MIB vs the Fallers part 3: Who Goes There?

After the confrontation with the Fallers in Part 1 and Part 2, MIB agents B, L, R and Y have made their way back to MIB facilities. Since the MIB failed to capture the Egg (see Part 1), HQ is worried that in fact one of the returned agents was eggsumed and turned into a Faller infiltrator.

In order to reveal the alien inside one of the agents and contain the damage, the four agents are moved to a remote polar MIB facility. They are accompanied by agents V and I, who are certain not to have been egssumed and can be trusted completely.

The game (using FfoL rules) starts with the MIB agents lined up to have their blood tested in the infirmary by the facility doctor. Agents V and I supervise the procedure and are the only ones armed (I don't have unarmed stand-in miniatures for the other MIB agents).

My son played the MIB and didn't know which of the agents was the Faller. The information he had was that at least one of the agents was suspected to be a Faller, only agents V (Leader) and I (Specialist, Medic) were armed and only agent V knew the access code to open the armory door. The mission was to find and terminate the Faller impersonating MIB agent(s).

The MIB facility 

I played the Fallers (all fearless and tough as nails) when they were revealed.

The good doctor had put on body armor to have some protection in case the Faller would jump him and tested agent B first, who turned out to be human and moved to the door leading to the armory. Next in line was agent R.

Agent R was the Faller! To my son's surprise I revealed that the doctor was also a Faller! He (now under my control) opened his medical briefcase, pulled out a pistol and handed it to agent R. The doctor subsequently charged agent I.

And smashed his skull with the briefcase, putting him out of action.

Agent R then fired his pistol at agent V, causing only a point of shock.

Slighty panicked by a shaken leader and the loss of his specialist at the start of the game, my son quickly moved agents L and Y away from the Fallers to agent B by the door.

Meanwhile the Faller leader made his way through the storage room towards the infirmary.

More of the facility personnel turned out to be Fallers and a knife wielding technician joined the Faller crew, entering from the rec room.

Favorable cards allowed the mostly unarmed MIB agents to escape the infirmary and head towards the armory.

One more Faller, carrying a crowbar, joined the crew.

Faller agent R rushed through the door and engaged in close combat with his former colleagues. Agent L succumbed to the avalanche of blows, but Agent Y managed to kick the Faller back into the infirmary and cause a point of shock.

The surviving MIB agents had almost reached the armory, but the Fallers were closing in.

The Faller doctor charged agent V and tried his assault with the medical briefcase again. He was however no match for agent V's superior fighting skills and went down with a wound.

Undeterred, the Fallers kept advancing while agent V succeeded with his task roll and opened the armory door.

Quickly, agent B grabbed an SMG (and exchanged his blood-splattered tie for a clean one).

Only agent Y hadn't made it to the armory yet. He was assaulted by a Faller and hit repeatedly with a crowbar, causing a wound and multiple shock. Fortunately for the MIB, the FfoL rules (as we read them) state that when shock exceeds the number of remaining wounds, the victim retreats away from the enemy. In this case into the safety of the armory. 

Before being able to slam the armory door shut, the Faller with the knife charged agent V. Agent V fumbled his close combat roll and his SMG was kicked out of his hands. Through an expertly executed series of martial arts moves however, agent V takes away the knife from the Faller, drives the knife into his head and kicks him out of the armory.

Two down, four more to go

The MIB agents took the time to recover from their wounds and shock while the Fallers were banging on the armory door, unable to get in.

The Faller doctor tried to treat his wound but accidentally inflicted a new wound.

Agents B and Y, now all armed with an SMG (and new, clean ties), stocked up on ammo and took up position behind the desk, facing the door. Agent V transferred the door controls to a terminal and stood by to open the door.

Incredibly, agent V failed his task roll 2 times ("remember: entering the wrong code 3 means you are locked out" I told my son), but on the third attempt the door opened and agents B & Y shred the Faller leader and the crowbar wielding Faller.

Faller agent R opened fire on the MIB agents, but was gunned down himself. The Faller doctor tried to patch him up, but failed.

In a last ditch attempt the Faller doctor charged agent V with his briefcase. Being a veteran of close combat against briefcase wielding opponents, agent V took out the Faller doctor effortlessly, ending the game with an MIB victory.

We had a lot of fun playing the game. The Fistful of Lead rules are perfect for these sort of small scale skirmish games. We kept forgetting to consistently apply dice roll modifiers belonging to the different traits of the crews though.  

 

Project Star Wars part 15: U-wing and freighter

All my Star Wars miniatures are painted!

Cad Bane an albino Nexu and two alien dignitaries were the last ones.

Din Djarin is still on my to-buy-list and I'll probably pick up the occasional Star Wars mini in the future, but for now this part of the project is finished.

I also managed to finish one of my Thunderbird 2 ships which is now a freighter for use in Star Wars or other sci-fi games.

