15mm GRUNTZ AAR: RESD vs DROIDS

Last week we set out to spend the afternoon playing 15mm wargames.  Specifically we wanted to finally give Gruntz a try and see how it worked, following Gruntz we played the essentially same game with the Tomorrow's War rule set. 

We were both familiar with TW, although neither of us had played in awhile, and although I didn't choose to chronicle that game, I did try and chronicle the Gruntz game so I could give an AAR on it.

If you are unfamiliar with Gruntz it is a 2d6 based system.  Basic ranged combat is based on the stats, SHOOT, GUARD, DAMAGE and SOAK.   Basically 2d6+SHOOT needs to beat GUARD to hit and 2d6+ DAMAGE needs to beat SOAK to damage.  Rotten Lead Games has a fairly comprehensive playlist on how the game works: Rotten Lead Gruntz Videos.

In general we liked Gruntz.  It was easy to play, resolved fast enough and was easy to pick up.  It has a built in points system that allows you to easily build comparable forces, although it is not without issues.  I stated up my power armor suits as "Specialists" for about 37 points.  After the game we decided for 37 points if they were stated as "Mechs" I could have had a far more useful unit for the same 37 points.

For those interested I did an AAR video for this battle for the companion YouTube channel. Colony Report

SCENARIO:
Kill 'Em All:  Head to head, elimination scenario.

FORCES:
RESD:
1 Commander
3 Death Guard power suits
3 squads with heavy plasma
1 Mongoose Missile Tank




Droids:
1 Commander
1 Droid Soldier Squad w/plasma
1 Droid Solider Squad w/missile
3 Droid Scout Drone Squad
1 Droid Hunter Killer
1 Hex Droid w/ plasma
1 Hex Droid w/ Gatling Laser

BATTLEFIELD:
Small Colony complex

Colony Complex

DEPLOYMENT:
Rolling for initiative the RESD (myself) gain the upper hand and elect to deploy second.

Final deployment of all troops prior to Turn 1.

TURN 1: (RESD wins initiative)
RESD
Forces advance further into position.

DROIDS
Forces advance further into position.

Droid and RESD move further into position.

TURN 2: (RESD wins initiative)
RESD
Units move up into the tree lines on both sides of the base in response to the droid advance.
Mongoose tank moves up to building corner to cover the main base road.

DROIDS
Move up along pond and fire at exposed troopers, scoring no hits on the unit.
Droid Hunter Killer flanks on the right and opens fire on the light Mongoose tank, range and the chaos of the battle field result in no hits being scored.

Further advance and reorganization of troops in cover positions.

HK flanking in on my right side.

Turn 3: (RESD wins initiative)
RESD
Tank swivels and looses a barrage of missiles at the Hunter Killer unit, missing.
On the left side, the power armored Death Guard open up with their plasma on the incoming droids and miss the small nimble hover drones.
Plasma Squad moves back and prepares to fire on HK unit as well.
Plasma Squad moves up taking cover against the southern building.

DROIDS
Hex Droid at long range opens up with a gatling laser against the tank, it’s lasers pinging harmlessly off the armor of the tank.
Second Hex Droid moves up unleashing the hell fire of plasma against the tank, it’s super heated charge melting into the tank, but causing only minor damage
Hunter Killer drops down increasing range between it and the RESD plasma squad and fires on the tank, missing again, but it’s massive burst catches the squad of plasma troopers within it’s hellfire, knocking a man to the ground.
Droid Soldiers move up into a position in and on the main colony building.
The Drones moving down on the middle, maneuver and fire into the squad of men hunkered beside the southern building, knocking a man to the ground.

Mid Turn as the Droids advance on the RESD.



Droids drop the first RESD trooper.

Turn 4: (DROIDS win initiative)
DROIDS
The Hunter Killer fires against the tank missing as well as missing with weapon's area blast.
Plasma armed Hex Droid opens up on the tank again, again breaching the armor, but causing no critical damage.
Gatling Hex Droid fires on a squad of RESD troopers knocking 2 men to the ground.
Drones come down the middle and scores no hits on the plasma squad.
Drones fire on the Death Guard taking cover in the forest, scoring no hits.
Second unit of Drone Scouts fire on the Death Guard scoring 1 hit, resulting in minor damage.
Droid Soldiers fire shoulder mounted rockets at DG causing 3 damage.
Droid Soldiers miss with their rifles.

RESD
Mongoose swivels and closes with the HK before unleashing a barrage of rockets against the HK, causing massive damage but failing to drop it.
The RESD Commander turns and fires an expertly placed shot with his plasma rifle scoring a hit and crashing the HK to the ground.
RESD Plasma squad on the left side fires and misses Drones.
Death Guard open fire, their plasma finding one drone.
RESD Troopers move up from building cover to try and close distance on Drone Scouts and Hex Droids.
RESD Plasma on right, moves left using the south eastern building as cover.

