Flying Lead A few Sheyang more. Part 2 The Walker Tank - bigger guns

The driver trotted to a point in the seemingly featureless field, calling his vehicles name. Deep underground the MBT responded and reversed out of its bay. With a curt nod the driver reversed his course and it followed like a well trained dog. Joining the rest of the crew they reviewed the status plot before boarding. The commander was first, taking the front nacelle tactical seat as opposed to the turret post which was filled by the drone handler and his charge. The two scouts would run alongside for most of the journey. A few short Rels later (50 Rels = 1 earth Minute or 2 Southpaw Aaw's) they moved off.

Once they got close the drone is flown and the scouts latched onto the rear, riding as their ancestors once rode giant sauropods to war.

Drone. I decided to invoke the Drone rules I wrote after the first use of the Southpaws.

Drones. Scout and/or electronic warfare (EW) asset, from shell delivered to grav AI's. EW can be built into any vehicle or robot. Here is a use for those plastic covers on CD's as its area of influence. Use as seems logical. For instance in a built up area a drones effectiveness is greatly reduced. Drones are replaceable small targets. Any wheeled or tracked counts as in soft cover, any flying as hard to represent random evasion movement and small size. Q will represent tech level and sophistication. Most drones are unarmed. Any armed drone loses cover advantage above. Armament could be a tazer on a police model, shotgun on a bomb disposal or light MG on a recce by fire model. Here's my suggestions:
Actions
Move Long
EW attack, 2dice Q test. If passed any unit in area cannot make aimed shot due to disrupted electronics.  
Or target command radius reduced to Short.  

Reaction (only)

Move Long.
Or, target has revealed itself and is painted, if successful 2dice Q test any shot against will count as +1. This lasts until drone is destroyed or end of turn.

Walker Tank, Points 81, Quality 4+ Combat 4 Armoured +3 (Medium), Gyro Stabilization, Off-Road, Vehicle Chain gun as above 49 Main gun caseless HEAP, Points:27, Anti-Tank 4, Move & Shoot, Range: Long, Stable Missiles AA, Points:41, Armour Piercing, Combat +4, High Tech Ammo, Move & Shoot, Range: Long, Stable

The Game. As per usual, nothing worked out as planned, which was nice. The main use of the drone was to allow me to know the Sheyang's location. As last time, Tony set up far back then moved forward. I started with my riders and drone moving up fairly sharpish, then brought on the tank.

Tony, for some reason, took care to keep under cover of the tank, my right flanker did exchange fire, but was thrown back, threatened with outflanking. My left scout did a blinding run to take 'em in the rear with a dash of fire. I had hoped to flush 'em, but it didn't work and a grenade finished him. If I could've knocked them down they would die. Doh!

Once at close Tony rained grenades on the front armour of the tank, getting repeated stuns. The crew were forced to bail out, then forced to the rear or the shelter of the legs. I did get a chaingun shot at the leader but failed by 1!

The tank finally rebooted long enough to get the commander aboard. I surmised that one crew was enough to move it, but not enough to operate the weapons. The tank went a-hunting. First target was Dancer, living up to his name, hopped over the fence putting him in a good position to blow away the remaining 2 crew. Next was the leader, who failed to dodge, but they kept equalling! We reasoned that he hung on to the leg for grim life-. Eventually he got 3 fails then a pushback, so he went flying! Bad result though, as it allowed them to poor shots into its belly until it was disabled.

Well it was different. I had toyed with a sniper team and drone combination. I would have won, but I'm not too sure it would have been so interesting a game? If we had a troop of those nice walkers that would make a great variant. But no force has all or the best TOE, this is a militia! I will toy with adding more anti-personnel weapons to the tank, but I hadn't seen a solo operation away from the APC's. Perhaps something like a rifle grenade for the infantry? Sticky bomb's an idea-.

Steampunk Battlesworn "Quick n Dirty"

Dearest reader, I try to give the impression of being organised and prepared – such is the power of the blog!