Before and after

I still have one other Thunderbird 2 which is already painted but awaiting some Aurebesh decals. The third Thunderbird 2 ship I will keep in its original state for other games.

Another ship I came across was the Hasbro U-wing, which is pretty much perfect scalewise for Star Wars Legion miniatures.

I removed the Nerf darts, gave the engines a wash and painted the panel lines.

Both ships side by side.

More than enough ships for a spaceport or a "get to the shuttle" scenario!

Austrians vs Italians

Played a Sharpe Practice Napoleonics game at the club yesterday: Austrians had to attack a position defended by Italians.

Since I don't have any Napoleonics in my miniature collection, I enjoyed the opportunity to play with a colourful, well painted army.

My side (the Austrians) did however lose the battle. I must remember to pick an extra deployment point as a support option next time when playing with an army consisting of lots of units.

Verkhne‐Yablochny

Operation Winter Storm continues with the attack on Verkhne‐Yablochny. I looked up this village on Google maps to get an idea of the terrain. I guess not much has changed since WW2 over there:

View south from Verkhne-Yablochny

The Germans attacked across this featureless plain in 1942 en will do so again in our game. The scenario map does provide them some scrub and a few trees as light cover this time however.

SPOILER ALERT: 

If you haven't played this scenario yet and still want to play it don't read the rest of the post. It is more interesting to play this with an umpire and players that know only their own objective and victory conditions.

Still here? OK!

The German attack is actually a feint to tie down Soviet forces and allow 11th panzer regiment to circle around the village and attack them from the North. Their objective is to commit as much as the Soviet force as possible. The Soviets' job is to keep the Germans from taking the village, but if they only manage this by committing their entire force, they only achieve a minor victory.

For this game we didn't have an umpire so my opponent and I both knew this.

As usual we rolled the dice to determine who would play the Germans and who the Soviets. This time I got the Germans.

I didn't manage to gain a foothold on the western flank so my plan was to have a squad move to the area of scrub and bring the jump-off point forward with a Chain of Command dice.

I deployed a German squad in the center area of scrub which was immediately receiving HE fire from the T34.

A second German squad moved across the open plain towards the western area of scrub, but the T34 fire wounded the junior leader.

The rest of the squad reached the area of scrub and took up positions, dragging their incapacitated leader with them. Auftragstaktik at work.

A Soviet squad deployed in hard cover but immediately lost a couple of men due to the fire of the German squad in overwatch.

Finally a 1 on the command dice! I deployed the infantry gun (the only German AT weapon available for this game) and started firing at the T34.

 

Although the infantry gun kept hitting the T34, no significant damage was inflicted and the tank kept pounding the nearest German squad until only the LMG gunnners were left. Fortunately the German senior leader was able to deploy and remove most of their shock.

The last German squad was deployed on the eastern flank. The Soviet squad now faced fire from 3 sides and was rapidly losing men.

Morale was dropping on both sides when junior leaders received wounds. The Soviet squad broke, but the T34 incapacitated the German junior leader directing the infantry gun fire.

Although the infantry gun was unsuccesful in putting a dent in the T34, I wanted it to keep firing, so I moved the German senior leader towards it.

Another full Chain of Command dice allowed me to end the turn, removing the broken Soviet squad from the table and reviving one of the wounded German junior leaders.

In a bold attempt (with the help of a double phase) to capture the Soviet jump-off point I sent the revived German junior leader with the 3 remaining guys of his squad towards the village.

My opponent skillfully used his full Chain of Command dice to interrupt my double phase and shot the group to bits with the T34.

Only the wounded junior leader remained.

Meanwhile on the eastern flank a German squad had decimated the second Soviet squad occupying one of the buildings but had taken some casualties themselves, including a heavily wounded junior leader.

The Soviet squad broke and evacuated the building, only to be replaced by a Maxim team.

This proved too much for the German squad. What was left of it had to retreat.

The infantry gun kept hitting the T34, still failing to take it out, so I deployed the German MMG in the hope that it's fire would help cause enough shock to have the crew bail out.

Morale was now dangerously low on both sides. If only the Germans could take out the T34....

Finally some decent hits!

The T34's targeting sights were damaged and it's hull MG inoperable, but it still kept dealing out death.

More excellent hits, but also more excellent saves...

My opponent decided to give his T34 some more protection and put it behind one of the buildings, where it still was able to hit the German MMG position.

The end came when my opponent ended the turn with a full Chain of Command dice, removing the broken German squad from the table and reducing German morale to one.

The Soviets had committed more then half of their support options so the German objective of tying down forces was largely achieved, albeit at great cost (2 squads destroyed, 1 junior leader killed and 2 wounded). A slightly better than minor victory for the Soviets, but a Soviet victory nonetheless!

Again an exiting and tense game. The next few scenarios in the campaign are tanks vs tanks. I'm curious how this goes with the Chain of Command rules.