Operation Jupiter 29 – Alone on the Hill. 20mm WW2 battle report.

Introduction

This is game 29 in replaying the scenarios from the Briton Publishers Operation Jupiter skirmish scenario book.   Links to previous games are on this blog page.

Rules used

I am using my WW2 rules that I had for a 3x4 grid that I then made a gridless version for 2’x2’ games.  These games are larger forces on a bigger table (half a table tennis table or 4x5’x5’) so I have modified them a little so now added a few things from my older rules - unit card activation and now each figures is not suppressed but a section can be if fired on by enough dice.  They are very similar to rule I used 10 years ago.

Scenario

The Germans must advance and take over 50% of the British foxholes that are the orchard defence.

Troops

British

British

1xCompany HQ (4 figures)

1xPlatoon (10 figures)

1xVickers MMG

1xPIAT team

2x6pdr AT guns

2 25pdr missions (good availability)

Germans

Germans

1xKompanie HQ (5 figures)

3xZug (8 figures each)

2xPanzerIVG

1x80cm mortar battery (average availability)

Deployment

Deployment

The British setup in a broad line across the centre hedgeline in the orchard.  One section is a little forward and the MMG, 6pdr and CHQ is in the centre.

Game

Germans on the table

Germans all move on.  Aim is to reach the hedgeline and then work out best tactic from there.  The two tanks to hang back.  The Germans continue to advance although failing to spot units.  Finally the centre Zug spots the forward British section.  They open fire but fail to inflict a single hit.  The British are holding their fire, and the radio operator just cannot get through!

Germans at the hedgeline

The next turn sees carnage.  The Germans manage to get one up on the British – the Zugs cross the hedgeline, successfully spot the British in the foxholes and KO 3 figures and suppress a section.  The Kompanie CO calls in the mortars and suppresses the Vickers MG.  The British radio still has no success (in the actual battle, the radio operator was very successful and called down accurate fire).

The Germans advance and fire

The British do manage to inflict hits on the 2^nd Zug and is has received 50% casualties, check morale and routs.

2^nd Zug routing

The German 1^st Zug charge the forward British section (now only 1/3 of its starting strength).  The British lose, but do take one of the Germans with them.

1st Zug charging the lone defender

The 1^st Zug then charges the Vickers MMG.  Surprisingly, the British inflict a hit and the Germans do not.  However, the Vickers is suppressed so retreats and abandons the gun.

1st Zug Vs the Vickers MG crew

The 3^rd Zug charges the 6pdr and the crew put up a valiant fight but rout, taking one German with them.

3^rd Zug Vs the 6pdr crew

The Germans have taken 4 of the foxholes in the time (it is turn 6!) and are victorious.

End

Verdict

The British failed to call in the artillery throughout the game (required a 4+ to call and hit and had 6 chances to do so).  The game would have been a lot closer if they had got in a couple of artillery requests.  The Germans would have had some suppressions (that would have made them stop for aturn or two) and maybe even a Zug rout.  Either way, they would have had less troops to fight and may not have made it in the 6 turn limit.  Although in that case the Germans would have thrown in the tanks that were barely used in this game.  It is only one play but it felt balanced, just unlucky for the British.

This is the last of the four games that I played over a weekend in late September.  I believe I have only three more Operation Jupiter games to play out of the 30 in the scenario book.  Maybe over Christmas. 

Operation Jupiter 28 – Edge of the Plateau. 20mm WW2 battle report.

Introduction

This is game 28 in replaying the scenarios from the Briton Publishers Operation Jupiter skirmish scenario book.   Links to previous games are on this blog page.

Rules used

I am using my WW2 rules that I had for a 3x4 grid that I then made a gridless version for 2’x2’ games.  These games are larger forces on a bigger table (half a table tennis table or 4x5’x5’) so I have modified them a little so now added a few things from my older rules - unit card activation and now each figures is not suppressed but a section can be if fired on by enough dice.  They are very similar to rule I used 10 years ago.

Scenario

This is a tank Vs tank game.  Each side must knockout every opposing tank to win, or force the other side to leave. There is no turn limit.

Troops

British

Brits

1xFirefly (veteran crew)

4xShermans

Germans

Germans

1xStugIIIG

2xPanzerIV

1xPanther

1xMarderIII

Note the MarderIII is substituting for a sdkfz251/22 as I don’t have a model for the latter.

