AAR: SA5150: A Surprising Day Patrolling

I've had the Star Army:5150 rules for a while now and been wanting to try them out.  I was particularly intrigued with the solo play aspect of it (and the fact it'd be over in 2hrs was a good selling point too!).  So I printed out the pdf, put a few bulldog clips on it to hold it all together and gave it a whirl.

I'll start off by saying that I didn't strictly adhere to every rule.  I ignored some (defended structures for example), modified others (Man Down test) and invented my own (the advanced combat rifle didn't have a suitable entry so I made it up).

The MNU PMC will count as 'Star Army'- and are armed with ACRs (advanced combat rifles- shoot like an assault rifle but hit like a laser rifle).  

The Prawn Militia will count as 'Planetary Defence Force' but with a campaign morale of 3.  

CAMPAIGN SETTING: District 10: AO Buffel

Campaign Morale: 

MNU PMC: "Ark-Light Company"- Morale 3 and Contesting

Prawn Militia: "Talon Battatlion"- Morale 3 and Controlling

Investment Level:

MNU PMC: 3

Prawn Militia: 3 

Ark-Light PMC: Zulu Platoon: Call-sign "21A"

Klotz and his fire team

Star (Squad leader): Lt. Klotz - Rep 5, Star Power, Larger than life, Cheating death, Free will

Monaghan and his fire team

Assistant Squad Leader: Sgt. Monaghan- Rep 4

Squad (remainder): Rep 4

{As a side note- when determining the Squad Reputation, I rolled a 5 on the D6.  Thinking that might make the grunts a little too good, I referred to the quick reference page on the Star Army and found a random allocation of reputation for a generic squad just from a D6 roll.  In this case, rolling a '5' meant that the squad had a Rep 4}.

The PEF counters were determined to have a rep of 4, 6, 6.  Gulp!

MISSION SETTING- PATROL

Weather roll: 

  Inclement weather during the whole mission but aircraft can fly.  (Not that it mattered because there was no air support on station).

Aerial Recon roll:

  Unsuccessful.  

Intelligence roll:

  Good intel.  (In hindsight- I actually did this wrong!  Oh well- I'll do it again proper next mission!)

Force Allocation:

1 Squad with zero Assets.

Insertion: 

Walking in.

MAP and SETUP

I used a little board as my battleground and divided it evenly into six parts.  1, 2, 3 was given to the top half (from left to right) and 4, 5, 6 was given to the bottom half (again L to R).

I set up the terrain as I liked- aiming for a sort of claustrophobic cramped town atmosphere and then allocated the PEF (potential enemy force) counters randomly (rolled a D6).

Green counter = Point of insertion, PEFs in the top half of the board

My insertion roll earned me a '4'- meaning I was walking on at the bottom left.  Luckily well away from the PEF counters.

GAME

Finally!  After consulting a what felt like a zillion or so tables, it was time to play the game.  Exciting stuff!

It started well.  The PMC patrol walked onto the map as two discrete fire teams of four men each.  Lt. Klotz led one team down the side of a building, keeping it as cover between his team and those potential hostiles.  Sgt. Monaghan's team, though, failed to activate.  

Patrol down an alleyway catches sight of a PEF

PEF resolves as nothing!

As Klotz's team made their way down the alleyway- they spotted one of the PEFs.  Contact imminent!  With his ACR up in the shoulder he peered forward- False alarm.  Just a case of nerves.  Phew!

PEF Activation- one comes into view.

Unfortunately for Sgt. Monaghan's hapless squad, another PEF moved into view.... And resolves itself into a prawn squad and attached asset- a heavy machine gun on a Defensive mission.  Uh-oh!

Prawn squad and 1 asset (Heavy machine gun).

Firefight ensues!

Sgt. Monaghan's fire team passes their In Sight test and opens fire on the prawn squad- wounding three Out of the fight.  The RPG- despite only wounding one prawn- Outgunned the prawn squad causing the remaining prawns to Duck back.  

