Drakensberg Protection Service, game 1 - Operation Desert Sweep

Mysterious meteors have crash-landed in one of the the deserts of Ariadne III, long-range scans indicate that previously unknown crystalline formations have formed – possibly organic in nature! This could mean alien life – whoever makes first contact controls the information flow and potential research opportunities tied to this!

The corporate government of the Ariadne system has sent the Drakensberg Protection Service (DPS) to locate and secure the meteor crash-site. However, the hidden network of eyes controlled by ARM (the Ariadne Resistance Movement) have also picked up on this meteor crash and dispatched a force of resistance fighters!

In this game we welcome a new participant in the campaign, Martin with his Drakensberg Protection Service! They have the "Advanced medical training" doctrine, meaning they have a chance of saving fallen soldiers, reducing casualties.

For the first time we are also trying out the Revolt supplement, a yet unpublished expansion to PMC which contains rules for fighting as a rebel force instead of a PMC – a completely new army list with its own units and special rules! Next follows the army lists for this Tier II battle! In their rules supplement there is no campaign rules, thus we play them as if they had the standard campaign rules. ARM has the "Rapid relocation" doctrine.

The Drakensberg protection service (DPS) force:
- Nomads, Tier II
- Light MG Section, Tier II
- Field Command Third Grade, Tier II
- Recruits, Tier I
- Recruits, Tier I
- Irregular troops, Tier I
- Irregular troops, Tier I
- Heavy Patrol Vehicle, Tier II

The Ariadne resistance movement:
- Partizants, Tier IV – A really cool infiltration unit
- Improvised support vehicle, Tier II
- Armed civilian mob, Tier II – Lots of angry people with guns, intending to stay!
- Secondary resistance leader, Tier II, HQ unit – First among equals!
- Deserters (Rookie rifle team), Tier II
- Deserters (Rookie rifle team), Tier II
- Insurgents with LMGs, Tier II

Yes, rebels have more composition points than PMCs!

The table from the perspective of ARM, the small palm trees are the objective.

Left HQ to the right deserters from a local militia.

ARM deployed their support vehicle, LMG team, HQ and a team of deserters, all quite central. DPS deployed recruits and a heavy patrol vehicle on the south flank and irregulars to the north, in the centre a unit of nomads. Both sides started to cautiously approach the objectives, in the centre the nomads searched the first suspected impact site and found the meteor! On the southern flank the heavy patrol vehicle rushed forward and hid behind a huge cliff, the recruits made a more conservative push and hid behind some rocks. ARM concentrated their HQ and deserter unit in the central most rubble cautious about how to proceed. The support vehicle had a hard time finding a target as the nomads had stealth. The insurgents with LMGs climbs a hill to find a better firing position and sees some irregulars among some houses on the northern flank. They open fire but to no effect but the irregulars decides that safe is better than sorry and falls back.

DPS irregulars advancing cautiously, they know very well that insurgents could strike at any moment!

Surprise lead rain – the worst! Partizants show up in a building.

State of the table at turn 2!

Suddenly a group of Partizants appear in one of the northern houses catching the irregulars of guard, breaking them with a mighty rain of fire despite the protection of the house the irregulars had taken cover in! Now reinforcements arrive on both sides, after hearing all the commotion some local farmers have taken up arms in aid of the cruel DPS joining the insurgents, they come on the centre of the ARMs line and charge towards the cliff where the heavy patrol vehicle has taken cover.

They cannot take our freedom! – An angry mob of moist farmers join the fight!

Crash site hot, send back up! – Transmission to DPS rear HQ

The vehicle approaches the edge and opens fire on the deserters. Fire is exchanged multiple times between the patrol vehicle and the deserters, HQ, improvised support vehicle and Insurgent LMG team but the patrol vehicle refuses to break, it even supresses the deserters. Will the insurgents be grinded down by this steadfast vehicle? No, the deserters are rallied by their leaders and place a carefully aimed RPG in the patrol vehicle lighting it up and putting it out of action!

Last moments of the patrol vehicle!

Meanwhile more reinforcements have arrived, another deserter team arrives on the side of ARM, DPS deploys a LMG team in the centre of their board edge, threatening advancement on the central objective.

On the northern flank the partizants have taken up position in one of the large houses overlooking the house where the irregulars tried to hide only to find some that some recruits have taken up positions there instead, before they have time to fire they are set ablaze by the recruits scoring several kills, supressing the partizants for the rest of the game as they are unable to rally!

The partizants pinned upper left, angry mob performing ”excellent screening manoeuvre” centre.

Victory needs sacrifice! Preferably not fulltime members of the resistance! Sending the dirty nomads packing!

