ACW with Fire and Fury

My deployment on my left, a division just started to move in column to take the  hill in front

 Having completed both my American Civil War armies last year, it recently occurred to me that I had only so far got only one game out of them. A couple of week's ago, with Steve's encouragement, I got them out for a participation game, inviting Mac and Martin in. A number of things conspired to slow things down - I turned up a little late, Mac and Martin were new to the game, I didn't have a scenario prepared as such, and Fire and Fury games take a while to set up as all the units have different numbers of stands which need to be counted out etc., and halfway through ref'ing I got a business call and had to disappear for 15 minutes. The net result was that by time we came to pack up we had barely got through three or four moves and the armies barely got to exchange a couple of musket balls. It wasn't a total disaster, I was pleased to see having mastered the playsheet and my two page rules summary, Steve after just one game played a year ago, had no problem taking other the ref'ing for two new guys, who got the hang of the mechanisms very easily.

Anyway, both myself and Steve, who was sufficiently enthused by the first game to start work on making 'worm-fences' and talking Martin into very generously giving him a huge stash of unpainted plastic figures to put together his own armies, thought we'd at least like to have a go seeing if we could get a decent game done in a club night.

As in our previous game we just used the army lists from last year's 'Antietam: First Attack' Scenario from the excellent fireandfury.co.uk website, mainly because I'd made all the unit labels, with a division of cavalry thrown in each on top. In theory, these scenarios are designed to be played in a couple of hours.

For the battle itself I'll let the pictures and captions tell the story:

Deployment in my centre. William's two strong brigades in front of shot were my reserve 

Close up of some Zouves in Double Day's Division

Steve deploying the Reb's, he sneakily kept a significant force off-table

Steve moves up a division with cannon onto a ridge in front of his position

Steve's division in place on the ridge. Having placed his cavalry division in the centre he shifted them right across to his right flank. Cunning devils these Reb' generals!

I take the hill with Doubleday's division planning to simply bombard the farm. In fact, my shooting was lousy all night and I don't think I killed a single stand with cannon or musket

My Cavalry division on my right proved very troublesome, several times it failed to move properly then the first brigade broke and ran as soon as they came under shellfire

Steve then brings on his reserves in battle columns in the centre where he originally deployed his cavalry, threatening to break through my weak centre/right. With time slipping away I ordered a general advance backed up by my reserves

Steve advanced an infantry brigade against mine, and gets his cavalry ready to charge down the flank

Overview of my left flank as I change plan and get ready to assault the farm

The first brigade sent into assault the farm got wiped out, so with a Rebel yell they get up and  charge my brigade, as part of a general assault across the left flank

While I charge in the centre

Steve throws in his cavalry into the attack on the left

By the next turn battle was joined across the line, on the right and centre I took a lickin'...

...But on the left I was more successful and sent him scrambling back to the cover of the farm walls...

...and drove back his infantry and cavalry!

...out of time again! Damnation! But at least we got to grips this time. Just two more moves and we reckon some sort of conclusion could have shaken out

So again an unfinished game! At least this time we could examine things closer to isolate what slowed it down and what could speed things up next time. Set up was a big issue. Counting out all the stands for each brigade and sorting out the divisions, labels etc. meant it took nearly an hour to set up, not great when you've only got three hours at your disposal. Next, in the Antietam scenario, I'd noticed that the battle kicked off with the lead brigades of each army virtually running straight into each other. At the time, I'd thought that unsatisfactory because it gave the generals limited scope for manuever. But in retrospect we started the armies too far apart. Too much time was wasted in getting into position, especially as just moving a Fire & Fury army takes a while as you need to dice for each brigade before you can move it (which ironically and unlike most games makes it quicker to complete a turn with multiple generals not slower). If we could cut half an hour off set up time, another half an hour off through putting the forces closer and maybe having some 'trained generals' able to set up and move their own divisions without supervision, we might just get a game cracked in an evening yet.

Getting some action in! Some games at the New Club

If this blog has been somewhat neglected of late (yes thank you for pointing that out repeatedly Martin! Hope you are satisfied with recent updates - which include some older stuff btw which I've slipped in earlier in the blog so you'll need to check out back to February to get everything new including the pics/battle reports on my triumphs in the sadly aborted 'Winter King' club tournament) it is mainly because less of my efforts have gone into painting and making things - which tends to get photo'd to show off to get people interested in playing- and most of my efforts have gone into playing with mine, and other people's toys.

