Monday, December 21, 2020

Tomorrow's War Campaign Game 1: Hover Craft Rescue

This is the first game in my Tomorrow's War Campaign.  The campaign follows 2d Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Squadron, United Nations Legionnaires, deployed to the world Sanctuary.  As part of the United Nations Expeditionary Force-Sanctuary, they have been tasked with peacekeeping in the restive Chinese colony prefecture also named Sanctuary.  The Sanctuary Prefecture remains restive because the Chinese government moved large portions of its Uighur population to this planet.  The Uighurs enjoy being geographically far from the CCP's center of government, and are trying to establish political separation as well.  An insurgency ensued.

While pulling static security at a local prefecture security site, a hover craft moving supplies into town and toward the platoon's security site was hit with an IED.  The platoon moved to rescue the hover craft driver who was stranded in a hostile Uighur neighborhood outside the security site.


The platoon, divided into Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta Lances, was supposed to be reinforced with combat mechs or ground drones.  They didn't have that, so four lances, with five men each, set off to go save the stranded hover craft driver.

The hover craft driver fleeing his stricken vehicle.

The platoon was set up in it security site a few blocks away from the portion of the old city where the hover craft was disabled.

The landing pad inside the UN security site.  An ornithopter sits on it above the front gate security shack and an air processer.  The platoon is assembled at top right.

The platoon gathered and checked weapons.  They got an earful from the UN political advisor and the UN military coordinator at the security site.

The UN military coordinator tells the platoon to get moving and rescue the stranded hover craft driver.

While the platoon was getting yelled at by the UN military coordinator, the platoon was really wishing that they would get reinforced by the ground drones at the compound, pictured at bottom right.  Because of political sensitivities, this didn't happen.

The platoon set off to get the stranded hover craft driver.

Right outside the UN compound, the district commissioner's compound overlooks the IED site.  The Legionnaires grumbled amongst each other about how unlikely it is that he didn't know anything about the attack.


The district commissioner and his head of security watch the IED strike site from the compound rooftop.

Two lances advance toward the IED strike site.

A lance leader always leads from the front.

Two insurgents appear from behind a corner and try to get the drop on the UN platoon.

The insurgents don't win initiative and pay the price.  Unfortunately, an old man walking down the street wandered into the line of fire and went down as well.

The district commissioner watches the carnage develop below.  Is he upset?  Or is collateral damage part of a plan to separate the UN from the population?

The UN Legionnaires advance and secure the old man to render first aid.  

A lance of Legionnaires clears the corner where the insurgents appeared and secures a hot spot to shut it down.

The Legionnaires who helped the old man render first aid.  Luckily, they roll a '6' and he's not hurt at all, saving the UN a bunch of lost Victory Points.

As two Legion lances advance down the dirt road to secure the hovercraft site, one breaks off into a compound to secure a potential insurgent hotspot.

Legionnaires in action.

Unfortunately, pushing that lance of Legionnaires to secure the hotspot took them off of Overwatch, and a cell of insurgents try to exploit it by opening fire on the Legion fire team moving in the open without support.

Unfortunately for the insurgents, they draw a Fog of War card and suffer a morale failure … call it a total eclipse of the heart.

… and take two casualties.

With a firefight breaking out, the district commissioner gets off of his roof and meets up with his security detail.

One UN Legionnaire goes down to enemy fire. Buddy aid would put him back in the fight.

The insurgent team under fire decides to break contact after taking casualties.


Meanwhile, on the southern road, another lance of Legionnaires advances to try to flank the insurgent position.


An insurgent team emerges from cover to fire on the flanking UN lance, but loses initiative and one man.

The fleeing insurgents make good their escape.

The forward-most lance of Legionnaires makes contact with the stranded hover craft driver.

"Man, am I glad to see you guys!"

Another lance of Legionnaires secures the area.

Legionnaires in action.

In the post-game phase, all UN casualties recovered and one lance gained the ability to look at the top of the Fog of War card deck and decide whether or not to shuffle those cards to the bottom of the deck.

This was a successful first outing with the Tomorrow's War rules. As with Force on Force, the game flowed well and the outcomes met the common sense test. Looking forward to the next game in the campaign!