Operation: Running Deer, my game from BLAM 09

[matakishi]

I've written up the scenario and illustrated it with some pics from the games on the day, no actual battle report because all three games were frankly very fast moving and a bit of a blur.

Of the three, two were won by the Africans and one by the Mercenaries, a Pyrrhic mercenary victory for Revford as he had most of his forces cut to pieces with machetes in sight of his burning armoured car. Never-the-less, the trucks got through.

Overlord managed to lose by having all his civilian charges massacred, good fun for the rebels

Once again, my thanks to all who played and to Mark for helping me run the games on the day, it's the people that make a good game!

Here's Overlord's recce troop getting into a bit of bother:


The end of Revford's first go (this one made me laugh, it's important to get off to a good start):


Details: http://www.matakishi.com/operationrunningdeer.htm

[Helen]

Well done Paul and to all who participated. Looks like it was a fun game.

Helen

[d phipps]

Yes, indeed! Very nice!   

Hey, what did you use to made those buildings with the awnings?

[Wirelizard]

That is a seriously droolworthy table. I wants it, I do!

I know nothing about Crossfire, but counting just a suppression on a truck as a 'kill' for game purposes sounds rough for the merc player. Or is a "Suppress" result actually hard to get for troops like the rebels in your scenario?

[elysium64]

Looks very good Paul, that table looks magnificent, hopefully I will get a chance to try out the game in the near future.
Will definitly try to come to BLAM next year.

[matakishi]

The awnings are just paper with a printed pattern, step by step guide and downloadable artwork for the awnings is here: http://www.matakishi.com/makingdesertbuildings.htm

As for the trucks, a suppression result is not easy for the rebels at the best of times and they can't even shoot at the trucks until the mercenary player chooses to bring them on to the table. There is no excuse for losing trucks, ever. Getting the civvies brassed up won't get you paid at the end of the day 

[matakishi]

I tried to put together a report for the Crossfire yahoo group but my recollections are hazy, BLAM is a busy, heady day. Anyway, here it is with apologies to any LAFfers that I may have inadvertently misrepresented.



I ran three games on the Saturday which resulted in two African wins and one win for the mercenaries.
 
In game one the mercenaries sent forward a recce group consisting of the armoured car and some jeeps, they made some good progress through the town, killing and suppressing rebel bases as the went. Eventually the rest of the mercenaries appeared with the trucks thinking it was safe enough but were outflanked by re spawning rebels and lost all three trucks to a machete charge giving the rebels the victory even though they had only killed a single stand of enemy troops.
The mercenaries had killed every rebel on the board at least once, the rebels had re deployed 4 platoons throughout the game.
 
The second game was similar to the first, to be honest the whole day was very frenetic and a bit of a blur and only some instances stick in the mind, the game was a victory to the rebels who had a lot of fun cutting up their enemies yet again. I think they captured the armoured car in this game.


 
The last game was a mercenary victory. A similar recce force was sent forward as in the first game and the armoured car was immediately destroyed by rebel reaction fire. I thought I knew what was coming but, undaunted, the mercenaries dismounted from their jeeps under fire to clear the wreckage and, after a little effort, remounted and progressed along the second street. At the next corner they were met with concentrated rebel fire from a large building complex at the end of the street with supporting fire from the mosque. The gunfire exchange left the whole force suppressed (and thus dismounted) or on no-fire at which point they were engaged by two groups of rebels and cut to pieces; the mercenary player regretted leaving his commanders (and their close combat bonuses) with the trucks. Things looked bad for the mercenaries but they persevered and tried again with the remains of their troops. Moving carefully and suppressing rather than killing the rebels meant that no new ones appeared and eventually they realised that only three active stands stood between them and a clear run. This was tense, a jeep was sent forward to draw fire and, amazingly, three no-fires resulted. The trucks roared through the town to the airport apron and the waiting plane.



The rebel victories were because of the mercenaries being over zealous and killing rather than suppressing whole units. One rebel commander in the second game was not above using suicide charges to enable him to quickly re-deploy fresh units behind the advancing column.
 
The rebels finally lost when the other player realised that he could neutralise the enemy by leaving them suppressed without a commander or by killing the troops and not attacking the command figure. Both these options meant no new troops suddenly reappearing. He lost most of his force before this dawned on him though and it was a close run thing.

[Ray Rivers]

That is a seriously droolworthy table.

What he said!

Fantastic!

[v_lazy_dragon]

  This looks truly AWESOME, especially as I've been getting back into my Modern Africans of late. Great work Matakishi!

[revford]

It was fantastic fun to play, we've decided to pick up the Crossfire rules and give this a go ourselves.  Just changing the setting former Soviet states to match our miniature collections.

[postal]

very nice report thank you for sharing it.

[JollyBob]

Well to return your compliment, I wish I'd had chance of a game cos it looked great and everybody seemed to be really enjoying it.

Excellent job. 

[Thunderchicken]

I took two friends along to BLAM who played this game. They loved everything about it; the terrain, the figures and the rules. One of them is very hard to please so a big pat on the back for Matakishi.

[Whiskyrat]

One rebel commander in the second game was not above using suicide charges to enable him to quickly re-deploy fresh units behind the advancing column.

The shanty town was a great place to recruit "volunteers". 

The pictures do not do it justice, it was a fabulous table to play on and Matakishi did a great job of converting everyone to Crossfire - just in time for CF2.