So largely to keep Martin happy (who needs 'Followers' anyway), I've added this to keep the blog a bit more up-to-date.

The other people's toys I've been playing with include Martin's very nice WW2 tanks - you must teach me how to get that finish, mine aren't a patch on yours I'm afraid.

Basically this was a pretty straight forward Rapid Fire game set on the Eastern Front, I guess some time around 1943. I got a force of Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs with a couple of Tigers. I had to face down a force of T34/76s and later on some KV-1s. Basically my Tigers slunk into a wood and popped away at the advancing T34/76s. When my Pz IIIs and Pz IVs came on the board, I slipped them alongside them, though they did not get much in the way of hits compared to the Tigers. Things were going ok until disaster struck and one of my Tigers was hit and brewed up. The other then failed its morale test, hit reverse gear and drove off the board!

From there on in I ceased to be in the driving seat. My Pz IIIs and Pz IVs started to see more explosions than Guy Fawkes day, only trading back a few hits. Then the KV 1s made an appearance, and Martin in his generosity decided to rectify my complete incompetance in losing my Tigers, so early on, whose '88s were they only guns able to easily take on the KV1's, and allowed me to bring on two more Tigers. At this point I still had a few Pz IIIs and Pz IVs left. The Tigers held back to take as many shots as they could before the KV1s reached them. But once the KV 1's and remaining T34s were well across the halfway line on the table, I moved my Pz IIIs and Pz IVs, who had been hiding among the burning wrecks (completely unhistorically it was pointed out to me as tankers would avoid wrecks like the plague in case they blew up, and to emphasise the point Martin started rolling to see if they would explode). They dashed out and raced around the back of the Ruskie tanks. The result was an exciting and tense ending as the Russians closed on my Tigers, but I shot up tank after tank with my '88s or from behind, with the game ending with me taking out the final KV1 with my Tiger at point blank range, in an all or nothing shot!

Great game!

The other exceptionally nice toys which I have been very lucky to get to play with are Phil's Early Imperial Romans and barbarian German army. Phil is keen to get us playing 'War and Conquest' rules for ancients, not least because the rulebook features many of his fantastically painted figures. I've been a tad sceptical, because they looked initially just another re-working of the Games Workshop Fantasy/WAB rules. Much as I don't mind rules from this stable, I don't see them as the 'holy grail', don't like having to keep buying new rule books, and I like other rulesets, too, including the completely unfashionable DBA rules. 

I rapidly re-deployed my cavalry from right to left flank to stop the Germans, only to have them sent packing

Although the result of the game can only be described as a crushing defeat for me, I was very much impressed with the simple tweaks to the WAB concept in 'War and Conquest' rules that indeed made for a much, much better game on the whole, as Phil and Tony had claimed. One big difference was the simple initiative test at the start of each turn, which meant sometimes one army could move twice before the other one did. One frustrating thing about WAB is that it is actually fairly hard to make intelligent maneuver count for anything. A player can just still back leisurely and watch an enemy unit march down a flank, and in a calm and measured way just counter it with a turn or whatever when it suits them. The initiative roll changes all of this, because an enemy could come on much quicker than you expected. I also liked the fact that you could influence this initiative roll with your Strategic Influence Points, a couple of times in the game, which can also be used to add another dice to a morale check (in 'War and Conquest' you already roll 3 dice for a morale test and choose the best two, unlike WAB where you just roll two).  

Warband charges into my advancing line of legionaries

This ability to use your generalship to influence the battle at key moments is a welcome addition, compared to WAB, which at times seems to be a prolonged exercise in dice rolling to determine an outcome.

Beautifully painted German warband

I also like the way that having different (and secret) battle objectives was built into the game. It can be a bland assumption in too many games that most battles are fought simply to beat the enemy, and the game is much richer with objectives.

German Noble Cavalry after seeing off my Roman Cavalry

I was less convinced that having the third dice for the morale test is NECESSARILY a good thing in all wargames. Certainly for many classical battles, there is clear evidence that many combats between units was hard fought and could go on for hours, so making it easier to stand/harder to break the enemy makes sense for these sorts of battles. I'm less sure that that is the case for all Dark Age conflicts. Some were hard fought - the Battle of Hastings went on all day-but we don't know how large the armies were in some conflicts, and could in fact have involved quite small forces, who were somewhat more skittish.

