Armies Army

Armies Army
15mm Sci Fi Metal Miniatures

Tuesday 24 April 2012

First Outing! TW Bat rep




So I finally made it to my club for  a game of Tomorrows War. Ive been promising to play it for quite a while, however sicknesses, work and the family have all got in the way of it. Some of it happily! p.s that's just in case wife reads....:)

Anyhow me and a club mate decided to give Tomorrows War a go and I set up the scenario and provided the figures. A first proper outing for my Neo Sov Troopers!!! horaahhh I hear!

Anyhow the scenario went along the lines of a Mining Corporation had found a alien artifact on some far off planet and had called in for some reinforcements. It was a strong merc force made up of ex serviceman, good T2 equipment, however very little bottle for it. They wanted the pay and no trouble.



OOB
Confidence      Confident    
Overall Tech Quality     2    
On Grid     No    
Body Armour     Light +1    
Troop Quality /Morale     D10/D8    
       
HQ           LT Vickers  /rifle M:D8
            x1 A90 Bazooka AP3 (+2 dice)
            x1 rifleman assitant
         
 Squad 1        x 3   
Fire Team A       x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman`
            x1 SAW AP1   (+ 1dice)
Fire Team B          
            x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman /GL (+1dice)
         
What they had not realized, a small force of a  Russian Union Stelkovy Company had arrived earlier in the day. They planned a surprise ambush until further forces could arrive. With short notice, the Russian Union could only gather together some local state troops commanded by a senior Intelligence officer whom had deciphered the information. There mission was to hold and cause causalities. These Corp paid dogs had no stomach for a firefight with the might of the Russian Union troops!

OOB
Confidence      Confident    
Overall Tech Quality     2    
On Grid     No    
Body Armour     Light +1    
Troop Quality /Morale     D8/D8                                                                        
HQ           LT Vassinov  /smg MoraleD10
            x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman
        
Squad        x 2
Fire Team A           x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman
            x1 LMG AP1   + dice
Fire Team B          
            x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman
            x1 rifleman
            x1 RPG AP 2    +2 dice       
                                                     
So the scene was set and the players took up position on the board. I played the Russian Forces and Alaistair played the Mining Corp Mercs.

All russian forces were located on a drawn map in Ambush position awaiting first strike

Turns 1 - 3
Merc forces advanced in fire teams using overwatch ( A suprise as Alastair had failed to use tactics previously, then again not a suprise Id he had suffered massively for it!) and the Russian forces kept hidden

Turn 4 - A quick scurry across open ground was tooo tempting for a fire unit based on a hill to overlook. The risk was that an overwatch force had them in sight at distance, however I thought Id better get some units on my table!
 

So one of my fire teams with an lmg opens up. A reaction from the over watch team failed, so I got to shoot first. No damage....not.....not even close
And in response from the over watch team and those fired on my fire team was wiped out to a man. Well made inactive as nobody was around to help with first aid! A rather poor start !

Turn 5 continued with a steady advance of the Mercs and my Russians holding fire, I thought best to get them in close after my last ambush effort!

Turn 6 - Again the Mercs presented a far to good an offer with a fire team literally running blindly into another Russian fire team. Again a smart Alastair had an over watch team covering the approach and another team moving from the other direction.
A full Russian fire team with RPG fired down onto the Mercs and caused 2 to go down. The others in panic continued their run to cover. At that moment the active over watch team and additional team let rip, taking out the entire Russian fire team again!





Bad to worse!

So half my units down and only 2 casualties caused! One of which got up as a medic arrived in the next turn!
Turn 7 -8  saw more advances and a medic help a Merc up again. My downed troops were isolated with no chance of a first aid check at all! (Lesson learnt)
Turn 9 - The Mercs  move slowly towards the artifacts last known location and into a built up mining town.
 
 This gave me the opportunity to open fire with my remaining fire teams and HQ section!




 
The 2 fire teams holding the crater opened up on the nearest Merc troops causing 2 casualties, however return fire from 2 fire teams wiped out my fire teams! Some good dice rolling from Alastairs special dice. The ones he only ever gets out for those 'special' moments.....for legal purposes, that may or may not be true about the dice... Either way, I was down to my HQ!
Which then promptly went as it tried to shoot up the Merc forces rifling through my injured comrades from the previous ambush...sigh




Despite all that and the fact it was over in an hour, it was a very fun game and first outing. I serioulsy over balanced the forces and really should of had random reinforcments  enter  the game, or at least had equal quality of dice! It really shows how much more effective D10 against D8 is and more importantly the good use of tactics and fireteams, Which I hate to say Alastair used exceptionally well!
So next time - more balance and maybe some arty or vehicles. I will certainly be adding any advantages to my own troops! They bloody better win, Im still trying to pay for them!!!

7 comments:

  1. Great batrep, nice to see the troops in action!

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  2. Nice batrep Keith-are you happy with the rule set? I have it, but not yet used it, although I have played Force On Force on which it is based of course.

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  3. Hiya

    First real game so hard to tell. It did end so quickly, however I think that was down to the balence of the forces, rather then crap rules! Another thing that helped us, was the fact we had played a few games of force on force before, so we understood the basics. As nice as the book is, I dont think its ordered very well and can be confusing

    Finally, we only played like for like infantry! No different tech levels, no arty, no vehicles and no grid. We are going to introduce them as we go along.

    Overall good fun I think and one Ill keep using

    I see you tried the FUBAR rules, we had similar setup for testing TW and similar result!

    By the way. When Ive a sec - a free pack is on the way to you and spacejacker for the painting comp winners. Liked both of them alot! I might not tell spacejacker, now I know hes Australian :)

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    Replies
    1. That's very kind, thanks Keith! Let us know when the new figs are available, and I'll definitely have some!

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  4. Great report. Nice board and lovely minis.

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  5. In my experience, the single most crucial thing in FoF/TW is a troop quality dice difference. D8 versus D10 with roughly equal numbers is an uphill struggle, whether the D8 are defending or not. For play balance you could try the game again, but give the D8 force a one TL advantage in guns and armour. But even then, there are going to be times when the D10 force rolls dice you can't match no matter how many D8s you get to roll.

    It also is a pretty big disadvantage being outnumbered in terms of elements because it means you're seldom the Initiative force and hence can't use Overwatch, which can be a real killer. One tactic when outnumbered is to take a risk and split some of your teams into smaller groups so you can win the initiative.

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  6. Yep
    bang on. I really didnt balance it well ata ll and I used the old adage of 3 to 1 to attack a defended position. However not the D8 disadvantage to the D10

    Ill try it again, with more equal forces me thinks

    ReplyDelete