BFE AAR - Maiwand

For Monday 1st July weekly game we decided to try out our new BFE  v2.0 rules. Truth be told we'd effectively been using them for a while since we'd had the latest updates via the yahoo group but it's nice to feel you are playing them 'proper'.

 

We elected to play Maiwand from the 2nd Afghan war, the only trouble being I had no figures for Afghans. I did however have a recent purchase of Indian Mutiny stuff so I rebased that and with some suspension of disbelief I added in some of my Sudan figures and we gave it a go.

 

The scenario was from the yahoo BFE scenarios files section by Nick Stern.

 

We had 4 player and I acted as umpire, Dave and Shaun took the role of the Britsh Imperial force whilst Alan and Rodger were the Afghans. Below is the British column all pristine...

 

We assumed that as the scenario did not specify then the rules for native artillery applied and they were to start on table. Needless to say the Afghan players then deployed them in a Grande Batterie. The British realise this wouldbe lethat so quickly manouevred out of column

The Grande Afghan Batterie gets some infatrny support from reserves as the artillery wipe out a British cavalry unit on turn 2.

The 'Ghazi' swordsmen race up the smaller ravine tooutflank the British.

Afghan forces start to arrive en masse. The artillery continue to pour fire into the British.

Finaly the British sort out their line but have managed to block their own artillery.

Regular Afghan cavalry charge fowrad toward the British guns.

Their hope is to exploit what could be a massive gap at the join of the British lines.... Oh no, the other Afghan general takes pity on the British player who is a BFE novice and the gap is closed. Meanwhile The British now manage to return fire and start causing casualties to the Afghan regular infantry.

The Afghans pile in and it all gets messy as the stout British lines rebuff the Afghan assaults. Sadly it's all too little too late and the British hit their break when the Afghan artillery account for the last required unit.

A fun scenario but the British are on to a loser. They can merely hope to hold for longer than their historical counterparts. Today they failed.

V2.0 of the rules worked well and with 8 kills per units and all hits a kill it gets very bloddy very quickly, no time to retire units out of the way if they are looking peaky, just hope the enemy breaks first and get on with it.

Out of Luck in Reno.... 6mm FWC

We had 2 FWC games at the clun on Monday 10th June, a fun little variation of a book scenario designed by Gordon.

 

Both played 'Out of luck in Reno', 1250 AP of Junkers defending, plus 250 AP fixed defences, vs 2500AP of Contractors attacking. Junkers have run out of fuel and must dig-in all vehicles (if any) around their base - a rocky hilltop village. This village (Reno) may have fixed defences and is in the middle of the table. Run game as per All-Round Defence, but:

1) Junkers may deploy ambushes.
2) Contractors have partial air superiority every round.

Gordon's reverse terrain rules caused some confusion for me over LOS but as it affected both sides' long range fire it more likely delayed the result rather that actively make a significant difference. Reverese terrain means the entiretable is soft cover other than hills (unless covered) and open terrain templates. This makes fewer points games last a tad longer and gives both sides a chance to actually do something.

KiwiDave ponders where to deploy his Marine Corps.

 

 

Graham and I attacked from opposite ends. I had the Krondal Legio whilst Graham had Euro-Fed French.

 

 

Grahams French move forward using the classical line formation so loved by French armies of old... if it ain't broke...

 

 Dave struck early and ambushed me to take down 3 units for the loss of 1 (IFVs helped me out), his other ambusher got isolated.

 

 

Dave used and infantry walker to up more of my troops but then it was toasted by Graham as it sauntered around the hill. Graham moved into closer range and poured fire into a bunker... When he was not failing Command Rolls that is.

 

 

I used stout recon units to spot and call in artilley which suppressed sentry guns.  In a not often seen FWC moment I manouevred my towed guns into position and unleashed hell upon marines and sentry guns. Adding insult to injury I asked him to move them for me :-)

 

 

 

 

Graham continued to batter the poor bunker and Dave tried to move troops in to it to replace those lost.

 

 

 

I eventually got some infantry up to the perimeter fence and started to move through (recce createda nice gap). Dave finally failed his break on turn 8 (he'd hit it some time before).

