Battlespace meets Firefly

 Battlespace meets Firefly

WARNING:  If half-painted mini figures causes unease, progress no further!

It's A Trap!

A promised meet with a local bigwig turns out to be an Alliance trap.  Troops close in from all sides as Mal, Zoe, Inara and Jayne have to head across the board and make it back to the Serenity.

..Fortunately, Mal let Jayne bring some smoke grenades along.

The board.  Mal and the crew starts in the upper right, have to exfil through lower left.  I rolled bad for the crew, there were lots of hostiles on the board at the start.  

Jayne stands guard down below as the crew waits for their promised contact.  She never appeared.

Mal goes first.  He always gets a bonus to his activation as team leader.  He jumps off the building.  

Inara follows suit.

Zoe shoots at the large group approaching.  She KIAs one, so gets a free shoot attack.  2 down.  Moves towards the edge.

Jayne can't see his team, so no iniative bonus.  No problem with a 19, though.  He moves then throws a smoke grenade, perfect shot.

It does bring him in sight of a civilian.  A 3!  The civilian is actually working for the alliance!

Sitrep phase:  "We are pinned down!"  That civilian/straggler is actually a machine-gunner.  He lays down suppression fire on Jayne. 

Enemy movement:  Both groups activate, but can't see a target.  The leader and the other straggler fail to activate.

Clear phase:  Wow, smoke doesn't last long.

Turn 2:

Jayne fails activation!  Contact front!  A straggler busts out the door and engages Inara in H2H.  He's only a threat-level 9, so she dispatches him easily.  

Mal fails activation.  Contact rear!  Another straggler busts out, Inara takes him down.  Mal moves.  

Inara activates, moves, and shoots the straggler ahead of her.  Zoe jumps down. 

Sitrep phase:  Contact!  It says all enemies move, but the MG guy makes more sense to keep up the suppressive fire.  

First group moves up and engages Jayne.  He's disadvantaged by the suppressive fire.  He dodges 2 shots, but the 3rd roll is a 20.  Fortunately, it appears that "2 wounds" only apply to H2H.  One wound to Jayne.  

Second group advances and fires on Jayne.  No dodging these, Jayne takes 3 wounds and is down. 

Everybody else advances.

Turn 3:

Inara goes first, hoping to sprint to cover and then lay down fire next turn.  she rolls a 1 for activation.  She hit a tripwire!  Rolls 17.  Clever Inara dances over the wire and disarms it.  

Mal sprints and makes it to cover.

Zoe rolls a 1 for her activation, too!  All stragglers activate.  

The MG opens up on Zoe, suppressing her.  

The Officer advances and shoots at Inara, but misses. 

zoe can't move.

Sitrep:  Bad Intel (no effect).

Turn 4:

Zoe activates, no problem.  Pegs the MG between the eyes (with a 20), then moves behind the building.  

Inara moves into cover, shoots at the officer, misses.

Mal activates, aimed shot at the officer.  1 wound.

Sitrep:  Contact Rear!  reshuffle time.  The officer races to try and get around the wall, shoots at Mal (with cover).  Misses.

How the hell do you miss at this range?

turn 5:

Mal activates.  Takes a shot at the officer (hit, 2 wounds), then uses his ability to give Zoe an Advance action.  

Inara activates, takes an aimed shot at the officer, and still misses!

Zoe activates.  A "move and shoot" will leave her in the open, so she chooses to run for it.  They are all now behind cover.  

Sitrep:  All enemies activate.  

Officer moves into H2H with Mal.  Mal strikes him down.  

Straggler moves up, randomly picks Mal to fire at, misses. 

Group 1 moves up, fires on Mal, misses by a mile.

Group 2 does the same.  

Cover. Is. Life.

COVER. IS. LIFE.

Turn 6

For Gorram Sake, Zoe rolled a 1 again for activation!

She stumbles but stays up.  Makes a move.  

Inara moves and takes down a straggler.

Mal misses a trooper and moves.

Sitrep:  It's "Pinned down" again, but Inara pegged the last straggler.  So, no effect. 

Group one moves to negate the cover and shoots at Mal.  He takes 1 wound. 

Group 2 cuts the corner, shoots at Zoe.  1 wound.

Turn 7:

Inara activates and runs around the back of the building.  

Zoe cuts the corner, hoping to draw fire.  The civilian just stares at her.  Mal follows Inara.  

Sitrep:  A straggler pops out the door closest to Mal, but Inara again cuts him down.  

Both groups move and fire on Zoe, only managing to inflict a second wound (and taking out the civilian...)

turn 8:

Zoe gets to cover and takes out 2 troopers.  

Mal takes out 1 and moves to the other end of the building. 

Inara sprints to next cover.

Sitrep:  It's another trap!  She doesn't disarm this one in time. 