Deployment

Battlefield

I am activating using one card per vehicle.

My money is on the Germans as they have the better guns.  I did think this would not be too exciting  - my rules for tanks are fairly simple: 1d6 to hit with a few modifiers and 1d6 to penetrate (using attacker gun and defender armour modifiers).  Miss or damage (2xdamage=KO) or KO.  But it was quite a tense game after all, mainly as there was terrain to navigate around.

Game

The first few turns were spent getting the vehicles on the board. The Firefly hanging back as it has an excellent gun for long range fire.

The lead PzIV gets to the hedge corner, spots the Firefly and fires.  And misses.  Firefly fires back and also misses.

Overview

More moving.  The Shermans and Stug in the orchard fail to spot each other (visibility limited to 18” if not firing and need a 5+ at that range).

A suppressed PanzerIV manages to damage the Firefly.  Not good news for the British.

Damaged Firefly

Even though damaged, the Firefly gets a shot off at the Panzer IV and destroys it.  The first KO in the game.

PanzerIV destroyed

More movement and some firing at the Firefly.  A Sherman damages the Marder.

Tanks in the orchard

The Firefly damages the Panther.  The Panther returns fire but for no effect.  The nearby PanzerIV also fires for no effect.

Damaged Panther

The Marder is then destroyed.

Marder KO

Finally, the Stug damages a Sherman.

The Stug damages a Sherman

The Firefly fires at the Panther again and the Panther is destroyed.  The Germans are 3 vehicles down and decide to retire.

 

Verdict

As I said at the beginning, I did think it would be a dull game.  Turns out it wasn’t and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to do.

Operation Jupiter 23 - Into the Jaws of Death. 20mm WW2 battle report.

Introduction

This is game 23 in replaying the scenarios from the Briton Publishers Operation Jupiter skirmish scenario book.   Links to previous games are on this blog page.

Rules used

I am using a variant of my 4x3 grid rules without grids and sections are 3 person units rather than 1 base. I have changed them a little and now if within 3” count as fighting in melee but all have cover modifiers. Also activation is now (mainly) 2 section/vehicle per side per player turn.

Scenario

The British player has eight turns to capture the two objective buildings.

Troops

British

1 Company HQ

    3 figures

2 Reduced platoons

    1 platoon HQ (1 figure)

    1 2" mortar

    2 Sections (3 figures each)

1 Churchill VII

1 Achilles M10

British are Green (this is to simulate the demoralisation of the troops)

Germans

1 Zug

    1 Zug HQ (1 figure)

    2 Gruppe (3 figures each)

1 MG42 team

1 PzKpfwIV

Germans are all regular.

Deployment

Deployment

The Germans cannot really defend both objective buildings as it would split the force too much (there is a road to cross between them that would be deadly). And the British have quite a few paths they can take and cannot cover them all.  Although they could support one another, the building on the cross roads is a bit isolated.  Have gone with defending the rear objective building with a Gruppe at the T-intersection to cover both roads.  The MMG is set up with a good field of fire and the PanzerIV is at the rear to provide support for attacks on infantry.

The British have a number of paths – downs the road, down the sides and though the woods.  The key is that both objective buildings have to be taken so need to focus on the rear one and hopefully the forward one can be taken after.  So will come up the road with the tanks and two forces of infantry (a platoon each) will leap frog the buildings on either side.   The force for the rear objective building can also use the woods.  The force on the other side can provide support.   The British will need to be aggressive to get both building in 8 turns.

Game

The British move on 4 infantry sections on either side of the road.  The question for the Germans is do they fire now or wait until they get closer or wait to see where the other unit’s come on?  Rolled for it and they do not fire.

British first units enter.

The British continue to enter more forces and advance.  The Churchill enters on the road and spots the PanzerIV.  Needs a 6 to hit.  Rolls a 6.  A 5-6 will cause damage.  Rolls a 6.  PanzerIV suppressed and damaged.

The state of play. All but the British Achilles in on the table.

