Alien Invasion, Chapter 2: Hold the Line

This is the second installment of my modern alien invasion campaign, using homebrew rules that will ultimately also be used in some superhero games.  The first battle can be found here.

After-Action Report

D+9, 1722 Hours

SSG Paul Barbour

B Company, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment

3d Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division

Kuwait City

It all went to hell pretty quickly once the suits and the lizards got into the city proper, trying to drive from their crash site to the oil terminals and the port.  We had trained with the Kuwaiti National Guard unit a fair amount – heck, that was our mission before the ships came and we started knocking them out of the sky.  But there weren’t enough Kuwaitis to go around.  We got plugged into a gap in the line to try and hold them.  We did, but at a cost.

Initial Setup.  US forces on the near side of the table, aliens on the far side.

View from the US right flank.  Aliens are already crossing the road to the nearest covered positions to the US line.

From the US right, able to see aliens advancing toward the middle of the human lines.

Aliens on the opposite side of the same position, using buildings for cover.

View from the alien headquarters element, with the alien section leader giving directions.

View across the lines from the alien center - Bradley Fighting Vehicle peeking around a corner.

A human Gustav Recoilless Rifle crew spots alien movement as the fight starts.

US Army HMMWV gunner spots alien forces across the field.

The onslaught began, with the lizard men advancing in front of the 'suits' - the leaders in armor that shrugged off most of our fire.

The dismounts on our right were lucky and landed both some 40mm grenade and small arms hits on the lizards in the center.

Unfortunately, the bits of lucky fire we had at the outset were soon offset by the charge of several aliens in the center - they penetrated our lines by rushing into a building that one of the fire teams and a squad leader held.  It was brutal.  They wiped out our guys to a man.  I went into the building with the mortuary affairs platoon afterward.  It was horrible.

Aliens defeat humans in a close quarters fight.

Good thing that the rest of the line was keeping up a good volume of fire.  Between grenades and small arms fire, we had some of the enemy positions in tough spots.

US grenade and small arms fire take their toll.

While this was going on, one of the alien drones was still hovering above the fray, and zapped one of the two uparmored HMMWVs that had reinforced us.

A US Army HMMWV goes up after an alien drone engages.

Things went our way as soon as I edged my Bradley around the corner and picked up several shapes on the roof of the mosque in our thermals.  We didn't mess around - I told the gunner to fire a TOW at them.

 Effects on target.

Little did they know - the US TOW missile wiped out the alien command section.

We had some other lucky strikes along the line - the Gustav crew wrecked the building opposite them that had served as a fighting position for another fire team of those lizard men.

"Johnson, good hit!'

It was a great hit, in fact.  The building partially collapsed after some secondary explosions.

"Johnson, great shot!  I'm putting you in for an award!"

Over on the right, the dismounts on the roofs were laying it on pretty thick to prevent a breakthrough like we had in the center.

Orange tokens note actions, red tokens note wounds.

The other Bradley on the right was laying down some good fire, too.

Overview of the action at the end of the first turn.

State of the battle at the end of the first turn.  Effective US fires observable at the far center and left, destroyed HMMWV on the lower right side of the picture.

View from the alien lines.  This position put some rail gun fire on the humans that caused some casualties.

As the aliens continued their advance across the lines, the right was able to hold their positions even though the lizard men continued their rampage through the center of our lines.

Alien team all wounded as they close the gap with the human right flank.

Alien team assaults from the center of the US position to the building holding the US Gustav team.

The other side of the rush across the alley to assault the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle team.  The Bradley Fighting Vehicle let loose at close range, but not quick enough to catch all of the enemy.

Outcome of the alien charge into the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle position - win for the aliens.  Johnson never gets his award.

It was pretty ugly.  The same small group of aliens that hit the middle of our lines continued its rampage and wiped out the recoilless rifle team.  Another episode with the mortuary affairs team I'd rather not dwell on.  Meanwhile, an alien element that we hadn't been tracking jumped the far wall in the compound on our left.  The dismounts in that compound laid down a hellish amount of fire, and a nearby uparmored HMMWV pitched in.

Trying to prevent another close encounter of the worst kind.

About this time, the aliens made a big push on our right.  The guys over there put down a hell of a lot of fire.

A trio of wounded alien on the human right push their luck.

It ends poorly as all three take additional wounds and go down for the count.

The Bradley Fighting Vehicle on the US right pitches in with some additional fire.

End result - the aliens lay dead just as they were about to crack the US right.

At this point, it looked like our right flank was okay.  But we had some fighting to do on the left-center of our line.  The infantry position to my left was about to be outflanked and overrun, but we laid down some critical support fire that prevented that from happening.

