The Big Game XVI - Street Fight

A Laserstorm AAR by Podsy McPod

It was recently once again my pleasure to present a large scale participation wargame to my local gaming club TableTopNorth in Belfast.  The scenario was a continuation of an ongoing campaign between the rebelling human forces of the RPK republic (near future Arabs) and their evil galactic overlords the Naga (snake like aliens).  This game represented the climax of the campaign.  Following a disastrous defeat for the humans as they tried to force their way to the capital Kimtown down the main highway in the last Big Game they rethought their tactics and advanced through the mountains.  This game was set a few weeks after the arrival of the human forces in the capital.  Fighting has stalled and the opposing forces have built defences and hunkered down in adjacent city blocks.  The game would be won by whichever side scored the most victory points.  Uncontested control of each of the hab blocks in each sector scored one victory point at the end of each turn.

Somehow the table looks quite bare but there are six units in each city block

In Laserstorm cover is key.  Any unit directly behind a wall or in a building gets a cover save of 5+ in addition to the normal save roll of the unit.  Normal saves are adjusted by the power of attacking weapon whilst cover saves are not.  Before the game I emphasised how vital staying in cover was but as you can see a lot of units are out in the open as deployment finished.  This led to absolute chaos in the first turn of firing with casualties of around 30% on both sides at the end of the first turn!  Anti tank guns have deployed into the hab blocks at opposite ends of the board.  The alien guns took a casualty and failed a morale test causing them to flee the building they were in.  Once in the open they became very vulnerable to all incoming fire.  This left the aliens without vital anti tank weaponry.  Their human counterparts in contrast never broke a sweat staying resolutely in place for most of the game.

There are actually three guns in this building, one on each floor.  Their nerves of steel were to prove vital.

In the northern human city block with the tanks a much more cautious game was played making full use of cover before advancing.  Unsurprisingly the two central city blocks with enemies on three sides find themselves under a lot of pressure and take heavy casualties.  One alien Raven light vehicle transport with a stand of Vampirra power armour makes a brave dash towards the centre of the battlefield but it is really too little to have much effect.  The Ikwen militia subjugated into military service for the Naga have an outstanding game shooting down multiple enemies.  Even their underpowered solar RPG's prove useful destroying the large human mechs in the central city block.  Human Patrol Carriers make a brave dash to contest control of the northern hab dome on the alien side of the table.  We complete two turns before lunch.  Casualties have been extremely high on both sides with the aliens coming off worst.  The humans are ahead by a couple of victory points.

A heroic charge by human Patrol Carriers towards a hab block makes it contested and loses a victory point for the aliens.

Everyone has understood Laserstorm rules very quickly despite some of the players not regularly playing wargames. Combined with the high turn out of players this means the game is proceeding at a very fast pace.  I fear the game will not last the day.  I have a quick meeting with the team captains and we agree that an equal points value of troops can arrive as reinforcements for both sides on the narrow table edges.  We roll randomly for sides and the aliens come on in the south with the humans in the north.  We also tidy up some depleted units during the lunch break amalgamating and reinforcing some units.

After lunch the aliens make a well considered push with their recycled reinforcement units arriving in the south.  They pour fire into the hab block containing the human anti tank guns but a rotten run of luck means the fire is ineffective.  Only at this juncture does the commander of the alien SKA anti infantry field guns decide to redirect their fire onto the human anti tank guns and they are wiped out almost immediately.  Things are looking up for the aliens.  They are starting to get a secure base in the south.  Titan APC's nip around the corner of a hab block to get an unobstructed shot on a unit of RPK infantry.  Without cover saves the infantry is eliminated in a single round of fire.  On the other hand the aliens remain behind in victory points and have practically nothing left in the north to stop the human reinforcements rolling up them up.

Alien reinforcements of mechs and APC's make an impact.