The German’s fail to unsuppress the PanzerIV.  The MG42 fires on the infantry in the building at the t-intersection and suppress 2 figures.  The British get a section as reinforcements (event) but this also limits their activations to 2.  The British section in the woods moves to the edge and spot the German Gruppe in the building and suppresses one.  The Germans fire back and suppress two.  Another British section then moves into the adjacent building, fires and the rest of the Gruppe is suppressed.  The Germans fall back as they are all suppressed and in close range of unsuppressed British units.

Infantry first contact!

The Germans unsuppress two of the three figures in the retreating Gruppe.  The MG42 fires on the section on the woods and suppresses another figure.

The British continue to push forwards rather than unsuppress units.  All the British are Green so will be harder to unsuppress as well.    The British move into the building recently vacated by the Germans and fire on the MG42 team.  Two suppressions and the MG retreats into the objective building.  The Germans behind the wall are within 3 so fire and KO one figure, suppress another.  Move movement for rear sections and try to rally the section in the woods but only one figure is good again, leaving two still suppressed.

The British push forward

The German behind the wall fire on the British in the building, cause another suppression and the British are forced to retreat.

The British are forced to retreat from one of the main buildings.

The MG42 team unsuppress.  The British are halfway through the time limit and forces everywhere are suppressed!  One section moves into the objective ruins.  So half the objectives taken.  Time to bring on the Achilles and so the tanks can support the infantry.  First need to remove the PanzerIV threat but the Achilles fails to hit.  The British attempt to unsuppress and do manage to unsuppress two but rout another.  Still lots of suppression for the British.

The British are consolidating.  The Achilles is on at last.

The Germans focus on rallying and all on their side are unsuppressed now.  The British Achilles fires at the PanzerIV and misses.  The Churchill fires and manages to damage it again.  The PanzerIV is destroyed.  This will free up the tanks to provide infantry support for the last two turns.   The British company HQ move into a building and fire on the Germans behind the wall.  One suppression.  Return fire sees one British figure suppressed.  The British section in the other objective building move to the wall, fire on the Gruppe in the building and suppress them all (excellent dice rolling)!    They have to retreat as they are within 3 of unsuppressed British.  There is nowhere to retreat but into the woods.  So close to retreating off the table.  Wow.  The British were very lucky to cause that. The MG42 in the building can return fire as within 3”. They suppress 3 figures.  However, as the section contains a leader, there are 4 figures in the group and so they do not need to retreat.

The tide turns towards the British.

The German MG fires on the section behind the wall and forces them to retreat.  The Germans behind the wall fire at the building and cause another suppression.  The suppressed unit tries to rally but is unsuccessful.

The German manage to keep the British at bay.

The British are desperate, two more turns to go.    The Building section fires on the Germans behind the wall and suppress none, the British in the woods fire at them as well and suppress one.  The Germans retaliate against the building and cause another suppression and the British are forced to retreat.  The British move up the Churchill and manage to suppress the MG42 in the building.  All units in the second objective are rallied (great rolls!) – ready to charge next turn.

The British attempt to cause some damage but are still not in a great position.

The Germans get three activations.  Move a figure back into the objective building to defend it, try and unsuppress the MG and fail.  Unsuppress the unit in the woods – all unsuppressed.  May be useful for a counterattack.

Last turn for the British.  Two figures from the woods move up to the wall and attack the German figure there.  KO!  The Churchill fires at the objective building and supresses the figure there.  The MG42 and the figure need to retreat as they are within range of the unsuppressed British at the wall.  They retreat into the woods.  I will allow the section in the second objective to charge into the main objective building.

The British take the second objective

Ok, the final turn for the Germans.  The four figure unit in the woods charge into the objective building to try and retake it.  The British also have four figures, the Germans get to fire first but the British have the advantage of not moving.  The Germans roll terribly and score one suppression.  The British respond and score three suppressions.  Not enough to cause the Germans to retreat.

The Germans counter-attack

The main objective building is in dispute with both sides occupying it.  The British lose at they do not solely occupy both building.  So close!

End

Verdict

That was such a nail-biter of a game. Amazing how much fun you can have on a small table.  The British got whittled away and just did not have time to rally enough units.  The Germans however could not get enough hits to stop the British entirely.  The amount of British attackers show though as they managed to keep coming back.  And at the end they were so close to winning. 

