"Hammer's Slammers Mini-Campaign game" Topic

The Hammer's Slammers the Crucible system lends itself to mini-campaigns thanks to the Elite Skills system built into the rules which were designed to give incentives to play linked games.

A mini-campaign pack was uploaded here link giving oportunities to easily string together sets of games.

My mate Jim Clark and I played one the other night link using two forces. Jim chose two detachments of the veteran Apex Dragoons: a Heavy Detachment and a Dragoon Detachment – 20 TUs between them and only three of them infantry (ie lots of vehicles)…

In the spirit of asymmetrical warfare, I chose three detachments from the Solace Regulars and Militia forces: a Regular detachment of 10 Veterans (their ‘Elite cavalry' squadron); and a Regular detachment of Trained Cavalry (15TUs).

Both of these detachments had a mix of the same vehicles and infantry but – essentially – trained to different levels. Lastly they were backed up by the citizenry of Solace: a detachment of Freedom Fighters (30TUs – mostly on foot with five air vans as transport). So lots of infantry…

More details of the game can be read on the link supplied above but the end result was the Jim's Apex guys – heavy on the wheeled armour sporting everything from 9cm Electrochemical cannons, Hypersonic Missiles and 2cm Gatling guns (oh and a few guys in full body armour) – were more than a match for the Solace regulars (in half body armour and with lighter power guns and mostly less well trained) or the un-trained but enthusiastic citizenry in no body armour and wielding mostly shotguns, the odd assault rifle, a couple of buzzbombs and lots of molotov cocktails and driving a few panel vans with a machine gun on the roof…

The net result was a win for the Apex Dragoons and – through good choices and lucky dice throws – as a 'reward' Jim's forces will, from now on, be able to use the Elite Skills of Pathfinder – All difficult terrain is considered Clear Terrain; Command Material – When Top Commander in force rolls for LP, roll 3d6 and pick the best two; and Defensive Stalwart – A temp +1QV to TWO TUs per turn, but only if the selected units do not move.

My Solace Regulars get to use Snapshot – Firing on the move.

Anyway – we had fun: I hope you enjoy reading the report.

John Treadaway
hammers-slammers.com

Great looking game.

Oh Yeah !! Looks like a lot of fun !!!

Does Hammer's Slammers have a force creator that can handle aliens?

The campaign rules have intrigued me. As much as I like FUBAR the guys I play with want a campaign with the potential for skill advancement. I might be picking up Hammer's Slammers soon.

Where can I buy it in the USA?

These battle reports and pictures are always great! Thanks for posting…

Thanks for the kind comments chaps: it was a lot of fun.

@Dragon Gunner

a force creator that can handle aliens?

Not really: Aliens didn't figure much in the Slammers universe and there's only one* Alien race in the rule book (The Molts: teleporting, lizard like terrorist/viet cong types with human scavenged weapons).

What I have concentrated on in the rules are a lot of different human forces as featured in Drake's books (have a look at this page link and search the Big Detachment Cards) with a fair degree of different weapon (have a look at this page PDF link ) and vehicle types and then produced 'army lists'** (for want of a better term) for them. As there are around 50 or so different forces with points costs for units and so forth, that leaves a lot of different types to just pick from in a 'pre-made' kind of way.

It'd be fairly hard – power armour and mechs *** aside – to find a human – or humanoid alien – force that couldn't be very easily slotted into one of the lists on a 'swap out/proxy' basis.

Finally – if you take the plunge – campaigns aside, there are three scenarios on the web site****, two large ones and one for just one vehicle and indigs (suitable even for solo play) plus another scenario in the book.

John T

* of the two or three that appear in the stories

** available free to download and peruse on the web site

*** for which there is a 'not strictly cannon' adaption of the rules on the site which caters for both powered armour and moderate sized mechs: PDF link

**** Forces, victory conditions, maps, special rules where applicable etc

Where can I buy it in the USA?

I think I could make some simple mods to allow aliens after looking at the provided PDF links.

On Military Matters carries it.

Very cool!

Can you tell us about those buildings?

That is very cool looking.
Also, being the dimwit I am, it has shown me that Hammers Slammers is not all about the blowers!
Which is also very cool.

@Dragon Gunner – good: I'm glad there was stuff there to tickle your interest: it's a fairly straightforward, modular system. You can also buy the rules, I understand, from Amazon UK.

@darthfozzywig – those are Kato N Guage Model Railway buildings – more shots of them and others here: link

We have been buying a shed load (I think we're up to about 20 or so as of last count) for the city on our upcoming big Salute Game: Hammering Route 66

They've been weathered slightly with an air brush and washes.

@Angel Barracks: I don't actually (currently) own any Slammers vehicles in this scale – having done loads in 28mm I decided to build other forces for myself so My Solace Regulars (from the game) are supplemented by my Eaglewing Squadron, link my Sincanmo Federation, link the Waldheim Dragoons link (which have a few blowers, I grant you) my Arietes and my Wrangels Legion and Fasolini's Company link

Others in my group use Slammers and lots of other stuff besides, but there's a lot of wheeled, tracked, regular ACV and other sorts of vehicles (even semi Grav vehicles with the TAS) to use in the system.

John T

Route 66 … I love it !!!

Very cool, John. Thanks!

Are the rules available in PDF? $48 USD for a rules set is awfully pricey these days…

@Optional Field: no the rules are not available as a PDF, although all of the (free) back up material is. The 'rule book' is more of a 200 page plus, hardback, full colour background, history of the Slammers and other forces, painting guide, 'coffee table' style book with rules as well. These are some sample pages: PDF link

Also, here are some links to independent reviews link

John T