Bad Intel
This BattleTech infantry skirmish game was played at HMGS Cold Wars 2010 using the A Time of War combat ruleset. Thanks go to Demo Agent “Speck” for allowing the ScrapYard to host the game and to the participants for giving the game a try.
The battle proved extraordinarily fast as the players wasted no time getting right to the business of shooting each other to bits. Read on to see how it all went down! Please keep in mind while reading that this game featured modifications to the core rules that are documented in an earlier post. Miniatures for the game are from the MERCS line of dynamic gaming miniatures.
Bad Intel
The company spooks have dug up verifiable information on a potential Star League era weapons depot. The location is too fragile to risk sending in ‘Mechs to clear it so it is up to the infantry to sniff out the prize and secure it for evac. Bad news is, the enemy knows as much as we do and are sending in their own forces. Lock and Load in this ‘A Time of War’ Infantry Combat Scenario to claim the objective before your opponent!
Objectives
In the middle of the battlefield is a downed BSW-X1 Bushwacker. A data package has been left behind that holds the coordinates to a potential weapons depot. That data must not fall into the hands of the enemy.
Downloading the data package is accomplished by moving a character into base contact with the side of the downed ‘Mech near the cockpit. The download occurs automatically at the end of the turn. After downloading, the data must be exited off your own team’s map edge.
Liao Assault Squad
- Squad Leader, Auto Rifle and Vibro-blade
- Sniper, Minolta 9000
- Soldier, Imperator SMG x2
- Heavy Weapons, Dual wielding SMGs
Davion Assault Squad
- Squad Leader, Auto Rifle
- Sniper, Minolta 9000
- Soldier, Imperator SMG
- Heavy Weapons, Federated Barrett
- Heavy Weapons, Man-pack Flamer
Turn 1
The first turn sees all characters sprint their full distance towards the middle of the battle. Opposing snipers take up positions on opposite corners. Each has a good vantage point of the hill and cover.
The Davions send their MG Heavy Weapons to the south and load the north end with their remaining characters.
The Capellans stay tightly grouped in the middle with the hill in easy reach.
Turn 2
The Davions roll high initiative and elect to put their MG Heavy Weapons on overwatch while prepping grenades with all other characters besides the Sniper.
The Liao player rushes the hill with everything he has. There is no cover. The rolls are quite low and the effects are devastating.
A Liao Soldier is first up the hill but gets interrupted by the Davion Heavy Weapons. However the Capellan rolls a higher reflex check and acts first anyways. He shoots at the Davion Flamer and misses. Return fire from the MG Heavy Weapons hits hard knocking the Capellan down and causing a bleeding wound.
The Liao Heavy Weapons is next and fires on the Davion Flamer hitting twice. The Flamer takes big damage but shakes it off with his Pain Resistance trait and ignores the stun effect.
The Squad Leader moves up and shoots at the Davion Soldier and hits solidly causing a stun and bleed.
The Davion Sniper is next to act and puts a bead on the Liao Squad Leader and hits causing a stun. He then turns his scope to the Heavy Weapons beside the Leader and fires off another round causing damage but no stun due to Pain Resistance.
The Liao Sniper forgoes the relative safety of long range and sprints towards the objective arriving just out of reach.
The Liao Soldier is last to act and he rushes the hill along with his comrades firing on the Davion Soldier for a hit. The Soldier is knocked down but avoids a bleed effect.
There are several downed characters who are stunned, bleeding or both! A violent and fast round of combat.
Turn 3
Both Squad Leaders are first to act. The Liao Leader fires on and hits the Davion Flamer after shaking a stun. The Davion Leader walks forward and throws his prepared grenade. The blast kills one of the Capellan Soldiers and causes both a stun and bleed effect on the other. The Liao Heavy Weapons takes further damage but is ok so far.
The Liao Soldier shakes a stun and fires on the Davion Soldier, hitting for modest damage.
The Davion soldier shakes his own stun and tosses an unprepared grenade into the pile of Capellans atop the hill. (This grenade will detonate later at the end of the turn!)
The Liao Heavy Weapons walks forward and shoots off a burst at the Davion Flamer hitting once and missing once.
The Davion Flamer (still avoiding stun effects via Pain Resistance) walks forward and spews a line of fire that catches two Liao in the area of effect. The Squad Leader begins to bleed and both are stunned.