The alien rush from the Gustav recoilless rifle position to the last US infantry on the human left failed, at least in part, as shown above - gunned down at point blank range by a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

And the boys we were helping did a pretty good job themselves at not getting overrun...

The infantry on the US left successfully put down the alien close assault.

View of the field of battle from US lines as the game wraps up.

Though we hadn't really hurt them so much, the armored aliens fell back as soon as we broke the momentum of the assault.  At least for the moment, we had held the line.

The armored aliens beat feet as their momentum stalls.

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This was a much closer game than the last one, and showed the danger that the lizard men pose when they get into close combat with humans.  I'm still finishing up the vehicle rules and stats.  Look for more development in future installments.

Batrep Roundup, 4 June 2016

Well, it's been a bit more than a week since my last Battles of the Week report, so this will just be a Batrep Roundup.  Lots of tabs to clear.

First things first - you should check out my Memorial Day game of Force on Force with the boys.  Set in modern Syria, with US special operators and Kurds making a lightning raid on a pesky GPS jammer that's holding up the bombing campaign against ISIS.

US operators departing the objective.

This AAR has also been added to my Force on Force:  Iraq (maybe it should be Iraq/Syria?) page and Force on Force:  Special Operations page.  Check them all out.

Here's what everyone else has been up to:

Winners of the Internet:  This title is temporarily held jointly by Kaptain Kobold for his superhero batrep focusing on Excalibur (extra points for semi-obscure comic title - I've got issue #1 in my closet) and Natholeon with the adventures of Delta Wave.

Sound Officer's Call has been busy.  Here's the second half of the Napoleonics report I highlighted in my last post.  Here's a 2-part World War II game with Germans and Soviets squaring off:  Part 1 and Part 2.  And a surprisingly good experience with Axis & Allies Miniatures.

Baron Von J has a neat battle report focusing on the French Foreign Legion in Mexico, where they have another opportunity to give their lives in a miserable place for the glory of France.

More outstanding LoTR from Into the Maelstrom.  And another battle in that game by Little Wars VA with some cool terrain pieces and about a hundred models on the field.

ForkusPrimordius has an Infinity batrep up, with some great modular terrain on display.

The Man Cave's gladiator campaign kicked off.  Not a genre I've ever played, but it seems one could have a good setup on the cheap.

Some gorgeous Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes over at Stalker 7's place.

Title of the Week:  The Conclusion of the Bloody Battle of Hacking and Slashig with some Roaring and Rolling of dice on the Kitchen Table.  Ha!  Site added to the blogroll.

Rabbits in My Basement has a modern Afghanistan AAR up.  And BIG Force on Force has a what-if violent Brexit game posted - here's the mission briefing and the gameplay.

Craig's got a game of Bolt Action up, with Free French versus Zee Germans.

The Fawcett Avenue Conscripts have several Necromunda games posted.  Very cool.

Here's some American War of Independence played with the Guns of Liberty rules.  I understand that the rules are due to be released by a commercial publishing house, looking forward to picking them up.

Preacher by Day has a couple more Pulp Alley games up - a VIP Escort and follow-on Investigation scenarios.

And finally, a Frostgrave roundup:  Two from Fencing Frog - Lair of the Ice Spider and The Hanghaied Princess; The Dark Templar suffers losses in a game that got nasty (discussing the probability curves of the Frostgrave rules and coming up wanting) and chronicles his warband's recovery; and one battle shown from three different perspectives - Illusionist, Necromancer, and Druid.

That's all for now.  I played another game with my boys last weekend that I've yet to write up, so check back in soon for the AAR.

US SOF & Kurds vs ISIS, Memorial Day 2016

To commemorate Memorial Day 2016, the boys and I set up a game of Force on Force set in modern Syria.  As recently reported in the news, US Special Operations Forces have been spotted near the ISIS capitol in Raqqa, Syria, aiding Kurdish fighters.  We joined them in spirit with a game of Force on Force.

Scenario:
The US SOF and Kurd operations against the ISIS capitol have been hampered by a GPS jamming device that degrades accuracy of GPS-guided bomb.  A platoon (-) of elite Kurds and accompanying US SOF troops are consequently conducting a lighting raid into a town near the suburbs of Raqqa to facilitate future JDAM strikes.  ISIS has been caught off-guard, while the US/Kurd troops plan to run the whole way, accepting penalties for moving beyond tactical movement rates (6" per turn).  The US/Kurd plan was simple - their left flank would assault the objective while the right tied blocked enemy reinforcements from interfering.

