15mm Wargaming for Fun and Sanity: FL Colonial Fokkers and Martian Cabbage Crates

Ok, unpainted miniatures ahead. And bases. Deal with it!

Here in the UK when the temperature tops 21*c and the humidity tops 80% our brains go to much and everything grinds to a halt.

I know you've enjoyed the Rogue Stars Moon series from me blog hits. I shall return. Like any goodish TV series things will change without any adequate explanation.

Lets clear the pallet. So rinse, enjoy and spit oh my gossips!

Mars – now there's a surprise! Flying Lead – more gasps from the audience.

I'm taking the vehicles rules, adjusting them for flying vehicles and swarms of small craft or flying infantry and trying to simplify things by making them more complicated.

Have I succeeded? Can you suggest improvements? If so, please leave a message or e mail me!

Design Costs:

Basic vehicle 10

Armoured (thick wood capable of impeding small arms & shrapnel) 5

Better armoured, +1 (twin hulled, laminate) 10

Heavy armoured +3 15

Long move 10

Slow move -5

Infantry capacity 1, 3

Infantry capacity each 4, 12

My add:

Difficult target -2 when shot at 10

Command and control vehicle (signal flags etc.) 15

Combat comes in 2 distinct sections: direct combat such as boarding or ramming.

Shooting with long range weapons, usually gatling type guns, other guns shooting exploding shells or grape shot, more pedestrian weapons aimed at the crew or infantry.

Direct Combat

1 solo pilot/fighter (or with non com spotter, etc) 5

2 pilot & fighter 10

3 pilot + up to 4 fighters

4 pilot + up to 6 fighters

5 pilot + up to 8 fighters

6 pilot + 8+ fighters

Artillery are listed and costed separately.

Actions and Reactions. Are used for shooting and combat actions plus changing movement status, height and speed.

Movement.

Height defines speed: Low = slow, Medium = normal High = fast.

Ships climb and crash through this sequence.

Ships are moving at 1,2 or 3. At turnover, ALL ships not yet moved, move this base move forward. This can involve a turn or slow down action.

An unpowered turn lowers speed by 1 per speed used. If reduces to 0 ship drops to next height at speed 1.

A ship moving at 3 moves 3x it's move allowance. All movement is in a straight line, so a turn is a series of moves.

This may seen fiddly, but no other rules cope with height difference.

Ships of same size & type with a command vehicle can move, act & react as one. All movement is considered from middle of unit. Some ships may move faster or slower to stay on station. They roll 1 set activation dice. I'm not wedded to this, but it'll work with flying infantry.

Ship to ship combat results:

ANY ship involved in hand to hand rolling a 1 will explode, representing a magazine or boiler critical failure. Treat as separate attack. Will always result in loss of height and pushed away 1 move.

When ships are in close proximity, the reacting or initiative player can decide type of engagement:

Morale: a Q test on 1 dice is required. A natural 1 and the attacker veers off I movement. Natural 6 gains +1 in combat.

Ramming. Add relative speed and height difference of both vehicles to attackers score. Unless enclosed, ignore armour if attacked from above.

Hand to hand:

Draw: both sides lose half fighting complement and Cbt score.

Not rammed, ships drop one speed and move movement rate apart. If pilot lost, crash lands.

Rammed, both drop 1 height locked together.

Win Odd. Loser fighting complement and Cbt score to half, winner by quarter.

Not rammed, ships locked unless a pilot is lost, then that ship(s) crash.

Rammed, both drop 1 height together.

Win Even. Winner destroys losers fighting complement and Cbt score to half, winner by quarter, and controls ship.

Rammed, winner drops 1 height, loser crashes.

Double Losing ship loses fighting complement and weapons, drops 1 height. Winner loses quarter.

Rammed, winner drops 1 height, loser crashes.

Triple Losing ship is destroyed and crashes, Winner loses quarter fighting complement.

Rammed, winner drops 1 height.

Shooting is as normal. But uses weapon stats, not vehicle.

All shooting at lower level targets count as one range less.

All shooting at higher targets count as one range higher.

Infantry weapons can only be used against open targets or ground targets. Such shooting is ineffective against a vehicle hull. Rather than dice for each combatant count as one weapon:

8 infantry shooters Points:20 Combat +4, Priming Needed, Range: Short

If using a slow weapon like a crossbow or arquebus relying on rank shooting:

8 infantry shooters Points:10 Combat +2, Priming Needed, Range: Short

Non infantry shooting down on open target +2, no armour.

Difference in speed and height is always a minus.

Shooting at rear or front of vehicle -1 to hit, +1 damage.

Denial. If target wins initiative, can use to jink, turn and/or present armour resulting in shooter -1.

Results:

ANY target ship rolling a 1 will explode, representing a magazine or boiler critical failure. Attacker receives a Cbt attack equal to height and speed as separate attack. Will always result in loss of height and pushed away 1 move.

