First AAR _ Marines Vs Bobbies

[Rich H]

First game AAR – Marines vs Great Scotland Yard

So our first IHMN outing last night, 250 points with Richard’s Royal Marines vs my Bobbies
So far we are pretty impressed, the rules are straightforward with little in the way of gotchas we noticed.
Richards Marines were very tough opponents but ultimately their lack of numbers meant a run of bad luck saw them off.

Richard had:
A capt with sabre and pistol
Sgt with Rifle and Bayonet
A Medic with knife
5 Trooper with Military Rifle and Bayonet

I had
Chief Inspector
Sgt
Doc
4 Bobbies with Truncheons and pistols
7 Bobbies with carbines

The terrain was urban with narrow streets and scattered crates for cover.
We started in opposite corners and had a straight fight to test the rules out.  I started south west and the marines north east.

We started by running into position, there were 3 groups of marines: 3 marines went west, the capt, doc and a trooper south and two stayed in the north east covering a large fairly empty yard.
My bobbies split into 3 groups: the inspector went to the north with a third of the bobbies, the doc headed to the middle with a third and the sgt went east with the rest.

First engagements were rifle fire from the 2 marines covering the approach roads, fortunately given my running about and boxes for cover they couldn’t hit my bobby who misjudged the gap and ended up 1” from the safety of a wall!  After this wake up call there was a pause in the action for a few turns as we both consolidated a bit then launched into the fight proper.  The terrain didn’t really lend itself to ranged combat, so they fights were close and deadly.

In the north the inspector was immediately knocked over while fighting in a doorway against the Sgt and in the east 2 bobbies and the Sgt got stuck into the capt, medic and a marine. Immediately killing a bobby.
A couple of bobbies exchanged close range fire with a marine around a wall to the north with no effect and the central group of bobbies volley fired at a marine in the open lot, despite firing a volley of 6 they still couldn’t hit him…


Taking aim but couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo

Next turn: my doc ran up to the downed bobby in the east and tended his wounds but the scrap was getting messy.  A marine went down to a pistol shot and the capt downed my sgt with a sabre slash.
One of the marines in the open lot finally went down to a carbine volley.  The fight to the north made little progress.

Following turn: My doc dragged the downed bobby to his feet and immediately went to tend the sgt, the marine medic tended their downed marine.  This fight was getting messy.  A third bobby casually wandered around the corner and in true Met Police style decided to bop the medic while he was busy.  A deft crack on the back of the head from his English electric Truncheon and the doc went down taking both the downed marine with him.  This upset the capt a bit and he shot my doc taking the sgt with him and downed the bobby facing him with his sabre…


Doc kept busy until shot by the capt!

 in the meantime the fight to the north wasn’t going well for the Marines, the exchange of fire resolved itself as my special with a carbine went down to a rifle shot and the various fights started to go my way with the sgt taken down by my inspector. 


Just before the special was shot...

The marine left in the empty lot decided to go help his boss (He was facing 6 carbines at close range which probably helped his decision) and my specials gave chase.

Next turn: The fight to the north was now over, the remaining two marines went doen under heavy handed policing with the inspector arresting anyone who wasn’t dead.  This left a marine and capt hiding behind some houses facing about 10 bobbies.  They put up quite a fight!  To try and stop them running away I sent in a special to fight the capt then the other specials took the opportunity to fire on the fight while the capt was distracted…. Obviously hitting the special and killing him…  With my reinforcements on the way the capt decided the fabricating a report to his superiors as to his bravery was better than getting killed and we called it off there. 

Good clean fun was had by all and the cells were resplendent with marines in uniform that night!
From my point of view I was impressed how little we had to look up aside from stats , the rules are simple and slick but there is clearly depth there.  It also surprised my how hard it is to take men down!  Those pluck rolls and the doc means that even facing horrible odds sometimes guys just survive.

[timt]

Obviously a very enjoyable first game. It initially sounded like the marines were on top but that did not last. I have not tried out a medic yet but you seemed to find them very useful until some unspeakable cads on both sides took them down - hardly cricket is it?

It all looks very good and I do like the clear bases. My figures are all on the pavements and so might look a trifle out of place in Darkest Africa (or even on a trip to the countryside) but yours can clearly travel as widely as they choose and still fit in.

Regards
Tim

[wulfgar22]

Great stuff!

[Craig]

An excellent report there. I'm glad you like the rules, they are simple enough that even I can remember them (sometimes).

[Rich H]

Yes very logical and easily followed - we just need to get used to our stats!

Just ordered my second company - an armoured Naval Boarding party
We particularly like the flexibility of the rules allowing new companies to be made, also the ease in which multiple players can be incorporated.

Just building an armoured steam wagon for riot control.