Thick of the battle as troops move, fire and try and hold their position.

Combined damage from the Mongoose and Commander destroy
the Hunter Killer.

Turn 5: (RESD wins initiative)
RESD
RESD Plasma squad on the left moves up scoring one hit on the left unit of Scout Drones.
Death Guard opens fire scoring 1 hit on a second unit of Scout Drones, destroying one and suppressing the unit.
RESD Plasma squad in the middles misses.
The Mongoose tank fires it's missiles against the Plasma Hex Droid missing it.
Commander moves up.
The Plasma Squad on the right continues it's advance

DROIDS
Commander removes suppression on drone unit.
Droid Soldiers move up and fire on the RESD Plasma Squad suppressing it with 2 hits.
Droid Soliders fire their heavy weapon against the Death Guard failing to penetrate it's armor and having no effect.
Scout Drones move and fire against RESD Plasma Squad causing 2 hits and suppressing the squad.
Drones fire on the Death Guard causing no hits.
Hex droids, both gatling and plasma fire on the Mongoose, but fail to hit and penetrate it's armor.
Down the middle of the Colony the Scout drones fire on the remaining RESD Plasma scoring 5 hits on the remaining squad, wiping it out.

Left side: Scouts and Soliders exchange fire with Death Guard and Plasma troops.

Tank firing on Hex while Troops advance.

Droids wipe out middle RESD team and cause casualties on left RESD Team.

Turn 6: (DROIDS win initiative)
DROIDS
Scout drones coming down the middle fire on the RESD Commander, their shots impacting harmlessly against his armor.
Gatling Hex Droid, fire on full auto against the remaining RESD Plasma, knocking down 3 men, suppressing them.
The Plasma Hex Droid opens up with it's heavy plasma, striking the tank and causing it to finally explode into a shower of molten and twisted metal.
Remaining troops, Soldiers and Scouts, on the left open up against the Death Guard. They cause an additional wound, but the Guard holds strong, but it is only a matter of time.....

RESD
Commander moves and shoots, no damage.
Plasma Squad moves and shoots hoping for a lucky shot against one of the Hex droids, but fails.
The Death Guard, still a lethal force, fire their heavy plasma against the Soldiers dropping 3.

Mongoose is destroyed, middle RESD troopers down.

Death Guard holding, majority of RESD wiped out.  Colony is lost.

We called the game in favor of the DROIDS after the completion of the 6th turn. The only units I had left that were at all effective against the DROIDS were the Death Guard and they would start falling in the next round or so.

Great Magics of the 1890s: In Her Majesty's Name.

This past Sunday the Skirmish club got together and played a three way scenario devised by one of our members.


Each player was given a primary and secondary objective and a starting point.  Initiative was randomized via a small deck of cards.  This deck also included effects such as Dust, Darkness and Wind.

I believe VP were awarded as.
20 - Primary
10 - Secondary
5- Leader kill
2- Regular kill




Our original deployment.  Three companies approach the ruins of an old temple.  Rumors say that within it are objects of great magic.

Central Asian Agency deployment.

Our first moves.

Mongols ride for the cover of the forest, feinting towards the breech in the wall to gain access to the magic items.  The objects are secondary to me though, striking down the enemy and killing their leaders is my primary goal.  Crush your enemies.  See them driven before you.  Hear the lamentation of their women.  Sadly my dogs took a bullet, but being the troopers they are, remain in the game.

Second round, Mongols continue their feint, Jeremy's forces split moving through the gate and towards the temple, I rush my dogs in to attack and pin some forces effectively splitting his forces.  On our right Greg moves his units unmolested up to the walls and proceeds to gain entry into the temple complex.  Dust clouds sweep into the valley causing reduced visibility and essentially reducing ranged weapons.  This favors my units.

Dogs rushing into combat!

Mongol leader continues to move towards the entrance! 

Mongols move into the attack, pressing their advantage of strength into Jermey's now split forces.  The Dust has settled but Darkness has settled across the land causing confusion and reducing ranged combat again.  Gregs forces continue to take up firing positions on the wall while I fight against Jermey's forces in hand to hand.

Result of the close combat results in one of my dogs dying as well as Jeremy losing two of his units.  The Mongol leader pulls Jeremy's two other units away from their search for treasure.


(I think I missed a turn of combat in here, pretty sure I eliminated Jeremy's leader in my leaders first move across the trees, freeing the dog to attack)

The next round sees howling winds sweep down causing a small amount inaccuracy to long ranged weapons, but generally does not effect any of us.  The Yeti also moves into combat to help the war dog.

The Mongol leader leaves Jermey's last two isolated units to cross the trees and enter combat

Greg's firing positions.  This turns poorly as conditions finally favor shooting and he begins to unload arc cannons on us.

