07 March, 2012

Power Armour to a Knife Fight

Following a disastrous campaign in the southern reaches of Novaya Sakha the Human Co-Prosperity Sphere is withdrawing from Hanhai pending reinforcements from Terra. While the Sakhan Liberation Army strikes to catch the beleaguered garrison on the move, the Mega-Corporation Heymans Yamada attempts to protect their assets in the city and evacuate some VIPs.

Art by Sanchiko

Apart from the engagement at Sagatay, Power Armour has been a trump card for the HCPS. A single-squad patrol has been clearing outlying areas of Hanhai and an ambush has been laid to take them out.

Surrounded

This fire team is completely in the open and while it goes on overwatch to cover the second team, it takes an awful lot of fire (so much that the missile launcher can't keep up).
Just then they hear about their NCO (the seventh man who didn't go on patrol with them) being killed in an ambush and their morale takes a hit.

In the open

The Senior NCO leads the second team into the grove beside a small building suppressing the rebel squad firing out - that building goes on fire and the rebels are forced to evacuate.

Into the grove

With the first fire team going down under a vicious crossfire, some rebel squads move around the flank, trying to maintain pressure on the enemy and capture or kill the downed power armour troopers

Flanking squad

Somehow all three troopers are back on their feet (integral medical systems!) with two just lightly wounded - they wreak vengeance upon their tormenters and virtually wipe out two whole rebel squads

Taking fire

Despite their success they're having second thoughts about this - they're feeling very lucky to have survived and none too cheery about their prospects

Having second thoughts

They rush into cover on the other side of the street and pick on the rebels metres away. They're now out of line of sight of the rest of the rebel force and they feel safer (though the other fireteam is now left without any support!)

Rush to cover

That fire team decides that they're nothing for it but 'all in'. Rushing around the corner they split fire, the NCO targeting the rooftop medic across the road with his plasma cannon with surgical precision and the other two wiping out the squad at point blank range.

Smoking them out

As the rest of the rebel force cross the road to try to get to the isolated and demoralised troopers, the power armour squad continues to wreak havoc on them - first pinning them down in the shadow of the chemical plant and then raining down fire on them

Advancing en masse

Those who survive climb the plant superstructure to get a bead on the other team but they've found their range and return fire with deadly effect

Rooftop slaughter

Despite everything the Human Co-Prosperity Sphere patrol has triumphed - outnumbered 6 to 1 and caught in the open. These power suits may be second-rate but they're still damned effective

8 comments:

  1. Nice report, how is tomorrow war to play? I keep getting tempted to order some 15mm SFI troops and have a go.

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  2. Very nice report. Enjoyed it immensely.

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  3. Very nice! Really captures what a force multiplier Powered Armor is in Tomorrow's War.

    The Advanced Medic Treatment really helps when the whole power armor team gets hit.

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  4. Looks like a 25mm game. Nice buildings!

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  5. Some very nice buildings there!

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  6. To All: Thanks very much!
    @Ben: Plays pretty well - Force on Force will give you a very good base to work from but with Tech Levels, special types of support weapons, The Grid etc. they're another level.
    @Ray: Rebel player was disgusted (!) with those first aid rolls (getting them in the first place) and then rolling so high to boot
    @David: All Stargrunt miniatures in (actual) 25mm indeed
    @Brutpaul: Buildings by Grimsforge (you'll find him on eBay)

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  7. Tomorrow's War is nothing but a masturbation tool for the U.S. and israeli fanboy.

    The side with the most advanced weaponry always wins.

    It's so pointless to play Tomorrow's War that it's not even fun.

    It's worse than playing those jingoistic NATO/WarPac 'wargames' which came out in the 70s where the Soviets and satellites had hordes of mook units and the U.S. and Brits were unkillable (not so the European Nato troops).

    If real wars ran like TW the U.S. should occupy Central Asia for the next two centuries and Israel would streatch from Turkey to Uganda.

    Check the real world to see how much it ain't so.

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  8. Since a properly designed TW or FoF scenario doesn't necessarily give victory to the side that stacks up the biggest body count, the side with the most advanced weaponry doesn't always win. In fact, in most scenarios set against a politically charged background, it should actually be more difficult for the side with the most firepower to win, as they have brought a hammer to a job that requires tweezers. ;)

    Each force in a scenario has objections that they can reasonably accomplish given their available resources. The side that meets the most objectives or prioritizes to achieve the most critical objective will win - body count rarely plays a significant role in determining the winner of a TW or Force on Force game.

    We actually get far more complaints about "the side with the best gear" losing to poorly equipped opponents, saying things like, "I had a six to one kill ratio over the enemy, but he won the scenario! How is that fair?" Well, it's perfectly fair - the enemy obviously paid attention to meeting his objectives (or preventing the other side from meeting theirs) and won despite the disparity in casualties.

    So, while the more technologically advanced side in a TW game may well be able to rain death down on its opponent, his victory conditions probably aren't tied to how many casualties he causes - indeed, unleashing all that advanced firepower may well cost him the game as he loses victory points for causing civilian casualties, damaging buildings and infrastructure, and appearing too aggressive in the media.

    It should also be noted that most Asian and Middle Eastern nations have a military TL of 2+ (meaning a mixture of TL2 and TL3 gear), which puts them at parity with most US or European forces, so there's no reason that they shouldn't have weaponry just as advanced as that used by western powers.

    Even more importantly, it should be remembered that the background presented in TW isn't a canonical offering that players must adhere to in order to play the game - players are encouraged to create their own settings or modify the presented setting to make it meet their view of the future - so there's absolutely nothing to prevent TW players from playing scenarios set against a future history where the US is no longer a primary player on the world stage - Effinger's background in which an Islamic Middle East has secured economic dominance might be an interesting setting for a TW campaign, for instance.

    Best wishes,

    Shawn Carpenter
    Ambush Alley Games

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