Friday 22 March 2013

they sent me to Sangin and I said no, no, no...

Did a short run through of Skirmish Sangin with Andy this morning. It was a small scenario and as it turned out very quick! Skirmish Sangin is first and foremost a very low level system that is rewarding when played with a good narrative, by this I mean you've gotta have a role playing element if you do you'll like it.
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
A closer view looking acress the fields towards the store
Andy played the Brits with Sgt Fearon a veteran NCO with L84A2, Watterson an average Tom also with an L85A2, Richards again an average guy with an L85A2/UGL combination and lastly McGarry with the Minimi an average Tom but with a high BODY score. The team were entering the area in the small alley opposite the store in the picture above. I was Terry with Atash, Abdul Bari and Masem all with AKs and in the field opposite the alley. Atash was a veteran, Abdul Bari an average and Masem a novice but with a high BODY score similar to McGarry.
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...
Sgt Fearon and the rest of the team arrive...
The fireteam gets to the alley junction opposite the shop and we go to Combat Rounds. McGarry and Masem activate first in combat phase 1, we roll and McGarry wins activating before Masem. McGarry rolls to spot spending 1 AP of his 3 and instantly sees the 3 Talibs loitering around at the edge of the field, they've obviously become sick of waiting and arn't hidden in cover.
 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.
McGarry spends his remaining AP and steps back into cover.
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!
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10 comments:

  1. Papa Sponge22 March 2013 at 10:07

    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

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    1. Dougie22 March 2013 at 12:17

      Hi 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!
      On 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

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  2. Silver Whistle22 March 2013 at 10:37

    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.
    Thanks for sharing,
    Pat.

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  3. tim22 March 2013 at 12:56

    Wow! That was fast!

    Great looking set up!

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  4. Daisy Gowan Ditchburn22 March 2013 at 13:16

    an interesting game... short... but interesting.

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  5. Furt22 March 2013 at 13:45

    Your board looks great - is that all you need to play SS and can the table be larger?

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    1. Dougie23 March 2013 at 00:12

      Yup 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"!
      Later, Dougie

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  6. LittleArmies23 March 2013 at 01:27

    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?

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    1. Dougie23 March 2013 at 02:39

      Without 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.
      Later, Dougie

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