Chain Reaction: Battle at the Mine

[Momotaro]

David (Gibby from this forum) was round this morning to get in a couple of games of Two Hour Wargames' Chain Reaction.  We both like the idea of the THW "reaction system", where  your figures are not entirely under your command, and may hide or run away depending on what happens to them on the battlefield.  Chain Reaction is the stripped-down (and free) core of all their other games.

Since Britain is sweltering today in a baking 26°C/79°F (no laughing at the back!), I set the table up in my back garden:

View down the length of the table, showing the abandoned mining camp that would be the battlefield:



View across the width:



Buildings are Urban Mammoth Platformer, Dust Quonset huts and AT-43 shipping containers.  A couple of scratchbuilds in there too, plus the ubiquitous plastic palm trees and aquarium vegetation  

AARs to follow!

[Diceplague]

Nice table! Canīt wait to see the AAR! 

[Momotaro]

AAR 1: civil war!

We both took a team of 5 Sedition Wars vanguard troopers, each led by a Star - Morgan Vade for David, Kara Black for me.

Here's David's team at the start:





We both split our teams into two, and tried to flank, threading between the buildings.  First blood to David, putting a grenade into the middle of my left-hand team.  Ouch!



For my side, Kara's team had the enemy in their sights:



And caught them as they ran between buildings:



Even as my SAW gunner took some more fire, and ran off to hide, Kara's accurate fire trapped David's team behind a storage tank:



Kara's team encricled the trapped Morgan, but some excellent fire from David's beleaguered troops saw the attackers taking casualties...



...and defeated!



Game to David! He had two troopers down, and the SAW Gunner "hunkered down" and unable to move until ralliend by another figure, with two troopers and Morgam still in the fight.  I lost two dead, three out the fight, and MY SAW Gunner ran away and also hunkered down.

Conclusion: assault rifles are really messy when troops get caught in the open, and we both liked the mechanics.  Sometimes you got to complete your action, sometimes incoming fire stopped you from doing it, and some troops just saw too much and went to ground.  

Teams work well with a competent leader and activate easily, but you roll the reaction dice once, and apply the results to each individual based on their Reputation score (the only stat in the game).  If you allow teams to split because some of them, for example, fail a Fast Move test, the stragglers (usually the ones with the lower rep) struggle to activate.  Result - fragmented and failed attack.  David kept his teams together, and kept everyone activating. 

[Ironworker]

Very nice!  Great table.  I like the way you painted the platformers. 

[Momotaro]

AAR 2: down among the dead men

For game 2, we joined forces and also used some rules from All Things Zombie.  Morgan (David) and Kara (me), with 2 troops each, had to make their way through the TechnoZombie-infested mining camp and activate a homing beacon so they could be extracted from the site by shuttle after a wait of D6 turns.



The team dispatched a couple of zombies silently, attracting minimal attention.  Kara was put out of the fight by one early on, and had to carried by her squadmates.



In sight of the homing beacon, we got into a serious firefight which attracted even more zombies.  Kara's team stopped to defend their fallen captain, and were overrun!



Morgan (David) pushed on to the homing beacon and activated it.  Bad roll - 5 turns to wait until the shuttle arrives!  His team took a stand, pouring fire into the encircling horde, attracting even more of them.



His troopers finally overwhelmed, Morgan makes a run on the last turn and is picked up by the shuttle!  A win for the good guys - well, David again  



Assault rifles sure make a lot of noise, and attract a lot of zombies, don't they?  Once we started firing, they just piled onto us.  It made for a nail-biting finish though - good game!

[Amalric]

Fun looking games that look great.
I Love the rules from two hour wargames.
Thanks for posting.

[dijit]

Nice looking table and what looks to be some fun games.

[Gibby]

Nice write up, Derek! It was good fun, and a pleasure to game with your excellent figures and terrain. The sun certainly did boil my brain, though! I have to say I am very much a fan of Two Hour Wargames' stuff. The rules themselves build a wonderful narrative, with your figures acting like humans.

The pictures came out great, by the way! I really loved the two games. Can't wait to play again!

[Momotaro]

Yeah, a good day for photos, but I'm scarlet from head to foot this evening.  Mad dogs, an Englishman and a Scotsman...

Thanks for the kind words folks, it's appreciated coming from people whose work I've admired for so long.

[Predatorpt]

Great AAR and even better painting. How did you do that solar panel?

[Momotaro]

The solar panel itself is a piece of diamond-hatched plasticard flooring, with a plain plasticard frame glued on top of it.

The pylon is made from pieces from the Platformer kit, which contains a lot of support girders and sci-fi fencing.

[Predatorpt]

The solar panel itself is a piece of diamond-hatched plasticard flooring, with a plain plasticard frame glued on top of it.

The pylon is made from pieces from the Platformer kit, which contains a lot of support girders and sci-fi fencing.

Hmm...plasticard flooring you say? For a moment there I thought you used a bike refletor. Thanks for the reply

[Marauderman]

Momotaro good looking game and terrain, the game looked like it was fun. Would you happen to know the supplier or manufacturer of the token markers you used ( Stunned, Dead etc ).
Regards Marauderman.

[AKULA]

Oi, you pinched my avatar!

 

[Chico]

That looks pretty tasty