The Davion Heavy Weapons attacks his counterpart causing a stun. The Davion drops prone after his action to remain hidden behind cover.
The Liao Sniper walks into base contact with the objective and fires twice on the Davion Squad Leader for the kill.
The Davion Sniper remains behind cover and puts one bullet into the Liao Heavy Weapons for a kill and another at the Soldier who makes a difficult KO roll.
The previously thrown grenade now detonates and kills two Capellans. The Liao Sniper successfully downloads the data package and has at least a chance to make a run for it if he can roll a high enough initiative!
Turn 4
The Liao Sniper rolls a 4…
The entire Davion team will get to act before the Liao Sniper and they make short work of the matter.
The Davion Heavy Weapons moves up and fires full auto at the lone Sniper causing a stun, bleed, and knockdown. A second volley from the Federated Barrett finishes the game.
More Time on the Learning Curve
To be honest I did not anticipate the “run up the hill with guns blazing” strategy when I came up with this game. Even with dealing with new players and teaching them the system, the four turns it took to decide the game seemed short. I have a few ideas that would make the game better and they boil down to two key concepts.
Movement is Too Fast
I’ve had a hunch about this for a while and this game helped to prove it. When you can run so far in game, the risk of long range (or medium range!) fire is too low. I’ve come up with some calculations which I may share in a later post on the matter. Bringing down movement rates will do a lot to re-balance in favor of more shooty game play (by shooty, I mean overt use of suppression fire and overwatch to contain opponents).
Rolls are Too Low
Ok, I get it, one force ran over the hill and charged into darn near short range with everything. With no cover and modest range, they should have been low rolls, but I still think they are too low. Even if I added in medium range and medium cover, the rolls would have been more than manageable for each player given the skill levels involved. This works in an RPG setting where every character is indeed a hero. I believe the translation into a BattleTroops style skirmish game deserves a tougher difficulty curve to reward good strategy and tactics.
All told, each player still had a good time and the setting and feel is second to none. A Time of War is not without it’s flaws but at the end of the day it is the setting of choice for man-to-man combat in the 31st century. No Mech? No problem. Get out your man portable machine guns, blazers and needlers and get your game on!
Posted under After Action Report
The soldier pics look great, but the ones of the Bushwacker don’t do it justice. The blue glow through the hole in its back had a slow pulse to it while the cockpit was flashing red. Really good job with that. Bravo!
I think it’s OK that the weapons fire is deadly, that what weapons are supposed to be. It seems like a bigger map or a smaller scale might be help. This would give more time for the scenario to develop.
On the other hand, it could have been very different if the Liao player had been more cautious. It might be worthwhile to play it out again before you tinker too much.
It would also help if I wasn’t stupid.
Don’t be so hard on yourself Raven. It’s a rough learning curve.
So long as you had a little fun, you can’t go wrong. You’ll have an opportunity to avenge yourself at Historicon!
@Raven: My typical game plan involves lots of careful study and preparation. When the game starts, I forget all that and charge straight in. More fun that way. :-)
GREAT post! I haven’t had a time to see any of the ATOW rules yet, so this is my first exposure to it. A great scenario, great miniatures, great terrain, and that BSW-X1 is amazing! VERY well done!
Timbal
It was decided to make the tactical combat more playable and hopefully easier for convention style mini-games that may have dozens of troopers per side, that this would be alot faster paced and more deadly. Hopefully more like real combat.
Compare it to other tabletop mini games. How fast would the same amount of standard soldiers last on say, 40k or warmachine?
I would like to know, how record keeping intensive do you find it?
Ammo, Health, Fatigue… that’s about all the record keeping we do. We could do armor degradation, but it honestly wouldn’t make much difference. We throw a red chit on bleeders and yellow on those stunned. So… I’d say very little record keeping. I’m not a good candidate for comparing it with other games though.
On the record keeping there is a lot more to consider than ammo, and health. You need stats on hand for various movement modes, weapon damages, traits, skills, and a host of other nuances to make the game whole.
I never imagined that AToW would be able to replicate the movement of large squads. The characters are too unique to lump them together like that. It finds its home when there are only a handful of character in play at any one time, 5 to 7 troopers per side.
AToW may not take a lot of effort to track once you get going, but there is a plethora of information required to run each character. Not a multi-squad game in my opinion. AToW is best when the fight is small and personal.