Bio-Dome Gruntz After Action Report

Have a look at this excellent blog after action report for the "Yellow Rose of Messier".  Details on the Crapid fire web site. I really like the creative use of biodomes that are both cool looking and also part of the scenario. Excellent stuff and well worth the time for a read about the action.

http://crapidfire.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-yellow-rose-of-messier-67.html

2015 First dice rolling of the year!

I had a fun game this Saturday with Jonathan Rogers and Simon Moules.  Had to get the gas heater on in the garage because of the cold but we managed to stay warm enough to roll dice and push models around. The Pizza break also helped with the cold. 

The Gruntz 15mm SCI-FI game was played on my small 3x3ft terrain table which I normally take to shows as a demo table. If we are not using many vehicles it is a good size, however for a larger game I prefer the 6x4ft size to give armour and grav skimmer type vehicles more room for manoeuvre. 

I had my older East Hyadum Trade forces (Futuristic East India Company troops) and Jon had his mostly Khuransan miniatures Neo-Sov force. 

On around turn 3 I appeared to have the advantage but lost my APC after I had loaded it with my droid unit. It suffered a catastrophic engine failure when destroyed and the Droids perished with it. At that point I resorted to mostly just pounding Jon's NeoSov forces with my mortar from a distance and indirectly. It was a bloody game and I think ultimately that the East Hydadum forces held the ground before the NeoSov's withdrew.  I was successful in holding up his main powered armour unit by suppressing them each round which really slowed their progress. 

Here we are setting up with Jon checking his mobile.

These did not come into play but Jon wanted to show his work in progress on his Grav Skimmers from Antenocitis workshop. He has made various kit bash modifications to the turrets. 

This is my East Hyadum Trade force.  A High Energy Laser specialist, a Mortar an a mix of Gruntz squads all from Ground Zero Games (GZG.COM)

Jon's nearly finished Neo-Sov troops and walker (GZG Crustie Walker).

The full 3x3ft layout aerial view.  Having the stack like hills in place gives even a small board plenty of places for tactical movement. 

An early move got these troops into cover. 

This is a GZG APC which I have modified with a plasma turret and a couple of extra bits.

You can see for speed of play I had 

I wrote Gruntz but I still need to check the rule book! I was reminding myself that a rear shot on my APC was going to get a +2 damage on the damage roll in the rear arc. 

Water vaper blown over the board to give it a smoke filled look for the photo.  Jons Khurasan Power armour troops are modified by using a robotic style head. 

In the distance you can see my shielded Spider droids held the line with their force shields in position. 

One of the Spider Droids shields has been over powered. 

Making use of the shielding provided by the Droids giving the troops an added screen. 

My GZG skimmer grav bikes were able to put pressure on troops quickly with their fast movement but they were a little fragile and were soon wiped out. 

Cards placed for Card activation using the Gruntz activation cards which can be bought on Wargames Vault It added a chaotic feel with random activation of units between players. 

Shields Up! 

Robotic assets. 

Activation cards on the dropship launch pad.

Full Thrust New Anglian vs Federal Stats Europa (British Vs French).

I had a fun game of Full Thrust from GZG at the local club on Friday.  I am still amazed at how satisfying it is to play Full Thrust, after many years my old fleet still feels fresh to play and involves some in depth tactical play. Sadly my great tactical ineptitude kicked in and I moved my missile firing vessels in far to closely which, presenting big easy targets for the NAC.  I had the FSE (Federal Stats Europa) fleet with some additional models from Zandris IV and Ninja Magic.  I simply did not have enough in FSE models to be able to match Steve's "New Anglian Confederation" (NAC) fleet so I had to drag out some additional models from my collection.  

For those interested, the game Gruntz was influenced by Full Thrust and the damage tracks and critical process was an inspiration for how I built the damage system in Gruntz. 

On my left flank I sent in a group of four Sub-Munition pack Hydra Class Destroyers which I had stated up as larger ships than the model would normally dictate. This was not really fair on Steve because he thought they were smaller vessels than I was representing with the small models. However I had limited models to use so they were the only thing close to size I could use.  It is worth discussing sizes with your opponent to avoid a surprise when a tiny approaching ship is actually supposed to be a carrier! 

Here is the Hydra class (represented by the small green group of 4 ships on the top left of the above photo).  Image from the http://fullthrust.star-ranger.com/FSEstats.htm web site where I pull most of my stats from for the game.  I drop them into a doc and print them. 

