boots on the ground report with minis

[petercooman]

Right chaps, back again, and this time a try-out using minis.

Warning: this post contains minis i painted when i was 10 year old.if the paintjob hurts your eyes, i am not responsible! 

So i tried using the game to represent a battle in vietnam. During  the tet-offensive, american troops have been cut off from the main force. They have  retreated to the rendez-vouz point in the local radio station set up in a small town. LT miller and a few of his men have requested evac, but word from high command came through that they were trying to make a push in their direction, so they have to survive a little bit longer untill their rescue reaches them.

I picked the hold fast mission, as it has the unit defend a building, so they are scattered and protecting the entrances. This way i need to activate them more individually, and their stats on their tokens come into play more. That  way i can really see if i can play without tokens. If i draw a drone card, that will represent huey's flying over and giving supporting fire, any extra gi's show up means more troops make it to the rendez-vous point. IED's will represent grenades/rpg's hitting the troops.



the troops:
Left to right: the leader,grenadier, sniper,scout, m60 gunner and medic.


The battlefield. I have nowhere near enough walls, but they will have to do.


initial deployment: I put the grenadier close to the closest group of VC, hoping to dash out of the building and lob a grenade at the group, while the others guard the windows and doors.



i will also take my 2 newbie extra gi's 


i keep a 'dashboard' in front of me to track the modifiers by using the tokens


1: first turn sees the LT dropping an enemy that turns up in the windows, and the grenadier getting hit


2:Second turn sees me executing my plan with the grenadier, dropping the entire group of VC.afterwards he hides behind the corner, and a 2 new enemies appear, one of them shooting the LT



3:the LT returns fire but misses, the card draw is a dud, as there are no dead men to replace (yet)


4:the medic shoots a vc soldierthat came up earlier, and the card sends anoyher his way, but a poor exchange sees him drop too


5:the LT misses his shot again, and another charlie pops up at the other end of the building.


6:And promptly gets nailed by the grenadier. he also diffuses a hidden land mine. Meanwhile on the other side of the building, more enemies pop up, and one wounds the sniper




7:the sniper kills his assailant, and retreats to the lockbox, wich luckily contains a medkit! on the other side of the building another enemy pops up and misses his shot against the grenadeer



8:who promptly blasts his foe. and gets into the vacant spot at the door (shame on me, spawncamping! no more enemies appearing in this building though!)



9:i'm trying different tactics right now, the sniper moves to the window and downs a trooper, and then goes back behind the wall (you can shoot during your move) Second turn in a row the enemy stays low. Probably an ac 130 flying over 



10: i decide to use the same trick with the LT, and kill an enemy, and retreat to the inner building, meanwhile more enemies are showing up.



11:the 'pig' gunner downs the enemy across the alley from him, and when one more shows up he meets the same fate


12:the sniper tries to pop a shot down the alley and misses, meanwhile the houses surrounding the team are getting full



13:the pig keeps putting them down!


14:the sniper tries again and succeeds! meanwhile i get another dud card, still no one dead yet!


15:popping up to risk a shot proves effective!meanwhile another one appears in front of the heavy weapon



16:the m60  and the vc trooper both miss.


17:next turn he hits though, meanwhile in the other building one of the enemies men appears to be a sniper.


18:i decide to bring the grenadier back to the main building, and an enemy pops up and wounds the heavy weapon trooper


19:the grenadier kills him and jumps into the building. meanwhile another one rushes to the window and shoots a Gi in the back, instantly killing him!



20: The men try to adress the situation , but miss their shots. Meanwhile,outside, they hear their air support kick in once more!


21:the m60 gunner takes down the trooper and retreats to a safer place. But new enemies just keep arriving! The GI gets hit.



22: the sniper attacks an enemy in front of him, but a bad roll sees him get himself wounded.His adversary follows up and wounds the scout!Another trooper kills the wounded GI! Getting tense!



23:Luckily, by pulling back the sniper, i have enabled myself to use team activation, putting more bullets into the enemy! But they keep coming for more!



24:The team misses their shots, while the door into the building explodes, luckily nobody is near!



25:The team get a good volley off, and drop their attackers,,but the scout gets hit again (orange cube is wounded,red cube critically wounded). meanwhile a sniper shot through the windows misses the LT;



26:The medic manages to stop the bleeding and get the scout on his feet. But more enemies appear! The sniper guns one down as he pops into view.



27:The medic patches the sniper up, and fire support kicks in again


28:The grenadier puts one into the doorway on the other side of the alley, but a machine gunner targets the medic, narrowly missing him.



29:The medic shoots at the gunner but misses, in return, the gunner throws a grenade, wounding the medic.


30:the medic dresses his wounds, and the enemy makes a last ditch attempt, putting critical wounds on the scout and grenadier


With the situation critical, the men hear the rumbling of tracks in the street, and the .50 cal's rattling, as the main force is making a counter attack. They have made it!

Finally a win! The troops aren't looking too good, but at least most of them survived!