We´re coming right behind you! 

In the centre ARM is pushing forward sending the very eager mob of civilians first, acting as a screen for the remaining infantry units against the DPS LMG team. The civilians are hosed with bullets but refuse to give in even as casualties mount. After the support vehicle manages to lock on to the Nomads and send them packing after sending them a 52mm love letter, they hold the objective and even repulse a unit of irregulars send to displace them before they are inevitably worn down and break of.

A sacrifice has been made and the civilians are broken! The DPS HQ is making a stand!

Eat lead evil bourgeoise lackeys!

The HQ of both sides now rush for the objective taking up position in areas of rubble on opposite sides of the impact site, here they throw everything they´ve got but in the end the smaller DPS HQ is decimated and broken and since DPS have taken such heavy losses and no longer hold the objective they are routed!

Victory to the people of the Ariadne system!

This was our first try out of the Revolt supplement to PMC 2640. Before the game started I really thought I would be squashed as the rebels have generally quite short range, low defence and mediocre firepower, they are however very motivated with high morale and a few rules to offset morale effects of losses. They also have some units, such as the partizants with rules for infiltration which makes the game less static and of sets the generally shorter range of insurgent weapons. We agreed after the game that the rebels are a more aggressive army, wanting to be close and personal and they have the motivation the get there too so they are a nice contrast to the regular PMCs. Since their individual units are weaker they must concentrate their attacks more and run interference on other parts of the battlefield.

One drawback is the model count of some of the units, the unit size of the mob of armed civilians is 12, but most units have size 8. Since we don´t have that many insurgent-looking models we have to go for more compact lists, limiting choice a little bit. In a campaign they might have a problem making ends meet as you then need to buy more high tier units and opponents will get more XP since they may break more units with a higher tier, on the other hand rebel units are quite hard to break!
 This is to some degree offset by the available vehicles that are size one and the deserter units which should be made up of models from the regular PMCs.

One of the most brought up issues people have with PMC is the lack of different army lists, i.e. limited choice of units, if that was a problem (we don´t agree, just look at the legion and the Sickles) this fixes this in part and there are more supplements, hence even more army lists, that we just haven’t had time to paint the models for yet.
We hope this battle report will generate some buzz so Assault Publishing continue to work on these supplements and release them!

Viva la revolution! ARM out!

The Varuna Legion, game 1 - The stand on Kroeb

On the icy moon of Kroeb in the Ariadne system the Varuna Legion has been contracted to defend some important property of Onyx Pro Ltd before its being shipped. This has definitely not been part of a cover up to perform an Invasion with “little green men” somewhere in this system. At 0730 hours SET the outer sensors detect troop movement east-north east of the base and acting PC Sgt Bob Sergeant of the Varuna Rifle infantry chokes on his coffee when the energy signature does not match the Sickles!

“UNKNOWN HOSTILES APPROACHING BASE, ALL HANDS TO BATTLESTATIONS”

With this we welcome Aurelio to the campaign with his Franco-Spanish PMC, the Mireesh War Company, making its debut as attacking force in the Hostile takeover scenario!

The Varuna Legion:
- Rookie Rifle team tier II
- Recruits tier I
- Recruits tier I, 3rd Assault crew (Takes less suppression)
- Recruits tier I, 16th Militia (Last stand – remove all suppression once)
- Irregulars tier I
- LMG section Omega tier II, Bad reputation & adrenaline rush (cannot be promoted, may activate twice once)
- Remote mortar section tier II
- M5 Heavy Patrol vehicle tier II

Mireesh War company:
- Field command 3rd grade, Capitan Andrea
- Remote mortar section tier II, Les Staches
- Heavy Patrol vehicle tier II, Dolly
- LMG team tier III, The weathermen
- Rookie Rifle team tier II, Cruzes Blancos
- Rookie Rifle team tier II, Cruzes Verdes
- Irregulars tier I, Puños Azules
- Rookie rifle team tier I, Cruzes Rojos

The battle field with the very important containers belonging to Onyx Pro Ltd.

The Varuna forces deployed for battle. North is to the left in this picture.

The forward elements of Mireesh deploys aggressively on the eastern border of the combat zone, an LMG team, some recruits and a mortar section. The LMG team immediately lights up the eastern most recruits and break them beyond repair! A Varuna unit, the 16th Militia, return fire causing a few suppression points, and they are then in turn pinned by the Mireesh recruits. The Legion now brings out its big guns and the LMG team is broken by the might of the M5s 22mm Autocannon and the recruits pinned by Varuna Mortar fire from a nearby bunker.

Take up defensive positions!

We´ve been hit!