You can see the three submunition packs on the ship design (circle with black filled triangle on top). They are powerful one use only weapons, best used at a range of under 6" for the most devastating close range damage.  After using the one shot submunition packs,  the ships then fall back to using just beam weapons which are the circles with a two Class1 and one Class2 in the front arc only. Class1 beam weapons are the weakest with a range limit of 12". Class2 have 24" range. 

Early game my main FSE fleet splits. The moon and planet models provide a block to line of sight and I decide to split my forces. This is a mistake in the end round or two because I simply can't bring them to bear against the NAC fleet because they are too far from the main battle. 

Zandris IV models in the foreground. GZG FSE fleet (old style) in the background. 

Ninja Magic ships. This model in the foreground was my main flagship for my fleet. You can see the small fighter launch bay along the edge of the ship.  I used the following Littorio Class Battledreadnought statistic card to represent it. You can see the single triangle which represents one flight of onboard fighters which I can launch.  The image in the top centre are two missile launchers and the attached magazine of single use missiles.  The FSE fleet is very missile heavy, tending to be lighter armoured than the British New Anglian Confederation and better at longer range with missile launchers. Something I forgot for this game and got in too close! 

Steve's New Anglian Confed (NAC) fleet. These are from the earlier sculpt range from GZG. 

I used the yellow counters to note when a ship had fired each round. 

You can see my Lego Planet in use next to a sphere. These stone spheres are from a crystal shop on the Isle of Wight. The polished stone looks very moon like and you will find many of these stone orbs available on new age crystal web sites or ebay. These ones only cost me about £3 each and make easy drop on terrain. 

My single fighter group is launched from my main dreadnought. Fighters can move 12" a turn in any direction. 

Close up on my older FSE fleet. 

FSE heavies again. These earlier models from GZG tend to be smaller than the more recent re-sculpts on the GZG site. I must admit the newer ships do look nicer and I need to start investing in some of the new models again. 

War on Two Fronts - Battle Report

I used two  3ftx3ft boards at a recent club game with one as a planet-side board representing Kepler-62e and the the other is a moon board for Dactyl, Keplers orbiting moon. 

The East Hyadum Trade company expeditionary force (EHTC) is on an outpost base on Kepler-62e. Kepler-62e is a mineral resource rich planet although currently a desert planet after an enlargement phase of its nearest star heated the atmosphere. The EHTC also operate a transit and communication launch base on the orbiting moon "Dactyl".  The EHTC are under duress due to a localised landing of a Neo-Sov force who arrived from a deep space transit sleep to be dropped onto Kepler. Their aim was to overwhelm the small defences around the EHTC launch pad and forward command base "Bose".   The Neo-Sov forces have arrived from their home planet Mars (long since made habitable with atmosphere adjustment). 

Miniatures used were a mix of GZG NAC troopers (painted red to represent the EHTC British expeditionary forces). The NeoSov forces are Khurasan. 

Kepler-62e has a big oil resource, being a desert planet that had in the past been a lush forested environment.  The NeoSov government are unhappy with the EHTC getting an early planetary grab on this newly discovered resource and want to stamp their authority on a resource they could use to feed their massive factory zones on Mars. 

Scenario: 

The 1st Magellanic Pioneers representing the EHTC expeditionary force are led by Major Zac Flower-Smithe and are in retreat with a goal of evacuation to the small Dactyl moon.  Their position is in defilade but the incoming Neo-Sov forces have forced a retreat order.  An Ajax class dropship is on hand to take the retreating forces into orbit and for drop off on the dark side of the Dactyl moon. The Ajax dropship can carry 2 vehicles and 20 troops.  It will take 1 full activation to load a vehicle that is within 2" of the dropship.

Planetary communications have been blocked for the EHTC so they must reach orbit and land on Dactyl (the grey moon terrain base) to get a message out for resources and to report the incursion.   The Neosov objective is simply to focus on destruction of the local  EHTC forces because they are not aware of the second base on Dactyl and are confident they can wipe out the defending forces with only minimal losses.

Unknown to the EHTC their small orbiting base on the moon Dactyl is also just starting to face an assault by local alien fauna, awaking from its 3 Monthly breading cycle.  Things are about to get nasty for the scientific team still based on Dactyl.  The ground force may just get there in time to stop the alien assault, defend the Dactyl moonbase and get the message back to central services that the Neosov's are on the scene. 