This proves to be the case.  The alien positions in the north crumble.  Alien anti tank gun reinforcements are brought into play with some success taking out two human tanks.  Relief is only temporary, the human reinforcements prove unstoppable in their advance down the table.  The picture below was taken towards game end as you can see casualties on both sides have been huge.  Four city blocks are firmly under human control and the aliens do not have the troops left to mount any sort of counter attack.  Their commander decides to concede at the end of turn seven with the score at 21/11 in favour of the humans.  I don't feel too bad for the aliens as they had a crushing victory in the last game.

Laserstorm rules worked superbly well without amendment besides allowing a unit activation per side per player.  This is despite the game being played in 15mm rather than 6mm as intended by the author.  I would say there are tiers to Laserstorm rules and we played on the lowest level.  The game moved at by far the fastest pace of any system I have used allowing an unprecedented seven turns of play and we finished an hour ahead of schedule.  I now realise that the speed of play combined with the generous movement rates mean much more detailed scenarios can be played.  Vehicles struggled in the urban environment as perhaps they should.  It was definitely terrain for infantry, battlesuits and mechs.  I should have included more of these in the army lists.

A couple of lone vehicles hold on in the south for the humans as their reinforcements sweep down the table.

The game was set up with enemies in adjacent blocks.  On reflection it would probably have been better to put more room between the opposing forces.  That being said some players did remark that they enjoyed the difficulties of having enemies on more than one side.  The game was almost the victim of it's own success with a much higher turn out of players than in previous years.  If I had known there would have been this many players I would have included more figures.  One of the joys of running an event game for me is to see non wargamers quickly understand the rules and explain them to other players.  This definitely happened during this game.  I would also think Laserstorm rules would be well suited to running a smaller demonstration game at a convention.

Next year I am tempted to do it all again in 6mm...

Laserstorm: Grand Science Fiction Ground Warfare

By Podsy McPod

One year on.  Do I still feel the love?

I don't know about you but I quite often find myself falling out of love with a game system or rule set after an initial gush of enthusiasm.  Usually when I find some major flaw.  It is just about a year since I wrote some impressions about Laserstorm after my first few games. I have played about a game a month since then.  I have been playing in 15mm although the rules are designed for use in 6mm.  Purely because I did not want to abandon my extensive collection of 15mm figures.  I wondered if the rules would work in 15mm and I have to say without a doubt that they do with a couple of caveats.  Things do feel a little cramped without the room for manoeuvre you might like, and weapon ranges feel generous.  There are four sizes of vehicles in Laserstorm.  Light vehicles, standard vehicles, super heavy vehicles and behemoths.  I have included super heavy vehicles once or twice but felt that games came down to whether they could be eliminated or not.  Playing with much larger armies being needed to balance them out and there is not the room on my table for that in 15mm.  My games have been towards the smallest recommended size by unit count.  I have not used behemoths at all.

So what have I seen that I don't like?  There is definitely a high luck factor.  Units are activated in commands of one third of the whole army.  This is done by a random card draw mechanism.  A flip flop draw as I would call it when one side gets two or three activation cards at the end of one turn and the same at the start of the subsequent turn can be game winning.  Now this is statistically unlikely but not something I like at all.  All vehicles including the larger classes are destroyed with a single failed armour save.  Thus one unlucky roll can spell doom for a high value model.  I would guess this has been done to facilitate large games without any on table markers.

As in most sci fi rule sets, rules for deployment are quite sparse.  Initial game set ups can look like an ancients battle with two forces lined up looking at each other.  I suspect this looks worse in 15mm than it does in 6mm. 

There have been two supplementary army list books produced.  Thirteen factions are mentioned in the extensive background fluff.  I would love to see some more army list books produced.  To be fair the author does have a prodigious work rate producing rule systems and supplements for lots of different systems.