My legionary line starts to crumble

Anyway, would definitely play these again, and no problem switching over to 'War and Conquest' from WAB if everyone else does especialy as the army lists are offered free on the website forum, so I'm not expected to buy another set of expensive supplements with another regurgitation of historical information I often have elsewhere any way, just to be able to field an army.

These howling barbarians were too much for my legionaries on the night and eventually most of my legions collapsed

Now we have a lot of very good-looking games down at our club, and if I do not post more pics of Reece, Phil's and Tony's amazing armies and Chris's brilliant Wild West and Pirate games, it is only because they are much better covered in the Club Photo Gallery taken with the club camera, which week-in-week out shows games which look like exhibition games in Wargames Illustrated. This particular game though I couldn't resist taking a snaps and is a game of British Grenadier put on by a member tempted back to the club after our schism with the Card Players/WH 40K players at the old club.

As with the photos of Phil's game, make sure you click on the photos to get a proper look at these amazing figures.

Finally a game that is tempting me, but with so much else on offer I haven't had time to try out is 'Saga' Gripping Beast's Dark Age Skirmish game, which Reece introduced to the club, and is proving popular.

Here are a couple of shots of a game in progress and some Welsh archers. Not only do I have my WAB Anglo-Saxon (and when they have an army list for them Arthurian British) armies to draw on for figures, but I might just have enough figures to get together a Norman army. I also have some Vikings in storage that I'm hoping to get out soon. While I can't justify the expense/painting time/storage requirement of Norman and Viking armies for WAB/War and Conquest, a small skirmish force is an entirely different matter!

Another FUBAR scenario: SW Mos Eisley

Stormtrooper patrol in Mos Eisley

So far Steve and I have had a couple of try outs of the FUBAR rules, but for our third game we thought we'd return to the Star Wars Universe and test them in a different way. This time we went for a multi-player skirmish game. The test was to see if FUBAR rules could handle a multi-player action and with just a couple of units per player and whether they would survive long enough to have an enjoyable game. We opened it up as a participation game and three other guys joined in.

I did a long scenario write-up for this game, which I will post elsewhere. Basically it was based around the Mos Eisley scenes in the first Star Wars film (ie. Episode IV). Obi Wan, Luke and the droids had to slip into Mos Eisley evade the Imperial Patrols, meet Han Solo and Chewbacca in the Cantina in the centre of the table, then make it to Dock 93 in the opposite corner of the table and take off in the Millenium Falcon. As a sub-plot a band of Jawas had a cargo of droids to bring into town to exchange with a band of Smugglers for a cargo of weapons. To really mix things up every one also had at least one gang of Fringers, and Jabba the Hutt had some extra tough 'bounty hunters' as well. Each Fringer gang had a hide-out or two with a 'cache' of money there. The Imperial player not only found it difficult to activate his units initially, but also anyone else could try and activate them, particularly if a fire-fight broke out, when the Stormtroopers could be expected to intervene to restore 'order'. Fringer's could attempt to rob the Jawa, Smugglers or each other. The Cantina was a 'safe' area, but individual Fringers could start 'challenges' ie. one-on-.one fights there.

Whole game board at start of play

The game opened with Obi Wan attempting to slip in but getting stopped by a patrol of Stormtroopers. Fortunately a Jedi Mind trick was available to get them past. One party of Jabba the Hutt's Fringers started sidling up to the smugglers unloading their cargo and another moved towards the Jawas.. The Jawas in the whole 'Keystone cops' spirit of the game ran into the centre of town, only to find their Sandcrawlers failed to activate and they had to run back towards them. A gang of Fringers allied with the Smugglers conceived the idea of 'car-jacking' Luke's speeder, but thought better of it when a second Stormtrooper patrol stopped the Speeder and Obi Wan drew out his light sabre and 'sliced and diced' virtually the whole patrol. Instead the Fringers decided to charge across to one of Jabba the Hutt's hide-outs and killing all but one of the Fringers there came close to stealing their 'cache'. Meanwhile Steve (who was also controlling the good guys) used his gang of Fringers in a non-too subtle diversion by firing on a patrol of Imperial Stormtroopers. When they were close enough one gang of Jabba's Fringer's charged half the Smuggler gang killed them all in close assault and started trying to steal their cargo. Another of Jabba's gang emerged from the leaky chemical factory and attacked the Jawas. Alerted by the drawing of a light sabre, an Imperial Speeder was successfully activated zipped across the board with its impressive 36" move and totalled the good guys' speeder with some cannon fire. The good guys all bailed out stunned (ie. suppressed). Obi and Luke just about made it into the Cantina to bluff Han Solo that they really would get paid, honest, despite not having a speeder to sell, and Han and Chewie set off to get the Millenium Falcon read for take-off. The Jawas having initially had the worst of the fire-fight with a virtually whole band killed or suppressed made a come back when a second band of Jawas wiped out a group of Jabba's Fringers. Various patrols of Imperial Stormtroopers ran back and forth responding variously to other players activations getting them involved in firefights between Fringers, and the Imperial player (me) trying to get them in position to stop Obi Wan, Luke and Han Solo etc..