 

 

Lessons

1) 12 turns for 2500 vs 1250 plus 250 defences are too many. 8 would be better to encourage movement, 3000+ vs 1500 could manage 12 turns.
2) Snipers are useless vs Marines. They generaly roll 2 dice less for suppression, even the officers roll 1 less so you need 2 snipers or claim rear/flank and under 1/2 range to get extra dice...

 

The other game saw Mark defend against Mike and Gordon, his report can ve found on the BKC forums in the FWC threads.

 



FWC Bootcamp 2013

Saturday Morning

 

There were 3 games in the morning, 2000ap encounters.

 

1. Desolate City

 

2. Wasteland

3. The Red Planet

Gordon and I played on the Wastelands. He managed a Golden Duck, a blunder on first roll of first turn.

I laughed and then promptly did the same, Gordon laughed.

Gray Alien Mothership arrives, sadly I don't have enough Smart Missiles to kill it but manage to suppress it most turns until it gets its shields up.

So I encircle it and go for commander overrun...but his commander has stealth so pops into the Mothership.

Eventually Gordon lands some troops and suppresses some Krays but pays the price and a load of Gray Aliens are toasted.

Saturday Afternoon

Sartorial Wars as hosted by Paul. Control the Tailors in the installation and the fabric producing worms too. Scenario as per that on BKC site.

 

Paul's Krays make an early dash for the clothing factory supported by Mark's Scavengers and Gordon's Kraytonian  Torak R.iders

Colin the Merc' arrives to kill any Krays he can. Foolishly he reckons 4 bits of armour are easier targets than Gordon and Paul's Krays. Fool. That was the last wesaw of his army as my Arkalasts took him to break and my off table gunship arrived to destroy all his expendable stuff. All he had on the table was his CO and a recce unit. I did warn him to to come towards me.

My Krays and Alan's bugs rush to contest the factory.

Mark's Scavengers takea beating

Gordon's Krays get pulse HVP'd by my gunship then flames by bug gunships. It's not pretty...for Paul's outmoded team. Alan gets a bug up into the complex to contest the factory and wins hands down on VPs so Pink is the colour of the day.

Sunday Morning

Small fast paced scenarios to build up to the finale later. Scenario as per BKC site but essentialy run arounf the desert and find good stuff before the prison screws get you.

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

I was on table 3 vs Colin and his Gammoreans and Paul's renegade Krays. Colin obligingly head straight for my deployment line and save me having to move my reckon too far. I had a plan!

Meanwhile elsewhere on the planet fuels convoys attempt to break through.

So Colin races to get objectives, runs past my recce who promptly advice me CO where to land the Teleporting  Karok Lander. Out pile a load of Krays and lay waste to numerous Gammorians. Worked a treat.

See how few Gammoreans there are compared to the first pic....

Second morning game and the same thing although different units for me. This time Mark lines up his troops in Napoleonic formartion... to which pulse weapons are lethal. Mark lost a fair few troops and learnt an important lesson on spreading troops.

Sundayt Afternoon

All the Junkers and Renegade Krays assault the prison complex and attempt to steal the Mothership and escape. However Renegades to a deal to survive and be allowed to leave the planet, taking with them Mark's Orange Junker clan. Leaving  poor mike and Colin to face the music.

Mike obscures the defending bunkers but cannot stop the call for airsupport that destroys his army.

Smokin' tonight Mike.

Mothership arrives at the end of the day.

That's it. a Great weekend,  thanks to all and look forward to next year.

This week I have mainly been... FWC Terrain making

Just over a month to go before FWC Bootcamp and so decided to crack on with some more terrain pieces for our 6mm Sci-fi games. some of these buildings have been used before but I finally decided to place the actual models on permanent template.

Enjoy.

First up Desert outpost with redar tower and generator. Models from Old Crow.

Next the Science Research Facility on Alpha 1. Don't know who make these, I think it's some chap in Barcelona.

The Refinery, complete with large filling depos,  wouldn't want any one to see what's produced... Refinery from JRM but not sure about the depos.

Bug Hunt!! Nice little bug hive nest, note the arid cracked terrain and no vegetation... no respectors of the environment these bugs. Models from Dark Realm Miniatures.

Shape of things to come...More Pinko Kraytonians in the form of the Karok Lander. Hmmm....Shiny....



That's it.