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!

 

Finally painted the first 28mm figures I bought

 I finally painted the first 28mm I bought over 25 years ago: a set of Foundry samurai.

I have always been interested in medieval Japan and practised a number of martial arts in my younger days. I bought the miniatures at a convention with the idea to add more samurai later. I got sidetracked however and spent a number of years painting and playing WHFB and 40K before returning to historical miniatures. After playing a game of Toofatlardies I Ain't Been Shot Mum at a gaming club I dug up the 1/72 WWII Airfix plastic soldiers from my youth, based and (re)painted them and played a fair amount of IABSM games. This then evolved into acquiring and painting 28mm WWII miniatures, and inevitably expanding to other periods, including eventually Samurai. 

Not 28mm Samurai at first however, but 1/72 plastics for use with a modified version of Toofatlardies Dux Brittaniarum! The price of the required amount of (metal) figures to play the game prevented me from expanding the 28mm samurai, opting for cheaper material and scale instead.

Only when I found low count minature rules like Ronin, Daisho and FfoL, I bought some more samurai. These then spent years waiting in the painting queue before finally encountering a brush with paint.

The next milestone will be an actual game with these miniatures. Although I might get distracted again by other shiny things... 

Strike Three ‐ Verkhniy‐Kumskiy

Still the battle around Verkhniy‐Kumskiy is raging as the Soviets try to stop the Germans from pushing towards Stalingrad. This scenario (number 11 from the Winter Storm campaign) is again an all tank battle. Since there were no special scenario elements (a straight meeting engagement) we didn't play it using Chain of Command rules but used What A Tanker. Because of the number of tanks we replaced the initiative roll (due to the expected frequent re-rolls required) by the draw of a card (regular deck of cards without jokers). Increasing the chance of taking the initiative was possible by sacrificing a Wild Dice for an extra card, allowing the player to choose the highest (or lowest) card.

The "who takes which side" dice roll left me in charge of the Soviet force: 3 T34-76's and 2 T70's. They would be facing 3 Pzr III's and a Pzr IV.

An unsteady hand of the guy in the spotter plane blurred the aerial photograph of the battlefield somewhat.😉

Germans on the left, Soviets on the right

With this number of tanks on the (6x4) table and little intervening terrain, both sides immediately blasted away at each other, moving forward to gain a better firing position.

My T34's were taking hits and already suffering permanent loss of command dice. Then my opponent's Pzr III scored an overwhelming number of hits on a T34.

 And retreated into the scrub.

The German Pzr IV succeeded in taking out another T34 by total permanent command dice loss. Only one (damaged) T34 and 2 as yet unscathed T70's left. 

But the German force was also taking punishment. One Pzr III was first immobilized and subsequently put out of acting by total permanent command dice loss.

My remaining T34 was crippled by running gear damage (-2 pips on movement dice) so I maneuvred  the T70's around the flanks in an attempt to get a shot at the side armour of the German panzers.

This fortunately paid off and after taking one Pzr III out by total permanent command dice loss the little T70 managed to blast the Pzr III to bits.

Unable to take the risk of exposing his flanks to the firepower of my remaining T34, the Pzr IV was caught in a pincer of 2 T70's firings at its side armour.

The Pzr IV crew finally surrendered, ending the game in a victory for the Soviets.

The game took longer than a Chain of Command game with the same forces and (nearly) the same terrain. I think this is mainly due to the mechanism that in What a Tanker you almost always can do something with a tank in its turn (which will always come) while in Chain of Command tanks can only be activated with the right dice roll. But when they are activated they can do everything (move and shoot), while in What a Tanker you have these (sometimes frustrating) situations where you can't fire because you are missing an aim dice or are unloaded and missing a load dice or something.

I got the feeling that this game was more dynamic (more movement and maneuvering) than the Chain of Command all tank games.

Anyway, it was an entertaining game. Next scenario will feature combined arms (bot sides have a tank platoon and an infantry platoon) and we will play that again using the Chain of Command rules.

What a Mech Suit first game

In an effort to find a good ruleset for hard sci-fi games featuring troops in power armour (battle suits or mech suits) we tried out the Toofatlardies What a Tanker rules. 

Rules were added to include AT infantry, close combat and counter measures. Also dice use was adapted to be more flexible (better suit means changing more dice to the desired number) and we also had one card per unit to interrupt the other players turn once per game.

My opponent fielded two heavies against a pair of light power armoured troopers and an infantry anti-suit team.

My guys managed to scratch the paint on one of the heavies but were no match for them. The infantry ant-mech team was wiped out and the light power armour suits had their command dice reduced to zero.

Although the game went relatively smooth we agreed on changing several things for the next game:

The WaT way of determining initiative will be swapped for the Sharpe Practice (also from Toofatlardies) activation method.

Deployment from other places than only the table edge should be possible (by using the Chain of Command patrol phase). Jump off points could then also be used by hidden Mech-knackers to ambush the heavies.

Infantry teams may also "paint" a target for other troops, allowing them to fire at these targets when they are not within line of sight and/or make Aqcuisition easier.

And of course some finetuning of strike and armour values.

Hold the Line ‐ Verkhniy‐Kumskiy

After failing to get through in the previous game, the Soviets now send their second wave of tanks towards the German lines around Verkhniy-Kumskiy. Our second game of Chain of Command without infantry and this time it's my turn to play the Soviets.

The Soviets must get their tanks beyond the red line. The Germans intend of course to stop them.

I tried to get as close to the red line as possible in the patrol phase. My plan was to use the "fast" characteristic of the T34/76 to just dash towards the line, using accumulated Chain of Command dice to interrupt my opponent and take extra moves, while taking advantage of every double phase I was able to roll.

My first tank got pushed back by the mighty gun of the Panzer IV.

I deployed the Soviet command tank obscured by the scrub.

And advanced with both tanks.

The German command tank was deployed and my opponent took advantage of his senior leader's ability to order other panzers to fire (German tanks being equipped with radios). My Soviet command tank was hit and immobilised.

The courageous Soviet commander stayed in his tank and tried to suppress the panzers to allow the other tanks to break through. Double phases allowed the T34/76 and a T70 to rush forward, although the T34 had its gun knocked out in the process.

 

 And he made it! One T34/76 breaks through and drives off the table!

The T70, using the Soviet command tank as cover, has almost reached the line when the Soviet commanders' luck runs out.

All Soviet tanks (except the one already past the line) are now on the table.

The panzer IV reverses and takes up an ambush position behind the scrub.

But my opponent doesn't wait for the T70 to pass by and just takes it out with a shot through its front armour.

My remaining T34/76 has taken out the main gun of the German command tank and the second T70 is moving flat out when something incredible happens: my opponent uses his chain of command dice to interrupt and apparently one of his panzer 3 commanders is a tank ace. He rolls a double six on his "to hit" roll adding three strike dice to his shot. The subsequent roll is unsavable and the T70 is no more.

  

The panzer IV and both panzer III's open fire on the remaining T34/76. Soviet force morale is almost gone.

Then the T34/76 is immobilised and it's game over for the Soviets.

One Soviet tank got through, but it will not be of much use in the offensive with its main gun knocked out. The Germans did not lose one tank. Again a fast and smooth game. All tank chain of command games are notably shorter than infantry games so far.