Operation Jupiter 22 - Jabos. 20mm WW2 battle report.

Introduction

This is game 22 in replaying the scenarios from the Briton Publishers Operation Jupiter skirmish scenario book.   Links to previous games are on this blog page.

Rules used

I am using a variant of my 4x3 grid rules without grids and sections are 3 person units rather than 1 base. I have changed them a little and now if within 3” count as fighting in melee but all have cover modifiers. Also activation is now (mainly) 2 section/vehicle per side per player turn.

Scenario

The Germans have 6 turns to capture the objective building.

Troops

British

1 Platoon

    1 platoon HQ (1 figure)

    1 PIAT team

    1 Section (3 figures)

1 6pdr ATG

2 fire missions 25pdr

1 Hawker Typhoon with 4x20mm cannon and 8 rockets (arrives turn 4)

British are all regular.

Germans

1 Zug

    1 Zug HQ (1 figure)

    2 Gruppe (3 figures each)

2 251/1 halftracks (transport)

2 Pzkfw IV

Germans are all regular

Deployment

Deployment

British just need to hang on, using the 25pdrs early and then hoping the Typhoon disrupts the attack.  The Germans will move the infantry on first into the buildings to each side of the intersection and then the tanks.  The Germans know the British are setup on the other side of the intersection so will only be able to move the halftracks to unload in building before the intersection.

Game

Germans move the infantry (via halftracks) into building on either side of the road

German infantry on the board

The British call the 25pdr into one of the buildings (the one the British Lieutenant can see) and suppresses two figures. The Germans move the Panzers on.  The Germans cannot spot anything yet.

Panzer IVs enter to support the infantry.

The 6pdr shoots at one of the Panzer IVs.  They hit.  The Panzer Iv is suppressed (-1 to hit, can’t move for a turn) and damaged.  The PIAT is too far from the tanks to hit.  The 25pdr is successfully called again and forces one suppress figure to retreat out of the building.

6pdr damages one of the PanzerIVs.

The Germans are pressed to time.  They move the Gruppe with the commander to the building next to the objective.  And spot the British hiding there!  They shoot and cause two suppressions.  The British get to return fire.  And what a great return fire – 1 figure routed and the other 3 are all suppressed.   The three suppressed have to retreat as they are within 3 of unsuppressed infantry.  On the other side of the road, the suppressed Germans are unsuppressed.

Action near the objective building.  Did not go well for the Germans.

The British get an event – a sniper.  It suppressed the Germans in the building that were just unsuppressed.  Due to the event, the British only get one activation which they use to destroy the PanzerIV.

Destroyed PanzerIV.

The Germans try and rally the Gruppe in the ruined building but do not succeed.  The PanzerIV attempts to direct HE the objective building but does not succeed either.

It is turn 4.  The British Typhoon appears.  I have no aeroplane models so will just have to imagine it.  It has 8 rockets and 4 20mm cannon. But it has to see something to hit it.  The aircraft attack the ruins. 

The 20mm cannot largely does nothing but the rockets cause the Gruppe to retreat from the building.  A few rockets go astray and to hit the PanverIV and it is destroyed!  I used the aircraft rules from my earlier homegrown rules as I don’t really have any yet suitable for the modified ww4x3 rules.

The rocket wreaks havoc among the Germans.

The German unsuppress 2 figures with the commander and all the figures in the other building.

The British are mostly unsuppressed. 

It is turn 6 and the Germans have no chance on getting to the objective building in time.  The British have won!

End game.

Verdict

It was all going to depend on how good the Typhoon was.  As per the actual battle, it was quite good.  The Germans could not recover in time to get to the objective.  It was interesting to play.  I did forget about the PIAT team – they should have been spotted by the Germans and likely would have been suppressed and retreated.

Holiday games – battle reports for WW2 and Ancients and some SF RPG

Introduction

It seems my gaming mojo is increasing.  We were going to the beach at Cooloongatta for a family 5 day holiday; so I thought why not take the three portable games I have recently been interesting in playing?

I managed to get in some Ancient games, a WW2 game and some SF RPG action.  There is a detailed report for each.  Some of the photos are a little poor as I was using my phone and I have not a lot of practice of using my phone in documenting battle in progress. 

