The Red Band: Desert Raiders 20mm Sci-Fi

In building out the world on the planet Sanctuary, my sci-fi setting, I've added a faction called the Red Band, a group of raiders, mercenaries, and local muscle that would look at home in any Mad Max, Gaslands, or other post-apocalyptic desert environment.

All of the Minis are from Elhiem's Dark Future range, except for the Gun Buggy crew, which are from Stan Johansen's 20mm Road Warrior range. The vehicles are done up with a mixture of the two lines' gun and armor add-ons for Matchbox cars.

I put something red on each Mini - a scarf, dye in their hair, tattoos, or article of clothing - to make sure that they look like they're on the same team.

Here's the leader of the gang, Nelly, in all her glory and at the head of her assembled crew.

Here's the whole gang (as currently constituted, there's more on the way) racing through a hole they just blasted in a settlement's wall.

Here's the War Wagon, which has a "hanger-on" who is removable. I painted one standing figure with the same red tattoos on his scalp and torso to represent the same guy once he has jumped off and charged into battle.

This is the Gun Buggy. No armor, but it carries a heavy machine gun and is plenty maneuverable on all kinds of terrain.

This is Kneecapper, which has a special attack against personnel that can be cut down by its tire blades. The double machine gun turret on top can lay down a wall of lead.

This is Bloody Mary, a 2-person gun car. Like Kneecapper she has a front-mounted gun that can only be fired when she is stationary, but is useful for breaching the walls of desert settlements. Both Bloody Mary and Kneecapper have turreted machine guns as well.

This is the Mothership, a battle transport that serves as the Red Band's primary means at spiriting away hostages seized from outland settlements. She's got a turreted machine gun and can carry a number of troops.

Here's the Red Band assembled and ready for battle.

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.

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!