.

The Imperial Assault box contained only 9 stormtroopers (and 2 scout troopers). I reckoned I would need more for a game so I've ordered some Star Wars Legion stormtroopers.

I'm not sure whether I'm going to use the Legion rules. Current thoughts are to use 7TV and perhaps Black Ops for small encounters and a Chain of Command adaptation for platoon sized games.

Retrieve the research items (Whiteout)

Probably the last of the summer holidays games, my kids and I played a game of Whiteout. In our previous game (report over here) we managed to rescue the scientists. During debriefing of the scientists it was discovered that a number of valuable research items were left behind. These were not to be allowed to fall into enemy hands so we had to return to the arctic base and search the surrounding area for the items.

Same as during the previous mission our team consisted of 1 explorer and 3 soldiers (my sons and me).

We moved across the ice but soon found our path blocked by a patch of thin ice.

To the North our path was blocked by a pressure ridge and a pack of giant wolves.

The wolves were chased away and we plodded on through the blizzard.

The explorer*

Son #2 *

A stroke of luck: we found one of the huts were the research items were stashed. 

The items were secured and we moved on to explore the surroundings: another pressure ridge and a vantage point.

On top of the vantage point our explorer stumbles into an enemy camp. We couldn't take all of them out before the end of the turn so they raised the alarm and an additional enemy group approaches.

After a shootout, running out of ammo and close combat, our explorer and son #1 are down and unconscious. We manage to kill all enemies but are severely weakend and decide to camp on top of the vantage point. Allthough we  manage to revive our explorer and son#1, we end up overall weaker than before due to unlucky dice rolling and negative sanity modifiers because we killed 8 people...

While our explorer and son#1 are recovering in the camp, son#2 and I decide to do some recon to avoid more negative sanity modifiers. We discover another hut, but decide to return to camp first and spend the night there.

Our endurance and sanity drop further (son#1 is unconscious again) and are barely hanging on when two scientists pass by who want to tell us stuff we already know (type of terrain surrounding us).

Then, after another overnight camp, distaster strikes when an enemy heavy patrol turns up.

And wipe us out! All is lost!

Perhaps the relative ease with which we completed our mission in the first game made us a bit overconfident. We should probably have brought extra men. The rulebook mentions this as a means to increase the likelihood of completing the mission. Although we didn't make it, it was a fun and exiting game.

Better luck next time 😃

*: snow effect

Mission: Get "der Knirps"

Inspired by articles in the Lard Christmas 2015 special and the 2019 Lard magazine I thought I'd create my own Chain of Command scenario with a twist. I didn't tell my opponent about the twist, so he was under the impression it was a regular Chain of Command scenario where the Germans just had some unknown support available, to be revealed later in the game.

Briefing for the American paratroopers: 

June 1944 D-Day -1 

A US airborne platoon is tasked to capture or kill high ranking German officers which are reported by the Resistance to be in a country house in Normandy. Intercepted radio communications refer to an individual code-named “der Knirps”. Allied intelligence believes this to be Hermann Göring himself.

Available support: Sniper team and Medic 

Expected enemy strenght: 1 Fallschirmjäger platoon with unknown support. 

Deployment: per the Strike from above scenario from the 1940 handbook, but without the "first retrieve the weapons from the jump off points" and enter at random places part. The US paratroopers have already collected their gear and made their way onto the grounds of the country house, eliminating 1 FJ squad. 

The twist: 

In reality the site contains a staging facility and laboratory for new Vergeltungswaffen. Doctor Spitzenfinger has recovered from his wounds inflicted by a British commando (read all about it here). Bent on revenge he has temporarily paused his Schmetterling project and returned to his old biochemistry research (rumoured to be based on a manuscript by a certain doctor Jekyll). Incorporating results obtained by colleagues of questionable reputation, he has created enhanced super-soldiers from “volunteers”. They are faster, tougher and stronger but unable to perform more complicated tasks like driving a vehicle, operating a radio transmitter, etc. One of Spitzenfinger’s special projects is code-named: “Der Knirps”. This is a subject enhanced and transformed into a hulking monstrosity, the size of an armoured car. Spitzenfinger is planning to unleash these vergeltungswaffen on British coastal towns as revenge for being shot in the head by the British commando. 

In the game "der Knirps" counts as a vehicle with AV = 3, no ranged weapons but counts as 10 men in close combat, is aggressive and a die-hard. The other Vergeltungswaffen troops count as 2 men in close combat, are agressive and die-hards. Half of them are armed with SMG's, the other half has no ranged weapons. 

The Game: 

All seems quiet in the early morning of 5 june 1944.

     

General von Klinckerhofen is taking an early moring stroll.

But then all hell breaks loose.

Deployment

A squad of US paratroopers deploys near the truck threatening the main house. Fallschirmjäger rush from their barracks to the main house making good use of a double 6 on the command dice roll.

