Tomorrow’s War report: Operation Scrub Down
Operation Scrub Down
Colony World: Elysium Prime
Area: Cronid South Timber Sector
Rural pacification efforts continue apace on Elysium Prime, with the Terran Heavy Infantry establishing forward fire bases to guard against a local insurrection funded and armed by the Neo-Soviet Empire.
In the Cronid South sector, rebels lurking in the heavily forested hills claimed an early victory after they knocked out a medium battle tank using a roadside bomb. Within the hour, word of this loss reached the Terran commander in the area. Hard pressed by simultaneous counterattacks on his flanks, the commander was able to dispatch one infantry platoon to the area. Its orders were to reach the disabled tank and sanitize its computer core to prevent sensitive information falling into the rebels’ hands. Recovering the tank crew, if they were still alive, was a secondary objective.
As the first rays of sunlight filtered through the wooded ridgeline, the Terran troopers deployed into the combat zone...
This week we played our second game of Tomorrow's War. This time I set up a scenario to make use of the asymmetric warfare rules. A small, elite force of Terran Heavy Infantry were tasked with infiltrating a forest and "sanitizing" a disabled battle tank. The rebel insurgents, for their part, were trying to capture or kill as many Terrans as they could.
The game began with the battle tank in flames in the center of the table. It was immobile but the three-man crew had a chance to get the guns working during the game. The tank was an Ironstorm resin model from Pig Iron Productions, and it drew plenty of comments from players and spectators.
The rebels started with three squads on the table, but they received a random bunch of reinforcements at the beginning of each turn. This meant that scrappy fighters were constantly filtering onto the board to oppose the Terrans, who themselves had three fireteams for a grand total of just 12 dudes on the table. These are converted plastic Warzone troopers, with Pig Iron heads.
Despite all that, the Terrans had one piece of equipment that helped them win the game: body armor. The rebels had none, so they got shot to pieces whenever they tried to advance on the disabled tank. As the game unfolded, the casualties mounted on the rebels' side.
At one point the rebels rolled well for reinforcements and an AGR-815 agricultural walker showed up, ready to tear into the disabled tank with its cutting torch. Unfortunately the Terran squad nearby was able to shred the walker with concentrated chaingun fire. The rebels are Pig Iron Kolony Ferals figures, and the walker is from the Star Wars collectible miniatures game.
Plenty of rebels arrived over the course of the six-turn game, drawn by the desperate struggle around the disabled tank. The random nature of the reinforcements meant that sometimes just two or three guys toting assault rifles would show up at a particular hotspot. Since they were classified as irregulars, they had a hard time activating without having a leader nearby. Ultimately the hodgepodge rebel groups couldn't mobilize fast enough to stop the Terrans troops and their awesome body armor.
In fact, only a single Terran soldier died during the raid, though two more received serious wounds. On the rebels side, more than half of the fighters on the table by the end of the game had taken a wound of some sort. Check out this photo...the little red blood splatters near the figure bases indicate wounds.
I was surprised how many "walking wounded" casualties we had. The rebels took a ton of casualties but suffered no KIAs. I was so surprised that I took my question to the Ambush Alley Games forums. So many casualties, so few kills — had we been playing it wrong? Turns out that combat in Tomorrow's War is designed to produce far more casualties than KIAs, which models advances in first aid and lifesaving technology that are even now being observed in modern-day battlefields.
All in all, it was a solid victory for the Terrans — but the insurgency was far from quelled, as this photo makes clear. No fewer than 20 fighters lurked in the woods, ready to continue the rebellion to dislodge the fragile Terran toehold in the Cronid South sector.
And here's the battlefield at the end of the game, showing the Terrans retreating to their board edge having safely sanitized the tank and rescued its three crew members.
Craig Welter says:
Looks like a fun game. Where does your group game at?
patrickwr says:
Craig: We usually meet at Chicagoland Games in Chicago, IL, but this particular game took place at Games Plus in Mount Prospect, IL, about 30 minutes northwest of Chicago.
Feel free to join our Yahoo group if you think there's a chance you might want to join us at a game night:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chicagoskirmish/