"These are not the droids you are looking for", Steve plays a Jedi Mind Trick and swaps places with his speeder with a 'civilian' character to avoid being stopped by a Stormtrooper patrol

At this point we ran out of time, but all agreed it had been a great laugh and a suitable 'simulation' of the 'hive of scum and villany' that was Mos Eisley. The Scenario Rules had been fairly complex and for three of the players this was their first game of FUBAR, but most had got the hang of it by the end. It was a bit tricky operating the FUBAR rules for multiple players - for simplicity we only made one initiative roll at the start of the turn and then let players try and activate in turn following a clockwork direction around the table, but as players frequently failed to activate it very much randomised the order of play, and with a bit of familiarity we  started getting each turn completed in a reasonable amount of time, albeit didn't get through that many turns. We really pushed the rule envelopes in some respects - units could have mixed morale ratings - activating on the highest morale rating in the group but rating for suppression etc. on the most common, so Veterans could lead a bunch of Seasoned troopers/Fringers. Units were also allowed to split up or join together in the course of the game. This worked very well and meant high level heroes and villains might have to split from their parties or sneak off deserting them.

I was particularly pleased with the Mos Eisley town that I knocked up in just three days for the game, out of computer packing, old biscuit trays, egg boxes, and some cork tile buildings which were extremely quick to make and will serve me in plenty more middle eastern  (with the simple domes made from tennis balls) or 'Mexican'-style adobe buildingsWild West games. The cork tile buildings have already seen service in another club member's Sudan game! All in all it showed how effective simply painting and dry brushing stuff in the same colours can be in bringing something together.

'Plain Terrain' features: The concept

A 'Plain Terrain Feature'? A 'Terrain Feature' that is 'Plain'? Now this might seem like a 'backwards' concept, but as an American lady I've just been working with says "Here's the thing."

Look at those glossy rulebooks like 'Black Powder', the 'WAB' or 'Lord of the Rings' (or any GW stuff), the 'Rapid Fire' books or the new 'War and Conquest' rules, and, if you are the average wargamer, you have a 'drool' reflex over the pictures.

Now those pictures have lots of very nice painted figures. Which is what we all aspire to. But, they also have some thing else, and putting together this blog and photographing my own miniatures, has really brought it home to me. These publications have photos that all have lovely terrain, but it isn't just any old terrain, nearly always the figures are set out on 'Terrain boards'.

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Now carved, sculpted, flocked and 'teased' terrain boards are all very nice. They look gorgeous, all the best 'exhibition' games at shows use them, and so as I have just mentioned do the rulebook and wargames mag photos. There are, however, three major drawbacks with terrain boards, which are: SPACE, SPACE, and SPACE. Ok, so enough boards to cover a 2 foot square DBA board or even a 4 foot one, or even your basic table are not that many, but obviously you are going to want to have your 'carved out river' boards, too, and your hill boards, and our maybe mountain boards, too, and maybe your road boards... and your city boards...oh, and your desert boards, and your desert hills...and river...and maybe some marsh boards...what about your 'Mars' boards, and Martian hills...and snow boards...and "anyone for trenches?"...

Now if you belong to a club with tons of storage space fine. If you have a spare barn, fine....but I once met a guy at a show who told me he had one of the biggest set of terrain boards going...and admitted the missus had said on numerous occasions "It's me or the terrain boards!". I saw him at the same show a year later. "A new set of terrain boards, again this year" I said. "Yes", he replied. "What's the missus got to say about that?" I asked. "Actually, I got divorced six months ago" he said....

...Now some wargamers might be happy to choose the terrain boards over the missus, but to be honest, much as I love my wargaming, that doesn't include me!

The fact is terrain boards are a right pain. I know a guy at the club who says he has a full set, but says it is too much trouble to get them out the attic for a game, unless its for a show.

