More Forgotten Photos - Star Wars "Firehawk Down"

 What follows are another old set of photos from a game I ran back in 2002 at the now-closed Jenkintown Hobby Center in North Philadelphia. 

Having recently seen the film "Blackhawk Down" in the cinema, I was seeking to recreate the big fight without using modern figures.  Back in those days, there was a sensitivity amongst the HMGS membership about avoiding any games which used recent conflicts which might prove offensive to any veteran who might have lost companions in the same.  It's a rule which I still follow.

Setting the scenario of two crashed grav tanks in the Star Wars universe seemed interesting, but switching the sides, so that the baddies of the Empire were seeking to rescue the tank crews (or prevent them from being taken captive by the Rebels) and prevent the tanks from falling into Rebel hands.

For swarms of indigenous troops, I used Ral Partha Pathans, with a small cadre of WEG Rebel Commando minis.

Rules used were StarGrunt II, modified for Star Wars. Vehicles are old GZG 25mm resin, now available again from Demonscape miniatures.

At right - the crashed Grav Tank Firehawk  4-2.

Indigenous rebel-backed fighters are attempting to swarm the crash site while rebel-trained snipers provide fire support.

A closer pic of the crash site.  The Imperial crew are in grey and are either dug-in at the base of the tank, or are firing from the deck.

There are two squads of insurgents - one skirmishes in the open while the second attempts to sneak in from the flank.

The second crash site. Firehawk 4 - 3 has crashed in a ruined building.  the ruins provided more cover, but made it difficult to extract the crew. 

Atop the building at left, a squad of Imperial Storm Commandos has grav-roped on to the roof, while a swarm of indigs attempts to rush the crashed tank.

Firehawk 4 - 3 is able to fire it's main gun from the ruined building, along a narrow traverse, which helps restrict the rebel advance.

Rebel strongpoint with a blaster turret.  This emplacement, dubbed the Turret of Doom, was able to keep Firehawk 4 - 2 pinned down throughout the game. The building is painted styrofoam packing.

Another rebel sniper nest of scum and villainy.

Here comes the air-support. An out of focus "Shrike" Attack Speeder strafes some rebels caught in the open.

A shrike is, of course, a little bird.  A nasty little bird.

Here's a better picture of the modified GZG AV6 .The addition of fixed wing-mounted blasters and rocket pods had the desired effect...rebel indigs dropped in droves.

These were mounted on wooden dowells so they could "fly" a good three feet above the playing table.

The rebel command post. Alliance officers coordinate the attacks from a safe distance.

I recall the game ended in a tie - Firehawk 4 - 3 was rescued, while the more exposed and harder pressed 4 - 2 was overrun.

Post-Game Thoughts:
Interesting how sparse the terrain looks to me, now.  Were I to replay this scenario, I'd add another three or so buildings, more craters and piles of debris - not to mention some AT-ST walkers in support of the Imperials.

For the Rebels, I have since painted more commandos, though I'd still use my Pathans to represent the local blaster-fodder.

The table is covered in a black felt cloth which was an attempt to simulate macadam - I would now use a dark grey cloth instead.

If I ever get up to GZG-Con on Owego, this would be an amusing game to run...Ω

Babylon 5 Starmada: Ambush at Ragesh 3

Narn Battle Squadron

The Narn-Centauri War broke out anew last night as the Friday Pals met to try Starmada: Admiralty by Majestic 12 games.  I brought out my AOG B5 Fleet Action miniatures. In past games, we have been using a modified Full Thrust/Earth Force Sourcebook rules set by Jon Tuffley , and while the carnage was everything one could hope for, some dissatisfaction about the movement of ships had cropped up. Starmada:Admiralty was going to help prevent the fleets from closing too quickly, and preserve a "fleet action" feel.

The year was 2259, the name of the place is Ragesh 3. The Centauri have a Marcanos-class base and a small fleet protecting it.  Two squadrons of Narn cruisers with two squadrons of Narn heavy destroyers enter the Ragesh system - their orders is to sweep and clear the system of the Centauri.

Rob C. (as Lord Cassdo) and myself (Lord Frylari) took the Centauri (Rob had the fleet, and I manned the station) while Warleaders D'Jay and K'enzie assumed the mantle of the thrice-damned Narns.

The Centauri Battle Line

The Centauri squadron consisted of: two Primus battlecruisers (with attendant fighter flights), two Sullust destroyers and a Vorchar Elint heavy combat vessel. The Marcanos base had four flights of fighters for system defence. The Elint vessel protected any friendly ships within 4 hexes by jamming enemy sensors and increasing the range by one band (i.e. medium range to long range, long range to no target).

