23/11/1983 Sov 3rd army forces BAOR fighting retreat into Ruhr cities. Bad Spelling is isolated behind the front line.
Maj Lawrence needs the team to pick up the item that he was being interrogated about. It's in a supply depot, he doesn't know which building precisely, or it may still be loaded on a lorry. Not a stealth job, just get in and grab it. (I couldn't have made it up. The team rolled a follow-up mission at an intact building to Retrieve something).
The enemy has two sentries with Skorpion SMGs on duty (rather an odd choice by the dice), ready to call out a guard detail of an officer (pistol), a sniper (rifle), two guards with AK-74 and one with an AK-74 plus grenade launcher.
Motivation: 2 (chosen on the basis of campaign history) these are secondary units in an accidental meeting, not here for a fight
OHSW rules
For OHSW I re-wrote the sentry rules from 5MIN. Each turn that the sentries have seen the enemy, after checking army morale, the WP draws a resolution card and adds the value to a cumulative total. When the total is at least 15 the rest of the patrol arrives at a random board edge.
Searching the buildings for the objective is just like searching for the holy cross on p33 of OHSW, but succeeds on any face card draw (because it's not small or easy to conceal).
The team probably needs to steal a truck to transport it away.
I'd like to implement a proper solo system for this campaign, to make decisions for the opposition (which I only need because I'm using OHSW on table).
Each enemy figure has a "role" like sentry / patrol, shooter, brawler, officer etc. and a set of waypoint markers to follow.
Then a prioritised list of situations + actions drives how the enemy uses its activations, e.g. Shooter/Artillery with opponent within 6" should move away from the opponent. Conflict of Heroes has this approach, using a deck of cards that with a prioritised list of conditions & actions, drawing a fresh card so that the priorities are not the same every turn.
I could also use the troop classes in Hordes of the Things to suggest some behaviour types: Special Forces (Heroes), Tanks (Knights), APC (Riders), Brawlers (Blades), Shooters & Artillery. I'll use this game to generate some possible action-rules.
Anyone of a nervous disposition when it comes to unpainted models or scenery should probably skip the rest of this report. I'm working on some pieces in this area, but the aesthetics of the table top are liable to get worse before they get better. Mea maxima culpa.
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| The supply depot |
The supply depot is next to a main road (top of the photo). The guard house is next to the main gate, with various storage sheds to the right and a line of shipping containers to the left. A few vehicles are scattered around the central paved area. A back gate at the bottom right of the picture gives access to a footpath. The Brits arrive on the road in the top-right corner.
The WP draw a joker for initiative - end of turn 1.
The Brits get initiative again, but this time they draw a Joker for actions in the phase - end of another turn and nothing has happened yet.
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| still guarding the front gate |
The WP acts at last. One sentry sets off to patrol the perimeter anti-clockwise, while the other one would like to go overwatch, but that's not available in these rules, so he just waits. Given no other use for actions, the patrolling sentry moves 3 times.
The Brits advance along the perimeter fence, remaining hidden for as long as possible.
By the time the Brits jump out and start shooting up the gate guard, his companion is patrolling on the far side of the compound.
"Eddie" & Fraser step out across the road and open fire. Both miss.
The gate guard hits Eddie, while his mate starts running back across the compound. The Clock card is 10, so it will probably only need one more card for the rest of the WP force to be called in.
Fraser hits the gate guard. Mitch runs up to finish him off.
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| front gate clear |
Dangerous & the Major move up. The patrolling sentry runs across the yard and fires a 2-shot burst at Mitch. The first one misses, but the second gets him. The Clock advances to 12.
Fraser & Dangerous both miss & the patrol guy misses Dangerous. The Clock card is a Joker, so the turn ends with the clock stuck on 12. Both Eddie & Mitch are out of this fight and won't be getting up by themselves.
The patrol sentry moves in closer and shoots at Dangerous - another man down!
Fraser fires back but misses. Major Lawrence rushes in and tackles the guard, taking him out. The Brits can now spend the rest of the turn searching freely...
The Major checks two trucks (no luck) and has moved on to the 3rd when Fraser calls out a find in one of the shipping containers. Maj Lawrence gets in the truck & drives it to the container. Fraser loads the case onto the truck.
Lawrence drives out of the gate, waiting next to the downed Davies. Fraser gets out to cover him and drags Eddie on board. Fraser drags Mitch into the lorry (another 4 AP) & also Davies. With all the casualties on board, Lawrence drives away - their fate can be resolved when we get them back to Bad Spelling. Dangerous recovers in the back of the lorry.
Scenario design: during Turn 3 the clock was advancing at the end of each phase. That's excessive with a target of only 15. However, when I noticed and reverted to my proposed rule (advance the clock at the end of a Turn), the game was over before another turn ended. The other guards never arrived.
Also, it would make sense to have 2 men carry the device, but how should the Actions work in OHSW? Should Each man spend 1 action to pick up an end of the case, and then they jointly spend 1 Action to move (like a crewed weapon)?
The Brits had plenty of spare actions available for the Major to jump out of the truck and help Fraser to load the device on board, so it didn't affect the outcome.
General rule system: I allowed Fraser to carry the device and his downed mates with no noticeable movement penalty (although a 3" move would have made no difference), and did not require an Action to pick them up or put them down. Given the number of actions available to the Brits in Turn 4, this made no difference, but it should probably take an action to pick things up (dropping them is free).
The ability to load Down or Out men onto transport is something I just improvised, but it makes sense if one side is able to leave the field without needing to eliminate all of the other side.
Overall balance was adequate, giving a tense scenario and 3 men down in the final turn. Lawrence forgot to be inspiring, e.g. to re-draw the downed men going out of action.
There were no obvious moments when I had to think about action-rules to decide what the WP would do, but I guess these applied:
- Sentry sees enemy: converts to Brawler or Shooter (depending on weapon carried)
- Shooter with target in range and Line of Sight: shoot
- Shooter with no enemy in range: close range to nearest enemy
- Brawler: close range to nearest enemy
- Sentry: move toward next patrol waypoint
After the fight:
- The Brits have achieved their objective.
- Edwards is lightly wounded (and will be out for 6 days
- Mitchell is also lightly wounded and will be out for 10 days
- The fate of the 2 sentries is not known.
- No prisoners were taken.
- Harris is already wounded and out of action until 6/12/83
Reinforcements: Two figures with L1A1 SLR, one with pistol - privates Newton & O'Loughlin arrive, perhaps stragglers from some unit nearer the front.
Specialist gear: temporary replacement weapon - O'Loughlin has a Minimi for the next mission
Skill gain: Fraser gains Scout(1)
Campaign events:
- Paddy O'Loughlin has an accident within minutes of arriving on the base & is out of action for 3 days (until 26/11/83). Maybe Lotte will visit him in sick bay?
- Intense fighting - we are straight back in action. No impact on morale (already rolled).
- The minimi is broken; the burst that hit Green also put a round into the firing mechanism.
Player action: meet a new character (rolled a political figure) - the local mayor, Dieter Pletternberg
Group morale: 3 - rolled 3 good and 2 bad dice, scoring 1 increase
People the team knows:
- Lotte Meierling, a refugee from Hannover
- Dieter Pletternberg, mayor of Bad Spelling
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