The game worked really well with miniatures, and keeping the tokens next to the playing board is enough to keep everything flowing really fast!

One thing that i discovered when checking the rulebook  though, is that you can activate by team if you have two adjacent members! I thought this was 3 minimum, like i said in the last report!

So does this look ok? discuss! (but not  the paintjob  )

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one Peter!

[nikharwood]

Like it lots 

[bigjackmac]

Peter,

1) It worked!!!
2) Awesome!!!
3) I painted those same troops as a kid. No idea what happened to them, but on a lark I bought some more a couple years ago.  I painted a couple, they're all on Popsicle sticks upstairs.  I'm not much of a 20mm guy, though I tried.

I really enjoyed and appreciate the batrep, and with troops on the table it was much easier for me to follow (not a critique of earlier batreps). The game really has a 'Blackhawk Down' type of feel with a constant stream of bad guys.

My game is on the way.

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

Peter,

1) It worked!!!
2) Awesome!!!
3) I painted those same troops as a kid. No idea what happened to them, but on a lark I bought some more a couple years ago.  I painted a couple, they're all on Popsicle sticks upstairs.  I'm not much of a 20mm guy, though I tried.

I really enjoyed and appreciate the batrep, and with troops on the table it was much easier for me to follow (not a critique of earlier batreps). The game really has a 'Blackhawk Down' type of feel with a constant stream of bad guys.

My game is on the way.

V/R,
Jack

Yes, the token one is harder to show off, being flat it really needs more light and aerial shots to be clear enough.
I used to paint lots and lots of 1/72, but no matter what i did, the paint always flaked. This was when i was still using enamels, i did a test with acryllics last year and they are still going strong.

But i think they will remain in the nostalgia box for a little bit longer, got enough stuff to paint already 

Although it worked, i don't know how to make the buildings. There is nothing i can find online that would readily fit in. So i'm guessing you are better off just makingthem yourself.

[bigjackmac]

Interesting.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do about all the walls and buildings.

And tell me something: what is the max number of good guys that might be on the board at one time?  I read there is an option to play the good guys with two 6-man teams, so I painted up a new group of 15 guys.  But then I read you could be reinforced, and now I'm a bit worried.  I'd like to play where my son and I both run a 6-man team, but I need to make sure I'll have enough guys.

V/R,
Jack

[Techno]

Nice stuff, again, Peter.

Cheers - Phil

[paulr]

For walls I'd suggest 2-3mm cardboard, slap on a little filler/spackle to give texture, then paint. Base similarly to the walls shown

You could probably get away with a number of generic sections, possibly some with windows, gaps for doors

[petercooman]

Interesting.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do about all the walls and buildings.

And tell me something: what is the max number of good guys that might be on the board at one time?  I read there is an option to play the good guys with two 6-man teams, so I painted up a new group of 15 guys.  But then I read you could be reinforced, and now I'm a bit worried.  I'd like to play where my son and I both run a 6-man team, but I need to make sure I'll have enough guys.

V/R,
Jack

Well, if you start as newbies you have your 6 man team + 2 GI's each. There are a few reinforce cards, that add 2 or 1 GI, but also some that only add a GI in place of a member that is already dead.i would say max 20, and that's if you ar really lucky.

To compare, in this report i didn't have a single GI turn up in 30 turns, and in the last one i think i got 3 new ones, but by then I had already lost the 2 GI's that were in my team.

[Ithoriel]

For walls I'd thought MDF - either existing PD/ Minibits bases if they are the right size or talking nicely to Leon about some custom made stuff.

I'll think about it some more when the game arrives.

[Ithoriel]

For walls I'd thought MDF - either existing PD/ Minibits bases if they are the right size or talking nicely to Leon about some custom made stuff.

I'll think about it some more when the game arrives.

Hmmm - seemed to have posted this twice - didn't think that was possible.

If a kindly mod could remove this one I'd be grateful.

[petercooman]

For walls I'd thought MDF - either existing PD/ Minibits bases if they are the right size or talking nicely to Leon about some custom made stuff.

I'll think about it some more when the game arrives.

Good idea 

Anyway, i'm leaving this game now for a bit, as my 'game a day' long weekend is drawing to a close 
Givs me time to think it through.

I'm going for another ww2 skirmish this evening i think. And after that i'll be receiving a package in the coming week, and i think that shall keep me busy for some time 

[bigjackmac]

Twenty, eh?  Hmmm...

And the "GIs" are not actually part of your team, and not as capable as the guys on your team, right?  I might use different figures and pretend the GIs are locals, like Iraqi or afghan Army accompanying a US or ISAF patrol.

V/R,
Jack

[petercooman]

The GI's can be anything you want, they are just generic troopers. They have the worst stats of al too, so you could easily get away with them being lesser trained troops.

[bigjackmac]

Excellent! 

Now I just have to figure out the buildings and walls.

Well, time to head upstairs.

V/R,
Jack