Battle Report - 15mm Sci Fi

15mm Sci-Fi action during our game this week

Yesterday we assembled at Dallas' place to play some 15mm sci-fi.  Previously we have been using the Future War Commander rules to play these games, but this week Dallas and the gang politely indulged my drive to fiddle with rules and play the game using a home-baked variant of the Epic 40,000 rules engine.

Dallas' beautiful Earth Force troops from Rebel Minis



Dallas' very cool UNE Superfortress Colossus - see this link for more on this model

 The scenario pitted my "Federal Forces" (Khurasan Federal Army and Control Battalion with vehicles from Khurasan and Old Crow) against Dallas' "Earth Force" faction (with infantry and vehicles from Rebel Minis, and one monster walker that I believe is now OOP...).

Control Battalion and tanks wait in reserve for the Federals

The Federals had occupied a settlement, and Earth Force was determined to re-capture it.  The Federals started with an army detachment dug into the buildings, and the rest of their detachments in reserve. Earth Force came in on the first turn, and the Federals would have to roll for reserves...whoever had the settlement at the end of 10 turns, or broke the other side first, would win!

Dallas and Mike F took control of the Earth Force, while Brian and Mike A went with the Federals.

Federal troops occupy the objective buildings - models from Khurasan

The game was hard fought.  Over the first couple of turns, the Earth Force guys pounded on the Federal troops holed up in the settlement.  Mike A and Brian managed to damage some Earth Force APCs with AT fire.  Dallas and Mike F then sent the lads in for a massive close assault.  It worked - the Federal Army detachment was broken and driven out the objective.

Mike F's mechanized detachment hits some AT SNAFUs early in the game

Overheard shot of the first Earth Force assault - the Federals were overwhelmed

After this happened, the Federal Reserves arrived - a mechanized Control Battalion platoon, two medium tanks and a pair of super-heavy "Siler" tanks. Mike A and Brian launched a bold assault with the fearsome Control Battalion.  It was a success, but was something of a phyrric victory, as the margin of defeat for the Earth Force detachments was very narrow.  Dallas and Mike F's detachments were tossed out of the objective, but they inflicted heavy losses on the Control Battalion units.

Control Battalion leads a fierce counter-attack against the Earth Force troops

At this point, Dallas was bitten by some bad rolling, and a mechanized infantry detachment that "should" have rallied quite easily opted to continue retreating instead.

The Control Battalion remnants continue to battle for control - APCs are models from Old Crow

Despite the setback, the remaining Earth Force troops found their nerve, reorganized, and counter-attacked, as the massive UNE Colossus Walker continued to close in on the objective.   The game became a series of closely fought firefights and assaults.  Mike A and Brian won nearly all of these with some hot rolling, allowing their Control Battalion remnants to cling to the objective.

Another close-up of the heavy fighting - this would have gone better for Earth Force if that one detachment had not chickened out....

Meanwhile, the Siler tanks exchanged hits with the giant Colossus Walker.  Eventually the weight of fire from the Federal Side took out the shields and knocked out the walker.  The loss of the vehicle was the final straw, and the army morale of the Earth Force side broke.  It should be noted, however, that at that time, they were still contesting the objective, allowing Mike F and Dallas to claim a Thorpian Moral Victory. The battle was very, very close, going down to practically the last turn.

Siler tanks concentrate on the massive UNE walker

The Colossus is wreathed in the "smoke of victory" after knock-out hits from the Siler tanks

Full credit to all players for pursuing the objective with great gusto - in nine turns, I think there were like three close assaults and four more firefights.  The objective buildings changed hands several times during the game. It sort of became necessary to destroy the settlement in order to save it...

Thanks to Dallas for hosting, and to everyone who came out to play. Thanks also to all for showing patience while we worked through the adaptation of the Epic 40,000 rules.