"The Siege of Firebase Francoise" Topic
11 Posts
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Just Jack | 22 Dec 2013 2:29 p.m. PST |
All, Well, we find ourselves once again in the harsh environs of Perplakistan, where my mixture of Pendraken, Minifigs, and Takara toys are fighting it out in 10mm. After the previous fight, in which the enemy sprung a trap, with armor on "Lend Lease" from neighboring Tumoria, the French expected the insurgent armor to make a run for the border. So Legion recon teams were helo'ed out to the border for picket duty, and two Legion light armor columns were sent out to look for the enemy. But the enemy pulls a fast one! Relying on intel provided by anti-French locals, the enemy consolidates its remaining armor, marshals a bunch of infantry, and advanced on the nearby French base. Using terrain to hide the vehicles and civilians to cover the infantry's approach, the enemy closes with the small French, colonial, and local force garrison.
Overview of the table, looking from south to north. At bottom center to bottom left is the French base, Firebase Francoise. Bottom right is the eastern canal, where an insurgent 'hotspot' is located. Center to center left is the western canal, where another insurgent hotspot is located. Immediately to its right is the village of Turncoatville, where the final insurgent hotspot is located. As the road heads north it splits, to the right (NE) and left (NW). Once the enemy attack begins, Major Lapieux's task force of two mechanized columns out looking for the enemy armor will be recalled to assist the garrison; one column will enter from the NE and one from the NW (should they pass their reinforcement roll); each column will roll at the end of each turn after the first one, needing a 6, the following turn a 5, etc
It all starts at approximately 1930 local time; the sun is going down, and a large group of villagers approaches the main gate (Post 1).
And in a flash there are insurgents inside the French perimeter.
Simultaneously two T-55s and a BTR-60 swing out from behind the palm groves and into view, opposite Post 2 (left). The French actually got lucky here, with only two T-55s and a BTR. I grabbed four poker chips; two were dummies, one had a T-55 and two BTRs, and the last had 2 T-55s and a BTR. I shuffled them up, then placed three of the four on the table. Once the insurgents at the main gate uncovered, I turned over the three poker chips: two were dummies, as opposed to one dummy and two 'live' ones, with 3 T-55s and 3 BTRs total.
Not going well for the French
Looking east to west, one of the insurgent teams moves up to Revetment 1, trades fire with the sentry there, and eliminates him. They then quickly put an RPG into Helo 1, blowing it sky high!
Col Pous-Pous (top left, gold base) led the Anti-Tank Missile Team to Post 2, trying to get at the two T-55s in the field, though they couldn't get the launcher into action.
Major Lapieux stands over the body of his friend and former commander, Colonel Pous-Pous
LaPieux mutters something under his breath regarding retribution
If you're interested and so inclined, please view the rest at my blog (sorry, but there's 52 pics, and it's a real pain to load that many here): blackhawkhet.blogspot.com V/R, Jack |
darthfozzywig | 22 Dec 2013 3:56 p.m. PST |
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Dragon Gunner | 22 Dec 2013 4:24 p.m. PST |
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War Panda | 22 Dec 2013 7:28 p.m. PST |
Good stuff Jack
lots of work went into that
thanks for posting my friend! |
Just Jack | 23 Dec 2013 9:44 a.m. PST |
Thanks fellas, it was a real blast, and not something I game very often; usually it's not that fun to get your butt kicked, but I made it work by using garrison forces as opposed to my beloved Legionaires. I appreciate you all reading and letting me know you liked it, and I appreciate everyone that tossed scenario ideas my way; as you see, I used some of them already, and I'm cataloging the rest for future use. Matter of fact, I just posted back to my original scenario solicitation thread, to beg for more, as well as to provide some more info with regard to where this campaign might/could go. I also posted (on the blog) the rules I've been using for these Perplakistan fights, in case anyone is interested. Pretty down and dirty, I think, but they're getting the job done for me. Grey-John – "
lots of work went into that
" That's where you're wrong my friend! Though I would be in heaven to play on a table such as yours, it will never happen; I don't have the talent, time, or patience to do that. I hadn't taken the table down since my last Perplakistan fight, so it only took me 10 minutes to scoop both forces out of the way, toss the terrain into a pile, then toss it back on the table. Took me about 2.5 hours to play the fight, quite a bit of which is taking notes and pictures, then trying to figure out how I ended up with 52 pics when my notes said I'd only taken 50! Took me about 3 more hours to write the batrep while watching football. Pretty efficient, though the wife was shooting me daggers with her eyes
