Destruction Testing: Bringing a 170t Hovertank to a knife fight

After the last game I wanted to try out the Slammers in a close in fight vs. 'OK' but tough troops.

So here we have Slammers vs Antargran Regulars

Why? Because I have these big tanks and I like to use them!

Big

Tank

Slammers advance

Zoom go the combat cars

Whoosh go the blowers

Ready...

Steady...

Steadier...

Oh @#$%$^& they are on top of us, FIRE!

Hit them!

They are behind us!

Not a lot of effective fire going on here

Antargran reinforcements arrive

Surely this will be different this time

Tanks at 'point blank' range

A 'target rich' environment

blam, KO a tribarrel

BLAM!  skirt destroyed, blower immobilized

KABLEWIE!  Blower destroyed

BLAM!  Blowers main gun KO'd

At the scary end of some big guns

So far the Antargran's are doing OK.  Their heavy armour is doling out the pain

BRAAP, tribarrels open up on the lighter tanks, doling out some effective damage

BANG! Combat cars destroy the Antargran HQ vehicle

Combat car brews up, all crew lost

BZAAAP!  Slammers begin the payback, an Antargran heavy MBT explodes and two light tanks down

MBT immobilized - its surely not long for this battle

Fall back!  Antargran MBT seeks better cover

Lighter tanks hedgehog

Immobilized MBT offers some fire support

BRAAAAP, combat cars chew up the lighter tanks, if not destroying them reducing them to ineffective hulks

BZAAP another immobilized MBT

Not good, Antargran's are down one heavy MBT, with two immobilized ready to be picked off when the Slammers are ready and the light tank platoon is toast.  Time to throw in the towel and seek surrender terms

Slammers in charge of the battle space (again!)

OK, a quick and deadly action.  I wanted to really test the knife-fighting aspect of Slammers warfare, and yes, they are deadly up close.  Slammers vehicles are VERY tough with high all-round armour, the combination of this with speed and ability to gain flank and rear shots (at Elite level) with such high fire volume is deadly.

However, it is now when I realized my big mistake.  I had inadvertently been playing with the 28mm cards for the slammers, so I actually had then moving twice as fast as they should for the same LPs.  After some back-tracking calculations I'm pretty certain the outcome would have been the same, as I had tons of spare LPs for the Slammers so could have used them for additional movements.

So, Slammers, tough, hit hard, hit what they aim at and move fast.  But are they fun?  Sort of, I like playing them, but I don't think I could play them often.

And as a side note on the Crucible rules.  I don't use cm, I stick to inches.  Why?  Two reasons: the first is that Antargran MBT can only move 8cm and the tank is longer than 8cm, I just cannot play with the vehicle not able move its own length in a movement.  Second, in inches the game really zips along, more how I imagine the Slammers novels when I read them.

This was the second of the GZG test games, now its time to pack the toys and be off to the GZG ECC.  Slammers game on Friday night here we come!

A Small and Deadly War

The Collective discover a secret UNSC base.  Things do not go well.

 Scouts find an isolated outpost hidden in a hill

Fire!

Burning 'hog

Later

Knock, knock.  An Elite leads a raiding party

 Horgoi brutes scout for fresh meat

Naga scout the other flank, more cautiously than the brutes

 Neek squads are brought forwards for the entry teams

 A UNSC Pelican approaches

 Pelican on short final

UNSC troops debus

 The A-Team Arrives...

Dustoff

UNSC mission: Rescue the scientists in the base, or deny base to the Collective

Rules today are a light version Stargrunt I've played a bunch at the GZG convention, we called it Cinegrunt (I'm not sure who came up with the name, possibly Jon Davis).  Its focused on very small units.

Anyway, these are the A-Team, they are Elites in hard-powered armour with external energy shields, quite the tough nut in SGII.

Shields up

First team lights up the Draco Agnath on overwatch

Boom, the heavy gauss rounds punch through

The second pin the Horgoi, preventing a charge next turn

The Collective pivots to the new threat

Neeks driven forward

Spartan lit up by Neeks (BUT, Spartans ignore 1st Sup counter)

Spartans Charge into Neeks

As expected, the PA thrash the Neeks

One shield goes down

Tavashar leader holds the Neeks, Spartans keep going

Neeks and Tavashar down.  OMG, that wasn't even a contest, Elites in PA with HTH weapons...

Shield flickers back up

Horgoi hose down Spartans, one suppression is all they get

They shrug that off

Then sprint forwards

To hose down the Tavashar unit, two down, one suppression (that heavy MG is deadly)

Neeks pivot to respond

FIRE!

Shield down, Suppression

Tavashar Elite sees his chance he charges

Elite charges Spartans

This does not go well

Both Spartans defeat the Elite, taking down his shield and wounding him

Casualties are stacking up

Shield up, spartans charge the neeks

One HTH later, all down

Spartans follow-through into cover to prep for the next phase

Reload!

Tavashar light up the other Spartan team - but the fire is ineffective, not even a suppression, this will be bad

Spartans advance to cover of the ruined 'hog

BRAAAAAAP!

Neeks sneak a flank of the Spartans

Pew Pew Pew

One Shield down

Next turn, shields up, Horgoi reappear, they charge

They fail to contact, Spartans: Braaap!  Horgoi, lose their leader

Like they care when they are charging!

In go the final two Horgoi brutes

Slam!

Its like meat running into a wall, the Spartans take them down easily

The other team engage the Naga (what have they been doing all game? - mostly running back and forth to get into firing positions)

Naga suppressed

Seeing the writing on the wall the Naga decide that this is not the fight for them, they are off

Neeks

Less Neeks.  Gauss rounds tear into them

The Tavashar opts to retire with what's left of its squad

Tactical withdrawal

The A-Team prevails

The Spartans cover the exfil of the science team

UNSC Pelican inbound to pick up the science team

Phew! that was fast and furious.  Its been ages (years even?) since I played Stargrunt with Elites in Powered armourand WOW! they are deadly.  I really stacked the collective against the Spartans and they ploughed through them, kind of like the video game.  That's a pretty good result, just what I'm looking for. 

This was a test run of some ideas I've been tinkering with for the upcoming GZG ECC, next, a little tweaking of stats and then pack the toys up ready for this weekend!