Sickles, game 9 - The desert town Eos Misley

Hello chaps!
So, it's been a while since last game due to... I don't know really, maybe work? Anyway, we had a game going, our 9th of the campaign, and maybe our 12th of PMC2640. We're still liking the game, very much! All games tends to become intense mind games, which gets even more interesting since there is a great portion of luck in the rolls. It is actually a good thing, as you must have a plan B, or even C. Sometimes a unit can withstand three times the numbers, sometimes, well... you get a more disappointing result, being on the other end of the deal.

Since our last game was some kind of Tier 2,5 most of our troops needed some respite. Thus, we both didn't have that many troops to choose from. Unfortunate for these troops, they are seen as less important to us! We rolled for a scenario and got 'Secure and Control' which made us battle for three positions. If any of us were able to hold all at the same turn, he will win! Otherwise, we battle until turn 20 and then check who is the winner! It seems like routing the enemy is not an option in this scenario, so it will be bloody! 2nd line, advance!

Since lieutenant Glavnyy had a very short assignment, a new sub-commander had to be chosen. Ruchka didn't really understand the phrase that Glavnyy was going to an eternal vacation... Oddly enough, since it just were mere weeks ago he got the position...

Risky business indeed ;)

The reserves of the Sickles, that were sent:

The 10 man Lhurgg squad is the nomads, the other is the Blue Bandits. 6 man 'red suits' are the engineers, 8 is recruits and the 2 man squad is the mortar. The banner holding man and the dog, you guessed it; HQ!

Tier I, Field Command, Lieutenant Ruchka.
Tier III, Combat Engineers, Razing Rushers [new unit! Most welcomed!].
Tier II, Remote Mortar Section, Ground Gagarin (broken minded... making then hard to rally).
Tier I, Recruits, Honour Holders.
Tier I, Lhurgg Irregular Troops, Blue Bandits.
Tier II, Lhurgg Nomads, Zero Zeniths.
Tier II, Lhurgg Heavy Patrol Vehicle, Crepit.

They were opposed by the Varuna Legion.

Mortar team should be two guys (Joel the cheater!). The four being prone are the rocket armed team. The blond Rambo in the back with the sidekick is the HQ. The three man squad is the LMG team. Fancy hairstyles nominates the irregulars (of course! Irregular hair does it!). The rest is, yeah, recruits.

Tier II, Field Command.
Tier III, Rocket Armed Team.
Tier II, LMG Section, Omega (bad reputation, so they can't be promoted).
Tier II, Remote Mortar Section, Alpha.
Tier I, Irregulars, 4th Colonial (shooting experts, giving them +1 Firepower).
Tier I, Recruits, 5th Colonial.
Tier I, Recruits, 3rd Assault Crew (brave, making them harder to suppress).

Onwards to the battle!
The desert (and deserted) town; Eos Misley lay before us with some new mining equipment (yes, those are toys. I will coat them and repaint them, and then it should look great!).

From nearest to farthest. Mortar, recruits, HQ, brave recruits, rocket armed team, irregulars and LMG team. And the toys (I mean mining equipment!)!

Left to right; nomads, patrol vehicle, recruits, HQ, engineers, irregulars and mortar.

Advancing! The engineers threatens any enemy units that wants to occupy the buildings, taking the center! One objective in the middle, up for grabs! Black cubes marks activated units.

The Varuna Legion advances in tight formation, as opposed to the Sickles! The machine park holds one of the objectives.

The nomads Zero Zeniths and Crepit makes an countermove. Crepit conceals itself with the woods area, and the nomads got the stealth ability. A great skill for advancing in the open!

The 4th Colonials takes the far left flank for the Varuna Legion, supported by the LMG team Omega.

Skulking further, hoping to get the enemy mortar by surprise! The third objective on the open flank can be seen in the distance, a objective being covered by the Ground Gagarin mortar team.

Ground Gagarin overwatches an objective (out of picture) and Joels watch.

Meanwhile, the trap is set on the other flank, waiting to rip some soldiers and toys up!

The recruits tries to find cover, realizing that an attack is imminent, thus protecting mortar team Alpha. Some recruits get to think about a new line of work, as a digging crew!