5 stragglers enter the board from the opposite edge.  

Sole survivor of one group gets another shot on Zoe, 3 wounds now.

Other group misses.

Turn 9:

Zoe activates.  Shoots a bad guy.  Free action, shoots another one.  Moves, triggers a civilian.  "Buy my DVD".  

Inara activates, drops the last trooper.

Mal activates, runs to join up.

Sitrep:  Mal triggered an IED, but made the threat level roll.  

Rule that the survivors can make it off the board before the new arrivals could make contact.  

Game over, but Jayne is down and Zoe is hurt bad.

Maybe somebody should write a song about Jayne...

CoC OTR First Battle

 The heat is terrible, I was actually worrying that some of my 3D-printed tanks would deform in the heat of the garage.  So I downsized the board and moved it inside.

The Scenario was:  Soviet leading march party vs 4th Canadians

Force morale:  Soviets start at 8, Canadians at 9.

The NATO forces were "Caught Napping" - Nobody expected an attack up the Danube.  NATO gets very limited support, and is still racing to deployment positions.  The Soviets rolled 3 for support.  No engineered obstacles or defensive positions available.

Soviets only got 1 planned target (woods) 1x dedicated 122mm, 2x direct support 122mm

Canadians had 2 planned targets and 1 FPF (woods, narrow woods, and FPF is hill) 1x dedicated 105mm

Attacking force:  The special "Soviet Leading March Party" list, along with an additional recon patrol, a ZSU 23-4 group, and a Forward Observer:

The stalwart Defenders:  There are no Canadian lists yet, so I used the British list, but the stats for the Leopard from the German List.  

Commander, 2IC.

2x Platoons of 4x Leopard 1A4

1x Platoon of infantry in M113 (they're based for Team Yankee, so I only brought half a squad each)

1x Forward Observer in M113 (not shown, oops)

1x attached Lynx section (should have been 2 of them, oops again)

The Terrain:  Jump-off points have been established.  I made my town way too big, future ones will be smaller.  Vehicles were later moved to delineate the edges of the built-up area.  Soviets are entering from the right.  Only 1 hill, 2 forested areas.  The fields with stripes are freshly-plowed and count as broken terrain.  Oh, the Germans do hate it when you drive through their fields!

Attacker gets 3+1 command dice, Defender gets 5

Canadian first roll:  1 1 1 2 4

-combine a 1's to deploy tank platoon on board and adopt overwatch

-use the 2 to deploy the FO  (this was probably wrong?)

-use the 4 to deploy the Senior Leader (Captain Badger, of course) and adopt tactical

Soviet:  2 4 6 (1)

2 -deploy recce patrol with the 2

4 -deploy FO and call for fire?

 -he did not pass check to adopt hull down.

 -he is regular so can fire 3 assets.  Has 1 dedicated and 2 direct support

 -he rolled a 4 so all assets are available.  It's planned fire so auto on target.

net result, only 1 pin.

Canadian roll:  2 2 4 4 6

Just gonna get everybody on the board early, MKay?

2 - deploy other tank platoon

2 - deploy inf platoon

4 - Sr leader activates the platoon on overwatch - nope, out of range.  Rallies the pinned guy instead.

4 - FO calls for fire. It all works, gets a pin on the enemy FO.

Soviet 1 5 5 (5)

1 - FO successfully rallies.  Does not pass his Q check, so call for fire is delayed.

Canadian roll:  1 2 4 5 6

1+2 - 1st platoon moves out 3 group moves and the 4th action to cross the first tracks.  1st platoon will be the maneuver element, 2nd on overwatch.

4 - FO fires again.  Pinned again!

Soviet 1 1 4 (6)

4: FO unpins and backs down the hill.  

1+1:  recce patrol will haul ass as far as possible into town

Lousy movement rolls, even with the rigid doctrine bonus.  Barely made it.

Canadian:  1 2 3 4 5

3: Inf platoon move into town - 1 APC bogs down in the field and doesn't recover.

4: Sr Leader activates 1st platoon move forward and attempt to take the hill.  This was a bold move that was about to explode in his face...

1:  Recce Lynx deploys.  (Yes, should have been 2.  Didn't matter.  Plan was to use them to capture a DP, they never moved...)

2: 2IC deploys

Soviet:  1 2 3 (4)

1+2 - Combat recce patrol deploys in column on road.

3 - Company deploys in line on hill.  Surprise!  Didn't see that coming, did you, Canuks?  Does not pass Q check, so not hull down.  Does he act as sr ldr or ldr???

1 plt will fire at closest tank, other at next closest.    

Result:  2 exploded tanks.  Surprisingly, the other 2 don't go pinned.

Canadian:  1 2 2 5 6

2:  1st platoon will move (BACKWARDS!), fire with FCS, move, adopt tactical. - both shots bounced off.