Portability

Into a document box (40cmx30cmx7cm) I packed a grassy A4 page for the WW2 game, an 8x8 small gridded timber square (I will use the plain reverse side for the SF stuff), three boxes containing the 6mm WW2, 6mm ancients and some 20mm railway figures that I use for my SF RPG games.  I also packed some ww2 terrain and a one page QRS for each game.

Unopened - picked this up second hand for a few dollars and put in the centre veneer feature to cover up a crack

Opening the box.  WW2 terrain in the plastic packet on the left (under it is 6mm ww2 forces), top is 6mm ancients box, lower is 20mm railway figures.  At the far let next to the box are the A4 QRSs.

Blurry but this is with two figure boxes removed - on the left  is the 6mm ww2 box that was under the terrain packet, some large (Society of Ancients) dice (each figure box also has smaller dice in them as well).   The a4 grassy page and the 8x8 gridded timber square also shown.

Ancients

I have modified Phil Sabin’s Phalanx to work on an 8x8 square grid and with about 6-8 units a side (rather than the standard 10). The number of commands is reduced by 1.  I start play with the units deployed for battle – I am more interested in how the battle played out than the deployment from camp as per Phalanx.  On holidays, I decided to play Marathon as it was easy to setup.  I managed to play it 6 times on one day as each game was only about 5-10 minutes.  This was because the Athenian breakpoint was after the loss of 2 units and this happened a lot. After playing the game I considered should I add a unit to the Athenian side?  It was only when I finished for the day I remembered the Defence Bonus for phalanxes if being attacked from only non-phalanx units.   I played two games the next day with the correct Defence Bonus and both were nail–biters.

And then I played the Battle of Hydaspes just to do something different.  I do a full battle report for it below.

Battle of Marathon

Athenians

2 Hoplites

3 Hoplites – poor

Persians

1 Heavy Infantry (Archers)

2 Heavy Infantry –poor (Archers)

4 Medium infantry (Archers)

Notes:

Poor units subtract one from the Fortunes of War die.

Heavy Infantry attacking Medium Infantry get an Attack Bonus.

Archers being attacked from the flank give the attackers an Attack bonus.

Selection of Marathon game photos

A selection of photos over the 6 or so games.

Marathon setup

Persians (top) attccking a hoplite (with the green marker)

Hoplites attacking some Sparabara (with green marker)

Hoplites successfully routed the Immortals (where green marker is)

General (unit with cavalry) and others have routed a hoplite (where green marker is)

Bonus Battle – Battle of Hydaspes

I thought I would give the Battle of Hydaspes a go as well.  I know the units fairly well as it is a favourite battle of mine.

Macedonian

3 Phalangites

1 Heavy Cavalry – good with general

1 Heavy Cavalry

1 Light infantry

1 Light Cavalry

3 Command points

Indian

2 Elephants, one with general

1 Chariot

3 Medium Infantry (Archers)

1 Medium Cavalry

Note:

Medium Cavalry being attacked by heavier cavalry give the Attackers an Attack bonus

2 Command points

Game

The forces deployed.

Deployment.  Porus at the bottom, Alexander at the top.

The Indian Cavalry charges into the Greek Heavy Cavalry.

Right flank cavalry charge

With the assistance of some Indian infantry, the Indian cavalry routs the Heavy cavalry

Macedonian cavalry routed

The two elephants, with Porus, charge into a phalangite unit and it is routed

Macedonians lose a pike unit in the centre.

On the Macedonian left flank, an Indian heavy infantry is routed by Pikes and Peltasts, but the Indian Cavalry is positioned on the flank.

Indian cavalry flanks a light infantry

And it is gone.

In the centre, two Pike units are ready to inflict some damage.

Pikes lined up against the Elephants and Archers

And the archers are routed.

On the Macedonian right flank, finally Alexander and his Companions charge into the enemy Chariots.

Companions facing the Indian chariots

The Indians have lost 3 units and are broken. Macedonians win!

And the Chariots are routed!  Position at end game.