Draw: Target staggered, drops one height and one speed. Q test, if fails moves 1 move away from shooter.

Win Odd. Losing ship must pass Q for weapons or fighting complement. Control regained on 1 action or reaction per speed.

Win Even Losing ship must pass Q for bridge. Control regained on 1 action or reaction per speed.

Double Losing ship must pass Q for fighting complement, bridge and weapons or lose, drops 1 height.

Triple Losing ship is destroyed and crashes.

Ground Targets.

Use ship or weapon stats, depending on circumstance.

They can be combined in one point blank assault at point blank range if 2 actions used.

Forward speed is a plus. (Nose down, guns blazing, infantry jumping)

Attacker will be at low and speed1 at end. If started at 1, will land.

Any counter attack will be at +1 to hit.

Since WW1 we've known that air power is devastating against ground targets. Imagine even a small Martian skip dragging chains through an infantry unit while dropping grenades, or darts.

Could be the reason Martian heavy infantry use pavises. Duck and cover!

My ships

Martian skips

Small.

Control Vehicle 10, Long move 10, 1 fighter 3, difficult target 10, C&C 15, Q3 35 C 2 85

2 Martian Warriors 76 Total 161

Pilot & grenadier.

Vehicle 10, Long move 10, 1 fighter 3, difficult target 10, C&C 15, Q3 35 C 2 70

Grenade/light bombs Points:3
Grenade Combat 3, Max Range 2 Medium, Priming Needed

2 Martian Warriors 76 Total 149

Pilot & fighter. (x2) Vehicle 10, Long move 10, 1 fighter 3, difficult target 10, Q3 35 C 2 70

2 Martian Warriors 76 Total 146

Small sled. Vehicle 10, Long move 10, 1 fighter 3, Q3 35 C 3 15 73

3 Martian Warriors 114 Total 187

Gun Sled Vehicle 10, Thin armour+1 10, up to 8 fighters 24, Q2 40, Cbt 5 25, 109

Light Martian Cannon Points:15
Armor Piercing, Combat +3, Max Range 3 Medium, Very Slow Reload

8 Elite Martian Warriors 464 Total 588

Martian Warrior
Points 38	Quality 4+	Combat 2
Special Rules	-Pistol, CQB Specialist, Dashing, Poor Shot, Steady Under Fire

Elite Martian Warrior Points 58 Quality 3+Combat 2, Pistol, CQB Specialist, Dashing, Elite, Poor Shot, Steady Under Fire

Total force 1,403

The forces of Colonial Imperialism

Colonial Gunboat Vehicle 10, Medium armour+3 15, 8 Sailors 24, Q3, 35, Cbt5, 25. 109

Heavy Gatling gun Points:49 x 2 = 98
Armor Piercing, Auto Fire, Combat +4, Lethal vs. Soft Targets, Range: Long, Spread
8 Sailors 496 Total 703

Colonial Skip Command. Vehicle 10 Armoured 5, C&C 15, Q2 40, Q3 15,

4 Sailors 248 Total 263

Colonial Gunskip Vehicle (x2) 10 Armoured 5, Q3 35, Q3 15,

Light Gatling gun Points:13
Auto Fire, Combat +1, Max Range 3 Medium, Spread
3 Sailors 186 Total 214

Colonial Sailor
Points 62	Quality 4+	Combat 2
Special Rules	-Shotgun, CQB Specialist, Dashing, Specialist, Steady Under Fire

Game 1, all Martians vs 2 gunboats 1,403 vs 1,406.
Note! The rules above are revised version of set used for these games. No, I'm not going to tell.

Tony took the Colonials and decided on a low speed/Medium height entry.

My starting position, high and fast. The difference allowed me to swoop in and around him.

With small numbers a turn ends quick.

My cannon goes orf, but a miss.

I swarm around one, going for a tail shot.

The small skips swarm the other gunship. The grenadier goes in and fails.

That leaves the other 2 to go in. They grapple and attack. Although they win, killing 1/2 the defenders, they lose too much and the ships are dumped.

The other gunship takes out another skip, the small crash and explode.

The skips circle-

The business end, don't get too close!

This was our attempt at ramming, but the pilot failed his Q test so had to blew him away instead.

My big skip tries again, but fails. Really, really bad shots! If I could have got intoo a boarding position then I could have taken it as the fighting complement had been depleted.

The manoeuvrability and methodology of both sides were different enough on both sides to give an interesting game. Movement takes a bit of getting used to and sometimes you have to consider that in real terms that one is going there, so I'm going to shoot it as it goes by.

Hand to hand was different, but quick. We could envision what was going on rather than trying to move 12 figures on top of a vehicle.

Doh! Cocked dice!

Game 2 all Martians vs 3 sleds & gunboat. 1,403 vs 1,394

We kept the same sides. This one didn't come to a conclusion as we ran out of time. It was a cat and mouse game with no outcome.