Battlesuit take 2

A few weeks ago I tried out a solo play of the old Steve Jackson Games game from the 80s Battlesuit.  Inspired by this Anthony and I had a 2 player run thorough with my 15mm Laserburn figures standing in for the counters.

Battlesuit came out in 1983 and was a sequel of sorts to Ogre and GEV but this time the focus was solely on individual power-armoured soldiers.  The map is much larger than the usual metagame map and has a series of contures and woods marked out: rather than hexes, movement is point to point.  Soldiers also have limited jump capability which means they can fly over terrain or hover in mid-air which is great for spotting but does make you a target for everyone on the board!

Soldiers come in a variety of levels of toughness and there is an option for unarmoured regular troops but I don't think they'd last long.  There are also rules for drones which can help with targeting or can fire on targets.  As each soldier moves all the opposition can target them with reaction fire once per turn which means a sacrificial trooper can be handy to draw out all the enemy fire before the rest of your force moves.  Damage to battlesuits means they become progressively weaker and may have to deal with shock and panic when they're hit (one of Anthony's soldiers accidentally blew himself up in a panic when he was shot!!).

Finally soldiers can target the enemy, giving a bonus to shooting for themselves or colleagues.

So, how did it play out?  We both initially advanced quite cautiously, trying to use cover and taking long-range pot-shots at each other.  Some lucky dice rolling on my part caused some early damage to Anthony's troopers and we both knocked out our heavy weapon support early on.  The timing of reaction fire proved crucial... use it all too soon and the enemy is then free to move around at will.  

I eventually threw caution to the wind and had 2 suits hover in the air, risking being shot but giving them line of sight to the skulking enemy, and this proved decisive, quickly knocking out a couple more of  Anthony's suits (in addition to the one have accidentally blew himself up!)

The verdict?  It was a fairly simple but effective system which makes for a good evenings game.  I've certainly played games with much more complicated reaction and targetting rules which didn't play nearly as well.  The only thing we struggled with was establishing line of sight, mainly when soldiers were possibly in the lee of a hill.  The rules include a strange system for working this out which involves plotting positions and heights on grid sheet (included in the rulebook).  This seemed a bit daunting (I expected to have to do some trigonometry at one point) so we didn't use it but relied on common sense.  In hindsight I think it wasn't as complex as I'd thought and we should have given it a go.  

A good rule set given the simple metagame format... I think you do need to play it with someone who isn't too rules-lawyerish though (thankfully Anthony and I play in a much more easy-going style!) as the interruption reaction fire and LOS rules rely on mutually cooperative players I think!

Strength & Honour

This week's game was a catch up with my friend Andrew and a chance to let him try Strength and Honour with my 10mm paper Romans and Germans.

It's been a while since I'd played these but I remembered that I need to cut down the forces on the table... it's always tempting to get everything out but it slowed us down too much last time.  For this game the Romans had 2 Legions and 2 Auxilia and a single unit of cavalry.  The Germans had 6 warbands, some of which were upgraded to Elite or Stubborn which I hoped would help.

There wasn't a lot of subtlety to this game.  The Germans charged forward with the right flank leading the way and pulling ahead of the other warbands.  The Romans decided to sit tight and let the warbands come to them, especially as one of the legions had the advantage of a hill to sit on.  The warbands have the advantage of gaining a bonus for charging and for rear support, which was largely cancelled by the Romans being uphill and there followed a tight tussle with legions and warbands being pushed back and forth... gradually the Setback cards were beginning to mount on the German side.  The Romans were proving a bit too robust and able to hold off the charges. 

Once enough cards have been acquired (without knowing the values on them) each player can call "Homunculus Est" and ask for the total to be counted.  If it has reached the army breakpoint then the game is over or the army may become fatigued (calling it at the wrong time can be a bad thing for the challenging player though).  Andrew was becoming very tempted to call, but decided to go for one more round of combat.  A wise move as my Elite Bodyguard was charged in the flank by the Roman cavalry  and then driven back by the stalwart legion on the hill, and more seriously, my Commander was badly injured and had to leave the field resulting in a Disaster card which added even more points to my tally.  Sure enough the Germans decided that they'd had enough, leaving the Romans a little battered but very definitely in command of the field.

S&H is quite abstracted... units don't become weakened by combat but become disordered or rout and the effect of combat is felt at an army level rather than by individual units.  For me this feels right when each unit is a massive warband or a Legion but I think Andrew found it a little too abstracted. 

I have my recent order of cavalry to build my Parthian/Sassanid army in 2mm which should give quite a different experience I think.

Warfare 2023

Off to Warfare yesterday afternoon.  Since it relocated to Farnborough, it's a much easier drive to get there despite the challenges of roadworks.

The show is spread over 2 days and hosts a lot of competition games as well as a decent spread of traders and demo/participation games.  I didn't arrive till the afternoon and it didn't feel overly busy but that might be a reflection of the space and timing.

I picked up an order of more 2mm figures from Warbases and have succumbed to the power of a freebie and picked up some of the Warlord Games 'Epic' ECW range.  I got my free on in a copy of WI and some friends have kindly given me their sprues that they weren't going to use, so I've been caught, hook, line and sinker by the Warlord Games marketing strategy!

The games on display ranged from ok (it was interesting to see a few that opted for a much simpler terrain set up than the usual show standard) to some really excellent games.. a special mention for the Guildford Wargames Club's 1940 game with some very accurate local terrain (admittedly I'm a bit biased as they're my old club and it was nice to see some of the guys from the club)

Some photos... I didn't take a huge amount and apologies to the clubs where I haven't remembered who was who!

Excellent Isandlwana game by "Combined Oppos"

Dornier Down by Shepway Wargamers

Hex-Wing... ECW witches on broomsticks.  Sorry, I don't know who out this on but it seemed popular

The excellent Guildford 1940 game... really nice terrain

Something Vietnamy

Palestine 1938 by Deal Wargames society (I think)

Delhi 1803 by Crawley Wargames Club

Ulundi by The Three Musketeers

Battlesuit-solo play

Off on a very short trip back home, up and down to Glasgow to visit family

Since I was mostly on my own I decided to try out my recent purchase of the old Metagame Battlesuit which I'd picked up at Colours

It's an interesting skirmish game... not too complex but with some interesting reaction fire rules.  Since it was a first playthrough I made a few mistakes (misreading the CRT in a couple of places) but I can see the game has some good potential.  Definitely worth a replay, perhaps using my 15mm Laserburn figures which would look the part and wouldn't be out of scale on the map

I also had a chance to look through my latest Metagame nostalgia-acquisition, Olympica.  This isn't one I'd come across before but has some interesting mechanics with one side being able to use tunnels for shelter/movement and being able to 'compel' the enemy and reposition them.  I find the compact format and design of these games makes for some interesting design features... they don't always work but the success rate is pretty good.