Thoughts on Phalanx

I am not sure how long I will keep using Phalanx but it is fun to play.  I really like how it works and shows the challenges faced by each commander in the historical battles. But it is so fast!  I may tire of it soon; it provides interesting and challenging games but can see I may want something that has a bit more chaos and so more solo friendly.  I am already working on a version with more dice rolling J

WW2

I orginally did setup this scenario to play with other rules and not on a grid.  Bt never played it. I chose this to play on my A4 4x3 grid as it seemed it would easily translate to the small grid.  I looked over my ww2 4x3 grid rules from a year ago and could see no changes required.

The scenario is A Bridge too Late from the web magazine Frontline Observer.  The scenario is still available at the Wayback Machine.

Scenario

A small British force have managed to take a bridge across a canal into a town that the Germans are defending.  British reinforcements are coming from another side of the town.  The Germans win if they can take the bridge back and prevent the British from taking it back for as long as possible. (British minor victory if hold the bridge and 50% casualties inflicted by turn 8, major victory if hold the bridge until turn 11). 

I modified the forces slightly to match what I had brought with me.

German

5 sections with 1 platoon leader

2 Panzer IVG

Breakpoint: 4 lost.

British

The British force

1 section (bridge defenders)

Reinforcements (may enter turn 2 onwards):

    4 sections with 1 platoon leader

    2 Sherman M4

Breakpoint: 4 lost.

Terrain grid (4x3)

Buildings     Buildings     Buildings    <river+bridge> Light cover

Buildings     Light cover Building      <river>              Light cover

Light cover  None          Light cover <river>               Light cover

Game

Deployment sees the Germans focus on the rear buildings to protect the bridge.  An advance Gruppe is in the centre to stall a British advance that is likely to focus on coming up the right side of the village.  A single British section holds the bridge on the other side of the river.

Deployment.  British will enter from the bottom of the image.  One section is the bridge defenders (top right)

The 4x3 grid.  I have highlighted the one square that sees all the action (bit of a spoiler).

The Germans spot the Brirish bridge defenders and fire with everything they have.  The defenders are routed! (rolled all 5’s and 6s’!)

The Germans fire at the bridge defenders

The British reinforcements enter.

Two British sections supported by a Sherman enter on the right flank.

The Germans react and move an extra Gruppe in to support the Gruppe in the centre.  They also move one Gruppe to the other side of the bridge as that will help with victory.

Germans reinforce the centre building

The British assault the building.  The Germans fire at them as they advance but miss entirely! In the ensueing close range battle all the infantry on both sides are supressed.   The Germans are forced to retreat as the British have an unsuppressed Sherman in the same area..

The British assault!

The Germans retreat

In the centre the British bring on most of the remaining force - 2 sections, a Sherman and  the commander.

Most of the remaining British force enter in the centre.

The Germans throw everything they can into the centre building occupied by the British – 2 Gruppe, the commander and a tank.

The Germans assault the British occupied building.

Poor German dice rolling and excellent British dice rolling see the Panzer IV and a Gruppe destroyed and the other Gruppe suppressed.   The Gruppe is forced to retreat.  The British force it still intact (although suppressed).  This is not good for the Germans if they cannot dislodge the British.

Panzer IV destroyed.

 

Germans retreat

The British attempt to unsuppress the sections but one routs and the other remains suppressed.  The Germans take this opportunity to then assault with what they have left and able to move - one Gruppe and one Panzer IV.  The Gruppe is suppressed while assaulting.  In the ensuing firefight the Sherman and Panzer IV are destroyed, leaving one Gruppe and one British section.

The Germans assault with what they have left and can move.

A Gruppe and a section is all that remain of the firefight.

The other British force splits  - one advancing in the centre and the other Sherman, a section and leader into the contested building.

The British advance into the centre an contested building

The British lose a section in the melee.  They are at their breakpoint (the Germans are one away from theirs) and decide to cut their losses and retreat.  The Germans hold the bridge and so score a victory!

 Thoughts

Really enjoyed this game.  At the end of my last blog post of a 3x4 game a year ago I wrote I was thinking of expanding the game to 6x4 so I could play scenarios, as most scenarios are designed for 6’x4’ tables.  I think I will be fine with 3x4 – the above scenario was designed for a 6’x4’ table.  I will look over for scenarios that may convert easily to 3x4.  I am surprised the ww2 3x4 rules have held up – I made no changes to the rules to play them this time.  Normally there is some situation that comes up I have not thought about and need to tweak them slightly.  I guess the simplicity of them helps so that they don’t need much changing anymore.