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So what's the alternative? Well, its the other 'system' used week in and week out at wargames clubs for your average game, ie: chuck a cloth on the table and scatter 'terrain features' on it.

But, the short-comings of this system really came home to me when I saw some pictures of a game I myself put down at my local club. The cloth was a not unpleasant or unrealistic green felt, so OK a a proper static grass 'battle-mat' might have been a bit better, but the overall look was so dull and utilitarian, it just did not 'zing'...and all that effort which had gone into painting and colour washing, and highlighting and basing my figures just paled into insignificance on this vast expanse of plain coloured background.

To make the point this is a photo of a battle at my local club using figures painted by one of our best figure painters used in a game with a plain cloth and a few terrain features.

Reece's superbly painted armies...on a very ordinary looking table cloth!!!

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Now, a while back I sat and really studied the pics in the 'Fire and Fury' rulebook. The table for these pics is actually a plain cloth or more probably blanket. But immense care has been taken to break up the plainess of the underlying cloth. Bits of cordurey for plowed fields, 'fake fur' for wheat fields, lots of those little fences made out of matchsticks beloved by ACW gamers, little stones scattered about.

So at one time, I thought that might be the way to go, building up a little collection of corrugated card, scraps of carpet and some painted cork tile - all light and easy to carry and easily 'thrown down' to represent fields and the like (ie. 'plain terrain' in wargames parlance). Here's a shot I took, as it happens also of a table set up for an ACW wargame:
Barring the odd gap showing up in river sections etc. I think the photo looks pretty good, and its looks like a 'well-dressed' battlefield. The problem is, well, it LOOKS GOOD IN THE PHOTO, but it doesn't actually look so good in real life.

This partly comes across in the second photo above, which shows a less flattering view, where I the angle does not fool the eye as much. Edges curling up and so forth show up. This problem is even worse IN REAL LIFE. Because unfortunately when you are actually standing over the table, unfortunately a bit of corrugated card looks like well...a piece of corrugated card, a piece of carpet tile...like a piece of carpet tile...a bit of painted cork tile, like a bit of painted cork tile and so forth. With a crease or curl here or there it quickly looks pretty 'tatty' basically.

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Now the fact is, it is possible to make 'terrain features' which look much better than this. Wargamers do it all the time for hills, rivers, roads, marsh and so forth, using sand, sculpted foam, flock and scatters, and there are stacks of blogs out there showing off this sort of work. But they all tend to have something in common. They all concentrate on 'terrain features', ie. unusual terrain - things that hinder movement, block line of sight and have an impact on the game.

What tends to get ignored is all the rest of the table, which for a lot of games, especially ancients or Napoleonic say, is just 'plain', ie. does not affect the game in any way.

Now, hang on, you might say, if you start making this sort of terrain, aren't you back to 'Terrain boards' all over again. To which my answer is 'not necessarily'. At least not the sort of boards that cover the whole table. Why not just have a few decent sized (say two foot square, or two by three) either regular or irregular shapes cut from MDF and 'terrained', ie. crafted from sand, often painted and drybrushed, and enhanced with scatter etc. to represent fields, or areas of rough meadow or pasture, or formal garden, or sandy ground, or moorland, or bare rock (eg. for Sci-Fi) or shell-hole blasted no-mans land or snow or frozen lake...or whatever, as the sort of 'plain' terrain you are likely to encounter on your battlefield... just to 'throw down' as you do for actual 'features'?

Now this admittedly an extra piece of kit to store and carry around, but they should be much less demanding in this respect than a whole table worth of terrain boards, because you are just trying to 'breakup' the look of the plain cloth. Two or three of these 'plain-terrain' features should do it. Storing 2 or 3 of these 'features' for each terrain type you want to do, is much less than for terrain boards (where you need 24 SQUARE FOOT just to cover a 8'x6' table).

Well that's the 'concept'. I've managed to get a nice 4mm MDF board at Wicks and dried out a heap of rough sand. So as soon as I get the jig saw out I'll be sharing the results...

