Friday, June 24, 2011

Turn One

The first alien force to advance was a brood of slashers that raced forward towards the ruins in front of squad Cagney. The soldiers of the Imperial Army commenced firing almost immediately, but had little effect at long range and the bugs successfully made it to the cover of the ruined building.

[Rules: the slashers are fast and so move 1d8x2” per action. In this case, they moved 20” using both actons and just made it to the edge of the ruins which provided concealment (a +ve range die shift). Cagney’s squad were firing at 25” or range band 4 for regular troops, which means the range die was a 10 shifted up to a 12 for concealment. Their firepower is 9 laser rifles at 1 rounded up to a d10, plus a plasma rifle at a d6. Both dice were shifted up due to the special ‘sustained fire’ rule which allows some weapons to be used over 2 actions to grant a +ve die shift. Their quality is regular: d8. The d12 roll was an unbeatable 11, so even though they rolled two 8s and a 4, the riflemen had no effect.]

On the imperial left flank, a brood of critters emerged from behind the distant buildings and darted forward seeking to similarly use the protection the ruins offered them. Squad Autry had used the few seconds warning they had to position themselves and so were able to fire a more controlled burst at the bugs downing two of them.

[Rules: the critters also spent 2 actions moving, but only at d6x2” per action. Yet they managed a very respectable 16”. The range was just on 24” so range band 3 shifted up once for a d10. The Imperials rolled a d12 and two d8s as above scoring 11, 8 and 5 while the aliens managed only a 4. This resulted in suppression and two possible hits. (if more than two shooting dice exceed the range dice then total ALL the shooting dice and divide that by the range die type: 24/ 10 = 2 hits with a 4/10 chance of a third.) The laser rifles have an impact value of d6 and the critters have an armour of d4 with a +2 shift for hard cover to d8. The rolls were 5 vs 2 and 5 vs 4 resulting in two kills. This forced a confidence test for suffering casualties, but the bugs passed, needing to beat a 3 on a d6.]

On the right flank another brood of critters slowly crept into the small ruined building at the far edge of the table, but remained hidden and so did not draw any fire.

Instead, in the centre, squad Bogart opened up on the critters on the far left, hitting them but they were too well protected by the cover to suffer any losses.

A brood of slinkers then raced forward almost reaching the ruins in the centre of the battlefield before corporal Clark turned the guns of his FSV on them. Two of the bugs were torn to pieces by the twin mounted heavy machine gun.

[Rules: slinkers are also ‘fast’ and therefore move d8x2” per action – in this case a total of 26”. The range was 19” or band 2 for a heavy weapon. The firepower of the twin HMG is 3d10 and the crew are the normal regular d8. So the FSV rolls 3d10 and a d8 against the range die of only a d6. This resulted in a total of 5 hits. With an impact of d8 against an armour of d6, the final result of only 2 actual kills was a poor result. The slinkers passed their confidence test for taking casualties and remained where they were.]

Another swarm of slinkers raced forward at almost the same time and using the first group to mask their initial movement, they almost reached squad Bogart. However, corporal Gable had just lined up his HMG on the initial swarm of slinkers and this second group appeared to him as nothing but the leading edge of that group as they emerged from behind them. His twin barrels roared to life and mowed down three of the slinkers.

[Rules: the slinkers managed to roll a double 8 for their movement and so raced 32” directly towards squad Bogart, stopping only about 4” short. The other FSV then fired as above, but managed 3 kills. Those slinkers also passed their initial confidence test]

Meanwhile, using the charging critters and smaller bugs as a distraction, four big bugs began their slow advance toward the Imperial lines.

Just as Gable’s burst of machine gun fire tore into the charging slinkers, corporal Cooper and his gunner fired a missile at almost point blank range, stunning but not wounding any of the bugs. Only a fraction of a second later, a second missile also hit them fired by corporal Grant. This was enough. As well as killing a fourth alien, the remainder recoiled from the onslaught and sought the safety of some nearby ruins.

[Rules: Missile launchers are heavy weapons. The first one was only about6” from the target who were in the open. Hence the range die was only a d4. The missile team have a quality of d8 and firepower of d12 when firing an AP round. However they only rolled a 12 and a 3 against the range die result of 4, thus only suppressing the target. The second missile, although at longer range, rolled even worse with only two 4s, but the range die only managed a 2 resulting in two hits. The impact of the AP round is d6 as is the armour of the slinkers. One roll managed to succeed and this was all that was necessary to force a confidence test. This time the d8 did not beat the necessary 3 and the slinkers fell back to the nearest cover with a total of 3 suppression markers.]

Squad Wayne turned their heavy laser rifles on the remaining mass of slinkers and poured a steady stream of fire into them causing them to balk and keep their heads down.

Meanwhile platoon sergeant Flynn assessed the situation and decided that although the initial attack seemed to have been blunted slightly, the nearby slinkers were still a huge threat. He tapped corporal Cooper on the shoulder and ordered him to withdraw further where he could fire at long range on the dug in slinkers without exposing himself to being overrun. He then turned and shouted to Bogart to concentrate his fire on the slinkers directly to his front.

[Rules: the platoon sergeant and platoon leader can use an action to attempt to (re-)activate a subordinate squad. This is the primary role of leaders in SG and represents the effect that their influence has on the performance of the squads. That is, it is not necessarily the case that the activated squad is doing more, just that they can be more effective if guided by their superior officers. In this case, the missile team was successfully reactivated, but squad Bogart was not.]

As corporal Cooper and his gunner grabbed their equipment and started moving back to another position, a missile streaked overhead and slammed into the area now occupied by the withdrawing slinkers.

From his position at the top of the shrine, lieutenant Robinson saw the initial rush of the alien hordes and the effect his men’s firepower was having on them. Only on his right flank was there a swarrn that seemed to be unaffected. He grabbed the radio and tried to call sergeant Cagney to make sure he was concentrating on the slashers to his front. The fire from Cagney’s squad seemed very poorly concentrated, but he got no reply. In frustration, he called sergeant Wayne to encourage him to hold his position and clear the slinkers away from their immediate front, while keeping an eye on the right in case the slashers made another rush. In this case, it was unnecessary. Squad Wayne were stoically and methodically firing at the slinkers and had them well and truly pinned.

[Rules: squad Cagney was not reactivated, but Squad Wayne was. The additional round of shooting that this enabled caused a third suppression marker to be placed on the nearest unit of slinkers, effectively pinning them for at least one turn.]



The scene at the end of turn one. Squad Cagney is out of shot to the right.

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