"15mm Hammer’s Slammers: The Crucible AAR" Topic

The Slammers rules can be used for quite big battles and Jim Clark and myself played a game at the Warlords club house last Monday which had 4 detachments or so a side.

Jim (painting machine that he is) had four detachments of Terran Authority Star marines PDF link and there job was to try to wheedle two detachments of Waldheim Dragoons PDF link who were supporting two more detachments of my Eaglewing Squadron PDF link one with an extra Night Crow stealth VTOL).

The TAS were lead by a Marine Colonel (LV12 with Command Material, Tactical Genius and Morale officer as elite skills [so he won all of the ‘who moves first' arguments and loads of leadership to spend]) whereas the opposition in the two were led by Colonel Adler (LV10 with Elite skills Blitzkrieg and A Shaper of Men).

Set up

The village in the middle of the table was occupied by the Waldheims and the Eaglewings, as hunkered down as possible with quite minimum cover other than buildings (there was not a tree to be seen!) Small roadways led into and out of the village and it was flanked on both side by larger tarmac roads. When they'd set up (with an Eaglewing mortar vehicle nestling between buildings and two Waldheim anti tank guns positioned on roof tops and the infantry behind building parapets where possible), the TAS deployed to come in from both sides, trying to split the defenders fire.

The TAS forces had one detachment each from the list and the heavy detachment – led by the colonel – moved in first, destroying at least 3 Eaglewing APCs and a Raven Assault Ship. By using saturation missile fire risking burning out weapon systems using the Rapid Fire rule, the Eaglewing managed to take out one of the TAS heavy tanks and destroy one of the Enforcer heavy APCs (though the infantry managed to get out without injury, just receiving suppression markers).

Turn two saw more casualties amongst both sides – the Eaglewing tried to use jet bikes with buzzbombs against TAS HSAG16APCs to no effect (with defence systems taking out any warheads that hit), even though they had repaid fired their weapons, and in the text turn they were obliterated by the TAS infantry and tribarrels. By then, however, the TAS had begun using their tribarrels quite sparingly as they were under missile fire from the Waldheim M2A2 blower tanks.

The heavy HALO vehicles although almost invulnerable – especially from the front – from anything and everything that was thrown at them (main guns on the Waldheim M2A2s, Waldheim anti-tank guns, Eaglewing Ravens and even an Eaglewing Artillery vehicle firing over open sites all failed to penetrate from the forward arc) did succumb to both missiles coming I from above that made it past defences and fast moves by the remaining Eaglewing vehicles which tried to hit them in the sides and in the rear. Rather like the WW2 tales of 5 Shermans to knock out one Tiger, the attrition rate was quite high.

By the end of turn 4 the Eaglewing had lost all but one Raven and a Hooded Crow in the Assault wing (the stealth electronics having been battered down on the Night Crow in the previous turn). In the Fast Assault wing all they had left was an infantry stand hiding on a roof and the GD800 artillery piece (minus its tribarrel) – the mortar crew vehicle (after dealing some damage to TAS deployed infantry) along with some Eaglewing infantry – had turned and fled in a morale check. The losses included Colonel Adler.

On the other hand, the TAS had lost almost all of their Heavy detachment, save a couple of infantry squads, also losing their Colonel, plus they had one of their Police Detachments badly mauled.

Two more turns saw the conclusion of the battle. The Waldheims lost a heavy tank and all of the light tanks to the vehicles of the TAS Support Detachment – one of the light tanks went to TAS long range infantry buzzbombs (being able to fire them out to medium range really helps – they can be used more aggressively than standard short range only buzzbombs).

The Waldheim calliope was also tied up taking out missile attacks (which it is, of course, very equipped to deal with) but it saw no offensive action until the moment it had its turret taken off by a TAS tank.

But the TAS were losing more police units and even some Support detachment vehicles – the air defence vehicle, then the tank and finally the command vehicle (with it's commander) leaving just the APC.

By the end of the game – turn 6 (which took about 5 relaxed hours between just the two of us) the TAS had lost two full detachments to a man and the two others were badly mauled (though they had good infantry still remaining). But – opposition wise – the Eaglewing had lost almost two detachments (with just 3 vehicle TUs remaining) but had two Waldheim blowers with missiles remaining, one of the anti-tank guns and almost all of their infantry and some APCs.

The game was declared a win – though not a decisive one – for the Waldheim/Eaglewings had four detachments and around 8000pts. The TAS had similar points (around 8500pts) and four detachments but fewer (better quality – elite versus veteran) troops but had an advance to make over very open terrain against a defensive position.

I Hope you enjoyed this report

John Treadaway
hammers-slammers.com

Great report John! Thanks for sharing it!

Brilliant AAR and photo's, can I ask where and what are you using for your decals in particular the Russian looking numbers and TAS lettering. Cheers

Jon

Just a suggestion but I always enjoy an AAR more when there's an overall picture of the table/setup. Preferably more than one that shows the action but at least one will help to set the scene.

