Blast from the Past: Clash of Warmachines, Q&P AAR

My Earthlink-based gaming site will disappear before long, so I'm salvaging some fun AARs using the rules we play and reposting them here. This is a August 2007 report of a battle using Tom Graves' For Queen and Planet rules.

British forces roll towards the Sudanese, led by their steam-powered Imperial Walker

Tom Graves ran his eagerly-anticipated Colonial Sci-Fi game at what is becoming our regular gathering spot, "Keith's Clubhouse." We had a great turnout -- six players and Tom as GM. Keith Finn, Joel Sams and I were the Sudanese defenders of a zariba (thorn fort) and village. Allen Sams, Dave Welch and Steve Verdoliva were the imperialistic British attackers. The scenario showcased Tom's new resin British gunboat and his scratch-built Arab dhow. Nice eye candy for the tabletop, though most of us felt they should be able to DO more...

Tom's nifty new gunboat was great eye candy on the tabletop!

It was a knock-down, drag them out fight, with the British overpowering the Sudanese. Our Martian weapons ended up outclassing and defeating their infernal machines (Steam Tank and Walker), but that was our only real success. In the most one-sided butt whupping that I've been a part of recently, Steve Verdoliva's elite British force handily thrashed my command.

In Tom's game, you roll 2d6 vs. your shooting or melee factor. The less you roll under it, the more casualties you cause. Steve's dice rattled off "3's" and "4's" repeatedly against me, then after he'd wiped me from the board, marched on and started to chew up Joel's force. He capped his evening rolling back to back snake eyes against Joel! Even when Joel snatched his dice away -- forcing him to roll different ones -- Steve slaughtered him. In short, his elites fought like elites, while our tribesmen fought like...well, we had somewhere more interesting to be...off table...like now!

The bitter end -- British crash through the zariba fort, despite the efforts of the Martian Scout Walker

It was a great scenario, and really did come down to the end, as both sides had suffered grievous losses. Both commanders continued to pass their army morale checks to avoid quitting the field, so it dragged on to the bitter end (for the Sudanese). The British seized the ford, and was able to secure a crossing to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum.

Blasts from the Past: Ambush of the Minister, Wars of Insurgency AARs

Knowing that one day my old Earthlink-based Lead Legionaries website is going to die, I saving some fun After Action Reports. Here is one from the early playtesting days of Wars of Insurgency. We didn't call it that then, the final title being the third working title I used. The pictures are neither large nor numerous, as this was in the early days of website hosting when space was at a premium. I hope you enjoy them!

Ambush of the Minister of Interior (March 25, 2007)

My friend Joel offered up another interesting scenario set in modern Africa using our (Wars of Insurgency) skirmish rules. It was meant to be a small game, four players, lasting perhaps two hours or a little more. Each side had only 100 points of troops, roughly 50 per player. That translated into two small squads of 3-7 figures each. Allen and I were the rebels set to ambush the returning Minister of the Interior in his fancy schmancy new car. Tom and Keith were the local police force and the National Security troops, respectively, out to protect him as he drove down a dangerous stretch of road in the Congo.

I'll let Joel take it from here, with his tongue-in-cheek report:   

Modern Africa: A delicious mix of small arms, ambush & greed

 PopoBawa and his sidekick Ruben vs. Local Police/National Security forces

Friday's troops check out the Lushoto Leisure Lounge prior to the shooitng staring

"...My name is Friday Ibo and I carry a badge (....most of the time).

"I am a cop, this is one of the stories from the dirty streets of Tanga where I work. The National office put an alert out and our entire substation found ourselves working a lonely stretch of Lushoto/Tanga Parkway. With orders to stay on point, eight hours of hot dusty work only turned up...a stolen pickup truck. I decided to question Madame Fifi at the cat house. The other police of the station thought the roadside Lushoto Leisure Lounge, across the street look suspicious, so we split up. Time passed slowly, Madame Fifi claimed to know nothing, I vowed to get to the bottom of it. Headquarters called on the radio and told us to look alert, the Chief of Staff for the Dept. of Interiors was returning from an OPEC meeting.