Star Wars Game with FUBAR Rules

 This is the set up for our first try out of FUBAR rules using Star Wars figures. We put the board together with the paper board and cardboard tiles that come with the CMG game, and a few photo copies of the same. The scenario was based on the first battle scene of (what I at least think of as) the first Star Wars film (now confusingly called Episode IV: New Hope). Princess Leia is transporting the top secret plans acquired by the Rebel Alliance for the Death Star, when her ship, Tantive IV, is attacked and boarded by Imperial Stormtroopers led by Darth Vader. The idea behind the scenario is that four squads of Imperial Stormtroopers come on board from two different directions (bottom left and right in the top photo). The Rebel troopers and passengers must hold them off long enough for Princess Leia to rush across to the Droids (or in this case droid as lacking an R2D2 model between us, we only had C3PO), plant her message, then Droids and Princess Leia had to try and escape to the escape pods (top left of top picture) before the Empire took control of the ship. We subsequently modified this rule in the course of the game to say that the Droids must escape FIRST - we made C3PO a 'green figure' ie. difficult to activate and inclined to bumble around, and Princess Leia a Veteran to make her good in combat. The original rule would have made it easy for Princess Leia to escape, and the modified one left her to try to fight a fighting withdrawal to try allow the droids to escape (as per the film). We ruled that any hits on Princess Leia and the droids had to be taken as Suppressions ie. delaying them but not killing them. We also ruled that if necessary the Imperial Player could bring on fresh squads of Stormtroopers after taking enough losses to make one up-the idea being that the Empire would eventually overwhelm the ship.

The top picture shows the battle already underway. Princess Leia has run out of her quarters on the way to activate C3PO. Meanwhile the two squads of Imperial Stormtroopers have charged in from the bottom left, one taking heavy casualties, the other suppressed and pinned down. On the right hand side of the board, however, we encountered the effect of the FUBAR activiation system. A squad of Stormtroopers and a Probe Droid got to the entrance to a corridor and refused to activate - for several rounds! Executions all around later!

 Eventually I managed to get a second squad to a second the corridor on the right and they stormed in, shot up a squad of Rebel Troopers but were suppressed themselves...

 ...a second squad behind them charged forward, charged into a room and started to shoot up a squad of fighter pilots and passengers blocking their way.

 At this point the squad of Stormtroopers hesitating at the other corridor entrance finally activated and moved forward into a room, letting in the probe droid behind it...

 ...fresh squads of Stormtroopers followed behind them...

 ...further shots were exchanged...

 ....a squad on the bottom left held on despite being badly shot up and reduced to two figures...

 ....while a lone surviving Stormtrooper from the other squad on the bottom left was left sniping at a blocking squad of Rebel troopers...

 ...until also supported by a fresh Stormtrooper unit behind him...

 ....My squads on the right recovers from suppressions and move forward...

 ....but C3PO is finally making some good progress towards the escape pods covered by Princess Leia...

 ....the probe droid proves its worth inflicting three hits firing into the rear of a squad of Rebel Troopers defending the attack from bottom right...

 ...who then take more hits from my long 'stuck' squad Stormtroopers now storming through the ship...

 ...On the far right my lead squad of Stormtroopers activate to be able to charge into a squad of Rebel Troopers with another squad of Stormtroopers following on behind...

 ....C3PO and Princess Leia are just a few moves away from the escape pods (top left in this pic)...

 .....and there unfortunately the game had to end, right on a cliff hanger. The Rebel Defences crumbling all around as the Imperial Stormtroopers swept through the ship, just a handful of defenders left, but the droids and also Princess Leia herself tantalisingly close to escaping....

....unfortunately we had started late due to a bunfight between wargamers and card players over getting space to set up a table (a series of bunfights that has lead to us wargamers decamping and setting up our own club). If we hadn't started late the scenario would certainly have played out to a conclusion.

We had played this game as a play-test of the FUBAR rules, and I'd been worried that I needed 'big' squads of figures for the game to work. In fact, I shouldn't have worried. The rules worked fine not only for the size of squads that we used, but also when they had been whittled down to just a few figures, and the FUBAR activiation rules also worked fine for the 'character' figures that we deployed as individual units. We realised some markers might be useful to indicate if a unit has activated (or failed an activation test) - we just used dice instead- but otherwise the game played extremely well. We would definitely play these simple but subtle little rules again!

FUBAR Battle Report: Action on Garda Vilis

This is the set-up for playing out our FUBAR game set in the Traveller Universe 'Action on Garda-Vilis', based on the scenario set out in my last post. Figures are largely EM4 and Denizen.Vehicles came out of a couple of toy sets in the local Pound Shop.