Tony had work problems so we didn't have time to do “For a few Sheyang more”. I'd noted my article on steampunking Battlesworn earlier in the day, and a box of figures was close to the top of the pile. The buildings are all lucky finds from the Works and 99p store (UK). Made ready for a planned Baroque (pre VSF) game for Harder Than Steel. Tony bought a whole bagfull at a car boot sale with these vehicles in it. I've got more based up – somewhere. The layout is nice and open, allowing movement without losing too much realism. If doing another system with stick based movement the terrain would contract to half the size. The base is 2 black and grey foamcore boards we'd picked up last week at hobbycraft, never seen it before. I love it when a load of bits come together.

The forces are from Irregular Miniatures bought for The Giant Rat of Sumatra series. Part of my on-going “not in her madg's service” forces. I hadn't planned it but I had exactly enough Chou's, who fielded 4 fighters including Fu Man Chou as the leader and 7 shooters. Sir Hugh Trumpton's leader & 7 more Gurkha shooters and 4 Royal Navy fighters. For want of a dinosaur on a lorry, I added a Memsaab roughly central as the objective. You don't need one but I feel it helps. Both sides have to do an “L” to shoot and/or “Z” to get into contact.

I managed to get a good group on table then flung 2 Ghurkas up to the Memsaab. Tony built up a force by the vehicles then worked forward to engage me and sent shooters to the head of the alleys, effectively pinning me. Tony's tactic was to send his swordsmen into contact supported by shooters. I used my actions for shooting, which is a double edged sword when the opponent can shoot back.

At my front a strong firefight developed then a swordsmen charged my sailors, killing one and wounding another before going under. Another attacked from the flank, engaging my front shooters.
At my rear we had an “Indiana Jones” conflict with the swordsman taking 3 hits to go down. To protect my rear I flung 2 sailors up the passage, that gave me a secure rear but at a high cost.

The dread Fu Man Chou dashed to the centre and was wounded by a stalwart Gurkha. Unfortunately Tony's losses were too great, he got 2 away but 2 more were captured.

We had some thoughts, including using cars. Considering as cavalry plus 1 to carry up to 3. Machine gun (or similar) costs 2 and can shoot 2 adjacent targets per 1 action or reaction. Either fixed position or cost one to pick up/set up.

I will come back to this and do some pre-planning.

"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty necromancer"

I have been challenged to turn this into a wargame.  Challenge accepted but I'd like to turn the cowboys into the more historically correct pirate.  If you cannot be yourself, be a pirate!  This would also make a good LARP as well-.


http://www.tumtum.hk/news/articleView.html?idxno=1254

The mythical and historical background.

The main character is the usual amalgam of Judas the Galilean, leader of the Sicarioi Zealots, and his brother the Nazirite James usually given the Greek names Jesus Christ (Savior Savior) who is portrayed in the bible as a magician/mystic necromancer.

The cast
So we can carry on the same split, we need a magic user type and a heroic leader plus a band of liberation front supporters – it's beginning to look like the PLO from back in the day when being muslim wasn't as important as blowing people and planes up.

Other backgrounds.

I'd love to see a bollywood version of this.
Chinese with King Monkey and crew vs hopping vampires.
Baroque, hero tricked into pulling the stake out.
Victorian, an African Rider-Haggard setting, perhaps? I can reuse the Romans & Pirates! Imhotep-
WW2 Here's the perfect bad-taste use for Rebel's zombie Nazi's.
Modern, well we're into Buffy territory here.
Sf trans-genetic horror with a heroic captain and his science officer.

There are several rules sets in the Ganesha stable that will suit, so I'm going to throw the wosname on the water. Please, have a go and let us know what you do.

In 15mm there's some choice;

Irregular Miniatures have “generic muslim insurgents” in their excellent Colonial range.
Rebel's Egyptian civilians and diggers, mummies, Pirate and Nazi zombies.
15mm.co have a set of zombies that are generic (and open handed) enough to use
Museum Miniatures have hordes and dead that includes arabs.
Old Glory's Horror range has a few useful bits such as vampires and vampire hunters.

Romans are everywhere, I like the look of Splintered Light's auxilaries. But I cannot find any Roman zombies!

I feel the birth of the “Dirka Dirka Ghurka Shirkers” mob for my “not in 'er madges name” project.

Now where can I get 15mm add-on fish? Those plastic tubes of animals, I wonder if there's a swordfish?

