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...