Reinforce the eastern flank!

They are hammering us from the hill!

The Mireesh have temporarily been beaten back but just then they receive reinforcements! A Field command 3rd grade and a rookie rifle team enters from the east and in the north a Heavy patrol vehicle enters! The Varuna Rookie rifle team that has been rushed to reinforce the eastern flank is caught in the open by the Heavy patrol vehicle and decimated, Sgt Sergeant will never see the family farm back on Varuna 4 again.

Parts of the reinforcements are broken and beaten back but the Mireesh manages to regroup and mount an attack from the south threatening to break the Varuna defensive perimeter using the might of a hill! The Varunians are now boxed in but the Mireesh  are taking heavy casualties – who will break first?

Just as the Varunians on the southern flanks are wavering the LMG section in the northern bunker hits home and disables the Heavy patrol vehicle, the Mireesh are now too few to mount a final assault and are routed!

The very important cargo of Onyx Pro Ltd can now safely be shipped!

AP-rounds loaded, light ’em up!

In the post-game sequence, the 16th Militia gained a new level, Into the shadows, giving them Stealth!

Legion Out!

Meet the legion

The Varuna Legion is a PMC created by the Varuna interplanetary government as a supplement to its conventional armed forces, as with most legions its primary goal is to supply the army with experienced personnel, a legionnaire can after completing his or her contract apply for transfer and become an officer in the Varuna army or space navy. Therefore, training is emphasized and the Varuna legion is known for its crack troops. As maintaining a legion fighting in Combat carapace is very personnel intense it also serves as an important employer with many Varunian subcontractors. The Varuna interplanetary government is based on Varuna III in the Varuna system with colonies on the partially terraformed Varuna IV as well as a few colonies on Varuna V & VI.

The legionnaires fight in full body carapace, as this require extensive training recruits and inexperienced soldiers (Rifle infantry tier I-II) are equipped with body armour (inaccurate photos can be found on the blog due to lack in painted minis).

The legion has the doctrine rapid training methods, infantry units may take its first battle honour for 5 EXP instead of 10 EXP.

Due to a recent contract for personnel carriers the Legion can currently be very mobile and this grants the Legion the doctrine Rapid Relocation!

Varuna armor – Light patrol vehicles/jetbikes, Light tank S42 Hydra (will probably change model someday), and M5 Heavy patrol vehicle.

Tier I Recruits

Tier II Rookie Rifles

Tier III Regular rifles – Legionnaires

Legion Out

Demo!

On the 1st of October we had a participation game day for PMC 2640 at our local gaming club, GoB during one of its gaming weekends! The participation game, "Invasion of Ariadne II"!

We pitted green against red side in the Invasion scenario using the models frequently seen on this blog. The game saw some interest and a few participants expressed interest in taking up the game!

Green side
- Field Command 4th grade, tier I
- Regular Rifle Team, tier III
- Rookie Rifle Team, tier II
- Rookie Rifle Team, tier II
- Light Infantry Team, tier II
- Heavy Patrol Vehicle, tier II

Red side
- Field Command 3rd Grade, tier II
- Light MG Section, tier II
- Assault Infantry Team, tier III
- Irregular Troops, tier I
- Irregular Troops, tier I
- Irregular Troops, tier I
- Rookie Rifle Team, tier II

The game ended with a successful green invasion!

Lots of arms, none wearing a watch!

Sickles, game 12 - Making a breakthrough

Hi ho folks!
Me and Joel made some new units and some new scenarios to play, as stated previously in another blog post. It reminds us of the scenario 'attrition' in the PMC 2640 rules although we feel that it lacks certain elements, so we made some changes. We introduced a placing/placement 'mini-game' where the key zones should be positioned to fight over, which also dictates where the frontline and defences are. One of them will be replaced with a bunker (per priority level) that counts as a reinforced building, giving us a hard point each. Or, it could be used aggressively. Furthermore, 1/3 of the forces composition points was held as an reserve.

To win the scenario, at game end one side must control more points than his/her opponent. Fluff wise both sides stands down, if none is able to make the breakthrough. Kind off World War 1 style mind you. I don't go into all details here... So, right... the game. Yes!

