Hope that's helpful.
There were a few things I did not get right from Dale's tactful, respectful review of One-Hour Skirmish Wargames. Which is a credit to Dale for NOT revealing everything John Lambshead [hereafter referred to as JL...not b/c he's my BFF [[we're too old to know what the heck that is]] but for brevity's sake as this is a One Hour Wargaming AAR]. I MOSTLY got it correct so this AAR is more of a continuation than a total re-reviewing of the rules, which will happen soon.
Below, the board as set up. The low rises are level 1 and the height of figs, so sort of like a wall but much thicker and far more immune to blaster than a mere stone wall would be, so +2 cards for Hard Cover. The trees mark cultivated areas and wild areas, but are all Card 1 concealment [give defender +1 card] while the low bushy areas are no cover or concealment, but 1/2 movement bogs. There's a ruin and a hab [house] which count as hard cover. To the right are cultivated fields which are bogs and a few local civilians/droids working them.
Below, the forces involved. Two Stormtrooper teams of 5, with one heavy blaster [ok, a SAW, basically] each with a team leader [zero leadership, he's just doing his job] and one real leader with coms trooper. Attached is a Cultural Liaison Officer [CLO] who probably hasn't got a CLU and is trying to meet with the Arcona locals.
Opposing them are two Rebel Commando teams of 4, each led by a TL [no special abilities] and one Commando Leader [1] with a Sniper. The Sniper is just another grunt except that he draws an extra card attacking, same as the leaders [in retrospect, I think he should make the target draw one LESS cover card, more later]. They are matched to markers to give some randomness to their appearance and deployment, but I ended up not needing them as my son dropped by and wanted to play.
There are some Arconan locals who are armed with personal defense weapons, i.e. pistols, and who are trying to stay out of trouble of all kinds, but whose sympathies lie with the Rebels.
View from Imperial side of the table. Fuzzy-Wuzzy's are at the far end. You can see the ambushes on top of the Hab, behind the center hill, and to the right in the wood.
Stormtroopers advancing in two wedge formations, with the SL and CLO going down the middle. Heavy blaster is next to the TL. On right, the TL has sent the HB and another forwards to set up a firing line at the hill.
Below, closeup of Rebel position. Sniper, SL and ASL are on the house roof. One team is hiding behind the rise. They will each have to spend an Action Point [AP] to stand up before they can move or shoot.
Rebel Winkie...asked to give the face of smug self-righteousness that characterizes the rebels, actually seems to have given a "Bruno face" from Starship Troopers, Roughnecks" CGI series. Hard to interpret. Then again, what does a 10yo know about "smug self assurance...??"
Fairly quickly, the left team's Heavy Blaster [HB] gets whacked. There really isn't any reason NOT to shoot at all the special characters and ignore grunts in this game. Hmm.
So far, just a duel between the three on the roof and Left Team of Stormtroopers.
By Turn 4, the exchange of fire is pretty intense.
Rebel Winkie has his "War Face" on. Still, think it looks like Bruno, not a Star Wars character, but, hey, maybe a but like a gundar? Perhaps a wookie? Not a nerf, anyway. But his command team has forced the Left Team down completely.
By Turn 6, Team Left is pretty busted up, being half dead. Still, the Stormies draw a Queen and easily stay in the battle, beating their morale failure number of #3 easily.
Overall situation great for Rebel Scum. Left Stormies are on the ropes. Right are doing OK, but Dressalians sense blood and advance towards mound in front. This will turn out to be a mistake...the Dressalians advance, but in their eagerness to get a flank on the Troopers they are caught in the open and take three losses, which end up "ded".
Cool close-up of Stormies advancing on the right. Cultural office at top left obviously impatient with advance. Typical staff puke mentality... SL and coms Trooper advance.
Turn 7 ends with Joker draw...and Ace would fail the Stormies who are on a routine patrol. However, their leader allows another card to be drawn, and it easily beats a '3'.
By turn 11, Stormies start laying down the hurt. Moment of scrappy triumph that won't make it into history books...Stormy SL pops Rebel SL. He will end up "red=ded".
Rebels lose SL and Sniper to Imp fire [and low cards...].
Imps gun down a few Rebels, but most importantly, a TL, the Sniper, and the SL are Down and out on Turn 13. Morale draw is a '3', which is only equal to the number of Ded or Fled figures, and they can't draw another card as their Leader [1] is a casualty. The Fuzzy's decide discretion is the better part of valor and depart the field.
Imps are just fine, altho final card draws for curiosity result in tragic losses for the Dressalians and one more trooper down. Overall, a 6-4 win for the Imps, so marginal victory.
Nasty little scrap. Ok, one thing to note, trainees...do NOT advance in the open by partials. Better to send fewer figs across faster than risk being shot. If you are in the open, you draw one card on defense, and in light cover 2, heavy cover 3. So only cross short open spaces or send fewer people across slower.
This played out just fine, with quite realistic events and chaos, all to JL's credit. Only thing I don't like? One can always target any superior defender. This allows you to pick on guys with better weapons, leaders, etc. I think only snipers should do this, since everyone else is probably laying suppressing fire. Solution would be to allow a swap for a nearby fig depending on the card that took him down. In a small trained team, I think this is pretty realistic.
The rules were quite smooth. I played the first half with Mr. Winkie and the second half alone, and it was easy-peasy. The tactics are quite simple... stay in cover and win fire superiority. With a mindless meeting engagement [meating?] I am fine with that.
I can see this working just fine with more complicated scenarios, but this is a test to see how it operates under quick and simple victory conditions.
So, yes, opinion still the same...buy this game/book!
Bought :) Agree about the special characters - just make them the last to go down. And it's always great to see games played with kids!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think it is pretty fast and easy to teach, but not without tactical nuance for modern combat as long as you have thought out the scenario and terrain. It is quicker and easier to set up than Terminator Genysis, for sure.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mention. Of course, I got plenty of things wrong in my first game, not the least of which was allowing multiple close combat attacks on downed opponents. Fortunately JL cleared that up (a very approachable guy via email).
ReplyDeleteSure, always happens first time around with a game, even simpler ones.
ReplyDeleteUncertain what you mean by "disallowing" multiple close combat attacks on Downed opponents? Is there some sort of limit? Can you give a page reference? Thanks!
Nevermind - I just remembered: Once a figure Fires or engages in Hand-to-Hand, their turn is over, but you allowed them to continue acting and potentially take out multiple Downed opponents.
ReplyDeleteHaven't played this in a while, really need to get a game in!