In the center, the attack is set. Men and dogs alike are ready!

The Varuna Legion is spreading out!

The traps are sprung!
First turns was all about movement and maybe a pot shot or two from the Sickles mortar, other than that, all units moved in the densely packed terrain to not be seen. In PMC, getting the first shot can be very deadly, so everyone tries to get in the upper position. That, with alternative activation, and random first player each turn, minds are melted properly!

The nomads and the Lhurgg mecha pinns recruits, almost breaking them.

The advance continued, with support from the mecha and the units from the center that now were going for this flank. The Varuna Legions crack unit, the Tier III rocket team repulsed the nomads! :'(

Six engineers entered the building while captain Staya held an objective. A rocket and mortar barrage later, half of the engineer squad lay beneath the smoking paper ruins.

With the left flank broken, I successfully redeployed the mecha Crepit to the center, who was going for a LMG hunt! The paper towels of smoke was a painful remainder that I've lost 7 of my 12 compositions points (points for fielding your army) in one turn! Gee... Honour Holders took defensive positions in the forest, efficientlynegating the Varuna Legions mortar, rocket team and recruits from going to the center. Honour Holders, despite being a Tier I really had Joel in a tight spot since he didn't want to take unnecessary risk his troops, since he already had the upper hand.

This shows two things, 1) you don't want any more Trauma Points than necessaryin the campaign game, which makes you think more about your actions and the risk/reward aspect. 2) a low tier unit in a good position can be a great force multiplier! Fun fun!

The Varuna Legion made a suprise dash, placing all bets on getting the initiative, which he did (that scoundrel!) and broke my mortar. Well, it was kind of stupid of me moving the mortar team up that close (to the objective). I should've measured in beforehand. Well well, retribution came quick although I had lost 2 Compositions points to 1. So, right flank was also lost. Joel still had a LMG team behind the far house, effectively securing that flank with its massive range of 24", compared to my Lhurggs assault weapons of 12".

Blue Bandits now looked to the center, aiding captain Staya against some recruits. HQ units are almost unkillable, for your information.

The battle for the center began! On the left side, Honour Holders held back the main part of the Varuna Legion. In the center, Blue Bandets, Captain Staya and Crepit repulsed the recruits. Later, Crepit went to the right flank and after some turns of fire exchange (!) the mecha managed to cripple the LMG team. But when the threat was eliminated, I've lost Blue Bandits to rout, and had to pull back captain Staya. I couldn't force Joel from both the center and the right flank (since he already had the left flank secured, hard!).

So, with only 4 compositions points left against Joels like 7 (?) I barelystood any chance! He got two out of three objectives. Scoring a win!

Joel got a ton of levels, as usual! He got iron discipline on the 5th Colonial Recruits. His mortar section Alpha got 'last stand' and his LMG section Omega got 'adrenaline rush'. Gee. This is getting harder and harder for me!

Sickles, game 7 - Battle for Hill 1218

Finally, the community has been sanitized from asbestos (ugh!), so we could play a game after a such a long wait! Anyhow, we didn't had all the terrain available so we decided to play a Tier 1 Battle. Giving our Tier 2 units some well needed rest.

Since Joel got way better troops than me (they got levels due to him always winning and got a great company doctrine, while my doctrine most of the time gives me problems and a headache...), so actually, I mustered troops that could... let us say stall the enemy. Units without emotions and who handles traumatic experiences very well! Send in the drones! In case of a loss...

Post the match, we realized that we have misinterpretation a rule in the book about droids, more on that later!

The objective was to "Find and Secure", although it would become a battle of a terrain piece, haha!

The Sickles brought:

• Kicking Kepis (Tier 1 recruits), they are cowards (-1 morale) and also (unfortunately) my most experienced unit in the company...
• Blue Bandits (Lhurgg Tier 1 irregulars), new unit! My fifth Tier 1 irregulars... can't get enough Lhurggs eh?
• Beeping Brawlers (Tier 1 recruits, drone unit).
• Lieutenant Glavnyy (Tier 1, field command), new unit!
• Gurevich and Mikoyan (Tier 1, light patrol vehicles, drones).