The Narn Fleet

The Narn had two identical squadrons, each with: 2 G'Quan heavy cruisers, a G'Quonth attack cruiser, and two Katok battledestroyers. That would be a total of ten warships against five plus a base.


As the outnumbered parties, the Centauri had to destroy twice as many points of ships than they took as casualties to win  The Narn had to clear the system.
 

Marcanos Station

Fighters: Engage and Destroy

Turn 1 - 2 Opening moves. As the opposing squadrons closed, the fighters swooped in to engage their opposites.  B5 fleet games usually involve masses of fighters, and we've learned to try and hold a few flights in reserve to use against ships. So, instead of engaging in the optional Dogfights, the Centauri fighters stood off at range one while engaging the Narn and the Narn complied. The Narn, having more fighters, quickly gained the advantage in the fighter fight.

An Energy-mine Strike

Turn 3 - Energy Mines. The Narn energy mines began to drop on the Centauri fighters. As an area-effect weapon, each fighter in a flight was attacked, and each fighter in each adjacent hex was attacked at a slightly lower chance to hit.  The Centauri lost about 60% of their fighter screen.


Turn 3b - It's a Trap!  A second Centauri squadron, identical to the first, hidden in the planet's sensor-shadow, entered the battle.  Fresh fighters rushed forward  while the surviving Centauri flights withdrew to the relative safety of the Elint jamming field. When the Narn tried to track them, they found they were unable to fire (long range = no target).  Warleader D'Jay was outraged, and promised terrible retribution against the perfidious Centauri plague.

The Narns Advance

Turn 4, 5 - CGI Rendering Slows to a Halt.  Or that's what it felt like.  As the main fleet elements began to trade laser and pulse volleys, the game slowed to a crawl.
 

A Sullust destroyer in trouble

To Centauri dismay, the armour on the Narn cruisers was proving hard to crack (a bit too hard, if you ask me). The Narn lasers were carving up the larger Primuses at an alarming rate. The station had moved closer in it's orbit to the protective Elint screen, but hadn't quite reached yet, and was being pummeled by energy mines.


Endgame - It was getting late, so we called the game for the Narn - they had inflicted about 60 damage points to the Centauri 30. As one Centauri philosophically observed "We had them where we didn't want them..."


Post-game Thoughts:

The Ambush is Sprung

While I enjoy playing the Centauri, mainly due to their cheerful methods of skullduggery, I had intended to referee this session, due to the number of "gotchas" the Centauri were employing (Elint ships, and ambush).  Fortunately, while DJ was suitably outraged at each turn of the worm (or Spoo - 10 credits an ounce, if you can believe it), it didn't effect the outcome of the game. The Centauri still lost.

I had more detailed fighter flights printed out, but failed to bring them to the game. Thus all the fighters were treated as "standard" when really, the Centauri Sentris should have trait "Dogfight (+1 against fighters) and the Narn Frazis should have "Anti-Ship +1".

Centauri in Disarray

The B5 templates (downloadable from the MJ12 forums) need auditing.  The points were off, with the Centauri having about 50% more points then the Narn.  Certainly, the Narn Energy Mine needs some tweaking.

One of the reasons we used Starmada Admiralty was to limit ship speeds so the fleets actually operated like fleets - that was satisfactory.

We had high hopes for Starmada Admiralty, but there are some issues.  Movement aside, the single biggest issue we had was with the damage resolution phase. It seems straightforward enough - roll to hit, roll to penetrate shielding, roll damage - in practise, the game slows down drastically when more than a few ships are involved on each side.  This should improve with practise, so perhaps a smaller fight is in order for the next run.

We've agreed to try again, and I will add some game data to the ship rosters to help speed the game: advanced firing arcs, ship and weapon trait effects, damage charts, etc....Ω

K'Kree Loor'rik'k'ring'r!kir APC - WIP

The Loor'rik'k'ring'r!kir translates to "Carry the platoon to make death" and is the standard design for the armed forces of the Two Thousand Worlds.  According to GURPS Traveller Alien Races 2, this brute is enormous - 100 feet across and 15 feet tall. Green and Trained troops might require a morale roll as it hovers, Independence Day-style, over the battlefield.

Of course, experienced troops, like the Imperials, Solomani and Ithklur, understand that a large target is an easy target, and refer to this family of vehicles as Flying Dart Boards.

I modeled mine from a Chinese take-away container - curried chicken IIRC. The sensor dome was half a styrofoam Xmas ornament blank. There are three VRF gauss guns in remote turrets (K'Kree can't tolerate being cramped into a gunnery turret) and five forward deployment ramps, with an emergency ramp aft.  K'Kree like to charge into battle, following the leader.

