Rebels vs. Earth Force 15mm rematch!

On Thursday, Conscript Mike F. brought his 15mm Sahadeen Rebels over for a game of Future War Commander. I dusted off the Earth Force to oppress them in a rematch of a game we played last year.

 

2500 points of Rebels without a cause. Lots of vehicles with big guns, but fragile. Oh, except for the Siler. That's anything but fragile ;-)

2500 points of Earth Force Oppressors. Five heavily armed APCs, two medium tanks, infantry and some heavy weapons. Seriously outnumbered by the Rebels but elite to the core...

I set out a scenario where a few stands of the Earth Force contingent were holding a VTOL airstrip and guarding a valuable cargo pod. The Rebels enter via mobile deployment on the north edge of the table, and the rest of the EF from the south. The objective is for the EF to hold the cargo pod for 12 turns, when the VTOL carrier will arrive to pick it up.

I deployed a few stands in a wood overlooking the airstrip.

Mike took the first turn and tried to motivate his Rebels on to the table, but mostly failed his Command rolls. The Siler came on though, rolling straight at the woods at the extreme top left of this photo. I rolled the armoured infantry towards the airstrip ASAP.

An APC caught Mike's recce buggy making a sweep around my lines.

The action was joined fast and furious around the airstrip. Mike's rebel APCs and infantry rolled forward in a wave, blowing up my APC and killing some infantry. Siler can be seen at bottom left.

EF reinforcements ride to the rescue. Opportunity fire abounded and Mike's Rebels scored hits, but crucially failed to knock stuff out...

Meanwhile, desperate fighting around the airstrip as the HQ stand (centre right) issues orders to his depleted group...

My other armoured battlegroup rolled up and concentrated fire at the Siler, knocking it out! Mike's face got pretty long when that happened...

Gilles was feeling pretty sociable. He sat in that chair for most of the night.

I guess he was interested to see how the tanks he painted performed on the battlefield!

A sight to warm the cockles of any Future-Assad's heart. Rebel vehicles burning fiercely. Once the Siler was destroyed the fight seemed to go out of the Rebels somehow... when my tanks were able to get into their optimal range things started to blow up real good. On the following turn, the Rebels failed their army morale check and faded back out into the wilderness, leaving the airstrip and cargo pod in the hands of the EF. Vindication for last year's crushing defeat??
 

Propaganda photo-op as the VTOL carrier swoops in to retrieve the cargo pod. Great game, and always cool to wheel out the 15mm SF stuff. I'd actually used the game as a spur to finish a small terrain project - the rusty makeshift shacks seen in some of the pics above. Watch for a new post shortly with detail shots and a review of an amazing new weathering product! (Oh and thanks to Conscripts Mike F. and Brian for coming out for the game, and to Mike for bringing his very cool toys!) 

Future War Commander 15mm Sci-Fi Battle Report

Last Wednesday we played a game of "Future War Commander" in 15mm, supervised by our cat, Leonard.

We played a standard "kill 'em all"-type scenario from the FWC rulebook.  Conscript Mike F. brought out ~2,000 points of his Critical Mass aliens (top of picture) - some power-suit infantry on foot, two big tanks, and two APCs with mounted infantry.  I rolled out with six APCs (each with two stands of infantry aboard), two tanks, and two combat flatbeds as Scouts (just out of camera range to the left).

My two tanks took up a firing position in the ruins of the village, sighting in on Mike's two big tanks opposite.  Unfortunately my overall commander shat the bed rather continuously throughout the game, only making his command check once in six turns!

The APCs with mounted-up infantry moved forward towards the enemy lines... it didn't go well...

Mike's tanks and APCs moved up, firing on and destroying one of my tanks in the early turns.  Brian moved his infantry-laden APCs up to flank this group and had some success, blowing up a tank and an APC with shooting from his anti-tank stands and APCs.  His detachment were definitely the  Hobgoblins of the battle, achieving local success in a disastrous overall outing.

Mike's infantry looked good as they side-stepped into the cover of the woods.

Mike's heavy infantry were killers (5 attacks at range 60cm, 6 hits each with a 4+ save IIRC) but expensive at ~240 points per stand!

My Scouts ranged in on them with a heavy orbital strike that almost knocked them out...

Unfortunately "almost" was the operative word, as the heavy infantry lit up the APCs with three successive shooting actions that put all the vehicles and mounted infantry out of action.

That's my one beef with the "Commander" series of games (and we saw it in a previous Cold War Commander game too) - one unit, with some lucky command rolls, can shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot until nothing remains of its target but the proverbial smoking boots, and there is damn-all you can do about it.  To my mind this is a bit of a broken element in the command system.  At least with multiple move actions, the commanded element is moving farther away from the element issuing the orders, and therefore incurs further penalties for distance, making the lucky rolls more and more difficult.  With shooting, the penalty to command is only one pip per order (as long as you are within command range) and this can be pretty easy to make.  For example, Ld10: first shoot order on a 10 or less on 2d6; second on a 9 or less; third on an 8 or less (still very doable); fourth on a 7 or less (still a 58% chance of success!).   

And that was the story of the game - bad command rolls by me + great ones from Mike where needed = victory for Mike.  Our side ended up finally bailing out due to army morale breakage.  I guess this was due to the rules working as they were supposed to, and I shouldn't be a whiny little b!tch about it, but the end result felt a little one-sided to me.  Comments on this below please... but in the end, a fun game with pretty toys, so I can't complain too much!  We'll try FWC again this week.

