Combat Cards

I recently picked up Combat Cards after reading Spacejacker's solo report. This weekend I took the time to build a deck of Combat Cards and play their "Bug Hole" solo scenario (available from the site.) I printed them in 180gsm cardstock, glued to another sheet of dark colored cardstock using spray mount and put the cards in plastic sleeves.

For the scenario I used some pieces from the Hulk Skulkin' Patrol: Lost board game by Oversoul Games that I built last year. The picture is awful as it was taken at night with my cellphone. My forces consisted of three infantry units, one command and one long range support. The enemies are all swarms.

This is the battlefield at the start of the game. I used adhesive tape to mark the different height levels from the bug hole. I chose to split my forces in two teams, which proved to be a very bad idea.

The problem is that the team with the command and two grunts was a couple centimeters closer to the bug hole. Using the scenario rules, all bugs went towards them. To make things worse, I think that I didn't shuffle the cards well and didn't draw almost any movement actions. So my fire support and another soldier stood idle for most of the game. The three soldiers actually managed to kill two swarms...

... but eventually, the steady flow of aliens proved too much. One of the soldiers was eliminated in close combat...

... while the commander attempted to escape. By this point I had passed the 30 minutes time limit (as I was using 12-point forces) and while technically it was a draw with two unit points eliminated for each side, it was clear to me that the bugs had won.

Note: afterwards I played a second time, placing all my forces together. It went a little better and when the time limit arrived I was "winning" with 5 eliminated unit points vs. 4 points for the bugs. However, continuing to play resulted in my forces being wiped out while five aliens still remained.

Conclusion
I really liked my first game of Combat Cards. It moves fast and the card system bring some welcome unpredictability to the battle. The flexible scale is also a bonus: a 2'x2' board was more than enough for this 12-point match and it felt like I could squeeze twice the forces in that space.

I want to try and play against a human opponent, but for now I'm thinking about how to extend the solo scenarios to include card drawing (from a single deck) for the automated opponent.

Patrol Mission with CRFV

Here's the battle report for my first patrol mission of the War in the Planet of the Amazons campaign. I'm playing with 15mm miniatures in a 2'x2' board, with all distances and ranges halved. All the terrain features count as impassible terrain and block line of sight. All my forces (a rep 5 star and four rep 4 soldiers, as presented here) started on sector 7. The individual miniatures on sectors 2 and 5 represent the possible enemy forces (PEFs.) The enemy activity level is 3.

On the first turn, I rolled a 5 and the opposing forces got a 4, so I went first. I decided to stay on sector 7 to complete the patrol of that sector. I then started moving the PEFs. The first one to move advanced towards my group and resolved as two groups of five soldiers. I placed them in the map, rolled for their reps and started an In Sight test. Delfina (the unit in the lower left in the picture) had her line of sight blocked by friend units and the same happened to one of the enemy soldiers. The second group that was spawned from the PEF was hidden behind cover and didn't take part on the In Sight test, either.

My star rolled zero successes, freezing in place. Bibiana and Ercilia, two of my soldiers, rolled 1 success and everybody else rolled two succeses, so I had to resolve five "simultaneous" actions. The way I played was to roll for all actions and effects but apply all damage only after all units with 2 successes had acted. After the In Sight and reaction tests were resolved, Bibiana was out of the fight, Constanza was obviously dead and Ercilia was stunned. One of the enemy soldiers was out of the fight and one had charged and captured Bibiana.

I continued to roll for PEF movement. The other PEF on sector 5 entered line of sight but resolved as nothing but nerves. The last PEF rolled a result of "split into two PEFs" and stood in cover.

On the following turn, I rolled a 1 and the enemy rolled a 5, so the enemy forces would act first. I started with the single soldier that had charged into melee. Using the NP movement table, I resolved her action as moving to cover and attacking my star. She managed to cause an out of the fight result that was reduced back to "carry on" with a good roll of star power. The star then returned fire and took the enemy out of action. The second enemy group (in the middle of the map) activated and fired at Aleta (the star) and Ercilia, taking her out of the fight. Aleta returned fire and scored an obviously dead result.

The enemy group that was in cover split into two. Part of them would move and fire while the other would try to move around my group. This triggered a new In Sight test, during which my star was taken out of the fight (yes, even after rolling star power) and Delfina, my only remaining soldier, ducked back when it was her time to act.

At this point I decided the game was lost. Constanza was killed and Bibiana was captured as a prisoner of war. Next mission will be defending from a raid, with the enemy activity level increased to 4...

My first Lost Reich model

Today I've built my first model from the Lost Reich game by Fat Dragon Games. It took me a little over two hours as the model seems simple but there are quite a few spots where it's possible to mess up its assembly.

Little Girls at War

As a reference to the original "Guns and Girls," the theme for my mini campaign usign Chain Reaction Final Version (CRFV) will be "War in the Planet of the Amazons." Somewhere in the universe, a civilization of independent, combative women is torn apart by civil war. As a result, two separate empires rise and years later, they start fighting again for territory and resources.

For miniatures, I'm using Jenny McKenzie's awesome 15mm little girls. She's been making these paper miniatures since 2009 and they are surprisingly detailed and varied. More specifically, I have built some of the Chalactan Frontier Force and Mexeluine National Guard, which are respectively clad in blue and red.

In the campaign, I'm in control of a small group of  Mexeluine soldiers guarding the borders of their empire. This is the beginning of the war and both sides are probing for information, so there are lots of small actions involving infiltration and reconnaissance, not a full-scale invasion. Using the recruiting rules from CRFV, I'm starting with a rep 5 star and four other soldiers. Here they are, from left to right: Aleta (rep 5 star, with assault rifle and machete), Bibiana (rep 4, with SMG), Constanza (rep 4, with grenade and assault rifle), Delfina (rep 4, with shotgun) and Ercilia (rep 4 with assault rifle and bayonet.)

Well, that's it for now. Coming next: the first patrol mission...

A Decade of Chain Reaction

As JF already pointed out, Ed Teixeira has released the "final version" of Chain Reaction 3.0, a free game based on the reaction system used in other Two Hour Wargame products. By the way, it has been reorganized like the more recent books (such as 5150 Star Army) making it easier to learn and to find information in it.

When the announcement was made on the discussion group, I learned that the first version of the game, released in 2002 as "Guns and Girls," was also available for the subscribers of the group. Reading through "Guns and Girls" it was possible to see how the system has evolved in the ten years since its first release. Many of the core ideas were already there, but a lot of streamlining (in a good way) has taken place to make the game more fluid and coherent. At the end of the book there are rules for a "wasteland campaign game," which made me even more eager to see the release of After the Horsemen.

Being in the miniature wargaming hobby for about one year, and playing mostly solo, I have found the Two Hour Wargames titles to be steady companions. For some people, it may take too much control away from the player's hand but for me the result tends to be amusing and unpredictable conflicts. I intend to play and post some games using Chain Reaction (maybe a small campaign) to celebrate its 10 year anniversary.