Showing posts with label Tomorrow's War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tomorrow's War. Show all posts

Monday, February 15, 2021

Tomorrow's War Campaign Game 2: Security Detail Counter-Ambush

Here's the second in a series of Tomorrow's War campaign games set on the planet Sanctuary. Restive Uighurs, relocated to the newly formed Sanctuary Prefecture by the Chinese government so that they can cause fewer problems on Earth. The geographic separation encouraged political separatist factions, and an insurgency broke out. The United Nations Legion (a standing peacekeeping force) has Legionnaires deployed to Sanctuary to referee the conflict.

Following a successful Quick Reaction Force (QRF) mobilization to save the driver of a hovercraft hit by an IED, our Legionnaires are conducting a presence patrol to keep things quiet around the district governor's compound. The compound is located in the neighborhood right outside the UN Forward Operating Base (FOB).


Legionnaires pulling security from a rooftop.

Only two of the four Lances in the Legionnaire platoon were on this foot patrol, the other two stayed back at the FOB.

The patrol marches out to the governor's compound.

The Legionnaires get to the compound and are greeted by the governor's security detail, armed guards at the entrance to the compound.

The Legionnaires sweep through the compound, but the governor's diplomatic protection detail is already there keeping things secure.

Then a lone local man walks around the corner and heads for the governor's compound.

Once inside, he asks to speak to the governor. They make small talk, and the man passes a note. The note indicates that the walls have ears, and that an insurgent attack on the governor's compound is imminent.

One Lance of Legionnaires rapidly moves out and mounts the roof of the building next to the governor's compound. They are greeted by a 3-man insurgent cell that wins initiative, fires but hits nobody. The Legionnaires pulled a Fog of War card, 'Mad Minute,' that lets them unleash on the insurgents.

Predictably, the insurgents fare poorly.

The other insurgent cell decides that today is not a good day to die and books it out the back of the compound where they were supposed to stage their part of the attack.

The Alpha Lance Legionnaires who went to the roof go on Overwatch and sits ready to repulse any other insurgent attacks.

The governor's diplomatic security officers take up internal security positions to defend the compound.

Bravo Lance enters and clears the compound that the insurgents used to launch the attack.

At this point we called the game. It was supposed to be a lot closer, but insurgent rolls were abysmal.

The Legionnaires didn't roll up any additional benefits in the post-game phase, so they'll go into the next game as they are.

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!

Monday, May 25, 2020

Modern Warfare: Alien Invasion, Chapter 3 - Milk Run

Milk Run
Carthage, Missouri
D + 9

In the early days, before they were openly raiding cities and leveling towns, the aliens emerged cautiously.  At first, much of their activity was to gather food.  Apparently, their crashed ships didn’t have sufficient food stores on board. 
They also like beef.  This raised a lot of questions about whether the stories of cows being mysteriously eviscerated before the invasion were from advance parties or not.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter.

There I was, getting some gas on the way back in town.  This was at the station across from the Parsons farm.
Then things got weird.  Like call 911 weird.
***Operator:  911, what’s your emergency?
Me:  Hey, you should get some cops out here.  There are – I’m not crazy or making this up – aliens trying to take a cow from the Parsons place.  Route 93.
***Operator:  We already have city and county units on the way, and we think the National Guard is coming, too.  Please stay on the line.  Some of our radio connections have been jammed, we may need you to provide an update.
Me:  Sure, whatever…  Okay, there’s a bunch of cops pulling up. 
Me:  Oh, man, things just got sporty.  Old man Parsons and his kids are taking shots at the aliens from their barn!
***Operator:  What’s going on?  I can’t reach any of our units?
Me:  Well, never mind about old man Parsons.  The aliens didn’t care for that at all…
***Operator:  Okay, I’ll dispatch EMS.  We’ll have medics there in a few minutes, hopefully.
Me:  Oh, man, a helicopter just flew over and fired at the aliens!  Are you doing this?  Please tell them to keep it up!
***Operator:  No, sir.  Like I said, communications are tough.  I’m surprised I can talk to you.
Me:  Oh, one of the cops is down.  Definitely send the ambulance.
***Operator:  Thank you, sir.  I’ll make sure EMS is on the way.

Me: Better hurry up with the ambulance , things are getting nasty out here.
*** Operator:  I'll see what I can do...

Me: Thank goodness that cop is okay.  And the State Troopers arrived with the National Guard.
*** Operator:  Good, the ambulance is on the way.
Me: The aliens are on the move, but our boys are too. 
It turned into a mad rush at that point.  Our boys were spoiling for a fight.  And the aliens were trying to abscond with Old Man Parsons' cows.

Me:  The aliens are dropping!  We've got 'em on the run!

Me:  There's just a few of them left!  Our boys are winning!
Me:  Hooray! The boys did it!

**********

This was the third game in the Modern Warfare:  Alien Invasion series - here's posts one and two.  This is the first using Tomorrow's War, the Ambush Alley sci-fi wargame.

If you browse this blog at all, you'll note that I've probably played and posted more Force on Force AARs than anyone else on the internet.  The commonality between the two systems is strong - Tomorrow's War is basically Force on Force with some technology-specific tweaks to account for a sci-fi setting.

We'll be sticking with Tomorrow's War.  The game flowed well and we were all used to how the Ambush Alley system is supposed to play.

As for the gameplay, the Tech Level advantage of the aliens worked for them until it didn't, and then they were overwhelmed by numbers and some bad rolls.  A good time was had by all, and we plan to get some non-40k aliens and start a campaign using the Tomorrow's War campaign system.