The Varuna Legion brought:

• 3rd Assault Crew (Tier 1 recruit).
• 16th Militia (Tier 1 recruits) with Last Stand (!).
• Red Recruits (Tier 1 recruits).
• 14th Colonial Irregulars (Tier 1 irregulars).
• The nameless remote mortar section (Tier 2).

The battlefield, and first turns
I deployed Beeping Brawlers and Kicking Kepis on the left (open) flank and Blue Bandits on the right (more dense) flank. Keeping my fast units and HQ in reserve.

They were faced off by the Varuna mortar section, and the somewhat brave 16th Militia. Going for the hill of 1218.

"Getting coordinates. You ready with the rocket Bill?"

"Take that low hill, remember your training! This is what we've trained for!"

Meanwhile, the Kicking Kepis and Beeping Brawlers got sneaky sneaky by the enormous trees in this foreign world.

"Heigh-ho, heigh ho! It's off to work we go!"

"In position *beep beep*..."

Blue Bandits are flanking.

Reinforcements arrived! The Red Recruits for Joel, and Gurevich for me! I changed my light patrol vehicles to have the anti-grav. rule, which made them slightly more squishy (-1 structure), but gained +3 Move, giving them an effective range of 27", or 21" to engage at short range (which is much needed!).

(Cowardly) Humans and droids, living in peace together <3

Turn 4 and beyond
Since the objectives were in the open, and Joel had a mortar (bad combo for me), I felt that I couldn't play defensively. My troop choices were also made to attack, so; I attacked! Well actually, Joel started it (playground reference). He fired a lousy shot at Beeping Brawlers, giving them 1 suppression. The kind of punishment that droids do not care for! Crying circuits couldn't be heard.

Go go go!

"*Rzzz* Keeping them suppressed *beep beep*. By your command."

"Here we go! *pew pew pew*" - Droid operator

"The' everywher'! Wha' we guna do sarge!?"

"Activate ze Last Stand! 14th Militia, you wanna live forever!?"

The Last Stand
Unpleasantly for my end, the receiving end, with no level ups, 14th Militia really got a grip by removing all the suppression with their "Last Stand"-ability. They even sent away Beeping Brawlers with robot tears down their chrome, leaving smoking scrap behind.

"*Beep beep* back to the depot."

The offensive wasn't going that great. We made a mistake and had to reroll my (for once) great roll, that would have killed that damn mortar section, but alas, now only suppressing them (and also killing a member).

"You want a piece of my Lhurgg @&&!? Here's Johnny!"

On the right flank, Blue Bandits and the newly reinforcing Mikoyan gave Red Recruits enough to send them running, with no chance to recover. Blue Bandits also showed their private parts, a tradition of high reverence.

Lieutenant Glavnyy maybe looks like a Tier 2 Captain Staya, but do not judge the... dog by its hair... i.e. he sucks.

Fire was traded between our units on the left. Lieutenant Glavnyy entered the battle, make use of his Command ability to activate more units at the time, which was crucial to keep Joels units suppressed. Otherwise he would got the +2 Firepower from the hill, nasty indeed. Further up, Joel had destroyed both Gurevich and Mikoyan, a sad day indeed, while his mortar section was still licking wounds. The later was great for me, since I went from having a great spot to seize the victory, to now having a grim looking one... Every hit was counted for, nails were bitten, sweat (could have been) pouring.

It's getting cramped on the hill to use the hill bonus ;) On the right, you can see the (in)famous 14th Colonial Irregulars, that withstood an whole arsenal some games ago, scary indeed!

Exchanging fire, between friend and irregulars. Blue Bandits lost the firefight. Luck may have a big impact on small skirmishes in the game, but it gets pretty even during a whole game. It makes things unpredictable, in a good way! Keeps things interesting!

With no other option, and needing every suppression point to turn the tide, Lieutenant Glavnyy charges with his dog, Dog. They did inflict some much needed suppression but was then wiped out... :( Such a promising carrier, lost. I'm talking about the dog.