On a separate note, when you're playing platoon level WWII, where/how do you come up with your scenarios? I read a batrep by one of the Lardies yesterday: TMP link and it got me thinking about using Blenneville or Bust/Vyazma or Bust for company-level operations fought out as platoon-sized battles. You might want to check it out, I think it's got promise, just needs a bit more work on the 'logistics' side to pull off. As if either of us needed another project
Take care all, and Merry Christmas! V/R, Jack |
Just Jack | 23 Dec 2013 8:27 p.m. PST |
John, Absolutely, I own Ambush Alley and Force on Force. My old man and I used to play Force on Force pretty regularly. For me they don't work very well for solo games; as you know, the action/reaction system can get pretty intricate. Some folks complain about that, but I love it because it creates a million different decision points, and I liked the opposed rolls for initiative, overwatch, and combat. But, having said all that, I think it works like a champ for two humans, but the few solo games I tried really bogged down, there's just too many decision points and opposed rolls when I'm doing it myself. I tried making all the decisions for the bad guys, but it wasn't as satisfying as using my patented "Bad Guy Decision Maker Matrix." I know there are plenty of guys that play solo and just make the 'best' move for both sides, but that's not how I play solo. I use the matrix because I like to feel like I'm commanding one side and playing against the bad guys, even though I'm having to move their stuff and roll their dice. So, like I said, there were just too many decision points and opposed rolls for me to do by myself. Every time I moved a team I'd have to think about -these three enemy teams have LOS, do they react? Okay, what's the calculus? The US guys will roll D10 and the insurgents will roll D8 to see who goes first. Then you try to calculate up, if the insurgents fire, what are the odds, so you have to calculate their fire dice and the US team's defense dice, maybe three different way because the insurgent teams could be composed different than each other, and cover for the US team may change based on the insurgent teams' angles. So, now I tend to go with simple card-based activation (as for All Americans) or this BKC-style activation I'm using for Perplakistan. You activate one unit at a time, all I have to roll for is, as an example, is this team of bad guys gonna sit tight and shoot, are they going to charge, or are they going to fall back? Then I draw another card (which tells me to go with good guys or bad guys), or move to the next team. Thanks for bringing it up, if I hadn't heard of them it would certainly be in my best interest to look them up. Take care man, and Merry Christmas! V/R, Jack |
PaulCollins | 23 Dec 2013 9:41 p.m. PST |
I hope you keep this stuff coming. I love reading your write-ups. I have some 15mm modern FFL from QRF and Peter Pig that have been sitting unfinished for awhile and these bat reps are giving me the inspiration that I need. Great stuff. |
Just Jack | 24 Dec 2013 1:00 p.m. PST |
PaulC – Thanks man, I really appreciate it. With regards to 'inspiring,' that's fantastic. One of the big reasons I started a blog, and am getting all this gaming in (I've played more games in the past few months than in the previous couple years), is because of Wargamer72's "Republic of Prussia" blog, and Ronan's "Ca Va?" blog. I kept looking at their blogs and thinking how cool they were; their games were small and simple, with excellent background, that made me think, "why not me?" Thus a blog was born! I'll say to everyone that's enjoying the French Foreign Legion vs. Islamist Insurgent batreps, please send me your scenario ideas. You can do it on my blog, on any of the batrep posts (I keep checking them, to see if any new comments pop up), or on the solicitation thread I made on the "Modern Scenarios" board. Kyote-John – They are a lot of fun, once you get the system of action/reaction sorted out. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes it can get a bit intricate. I've seen plenty of complaints about this, but, to tell you the truth, I personally never ran into anything that couldn't be worked out using a little logic and/or a dice-roll. I think the very vocal complaints about the reaction system is why they don't get played more, which is a shame, because my experience has been that most of the folks never even played the rules, just heard the complaining. Merry Christmas! V/R, Jack |
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