Modern Warfare: Alien Invasion, Chapter 1

After-Action Report
D+23, 2143 Hours
SGT Ray Parsons
A Company, 1st Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment
Missouri Army Reserve National Guard

We got lucky, I guess.  We went out to a roadblock that the county had set up before things got real bad.  One of the sheriff's deputies had gone out to an intersection out at the edge of friendly territory.  We'd relieved the guy after he'd been out there for a shift - he left his vehicle out in the intersection so that folks wouldn't head out into no-mans land - and the company had kept a squad out there ever since.

Our position - a fire team on the roof of the store, another out at the police SUV with the squad leader.

The lucky part is when the attack happened.  We were in the process of changing shifts, so we had two full squads on site when the attack came.  It was a good thing.  I was in the parking lot outside the store that we were using as an overwatch position along with the rest of 3rd squad.  That's when one of the guys on the roof started yelling that we had some of those lizard men approaching the position, and fast.

Shift change in the parking lot, interrupted.

So I got my fire team shooting at the things approaching the roadblock, and Staff Sergeant Johnson and the guys out in the intersection started banging away, too.

We've got company!

We laid a lot of fire into those things, and I swear that I saw them jerk a bit when they got hit, but they kept on coming.

Grenade launcher scores a hit on the approaching aliens.  Didn't stop them.

About to have a close encounter.

Up on the roof, the rest of 1st squad was pouring it on while my squad leader, Staff Sergeant Kovach, ran around the back of the store to protect our flank.  Good thing he did - more on that later.

The boys of 1st squad spot the enemy.

Those things kept coming, in spite of a hail of gunfire.

We finally got some lucky hits with the aliens charging the intersection, dropping two of the three lizard men coming from that direction.  The third ran back to the trees to find some cover.  The fire from their guns hadn't been effective up to that point.

The roadblock position finally scores some good hits.

Then, Specialist O'Reilly out at the roadblock got nailed.

Specialist O'Reilly gets hit.

Some of the other aliens - the ones that wear suits and have the bigger guns - showed up in the woods down the road.

More aliens show up.

At this point things got hot on the right flank.  The three lizard aliens got closer to the shop we had garrisoned.  Good thing Staff Sergeant Kovach and the rest of the squad went over to secure that side of the building.

Staff Sergeant Kovach rounds the corner just in time.

Midway through the fight.

We started to get lucky with our fire here.  The M203 gunners kept dropping rounds on both the lizard aliens and the ones in the armor suits.

Grenade launcher drops one on the alien position.

We kept up the fire on the right, too, hoping to keep the lizard aliens from getting on top of us.  We knew that if they reached our position it was going to be a bad day.

Fire from two US positions lays wounds on the lizard men approaching the American right.

At this point, the guys at the roadblock grabbed O'Reilly and moved back to the building as we provided covering fire.

Carrying O'Reilly back to the parking lot for MEDEVAC.

At this point, things shifted.  Someone scored a lucky hit on one of the aliens in the woodline, dropping him.  The other two armored guys picked him up and carried him off.

Parallel alien MEDEVAC.

Around this time, the guys on the roof and the other side of the building really picked up their fire.  They had three of the big lizard aliens approaching fast through a copse of trees.

Aliens break through the woodline.

As the aliens got close, though, they were exposed to two full fire teams' worth of firepower, right up close.

The US right fends off the alien advance.

So we fought 'em off on both flanks.  Shame that O'Reilly didn't make it, but at least we held.  The company commander increased the detail at that intersection to two full squads after that.

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This is my new campaign (campaign page to follow) - modern warfare against an alien invasion.  I'm writing the rules for this as I go (working title is Heroes, Heavies, and Hordes, and is intended to allow mixing modern forces up to platoon size with superheroes, aliens and the like), so the first game focused on infantry alone.  More posts to follow.

Fantasy/Historical/Sci-Fi Battles of the Week, 9 May 2016

If you were looking for modern battle reports/AARs, you're in the wrong place  Go to this link.

Otherwise, business as usual (though it took an extra day to get done)

Game of the Week:  Car Wars at Hot Wheels scale, with an epic arena.  Oh, you had me at hello.  I was raised on Car Wars, among other pursuits, and bought a copy of the re-issued game last year.  If only I had the time to do something on this scale.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle between the Empire and Wood Elves at Xin's place.  A somewhat one-sided affair, but a good-looking one.

Frostgrave at Anatoli's place, with the additional risk of giant worms eating people.  Good times.

