Saturday 22 July 2017

OAAH Beta Test, The Ballad of Green Gumption. Pushing the limits-

The Ballad of Lt “Green Gumption”

They came on 'ard those greenies with a loud “Walloo”

They tumbled our artillery then our poor Colonel too

The last one eyed our company and came on To Do

Stood Lt Gumption proud, “I'll 'ave 'im” to our “Go Too”

Out steps he, one, two a grenade-oh bowls straight and true

Bowled t' greenie a googly to our “Howzat” an' “Got You”

Our Royal Engineers wicket we showed 'em what a to do!


We got sidetracked, so I decided to do this one out-of-sequence. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I note one of the other playtesters has gone as far as American Wars of Independence – with a flying canoe! This one goes into what used to be called Science Fantasy, but is realistically Colonial as well.

The scenery is my very, very old Purbek Terrain. The trench is embellished with a model of the Space 1999 Moonbase. Been used for everything from 2mm ironclads up.

The sides are very small. I could have easily embellished this game more:
A lurking monster in the ruins
A flank march by one side
Local villagers joining one side.

Second outing for both these sides:
Green Martians.
Infantry Giant Level 2 Q4 A4 D6 Shoot2, Resilient, Ambusher 8x 37 =298
Leader add Sub General
Cavalry Giant Level 4 (Includes big mount) Shoot1, Tough, Ambusher 6x 48 = 288
Leader adds General.
Artillery Giant 2, Artillery Level2, Slow, Ambusher 2x 39 = 78
Total 644

Royal Engineers
Command Vehicle Q3 A3 D8 Artillery L3 (gatling gun) General, Tough, 3 extra lives @ 111
Tankette contraption Q4 A3 D8Artillery L3,Tough, 3 extra lives @ 84
Charabang Q4 A2 D8,Tough, @ 31 carrying:
Infantry Q4 A2 D4, Shoot3, Drilled 8 x 16 = 128 making a total of 159. 3 of these = 477.
Total 672.

The Game. The premise is simple. The convoy has to pass through the village to get over the dry canal. The green Martians are ambushing them. Each game took us about an hour, 'im would say it should take 20 minutes. If part of a campaign we could have got to a reasonable conclusion in 30.

Game 1 I took the Brits, lined 'em up with Tankette in front just entering the village (ready for the ambush to be sprung) command car behind followed by the charabangs.


Seemed sensible to give the Martians the initiative. Naturally Tony started with the artillery- which failed. I used reactions to get my tankette into position and blew it away, leaving Tony the initiative. Out comes his flank cavalry cavalry, but my command car shot 'em to bits.




Now his other cavalry charged my tankette, taking one casualty but destroying it by hitting it on the flank. It may be hard, but it's still artillery. They plunge on, taking 2 lives of the command car by shooting. Then they mashed it, losing another. 









 Then the last remaining one charged my line. As detailed above. The infantry charged my line, but were shot to bits. That had reduced the Greenies numbers below viable. I was lined up, they were lined up and no-one is going forward so the green's going home.








Game 2 I take the Martians. Tony changes the order, putting a charabang in lead. He hastily dismounts his infantry across the road.





My cavalry gets chased by the tankette all round the houses, but my infantry and infantry leader takes on his command car and wins!








I managed to take out the lead charabang with my second artillery (again, the one on the building got stomped) but his infantry destroyed my other cavalry. I managed to get my surviving infantry close to his infantry but could do no more than threaten.
















Thoughts:
Level 1 artillery would represent a sniper or magic enhanced weapon or even a booby trap.
Boats and airships have their specific cost, war-wagons need a cost. About 10-15 would seem right.
Don't put your artillery on buildings.
At this skirmish level the very close shooting range seems wrong. I'm wondering the effect of doubling the area size would work?
Oh for a couple of not-triceratops with howdahs or artillery-.



Emergency supplies being rushed to the front






















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