Andy hadn't played the game before but its easy to pick up and we didn't encounter any problems. The story's below, read on... Dougie
Summer 2006 in the outskirts of Sangin, as part of a larger patrol a 3PARA 4 man fireteam are to check a shop trader and follow up on intel. The action takes place on a 2 foot x 2 foot terrain tile, this equates to about 50m x 50m so the engagement is at very close quarters!
This is a view of my breakfast bar pretending to be downtown Sangin
Atash had just been told to expect a patrol of infidels to speak with the shopkeeper, he grabbed 2 other fighters and was waiting in the field right next to the shop relishing the chance to attack the ISAF forces.
My 3 fighters impatiently waiting...
McGarry spends a further 1AP and brasses them up with his Minimi!
Both are hit and Andy rolls for damage and being his normal jammy self rolls highly on the 4d10 damage dice killing both Masem and Atash! Because poor Abdul Bari, the novice fighter, is within 12" of this he gets a morale test marker.
Combat phase 2 and Sgt Fearon is activated, he easily spots the hapless Abdul Bari and opens up with his L85. Andy's lucky rolling continues getting 14 on 2d10 killing him instantly!
Game over and I hadn't rolled a dice!!!!!!!
To get this engagement into context you had a switched off group of Talibs standing at the edge of a field when a veteran led Airborne fire team have got to a junction and spotted them. The range was 10" on the table which equals 20metres. Sgt Fearon and his boys weren't gonna miss at that range.
When playing this system, use cover, don't walk around in the open, prone or kneeling if you're stationary and remember a 4 foot square table equals a 100m square block of terrain, if you're in the open and it goes kinetic you're gonna get slotted!
Hey Dougie. That was a particularly short and brutal encounter. Almost a quick draw western gunfight. How do the "spotting" rules work? Is there some room for subtlety there or is it always a case of first to spot wins the firefight? Cheers, Rusty
ReplyDeleteHi Rusty, this example turned out the way it did mainly cause the Talibs were caught with their pants down. It would have been different if they'd been hiding prone in the fields covering their arcs! The system is based around the characters BODY score which is a number between 11 and 20 representing agility, balance, speed toughness and deftness, this is altered if your character is encumbered with body armour and equipment. This score indicates when you'll be activated in the turn. All figures have the same starting chance of spoting at 100% but this is modified by movement, distractions, light levels, cover and other factors. Each character has 3 APs to spend per phase on "doing" things and you have to decide how you're going to spend your APs. Do you spend more on spotting, aiming or moving its up to you. The subtlety comes in using your points and sound tactics, if you're out in the open and someone gets the drop on you it won't end nicely but I think thats reasonably fair. The pdf is £8, an absolute bargain for what you get!
DeleteOn an unconnected matter I'll be putting a post up soon for anyone attending Salute this year re perhaps meeting up for a pint and a natter?
Later, Dougie
With the game play being that short, it could work well for a campaign, where you could maybe get several games done in a single sitting. Great setting and pictures.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
Pat.
Pat, see the above reply. Dougie
DeleteWow! That was fast!
ReplyDeleteGreat looking set up!
an interesting game... short... but interesting.
ReplyDeleteYour board looks great - is that all you need to play SS and can the table be larger?
ReplyDeleteYup Furt thats all you need however you can play with more troops, I'd suggest it would be very slow with more than 4-6 fire teams. The table can be as large as you like and would allow more use of fire support, the ground scale equals the figure scale so you need plenty of space if you want to call in air support or mortars. As an example a single 81mm mortar strike has a kill zone radius of 5" and a damage radius of 20"!
DeleteLater, Dougie
Dougie, great to see your Afghan terrain and troops getting an airing. Given that SS gets a bit slow with two players running multiple fire teams would it work as a team game? Perhaps giving each player a squad and using more terrain and space?
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt it would be best as one player running one fireteam, there's rules for communication if you want to use them and it would add a lot, more terrain and space wouldn't be an issue a 6x4 foot table equates to 174m x 96m so we're not talking about a huge battlespace, even with that you'll still have to be very careful calling in that support. There's a nice scenario in the book involving a UKSF op watching a compound and calling in the troops which could support 3-4 UK players and 2 Warlord/Talib players.
DeleteLater, Dougie