Operation Jungle Heat - A Stargrave Alley mini campaign - Part 1

The recent run of Stargrave games has sent me down a right rabbit hole, we started chatting about how a well trained faction would fare against local NPC's and next thing you know we are mashing together Stargrave and Ambush Alley for a days gaming...

John Riddick got the call at 07.00 A renowned scientist in the field of FTL hyper drives and his team on were intercepted and forced to the surface of a far flung moon. The professor had a close protect team but the ambush was surgical. Within three minutes the entire detail was dead and the professor and his team were gone.

The bad press of a precision snatch and grab would be bad enough, but the professors know how could give any of the numerous off worlders the edge.

It took less than 8 hours to track down the professor thank heavens for the bio-chip to a jungle camp on the darkside of Garak 6. A known stronghold of the Silvaro clan. The Silvaro clan were a low tech bunch of minor criminals and savengers. Major Damitrius virtual image filled the room, that's the place troopers, when you get there, go in rocking and don't bother knocking.

A simple hostage rescue. In and out, no fuss.

Mission Brief

Riddick's team has been tasked with rescuing him and his team. The strike force must quickly infiltrate the neighbourhood rapidly neutralize resistance in the target building and secure the hostage for either a hover ship or ground evacuation.

The Silvaro clan start with 4 squads each made up of 5 Small Arms and 1 support weapon either a rocket launcher or Heavy Machine Gun. Together with 4 hot spots which would generate additional bad guys whenever any of the players triggered an initiative roll of less than 4 

Roll	Reinforcements
2	1 Rocket Launcher
3	1D3 Small Arms + Co-Pilot
4	1D3 Small Arms
5	1 Heavy Machine Gun
6	1D3 Small Arms + Heavy Machine Gun
7	1D3 Small Arms + Rocket Launcher
8	1D6 Small Arms
9	1D3 Small Arms + ROLL AGAIN
10	1 Heavy Machine Gun
11	1D6 Small Arms + Co Pilot + Rocket   Launcher
12	Jeep + Heavy Weapon

Riddick leads his Reapers up the main road, he orders his squads to skirt the shacks and positions his heavy weapons team to target the first of the hot spots.

The clan get a wake up call as a rocket round lands amongst them.

Riddick was supported by a local detachment of Garak troopers, the blue helmets who had been on the back foot for months and were pleased to be supported by such a fine unit of military superstars.

As the turns ticked by more and more clan members filled the table. 

The first hot spot is cleared and the rescue team head further up the table. The clock was ticking, we had 3 hours to get in and grab the boffin.

The second hot spot would be a tougher nut to crack, a sandbag emplacement filled with clan members armed with carbines and heavy weapons. Riddick ordered the local security forces to deal with these whilst he went for the prof.

In true hollywood fashion Riddick's missileman popped up and firer an AP round it ripped into the truck in the compound scattering a number of the guards.

Riddick popped smoke and his men rushed to cover the vehicle park.

Riddick hunkered down behind the skip, he was in touching distance of the professor but the fire from the clan members was intense.  Riddick had to watch as the professor was dragged away.

Very frustrating. Riddick's team had missed their target by 10 mins and a few meters. 

Lunch...... Now to get the hell out of dodge.......

Project Red Phoenix - Reinforcements

Well they never made it to the table in time for the game.

However the recent breakout game did prompt me to finish these from the box of shame.

North and South Headquarter stands. I can't recall where the tent came from but it was a useful addition to the Northern HQ along with the spare BTR60 that was lying around in the box.

A mass of infantry bases for both North and South

K1 Heavy Tanks, finally something with a little punch to counter the mass of T55's and T62's.

Transports. The BTR's are new straight out of the blister pack, I have my suspicions that M113's have been drop casted, the detail is a little too soft and the metal has a different feel to what I know to be originals. I do wonder how many fakes are out there?

Then finally heavy artillery SP Guns the K9 Thunder perhaps a touch too modern only coming into service around 1998. These 155mm Guns should help bolster the Southern defences.

To counter that WW2 era North Korean Rocket Batteries, what they lack in accuracy they make up in the sheer volume of rounds that can be put into any fire mission. 

Not a bad effort and nice to have cleared the decks of all the left overs.

Project Red Pheonix - Break Out.

Despite holding up the initial North Korean assault 24 hours earlier. Further armoured columns have broken through across the entire frontier and were making deep thrusts towards the prize of Seoul. The pace of the advance surprised the South Korean and US high command and meant many of the allied units were cut off and bypassed, left to be dealt with by the lesser divisions following up.

One such trust found one NK division trapped between the still effect southern defences near Seoul and several retreating units falling back from the DMZ. The retreating south Korean divisions now engaged in a desperate action to break through the forward Kim units to link up with the defenders still holding Seoul.

The South Koreans must exit at least 50% of their units from the Eastern Table edge.

The North Koreans win a major victory if no imperialists exit the board, a minor victory if less than half escape.

Despite a road running through the centre of the table the Southern Armour rushes down the left flank of the table, the North Korean Units were hidden, so taking no chances the south plasters the forward most farm in thick smoke.

The NK high command calls in his limited air support looking to stall the advancing armour.

The southern armour reaches the earth mounds of the paddy fields, still unsure what they were facing they call forward the infantry to flush out the defenders.

Meanwhile in the centre the Fox Armoured cars rush forwards tempting the defenders to reveal themselves, AP rounds and HMG's blazed away but the little Foxes held their ground.

