Battle for Threnger: Drawing enemy fire

This is the second battle in a series of linked games using MOTH for the 6x6 Challenge. This time, I played on Tabletop Simulator using a virtual 6'x4' board with virtual paper figurines (I still have to find some 3D models that I can use.)

A view of the battlefield from one of the Canlaster squads.

While Platoon 31 tried to break through the enemy defenses, Platoon 24 was ordered to strike at an observation post, to draw enemy fire. Canlaster forces start on the left. Each squad consists of 10 muster troops (including two Emeritas). Meanwhile, each Yordan squad consists of 7 muster and 1 Emeritas. Squad 1 has Elan 7, squads 2 and A have Elan 6 and squad B has Elan 5. The hills and forest patches block line of sight. The Canlaster forces win if they cause 50% or more casualties to the enemy while losing less units. Alternatively, they win if they are on the hill with the observation post with no enemies.

Force setup. The observation post is the light brown structure (made of wooden blocks) near squad 2.

The Canlaster squads spread out, moving behind cover to reach the enemy. The Yordan troops just positioned themselves on the hills, waiting for an opportunity to fire. In the 10th turn, the first exchanges of fire happened.

Canlaster squad A opens fire on Yordan squad #1. The yellow and red units indicate grazed and struck status.

Canlaster squad A eventually managed to defeat Yordan squad #1, while squad B advanced through a forested area. By the end of round 15, Canlaster had sustained 40% losses (8 units), while Yordan had lost 62% of their troops (10 units), thus meeting a victory condition for Canlaster.

Firefight between Canlaster squad B and Yordan squad #2. The yordists killed one enemy but lost another 2.

While the Canlaster forces suffered many losses in the breakthrough, they managed to draw the attention of their enemies to the observation post. The third battle will see both sides with weakened forces.

A quick note about playing in Tabletop Simulator: the interface has gone through noticeable improvements (I love the new top-down view to check the position of everything on the table.) Now it is possible to find a number of wargaming terrain models in the workshop. The custom figurine is still quite limited, so I had to create my own figurine model in Blender. Measuring is still cumbersome. Luckily, MOTH has simplified squad movement because measuring the movement of every single figure would have been tiresome with the current interface. I think that playing miniature games with area movement or grid-based movement will be a much smoother experience.