An interlude - Who ate all the Space Pies!

 

Huzzah! I just managed to get hold of a lot of painted Micropanzer SAS figs.  On a quick look-over I think they are better in 'the lead' than they appear in the unpainted photos.  They look like they are wearing segmented/sectioned overlapping armour.  They all have backpack powered weapons with conspicuous hoses.   They have some belt-kit with knife/pistol back-ups.  The helmeted troops are fully enclosed style helmets, I've only a few beret troops and that's OK as the beret is one of the weak spots, its more of a Russian beret than a british style.

A major plus is Micropanzer's painting. Its very neat, nicely highlighted/shaded and realistically camouflaged and toned yet still sci-fi, an excellent bonus!

And more good news, these figs have NOT eaten all the space pies...

Some comparisons:

Above Micropanzer leader vs Peter Pig FFL.  The figs are approx the same height and body-size, the MP fig is just more bulky with armour.  Next MP vs Old Crow

 

Again, same general height/bulk, the difference being the MP armoured suit.  This is good. Next one of the mainstays of my 15mm sci-fi forces - an old GZG NAC trooper

 

More good news, good compatibility with MP, with the difference mostly being the suit.  This is OK as my NAC are used as light infantry.  Next, I have a few of the new NAC troops from GZG

 

This illustrates one of my peeves of the 'new 15mm' sci-fi ranges, rampant scale creep.  While I do like the new NAC figs they are a head taller and much bulkier than the old figs.

 

A group shot, new NAC, old NAC (GZG), Peter Pig, Old Crow

Another group shot, MP, P.Pig, old GZG, new GZG.  The MP and new GZG are about the same size, but the MP fig is fully armoured while the new GZG has just been at the space pies..

OK, enough interlude back to the regular stuff.

THEY are comming! RUN!

A short teaser, no time to play today so I set up a game to try to play over the next couple of days.  I'm going to give Tomorrow's War a go.

Garn Raiders hit a small research outpost.  Goal, get into the command center (with dish), download data and escape.  Force: 2 Ganrn raider teams plus a 'DropBear' Robot group.  Humans three teams, 2x security, one scientific, one group of heavy mechs (normally on patrol around base, are rushing back to base to defend it - will arrive on turn TBD).

More later

Bugstomper!

Epsilon Ariadne IV, a dull colony world.  That is, it would be if it were not for the Phugs.  The Phugs are somehow linked to the rich underground seams of hydrocarbons, we just don't know how exactly.  This means that the poor folks of EA IV have to put up with the Phug menace for the sake of the mines that make them their living.

Normally each settlement has a redundant array of Phug deterrent barriers. Normally, a settlement doesn't have a Settlement supervisor willing to sell barrier components on the black market to clear his gambling debts.  What does it matter, the rains keep the Phugs away, except it hasn't rained for a month....

Set-up: The Phugs have destroyed the settlement and opened a series of tunnel entrances.  A Special Forces reaction force has arrived to mop up the Phugs and seal the tunnels.

Special rules:
SF, in powered armour (mv8", +3 save), +2 FP, Td10, MD10.  Two Gun Spider support platforms, TD8, A+1, +2FP, mv8", one autonomous UAV spotter (no hidden move), SF combat walker +3 A, +2 FP, Mv 8
Phug, worker D6 A+1, Warrior D8 A+2  10 burrows to start.  egs can seal by using reg with fire action when in contact with burrow.

SF objective: seal all bug holes, Phugs, kill 50% of SF

SF force enter the settlement

Which is swarming with Phugs

 Warriors

 Workers
SF advance into a bug ambush

The SF PA rips through the bugs like a buzzsaw and moves to seal the tunnel
The gun-spider advances to cover the rear of the PA team

 The gun-spider is chargers by Warriors

Betwen the gun-spider and the Combat Walker the Warirors are chopped apart, but

one Warrior gets through and knocks-out the gun-spider
On the Left flank things are much quieter, the Sf force advances rapidly

The rapidly-moving Sf pay for thier haste, Phugs swarm from the tunnel
On the right Phug reinfrocements flood the area

The advancing right flank pops a bug tunnel and closes on the Phugs, decimating them as they advance

The combat walker finished off the Warrior attacking the gun-spider (which goes off-line)

On the left the gun-spider advances to attack a Worker group

The Workers get the drop on the gun-spider, knocking it out.

