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Author Topic: Trouble in the 6th Ring: A 5150 Battalion Commander BATREP  (Read 1688 times)

Offline cmikucki

  • Student
  • Posts: 14
Trouble in the 6th Ring: A 5150 Battalion Commander BATREP
« on: February 09, 2014, 08:23:24 PM »
5150 Battalion Commander Batrep:  Trouble in the Sixth Ring

The boys and I planned our first 15mm Sci-fi game for a Winter War the last weekend of January.  Thanks to Ed for getting the rules out just in time.

Game prep:
I had to guess a bit about troop composition and some items prior to the rules being released, so my platoons were 3-4 stands of 3 figures each, with leaders (personal characters for our game) individually mounted.  I like the look of the figures on small Flames of War bases – I don’t play FOW, so this is the first time I’ve used them. 

A few shots of the troops:

Two platoons of PDF (REP4)



A platoon of MineSafe free company mercenaries/ guardforce for the mine. (REP 3)


A large contingent of Sahadeen guerillas – against the removal of alien artifacts from the mine.  As is a natural rule of the universe, the troops that I spent the most time on were killed without glory very early in the game! (REP4)

Star Army: (REP 5)





Scenario:
PDF unit commanders have been patrolling the areas around the MineSafe mine in this remote sector on Cerberus 6.  Local guerillas have been raiding mines from the local hills and then fading back into the crystal fields where sensors prevent effective tracking.

MineSafe, with support from powerful backers, has been secretly exploiting a large find of sub-surface alien artifacts from an era or more ago.  Technology bypass is their goal, and the secretive operation has been conducted with tremendous security.  Three scientists work at the mine site and they must be protected at all costs.

Star Army has been in orbit for three weeks – as usual those federal guys wont tell the PDF anything.  It seems strange that they are here when there isn’t a real enemy to fight beyond the local guerillas – they are dangerous, but second tier, and not worthy of the guys from Space.

As you may know from having read my pre-game inquiries this is actually a bughunt.  The players didn’t know until after the game begins and the first  hole opens up.  The Sahadeen guerillas were deployed on the board, and the PDF planned to find and finish them.

Here’s an early view of the map: 



The slag channel down the middle is impassable to foot troops (and later bugs as it turned out) except at the bridge.



The mine:

 
The first hole opened up and the 1st Platoon of the PDF did poorly…





The Sahadeen moved forward confidently and then three bug holes in a row opened up behind their formation in a handful of turns:


By turn 5 three platoons of humans had become bugchow!



The mercenaries were a bit frustrated, not moving very often on their REP 3 rolls, but enjoyed one marked success – the lone construction mech (Light mech, Rep 3)  swiftly charged toward a puker/ plasma bug tucked in its hole...  The Puker missed on all five dice and the mech made it in and dispatched the bug…


Then the bad-boys of space arrived:


The forces of humanity ended up defending together near the bridge (first on one end, then on the other):



The final swarm headed into the platoon of mercenaries, and eventually killed all the security personnel – the last pod of bugs falling under the fire of the remaining PDF platoon across the slag channel…

 
The remaining human Star Army reinforcements never made it on the board:

Losses:
1 PDF Platoon
1 Sahadeen Platoon
1 MineSafe platoon
1 Squad of Star Army

The bugs lost approximately 230 of their number throughout…  There were four pukers/plasma bugs - only the one was lost to the mech - they were scary to the players!

We really enjoyed the game overall.  We played a whopping twenty six turns in under three hours – perhaps the highest number of turns I’ve ever played in a convention game!  I think the players felt a bit lost for a while on how to stem the tide of holes and bugs, but eventually a geometry of the battle took shape.  In the end everyone had a good moment or two.

I hadn’t deployed the remaining SA forces (1 MED Mech, 1 MED Tank, 2 APC’s and two hunter-killer squads.) 

A couple of lessons learned – with four or five players, I kept a couple reinforcement commands in hand.  The player with the very well painted but ill-fated Sahadeen forces went on to command the Star Army Platoon.  It worked well.  A unit facing the wrong way when a hole opens up doesn’t have many options!

Great time – great rules – thanks ED!

Offline seelowe41

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 39
    • Wyverns Wargamers
Re: Trouble in the 6th Ring: A 5150 Battalion Commander BATREP
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2014, 08:26:17 PM »
Fantastic looking game and true inspiration.

Cheers

Stu
Member of the Wyvern Wargamers.
http://wyvernwargamers.org.uk/



Check out my Blog - http://dusttears.blogspot.co.uk/

Offline cmikucki

  • Student
  • Posts: 14
Re: Trouble in the 6th Ring: A 5150 Battalion Commander BATREP
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2014, 01:15:30 AM »
Thanks Stu!

I appreciate the positive feedback.  It was a fun game, and pretty easy to prepare. 

I was actually able to paint up almost all of the figures in about ten days.  I have a bunch more waiting in the wings -really think there are a number of variations available. 

Good luck with your game.

 

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