AAR - StarDust: Ground - 'Bots in the Jungle

Ziggy and my brother in law Winston visited last evening. Winston and I used to play 40K a looooong time ago (1992-1995). He was my original gaming buddy where wargaming is concerned. He doesn't game these days but it wasn't difficult to twist his arm and have him push lead for a couple hours.

Having finished 95% of my SDG re-write, it was the game of the day. I put together a scenario and two OOBs and dressed the table. Zig and Winston chose their side and rolled for who would be the attacker and defender. Ziggy chose the Red Guard and was the attacker. Winston's Robots would defend.

The tabletop was split diagonally with 24 inch gap between forces. I placed three objectives (shown by the blue circles). Two objectives were in Robot territory while one was in no-bot's land (in the building). The attacker's mission is to take control of the objectives in short order. To control an objective, he must have a unit in good order within 3 inches of the objective, with no enemy also within 3 inches of it. At the start of each of his turns, he earns one point for each objective he controls. Ziggy had 10 turns to score 10 points.

The Red Guard's drop-inserted turret begins dueling with a trio of Hover Bots.

The Python briefly considers running the gap atop the large hill, then reconsiders throwing a smoke screen up.

The Red Guard is making progress. Zig started the game with very poor activation rolls. Winston's were very good to start, but weren't as useful being in a defensive position. He didn't have a lot of targets and was hesitant to put his Big Bots (the big silver walkers) in harm's way.

One of the Hover Bots is downed by a well-placed Lancer shot. Lancers are the Red Guard's heavy grav tanks. The Python rushes in on the Repair Hover Bot attempting to strike it down with his massive sword. Between the trees and the Bot's swift maneuvers, the big walker couldn't connect.

The Repair Hover Botr uns the gap, trying to get closer to the Big Bots but the turret's machinegun catches it and immobilizes it. The Lancers come around the back side of the hill and open up on the rest of the Hover Bots. Between the Python and tank squadron, this corner of the battlefield is in big trouble for the Robots! You can also see that Red Guard infantry have captured the objective building in the center.

The big walker and tanks have cleared the sector with little resistance.

The tanks head back to the central gap. The battlefield is really starting to shrink for the Robots.

In an amazing display of incompetence, the three Big Bots pounce on light grav tanks which have been skulking. Between railgun shots and close-combat attacks, one of the light tanks is immobilized!

The Red Guard commander finally gets in a position to make some hay. A nicely positioned barrage rains down on Superbots atop the large hill.

The Big Bots finally score a kill. Not a very important kill or a very impressive kill, but at least they weren't shut out.

Adding insult to injury, a second barrage goes off-target, but right on top of the still-hidden Warbots. When it rains, it pours.

At the start of turn 10, Ziggy and the Red Guard scored their tenth and eleventh points, securing the victory. The cost on oil and silicon was high for the robots, and now this section of the forest would have to be given up.... for now anyway.

Poor Winston - between a bit of indecision and extremely uncooperative dice, this battle really got away from him. I think a lot of it was simply being unfamiliar with stats, etc and not know what does what. When he finally did put the hammer down, the dice conspired to deny him.

Ziggy, although his dice weren't a whole lot better, kept pushing and gave himself more opportunities for something to happen. His turret deployment was rather good - I had him throw three poker chips at the table from about two meters away. He was allowed to place the turret on any one of them. All three landed within a foot of each other.

The game was well-received by Winston and the changes were very-well received by Ziggy who has played SDG as much as anyone. Morale is easier to decipher and speed of play is enhanced.

Comments

  1. Ski, will this be a completely new version or an update to the existing rules?

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    1. Morale, activations and order or play are complete changes. Combat and movement haven't changed much at all. I'll send you the updates when they're done. I spent several hours Saturday redoing the main rules. It's pretty close to being done.

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