Flying Lead A Fistfull of Sheyang pt 1 - the APC

 

After a spell of OGAM fun, Tony wanted some more heavy weapon exchange. He also foolishly fancied fighting against a spider-tank. Oh my droogs, be very, very careful wot you ask for, 'cos you're gonna gettit, innit.

My followers on facebook may remember that I picked up a pack of during the 15mm.co's sale, and that I was bowled over by the quality of the casting and craftsmanship. As they say up north “'eeees done a cracking job”. Them what do say, say that after a hard days grafting 20 hours doont pit our Eli comes home and in his spare time (they say 'ees excused whippets, ferrets and pigeons) crafting these fine works from a stub of candle using a blunt pin, the treasured family heir loom.

Now I'm sure he had not been influenced by Farscapes Sheyang. But I am.
http://farscape.wikia.com/wiki/Sheyang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WChU71wAGRM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLs_h2gsU1s

Here is my attempt at an away team, a small security force protecting the sharp end of the robbery. Imagine, if you will, a small mine processing Condominium, the fossilised remains of sea creatures compacted by ancient forces into strata, much like peat. Once processed this is an ingredient in the multiple herbs and spices added to chicken deliveries. We stumbled into the fast food militia for our Southpaw (Space Raptor) force by accident and now they emerge as a credible force with old equipment on a backwater planet. It takes a lot of chicken dinners to buy the latest kit. If you can imagine that the Swiss model adapted to local clan business. The First Armoured Merchant Bankers, the Uber Accountants.

I've had this idea for a world for some time. Imagine a tide locked large moon of a gas giant. An old world who’s invertebrate life has survived many extinction events. You would expect the dark side to be bleak and lifeless, but lets turn that around. There is a permanent wind so some species of plants cast a fruiting body to the breeze to land in the comparative safety, as few animals* can survive here, and grow before expelling their young into the wind. Nominally a Pan African Union colony, the uniqueness of the place has attracted several corporations, not always human. Not all of them behave in a legal and orderly manner. There is a low level bush war between the Southpaws and the PAU in areas of mutual interest. I note that Eli is working on a land mollusc range that would be ideal as an indigenous race.

*Although worms would be a necessity, opening up the soil, processing dead matter and breaking up permafrost. Some worms would be carnivorous.

Back to the mine. Most is underground with some buildings at the top. As we are dealing with a food ingredient, the site is set up to deliver its product in sealed containers straight into a vehicle. The area around the mine is covered with slag piles. I'm cheating here, using some unfinished scenery to give the raw, ugly look such sites have. Plus, I dug my old Snapdragon scenery out that hasn't been tabletop for a decade or more. There's 36 scenery items vs 10 figures. That's skirmish, folks!

Sheyang. These guys are huge. Plus, each (male) has a breath weapon used in mating rituals and competitions, being used in a similar manner to the way a human male uses his farts. This is hotter in younger males, and not a stream like a flamethrower. I think the effect would be more like a shotgun. One side effect is that a gory death (6:1) will see ruptured glands resulting in a grenade style explosion. Their personal weapons I suggest are heavy slug throwers or grenade launchers aimed at breaking things up, making them easier to ignite. I've given 2 anti-personnel weapons and 2 armour piercing. If I've got this right, the normal Southpaw weapon should knock 'em down rather than killing them. Their running blow ability should get them in and out with some chance of survival. If against humans I'd use Short and Long respectively. For this game I was going to use Short and Medium to “stretch” the groundscale, but on trial reverted to long for the Raptors. I hope I've got the balance right, but as this is a fairly small game we can stop and/or rewind. Confidence is high. Sheyang 450 points, Southpaw about 700, which is about right although in real life you'd try for a 3:1 advantage but that doesn’t make for a fun game.

Leader Dasher Points 96 Quality 4+ Combat 4 Special Rules -Carbine, -Flash Bang Grenade, Body Armour, Jungle-craft, Leader, Personal Communication Device, Short Move, Strong

Dancer & Prancer Slug Thrower Points 84 Quality 4+ Combat 4 Special Rules -Drum Fed Light Machine Gun, -Flash Bang Grenade, Body Armour, Personal Communication Device, Short Move, Strong

Donner & “Bomber” Blitzun Anti Vehicle Points 93 Quality 4+ Combat 4 Special Rules -Flash Bang Grenade, -RPG, Body Armour, Personal Communication Device, Short Move, Strong

The Southpaws

We have already encountered the walker APC in use against the Llhurgs. So we can nick that.