The HMG opens up!

Monaghan's fire team wasn't going to get away so easily.  They had neglected to engage the Prawn HMG which now hosed them with grim efficiency.  A storm of rounds splashed around them- hitting three of the soldiers.  One was killed outright- the high velocity round punching through the unfortunate soldier's helmet.  Two others were wounded badly- rendered Out of the fight.  

3 men hit!

Luckily- despite the hail of rounds Monaghan was only forced to Duck back into cover.  

Ducked back!

Whilst Monaghan mulled over how he was going to drag his wounded men back into cover, Klotz's fire team was finding their own problems.  

The next turn, the Prawns won the activation and an Enemy PEF moved 16 inches across the board to engage them.   The PEF resolved itself to be another Prawn squad!  The Prawns quickly took up position behind the low wall but it offered them little protection as Klotz's fire team passed their In sight test and opened fire.

PEF resolves!

The humans' fire was deadly.  One prawn was killed scrambling towards cover and another four seriously wounded and Out of the fight.  What little was left of the Prawn squad passed their Received fire test and fired back.

1 KIA, 4 WIA from the Human's first burst of fire!

The Prawn fire landed squarely onto Lt. Klotz- three hits!  He even had to use his Star Power to turn two of those Out of the fight results into Stunned.  Unfortunately I rolled two 6's meaning of the original 5 Star Power 'rescue' dice- those two were removed permanently leaving only 3 'rescue' dice for the rest of the game!

Stunned!

The next turn, the prawns won the activation roll again!  Just as Klotz' fire team contemplated the folly of splitting off from the other fire team- the Prawn squad facing them fled the field.  The Prawns failed their Man down test and then they failed their Cohesion test as well.  Lucky escape! 

Prawns flee the battle- leaving a seriously wounded Prawn behind.

Klotz, now recovered from his Stunned result, leads his fire team to try and flank the main prawn force and their HMG.  Running up to the low wall for cover, they find the wounded prawn left behind.  A quick burst from a combat rifle finished that.  

No quarter given.

Things weren't going very well for the humans as they failed to activate- again.  

The prawn squad holed up in their building failed their Man Down test for being within 4" of a downed friendly and half their number fled the field.  Clearly they felt that fighting humans was best left to the other more militant prawns.  The remainder of the prawn squad spied Sgt Monaghan running out to drag his wounded boys into cover and wounded him too- rendering him Out of the fight.  

The Prawn HMG displaced from their hut overlooking the wounded members of Monaghan's fire team and moved to cover Klotz' attempted flanking manoeuvre.

Displace and cover the flank!

I see you!

Luckily Klotz's team spotted the Prawn team setting up their gun and fired on them- killing the gunner first.  And then as the loader took up the gun their fire killed him too.

HMG team wiped out.

The flank open, Klotz' team jumped the wall, darted across the open ground and broke into the building.  A vicious firefight erupted over the roof top and in the corridors.

Break in!

Firefight erupts.

A prawn was gunned down and another badly wounded for the cost of one KIA human.  This left a single worried Prawn sheltering in cover.  Several turns of fire ensued- with the humans able to suppress the Prawn but unable to land any hits.  

There's only one left- Charge!

Frustrated, the humans charged into close combat.  Unfortunately they rolled badly- returning a fistful of 6's.  (In SA:5150- the lower the roll the better usually).  One of the soldiers was stunned and another wounded.  Close combat is quite a risky proposition!  

One wounded and one stunned- Klotz goes in again!

Klotz darted back into close combat with the last Prawn.  The dice rolls went much better this time- thank goodness- and he emerged victorious.  

Victory!

CONCLUSION
So the prawns lose 1 campaign morale- edging them one step closer to 0.

The initial slowness of flicking from table to table eventually gave way as I got more and more used to the reaction system.  There were a number of rules questions that turned up along the way, so I'll have to either develop my own house rules for them or consult the THW Yahoo forums for some clarification.

Hope you enjoyed reading!