I am still going to keep playing the Operation Jupiter campaign in 20mm, just need to decide on rules J

 

SF RPG

I have been playing around with solo SF RPGing for quite a few years and chop and change my own rules all the time.  This time around, I am reusing some rules I wrote late last year and played though about 20 adventures with them.  I have removed most of the modifiers to the various tables so just about everything to set up scenes, encounters, NPCs etc is just a straight 1d6 roll.   I have also made it a lot more friendly to a single PC being in the game. The only exception ito straight rolls are task rolls – there are 6 tasks and have 1-2 modifiers.  I also made the tasks similar in results to make it more consistent.  And it all fits onto 2 (dense) pages.  If you are familiar with Two Hour Wargames Lovecraft’s Revenge it sort of follows that framework but with some Two Hour Wargames 5150 New Beginnings Quick Play type encounters.

Game

This is not so much as narrative as describing the game events.  There are only pictures for the first few scenes.  As I was using a single 2 sided A4 sheet to play the game, I did not have room to put in my normal narrative tables to flesh out NPC names nor descriptions of objects, clue, locations, obstacles, hazards etc.

Opening scene

Yent is a hospitality worker from an industrial, worker background seeking atonement.  Yent skills are excellent physical, excellent technical and good social.  They are armed with a handgun and also have a tech kit.  Yent is starting in Leewin, a rough area of the planet.  They are looking for someone highly experienced to give them an aim in life (objective: find person, class: Achiever).

Yent

Yent encounters a hazard (table and chairs as I had them in the box) and loses some funds to fix things after he fell over them.

Yent with tables and chairs

Oops

Yent meets a cunning mechanic and try to obtain some information but the mechanic knows nothing (result= ignore).

Finally Yent meets a Commander who tells Yent about some lost treasure to seek.

Yent meeting the commander

Scene 1

The Commander asks to be escorted to the nearby desert location. On the way they meet some workers that provide some advice (in rules terms a hint that provides a +1 bonus to a subsequent die roll). 

Yent get some advice from a worker

They then are approached by a ganger. Yent’s extremely poor attempt at negotiation sees the ganger draw their handgun and shoot at Yent, but misses. Yent returns fire and the ganger drops to the ground.

Finally they reach the desert but two shady dealers jump them.  They shoot at Yent but Yent manages to make a run for it and escape.

Yent not going very well in negotiating with some criminals (the two figures to the right).

They have reached the destination, Yent hoping the Commander will help with a clue.  Yent fails miserably to extract a clue from the Commander.  What is worse the Commander takes extreme offense and tries to melee with Yent who runs away.  

There was a lot of really bad dice rolling for Yent when talking to others.

Scene 2

Yent needs to travel to the rural area to hopefully get a clue through investigative methods. After overcoming an obstacle, Yent questions an entertainer and gets some information. They successfully talk their way out of trouble with some criminals before meeting a Patron.  Tough talking get more relevant information.  Meeting another high achiever reveals nothing.  Yent finally gets the information to put everything together by talking to a senior bureaucrat on their own estate.

Scene 3

Staying in the rural area, Yent needs to find an object.  Yent manages to overcome a hazard on the way to the plantation that may hold a clue.  It does and Yent manages to find the object that provides  another clue to seek the lost treasure.

We will leave the adventures of Yent here (as that is as far as I have played!).

Post-game

After the encounters I played out above I realise I have set the roll required for a task success too high – on average a PC is going to succeed at a task about 50% of the time (after modifiers) i.e. a 4+ on a d6.  In my games, PCs are larger than life and should be doing better than that.  So I have since changed the rules and now success will average 2/3rds of the time, a 3+ on a 1d6. 

Holiday verdict

Well, it worked.  I packed a game for each era into a box and played at least one game from each.  So my mojo cannot be that low – I did not have to force myself to play.  My focus since the holiday has been on the 8x8 ancient rules.  But who knows how long that lasts before I am distracted by something else.  Actually, I have been distracted by the Shooting’ Iron rules I found recently. Simple 1d6 rules for Wild West skirmish but I am using some old Warhammer 40K figures I have to test them out.  Simpler than Fistful of Lead and alternate figure activation – will see how I go!