The walker tank gives a bit more planning. This is a regular model, not a command version.

Finally I had considered using a few of the open handed special ops as the company employees drafted in as scouts, using their local knowledge to get in the way. I'm presuming that they use civvy vehicles that will be parked safely. In use they ended up as crew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Southpaw Walker APC

Points 68 Quality 4+ Combat 2 Rules Armoured +1 (Thin), Long Move, Off-Road, Personnel Carrier 6 passengers, Vehicle

Chaingun Points:49 Armour Piercing, Auto Fire, Combat +4, Lethal vs. Soft Targets, Range: Long, Spread

MG Points:31 Auto Fire, Combat +3, Range: Long, Spread

Southpaw militia - Sergeant Points 152 Quality 3+ Combat 3 Special Rules -Assault Rifle, Body Armour, Jungle-craft, Leader, Personal Communication Device, Poor Shot, Running Blow, Stealth

Southpaw militia Points 92 Quality 4+ Combat 3 -Assault Rifle, Body Armour, Jungle-craft, Personal Communication Device, Poor Shot, Running Blow, Stealth

Southpaw workers Points 42 Quality 4+ Combat 3 Jungle-craft, Personal Communication Device, Poor Shot, Running Blow, Stealth

Walker Tank Points 81 Quality 4+ Combat 4 Armoured +3 (Medium), Gyro Stabilization, Off-Road, Vehicle Chain gun as above 49

Main gun caseless HEAP

Points:27 Anti-Tank 4, Move & Shoot, Range: Long, Stable

Missiles AA

Points:41 Armour Piercing, Combat +4, High Tech Ammo, Move & Shoot, Range: Long, Stable

APC, APC 68, Chaingun 49, 3x machine guns 93, 4x Militia 368, Sergeant 152 Total 730

 

Game 1 The APC

Tony, not being Southpaws for once, set up away from the camp in cover. I started strong, so moved, unloaded infantry then moved on. Tony moved stealthily up while I moved into cover, the APC MG'd the side compound to bits then a grunt jumped the fence.

Tony's stealth approach payed off and Dancer shot my lead trooper and (in cover!) officer dead. Morale check, not too bad. The APC moved cautiously around the compound and Blitzun moved to a firing position, an aimed shot knocks the APC back stunned. The APC recovers and lets loose will all MG's – total fail, just a knock down, oh damn.

 

The  remaining raptors made for the APC (wouldn't you?). The first one does a running attack on the now recovered Blitzen which goes nowhere and gets the Sheyang equivalent of a Glasgow kiss – shoved against the fence and a face full of burning cud. The APC tries another round of Mg followed by a stomp attack while unleashing hell, killing Dancer and knocking Donner back into cover.

Donner recovers and shoots, doesn't penetrate but does enough that the crew bails. That gives Dasher the chance to do something (other than fail activations) holding his weapon in true arni fashion he kills the vehicle commander and driver. (SO useful having the weaponless SF) But now “Bomber” Blitzen shoots the rear fence, knocking down all the remaining raptors and badly wounding one. There followed a whole series of “to you-to me” failed activation results – so we gave up, I did manage to get one away. I need bigger gun!

You’ll note that a walker vehicle tends to act more like a very large character than other vehicles. This felt right, but Tony pointed out that I'd failed to take reload times for the breath weapon into account. The rules state that a grenadier rolling a 1 is out of grenades. I'll take that and consider that to last the game unless they can get a meal---. I'm also considering that a multiple 6's on Q requires an involuntary “burp”.

 

Add caption

I need more of the SF raptors to turn into crew figures and we NEED an effective RPG in numbers. I could add some of the small walkers from GZG but I'm not sure if they would feel right.

Game 2 The MBT Coming Soon!

MBT & Scout MBT 171, Hull 81, Main gun 27, Chaingun 49, Missiles 41, 4x Militia 368

Sergeant 152 Total 718  I'm thinking of changing this, swapping in the drone

 

Dancer! He's BEHIND you!

Vehicle commander's view

Never get off the boat