Wednesday 25 January 2012

Christmas War - Invasion of Laurentia Game 1

Date/Time: Christmas Eve, the year 2212.  1935hrs.   
Location: Laurentian Border Defenses - Buyan Swamp Crossing



The Buyan Swamp Crossing was an insignificant outpost along the Laurentian-Cimmerian border.  It was one of the oldest gravel trade roads established between the colony-states, and had long been surpassed by multi-lane highway checkpoints.  So it was little surprise that half of the garrison was granted Christmas leave this year, leaving only eight troopers (and two CAT 'bots) defending the border.  It had been that way as long as the anyone could remember - certainly it happened every year that the Laurentian communications-technician had been assigned to this backwater.

This year was different.

Half the garrison (the other four-man team) were sleeping inside the bunker; the other half were in the clearing across the road, discussing all the other places they would rather be.  Only the CATs were watching the road when the first rocket hit.  The comm-tech looked over to see one of their CATs was damaged, and the other firing its own rockets toward a dark, lumbering shape.  His team grabbed their carbines and ran to their defensive barricades, and the comm-tech grabbed his datapad and switched on the scanner feed.  Before he could see exactly what was happening, he found himself ducking small arms fire from the hill across the barricades.  


The data feed went live, and the comm-tech patched in his team.  They could finally see what was shooting at them.  That initial rocket had been fired from a Cimmerian Battle Walker, which was now trading heavy slugs with their own CATs.  The small arms fire was from a four-man Cimmerian fire team sheltered on the rocky hill.  Another two teams of Laurentians were double-timing up the road, covered by the heavy weapons of the first team.  The comm-tech holstered his pad and grabbed his carbine, focusing his fire on the Cimmerian heavy weapons team.  The CAT on their side of the road exploded, and a team of Cimmerians ran straight between his fireteam and their bunker.  A smart rocket from the Cimmerian heavy weapons team hit their position, killing one of his teammates.  They returned fire, but couldn't hit anything.  

Another Cimmerian team attempted to pass between the barricades, but was interrupted by small arms fire.  It was the Laurentian bunker team, now fully engaged in the fight.  The bunker-side CAT managed to blow an arm off the Cimmerian walker.  The bunker-side Laurentian team cut down two Cimmerians attempting to run up the road, but were surprised a fourth enemy team.  They had apparently come around the far side of the swamp.  This was a true assault team - spewing plasma from two flamethrowers while charging the bunker team.  The comm-tech could only try to focus on his own target while his comrades’ bio-signs switched to black, one by one.


The comm-tech attempted to send an alarm signal to the High Command Net.  But there was too much interference from the weapons fire, or possibly a minor EMP from the exploding CAT.  There were no signs of life from his teammates.  He ran as fast as he could, rapidly sending his alarm code as he tried to get out of range.  The second CAT ‘bot must have run out of rockets - he saw it jump the barricades and charge the Cimmerian walker.  Not a bad robot, thought the comm-tech.  He’d have to put it in for a battle honor, assuming there would be enough parts left to find the serial number.


Just as he thought he heard a confirmation chime from his distress signal, the comm-tech felt a sharp impact on his back plate.  He dropped - feeling intense, burning pain from the wound.  Then everything went dark...



Rules: FUBAR (links to unit stat cards: Cimmerians, Laurentians)
Playing time: 1 hour solo game
Battle outcome: Cimmerian victory - complete wipeout of Laurentian forces.  The Laurentians did survive six rounds. Per campaign special rules - long enough to earn a Special Forces reserve unit for the second scenario.

Cheers,
Chris

8 comments:

  1. Lovely pics and paint jobs! Great looking games!

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  2. Looked like a fast and dirty scrap!

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  3. I played a test game a few days ago for this before we started the campaign. The Laurentians were actually able to push back a Cimmerian Mechanized Infantry column, through thrifty use of their missle launcher and a sniper rifle. Looked great btw. awesome job !

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  4. Great AAR! How have You constructed water in swamp tile?

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  5. Thanks, everyone!

    @Impcommander - it will be fun to see how different our campaigns end up being, since we started from the same base. It's so much more fun to come up with unique interpretations of forces, instead of having everything spoon-fed in a book.

    @Umpapa - the swamp is a pretty simple piece. It's just a thin scrap of packaging styrofoam, cut and glued to an MDF hardboard base. The water effect was just two pourings of 50/50 white glue/water. Then I finished it by adding some of David's pitcher plants to the plateau.

    I can post a tutorial if everyone wants - I took a few pictures while it was being built.

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  6. Great AAR, very well written and quite exciting. I remember that feeling of spending a Christmas where I didn't want to be, and no one was shooting at me at the time! Looking forward to hearing how the Laurentians recover from this sneak attack.

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  7. "Laurentian-Cimmerian"?

    Dino De Barbarian?

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  8. @Michael: it wasn't a Conan reference - didn't know about that until after I did my initial writeup. It actually came from Wikisurfing one day... I wandered onto an article about pre-Pangaean continents. They seemed like good candidates for sci-fi colony names.

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