Zangali Battle report

See more pictures below

Finally it is here, the very first Battle Report of a skirmish game in Zangali. I am developing my own set of skirmish game rules based on my experiences with other rule sets and games. When I'm completely happy with the rules I will publish them here on the Blog, for now I will just show you the pictures and talk you through the mission without going into too much detail. If you have a question just let me know.

This is the first battle report I publish and i have spend quite a bit of time preparing a mission, playing the game en taking the pictures. However, most of the work went into creating a comic book style battle report. Let me know what you think, Do you like it and would you like to see more? Do you have any ideas to make it better, Do you have suggestions to improve on the quality? (keep in mind I'm no professional photoshop guru) please let me know, your feedback is very important to me.

How to read the battle report? You can just click on the first picture and if you click on the right hand side of the image it will load the next. This way you can read it as a real comic book. You will get a general feel of the game and how the turns went. If you want a little bit more information you can also read the text between the images. The text will have a number corresponding with the page number in the top right corner of the image.

Without further ado,... please enjoy "Zangali, mission 1 : Jungle Patrol"

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1. It was still early in the morning when 2 HMV's with soldiers drove through the jungle. They were on their way to relieve their fellow soldiers guarding an check point near Nabali. There had been rebel activity in the region but it had been peaceful for the past two weeks.. all that was about to change.

The Northern Armed Militia had prepared an ambush and several groups of rebels waited for the soldiers. When the 2 HMV's were in sight the first rebel group fired a RPG at one of the HMV's. The HMV's armour is just too thick for normal bullets to penetrate so only the RPG had a chance to do any damage.

The RPG rolled a 5 to hit which was just enough, to penetrate RPG with Caliber 3 needs to roll a 4 to do superficial damage and a 5+ to penetrate the HMV's Armour(7). They roll a 4 and then roll on the damage table. The RPG has hit and blown a tire, the HMV can now only move 6"at most, the crew is stunned and have a +1 penalty to hit when firing for the rest of the turn and the next. Also the HMV's armour is lowered from 7 to 6.

The two HMV's both fire their .50 cal's at the group of rebels and manage to kill them all. Heavy firepower and at short range they are cut down easily.

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2.in turn 2 the unscathed HMV takes the lead but fails to spot an I.E.D. In this scenario the patrol has to use this road and the Rebel player can place 1 IED. The player controlling the patrolling vehicles just has to hope the best of it. In this case the the IED was triggered when the vehicle was within range and a roll was made on the IED-table. The roll of a 4 means it is an anti vehicle IED (heavy) and all units within a 3" radius take a Caliber 4 hit. The next roll penetrates the HMV's armour and it blows up.

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3. The HMV is taken out by the IED and all soldiers in the vehicle must make a "save test" on a 4+. All but one survive but have to take cover and go down.
When the soldiers have just pulled themselves together another group rebels jumps out from the undergrowth and start firing at them. Their RPG misses but their AK47's score two hits of which the soldiers fail to save one resulting in another casualty.

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4.The soldiers are now in complete shock and fail their activation test but luckily there is another HMV to rescue them. The Vehicle moves slow but it's gun is still a fearsome weapon. The HMV moves in close and fires resulting in another three dead rebels and one fleeing the scene.
But the just around the corner another threat is lurking, like a tiger stalking it's prey a Toyota Technical fitted with a .50 cal and gunner lie in wait.

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5. The HMV is caught by surprise and a storm of bullets hit the vehicle knocking out it's weapon (.50.cal). Meanwhile the one surviving rebel fails it's activation test and therefor continues it's run (flee) to the table edge. Just before he reaches safety (table edge) another group of rebels jump out of the jungle. They fancy a shot at the surviving HMV. Because it's armour value is lowered by the RPG impact they now have a chance of doing damage with their AK47's but their LMG is the only weapon with a high enough caliber to actually penetrate the vehicle.
The two surviving soldiers from the other HMV understand the threat and move in to cover the HMV.

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6. In a brief but fierce exchange of fire the soldier prove that their training is giving them an edge over the cheaper rebels. The rebels spray wildly but only score 1 hit which was saved but the soldier manage to kill 2 of the three rebels making him run for the hills (flee).
The HMV now has no weapon to defend itself from the Toyota Technical so the sergeant makes his men get out of the vehicle and lay down covering fire.

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7.The soldiers with their AK47's can penetrate the Toyota's armour of 6 and manage to do so. They take out the vehicle wit 3 penetrating hits. The driver is killed but the gunner miraculously survives. Dazed and confused he looks for his weapon. he then makes a charge towards the soldiers and even manages to kill 1 soldier. In the return fire the soldiers kill the last rebel with all their firepower.

