lördag 21 oktober 2017

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!

torsdag 12 oktober 2017

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!

söndag 1 oktober 2017

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!