The second US paratrooper squad deploys on the other side, covering the barracks. The second Fallschirmjäger squad manages to deploy just outside their overwatch arc on the road and lays down MG42 fire on them.

The US sniper behind the shed takes aim and drops the German squad leader. But he is only wounded.

 

The US mortar team deploys and fire on the Fallschirmjäger squad. They turn out to have only one mortar round with them (rolled a double 1) which does little damage.

The US paratrooper squad is taking hits from the double MG42's on the road and makes a break for the barracks. Meanwhile 4 sixes have been rolled on the command dice, triggering a random event: heavy rain, reducing visibility to 18".

The hidden support is now revealed and the US paratroopers can't believe their eyes when a group of big, heavily mutated soldiers emerge out of the rain.

They are commanded by doctor Spitzenfinger himself, together with his trusted assistant Helga.

The paratroopers get their act together and open fire, but the mutants keep coming. One bullet finds Helga however and she is killed, enraging doctor Spitzenfinger, who urges his mutants to take revenge.

Close combat wipes out both the paratroopers and the mutant, leaving only Spitzenfinger and the US medic standing. 

Looking at the slaughter, rage is building inside the US medic and he charges the hysterically laughing Spitzenfinger, trying to bash his head in with his helmet (you can't really do this according to the rules, but it seemed to fit the story). Spitzenfinger evades the blow and sneakily jabs the medic with a syringe. 

While the US medic is slowly transforming into a mutant, Spitzenfinger runs to call "der Knirps".

"Der Knirps" makes short work of the remaining paratroopers near the barracks.

Unfazed, a paratrooper bazooka team uses a full Chain of Command dice to ambush "der Knirps" first and then deploys to fire again, putting 2 bazooka rounds in him and immobilising him for the rest of the game.

At the other side of the table, the Americans left their position to support their buddies, allowing the Germans to overrun their jump off point.

Things were not going well for the Americans. Morale was dropping and they had only one squad left, so I revealed my second surpise en sent my opponent some help by way of Michelle of the Resistance.

They drove the Fallschirmjäger squad off the road, but weren't able to turn the tide. 

With US morale at 2 and German morale at 6, the paratroopers withdrew to make sure Allied high command was going to be informed about these new German Vergeltungswaffen.

Doctor Spitzenfinger emerged from his hiding place behind a hedge, vowing revenge for Helga's death, but pleased with the performance of his Vergeltungswaffen soldiers....

It was a fun and very dynamic game with lots of squad movement and quite different gameplay then in our Winter Storm campaign. Spitzenfinger will certainly return in future games with nefarious plans to exact his revenge.

Tyranids vs Space Marines

My youngest son wanted to play a game of "humans against aliens", but "the aliens shouldn't look like humans, they should be really alien".  I thought Tyranids would fit the description. Several rulesets came to mind for the game but in the end I settled for 40K (5th ed.) and resurrected an old army list consisting of hormagaunts, genestealers and a Tyranid prime as HQ (represented by a Lictor model). No ranged weapons just a mass of sharp claws and teeth.

My son never played 40K before so I thought I would let him play with a Space Marines force consisting of a few squads of marines, a terminator squad, a heavy weapons squad and a dreadnought.

The Game:

A shuttle has crashed in a remote region of a newly discovered planet. A space marine force is sent to investigate the site and look for survivors. Little do they know that the area is infested with Tyranids who have already consumed all passengers of the shuttle. When the marines arrive at the crash site, the lurking Tyranids spring their trap.

Here they come!

The wave of Tyranids surges towards the marines into a hail of fire. Marine missile launchers blast holes in the swarm but they keep coming.

Captain Usophagus, the leader of the marines, fires several shots, but despite his supreme ballistic skill he fails to bring down a single Tyranid.

The first wave of Tyranids now smashes into the marine lines and close combat ensues.

Classic 40K: 21 hits out of 33 attacks;

5 actual wounds out of 21 hits;

and the marines wipe out the attackers in subsequent close combat rounds....

When the genestealers attacked the dreadnought I found out that they couldn't actually harm it, so we made a quick house rule: a penetrating hit would be scored in case of a 6 (to hit) and a subsequent 6 (to wound).

The genestealers couldn't beat these odds and where being crushed by the dreadnought so the Tyranid boss joined the fight.

And brought down the dreadnought!

This was too much for captain Usophagus. While his men where steadily pounding the Tyranid horde into goo around him, he charged towards the Tyranid boss screaming: "I didn't bring this ridiculously oversized power sword all this way for nothing. Make a hole and make it wide!".

 

His men backed away and the captain plowed into the giant beast, bringing it down while only sustaining minor injuries himself.

An enjoyable game for both of us. I don't play 40K that often so had to consult the rule book a lot. Probably missed some special rules, but who cares: we had fun.