Squad Wars report

We played another game of Squad Wars a couple of weeks ago with some tweaks from the first time we played tested the rules. Rather than two small games we upped the Force Strength to 100 and 10'000 requisition. I played the Cobra and Pulp Citizen the Joes. The table was on a 3x3 board this time but as you have to start the game 24 inches apart just reduces the deployment zone size.


The Squads and Operators where as follows

Snake Eyes and Timber
Chuckles
Grunt and a Greenshirt trooper
Beachhead, Zap and a Greenshirt trooper
Short fuse

Vs

Destro, 2 Troopers with Assault Rifles and an RPG Trooper
Baroness, 3 Cobra Troopers with assault rifles and a Cobra Trooper Medic
Stormshadow
Scrap Iron and a Cobra Trooper with Assault Rifle


The random mission we drew was The Clash which is basically a dust off to see who can incapacitate 50% of the enemy force first to trigger the end game.

Both sides get to pick 2 cards from a card deck (in the book its a D10 roll) 2 random secret objectives. Which you make a note of depending on what they are. I ended up with 'Take the enemy Position' (choose an area within 3 inches of an enemy model and capture it at the end of the game) I picked the far red container on the right next to Short Fuse (you can just about it see it in the top photo and 'Target Asset' who I nominated as Grunt who I had to incapacitate.

Pulp Citizen (I learned after) also got 'Take the enemy Position' but forgot to pick an area but that didn't matter in the end. The other objective was 'Vital Asset' who he chose as Snake Eyes (basically not for him to be incapacitated at the end of the game)

Pulp Citizen one the Tactics or Terrain role electing terrain to redeploy a unit after we had deployed. I then get the tactics which lets me choose deployment zone and decide who gets first turn. I elected the Joes to go first.

Cobra Deployment.

 Destro's squad on the right flank

Scrap Iron in the centre behind the containers so he can use his missile pod system safe from direct fire.

The Baroness and her squad ready to advance.

The Joes' Deployment.

 Grunt and his Greenshirt colleague infiltrate forward up the side of the hangar.

 Beachhead, Zap and a Greenshirt infiltrate forward between the containers.

Short fuse behind my Chosen Enemy Position the Red Container.

Each squad starts the game with a Moxie Point (used to activate models and perform actions) when a character activates a refresh phase happens giving a Moxie to all Squads, Operator and Solo's. You can also use Moxie to react to attack such as take cover or strike back in melee. The only time you don't refresh Moxie is when the End Game is triggered (only the active model gains a Moxie point) or if you hold the initiative (double activation).

Grunts squad, The Baroness and Scrap Iron due to Counter Intelligence Shenanigan's from both sides. (these are skills some characters have that effect deployment and various other bits and pieces)



The game started with Short Fuse landing a range finding Mortar round on the Baroness's squad it failed to cause any damage but the counter would grant a bonus to further shots from his mortar. The attack added some suppression to her squad (Reduces to hit rolls and if it exceeds there discipline forces morale tests)



Beachhead's squad held the initiative and advanced into the central corridor behind some pallets and also sprayed the Baroness's squad with Assault rifle and Sub machine gun rounds failing to cause any damage but increasing the suppression. (We use a some funky dials from Warlord games) Suppression is calculated from the number of shots, type of damage (explosive) and number of wounds caused. Suppressed models have a negative modifier to shooting and if the equal the leaders discipline are force to take morale checks which if they fail means they can only dig in or move a actions until the recover.




Play coming over to the Cobra Forces I needed to get Baroness out of range of the mortars zone of fire. Shrugging off the squads suppression (roll a die for each point of suppression rolling against the Squad leaders Discipline)  the advanced forward to the next row of containers bringing the Beachheads squad into effective range of their assault rifles and incapacitating the Greenshirt Trooper and wounding Zap and Beachhead.



Zap and Beachhead open up with his recoilless rifle and smg pummelling the Baroness's squad and putting a lot of wounds onto the squad. This forcing them all to take survival rolls (once a squad begins to take wounds a survival roll is made if it exceeds a characters wound value. 1 for grunts and 3 for the Baroness in this case . So usually grunts will be incapacitated first fortunately I managed to make them all except one losing a single trooper but any incoming fire will accumulate once the wounds reach double the squads total wounds they are auto removed)

Stormshadow came out of Deep Cover (2 tokens per model are placed at the end of the deployment phase per Deep Cover model after the first activation they can then deploy) not far away from Beachheads Squad charging in and incapacitating Zap with his dual swords.

Snake Eyes also came out of Deep Cover  next to the Baroness with Timber  let rip with his 'All out Attack' (allowing him to shoot twice in one activation) pouring a hail of bullets from his Uzi in to the Baroness's squad causing them to go up to double there wound markers again luckily I managed to make all the survival rolls for this squad.

Short fuse held the initiative and launched off a mortar round catching the baroness's squad incapacitating them all (The wounds on the squad exceeded double their total wound value meaning they are auto removed).

Stormshadow advanced into Beachhead removing his final wounds but holding in there

Scrap Iron held the initiative and lets rip with his missile pod system firing at Grunt's squad causing a wound and incapacitating the Greenshirt.

Grunt moved forward and went into Overwatch in preparation of Destro advancing to try and attack Snake Eyes.

Scrap Iron opened fire on Grunt with his missile pod system this time incapacitating him (achieving one of my secondary objectives)

Snake eyes charges forward and attacks Scrap Iron to neutralise his Missile Pod system. Causing a few wounds but Scrap Iron and the trooper held in there inflicting a wound back.

Stormshadow continues to fight with Beachhead but again he holds on in there.

Short Fuse launches off a mortar round landing on Destro's squad wiping out all the troopers apart from the main man himself. reducing my force to below 50% and triggering the end game (Each activation.

Stormshadow finally incapacitates Beachhead

Snake Eyes and Timber melee with Scrap Iron and the Trooper resulting in the Cobra Missile Specialist and the trooper being Incapacitated.

Chuckles holds the initiative and deploys from Deep Cover near Destro lobbing a Concussion grenade at Destro but failing to cause any damage.

Trying to limit damage and prevent Snake Eyes from shooting him up Destro's advances out of LoS snapping a shot off at Chuckles with his Master Crafted Heavy Pistol inflicting a wound on the Joe Agent.

Chuckles lobs his second Concussion grenade but again failing to wound Destro.

Stormshadow charges off after Short Fuse to neutralise the mortar threat and also try and capture my nominated enemy postion.

Chuckles fire his Heavy Pistol at Destro inflicting a wound.

Destro returns fire with his own gun this time failing to wound.

Storm Shadow wounds Short Fuse.

Chuckles again plinks another shot at Destro causing another wound but he makes his survival roll (thanks to his body armour)

Stormshadow incapacitates Short Fuse and captures the enemy postion.

Chuckles fires at Destro missing

Destro's guns down Chuckles who fails his Survival roll.

Snake Eyes double times it using up the last of the Joe's Moxie ending the game.

It ended in a hard fought draw with only a badly wounded Destro and Storm Shadow surviving from my forces and Snake Eyes and Timber on the Joes side. Totalling up the remaining Force Strength gave the Primary objective to Pulp Citizen but with me achieving both my secondary objectives managed to claw back enough mission points to get a Draw.

We tweaked some bits mid play which will go into the errata and we have some new things to try out next time. We managed to get the game done and dusted in 1 hour 40 minutes and that includes perhaps 20 minutes of stoppage time.