Traveller: Interstellar Wars, using Dirtside II in 15mm

Megz and I decided to try a little Dirtside II while visiting the Tri-State Gamers Day of Games in Springfield, PA this past 17th November. Megz had never played before (though is familiar with StarGrunt II) and I hadn't played in some 4 years - time to knock some rust off.

We were joined by Cliff B. and Gil (?), which was a pleasant development (They were enthralled by the GEV APCs and first thought it was a Hammer's Slammers game - why disappoint them?)

Imperials Advance
I have no idea why my camera is tinting blue.

This was another "Assault on Alpha Centauri" scenario, first taken from the old boardgame Imperium and answers the statement "You should only attack with 3 to 1 odds." with "Sometimes, you only have  2 to 1 odds and you hope to get lucky...". Happens in Imperium all the time.


(Picture note: my I*Phone was fussing, so the first picture turned out rather blue-ish. We switched to the MegzCam(TM) for the rest of the game.)

The Vilani make a key mistake...they bunch up.

The Imps weren't playing very clever, we were just trying to close to range. Bit of a mistake, really. The Terran mortars took out an artillery scout sled, and then sustained heavy missile fire and high velocity rounds from the light tanks (nicknamed "Terridens") destroying the T53 Area Defense sled. Loss of the AD sled is always bad, as it protects the advance against missiles and mortar rounds. And so, the defeat begins...

The line is dressed,
and the advance may now continue...

Some good news; the artillery spotters were able to deploy a pair of mortars on the reverse of the ridge. The third mortar was still in the burning hover sled. Also, an attached Electronic Warfare sled set up jamming of the Terran communications.

Dirtside II doesn't have EW rules, so we ported them in from StarGrunt II. An active EW stand receive three chits, each can be spent to spot units, jam commo or spoof enemy guidance systems. The Imperial immediately began to jam the Terran artillery spotters requests for mortar fire. This blunted the Terran mortar fire, but did not entirely halt it.

The Terrans had very little capability to counter these EW attacks - Terran Tech lags behind Imperial, so their ECW assets aren't effective except in quantity, and there had been no room to land those expensive, and limited effective units.

The ConFed Marines would defend the giant
 drink cup facility, whatever the cost...

Terran Marine platoon, dug in on three low rises. The big building is some sort of infrastructure objective - maybe it refines and bottles water. It has to be strategically important for the Vilani to capture and not simply nuke.

The marines are supported by light, airmobile AIFVs and a pair of light tanks (with hi-velocity guns). There are mortar teams behind the crests of the rises, the squad leaders are acting as spotters - something the Vilani would never contemplate.

The near squad has lost their Chariot-class AIFV to the 44mm gun of the T53 sled. These small vehicles are light enough to drop into positions, but they have thin armour. All Terran Marine Jump Infantry vehicles are built on the same light chassis, easing logistics ever so slightly.

The view of the Vilani, humping over the ridge, from the Terran ConFed perspective. The Terran mortar teams are still being jammed, as the Command Post attempts to re-activate a mortar section to hit the Imps. This was another StarGrunt II rule we imported - a command unit may pass it's activation to a subordinate unit upon making a successful commo roll.

One thing we did not get on camera was an auto-cannon armed Chariot raced down the Vilani right flank and shot up several elements - Imperial mortar section and spotter section as well as the EW sled.  Megz is a lunatic, but the attack worked. Though the "Mad Chariot" was destroyed by the 22mm autocannons of an Imperial AIFV, with the loss of the Imperial EW team, and the supporting mortar, AND the squandered T43 ADA sled, the Vilani cancelled the assault.

The Vilani have second thoughts...

Post Game Thoughts:

Designing Interstellar Wars ground actions can be tricky, especially if you're trying to stay in Traveller Canon. The first few wars must have been a nightmare, with the Ziru Sirka/Vilani lobbing tactical nukes about like lawn darts. The Terran ConFed would need to keep very mobile, which would be somewhat difficult if they're dropping light troops from orbit - unless they're dropping directly onto targets the Imperials can't (or won't) nuke.

Ziru Sirka/Imperial scouts - these poor b@stards.  Light, open hover-sleds leaves them vulnerable to all kinds of artillery shenanigans. They might need their own Area Defence Artillery, also in a light, open hover-sled.

The Electronic Warfare sled was a lot of fun to play. Blocking unit activations makes up for a lot of a beating. In hindsight, we should have jammed both mortar sections and the command post. Live and learn.

Converting Traveller vehicle designs is, in itself, entertaining. Ken Pick has several excellent articles over at Freelance Traveller - highly recommended....Ω

Marines watch while a Chariot brews up.
Let's hope the crew got out.

Tears for Arusage - Redux

This past TravellerCon/USA, I needed a Traveller-themed miniatures game for the Sunday morning slot, and decided to give "Tears for Arusage" another go.

To prevent the game from descending into the bogged-down slug-fest from LAST TIME, I took a page from DirtSide II and assigned objective markers to various spots in the encounter zone. These represent abstract victory conditions met, so even if a side didn't recover all four missing nukes, it might be possible, through reconnaissance, to find clues where the nukes might be.