There is a very detailed points system.  Units can be selected by three methods.  DIY, start from scratch building unit stats.  Workshop, using premade infantry types or vehicle chassis and matching to premade weapons.  Army list, use completely premade units.  For the premade units and units you design in a similar fashion the points system is very sound.  Two armies of equal points value will most likely give a well balanced game.  In fact it would put the points system in some other well known systems to shame.  However if designing your own units it can easily be broken, the author freely admits this.  I suspect there are mathematical sweet spots for unit design so you do have to push yourself a little to add flavour to your designs.  I have also spotted a fairly major hole in the system which I have reported to the author.  Again this flaw would not come in to play if designing units in the spirit of the pre made units.  I can only see two tweaks to the points system that need to be made one of them being a fix for the issue above.  If these were done I think it would be one of the most robust points systems for any sci fi rule set that I have seen.

So what do I like?  The game is incredibly fast with simple and intuitive mechanics.  I have played games with the table groaning under the weight of figures that completed in two and a half or three hours.  I rarely see comparably sized games using any other rule set.  I will be using the rules without amendment for a large participation game at my local gaming club in October.  New players seem to get a firm grasp of the rules within the first couple of turns of play. The speed and ease of play makes up for the high luck factor for me.  The wealth of options for how to select units is excellent, including force structure charts if you want to use them.  You will have no trouble assigning stats and traits to match any unit type from sci fi fiction.  At one point the author did promise to publish faction specific workshop designs.  I think this would be a great compromise option allowing cunning unit design but not a complete free for all.

Two rule mechanics make the game stand out for me.  The game is won on victory points.  Victory points are scored by having uncontested control of victory point locations.  Points are scored at the end of each turn, not at game end.  This encourages aggressive play, sitting on the base line with long range lasers will gain you nothing in this game.  Units are often pushed back by the weight of incoming fire so you are never sure if a given unit will make it to a victory point location or be able to hold a victory point location and not be forced back out of position.  This is a mechanic integral to the shooting rules.  I have found a lot of rule sets to encourage static play with two lines of troops shooting at each other.  Laserstorm is the opposite with constant movement.  It also makes fast light vehicles and troops really useful.  You find yourself rushing them to claim an objective location and hoping they can hang on for a turn at least.

What seals the deal?  The game seems easily modified to your preferred style of play without breaking anything.  In fact there are many suggestions for alternative ways to plays sprinkled throughout the rule book  I didn't like the completely random activation card draw so I play a house rule where the two players alternate drawing cards.  So a player does not know which of his units will activate but knows he will get to activate something in reply to enemy activity.  I didn't like the lining up in deployment so I allow a free move on table before the game begins, faster units moving first.  Both these changes really enhance the game for me and don't seem to cause any problems.

When I wrote my initial thoughts on the game I suggested you just might be tempted to buy some 6mm just to play this rule set as it is so good.  I have just bought two 6mm armies.

Can you squeeze 15mm models into 6mm rules?

Some thoughts on using Laserstorm fast play rules designed for 6mm models with 15mm models.

By Podsy McPod

I wanted the action to start quickly in this test game so used a 4x4 table but on reflection 6x4 would have been better.

I have been a big fan of Fireteam Andromeda rules for the past couple of years. They have great tactical depth with their unique command and control system. They would remain my rule set of choice for serious competitive play. In recent times though I have hankered after a rule set that was a bit lighter and allowed me to get more of my ever expanding model collection on table at once, especially vehicles.

Laserstorm rules are designed for massive battles using 6mm models. The minimum suggested game size is around nine units a side. A unit being three standard vehicles or field guns, 4 light vehicles, 6 infantry stands or one super heavy vehicle or behemoth. This is the sort of size of game I have played so far. Units are arranged into three battle groups of roughly equal size. Weapon ranges seem fine used unmodified in 15mm. The rules suggest infantry stands of 4-6 models but my figure collection would not stretch to that. I chose stands of 3 models so that my standard units of 20 models could form an infantry unit. It also takes up less real estate on table. Purists may argue that three figures do not make a fire team but it looks OK to me.