The Left PA team easily deal with the Flanking Workers

More Phugs Mass ahead of the SF forces (who are now down by both Gun-spiders)

OH NOES! My camera batteries died, I only have a couple of old ones in spare so only limited photos from now..

...The PA advance on the Phug reinforcements, all Phugs wiped out.  No Phug reinforcements for two turns (TL 4) enable the SF to pop a bunch of bug-tunnels.  At this point its getting hard to get any Phug reinforcements on the table.  Game over - a hard-fought win for the SF team, all tunnels sealed.  Combat Engineers can now reestablish the anti-Phug grid.

The victorious SF team return to their transports at the edge of the settlement

Leaving many dead Phugs in thier wake

This game was an excuse to leave the terrain out and just dig out more, and different, figs to play with.   I tried to balance all the techno-kit with lots of Phugs, it kinda works.  However, PA is lethal, lots of FP and A save rolls make for a tough unit.  Yet again the drones went down fast, perhaps I need to make then hang back more (I envisage them as semi-disposable compared to human troops, even if KO;'d a drone would be repaired/scavenged for reuse).

It'll be interesting to see how this kind of light/tough force does against opponents who shoot back.

Run the Gauntlet

I picked up a copy of Tomorrow's War just recently, inspired by this I thought I'd ramp up the sci-fi a bit in my first game in the new house.

Regular's objective: The Regs are carrying essential supplies from one side of the board to the other, they must get these safely off-board without interception by the irregulars.  These supplies are important, the Reg force of two four-man fire teams has been reinforced by a unit of combat robots.

Irregulars: Get those supplies - they will raise big $$$ on the black market.  The money is big, so is the risk, the boss has helped reduce this by the loan of two ex-military combat bots.

The Regs start in the street top left. Supplies are carried by one trooper, they must exit the supplies through the street bottom right.
Irregualrs start with three teams (2x6 ldr, SA; 1x5 ldr, SA,SAW) and one group of two combat bots.

Robots are Trained, Armoured (+1) with SAWs (+1) and no morale.  Damage: first hit caused a "disabled", robot goes into auto repair: roll at start of each turn on Medic table until robot auto-repairs or is 'dead'.  Any second hit is a 'kill'.

 

Regs looking down the street at start

 Insurgents lying in Ambush

First blood to the Insurgents, they shoot a blue squad trooper and Pin the team.  Blue team responds by shotting and killing the Insurgent leader

The Combat robots advance

Only to be hit by massed Insurgent fire, knocking out one robot.  The robots return fire devastating both Insurgent squads (reaction and in turn)

Red team advances rapidly to secure ground vacated by fleeing Insurgents

Only to run slap into the Insurgent robot ambush

However, high velocity ACR and SAW rounds rip through the rebel bots disabling both of them

The regulars finish off the last member of the Insurgent ambush team

New turn - No reinforcements...
Insurgents used out of contact move to advance the final ambush team forwards, the combat robots advance down the center.

Insurgents do a horrible job of ambushing the robots and pay dearly.

Blue team advances with the supplies, but...
...New turn, reinforcements (huzzah!), Blue team don't do a great job of clearing buildings as they advance and land in among a group of Insurgets

Who promptly fail their activation roll allowing Blue team to slip through their fingers

In the center one of the rebel bots reactivates, temporarily at least.

The combat bots advance to secure the road junction

Red team advance to the final Rebel Combot and shoot it up, knocking it out

Enabling Blue team to finis the mission

A very quick, fun game to kick off gaming in the new house.  Other than the robots this was straight AA, right now I'm thinking adding in all the extra sci-fi kit related bonuses in TW might be a tad too one-sided for these types of games.  I guess I have to try it and see.