A Desperate Defence ‐ Verkhniy‐Kumskiy

The fighting has reached Verkhniy-Kumskiy in our Winter Storm Chain of Command campaign. The Germans are holding on to the village and must resist the Soviet onslaught.

We rolled a die: I got the Germans.

Since the Soviets had a supporting T34/76 and the German's only AT capability were 2 satchel charges, my plan was to lure the T34 close enough to a jump-off point to spring an ambush with a full Chain of Command dice. Although betting on having a full Chain of Command dice is risky, I learned from our previous game.  Also I would probably have to spend the first one on ending the turn because the Soviets laid down a pre-game barrage which gave me a 50-50 chance to deploy my troops until the end of the first turn. 

Patrol phase went well for the Germans

The T34 spearheaded the Soviet attack.

My first attempts to deploy fail due to the pre-game barrage, but I am buidling up Chain of Command points. Normally I would hold back deployment when defending to deny the enemy targets and wait form him to commit his force, but with the uncertainty of the duration of the pre-game barrage I'd like to have at least some troops on the table. So when the opportunity presents itself I deploy two squads and a sniper team. A dice roll of three sixes ends the turn. I can use my Chain of Command points for the T34 ambush!

The German sniper wounds a Soviet junior leader. He's out for the remainder of the turn.

A Soviet squad is however approaching the house where the sniper is located. 

I completely forget my ambush plan and deploy my last squad in the sniper house to fire on the Soviet squad.

The Soviets assault and close combat ensues.

Although the defending German team (including their senior leader!) is wiped out, they've killed more Soviets during the fight so the Soviet remnants are repulsed losing also their junior leader.

Meanwhile the Soviet squad under fire by the sniper is bolstered by a second Soviet squad.

Again the German sniper succeeds in wounding the Soviet junior leader.

Soviet force morale is now dropping fast. 

The Germans try to push the Soviet force morale further down by firing on the remnants of the Soviet squad that survived close combat.

My opponent intervenes and brings up his last Soviet squad and the T34.

Although ambush was no longer possible since I already deployed this squad, they still had their two satchel charges. So the German gefreiter sends Soldat Pauli der Panzerknacker to take out the T34.

Pauli runs to the rear of the T34 and throws the charge on top of the engine compartment.

While Pauli runs for cover the charge explodes: 3 net hits.

The loss of the T34 reduces Soviet force morale to zero and the Germans hold on to the village.

The firefight on the other side of the table had chipped away at the German squad over there to the point that they were pinned. My opponent was planning to charge them before his sudden force morale collapse so we decided to go ahead with the charge to see the outcome.

The Soviets won the charge and broke the German squad, knocking German force morale down to two, but not zero.

Indeed a desperate defense.

Get Spitzenfinger!

Our attempt to combine Sharp Practice and Chain of Command into a ruleset for Mechsuits/Power Armoured troops continues (look here for other posts). This time it's a "rescue" mission.

I gave the background story of the universe where this all takes place some thought. We're aiming for hard sci-fi, so no force fields, tractor beams, teleporters or anti-gravity. Energy cell technology has progressed far enough to allow power armour and energy weapons. Energy weapons (lasers, plasma) are possible but are crew served weapons or mech/power/armour/vehicle mounted. Personal weapons are all based around kinetic projectiles. Missiles (smart or not) play an important part.

FTL travel is possible (Alcubierre drives or jump-gates or some other technology) otherwise we can't use alien miniatures 😉. 

Large companies are the main investors in colonisation, because they are interested in harvesting non-terrestrial resources. There are also some nation-state power blocks and colonies settled by groups seeking freedom from corporate or governmental control. 

This allows clashes between corporate armies, pirates, mercenaries, local militia, regular standing armies and aliens that have their own plans with the planetary real estate.

So, the world of Alien, the Expanse, Firefly, Avatar...

On to the game:

An important scientist employed by one of the megacorporations, Doctor Spitzenfinger, survived the crash of his sabotaged shuttle in the wilderness of an alien world. 