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8. With all the rebels killed or fleeing the surviving soldiers escort the crippled HMV to the table edge to finish the mission with a victory.

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Here's an overview of the table on which we played this mission. The patrolling HMV's moved in from the right and had to get to the left hand side.

I hope you enjoyed the show. It was a blast playing this mission.

Cheers,

Seb

Bolt Action 3 vs 3 game

Overview of the table

Here are some pictures of yesterdays club game. We played a special 3v3 scenario on a normal size table which meant every player could only put 500 points on the table. We divided the table up in three sections from which every player could move on the board but from then units could roam the board freely. In the middle of each section a disbanded vehicle was placed as an objective marker. Each objective was worth 3 points to whoever held on to it uncontested by the end of the game and every destroyed unit would be worth 1 point each.. We had a great game which lasted no less then 5 hours!! It was interesting to see different armies working together. Our side had my Brit's linked up with Wilfred's British para's and Richard's Polish. The other side had (Vichy) French, SS and Finnish troops. My Brit's were up against the French and those veteran Moroccan and legionnaires can really knock you out in close combat. In the end our opponents won the game even though we held 1 objective and the other two objectives were both contested. The body count was very much against us and we lost 11-6.
We plan on doing a big Bolt Action day in January with about 16 players but we have to think about how to organise it. With 6 players on 1 table we were waiting for a turn for far too long and a game of 1500 points per side took just over 5 hours to play. far to long. Another big disadvantage was that we had to trim down our armies to fit them in 500 points per player. That left me feeling I didn't have all the tools I needed to take the enemy apart. Have you played big battles then please let me know how you organised them.

Had a fun game so thank you all for playing. Have a great holiday and see you all in 2015 which will undoubtedly be a hobby rich year.

Bolt Action First Game 750 points Brits vs Germans Max Attrition

At our gaming club we are now playing our first games of Bolt action and we're having a blast. In my first game my British army faced the German Heer in a game of maximum attrition (750 points).


 Since we've been a Fantasy/40K/FOW club up until now we don't have a lot of scenery yet to split between our Bolt Action tables but I think for a first game this was a nice table set up. Some open areas, some light and heavy cover en the church for lign of sight blocking.

Bolt Action table set up 750 points maximum attrition (Click on picture to enlarge)

My right flank. 2 British rifle sections and a Medium Mortar. The Mortar's spotter is further up the field to pick targets. the rifle section will advance towards the church knowing the Germans are waiting for them there.

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In the middle my Daimler Armoured car has advanced ahead of  another rifle section, MMG unit covering the middle and a medic taking cover in a ruined building.

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On my left another rifle section and a Cromwell cruiser tank. Not much cover here so I hope my tank will reap havoc and my rifles can advance carelessly.

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Of course a sniper should always take position in a tower should the table provide such lovely scenery.

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German right flank, Sturmpioniere, medium mortar and rifle section.

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German center and left flank. hiding the Anti tank rifle, 2nd lt., Forward Air Observer, Medic, Light Howitzer and another rife section. The 222 scout car is already behind the church.

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The Daimler and 222 went on to chase each other for the entire game without doing anything. Daimler hit twice but both rolls result...a 1 :o(

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Rifle section moves up but will be targeted by the light Howitzer downing half the men. After that they fail close combat against a two men sniper team...

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German rifle section assault the British that moved into the church. Brits come out victorious.

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British rifles consolidate out of the church surprising the german medic and 2nd lt

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The end of battle sees the British victorious in the maximum artrition game. (score 8-4)

All clear...push on!

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So in the end I won this game of attrition, it was good fun. Even though this was our first game we didn't make too many mistakes. The Bolt Action rules are easy to follow. I'm already looking forward to my next game (which will probably be at a tournament next month...)

Cheers,

Seb



Skrapsmacka's Moonshine Boyz FLUFF (prologue)

The planet Belis Alta was once a thriving and prosperous planet but after a vicious attack from a kraken fleet of thousands of tyranid swarms it could now only be classified as a dead world. The tyranids had killed every living thing on the planet and like a swarm of locust moved on to another unfortunate solar system. All that was left were the ruined hives in the middle of vast deserts.

For a dead world there was a lot of noise and racket coming from the ruined manufactorum. Grots scouring for scrap were wildly squealing with pleaasure when they found something they could use. The grots were so busy and imagined themselves safe that they didn't hear the creaky sound of armour tracks that were approaching them. It was only when the imperial Chimera had come to a 100 meters from the old manufactorum that one of the grots happened to look up from his scrapheap and saw the outline of the transport. Immediately he screamed in high pitched tone "HUMIEZ!!!". The rest of the grots looked up and froze at the sight of the imperial Chimera, confused they stood completely still but then fled leaving all their valued collections behind. For creatures with such small legs they were incredibly fast and within a second there wasn't a grot left to be seen.

