Had two games, both at 1 PM Friday and Saturday. Used a very liquified version of Force on Force since there were so many units on the table, didn't have enough people Friday, and I got started a little late and got flustered, but had plenty of walk ons Saturday with 9 people playing, about 2 per faction. Basically the concept was the fictional African country of Bangalla is going down the drain, and 5 different factions, (Government, mercenaries, Islamist and Christian militia, and Marxist rebels) all competed for various Warlord points (could be obtained through completing objectives, destroying vehicles, or you could lose points as well if your leader was killed, or your own vehicles were destroyed). Depending on what objectives they chose, depended on who they got to fight.
Government Army won the first game with a heaping 100 warlord points, and the Islamist militia won the second day with 80 or so points, and I will say the government forces had a score of -35 the second day, and every force started with 50 points…
First day, had a few players, a Guild forum member brought his his beautiful Marxist rebel army, and another Guild member showed up as well to play…was a little low on players though…was hoping to have up to 2 per team, but we had 1 per faction and I attempted to run the Islamists as well as game mastering, which did not work out too well…and it took me a 2 hours to set-up, and I started a little late and got flustered…but the game went on!
The government army went out to accomplish all 4 of their objectives…with great stealth as well! Managed to sneak their second in command halfway across the board through enemy territory to the waiting helicopter, along with stalling the Marxist rebels, and capturing an Islamist rebel squad!!!
A few pictures…government army moving up
Islamists tried to stall the mercenaries for fun, which led to some bad decisions..
The mercenaries decided to try to wreak havoc upon the Christian militia…they were rolling D10s and the militia were rolling D6s…seemed kind of unfair, BUT the christian militia actually destroyed 3 of their vehicles while they attempted to cross the river with their recoilless rifle…and also took out their Huey helicopter as well!! (after losing a few figures and trucks to them though). The Christian militia also managed to capture the Muslim civilians and bring them back towards their area, which left them with 2 accomplished objectives!
River causalities…Christians on the left…and mercenaries on the right…after the recoilless rifle damage.
Left side with the Marxists stalled at the river…river played an important aspect of slowing down the Christian Militia and Marxists thus making the game a little longer.
The Marxist rebel camp…
The infamous Christian recoilless rifle!
The Government Army came in first at the end of the first game, with a whopping 100 points. All objectives were complete, as the english guy running the force new his tactics…I believe the Christian Militia or Marxist Army came in next as well…then the Mercenaries whose lost vehicles dude to the pesky Christian militia dragged their overall points down.
Day two. Got there even earlier, and everything was set-up on time. Had plenty of walk-ons of interested observers, so I had a total of 9 players, with 2 per faction besides the mercenaries!!! I was able to focus more on running the game, and explained the rules and objectives even better, and hats off to the other players to catching on so fast as well and not having to monitor every move! Each player chose their objectives and thus the game began…
The Government army decided to defend their position, and move their second and command to the helicopter. This wasn't too bad, but the mercenary army decided to grab the radio team from the government station, and the government force reacted quite violently, which lead to their eventual downfall as they ended up fighting 3 different factions. The government force could have made a truce…but decided against this.
Once again the Marxist rebels decided to take out the Government army…which they did quite successfully, their armor moved up first followed by transported Marxist rebels in BTR-60s and such.
Eventually the government force was left with 12 burning hulks of their vehicles…every single thing with wheels or tracks was blown to smithereens. They did manage to accomplish one of their objectives, one of their RPG gunners smoked 2 or 3 BTR-60s…and did some damage to their transported troops. This couldn't stop the Marxist rebels though! They rolled straight on through even though a majority of their tanks took heavy damage from the government's mortars, which proved to be quite brutal by destroying an M-36 Jackson's gun, and affecting movement and such as well on a few other tanks. The government infantry, most of which weren't armed with RPGs couldn't damage the tanks, so they ended up trying to shoot down on the open M-36 Jackson's crews, which they did somewhat effectively.
The government force also encountered the mercenaries as well, and their dreaded helicopter, which was quickly disposed of by the large amount of ground fire from the surrounding Government army units. The government army actually took out a few higher troop quality Mercenary units, which hurt the mercenaries a reasonable amount. But once again the Government units couldn't handle fighting 3 fronts, as they were getting rear shots from the Marxists on their vehicles as they tried to respond to the Mercenaries. The government was successful in somewhat hiding where their second in command was, until everything with wheels got blown up besides their little Dingo armored car that was surrounded by Islamist militia, who promptly blew it to smithereens, and then shot the lone second in command point blank with a double barreled AA gun mounted on a Unimog.
The government forces took heavy loses, which drained away their Warlord points. I also gave them 2 Chaffee tanks as they began to get cornered, but they were promptly blown up as well. They were in no shape to stick around any more with nothing but 20 or so infantry without RPGs, so I called it a success for the Marxist rebels, who then captured the government facility, and the mercenaries who capture the Arab news team in a car.
On the other side of the board we had the Islamists "spawning" from the Mosque, and remaining hidden besides their vehicles. They managed to snag their own fellow civilians after a fire fight with the Christians, which left a few of their own dead along with their T-34/85. The Christian militia stumbled a little bit trying to get across the river, but their mechanic came in handy by fixing a few of their own vehicles enabling them to move again after spending a full turn with each. Islamists on rooftops began trading shots with Christians across the river, and the recoilless rifle once again did its damage in a direct fire role taking out Islamists on the various floors of the couple story buildings. The recoilless rifle truck was eventually put out of commission by a PT-76 as well. The Christian militia then stumbled even more and didn't bring more forces across the river to support their infantry which was slowing getting chewed up. The Islamists successfully brought the Muslim civilians back to safety, kept their mosque secure as well, along with destroying quite a few Christian units. The Christians only managed to destroy a few Islamist militia, but also kept their area secure.
The Islamists came out the winners with 90 warlord points by accomplishing numerous objectives, I think 3 total. The Marxist rebels came in second with 50 points as I believe their vehicle losses detracted from possible overall points. The mercenaries came in third, but they could have come in in second if they had been slightly more careful with their infantry. The Christian militia came in fourth with 20 points, as their vehicle losses severely hampered their efforts, and their ability to only accomplish one of the objectives as well. The Government Forces came in last, as they lost their Warlord leader who was their second in command. That was an automatic -20 points, and losing so many vehicles and units didn't not help as well. They did manage to destroy a few Marxist vehicles as well….but ended up with -35 points! A significant difference from the first game where they beat everyone by 50 points and more! Very pleased with how the second game turned out, and had some great players join in as well.
I know others took various pictures as well which we all will hopefully see in the future, others will probably pop up on some unknown blogs as well.
Also won a small award for the afternoon games section, "Pour Encourager Les Autres" which, according to the judges, was for, having a multitude of players of different ages playing (youngest was with the Islamists, kid was probably around 14 years old, and we had a few older folks with us as well). They also liked the idea behind the game (thanks to the guys on the Guild who originally came up with the main idea) and how everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, as they said they had no need to ask if the players were enjoying themselves, as they said they could tell everyone was enjoying it!
I plan on either hosting this game again in the future….or as a few of us talked about, doing a Twilight 2000 similar style game. Hopefully will be able to attend Historicon next year as well….
a few more pics from another Guild forum member
Brad :)
has been itching for a small Soviet project!