The Minister of the Interior and his escort on their way back from the OPEC meeting

Rebels lay in wait for the Minister and his convoy to arrive on the lonely stretch of road

BOOM! A lucky, long range RPG shot takes out the truck carrying troops escorting the Minister

 "We moved to the roof and watched the truck escort and his new Roll Royce raise an ample dust cloud. That was when Mhamed spotted men with rifles and movement in the palm grove. I gave orders to open fire, then a burst of AK-47 fire came from the old brick factory across the blacktop, too. It was an ambush, and only PopoBawa would be so stupid (or drugged out) to try it. The parkway was a perfect crossfire hurricane as everyone went to full auto to kill the rebels. The heavy truck escorting the Chief of Staff swayed and bucked from bullets, but didn't slow down. We killed three or four rebels as the National forces sped under our position. The truck stopped next to the palm grove, security men jumped out, fired into the grove, and hastened back to the truck.

"The Rolls Royce had long ago turn off the parkway and pull in behind the Lushoto Leisure Lounge. That was when I first saw the red berets of the National Security forces as they slowly made their way toward the old brick factory. Then the shot up truck crawled back onto the blacktop and began moving down the road again....until a rebel pickup truck pulled into a blocking point and more men opened fire. The men in the truck and the pickup traded fire up until the time the RPG from the left (long range shot) hit the truck on the extra jerry can on the side. Everyone in the truck was lost, the few rebels left alive got away in that pickup truck. It was much later that we learned the Chief of Staff was on the floor of the truck, along with all the important contracts with ExxonMoble..."

The scenario was a blast, as Tom summed it up the next day on e-mail:
"Thanks to Joel for running and everyone else for playing this scenario. It was a hoot and I recommend it for convention play. It would easily be finished in a 3 hour time slot. Between the incredible good and bad luck that was going on in this game. The out-of-control truck (driver shot on first round as it sped down the road at 18") the fact that it slowed to a stop without crashing with the HMG gunner still firing at the rebels on both sides of the road, and with the troops hopping out of the back to dispatch one rebel before hopping back in to continue driving down the road to their doom only inches short of escaping off board, I have to say this was one of the most hilarious evenings I have spent in a long time.
 
Well done PoPo, but we still have the Rolls Royce!" -- Tom Graves

Blast from the Past: Ethiopians vs. Somalis, Wars of Insurgency AAR

Here's another AAR from days gone by when we were playtesting what would become Wars of Insurgency -- my modern skirmish rules set. Back then, web space was at a premium so I apologize for the scarcity of photos.

Allen's mechanized Ethiopians who we would get the better of on the first evening, but struggle against on the second

Ethiopians vs. Somalis using (Wars of Insurgency)

 Our Sunday night group was shrunk to just three of us, so Joel thought it'd be the perfect time to try out his Ethiopian vs. Somali scenario using our (Wars of Insurgency) modern skirmish system. Joel had worked up a map, given us forces, and let Allen and I plot the location of our troops, and the arrivals of reinforcements. Our scattered squads would then march to contact, and the battlefield would be selected from the topographical map Joel provided each of us with. A clever scenario idea, and one that would end up taking two gaming nights to play out.

As the Somali Islamist militia, I was in an interdiction role against a more mechanized Ethiopian and Somali Provisional Government force. The way it played out, we had one small scale battle the first evening, and a much larger one on the second. It also worked out that the others weren't able to attend either night, so it was just Joel, Allen and I for both Sunday evenings. In the first battle, my squad of Somali militia held off the enemy for long enough for my Regular troops to get in position -- with a recoilless rifle in tow -- and blast the enemy militia. Allen's reinforcements of Regular troops were also mauled and retreated. Meanwhile, both our forces were marching towards the engagement, and at the end of the evening of map moves combined with battlefield action, Joel felt he had a good scenario generated for next week.

My Islamist Somali militia advance to the fight

On the second evening, Allen's Ethiopian backed force got revenge, and decimated my main militia force. My recoilless rifle proved key in chasing off his flanking force, allowing my Islamist militia to control one side of the field. Try as we might, though, we were unable to get enough troops to bear against the more mechanized and heavier armed enemy. Our mortar never found a good firing position, while his HMG-armed vehicles chewed up all who got near them. When it came time to call the evening of fun, we had a couple RPG-armed men stalking the enemy vehicles, but the chances of getting a shot off and making it score big -- plus taking the central hill which was the battlefield objective -- didn't seem good. Although Allen wanted to call it a bloody draw, I gave his forces the edge as hitting his vehicles before my RPG gunners were shot down seemed slimmer odds than him simply holding his ground.

A fun scenario, and one that proved the flexibility of the system we've developed.