We had previously tested FUBAR with the Star Wars Scenario set on starship, which gave us a good chance to test out the man-to-man combat rules, but I came up with this scenario to set how the vehicle combat and cover rules worked. The top picture shows the table layout from the Imperial side of the board. Most of the table was set up as jungle, with a marshy area on the right, and the little one horse town of Iluurum defended by the Imperial Troops and the Garda Vilis Police Detatchment. The Sword World Armoured Infantry entered in APCs from the other side. Various forces were deployed in the jungle - initially all units were hidden (the scraps of paper, with a number being decoy markers).

By this stage in the game, the Sword Worlders Pathfinder unit on the left opened fire on the Police Unit at the road block, followed by the Zhodani Commandos who fired from the jungle in front. The Imperials responded by withdrawing the police unit from the roadblock and opening fire on the Zho Commandos with Imperial Infantry in the blockhouse inflicting a number of casualties. The Imperial Commandos turned out to be deployed in the same piece of jungle as the Sword World Pathfinders and after a round of shooting decided to charge in and finish them with close assault. Steve decided that it wasn't such a good idea to leave his Zho Commandos so heavily exposed and pulled them back into the jungle and I sent a squad of Imperial Marines around to the right fire on them.This is the point caught on camera.

 This is a shot of the same scene from a different angle.

 And another from Steve (the Sword World) side of the table.

 Having finished off the Pathfinders, my Imperial Commando's forward observer spotted and called in a drone missile on one of the Sword World APCs. The vehicle was destroyed but most of the passengers bailed out, taking two casualties as suppressions.

Steve's other APC exchanged some long range auto cannon fire with my marines in the block house who responded with some RAM HEAP grenades which took out one cannon. Steve de-bussed his Sword World infantry into some jungle before something worse happened to their APC.

Steve finally grasped the concept of 'vertical envelopment' - he admits he finds all these modern warfare concepts very confusing and prefers the clean lines and tactics of phalanxes and tercios!- and teleported his Zhodani Commandos behind one of my squads of Imperial troopers and pretty much wiped them out with close range laser rifle fire.

...and there unfortunately the battle ended...out of time...given our 10.30pm 'out of the building' deadline in our new club. Indecisive, except for the fact that it was the Sword World task to break through the Imperial roadblock, so I guess an Imperial victory of sorts. Could certainly have done with a few more turns to finish off the game...which would have come down to whether the Zhodani commandos could have done any more damage, as the Imperial forces out-matched the Sword World Infantry that they were facing, now their transport had been knocked out/disarmed.

In their second outing the FUBAR rules were proving versatile and extremely playable. Turns could take a little while to play out but overall definitely worth continuing to test out.

FUBAR Scenario: Action on Garda-Vilis

This is a little scenario that Steve and I played out this evening at our 'new' new Club. Might be of some use to all 4 off my followers!!!

It is set in the Traveller RPG Universe.


IMPERIAL BRIEFING

Background:  The date is 136-1107. The place is Garda-Vilis in the Vilis subsector of the Spinward Marches.

All across the Imperial border reports are coming in of enemies of the Imperium pouring across the frontier. It is now 15 days since there have been confirmed reports of mass landings by Sword World troops on the border world of Garda-Vilis.

The 3272nd Imperial Infantry Regiment, a regular Imperial Infantry unit raised on Vilis, has been based on Garda-Vilis for the last 18 months, its third assignment to the world to assist local forces in a counter insurgence campaign against the anti-Imperial guerilla force the Tanoose Freedom League (TFL).

Local forces have proved to be unreliable, and the 3272th Imperial Infantry are the main force between the advancing Sword World army and the provincial capital of Karum.

Situation Report: Sword World Forces are advancing towards the city of Karum, Provincial Capital of Garda-Vilis.

Orders: Hold intermediate town of Illuurum.



Imperial Forces

3272nd (Vilis) Imperial Infantry Regiment

Element of 2nd Company ‘C’ Platoon

Capt  Hans Isidri Gauss Pistol Combat Armour Veteran

Fire-team ‘A’

Sgt Dmitri Kohl Gauss Rifle with RAM GL Combat Armour Veteran

Private x 4 Gauss Rifle with RAM GL Combat Armour Veteran

Fireteam ‘B

Sgt Gani Isshuggi Gauss Rifle with RAM GL Combat Armour Veteran

Private x 4 Gauss Rifle with RAM GL Combat Armour Veteran

Cpl Hagar Strom VRF Gauss Gun Combat Armour Veteran



374th Imperial Commandos

Capt Kelvin Jace Gauss Pistol Combat Armour Veteran

Forward Observation Officer Combat Armour Veteran

Lieut. Holman Starn Unarmed Combat Armour Veteran

Cpl. Golkar Gauss Rifle Combat Armour Veteran

L/Cpl Johanseen Gauss Rifle Combat Armour Veteran

Private Beale Gauss Rifle Combat Armour Veteran

L/Cpl Jasmon Rocket Launcher Combat Armour Veteran




Garda-Vilis Police Detachment


Lieut. Joss Harman Pistol Flak Jacket Seasoned

Squad ‘A’