To the frontline and no mans land, the Sickles brought:
- Field Command 2nd Grade, Captain Staya, tier III
- Regular Rifle Team, Nasty Noses, tier III (new unit!)
- Remote Mortar Section, Ground Gagarin, tier II (again!)
- Light MG Section, Spitting Shpitalny, tier II
- Light Combat Vehicle, Rasputin, tier III (again!)
- Rookie Rifle Team, Velocity Vintovkas, tier II
- Recruits, Kicking Kepis, tier I
- Lhurgg Irregular Troops, Hard Hoofs, tier I
- Lhurgg Irregular Troops, Blue Bandits, tier I
- Lhurgg Nomads, Zero Zeniths, tier II

The Varuna Legion brought:
- Rookie Rifle Team, Whitewood Rifles, tier II (Brave, takes less suppression points)
- Recruits, 3rd Assault Crew, tier I (Brave, takes less suppression points)
- Recruits, 16th Militia, tier I (Last stand, removes all suppression points once per game)
- Recruits, 5th Militia, tier I (Iron discipline, easier to rally)
- Irregular Troops, Red Skulls Assault Team, Tier I (Adrenaline rush, may activate twice in a row once during the game)
- LMG Section, LMG team Bravo, tier III (Superior ballistics, adds 4" in range)
- Regular Rifle Team, tier III
- Light Support Vehicle, tier III
- Light Combat Vehicle, tier III

Deployment

The two bunkers went down in the middle of the map, within 18" of each other (rifle range). The Varuna Legion brought many rifle units of different tiers, from I to III and an LMG Team (tier III). Oddly enough, the rules states that a Team is larger than Section... LMG Teams are scary! Having a ton of firepower and long range (but low defence!).

The Sickles deployed a mortar (lower right corner of the picture), an LMG Section on the hill, Nomads (with stealth) in the north, HQ in the middle (with 'markerlights' for the mortar) while my tier III rifle unit took the center in the bunker. Stealth units are excellent when advancing (if you have more units than the enemy).

A view from Ground Gagarin, and we can see the almighty turn die! The HQ, as a tier III, now got four members. So, captain Staya, his trusty dog Stoy, a lhurgg warlord and the battle standard bearer. What a team! And yes, Staya is the last model to be removed, what else? I'm one of those guys who gets really sad when animals dies in movies (humans, meh)!

Spitting Shpitalny, overwatches from the hill.

Nasty Noses, my new unit! I'm pleased with the result of painting. They really look like elites, in my humble opinion. Or rather, they look like they actually know what they are doing, instead of seem misplaced in the midst of battle.

Zero Zeniths, the nomads. They got a lhurgg leader with three heads and two drones to indicate that they are not irregulars (giving them stealth, maybe?). I put the drones in the wrong direction, kind off embarrassing for my family name. Heck. Hopefully, they don't read my blog.

One roll to rule them all!
So, basically. '9' --> Many hits --> 3 dead --> broken. Rinse and repeat. Check. Win.

Wave, smile and move back!

Argh, to late! That hurt! A lot!

That hurt too! Few units can withstand three dead in one go! Run for the hills! So, that wasn't a flesh wound!

The Varuna Legion even had Chuck Norris with them! But hey, this unit was never broken (what else?!). And they didn't engage in combat during the game, luckily for me! What a game changer that would be huh?

This was our quickest session ever, an hour, tops. When rolling so many '9's (this game also) and then roll '6's on over half of the hits it goes bye bye very fast fast. The Varuna Legion withdrew, saving the rest of the force some potential trauma. But they would be back! My new unit, Nasty Noses, killed four guys! They didn't disappoint me. What a great first game for them!

It is now 5 wins of 12 games! I'm on fire! I'm on a roll! And! I finally got some levels! Spitting Shpitalny got 'superior ballistics' that granted them a further 4" of range, making them reach 28" now! Deadly indeed! Range is very important in PMC 2640! Especially as LMG units have such low defence value. The recruits, Kicking Kepis, that are 'cowards' (-1 morale) due to battle trauma from earlier games, gained the 'into the shadows', thus gaining the 'stealth' ability. It suits the cowards well! One of my personal favorites (they also got a fan club in the community (consisting of one member, mr. Klang as we call him)), Hard Hoofs, got 'determined'. A deadly skill combined with their high unit size! They will now ignore casualties, so their morale will not falter at first sight of danger.

A bonus picture of the reinforcements moving up to make a breakthrough. The enemy was already falling back by then!

Za Sickles!

Sickles, game 11 - Just passing by

So, another game. Since we are only two persons playing the campaign we allowed us to get a bonus every 5th game to evolve our companies faster. Furthermore, we removed the need to pay to upgrade our companies to the next tier as that would only delay the progress further. So, with much needed kUC to buy tier III units we took the next step and thus gained another doctrine. I chose the 'strength in numbers' which allows me to field an additional unit one tier lower than the tier of battle. Hence, 18 composition points now becomes 20!