Unfortunately, Player #1 (Dan - Condor Legion) took a lucky (or unlucky) hit on the first turn, and it threw his game off permanently.

PWND! Condor Legion debus and take cover:
the card disk is mortar searching fire.

Player #2, Beta Quandrant Security (aka The  BQS Mercs aka David) won the initiative and deployed their weapons team (mortar) and disabled the Legion's leading APC, incidentally scoring 2 - 3 casualties as well.


The surviving Legion decided to debus ("Call the shop!) and take cover beneath the ornamental-yet-sturdy Vilani-built fortifications. They also were "suppressed".

This is StarGrunt; naturally they were suppressed.




Player #2 (David) had his BQS mercs occupy the housing block and motor pool. A simple quality roll would activate an APC (originally abandoned by the Viliani withdrawal and virtually identical to the Legions vehicles. The objectives (4 abandoned nukes) must be exited from the table on a vehicle.

David kept his mortar team behind the ramparts and used his officers as artillery spotters - not very accurate, but effective in keeping the pressure upon the Legion.

Centre: the Khikkei/Vilani Cenotaph, while at top, the
2nd Legion Squad occupies a block house.

Turn 3 - 4: As an additional stroke of undeserved good luck, the BQS Mercs found one of the missing nukes in the back of a salvaged APC.

Jammy B*ggars.

Meanwhile, the Legion commander decided to debus his troops from their TL10 mortar-magnets and move to cover, while using the APCs (armed with single .30 cal MGs) as infantry support.

Condor Legion troop occupy the missile silos - are the
warheads still there?

The Legions gambit was pretty effective, in that his two APCs, aided by unexpected reinforcements (more on that in a moment) tied up the BQS Mercs long enough to recover two nukes.


Unfortunately, both Legion APCs were destroyed/disabled by RAM grenades or the LAG AP rifle of the weapons team.

The arrival of a Condor Legion recon team in TL10 air/rafts did cause some trouble, as they arrived on the rear flank and immediately threw fire on the mortar team.

The mortar and accompanying security dashed into a nearby block house and returned fire - suppressing the recons.

At this point, as we were running out of time, the Condor Legion player conceded the game.


Post Game Thoughts:

Rough game for the Condor Legion. Due to an error (third person) in setting up the map, the Legion was given an extended approach, while the BQS Mercs arrived on board and "Bobs yer uncle!" they were in cover. This doesn't mean Dan had to drive straight down the road, but, to his credit, he was acting according to his briefing, in that no opposition was expected.

The objective markers did help a bit in preventing a huge "pit of suppression" at the silos, and I will use these again in the next re-fight.

I think Dan's counter-attack was more-or-less sound, and if he hadn't lost the first APC, he could have carried off at least 2 - 3 nukes and won the game.

The Beta Quadrant Security Mercs also had a slight quality advantage, being Veterans to the Condor Legion's Regular status. This gave them the initiative advantage about 2/3rds of the time.

Rules, no matter how well written, can't compensate for bad luck....Ω

15mm Mine Processing Dome

 Mining is a common feature in Traveller, whether it be lanthanum for jump drives or bauxite for making aluminium. When one wants to create a Traveller war-game scenario involving mercenaries, the seizing of mining sites seems to be an obvious choice.

Below is my centre-piece for Mine #5 - a TL 8 ore precessing dome.  It's a simple conversion from an old Stonewyrks #8803 "Domed Building", which an old friend gave to me while moving house last November. This thing is cast in hydra-stone/gypsum and is quite hefty.

I actually now have two of these, having originally bought mine in the late '90s (at the same time my friend bought his) as a 28mm building. Admittedly, I didn't much care for the size-vs-scale, since at 28mm, it's a pretty small building.

And thus, it languished for nearly two decades.  Until I needed something in 15mm scale.

With 15mm GZG NAC Infantry

The building itself is mostly scale-neutral, except for the doorway, which betrays the 28mm roots.  A simple styrene cap with a GZG building fixture door in 15mm remedies this.

The other issue I have with "ultra-modern/modern-plus" gaming buildings is colour scheme. My initial impulse is to reach for the light grey aerosol can.  In this case, I decided to go with a "Company" look, and a combination of burgundy and bronze was the result. Walmart sells a "Hammered Bronze" DIY spray can which worked very well for the dome.

With 25/28mm door & Black Tree Doctor Who figures

Next step is to paint up some company housing for the miners, and then the real fun starts...Ω

15mm Desert Dwellings from The Scene

 Here are a couple of 15mm Desert Dwellings from "The Scene".  These are made of a sturdy polymer resin - lighter than urethane resin, but more resiliant.

 They are pimped-out with some bits from GZG's 15mm building accessories line, though you could also use the building accessories provided by The Scene. Roofs lift of and the interior is hollow.

Painted on light cocoa brown with pale yellow drybrush.

These are really very nice and I'm looking forward to new releases from The Scene...Ω