The Gruntz alternative card based activation was used in the game which added a lot of tension because the order in which the defending forces could activate and retreat from battle was determined on the luck of the card draw.   You can see the cards dotted about in some of the photos. 

It was a very close game and we ran out of time to finish the second battle against the alien fauna on the moon.  The Drop ship sustained heavy damage from satchel charges tossed into engine intakes but it manage to limp into orbit with a small force of EHTC forces before losing an engine completely.  Some photos during the game follow with notes. 

An overview of the layouts. 

Late game the EHTC APC's (models from GZG) are nearing the launch pad for loading.  

One of the shields on the spider droids has been overloaded. 

Deploying from the GZG APC a squad of Neo-Sov troops (models by Khurasan). 

You can see the activation cards laid on the table for the card based turn sequence which adds a random chaotic battle feel to the game (also ideal for solo play). 

The drop ship makes it off after sustaining a few satchel charges to the air intake, it still managed to limp into orbit and land near the moonbase. 

The Neo-SoV drop in a drop pod carrying a sniper specialist walker (Art crime minis Valkyrie). Drop pod from ClearHorizon miniatures. 

Landing directly on the launch pad the transport roach VTOL (GZG) deploys some Neo-Sov forces directly into the action. 

Near the end game some for the Neosov forces make it to the launch pad and start to throw satchel charges into the intakes of the drop ship. 

The commander of the EHTC forces under heavy sniper fire finally becomes a casualty only a few yards from the drop ship. 

The red EHTC forces are approaching their escape zone.  The Neosov forces are only held back by a line of shielded Spider Droids (GZG Models). 

Drop Pod from Clear Horizon drops in a couple of Valkyrie walkers to harass the flank of the EHTC forces.  

Mortar deployed from APC. 

Gruntz at SELWG Convention.

Gruntz is at the SELWG (South East London Wargames Group) convention on Sunday 14th October. The venue is the Crystal Palace Sports ground. More details of traders etc on their web site: http://www.selwg.org/selwg-2012/  There is the usual great range of traders, bring and buy and show games on the day.

SELWG is a classic show, with a great history and always plenty of good terrain layouts and traders to visit. It was one of the shows in the 90's that gave me a major bug for attending gaming conventions. I somehow always manage to find a bargain on the bring and buy and the mix of traders makes it worth attending.

I will be up on the Balcony area which is along from where you walk in.  Jon at Ground Zero Games (GZG) will be trading at the show and will be providing some mini-give-aways and winners gifts for people that join in and have a game of Gruntz.

I will only have the one small gaming table and will run games as and when people approach me and will also find time to chat about Gruntz and discuss painting etc whilst there.  It is unlikely that my printed copies of the latest 1.1 rules will be printed in time for the event, however you will be able to try the new rules because I will have some printed guides and some pre-built armies ready to roll.

I will also be attending the Warfare Reading show later in November and hope to take some printed copies of the rules on the Saturday which will be sold via a trader(s).

This is probably the terrain layout I will take with me, so it will be a small table but great for getting straight into a game.

Even if you are not a Gruntz player, please come over and say hello!

Gruntz Play

Thanks to David over on the GaminDaze blog for an after action report (AAR) of a game of Gruntz.  They have a mix of Rebel miniatures and Old Crow in action on the board and it looked like a fun game.

You can see the details here:

http://gamindaze.blogspot.com/2011/06/gruntz-is-fun.html

15mm SCI-FI in The Ancible Magazine

This Months release of the PDF SCI-FI and Fantasy magazine The Ancible features an article about me and my motivations for gaming, an independent review of the Gruntz game and a Battle Report (AAR) of a game of Gruntz between myself and my son Oscar. I must admit the game was a small one because I was short on time with the build up to Salute, it does however cover most of the mechanics and flow of the game.

It is issue 8 of Ancible which is a free download from this list here http://www.the-ancible.com/Downloads/The_Ancible_Issue08.pdf There are several other great articles on small scale 6mm and 15mm Science Fiction gaming, including Future War Commander and Critical Mass games. It is a great read with a lot of high quality terrain photos and model images. There are also two photos of me in the articles, so you can see exactly how ugly I am!

Here are a couple of reductions of the pages in the magazine showing the battle report and intro.

Just a reminder again - To download The Ancible magazine  (issue 8 for detail on small scale gaming) click here:  http://www.the-ancible.com/Downloads/The_Ancible_Issue08.pdf