Stargrunt II: Alien Raid

Ok, it's been a while.
I know I'm lazy.
Anyway my regular RPG group piked last Friday, so I set the table up for a game of Stargrunt II for Subcommander Amelia and I to play.

We covered half the table with a sheet of blue felt, then set a sandy coloured sheet of felt at an angle over the top of that, followed by a sheet of green felt.
Amelia set up the palm trees, rocks and aliens starship.

Palm trees are pipe cleaners, with leaves from aquarium plants.

Rock formations are pieces of wine bottle cork glued to washers.

The ship is from micromachines playset.

Amelias aliens are a mix of Khurasan's "Jasmine Throne Foreign Battalion", Rebel Minis' "Pangalactic Legion", Ground Zero Games' "Spider Drones" and "Grav Mini Drones" (Amelia painted here own aliens).

We added three of Ground Zero Games' "Fan Vans" (unpainted) to transport some of her troops.

Buildings are a mix of Ground Zero Games' "Colonial Settlement Buildings" and "Military Prefab and Base Modules", GCMinis' MDF buildings, White Dragon Miniatures' "Shanti Houses", Brigade Models "Checkpoint" set and some homemade stuff (doors,windows, radar dishes and solar panels, etc are from GZG).

Hedges are paddlepop sticks with bits of kitchen scourer glued to them.

Rock walls are paddlepop sticks with gravel glued to them.

Ploughed field is cardboard.

Civilian Vehicles are a mix of Alternative Armies Grav Cars, GZG's air cars (grav) and "light trucks"  and several air/rafts from Shapeways, (all unpainted).


Roads were printed on a b&w laser printer, from an image I found online.

Shipping containers are from Brigade Models.

Scenario: Alien Raid on Seaforth (fairly generic and therefore somewhat lacking in narrative)

Alien raid on a colonial settlement. The raiders are tasked with securing the town as a jump off point for a greater raid (or invasion, maybe). To do so they must capture or destroy both primary communications stations (big radar dishes) and any secondary communications centres (smaller radar dishes). The starship is equipped with advanced EW equipment to jam local communications.

The defenders need to defend the communications stations, repel the raiders if they can, communicate details of the raid to higher HQ. If they can establish communications with HQ they may be able to obtain some artillery or air support and possibly some reinforcements.

Forces:
Defenders:
  • Colonial Legion Etrangere Section
    • Section Command Team 
      • Sgt  De Money (w/Gauss Rifle)
      • 3x Legionnaires (w/Gauss Rifle)
  •  Colonial Legion Etrangere Fire Team Alpha
    • Cpl Le Clerc (w/Gauss Rifle)
    • Legionnaire (w/Gauss SAW)
    • Legionnaire (w/Mistral-5)
    • 2x Legionnaires (w/Gauss Rifle)
  •  Colonial Legion Etrangere Fire Team Alpha
    • Cpl La Trine (w/Gauss Rifle)
    • Legionnaire (w/Gauss SAW)
    • Legionnaire (w/Mistral-5)
    • 2x Legionnaires (w/Gauss Rifle)

Aliens
  • Starship
    • Ship's Crew 
    • EW Specialist
  •  Heavy Weapons Team 
    • Major Histar
    • 3x Twin Auto Cannon and Crew
  •  Heavy PA Team
    • Team Leader (Python PA)
    • PA Trooper (Python PA)
  • Security Team
    • Team Leader
    • 4x Rifleman
  •  Drone Team Alpha 
    • Team Leader
    • 3x Spider Drones
    • 2x Grav Mini Drones
    • 1x Fan Van
  •  Drone Team Bravo
    • Team Leader
    • 3x Spider Drones
    • 2x Grav Mini Drones
    • 1x Fan Van
  • Drone Team Charlie
    • Team Leader
    • 3x Spider Drones
    • 2x Grav Mini Drones
    • 1x Fan Van
 
Troop Quality and Leadership were determined by random draw.
Legionnaires were not expecting attack and were therefore at Low Mission Motivation. The Aliens were expecting to engage the legionnaires, in fact they seemed a tad enthusiastic about that possibility and were therefore at High Mission Motivation.

We did not use unit cards to make things simpler for Amelia.
We used standard ratings for most equipment:
Gauss Rifle FP 2/D12 Impact,
Gauss SAW FP D10/D12 Impact,
Mistral-5 GMS/P Guidance D8/D12 Impact
Checkpoint guns, Fan Van guns and PA guns we treated as RFAC/1 with FC D8/D10 Impact
Since the aliens never actually got to use their small arms we didn't need to stat them out.

I ruled that the Legionnaires were both unprepared for and reluctant to initiate combat due to a high level of uncertainty about what was actually going on. Not wanting to cause an interstellar incident with an alien species, they had to pass a reaction test to engage the aliens. (I added some additional threat levels for this, but I think that I should have simply rolled a standard reaction test, failure indicating that the Legionnaires engaged the aliens). Naturally once the aliens fired upon the Legionnaires there would be no more uncertainty.