The Mongols move in and attack the robot, on moving into combat each Mongol has a +8 to hit, but with only a -1 to pluck rolls they fail to do more than harass the machine.

The next round sees the Yeti free and able to move into combat.  Also enjoying a +8 to attack rolls and a -2 to pluck the group finally brings down the Robot.

(The next round has the Mongols ride out into a line and open fire on Greg's leader, but as he retreats into cover we are unable to score a hit.  Unfortunately I am not so lucky and an arc cannon lights up a horseman and he falls dead)

Now I have two options.  Flee the field as I have no chance of killing the rest of Greg's forces or......Charge into combat against his leader. 

I choose combat.

Our first round ends in s stalemate, and in the second round I lose initiative, but I am able to move my war dog into combat as well.

The unfortunately proves bad for me as his attack kills my leader first before my Mongols manages to bring down his leader.

At this point Greg has not managed to uncover any of the Magic Items, and despite killing a few of my guys my victory point total is higher at the end due to a lot of bloodshed and killing of leaders.  One as an objective and one just as a combat.

Overall it was a fun game with decent rolls on my side, Jeremy was just learning the game and getting his forces split really hurt him, as well as a few rounds of reduced range.  I enjoyed the initiative system combined with battlefield effects.

The reduced range gave me a fairly large benefit I think.  Half of my units don't have ranged weapons and the ones that do, don't use them that much. 

Battle at the Town. The Second Battle

Tomorrow's War

Game 2

Nov 30th 2014

Human RESD vs Cyber Droid Threat

This is the second game of Tomorrow's war we have played.  We used the exact same table as last time, but tried some new ideas.  We have been "balancing" our forces based on FP dice, which doesn't produce balanced forces.  We are still working on that.  I am writing this up from memory and pictures.  It is incomplete but should give a feel for the engagement.

The RESD were stationed in a small  town that controls a road through the plains.  

Word of an approaching threat allowed them to take up defensive and hidden positions to strike out at the approaching Cyber Droids.

The majority of the troops took up positions that would allow them to control the road.  Flanks were controlled by a heavy plasma team on the right and an elite recon unit on the left.

As the Cyber droids approach their larger "power armor" robots crossed an open area.  The plasma team opened fire and unleashed a torrent of fire across the battlefield.  The plasma bolt proved largely ineffective against the robots.  This would prove to be a continuing issue. Although I rolled okay here the robots armo'r and advanced repair essentially rendered my attack useless.

A small unit of skimmers moved forward towards the town.  A fire team attempts to spot the small stealthy units, but even as they catch a glimpse of the machines and prepare to open fire the skimmers seemingly waiting for them unleash their own plasma cutting the unit down.

After the horrific onslaught the entire squad, save one trooper left with serious injuries is killed.  If you don't play Tomorrow's war.  After a unit takes casualties you roll a d6 at the end of the turn to see the result.  A 1 results in a death.  I rolled four 1s. 

On the right flank another unit of skimmers has managed to move up and lay down a round of fire wounding my gun team and seriously weakening it's offensive power.  As the skimmers bear down on the plasma team the RESD fire team comes out of hiding and moves back into the trees in an attempt to cut off the incoming skimmers.

The skimmers closed in an attempt to close assault the gun team, but before they can the team gets one more shot off destroying a single skimmer before they swarm the team and finish them off.  

The RESD fire team had also attempted to stop them with reaction fire, but with dice rolls that were consistently like these, not much happened.  The fire team was wiped out shortly afterwards allowing the Cyber Droids on the right flank to move in towards the center.

Meanwhile in the center of town light flyers had moved up with a unit of skimmers, but despite being right on the RESD positions the skimmers with their stealth tech remained hidden.  This was not the case for the first skimmer that came down the center street.  The RESD fire team carrying a heavy plasma and 4 pulse rifles opened up.  The plasma rifle managed to do nothing, bouncing harmlessly off the armor, but the pulse rifles managed to find a weak spot on the armor bringing it to the ground.

Now exposed to fire the fire team takes massive fire from the skimmers and remaining flyer.  It is essentially wiped out in a couple of turns.

This leaves a single unit.  The elite recon team.  From their stealthy position in the trees with light arms they began to inflict some damage on the enemy.  Their superior training and stealth allowed them to take out the last of the light vehicles. 

But even after that it was 5 RESD recon scouts vs a large number of heavy robots and skimmers.  It was only a matter of time. 

Eventually the position would be over run.

We called the game in favor of the droids.

We did some stuff VERY wrong.  We had it in our head that every time a unit reacted it had a -1 reaction to it's next reaction test.  In reality it is supposed to lose one FP die per reaction past the first.

We had some issues with morale, ie remembering it.  using the wrong dice etc.