Deployment and activation is by battle groups which are represented by a playing card. Also added to the deck are snap fire cards which allow one side to make a single unit fire or move out of sequence.

The rules are very simple and elegant to the extent that you find yourself wondering why has no one done this before. Units have a score to hit on their stat line. If there is not a clear line of sight to all of the target unit or if the target is in terrain the firing unit has to roll higher than their base "aim" stat, effectively a -1 modifier. Weapons are divided into three categories general purpose, anti infantry and anti tank. Fire at the wrong category of target for your weapon type you automatically need an unmodified 6 to hit. That is it! It sounds ridiculously simple but it just seems to work. 

Targets get a saving roll based on their class. Infantry and light vehicles save on 1D6, vehicles on the sum of 2D6, super heavies on the sum of 3D6 and behemoths on the sum of 4D6. Vehicles save on only 1D6 in assault so are vulnerable to being overrun by infantry. Units will have a saving roll typically in the range of 3+ to 6+ which is modified by the power of the attacking weapon system. For example an autocannon field gun has a save modifier of -2. So firing on a scout walker unit with a save value of 5+ the walkers would need 7+ to save on the sum of 2D6. If they failed any save and were in cover they would get an additional saving roll of 5+. In the above example infantry in the open with an identical save value of 5+ would be destroyed being unable to roll a 7 on 1D6. So infantry and light vehicles get a massive boost to survivability by being in cover. This system means practically anything has some chance (although it may be tiny) of destroying any target.

Casualties are removed from the nearest model to the firing unit working backwards. A score of 1 to hit is a 3" pushback working from the nearest model after casualties are removed. Victory is decided by scoring points at the end of each turn for uncontested control of victory point locations. This casualty and push back system means there is a great degree of uncertainty over being confident you will hold or contest any given objective at turn end.

Disaster struck this super heavy tank early in my last game. Rolling two ones out of three save dice it failed by 1 to avoid being destroyed by the tanks main guns.

When a unit takes sufficient casualties (one or two depending on size and class) it must make a morale test. This is a simple unmodified score on 1D6. A fail means morale has broken for that moment. If playing in 6mm I think I would use the detailed rules on commanders and regrouping but in 15mm it just seems wrong. An alternative given in the rules is that the unit has to retreat 12" and this works fine.

The rules give three options for unit building. From scratch, add weapons to a chassis or ready made units. The first army list book has just been released. The points system if using the ready made units seems fine. It could be exploited by those determined to win. For example you could give your infantry RPG's a massive range boost for only a few extra points. The points system is under review and I am sure will be updated as players report in. You can alter every stat and add traits and special abilities to units and weapon system. There is enough here to cover every conceivable unit type and hero units if you want them. Alas for me this detailed pointing system (which I highly commend) is just too much for my maths skills. It is crying out for computer aid via a spreadsheet or online army builder. Anyone care to take up the challenge? Get the authors permission first of course.

Tanks burst through Naga lines wiping out all opposition.

So does it work in 15mm? For me I will answer yes with a couple of provisos. Even if you have the models you don't have the room to fit in the large numbers of heavy vehicles the system is suggesting to use. Unless of course you happen to have a massive gaming table. On a standard table 6x4 I don't think I would push much beyond 12 units a side, but compared to a lot of games I see being played that is still a huge amount of figures. There is fair amount of luck in the game which is emphasised if using a relatively small number of units. For me it is an acceptable level in view of the fast play time. The photos are from a game with someone playing for the first time and the game completed in 2 hours from deploying to winner declared.

If you do have a collection with lots of light vehicles (with a small footprint) like Battlesuits and lots of infantry these rules may suit you down to the ground. I can't help thinking they would work equally well for modern games. I think they would work spectacularly well if you are lucky enough to have an urban terrain board.

In fact these rules are so good you might just be tempted to start a 6mm collection.