2:  inf platoon will move into town and deploy.  Bogged APC is still stuck.  

1:  jr leader will move.

Soviet:  1 1 2 (4)

2+1:  Tank Co will move, fire, move.

2 more exploded tanks.  

Platoon is KO.  Roll on Bad Things Happen table (6).  -3 force morale!

One tank bogs down.

But the overwatch finally gets to fire!  They'll just shoot left to right, as the far edge of the company is out of range.  (It wasn't, another mistake)

1 explodes, 2 KO, including the leader tank!  Senior leader is wounded.  -1 Force morale.  Nope, forgot the ronson test.

Sr Leader tank explodes, -2 force morale to the Soviets.

Canadians: 1 1 2 3 3

3+1:  FO will activate.  It deviates, no effect.

3: 2nd plt will activate.  Fire twice.  After 8 shots 3 more tanks are dead.  The remaining 2 actually pass their break test!

2:  2IC will activate.  He doesn't back up very much, but goes hull-down behind the railroad embankment.  (I changed the tactical marker to hull-down later)

Soviet:  1 4 4 (1)

4:  FO sneaks around corner of hill and takes hull-down.  Not enough CI to call for fire.

Canadians:  1 4 5 5 6.  Almost to a full CoC dice.

4: Sr Ldr orders 2nd Plt to advance.  They will wheel right, engage the company, then advance.  It takes all 4 shots, but they knock out another tank.  That last T-72 is still hanging in!

1:  The bogged-down M1113 finally gets free and joins up.

Soviets: 2 4 5 (2)

4:  The FO has tanks in the open!  All 3 tubes are available.  Gonna stack all 3 in the middle of the tanks.  Is it on target? 6 again!  This guy is hot!

Result: 1 dead tank, 1 pinned.  The platoon doesn't break.  

2:  The recon tank platoon activates, full rush to get around the town.  They race to the left and deploy.

Canadians 1 4 4 5 5.  They now have enough for a CoC die.

4:  Sr Ldr activates 2nd Plt.  The pinned tank doesn't recover.  The others move (just barely), fire and miss, and move again.  

4:  FO starts walking his 1 tube towards the enemy FO.  

1:  The mech squad joins up and deploys onto the roof of the market.

Soviets:  3 3 4 (1)

4:  Arty!  Drops it on the same spot.  Oh, only gets 1 tube this time.  And it misses.  

3:  Recon tank plt enters the BUA. 

3:  Motorized support plt deploys.

Canadians:  3 4 5 6 6.  Finally, 2 phases!

4:  Sr Ldr activates 2nd plt again.  This time he gets unpinned.  They move forward (still very slowly) and engage the last T72 of the company.  It is destroyed.

Soviet force morale drops by 1.

3: the infantry platoon begins advancing through town.

Canadians again 2 2 4 4 5

4:  FO keeps walking the fire.  

4:  CO moves up to join 2nd PLT.

2:  2IC moves up to join 2nd PLT.

2:  Inf Plt continues through town.

Soviets:  5 5 6 (5)  Well crap.  Got a CoC die, at least.

Canadians:  1 1 6 6 6.  End of turn!

1+1:  2nd plt advances.

Canadians:  2 2 4 5 6

4:  The FO walks the arty onto the enemy FO.  He's pinned.

2+2:  Sr Ldr activates 2nd PLT.  Soviets messed up, their lead recon plt is within 1 of the edge of the town.  2 shots:

Both killed.  Soviet force morale drops to 4.  They lose a die.

Soviet:  5 5 (5)  again?

Things are looking bad for the Soviets.  They're not getting activation's, but they did get a lot of Command Dice points.  So, time to use one!

Soviets fire "Wrath of God", dropping all 3 tubes on the Canadian Commander (unsporting, I know.)

One misses, one hits the cmd tank, and one drops on an infantry squad.  

The hit on the cmd tank rolled a 6, then 2 more sixes just for spite.  Tank is KO, Captain Badger is wounded and out of the fight.  Canadian morale drops 1.  The 2IC does not get the command bonus.

Infantry squad is pinned.

Canadians:  1 1 4 4 6

4:  FO keeps firing.  It misses.

4:  2IC rallies the squad, then activates his tank, moves and fires.  Misses.

1+1:  2nd Plt move-fire-move-fire on the BMPs.  

First firing action takes out 2, the remaining one is still up.  One squad bails out.

One Leopard gets bogged down.

second action 2 hits.  BMP explodes, bailed-out squad takes a hit and is wiped out also.  -3 to Soviet Morale!

I'm Alive!

Nope, No I'm Not...

Soviet morale is at a 2.  They only have 1 tank platoon and an FO left.  They concede!  The Canadians held the ground, but at terrible cost.  Time to fall back to the next positions and regroup.