Thursday, June 23, 2011

Retrival, A GruntZ AAR

I apologize, but I needed to pull the AAR . Stay tune for the next GruntZ AAR.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Tomorrow's Wars Last Stand at Red Ridge

  Our club played this scenario a four times. Twice as it was written with the Special Forces getting whacked right off the bat. and twice with modifications to the Special Forces and them beating the crap out of the Brazilians. The modifications was to give the Special Forces a TQ of D10 instead of D8. In all games the IFV was less than effective. If the Special Forces escape to fall back on the hill as a group, they become a 10 dice Cuisinart. In the unmodified games the two outside Special Forces didn't survive the first round of combat. In the modified games they survived to regroup on the hill top, and maul the Brazilian units piecemeal.  Still it's an interesting exercise.


The initial set-up
.
          How I make my hills.
                         Geo Hexes place on indoor-outdoor carpet, to deter tiles from shifting.
 Then carefully lay a covering of thin felt lightly over the Geo. Starting at the top then smooth down the felt over the Geo, working your way to the edges.

Add trees, buildings, roads, and such and off you go.

I had developed this from playing winter WWII games, and it looks great in white.

GruntZ is Fun

  This will be our clubs first attempt at GruntZ. We have been playtesting Tomorrow's Wars for some time now, and decided to take GruntZ for a spin. We played two sessions with the same scenario and varied the forces, and had a great time. Gruntz is easy to learn and well presented. the only minor complaint was that because it depends on profile cards, it doesn't have gun charts. We used the profile cards from the Yahoo group and made do with some modifications.

The scenario was a Sahadeen force and Titan Marine force competing over a fallen VTOL. Yes, those are AT-43 Kolossus walkers from my Highlander Space Bug army. We left them out in the 2nd game.



 The objective: Downed VTOL with valuable weapons and data to be retrieved. Dead crew scattered about.

  Sahadeen forces on the move, Infantry with two heavily armed APCs, and a salvaged Earth Force HAMR. These guys have loads of RPGs that will make for their lack of mechanized forces.



 The Titan Marines arrive, ready to claim their property. Three squads of marines, a light and medium HAMR, and two heavy walkers.


Sahadeen forces moving on objective but were slowed by river crossing.




Titans have moved quickly and are ready to secure the crash site, but the Sahadeen are close and determined to make a fight of it.



Sahadeen fire on the Titans is intense with RPGs flying about furiously, but none have scored a hit. The Titans have smoked a Sahadeen APC though.



But the Sahadeen are moving in under cover of their HAMR and remaining APC.                                                                                        


I've got to order those Sahadeen Warrior Maidens!


End results, Sahadeen withdrew, Titans secured the crash site.
GruntZ is defiantly fun and a good intro to SciFi 15mm, allowing players to jump right in with infantry and vehicles. Profile cards are a great idea, and we're looking forward to Robin publishing more in the future. The rules are laid out well with plenty of color illustrations, short, sweet and to the point!                                                                 

Tomorrow's Wars Demo for Origins

  These are the pictures from Osprey's  Tomorrow's Wars demo, made by Jason Moore, playtested by our club.  Osprey wanted a quick and dirty demo to showcase Tomorrow's War. It was to last 10-15 min per session, and demonstrate game basics. All terrain, figures, and scenario were made by Jason Moore,
Micropanzer Wargame Studio, please feel free to check out his website for better pictures of his products. http://www.micropanzer.com/


The setting is a merc force trying to recover data from a fallen recon mech. The host runs the Aliens and the guest the Mercs.

Aliens have initiative
Fallen mech  +1 cover
Mercs use advance med table


Merc force:
TQ 8  Tec 3 Armor 2d
1 x leader w/ pulse laserACR
1 x trooper w/pulse laser ACR
1 x medic w/pulse laser ACR
2 x trooper w/ pulse laser SAW

Alien Force:
TQ 6  Tec 2  Armor 2d
Command unit:
1 x leader w/ plasma slug  pistols and energy whips
4 x trooper w/ plasma slug rifle and sonic swords

Alien Swarm unit1
4 x trooper w/2 plasma slug rifle ea.
1 x trooper w/ plasma slug SAW

Alien Swarm unit2
4 x trooper w/plasma slug rifle and plasma slug pistols
1 x trooper w/ plasma slug SAW


The Mercs have found the fallen recon mech just as the alien force begins to arrive. Both sides open fire.


Aliens have advanced on merc position taking casualties, but undeterred. The mercs tighten up around their cover.

The Aliens have paused their advance and appear ready to charge the merc position.

Both charges are blunted taking casualties , but one unit makes contact and the fight is on!


 The Mercs stand tough, and decimate one Alien unit, capturing one alien as the other unit closes in. They are better in close combat with a rifle and two pistols, but their numbers are too few and they die. The Alien command unit retreats to get more fodder.

  Time limit expires and the game is called. The Alien command unit had failed it's charge attempt resulting in a failed effort. The Mercs had hung tough and completed their mission, retrieving  valuable  data banks and destroying the mech.

 It made for a short and intense demo, not intended to be a fair fight, but to demonstrate Tomorrow's Wars combat system.


Tomorrow's Wars will be officially released at Fall Recruits Con here in Kansas City, Sept. 9-11,2011. The Ambush Alley crew will be there, selling rules and hosting games. Come and meet Shawn, Peggy , and Robby Carpenter.  Jason and.Micropanzer Studio will also have a booth with these awesome figures. Visit Recruits website for details and be sure to check out the gallery of past events.  http://recruits.mtswebsites.com/