15mm sci-fi project

Though the academy keeps me busy most of the time, I have managed to focus some attention toward the new project the group had pledged to begin. Below is a WIP pic of my alien force for the 15mm project.

These models are from critical mass games - excellent quality. I never paint things with red (most everything is either black, blue, green or metal) as I try to make things look as utilitarian as possible, but who the hell knows what an alien understands of utility. In truth, this project should have been finished a long time ago, but I've ignored it for some time now. Hopefully, I'll finish it up soon.

New Insane Project

I finally got everything together for the 15mm sci-fi project. Everything above comes from the Kaamados Dominion range from Critical Mass Games. I think they're supposed to be a reptilian species. The general idea is that they grow bigger as they age, so you get an interesting range of figure sizes. I quite like the little peons scrambling around the giant battlesuits. As for quality, there was virtually no flash on the figures and the resin vehicles only required a minimal amount of cleaning.
My only problem now is figuring out what to paint them.

Battle report - tough scenario, but cool game

Last night we played a game set in the Horus Heresy, using Future War Commander rules and Epic figures. The scenario imagined the Horus Heresy was just under way, and forces of the Emeperor's Children, who have gone over to Horus, are attacking an Imperial base/industrial facility. The setup was derived from a canned scenario in the Future War Commander rulebook, in which colonists had to be evacuated. I didn't really think that suited the Imperium - civilians at risk? who cares? - so the premise was altered to crucial artefacts, materials and propaganda servitors needing to be evacuated as opposed to innocent colonists.

The Imperial loyalists had to escort the evacuated material, represented by four "Valiant" APCs from Dark Realm Miniatures, the long way across the table. The escort force was comprised of Imperial guardsmen backed by a Baneblade, a squadron of Leman Russ tanks and some Chimeras as well as a bit of orbital artillery. A small detachment of Dark Angels riding in a Thunderhawk was on hand to assist. Blocking them were an elite force of traitor marines, with Rhino APCs, Predators, Land Raiders and dreadnoughts in support. They had a Thunderhawk too, and it would prove decisive.

Dallas and Frederick took command of the Loyalists, while Dave V and Mike F rolled with Horus' boys. Unfortunately I only have these few pictures, but hopefully Dallas can add a couple more. One shows the full scope of the table, and the other shows the Traitor Marines deployed to block a bridge.





The Loyalists had 12 turns to get from one short table edge to the other, but it did not work out for them. Dave V and Mike F were well served by their recon unit and their Thunderhawk, which devestated the "potatoes". I have to say the APCs had really wimpy stats, much weaker than I had assumed (saved on a "6" - ouch). When I try this scenario again in the future, I will toughen them up significantly, or, even better, mandate that the blocking force has to capture them somehow instead of just shooting them to pieces.

All the same, Frederick and Dallas gave a good account for the Imperial side, even if the command dice were not with them (artillery strike missed, Baneblade was late to the party, etc). The traitors went home a little lighter in the Predator department. I think Dallas and Frederick would have also tried some other tactics if they had known more about the rules - easy to see with hindsight.

So the scenario was a bit tough. But I really enjoyed the game. Whereas Cold War Commander is lukewarm at best in my opinion(Spearhead is much more fun), Future War Commander does an excellent job of capturing the feel/fluff of the 40k setting. The folks at Specialist Military Publishing have managed to make a solid adoption of the Warmaster rules concepts to a shooting/vehicle environment.

The Marines are really, really tough because their command ratings are very high. A small detachment of them can run rings around opponents, or unleash round after round of devestating fire. The Thunderhawk in particular is a very, very tough customer, and players have the option of using as an airstrike, or as a gunship on the table. The Imperial Guard, meanwhile, are numerous, and can shoot a lot, but are more difficult to get around the table because their command structure is not as elite.

So full marks to Future War Commander! I look forward to playing the rules again soon. Thanks as always to Dallas for hosting, and to everyone who came out for the game!

Game this week - Epic 40k, using Future War Commander

This week we're going to take "Future War Commander", the science fiction edition of Specialist Military Publishing's rules, out for a spin, using Epic 40k miniatures and a scenario set during the early days of the Horus Heresy, pitting Horus' followers against determined loyalists.

In the fluff of the Horus Heresy, there is a lot of focus on Horus' main battle fleet, which moved to Earth quickly after the rebellion started. But the fighting spread rapidly right across the Imperium, often within systems and even planets.

For the game this week we'll set the engagement on a world where an Imperial military expedition had been amassing, containing substantial forces from the Dark Angels and Emperor's Children chapters, as well as many Imperial Guard regiments. All the units have come to a garrison world in preparation to embark on the expeditionry fleet, when news of the rebellion reaches them. The Emeperor's Children, loyal to Horus, immediately set about trying to take control of the situation, with the ultimate goal of seizing control of the system and the expeditionary force so they can join the assault on Earth. The Dark Angels move desperately to counter them. Component elements of the expedition turn on each other as some of the Imperial Guard units join with the Emperor's Children, while others remain loyal to the Emperor. Fighting breaks out across the planet.

A particularly large column of rebel forces is moving on toward an important Imperial communications base. The small garrison remains loyal to the Emperor, but cannot hold for long. Critical Imperial artefacts, supplies and personnel are loaded on to transport vehicles for evactuation. Will Horus' minions sieze these critical objectives, or will the Dark Angels be able to intervene in time?

See you this Thursday!