This is the SF wargaming I like best, high-intensity warfare between fully-mechanized and highly-competent armoured forces…sadly more and more people are getting won over by the "uber-commandos vs horde of mooks" approach!

Nice game John :)

…sadly more and more people are getting won over by the "uber-commandos vs horde of mooks" approach!

Erm, 1987 called, it wants its assumptions back.

Thanks for the positive feedback people. I absolutely agree with you Cincinnatus: the shot of the overall table approach is the way to go (otherwise one is left trying to visualise the layout). Unfortunately neither of my two shots came out – much to my annoyance (I didn't have my 'proper' camera with me – just the happy snappy, sadly).

Someone else at the club might have taken a snap, though: I'll ask.

Johnny Boy, all the decals for the games are from Bad Idea (them and lots of other links here link ). I have supplied them with artwork for pretty much all of the forces in the book and they produce them for players in the different scales as required. Drop them a line.

From my own experience (and almost all of the decals on the gallery pages use them link ) the Bad Idea ones are quite nice and thin and go down well over bumps and detail with help from Mirco Sol and Micro Set). I occaisionally buy decals from other sources, though, as supplements. Some are Archer WW2 German, for example (though I don't think any of the TAS ones are…)

Have a look at Kevin Dallimore's article in Supplement 3 on painting the Lightning Division PDF link for some pointers if it helps.

@ Moqawama – I agree (obviously ) sweeping forces of SF panzers (like Drake describes) is what I aim for in these games.

John T

Very Cool !!! Beautiful models !!!

Thanks L4

Just checked: the numbers on the TAS that Kevin and I painted (these link ) certainly do have german numbers. I'll have to check with Jim where he got his.

John T

Old Crow Lancer Heavy APC is IMVVHO the BEST looking model I have seen in 15 mm sci-fi, even after all those years.

If only they could produce MBT version with bigger turret moved to the center – I will pay any money for such platoon.
I just cannot stand tank with turret not in the middle of corpse.

porfirio, you mean that my expectations for a SF wargame scenario are a bit too NATO/Warsaw Pact hence a bit of 1980s-vintage?

Hey, it may be my age showing?

But actually I just prefer scenarios where the firepower and technology is roughly on par.

Sure one side can be a little bit more refined here and there but that's it…I prefer both sides to have their tanks, their artillery, even their air support, if feasible!

Great looking models.

Sounds/looks like a great game! The models/paint-jobs look great as always. And I, once again, really enjoy the new cards.

Thanks Failure16

I keep adding to the Big Detachment Cards all the time when I spot an error (or spot one I'd missed like the 28mm and 6mm Broglies which I had, er, forgotten completely) so it's worth checking, if you use them, if the one you have is the latest.

It was a fun game, to be sure.

John T

What a fantastic game with some superb looking eye candy, what i would give to have a air brush and a compressor… those two Waldheim Dragoon tanks are just top knotch.

Thanks Avamango. I have to confess that I don't have an airbrush but know a man that does…

The rest is decals dry brush, army painter dip and some steady hand name painting.

John T

Many thanks for the heads up on the decals, absolutely what i'm after, an amazing range, as well as the links and guides.

Oh and brilliant painting as well with the models

Cheers Jon

Is there a Electronic version of the rules available?

Thanks Johnnyboy

@infoJunky – Electronic versions: No, I'm afraid not. There is a taster on the web site PDF link so you can see what's involved.

Plus, there's play sheets for all of the forces plus the three supplements all available for free download from the web site, but the core rules are in a print-only format from Pireme.

I'm not in charge of that side of things (ie selling the rules) but I suspect that it's not likely to change any time soon. It was conceived and designed as a 'pretty' book and is likely to stay that way.

John T

Very Nice!

porfirio, you mean that my expectations for a SF wargame scenario are a bit too NATO/Warsaw Pact hence a bit of 1980s-vintage?

No, I mean that the ubermen vs. hordes of baboons is vintage 1987, WH40K, and that's not really what most gamers are playing these days. Games like Tomorrow's War actually make it interesting to fight armies of the same tech level against each other, as they realistically portray just how tough it is for a lower tech level force to take on higher tech adversaries.

I would think that an electronic-version of the rules--while possibly selling more via accessibility--would defeat the purpose of The Crucible itself. That being a triple-damned gorgeous, almost coffee-table, book containing a serious amount of eye-candy, technical data, and background info…and an elegantly refined gaming system.

In short, I think part of the allure of The Crucible is its method of presentation/implementation. Well, that is one person's opinion of it, anyways.

On the flip-side, I can imagine that a simple PDF version of the rules themselves--ala Ogre Miniatures Lite by SJG--would have some sort of utility, if only to introduce the game to potential newcomers and thereby encourage a more readily available revenue stream for Pireme, Old Crow/GZG, and associates.