The VRF gauss guns were made from small wooden beads, mounted in washers, with muzzles from the bitz box glued on. Some Martian Metals K'Kree military are shown for scale - even at the size of a moderate garage door, K'Kree will need to mind their heads while exiting.

I'll have pictures of the primed and painted version up shortly...Ω

GZG Grav APCs

Happy New Year!

Finally, I've finished my Grav APCs from GZG. These will form part of a TL 14 Lift Infantry unit - just which unit, I'm still giving some thought.

The only modification I've made is to remove the GZG plasma gun, and replace it with the dash-mounted blaster from the Star Wars Micro Machine Gian Speeder. 

It looks more like what I imagine a medium plasma gun should look like...Ω

Release the Smelly Horsies of War...

Inspired as I was by Dylan's quintessential post concerning the K'Kree over at War is Hell, I dragged out my old 15mm Martian Metals miniatures, as well as my GURPS Traveller Aliens module 2.

While reading the booklet (which deals with the Aslan as well as the K'Kree) I was struck by the use of saucer shapes in the fighting vehicles of the Two Thousand Worlds.

I had been pondering over what to use as a crewed AFV (as opposed to the drone vehicles the Centaurs employ) when I realised...I HAD a K'Kree saucer, I just didn't know it.

This is the design which Solomani humans refer to as the "Flying Dart Board" and is an older, though still serviceable design.  I would suggest it can be used up to around circa 1105 I.R.  GURPS Aliens 2 suggests that the K'Kree retain tracks on their grav vehicles for conservative esthetics, which is nice but hardly compulsory.

Pictured above with a human ATV (15mm Old Crow tracked Glaive). I will need to mount an energy weapon like a plasma or fusion gun, and some point-defense remote turrets.

 An added bonus is the saucer top is removable, giving access to what will be the turret interior.

That's a tight squeeze for K'Kree.The interior walls will need projections of open prairie to keep the crew from going mad with claustrophobia.  Such an odd species, but fun to game.

Many readers will by now have twigged the model - the UFO from the Roy Thinnes series "The Invaders" by Monogram.  This simple kit is costing dear on eBay, easily in excess of  USD $50 or UK £35.  While I'd like a second saucer for additional fire support, I'll wait and see if I can find it for somewhat less....Ω

RAGNAROK - Crunchy SciFi Gaming Goodness

The latest issue of Ragnarok - the magazine of the Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargamers Society - arrived earlier this week, and it is full of the crunchy goodness I have come to expect.

There is a multi-player fantasy battle scenario,
A Dirtside II scenario,
A Star Trek starship miniatures scenario,
Something on Cordwainer Smith that is beyond my understanding, and therefore Brilliant,
Traveller ships for Full Thrust,

and much, much more.

And it's all yours for the price of a pdf.

Hie thee hence and see for yourself.

Merry Christmas! ...Ω

StarGrunt Traveller - The Zhodani Attack

Here's an older set of photos from a Friday Pals game using StarGrunt II in the Traveller universe. This was a simple scenario played on the Cargo Deck of Doom. Zhodani Marines are attempting to take over an Imperial freighter, while the Imperial Navy and small Marine detachment resist.

Zhodani troops in Classic Grey

Denizen Ventaurans were used for the Zhodani, supported by RAFM Traveller New Era warbots. The Imperial crew were GZG Security and UNSC Marines. The terrain was a combo of Century XXXI cardstock barricades, used as a raised walkway, with two of the Dwarven Forge Sci-Fi Expansion Set, plus scattered bitz from Grendel, Mystic Moldwyrks, and GZG.

 The single biggest innovation for this scrum was adding the warbots. SGII doesn't really address the issue of robots, so we gave them d12 armour and 2 hit points - thus it took two "kills" to take out a bot.  Until the second "kill"  result, the bot would operate with damaged/reduced systems.  This made them pretty dangerous.

Warbot with one kill and one wound

One of the few things the PBN had going for them was the Mighty Slug Pistol - able to fire AP and HE rounds, with a 1.5" burst radius, the navy was able to suppress the Zho Marines - but not the warbots.

Green Naval crewmen go to ground...

 While the Zhodani used weren't representative of the dreaded Consular Guard, we did want to represent some psionics, so we gave the Zhoes a bonus on their reactivation and rally rolls, to reflect the officers' telepathic ability.  This allowed them to keep up their attack when they otherwise would have failed - this is balanced by rating them "regulars" instead of "veterans", to reflect the conscript nature of Consular forces.

Lone Zho marine rallies telepathically...

 The result was the dirty-stinking-Zhos pushing the Imperials out of the cargo hold, allowing them to consolidate and bring up reinforcements - the fate of the ship still hangs in the balance.
...Ω