What a Sharpe Mechsuit

For the second try-out of the Sci-Fi rules for games with mechsuits and other infantry we based on What a Tanker, some Sharpe Practice elements were thrown into the mix.

In our first game the activation rules from What a Tanker didn't quite work so this time we used the Sharpe Practice system with flags and unit cards/chips.

Units could use an unused flag to interrupt missiles fired at them and respond by trying to jump away or fire chaff/flare/ECM clouds.

My force consisted of 2 mechsuits, 2 power armored troopers and a unit of (very) light infantry without any armor.

My opponent fielded several units of armored troopers, including a menacing looking self propelled grenade launcher.

 

My guys advanced slowly through the ruins, trying to get a bead on the enemy.

One of my mechsuits managed to take out most of the crew of the grenade launcher.

My opponent tried to deflect further missiles by throwing  a cloud of countermeasures in the air. With the help of a large amount of movement dice, my mechsuit sprinted through the countermeasures and defeated the single remaining crewman in close combat.

The power armored troopers climbed the unstable stairs of the ruins and rained down grenades on the enemy.

When the second mechsuit decimated another squad of my opponent, his remaining troops retreated and that was it.

Apart from it being a bit of an unbalanced game, the use of What a Tanker mechanics (move, acquire, aim, shoot & load) in combination with Sharpe Practice activation and the inclusion of infantry units didn't quite work for us either. The use of flags to interrupt/react felt right. So we played another game. This time dropping What a Tanker entirely, using Sharpe Practice for activation and Chain of Command deployment (including a patrol phase). Mechsuits would have 4 actions available to them, power armoured troopers 3 and the rest 2.

Two of my mechsuits would face two of my opponent's mechsuits.

 

The mechsuits fired at each other and responded with chaff. The chaff would linger until an end of chapter so they had to move around to try and get a clear shot or move close enough for close combat.

In the end, one of my mechsuits was incapacitated and one almost. My opponent still had one fully operational mechsuit and one almost incapacitated (down to 1 action). Victory for him!

A game with only mechsuits would probably have worked better with the What a Tanker rules. The Sharpe Practice rules clearly work better when using more (infantry) units. 

My opponent and I are both fans of the Toofatlardies rulesets and I really like toying with them to find a combination that works for Sci-Fi. Plus it allows me to finally use all the 28mm Sci-Fi stuff I collected over the years in games!