Police Officer x 3 SMG Flak Jacket Green
Police Officer Shotgun Flak Jacket Green

Squad ‘B’

Police Officer x 2 SMG Flak Jacket Green
Police Officer x 2 Shotgun Flak Jacket Green



Weaponry Notes:

Gauss Rifle : As Assault rifle, but 2FP for full range.

Rocket Assisted Missile (RAM) Grenades: Each Trooper is issued with 2 HEAP and 2 HE Grenades. RAM Grenades have the range of a Grenade Launcher. Infantry –2 on armour save vs HEAP Grenade, but vehicles have +1.

Drone Missiles:  Forward Observer with Commandos may call in up to 4 Drone Missiles. This are as Mortars +1FP, and can be directed against vehicles.


Armour

Imperial Combat Armour is rated ‘Medium’ Armour
 SWORD WORLD BRIEFING

Background: The date is 136-1107. The place is Tanoose/Garda-Vilis in the Vilis subsector of the Spinward Marches.

The Imperium captured the thousand year old Sword World colony of Tanoose and renamed it Garda-Vilis in the Second Frontier World (615-620).

The time to strike back at the arrogant Imperium has come. Aided by our Zhodani allies the united forces of the Sword World have led the strike against the Vilis subsector.

The 146th Joyeuse Mobile Infantry has been committed as a strike force to recapture the former Sword World of Tanoose, where the brave freedom fighters of the Tanoose Freedom League have been fighting back against the hated Imperial occupation.

Situation Report: Local forces are crumbling or coming over to the Sword World cause all across Tanoose.

Only a few regular units of the hated Imperial occupying force stand in your way.

Orders: Strike on  and captured provincial capital Karum!

Sword World/Zhodani Forces


146th Joyeuse Mobile Infantry

Element of  1st Company, B Platton

1st Squad

APC 2 x LMG

Sgt ACR Flak Jacket Seasoned

Corp. Rocket Launcher Flak Jacket Seasoned

L/Cpl SAW (LMG) Flak Jacket Seasoned

Pvt x 5 ACR Flak Jacket Seasoned


2nd Squad

APC 2 x LMG

Sgt ACR Flak Jacket Seasoned

Corp. RPG Flak Jacket Seasoned

L/Cpl SAW (LMG) Flak Jacket Seasoned

Pvt x 4 ACR Flak Jacket Seasoned
Pvt x 1 Combat Shotgun Flak Jacket Seasoned


46th Pathfinder

L/Cpl Sniper Rifle Flak Jacket Veteran
Pvt Sniper Rifle Flack Jacket Veteran

Tanoose Freedom Fighters

Fighter x 2 Machine Pistol (SMG) None Green
Fighter x 3 Auto-rifle None Green


116th Zhodani Consulate Army Psi-Commandos

Lieut Laser Rifle Combat Armour Elite

Sgt Laser Rifle Combat Armour Elite

Private x 5 Laser Rifle Combat Armour Elite


Weaponry Notes

Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR): are rated as Assault Rifles.
ACRs are equipped with built-in RAM Grenade Launchers. Each Trooper has 2 HE Grenades. Range as GL. Effect as Grenades.

SAW – As LMG

Sniper Rifle- As Sniper Rifle.

Machine Pistol – As SMG.

AutoRifle – As Assault Rifle.

Laser Rifle – As Sniper Rifle.


Armour

Zhodani Combat Armour is rated as ‘Light’ Armour.


SPECIAL NOTE ON ZHODANI PSI-COMMANDOS

Zhodani Psi-Commandos may teleport, but must first acquire a target either through familarisation or by clairvoyance and telepathic communication.

Only the officer is capable of Clairvoyance. One location can be designated as a familarised ‘return point’ on the Sword World/Zho side of the table.

To acquire a target clairvoyantly 6+ on 2D. –1 for each subsequent attempt.

To teleport 3+ on 2D. –4 for each subsequent attempt. Note All Commandos must test INDVIDUALLY.