With most of my units either wiped out or breaking, I was routed once more. The Kicking Kepis, with the battle trauma Cowards, was able to withstand many attacks! It's kind of weird that every unit with low defense and/or morale are miraculously protected. The guarding angel of noobs, I guess.

Joel gained a lot of levels, as usual. He rolled a 4 for winnings, and I rolled a 1... having lost units for 3 kUC I was stone-broke, again. Gee. And, we did realize that you couldn't make drone units out of "ordinary units" (misinterpretation of the rules) so I disbanded Beeping Brawlers for now. We are really trying to get our companies to Tier 3, but the road is long... We even added a "bonus" every 5th game, that we did retroactive, giving me an additional 9 kUC. Maybe I'll get some Tier 3 engineers!

Until next time! Za Sickles!

Rise of the Lhurggs

So, the gaming community is changing the floor so we can't play for a while. At least I get some painting done! I gave the Lhurgg leaders different colors on the swords to easily from distance see which unit it is. I got enough leaders so I can have different colors for all squads, and also two leaders with the same color on their swords to indicate a Tier II unit.

The Lhurggs! The next batch (got 18 left...) are going to be brown and yellow-like. Also, we can see some progress of the second mecha and my new drones.

To paint or not to paint

So, I've been painting some models. I almost got like 30-40 done, they only need some grass on the base. I also ordered some more miniatures today... some units that can act as Tier 3+ infantry (both Lhurgg and human) and a Tier 3+ tank.

These models (below) from http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/ actually belongs to some lion-like race, but as they wear armour they can double as undercover Lhurgg veteran/elite infantry. Rawr!

Picture of the Khurasan miniatures that will act as Lhurggs. I will paint mine purple, the Lhurgg colour.

Engineers! They got hazmat suits that I try to cover as some kind of armour. The blue details are to separate them from ordinary squads from distance.

Elsa and Anna... characters for some kind of future scenario. Never highlighted dresses and breasts before, hmm. Also, to the right, the Lhurgg mecha, done and done! In the background, some new drones!

Gurevich and Mikoyan, my Tier 1 drone patrol vehicles. Different basing should make them easy to identify.

That's all!

Maybe me and Joel will play this week. At least we are preparing to demo the game for the community, yupp yupp.

Za Sickles!

Sickles, game 6 - The Hunt for Red Relic

Yesh miss Moneypenny...

The God of Wealth has once again called upon the Sickles to (hopefully this time also actually succeed) act as a tool of war. Not far away from the recent battle rumors has it that there is some kind of relics from an unknown maker in the vicinity. The mission; to find and secure. The Sickles makes haste since they know that the (blasted) Varuna Legion also operates in the area, full of confidence (and without trauma points...), yet to broken.

Captain Staya assort the strike team personally, if you want anything done - do it yourself. Some Lhurgg units are mustered alongside troopers from the Sickles, despite some of those units surely needs some R&R to lick their wounds.

The Sickles' strike force.

Captain Staya brought to the fray:

• Himself (Field Command 3rd Grade, Tier II)!
• Bullet Bullies (Rookie Rifle Team, Tier II), new unit!
• Velocity Vintovkas (Rookie Rifle Team, Tier II), was in the last battle and has 5 trauma. They sure need some rest!
• Kicking Kepis (Recruits, Tier I)
• Tribal Tribute (Lhurgg Irregular Troops, Tier I)
• Swift Swords (Lhurgg Irregular Troops, Tier I)
• Beeping Brawlers (Drone Recruits, Tier I), chrome and shine!
• Ground Gagarin (Remote Mortar Section, Tier II)

The force of the Varuna Legion.

They were opposed by the Varuna Legion, consisting off:

• Red Skulls Assault Team (Irregular Troops, Tier I), with Adrenaline Rush (once per game, two actions instead of one)
• Black Team (Rookie Rifle Team, Tier II)
• Blue Team (Rookie Rifle Team, Tier II)
• Fort Vega Cadets (Recruits, Tier I), with Amazing Stamina (+1 Move).
• Grenadier Team (Grenadiers Team, Tier II)
• LMG Section (Light MG Section, Tier II)
• M5 (Heavy Patrol Vehicle, Tier II)

Scenario setup, table, deployment and turn 1-2

Table setup. The three grey small... "monoliths" were the objectives. The Sickles deployed, from left to right. Beeping Brawlers, Ground Gagarin, Swift Swords, Kicking Kepis and Tribal Tribute, a total of 6 composition points.

