Comes the metal man, looming in the dark.
In our last mad escapade, we actually went step-by-step through how to create tokens and content for the game in Fusion 360, Adobe Illustrator, and ultimately got them into Tabletop Simulator. Along the way we translated the stats for the supporting mecha into Hammer & Anvil, which took a little thinking and losing a bit of detail. Now it's time to get back into the game itself.
Our plucky band of madmen have been resupplied, their order is issued, and a few thoughts have slipped from their lips to land in our ears and tell us what they think of the matter. Now it's time for the heat to truly be on, and the Steinler PDF to bravely – hold the line while other people escape?
Well, how could that possibly go wrong?
We'll probably go through the board set up and configuration today and start with actual play in the next update. This could end up being more photo heavy that I might otherwise want.
Setup
We're going to be running a Defend Mission. That gives us some rather clear instruction.
Objective
We're actually going to modify the one in HA because it's a little more interesting.
Your objective is to hold off the Hishen attack as long as possible, then perform a fighting withdrawal. You cannot begin to withdraw before turn 5!
("So, basically, you want us to do the one thing we've proven we can do, sir?" "Yes, except this time try not to kill the mercs with you while you do it!")
To be successful, you must preserve and escape with at least half of your force, while inflicting at least equal casualties on the enemy.
("Do the mercs count, sir?" "As much as they bloody cost us, Lieutenant, they better damn well count!")
Forces
- The Gaea's Worst C-2/1, or what's left of them, running as a reinforced mechanized infantry platoon.
Assault Team of mecha attached to the C-2/1 from The Hungry. (If any of them survive, maybe they'll even get names and proper stats!)
Converted in from: The Hungry: Combined Arms Free Company Mercenaries and Extended Rules For Cross-THW-5150-System Integration
Assault Team
- Assault Leader: Bullhorn
- Assault Mech: Disturbance
- Assault Mech: Disturbance
- Assault Leader: Bullhorn
Mech Design: Bullhorn
Mech platoon commanders have a very particular set of requirements. Their armaments can't be so heavy that they're tempted to engage in line combat more aggressively than their soldiers, but as promoted and skilled individuals, they require additional protection to preserve them long enough to continue to command their men. The Bullhorn is not suitable for every engagement; sometimes it's better not to call attention to those in command for fear of sniping or decapitation attacks. Other environments can profit from an up-armoured lieutenant (or even, on occasion, sergeant squad commanders in hostile environs). The Bullhorn concentrates armour protection on the pilot-protecting head and chest areas while providing enough beam support to allow the commander to help engage in direct fires. The "Lieut's Boot," a reinforced foot with a several-metre-long retractable spike at the toe, is the traditional mech serviceman's threat: "Better get that refurb done on the Noize or you'll get the Lieut's Boot up your arse!"
| Mech | Front | Rear | APR | MG | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bullhorn | 7 | 3 | 6b | - | 16 |
+1 Rep in Melee
+1 Rep for In Sight
Mech Design: Disturbance
Some mecha earn a reputation as true disruptions when they appear on the battlefield, and the Disturbance is one of the most readily recognized. Looming over most of the other mecha in its class, this metal behemoth uses it's long, lanky legs and high-mounted arms to dual-mount heavy beam cannons and snipe from extended ranges with significant damage. Disturbance pilots are often considered to manifest the worst of the traditional mercenary personality traits: cocky, insufferably arrogant, and about as trust-worthy as an underfed Hishen. Some have taken to painting their rides in bright, garish colours to proclaim their lack of fear of any enemy.
| Mech | Front | Rear | APR | MG | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disturbance | 10 | 5 | 12b | - | 8 |
+1 Rep for In Sight
Terrain
And now back to SA to look at the map generation.
Except… You know, I never noticed that Star Army 2nd Tour really didn't have a terrain generation system it! I've been filling in from memory from a bunch of other THW games, including others in the 5150 series, and it just never occurred to me to stare at the section in SA2T and notice there's no actual generation system.
And there's not one in HA, either! All their scenarios are pregenerated with maps, so that's not much help here.
Luckily, I have 5150: No Quarter! On page 20 of NQ, we have a very traditional THW-style terrain generation system. We'll go with that one.
(If you're playing with someone else, the terrain generator in SA2T is quite nice – all it does is let you randomly decide who is going to place the terrain, attacker or defender, tell you how many pieces of terrain you can put on the table, let you do so as you desire, and then let the other side pick which side of the map they want to be theirs. It's extremely straightforward and simple, but not really great for solo play.)
So, the short version here is that we divide the map into nine sections, laid out like a telephone button grid. Number one is in the upper left, number nine is in the bottom right, and that's going to be how we essentially layout things within the table.
Like so!
Then we determine the overall terrain type of the battlefield by rolling a d6.
Where did I put a d6?
We are going to use random.org today because we are not quite to the point I need to pull out Tabletop Simulator and I'm just too lazy to reach behind me, grabbed a huge gaming bag, and dig through for some d6s. Which, I know, is terribly sad.
That gives us the Clear type, which is probably going to suck for the poor infantry teams, but it won't be so bad for the mecha who really like having long, lean lines of sight. The Sprint APCs, well ... That's a different thing altogether. With no real AT capacity beyond their squishy leg-types, it's going to be hard to shoot-'n-scoot.