English Civil War at the Tas Man Cave.  Impressive models.  I just watched A Field in England, a psychedelic horror-ish film set in the English Civil War.  Not sure what the hell happened, but it was hard not to finish once I started.

Preacher by Day has been busy.  A Pulp Alley convention game, running over Day 1 and Day 2, and a roundup of pics of other games, all gorgeous.

To the Strongest at Hook Island.  As always with these guys, a good-looking game.

Rome versus Carthage from the Band of Wargame Brothers.  Big game, and very cool.

Modern Battles of the Week, 8 May 2016

Doing things a bit differently this week.  I've got a few modern warfare AARs that I've been wanting to highlight, so I've split the battles into two entries:  this one for modern warfare, and this other one for fantasy, historical, and sci-fi battles.

First order of business is to add a new site to my blogroll, Hotel Zugando, where a 28mm scale modern wargame set in a fictional African nation is playing out with the Force on Force rules, the game that brought me back to wargaming after over two decades away.  Some AARs from that blog:
- Contracting Trouble, the ubiquitous Force on Force scenario, swapping CIA agents in for the contractors.  This was the first Force on Force game that I played, way back in my inaugural post.  And its been played and posted on the web by a number of folks:   Donogh, Donogh redux, von Lucky, Dan, and Dave.
- A Few Blocks of Hell, right out of the FoF book and  translated to an African setting.
- Closing Up Shop, another USMC-African rebel showdown with an interesting outcome.

Second on the to-do list is another addition to the blogroll, Rabbits in My Basement.  A couple of posts from this blog drew my attention - one with a day-long gaming session that starts with a Black Ops game set in Afghanistan, then a WW II Chain of Command, then Some Lion Rampant, and finally some War of the Ring action.  And a post where the author kitbashes FUBAR, Black Ops, and Chain of Command for a convention game set in modern Afghanistan.

And, here's a game trying to adapt a Vietnam scenario from Face of Battle into Force on Force, and struggling with the vehicle damage tables.  A common complaint that I houseruled into submission.

And though I've never played Buck Surdu's Combat Patrol, here's a write-up of a game set in Africa with a modern setting, and one set in WW II.

Battles of the Week, 1 May 2016

Great week for gaming for a lot of folks.  I've been in the garage crafting terrain, so another game will get played shortly with some snazzier woods.  Here's the weekly roundup of batreps/AARs:

Battles of the Week:  Pulp Alley campaign from two perspectives.  Here's one battle from the Egyptian cultists' perspective (great looking website, by the way), and as viewed by the Vatican's hit squad.  Here's a second battle, as viewed by the Egyptians, and again from the Vatican's pew. Apparently, priests make great snacks for giant spiders and sea monsters.  Both sites added to the blogroll.

Shakowkings has two good battles up - a pulpy game of 7TV2 and a game simulating a viking raid using the Blood Eagle rules.  What's brilliant is that the vikings are the characters from the History Channel show, Vikings, and Blood Eagle is an episode named after a particularly nasty method of execution.

Golden Age Supers at the Baron's place.  Gets extra points for superhero gaming.  I need to get back to my planned Avengers campaign.

AWI over at Steve's place.  Very cool.

To The Strongest at Big Lee's place, as he's indoctrinating a member of the next generation of wargamers.

LoTR at Little Wars VA.  Good game.  I'm very pleased with the minis associated with this game, though I've never played it, and my ability to buy them on eBay, painted, for $2 or less a piece.  GW's marketing decisions continue to suck in tons of new wargamers who leave the hobby a year or two later and flood the market with their now unwanted painted minis.  I'm not complaining.

Battlesworn old west shootout at The Stronghold Rebuilt.  Great mashup of game and genre.  If you missed it, here's his pulp Battlesworn batrep, Fu Manchu's Halls of Horror.  And here's some ACW for you, a DBA post with some fantastic pics, and another battle in his One Hour Wargames project.  Dude is just killin' it.

Starship Troopers at Skill Level 0.  Visually impressive battle report.  Good looking stuff; adding to the blogroll.

WH40K at Into the Maelstrom.  Part 2 of a campaign.  Check it out.  Napoleonics at Into the Maelstrom.  LoTR at Into the Maelstrom.  Triple duty in three different genres.  Impressive - adding to the blogroll.

Preacher by Day has a sci-fi Pulp Alley game up.  Recommend you go there and read the archives - a whole slew of cool Pulp Alley games using WH40K minis are posted.  Added to my blogroll.

Frostgrave over at Anatoli's Gameroom.  Great looking board.  Added to the blogroll.