Forces hired by the corporation that sabotaged his shuttle are on the way to capture the doctor and gain a competitive advantage by making him a job offer he can't refuse. An alien force wants the doctor for their own purposes and are also heading for the shuttle.

Since Spitzenfinger is to be taken alive, no shooting is allowed when he could be hit.

We didn't use the patrol phase but started in opposite corners instead.

Drones are scouting ahead of the big boys.

Regular armoured troopers run into some local wildlife (random event) and need to spend an entire turn chasing the animal away.

I shoot first: My opponent's big mech takes a missile in the chest. Only shock though, no permanent damage.

Soon chaff clouds are dotting the landscape.

My railgun drone leaves the table (automatically returns to an off-table collection area) not having fired a single shot, when the drone controller is killed.

The culprits are targeted by my aliens and lose their vehicle.

Both sides are now converging on the shuttle wreck.

My guys get there first. They need some time to pry Spitzenfinger out of his hiding place in the wreckage.

The big mechs are taking (permanent) damage and lose actions while closing in.

My opponent's large power armour suit charges my two medium armour suits who are trying to abduct Spitzenfinger. One of my alien pilots has to eject, but is killed in close combat.

Nearby two other adversaries damage each other's power armour. Both pilots eventually eject but end up in lethal chaff clouds.

My other large power armour suit goes down, but this pilot evades the chaff clouds and gets away.

Having defeated Spitzenfinger's capturers, my opponent decides to knock the doctor out with a sleeping-gas grenade. Due to the triggering of a random event, this causes a fire!

The power armour pilot pulls the doctor from the burning wreckage and clips him to his chest. Using the doctor as a living shield while retreating backwards.

In a desparate attempt my remaining troopers use their jump packs to close with the power armour suit and try to wrest the doctor from him in close combat.

They don't reach the suit however and are gunned down. A costly victory for my opponent (only one suit remained with 2 of 4 damage points left), but a victory nonetheless.

 

Another Sharpe Mechsuit

Our fifth game in this series took place on an alien world covered with fungal growth. Weyland-Yutani (bio-weapons division) has set up a research station which has come up with some interesting results processing the unique fungal matter. Unfortunaltely the competition have gotten wind of it and are converging on the research station from two sides.

By now the rules work pretty well:

• Patrol phase from Chain of Command;
• Activation and reaction using the Sharpe Practice card system;
• Combat is similar to Chain of Command (with some hard sci-fi tweaks).

My opponent brought his trusty Big Mechs and I brought classic power armored Space Marines and Terminators.

All is quiet around the reseach station.

Both my opponent and I first engage (and destroy) the Weyland-Yutani perimiter defenses.

But soon my marines are taking fire from the advancing Big Mechs.

Then one of my heavy lasers takes out a Big Mech!

I manage to damage another one with a missile, but then I run into trouble.

One marine has to eject from his broken suit and lands right in front of an advancing Big Mech.

He actually gets away, but his buddy (while trying to flank the Big Mech) is ambushed by the Weyland-Yutani garrision and gets killed, taking three Weyland-Yutani troopers with him.

 On the other side of the table, the marines are also taking casualties and try to get out of the line of fire.

Like in Sharpe Practice, three flags in a row trigger a random event. In this case my marines have set a patch of mushroom trees on fire whilst firing on the enemy.

Whooooshh!

Smoke and lingering clouds of anti-missile chaff/flare/nano-disruptors begin to cover the table.

Without enclosed suits these clouds are dangerous. When another one of my marines ejects after having lost a close combat encounter with a Big Mech he lands in such a cloud: from the frying pan into the fire. His buddy has more luck and makes his escape.

When the Big Mechs subsequently advance through the smoke and nasty clouds, they finish off my terminators and it's game over for me.

The game ran smooth. Some adjustments of the weapons firepower are needed and a simpler way of establishing suit damage. Eventually also some kind of points system is needed to balance the game.

And I want some Big Mechs too of course! I've ordered a few Heavy Infantry Strikers from Puppetswar that I intend to customize with lots of bits.