5150 Star Army BatRep

[CLT40K]

So tonight I ran an experiment using the 5150 solo rules with my 40K miniatures.  I think that with some tweaks this could be a lot of fun…..

For the Scenario, I decided to put both side’s investment at a 3.  (Investment tells us how important the mission is to either side, you have to pass a roll of 3 or less to bring in reinforcements and reveal enemy forces)

Quick note on Ruleset - I used shooting and combat mechanics from 40K.  I've been playing that game a long time so it comes a lot more natural to me.  For reactions and stuff, I used the 5150 rules.

To start with we have my marine patrol.  Ie, one tactical squad with a razorback in support.  The squad was divided into two combat squads (each with a special weapon)  Giving them some heavy support was one of the Chapter’s razorbacks.  For rep they were set at 4/5.  Both teams rolled and got a 4 rep and the Razorback had a 5.



Their opposition would be drawn from the following…
6 member Tau pathfinder Cadre with a rail gun in support and/or and XV-9 Battlesuit.  However, I treated the battlesuit like a dreadnought and gave it 10 armor and two Str 8 and AP 1 shots from the fusion cascade.  When rolling for what reinforcements would appear, 1-2 was the squad, 3-4 was the suit, and 5-6 would get both.
 


Turn 1 – the Tau didn’t roll enough to move any of their PEFs (Possible Enemy Forces) so it was a Space Marine advance.  Turn two saw the Marines go first and they advanced into contact with the first PEF.  Since this was First Contact with the Tau, I rolled to see how good their Intel was.  Unfortunately for the Marines I rolled poorly and they had bad intel.  The result of this roll was to double the number of PEFs on the table (so 3 went to 6)

No worries though right… it’s just Tau and the Space Marines are really tough to take down.  And with each team having a special weapon and the twin linked support of the razorback I wasn’t too worried.


 
First contact was a full squad of Pathfinders with XV-9 Support.  I decided that when the PEF was revealed to have both types, I would treat them as separate units for the rest of the game.

The Marines unloaded on them with massed bolter fire and dropped 3 Tau right off the bat.  However, they passed their reaction test and were able to return fire.  They only managed to hurt 1 Marine and the Marines passed their reaction test with no issues.



Then the Razorback rolled forward to put fire into the Tau XV-9.   They hit and scored an Immobilized result.  The Marine squad on the right advanced to the window to put fire onto the Tau Pathfinders.  I used the 5150 rule that said 2 models could fire through a door or window and the both failed to cause any casualties on the Tau



Here’s where things started to turn bad for the Emperor’s Chosen.  The immobile XV-9 wrecked the Razorback.



Another PEF made contact with the Marines and was revealed to be an XV-9 suit.  It opened fire and took out the Marine support weapon.  Without a support weapon and out of charge distance, the Marines fell back.


Another squad and 2 reinforced squads are revealed as more PEF’s are revealed and pass reinforcement checks.


They make short work of the Marine Patrol.


At this point, the Tau have the day and the remaining 3 Marines fall back through some cover to live and fight another day.

[CLT40K]

First impressions - I really like the reaction system and I thought using the 40K combat mechanics worked pretty well with the game.  I'm pretty much completely disenchanted with the 6-7th edition 40K rules so this was a fun way to get those models on the table.   

I could really see this as being a fun way to have a more narrative approach to the 40K universe.  I've been playing and collecting Games Workshop stuff for years though and I have the models to drop down.  I really didn't expect to have the bad intel roll double the amount of Tau on the board and while this was a lot of fun, it could be problematic if you don't have the model count. 

This was also the first time I ever tried "solo gaming" (though when I put quotes around the phrase it makes it sound dirty)  The really fun part for me was making the bat rep as I went though.

I could see this being a great way to bring a bit of narrative to your local gaming group or to run a cooperative game vs an enemy.  Also, the PEF system really caters to the whole "fog of war" thing.