The scenario indicates that we would fight over the control over three objectives. During this game, a unit may use a special action (forfeiting any other action) to check the objective, as "there can be only one!", as Highlander taught us. Anyway, first check is on 5+ for being the objective that we are looking for, rendering a +1 modifier on any checks on the remaining two. The force holding the objective can't be routed and win at game end (which could end from turn 12 and on).

In the rules there are some, in our opinion, inconsequential rules regarding number of units, composition points (for fielding units) and unit tiers. We made a house rule to Always use any of these restrictions bound to compositions points (i.e. reinforcements, determine number of units to deploy, rout etc.). Easy, and in most cases the most fair way to do it, if you ask us at least.

Anyways...

The Varuna Legion fielded their LMG section on the Sickles far right flank, the M5 patrol vehicle in the center (replacement for the loss of the one prior to this battle, a unit which had Incendiary rounds) and the Black Team on the Sickles far left flank.

OAll in all, all units moved forward at high pace to get to the objectives. The M5 covered one objective, locking the Sickles right flank. The LMG section got into position to cover the M5 but still stayed in reach for the closest objective. Black Team secured the second objective on the Varuna Legions side of the table. The Sickles moved all units forward, using the terrain as cover. Swift Swords moved towards the one, and only, objective on their side of the table. Ground Gagarin, found line of sight and started shelling Black Team, sadly to no effect. May the God of Dices not have abandoned me once again!

"No problem Mr. M5, we cover your metal @!#"

"Show us your best shot Ground Gagarin!"

"Incoming! Move move move!"

Turn 3
First reinforcements arrived. Bulliet Bullies in the center for the Sickles (finally some quality troops eh?) while the Varuna Legion deployed Fort Vega Cadets on the Sickles far left, facing Beeping Brawlers, but also the Red Skulls Assault Team in the center.

Alas, the Varuna Legion got the initiative and checked the objective close to Black Team, and it was relic we were fighting for! The Varuna Legion got into defence, while the Sickles now had to mount an attack and claim what is, somewhat, (at least should be) rightfully theirs!

Ground Gagarin sets up in a building to cover the right flank, forcing the varunian LMG section to redeploy. To the right; Bullet Bullies!

The main bulk of the Varuna Legion, also shows how close the advancing Lhurgghs from Swift Swords are to the Black Team on the other side of the forest. Who can't see each other

Another view of the battlefield. On the far side of the forest to the left, you can see the flanking Lhurrghs from Tribal Tribute.

These actually are the droids we are looking for. Here waiting for the Fort Vega Cadets to make the first move, who are doing vice versa. Both units spent most of the time waiting for a good moment to push forward.

Fire was exchanged on the right flank. Ground Gagarin was scratching the paintjob on the M5, which seemed to helped Kicking Kepis in the building to find their target. They scored a perfect hit, dealing 7 damage to the M5 which was put out of action (we had no wool for this game, yet again, so a radioactive die symbol got to make do for the knocked out vehicle. As an act of revenge the varunian LMG section returned fire and knocked Kicking Kepis to smithereens, falling back with  no chance of regrouping (since I failed all the rolls to regroup, haha). A good trade for me (Tier I for a Tier II)!

It also gained me an additional advantage since I now had far more units (almost the double) than my opponent Joel. Since he was on the defence, I could wait and see what he would do first, acting and thus reacting later with most units.

Turn 4-5
It was now pretty obvious how the battlefield was molded. The left flank had some kind of Mexican standoff between the Fort Vega Cadets in the forest and the Beeping Brawlers behind the hill, a stalemate. On the right losses were mounting as Kicking Kepis was retreating off the board and the M5 was just a pile of metal and burning smoke. The Lhurggh unit, Tribal Tribute moved from cover to cover and avoided fire for a long time, still locking the right flank. Joel sent in reinforcements, Blue Team to protect the LMG section.