US SOF are TQ 12/Mor 12, Kurds are TQ 8/Mor 10, ISIS fighters are TQ 6/Mor 10.

Layout:
US/Kurd forces enter from the right side of the board as pictured below, the GPS jammer is located in the building in the lower left corner of the board.

ISIS to the left, US & Kurds to the right.

Looking down the US/Kurd right axis of advance - an ISIS checkpoint looms at an intersection.

US/Kurd troops on left axis of advance, heading for the objective.

Looking down the left axis of advance.

ISIS fighters guard the GPS jammer, shown in the building at left.  A technical and several ISIS fighters provide security.

Turn 1:
The US & Kurdish forces start their march down the board, putting effective fire on to all ISIS fighters who oppose.

US/Kurd forces move down the left axis off advance.

Kurdish technical gunner on the .50 caliber mounted in the technical wins initiative and lights up the ISIS technical at the checkpoint blocking the US/Kurd right.

ISIS checkpoint technical goes up in flames.

ISIS fighters get cleaned off of a rooftop when they try to engage the US/Kurd right.

Things were bad enough for the ISIS folks with the one-sided exchanges of fire.  They got worse when an initiative roll brought some tough love in the form of a Fog of War card.

The Fog of War card dictated that ISIS fighters were paralyzed by a command & control mix-up (perhaps a US deception or diversion?) and couldn't maneuver until after the end of the next turn - meaning that they were stuck in current positions until the end of Turn 2.  Both devastating to the ISIS faction and appropriate for the scenario.

The guys who drew the Fog of War card take some hits from US/Kurd small arms fire.

Turn 2:
In spite of their command & control paralysis, the ISIS troops received reinforcements - a handful of fighters show up at the GPS jammer site, hoping to keep the US/Kurd forces from reaching their objective.

More meat for the grinder.

The US/Kurd left moved forward and brought some enfilading fire on the ISIS checkpoint previously engaged by the US/Kurd right.  ISIS won initiative, but failed to connect with the US operators in the lead.  After drawing a Fog of War card, the US return fire proved deadly.

The Fog of War card draw gave the US/Kurd forces an unnecessary bit of reinforcement - an Uparmored HMMWV.

Always nice to have more friends like these.

Meanwhile, the US/Kurd right moved up to the previously-engaged checkpoint position and reduced further resistance.

The ISIS boys dropping like flies.

Dismounted US and Kurd fighters continued their sweep in the urban sprawl between their two flanks.

And another Fog of War card brought another Uparmored HMWWV for the US and Kurd troops.

Turn 3:

The state of affairs at the beginning of Turn 3.  The US and Kurdish troops have marched halfway down the board.

ISIS reinforcements brought a technical armed with a medium machinegun (PKM) directly at the US/Kurd right flank, prompting an exchange of fire that immobilized the Kurd truck and put the ISIS MG out of commission.

Follow-on fire from dismounted Kurds destroyed the ISIS truck.

Meanwhile, the technical at the head of the US/Kurd left moved within striking distance of the objective.  The ISIS technical rolled out to meet them but was quickly put out of commission.  The Kurd on the .50 caliber technical won an initiative roll against the ISIS troops on the roof of the objective bunk house and managed to take down all but one fighter... the fighter with the RPG...

...who managed to miss anyway.

Turn 4:
ISIS got a few reinforcements who tried taking on the Kurds at the destroyed checkpoint site.  It didn't go well for them.

The ISIS fighter with an RPG on the objective reloaded and tried to engage the US/Kurd technical again, but failed to make the initiative roll he needed... and paid for it.

Another one bites the dust.

Meanwhile, the US/Kurd troops advancing down the center of the board came up on the back side of the objective compound.  The ISIS troops that previously arrived at the GPS jammer site moved to confront them.  ISIS took heavy casualties.

Turn 5:
ISIS got more reinforcements, to include an additional machine gun.

The US special operators had by this time reached the objective building and made entry, quickly overwhelming the ISIS fighters inside.

Clear!

Turn 6:
The US and Kurd troops securing the back side of the objective had a final showdown with the ISIS reinforcements, which proved as one-sided as every other exchange of fire in the game...

...while the operators left a charge on the objective building to close out the operation.

Operators departing the objective as the charge goes off.

That wrapped things up pretty decisively and we called it a game.  I'm adding this AAR to the Force on Force: Iraq (yes, it's in Syria... close enough) and Force on Force:  Special Operations pages that chronicle my Force on Force battles.  Hope you enjoyed, and here's my belated thanks to all of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this great nation.