From here on, it's simple. We roll one D6 for each of the nine sections, do a little look up on a table, and then realize that whatever we roll up, 75% or more of that section is occupied by that kind of terrain.
Ultimately, it turns into a little bit of a graphics rendering problem, with each square representing a pixel. Use whatever terrain that you have or can put together, make similar terrain in neighboring cells touch or merge, and ultimately you'll have a reasonably plausible, procedurally generated board.
In a tabletop game!
Let's just bang out nine dice and see how they fall.
Reading left to right:
- Clear
- Hill
- Clear
- Hill
- Hill
- Clear
- Clear
- Clear (with 1/2 d6 = 2.5 buildings)
- Clear
That was unexpected. There's a lot more hill on this clear terrain than I thought we were going to get. Ultimately, that's going to keep the poor remnants of C company alive a lot longer. Okay, maybe slightly longer.
The absence of woodland is going to be a serious crimp in the style of anyone who wants to use some cover for firing on the advancing enemy, for good or ill. Maybe we can put one of the infantry teams in the back in one of the buildings for extra cover?
For the sake of saving time, we'll go back to F360 and use some of the systems that we already have there to make the map, and then we will render it from above like we did with the mecha in order to get something useful that we can put on the tabletop!
I'm not going to walk you through this step-by-step because I've already described to the basic procedure in a previous post, but if there is interest, let me know below in the comments and I will consider how to maybe do a "doing rough terrain from scratch in F360" post at some point in the future.
The buildings in the South are dead in the center of our insertion zone, so it makes sense for us to set up a defense on the west side, pushed up to the hill itself in order to use that line of approach for cover. Hopefully we can hold them there, and at least some of the support can be useful in the buildings.
Despite the lovely wood texture, we'll assume that these are some half decently protected concrete buildings and have a Defense Value of three AP.
Deployment
- Our forces start in sections 1, 2, 3 or any combination.
- After our forces are placed on the board, A PEF each is placed in Sections 7, 8, and 9, and one additional PEF is placed in Sector 1d6+3 (4 - 9).
- PEFs will be resolved as on HA page 36, using the PEF Resolution -- Mission 6 Table.
Special Instructions
There may be Inclement Weather. On a (1), consult NQ page 28 and roll on the Inclement Weather Table.
("Oh, that's exactly what we need. Remember that planet where it rained acid all day? Glad I'm not a squishie."
"You are a squishie now, Angel."
"Well. Shit.")
Mission: Love Isn't Always on Time
PDF Deployment
And there we go, imported into the square table layout that we use for this particular set up.
Don't be fooled, this is still a flat image and not a set of models on the table – and that is actually by design. As I discovered last game, moving chits around on top of physical terrain can be kind of a pain in the butt. While this won't be quite as pretty as the last table, it should make it easier to trace line of sight and the like.
This was my original thought on deployment; put both APCs behind a building to unload their infantry into the building, providing them a measure of protection for their AT deployment, prepare the light tank to push up to the top of the ridge to use it for cover, and deploy the mecha on the east, using the concrete buildings for cover as they provide defensive fires.
But you see what is wrong with this deployment?
It's on the wrong side of the table! Our defensive deployment position is in Sections 7, 8, and 9 – the opposite side of the battlefield. Where there is almost no cover except for the ridge line.
This is going to take some thinking differently.
The new plan looks more like this:
The new plan of attack is more of a moving defense. The mecha will flank West, providing an aggressive screen to the APCs which will not drop their precious cargo until they get up to the sides of the buildings, the Baby providing attack firepower as they come over the ridge.
We know that there will be at least three PEFs to resolve, spread roughly across the rear line, but we may be able to control the time of engagement by using the ridge to break line of sight. (The line drawn on to the top represents the crest, within one unit being considered in cover/hull down to things on the other side.)
There will be a wild PEF out there somewhere, and in theory it could be right on top of us, but this is a good first order.
Okay, it's a tolerable first-order. I hate hanging my ass out here in the breeze with no cover, but you don't always get to choose how life decides to give you a solid screwing.
In that sense, wargaming is one of the best ways to learn coping skills.
PEF Deployment
This is pretty straightforward, as the Mission demands that one PEF exist in Sections 1, 2, and 3. An additional d6 is rolled for a 1, which we add three to and discover there is another PEF in Section 4.
Because the PEF in Section 4 must be deployed out of line of sight if possible, it gets tucked in slightly east and behind the hill.
Depending on how that results in, this could be very ugly, indeed.
But there's no help for it now!
Epilogue
If we get really lucky – really, really lucky – that first PEF will resolve to nothing, or just a couple of units, which we then get the jump on with a good In Sight Test, blow it to kingdom come, and then push on to our defensive positions at the top of the hill and down into the buildings.
If we get really, really unlucky… This could get hideous. If it turns out to be a group of heavy tanks, we could be looking at an even quicker replay of the last mission.
Looking at things on the table, I definitely get the feeling I should have put more contrast into the mecha chit design, but I really want to redesign those to be upright figures anyway.
Maybe that will be the topic of the next major post.
For now, we're going to leave things right here, ready to go, just waiting for the Activation dice to get rolled. (You can see them in the background looking at the camera impatiently.)
Until then, keep your head down, your rifle clean, and a good mercenary company on speed dial!