This time we played the scenario 'Demolish', setting the Sickles to be defending, again. We made some stupid but in hindsight 'easy-to-fix' errors while making the terrain. As the scenario is played corner to corner, the terrain we set up gave little or no cover, becoming the major factor for the outcome of the battle. So, I short game and not that fun due to the mistake with the terrain. Well well, lessons learned! Since PMC 2640 is so fast played, not much harm were done as we didn't spend hours of playing.

The Sickles fielded:
- (Field Command 4rd Grade) Lieutenant Ruchka, tier I (once again!)
- (Lhurgg Irregular Troops) Hard Hoofs, tier I
- (Lhurgg Irregular Troops) Swift Swords, tier I
- (Grenadiers team) Storozh Smiters, tier II (once again!)
- (Lhurgg Assault Infantry Team) Shiny Slicers, tier III (!!!)
- (Remote Mortar Section) Ground Gagarin, tier II
- (Rocket-Armed Team) Ataka Away, tier III
- (Light Combat Vehicle) Rasputin, tier III
- (Lhurgg Heavy Patrol Vehicle) Alnico, tier II
- (Lhurgg Heavy Patrol Vehicle) Cobolt, tier II

The Varuna Legion fielded:

- (Remote Mortar Section) Alpha, tier II (last stand, can remove all suppression points once per game)

- (Regular rifle team), tier III

- (Field Command 2nd Grade), tier III

- (LMG Section) Omega, tier II (adrenaline rush & bad reputation, may activate two times during one turn, and may not be promoted *boo hiss*)

- (Rocket Armed Team), tier III

- (Irregular Troops) 4th Colonial, tier I (shooting experts, grants a firepower bonus)

- (Rookie Rifles), tier II
- (Rookie Rifles), tier II

This is the first time had so many high tier units! I usually go with the 'quantity has its quality on its own' kind of thinking. And I also maxed out the number of vehicles (3)! They were set as my reserve due to their high movement.

Setup. Lhurggs, HQ, mortar, engineers and the tier III on the right side (robots as stand ins. I hadn't painted my lhurggs in battle armour at that time.).

The Varuna Legion en masse. There is a lot of s*!t heading my way!

Spreading out! The mortar vs. mortar game began! Who moves first, dies.

The Sickles also spread out, staying behind terrain features. The defence was set to defend deep.

View from the central ruins. A major part of the battle.

Sickles got to the ruins! Yeehaa!

Tier III unit taking up defensive positions, remaining there for the rest of the game as a last resort to protect the objective.

Just out of range and sight! Move forward, shoot, move back, regroup. That's the order if any pesky varunians should close in.

Here they come! LOLOLOLOLOLOL

HQ took point, with its high defence and morale! The Varuna train goes choo choo! Officers first mind you!

A small part of the force act as flank threat and locks down a huge portion of the map with the mortar. A stalemate occurs between the mortars while the main thrust of the legion moves forward.

The Sickles defensive positions, now with armor support!

"Kwavak zresvi vlak!" [Roughly translated to: "Eat my 20mm you social program nerds!". Yes, lhurggs have a efficient language that includes a word for 'eat my 20mm', a common phrase in the lhurgg society (mostly between chieftans).]

Rasputins main gun rolled a '9', killing two from the HQ and breaking them! Gee, some luck there! The HQ set an example, falling back! A LMG section tried to return the favour, but with little effect.

The Varuna Legion takes to the woods and sends out the flanking threat to engage. All or nothing!

"You go ahead! We got you covered... sort of..."

Charge the ruins! From all sides, go!

Chaaarge! Fix bayonettes and RPG:s!

"Yikes! Too many sickles here, and too many nines!"

A mish mash of beat up units.

"It's not worth it. Varunians, fall back!" - XO of the Varuna Legion task force

The ruins that were the main scene of battle. The Sickles had few casualties, and they lived happily ever after.

So, first off. Terrain is very important (as with many games). All the terrain features on the Varuna Legions side were aligned to give minimum cover which made the advance mostly taking place in the open. That combined with the fact the they had no vehicles, compared to three long range firing vehicles gave the varunian commander Joel a mighty good headache. I also rolled like two '9's  as my first rolls, almost destroying two units. Later, more '9's were rolled... for my part... Most of my game was just to pass with units, waiting for Joel to make his move, leaving cover. And then, retribution was harsh. Well well. I got my second level on a unit, and a win! Now it's 4 wins of 11 games. Losses in total (number of models) are almost the same now! My mortar got the "semper fidelis", which makes the units to automatically arrive as a reinforcements. It's not a great combo with the stats of the mortar unit, but hey! It's free!

By the way, Joel chose the 'rapid relocation' that allows him to swap positions on half of his units! I really like that we choose so different doctrines and units, cool cool!