Handy tip:  Wee Blokes provides a link to free paper terrain from Osprey for Frostgrave (though it works fine for any game, so long as you need a ruined city for your battlefield).

Battles of the Week, 24 April 2016

Batreps/AARs I enjoyed this week:

French and Indian War over at Big Lee's Place - Battle of the Week!  Great looking attack on a British outpost.

One Page 40k at Forkusprimordus - after giving up on the latest edition of the WH40k rules, a foray into the One Page 40k rules.  Gameplay didn't suffer, oddly enough.

Pulp Battlesworn at Stronghold Rebuilt, Fu Manchus Halls of Horror - Great mashup of old minis, old GW maps, and a new-ish game.  Scenario is posted separately here.

Frostgrave at Wee Blokes - Neat scenario of a treasure hunt (it is Frostgrave, after all) with the possibility of an angry Genie popping up to attack players' warbands.  If you haven't checked out this blog yet, do so.  I aspire to having so many cool campaigns posted, and hope to build my site up to something like this.

Flames of War D-Day Game at sediment's wargame blog - massive battle

Batrep/Review of Hail Caesar at Campaigns in Miniature - relatively negative review of Hail Caesar from a fan of the Ancients combined with a batrep of phalanxes clashing.  Worth reading if you are interested in the game.

GASLIGHT at Baron Von J's - good looking showdown between British and German forces.

Battlegroup Blitzkrieg at This War Without an Enemy - neat little WW II game

Other stuff:

Battlezone 1998 Redux at Delta Vector - Not a batrep, but if you enjoy more than one game and like to think about game design, go there and start reading the archives.  Join the Google Group.  Very intelligent thoughts collect at the website and the Group on homebrew rule sets and how to make games that make players make decisions.  Very cool.

Battles of the Week, 17 April 2016

Here's the batreps that I enjoyed the most this week:

Song of Blades and Heroes at Stalker 7 - Best looking game of the week.  Absolutely beautiful, great gameplay and pictures.

Epic Napoleonic game at Big Lee's - I've seen these games played, never participated.  Hope to do that someday.

Necromunda League at Fawcett Avenue Conscripts - Good looking game.  It's a shame that Games Workshop lost interest in supporting this game.

Fistful of Lead variants at Baron Von J's Blog - Cool scenery, and I believe that the downed "spaceship" is an old G.I. Joe toy.  Got one in the garage.

Battlesworn at The Stronghold Rebuilt - Great game that comes right down to the wire, as the scenario intended.  Definitely worth a look.

Naval Thunder at Campaigns in Miniature - Never played this game, but it looks good.

Fighting Sail at Bob's place - Another maritime game, this time pointing out a potential flaw in an Osprey set of rules.

Neil Thomas One Hour Wargames battle for McPherson's Ridge at Sound Officer's Call - Beautiful, detailed, and historically accurate game.

Xin's Lair - Two games of note that I've read at this blog:  (1) a huge convention Frostgrave game with an epic, multi-scale battleground that was put together, at least partially, at the last minute - very impressive; (2) an old-school Warhammer Fantasy Battle game.  Adding this blog to my reading list.

Finally, not a battle report, but cool nonetheless - the GURPS stats calculated for the M41 Pulse Rifle of Aliens fame, and a video of a working mock-up that someone made.  Pretty cool.

Battles of the Week, 10 April 2016

I'm starting a new series of blog posts on the battle reports/batreps/AARs that I enjoy.  As you'll notice, the blogs I read, listed to your right in the full version (sorry, won't see it on the mobile version) feature more than a few wargaming blogs that produce good reports on the games that they play.  That's a big part of why I blog - of all the wargaming content on the interwebs, I enjoy reading batreps/AARs the most.

So, without further ado, here's a few posts that caught my eye this week:

Epic 30k at Fawcett Avenue Conscripts - Imperial Fists and Sons of Horus go toe-to-toe over control of a government building complex, heavy casualties ensue

Arc of Fire at sediment's wargame blog - a modern game I've never played, but it seems to handle conventional forces relatively well.  Two games played - Game 1 and Game 2

Bolt Action at Craig's Wargaming Blog - reinforced US Paratrooper and German platoons face off

Frostgrave at Colgar 6 - A beautiful write-up with color-coded icons to indicate the multiple factions seeking treasure in the frozen city; just marvelous

Combat Patrol Playtesting at Buck Surdu's Blog - Unique opportunity to see a batrep/playtest report as a WWII game is adding supplements for other historical periods