Kim's forces rushed back from the front to stem the advancing southern forces.

The infantry charge through the smoke only to unearth a recon unit, the southern amour skirts the farm needed to speed up, what an unnecessary delay for a bunch of scouts.

Southern infantry flank the defenders looking to flush them out of the farm, this was taking far to long. 

The southern armour reached the road when the shells started to land, 155mm shells burst amongst the medium tanks, the thin top armour was no protection and two of the lead section brewed up.

Time had run out and with the blocking force now heading into town the window to escape had closed.

Another loss for the south,

A fun encounter, cross country was not a good choice, whilst skirting the bulk of the NK blinds was a good move the lack of speed allowed the Kim's to redeploy and block the advance.

The revised artillery and air power rules worked well which gave a good balance between attack and defence. I might speed up future games by increasing the unit sizes for the infantry from a section to a company.

Project Red Phoenix - a venture into the box of shame.....

Nothing helps drive down the painting queue than knowing you are a few units short and a game fast approaching.

Another modern Korea outing.... and glimpse into the box of shame. I forgot these were still there, the last of the infantry for both sides, some brand new Katyusha rockets and some heavy southern armour plus some dodgy M113's which I brought off e-bay that looked to be drop casted and a rip off of GHQ models.

A fine day for under coating.

No pressure then.

Baccus Pony Wars - 7th Cavalry.

This project is definitely back to front, but is making steady progress, having completed the casualties and horse holders and then more recently the dismounted Infantry now comes the mounted 7th cavalry. Based for Sharp Practice but equally transferrable to the latest Pony Wars Rules.

They still need a little more flock on the bases but are largely complete, 4-8 units of the 7th ready to take the fight to the Indians.

I did think about a column of 2's and having the bases run length ways, but working at scale I think I can get away with 4 figures to a frontage and they still look the part in a column snaking across the plains.

The officers/big men include buglers and standards on a single base for the ease of deployment and use on the tabletop.

Next up the first of the Indians. 

Song Chinese vs Zombies - An Infamy Infamy Encounter

Inspiration for a game can come from a number of areas.... but this one is rather odd, back in lockdown one I went through a spate of watching East Asian drama's on Netflix - a real cracker was the Korean Zombie series - Kingdom. How pleased to see that a further installment had landed in the last few weeks with Ashin of the North.

Next thing you know we are throwing down some terrain to crash together the Water Margin and Elizabethan projects to pit the Song Chinese against waves of undead.... This post is definitely not for the purist in the blogosphere.

The Prefect had orders to escort the Imperial Princess across the table, he had heard rumors amongst the peasantry of  disappearances and brutal killings. He selected the size of his escort in the full knowledge that his opponent will matching him point for point.

A mixed force of bannermen, local militia, Palace Guard and a could of minor heroes for good measure.

A slow start the accompanying Oxen and Grain supplied wandered up the road only to be confronted by a mass of undead.

Steak was on the menu the wagon was unable to turn around and the dead clawed at the Ox flesh, the distraction allowed the escort party to swing right.

Heading east to skirt the village the bannermen deployed in front of the paddy fields as some the dead started to shamble towards them. The dead reached the spearmen and bow men but were quickly dispatched, the living quick to kill anyone of there brethren that had been infected.

More and more of the risen were summoned by the evil wizards blocking the escort parties path.

The Palace Guard ploughed into the decaying mass, they lost several of their number but fought on.

On the right flank the the evil wizards called forward their temple guard who were peppered with missile fire as then entered the open ground.

Black Bull saw his moment and rushed forwards striking down the warlock.

With blood lust he swung his mighty club carving a path through the deceased who were summoned by one of the remaining priests in revenge for their recent loss.

The dead were running out of bodies and the path to the bridge was open.

A really fun encounter and great to get some of the toys on the table, having the undead largely controlled by reaction tests makes it easy to play as a semi-coop type game with everyone on the same side, in groups of 5 they are easily dispatched but like many a good movie plot don't get caught by hundreds or you will be swamped.

This has the makings of a really fun club night game.

Pony Wars - 7th Cavalry deployed.

Finally the business end of the project and the 7th Cavalry take to the field. The plan is to use them for an adapted version of Sharp Practice and/or the re-released Pony Wars Rules.

With 6 figures to a base, each base represents a section of cavalry fighting as Irregular skirmishers within sharp practice when on foot.

Big men are based on a small Flames of War command stand with a built in bugler and standard bearer.

The good thing about 6mm as despite the initial mass, once finished I have 8 units complete, a great starting point for any outing. Now for the mounted versions.

Adding in the horse holders and wound/shock stands this is what an individual section should look like or perhaps a company depending on the scale of battle I was looking to play out.

The sabots look really nice next to the units and hopefully keep the volume of table top clutter down to the minimum.

Now the pressure is really on as the re-released 1980's rules landed this morning. The text and layout is largely unchanged with a number of the original line drawings kept in and pic's from the early miniature wargames magazines. Wonderful stuff.

The inclusion of the event cards does cut down on the effort required to set up the game.

A nice touch providing a guide to a typical layout.

My original copy is long gone but the latest version whilst retaining all of the original charm has a clear and clean layout however a quick flick through reminds me of the need for several more packs of Indians and Cavalry, not forgetting the lone ranger of course.

Next up the mounted cavalry.