F16: in terms of a PDF version, you may be right but – like I say – it's not my call.

John T

Every time I see a Slammers game I am sorely tempted, but I just don't think my regular group is up for such a setup. The character of the battle and the units involved is always very evocative and exciting. All of them have identities and they are always fighting over something or for some ideal.

I see the hordes of goons vs. uber commandos is being played rather actively. Wit hthe modern trend toward asymmetric warfare the hordes of goons vs. commandoes model isn't too far off from Somalis vs Airborne or Delta Force or even modern trained and trimmed down infantry vs the masses of local militias.

I think it is fair to say that scifi gaming present the option for nearly any style of conflict really as the battlefields in any established scifi setting will likely vary to a great degree.

You have to have an extremely well-established setting to allow for large force engagements between modern forces off of Earth. small groups of trained and equipped men versus lesser equipped masses of colonists or massed indigenous aliens is a more likely scenario.

-Eli

Eli you don't need to put that many detachments on the field to play :) For a normal game it 9 to 12 bases / vehicles (this can be more if you are using lower quality troops) a side on a 3' x 3' table. At shows and large club games more of the toys come out and the rules scale well for small or larger games:)

Cheers Matt

Oh, don't get me wrong, I wasn't saying you had to have all that going on to play a game. I was simply stating that that sort of combat seems to have come back into play again.

Seems warfare in many respects is starting resemble a reskinned Colonial warfare with smaller units of regular, trained forces facing off against uncertain odds against enemies with varying degrees of force composition, size, and training.

-Eli

emu2020

One of my longer term goals is to do more asymmetric stuff with the Slammers. In 28mm we've played Molts (the alien lizards from one of the stories) versus Slammers which is about as asymmetric as you can get (the creatures are, for want of a better word, very 'viet cong' in the way they operate, though with teleporting rather than long tunnel systems to move around) but one of my other plans is a large number of badly trained forces, specifically the Solace Militia and accompanying thugs in a 15mm game PDF link

I really want to try a a game with loads and loads of civies equipped with the SF equivalent of a pickup with an AA gun in the back bolstered by political leaders and some trained troops against the likes of an Elite Slammers force.

I've been eyeing up all of the Rebel Miniatures and GZG civilians and thinking what I could do with some. A couple of detachments a side would field, say, 16 Slammers TUs (see PDF link ) with perhaps a combat car and an infantry detachment (so 8 Combat/Command cars, a couple of jeeps and 6 infantry skimmer units) but versus, say, 45 Freedom fighter units including 13 vehicles and loads of infantry stands.

That's a good example straight from one of Drake's stories of very asymmetric gaming, but his work has all sorts to game, which is, I guess, why I love it so much.

I just need to buy and paint about 150 infantry and a dozen vehicles for the militia…

John T

John,

That sounds aweome. I have been wanting to do a game of a large group of low tech alien indigs vs. a small contingent of colonists or even smaller group of trained military scifi.

The big problem for me is the substantial lack of low-tech scifi aliens and my refusal to resort to using fantasy figures as stand-ins. I may just have to convert a bunch of human troops or something.

-Eli

I know what you mean Eli: I've bought some 12mm fantasy lizard men to use as smaller than human (for 15mm) lizards for another Drake story (swarms of lizard types attacking Slammers combat cars in a convoy).

Again, I just haven't got around to painting them yet (Salute game prep has been taking up a lot of my spare time recently )

John T

"I see the hordes of goons vs. uber commandos is being played rather actively. Wit hthe modern trend toward asymmetric warfare the hordes of goons vs. commandoes model isn't too far off from Somalis vs Airborne or Delta Force or even modern trained and trimmed down infantry vs the masses of local militias". (emu 2020)

That's exactly what I meant, you nailed it.

I remember an article by Jon Tuffley of GZG in like '96 (?), called "Slamming the Dirt" about using a Slammer force with GZG/Dirtside rules. IIRC, he recommended a minimum of 3 to 1 for forces versing the Slammers. Or something like that … I just found the article …so may be worth a read – sfsfw.org/a/30/slam.php … can't find where I got the 3-1 though ?

John,

excellent models, excellent AAR for a most excellent subject. As a Yank my mind kept interpreting "TAS" as the "TSA" as in Traffic Safety Administration… somehow the idea of the TSA employing such hardware at SFO just got me to smiling in a more than usually evil way…

Excellent!

Leland R. Erickson

Thanks Leland. The Terran Authority Star Marines probably direct traffic safety in a most accomplished manner!

L4 – The TAS are pretty similar to the Slammers in terms of quality and – yep – I'd go (numbers wise) around the 2:1 for trained troops any rate, in the Crucible rules at any rate.

John T

Works for me JT !!