Sgt De Money had a LV of 3 and I ruled that he would not engage unless directly ordered to by HQ or he was fired upon. As it happens De Money was able to communicate the situation to HQ due to a cock up by the Alien's EW specialist. But was unable to obtain orders telling him what to do as the EW specialist picked up his game and jammed all comms in the battle area. De Money, Le Clerc and La Trine were unable to communicate throughout the entire battle, due to efficient jamming by the alien EW Specialist

Subcommander Amelia is a cautious commander and refused to advance her forces beyond the beach, as she didn't want them to be shot at. Luckily for the aliens she had to retire as it was way past her bedtime and a new more adventurous commander took over.

I started to use the Gruntz activation cards to determine activation order at his point in the game.

This new commander promptly had a Fan Van land in a very small LZ in amongst the White Dragon Shanti district. Unfortunately they suffered came under fire from Sgt De Moneys checkpoint RFACs and were basically trapped in amongst the shanties for most of the battle.

The Fan Vans came under threat from on table anti-air assets in the form of the checkpoint RFACs and the Mistral-5 gunners in the Legionnaire fire teams. The Fan Vans spent several turns jinking about and dodging behind obstacles in their efforts to throw off weapons locks.

One of them was able to disembark a drone squad near the Gendarmerie. That squad came under fire from the Warehouse and Gendarmerie resulting in several casualties, among them the team leader. With the team leader out of action and no other organic team member to assume command, two suppressions and no one to remove them, the squad was effectively disabled, (this could have been remedied by the arrival of a new organiuc team leader or avoided completely by having additional organic squad members).

Both the warehouse and Gendarmerie came under fire from both Fan Vans and Python PA, as the latter moved up the central street. This heavy weapons fire against point targets resulted in several casualties in each Legionnaire squad. La Trine's squad broke and ran, abandoning three casualties to the flames as the warehouse burnt down. While Le Clerc's squad seemed determined to pull a "Camerone" (they rolled a 6 on D6 to make a 'Last Stand'). I was quite thrilled to have this happen and was looking forward to a heroic last stand, but was instantly disappointed, by an alien Fan Van slaughtering Le Clerc, his remaining two men and destroying the building they were holed up in on the very next activation.

I believe I may have forgotten to take into account the armour die shift for 'in position' and 'in cover', so perhaps La Trine and Le Clerc should have lasted longer, I'll look at that next time we play.

Sgt De Money suddenly became aware that most of the fighting in and around the warehouse and gendarmerie seemed to have died down and seeing the Fan Vans shift focus towards his position, decided to bug out and make for HQ, leaving the town to the aliens.

So subcommander Amelia has once again defeated me in battle, despite not actually being present for most of the game. It seems to be a regular occurrence.




"You don't stand a chance poppy"



The cunning enemy has very cleverly landed his ship in such a way as the present the shielded side of the ship towards the humans, thus protecting the vulnerable open decks on the port side of the vessel. A flaw in the design perhaps, but one the commander has compensated for. 

The rather nice beachfront tree line, some local and imported varieties can be seen in this photo.

Drone's eye view of lower Seaforth


Legion Barracks


White Dragon Shanti District


Warehouse and workshops

Container Storage


Colonial Beachfront Habitation












































































Things learned from this game:
  1. Remember to consider 'in cover' and 'in position' armour die shifts for troops in buildings when those buildings are being fired upon.
  2. While none were actually hit or damaged during this game they were kept buys ducking and weaving trying to break weapon's locks. Some dedicated AA weapons systems would have probably shot them from the sky, severely blunting the Alien's attack.
  3. I was lucky enough to roll a 6 for Cpl Le Clercs squad to make a 'Last Stand'. But on reflection I believe Legionnaires with the traditions and history of the FFL would likely have a romantic predisposition towards the heroic last stand. With that in mind I'm thinking of allowing the roll to succeed on a 5 or 6 rather than a 6 only. I'd consider this option for other forces with similar predispositions. 
  4. In my mind I had the alien drones being sort of passive, in that they lacked any individual initiative and tended to follow the orders of a biological leader. When that leader was incapacitated in one of the squads, I had to think about the effect it would have on the drones. The squad had two suppression markers, (one for coming under fire and the other for the leader being hit). I reasoned that a drone could not take over command, and therefore they had no leader to remove those suppression markers, which meant they were essentially out of the fight until someone could be found to take over and remove the suppression markers. That being said, these types of squads would be particularly vulnerable to sniper fire. Greater autonomy for the drones, or perhaps remote leadership would be ways to reduce this weakness.
  5. I need some civilian mobs for scenery and game play
  6. I need to paint more of my minis.
  7. I should take less random photos, and more focused shots of key actions in game.


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