Outside the so important 2" from the edge, and therefore hidden from scary machine guns!

Next cover! Getting ready to valiantly attack the LMG section. Their comrades, Hard Hoofs, did it some games ago with... a disappointing result. Good luck guys! Raff raff!

Then something incredible happened! Joel saw a miss in my placement behind the hill and repositioned the LMG section to open fire, and got 7 hits! Ouch! Bye bye... and then... so many 1:s. Gosh! Jeez! Come again? Only 3? 3 suppression from 7 hits? Okey then.

They didn't even got pinned (remember the 14th colonials? They also did this trick, apparently armour is not needed). What did I do? I hit back! Up on the hills, guns blazing and seconds later (and some rolls) the LMG section lost a member and was broken! The Lhurggh (as a whole) first achievement!

The erm... reinforcement, then beat back the Tribal Tribute killing three and giving them 12 suppression, but I was proud! Dang, I was proud!

"You wanna live forever!? Let's kill some Lhurggs!"

So what's happening on the left flank?

Chillin' in the forest, Swedish style. The standoff continues.

One forest to rule them all
So a lot of action took place in the middle, near of the objective (as it should!). It was very exciting since the forest made all support useless but still cut off reinforcements to enter the area. So far a very good game indeed!

Since the Velocity Vintovkas and Captain Stoya was deployed in the middle and advancing towards the forest in the center, Joel deployed his last units in the middle. The Grenadiers Team. He also activated the Red Skulls Assault Team which allowed him to fire at point blank range!

And roll 1. Giving 1 suppression. The battle for the middle forest had some trouble since every unit had +2 Defence and we rolled awfully bad, both of us.

Sometimes tactics don't cut the deal! Now, time to seize the opportunity of attack!

Joel repositioned the fast(er) Fort Vega Cadets to aid the center, but was caught in a hail of fire from Ground Gagarin indirect fire, thus using their speed to quickly leave the battlefield. Beep beep! Beeping Brawlers advanced to flank the varunian defenders of the objective.

Overview of the battle. The Sickles "elite" troops advanced while Captain Staya shouted orders.

Captain Staya (and Ground Gagarin, with their pistols!) fired upon the retreated Swift Swords to "convince" them to return back, to no effect. But they rallied anyway so they didn't seem to mind... maybe it's some kind of alien culture thing.

Captain Staya also orders his troops forward with the Command Ability, giving me the momentum.

"Holy sh!t, it's a whole other company!"

With the momentum, and more units and got the upper hand in the middle. Joel still had the Blue Team and the now rallied LMG section, but they were out of position to aid their allies. That's 4 of Joels 12 composition points, a great deal!

I broke the Black Team and assaulted them, killing all! No quarters is given! Beeping Brawlers caught the Grenadiers Team in the open, breaking their morale. As the Varuna Legion wasn't holding the objective any more, they were routed. The Sickles won! Their first win in the campaign!

"Fall back! The red tide is coming!"

It felt very good to win! Firstly, I got some well needed funds and experience and not that much trauma. Now, some of Joels units needs respite and he also lost two Tier II units this game. This will also give me some breathing room. It also feels good to actually giving my opponent a rough time, it's not fun to always lose, or win!. Great game all in all! It seems that PMC2640 always gives great games, huh!

Yes, we are all psyched about this game :D

The surviving units of the Varuna Legion; the remnants of the LMG section and Blue Team.

For the 10 kUC I bought some new units. A new Tier II patrol vehicle (my third), a Lhurggh Tier II nomad unit (from the expansion, they got stealth!) and a Tier I HQ. The Tier I HQ don't have the Inspiring Presence, increasing the odds to rally, but they cost half as much and still lets me activate the "Not a step backwards!" company ability. I need to try that out!

No levels ups for my units yet, but at least no battle traumas! Joels Red Skulls Assault Team got "Into the shadows", giving them the stealth ability, a very scary combo indeed. Lurking for the right momentto strike!


Za Sickles.