Red Planet FUBAR Battle Report

By popular request: a report from the first battle fought on my new Red Planet board. Enjoy!

Background: Conquest System - the moon of Miniatus. A Conquest Development Corporation firebase suddenly lost all communications with a nearby uranium mine. Major Curker took a personal interest in this operation (for reasons unknown), and ordered the 369 Expeditionary Squad to accompany him on an investigation. They found the remains of a slaughter, and instantly their dropship's scanners indicated unidentified bio readings. As the dropship lifted off to investigate, one of the 369 fire-teams found evidence within a colony building. It was a claw from a Bio-T (bio-terror) Warrior - what CDC troopers informally called "Space Demons." Major Curker ordered the men to split up and take fire positions - the Bio-T's had to still be nearby. Just as he signalled the dropship to return, he heard the corporal from Fireteam B shout "Bio-T's Inbound!"

Game: A quick FUBAR solo battle. The CDC forces (Rebel Minis Titan Marines with a Laserburn commander) were broken into three units: Fireteams A and B, and Major Curker's personal command team. They began the game deployed into my colony buildings (BWS Starotwn Slums). The Bio-T's (Khurasan Space Demons) have a Queen, a unit of eight Warriors, and a unit of eight Acid Spitters. If a unit of Warriors or Spitters were killed off, I would roll a D6. A replacement swarm would arrive on a roll of 4-6. The Space Demons arrived from a random table edge and had Initiative for the first round.

Victory Conditions: A straight bloodbath - no objectives. I set a limit of ten turns, and then the CDC Dropship would arrive to evacuate any CDC survivors.

Turn One: The Bio-T's quickly ran into the colony. The Spitters made it in first and assaulted Fireteam A. Two troopers died instantly, and they were hit so quickly they didn't kill any Spitters in return. The Queen and warriors came about next. Major Kurker opened fire on the Queen... she met his gaze and prepared her own assault. Fireteam B fired upon the spitters, killing three.

Turn Two: The spitters quickly finished off Fireteam A, but lost two of their number in the process. Fireteam B shot far more accurately and killed the remaining Spitters. The Warriors now assaulted Fireteam B while the Queen advanced on the Major and his command team.

Turn Three: In a brutal melee, Fireteam B lost three members and three Warriors were killed. The Queen killed one of the Major's men in close combat.

Turn Four: The survivor from Fireteam B (who was apparently the child of Ripley and John McClane and raised on a diet of titanium nuggets) made five successful armor saves as he killed another Warrior. The melee continued with the Major wounding the Bio-T Queen.

Yes... this happened!

Turn Five: The Queen was killed. The final member of Fireteam B fell in combat, taking another Warrior with him.

Turn Six: The final two Warriors, now without their Queen and under fire from the victorious Major, retreated from the buildings.

Turn Seven: Major Curker and the two surviving members of his squad wiped out the retreating Bio-T Warriors. They had survived the onslaught, but nine of their troopers had died in the process.

Aftermath: The Major's personal dropship evacuated him from his carnage. It had identified a large canyon filled with the bugs, including at least one more Queen. Major Curker alerted his firebase to mobilize all troops for assault... this wasn't over yet!

Analysis: The inspiration for this game took nothing more than setting up a few buildings and terrain pieces on my newly-finished table and grabbing some minis off the shelf. Yet it made for a quick and enjoyable game! FUBAR's simple framework can provide an "instant game" with minimal preparation time and bookkeeping - to me, that captures the essence of 15mm Science Fiction gaming.

Cheers,

Chris

A Red Planet board

Ever since I switched to 15mm, I've been fighting battles over the same collection of desert terrain. I needed a change! Inspired by Mark's previous post and Martin's gallery, I decided to try a "red planet" terrain set of my own. This project was simple and quite inexpensive - and only took a weekend to complete. While the steps here were specific for my red planet, you could easily apply different colors and flocking methods to make any type of terrain you like.

First I needed material for the project. I wanted to start small - 24" x 24" is fine for skirmishes, or small battles with a couple squads and a vehicle or two. So I picked up a piece of 5/8" sanded plywood cut to that size. And to make the red planet I chose two colors of $1 craft paint (a base and a highlight) and two bags of Woodland Scenics flock (their fine scale works well as 15mm ground

A little experimenting with the flock led me to a blend of two parts red ore to one part black cinder. This is actually a pretty dark blend... not a true Mars but definitely something out of this world.

As with my previous desert and snow tables, I started with a test hill. I have a pile of assorted styrofoam packing sheets from furniture boxes... enough so I could cover a 24x24 table and not have to buy anything extra. So I sat down with the ol' Wonder Cutter and went to work. The first hill was simple, textured, and looked like it would work.

So I painted it. Two coats of the darker red covered it completely, and a quick drybrush with the orange brought out the carved texture. Then I brushed a 50/50 white glue/water mix and sprinkled on the flock. When flocking I let it dry for about an hour then gently go back over the whole area with the 50/50 mix. If you dab it on just right it will look like the flock is covered with milk, but not floating around. This dries to a nice solid finish that doesn't flake. Here is the result, with a GZG shanty and a Kremlin Cyberian Commando for comparison

The results were okay, but still a bit unsatisfying. I sat down to work on some taller spires, like these at TerraGenesis. When working on these I realized that the texture on my earlier hill was perpendicular to normal erosion! So I turned the ol' Wonder Cutter sideways and produced these:

I thought these were a major improvements over my first hill, and I was eager to finish them. Same formula as before... two coats of the darker red and a quick and easy drybrush with the orange.

My camera didn't catch the contrast, but the orange drybrushing does stand out well from the red. I may still go back over them with a black wash to add a bit more depth, but I'm pretty satisfied with the results.

In between coats of the hills I finished the table itself. I did use a primer on the plywood before I started painting - this helps to seal the plywood and prevents your first coat of paint from soaking in. I didn't use any drybrushing on the table - just painted it red, flocked, and sealed. I applied the sealant with a dollar-store spray bottle rather than a brush, and gave it two extra coats. Right now it's solid enough that I could reverse it and make a two-sided board. The table took longer to make just because of the extra coats of glue needing to dry, but was still a very simple process. If you want to do this project at home, I'd say paint and flock the table first, then add the sealant coats while you work on hills, spires, crags, or whatever else you're including.

All that remained was to flock and seal the rest of the hills. Since the hills would need to dry overnight I had to leave them aside... but the test hill and the spires were ready now! I set out the table, deployed a quick mining settlement (combination of GZG shanties and BWS Startown Slums), scattered the finished terrain bits, and had a battlefield ready to play a quick game of FUBAR!

So... who wants to see the report from that battle?

Cheers,
Chris