The Chimera halted it's approach as the top hatch opened. Clouds of dust carried by the hot winds swept over the vehicle obscuring the drivers vision. It couldn't safely get any closer to the ruins without knowing what lied waiting for them ahead. From the vehicle some figures appeared. It was a small inquisitorial force sent out to investigate. A couple of days ago an imperial drone had picked up a scan of some life forms but they were too small to identify. The inq. grey knights came with few but were well prepared to face anyone or anything....This was a simple recon mission, if it were humans they had to be captured, if it was anything else it had to be killed.

 In an old and abandoned bunker nearby a pair of red glowing eyes glistened in the dark doorway. The large figure slowly moved out in the open muthering some words:"..pesky... humiez..". Like a troop of awakening wolves some more large Ork Nobz came out of their lair. They gazed at the chimera that was still far away at the far end of the ruin. They stretched their backs and arms wide in the air holding their heavy and rusted weapons high above their head. "Finally sum aktion!" their leader shouted to his companions.One of the slightly smaller Orks reminded the Big Nob that their warboss Skrapsmacka had forbidden any contact with enemies if any presented themselves. In true ork fashion the big Nob punched the smaller ork in the face and ordered the immediate attack.They started running from cover to cover to get as close to the enemy without being seen.They were gloating with the thought of the opportunity to slash their rusty blades through some human spines.

 Meanwhile all but one of the grey knights had left the chimera. A grey knight warrior with a meltagun was to stay with the chimera and give the others cover as the others would causiously move through the ruins. These humans showed no fear and even when they eventually saw the ork Nobz only meters away instead of looking for cover they kept advancing but spread out.

 Two of the crusaders with an agro flagelant went wide close to the edge of the ruin whist the other crusader advanced though the middle accompanied by 2 Death Cult Assassins and an agro flagelant, the warrior in the chimera remained in possition overlooking the site. The dust winds made it hard for him to see what happened in the ruins and all the chimera's shots  missed their targets as they could only see them for a split second.

The Ork Nobz were confused when they realised that their opponents seemed unfaced by them. Maybe it was because of that then when the two forces colided that the first nob was slew with ease. When his body fell to the ground the other Orks went crazy and with furious anger they hacked away at their opponents. Although the grey knights seemed without fear they were no match for the primal power of the orks. One by one they were slaughtered in close combat. The grots that had been hiding in the ruins saw with great pleasure that the grey knights were no match for the Nobz. Their eyes started glowing bright red with excitement and they hastely came from their hiding places. Cowardly they singled out one of the last two remaining crusaders and raised their blasta's at him. The grey knight crusader stared down at the vile green grots, this was not how a noble grey knight should die. Nevertheless, before he could react the grots unleashed a hail of bullets from a save distance and the crusader was struck down. When he fell to his knees, blood spilling from his mouth he held his hands to his chest. Quickly his dark red blood was spilling through his fingers and he fell over, dead!. The grots screamed for joy and hopped from one leg to the other when they realised that they had managed to kill the mighty crusader. The only remaining crusader saw that all was lost and tried to get back to the chimera.

When he was only 10 meters away from the chimera he could finaly see his transport through the clouds of whirling dust. He smirked and then tried to warn those who stood there waiting for him. "QUICKLY, FALL BACK! THIS PLACE IS ........ARGHHH!"... The crusader stopped running and his legs caried him a few more steps before he fell down with his face in the sand. A huge axe was sticking out from his back. The warrior tried to look through the dust to see what had thrown the axe but he saw nothing. A second later he jumped in the chimera and shouted at the driver to head for the extraction point as fast as possible.

Back on the battle barge the surviving warrior was immediately summoned to the comms room for debriefing. All he could tell his superiors was the confirmed sighting of grots, nothing else. The commander fumed with anger and sent out a high altitude drone to the site that had been appointed by the Chimera driver. The recon footage showed nothing, no enemies, no bodies ,nothing. Could this have been simple feral orks and grots or was it something else, something bigger, something more dangerous? What could live on a dead world like Belis Alta, it was a planet of no importance whatsoever so surely no organised enemy force would risk living there. It was nothing like it's neighbouring dead world planet "Belis Corona" other then it's harsh climat.

The actual battlefield (200 points kill Team)

This was an actual 200 points Kill Team game that was turned into a battle report/story by myself. The fluff of my "Boyz" will largely be based on further battles I play and some background and history in between.  This is a very fun way to get a real feel and connection with the army I'm building.