SA5150: AAR: Platoon Attack

Walking into it!

So after a pretty disastrous section patrol into AO Buffel, I decided that the Ark Light Battalion wasn't going to take any further chances.  It's clear that small patrols in SA5150 are likely to get absolutely creamed by even average PEF rolls.  So from now on any operations into District 10 were going to be a lot bigger and more capable.  

The next mission on the agenda following the SA5150 campaign rules was a Platoon Attack.  So Klotzy was taken out of the display cabinet with his mates to duel with some Prawns. 

Firstly, another disclaimer:  I wasn't 100% faithful to the rules of SA5150.  I have listed some of my own rules modifications below:

Star Army Lists:  MNU has learned from it's last forays into District 10, now all patrols will be platoon strength plus.  The Ark Light Battalion platoon structure has 3 sections for general purpose fighting and 1 oversized section for maneuvre support.    

Star Army reaction charts:  both sides use Star Army reaction charts.  The Prawn Talon Battalion has been promoted to "regular" status and will no longer be lowly PDFs.  Both sides wear hard body armour (HB).

Infantry weapons:

Advanced combat rifles (human or alien origin) are standard.  They have the same stats as Laser rifles but are T2 (i.e. 2 attacks). 

RPGs = rocket launchers- fire once per turn only.

SAWs = T4 ACRs

Anti-materiel (Sniper) rifle = stats of a rocket launcher but T1 only and has "targeting"

Blast weapons:

Number of dice rolled to determine "hits" is decided by number of figures under the template.    

BTR-80s:

Counts as wheeled APC (armour value= HB) with "heavy machine gun" main gun and SAW coaxial. 

I modified a few other rules along the way, but these were the main ones.  I'll have a few words in the discussion section after the AAR.

Order of Battle

21 Sunray- Command team- Rep 5

Lt. Klotz, Signaller, Medic (Rep 4), Platoon Sgt.

21A- Assault- Rep 4

Fire team 1: Team Leader, SAW, 2x Riflemen

Fire team 2: Team Leader, 3x Rifleman

21B- Rep 4

Fire team 1: Team Leader, RPG man, SAW, Rifleman

Fire team 2: Team Leader, RPG man, SAW, Rifleman

21C- Rep 3

Fire team 1: Team Leader, RPG man, SAW, Rifleman

Fire team 2: Team Leader, RPG man, SAW, Rifleman

21D- Maneuver Support- Rep 4

Command: Team Leader, Rifleman

Fire team 1: 12.7mm machine gun operator, 2x riflemen

Fire team 2: Mortar operator, 2x riflemen 

Fire team 3: Gatling laser operator, 2x riflemen

20A- Sniper Team- Rep 4

Sniper with AMR (anti-materiel rifle), Spotter

Vehicles:

31: BTR-80  Rep 5

32: BTR-80  Rep 4

33: BTR-80  Rep 4

MAP

MNU advance from the left (West).

The terrain is mostly open with scattered clumps of medium vegetation.  The wild grass does not provide concealment.  

The old mission station of Doornspruit is in the top right (north east)- and is composed a mud walled huts.  The central fields are currently fallow.  

Hill 23 (lower left- south west) is a low rising granite stump devoid of vegetation.  Numerous boulders and crevices provide natural cover.  

SITUATION & MISSION

Attacks on MNU and South African Police "Koevoet" patrols have escalated in recent months.  Sporadic sniper and mortar attacks on patrol bases are now accompanied by clashes with patrols themselves.  Enemy forces are suspected of travelling in small units and then coalescing in predetermined form up points to launch their attacks.      

Mission: 21 will destroy all enemy forces in vicinity of Doornspruit in order to prevent further attacks on MNU patrols in AO Buffel.

DEPLOYMENT

PEFs in the middle of the table

The PEFs appear in sections 4, 5 and 6.  So much for skulking in the village.  This was looking like it was going to be a straight up battle!

21 Sunray and 21B hiding behind the woods.

Klotz deploys with his command team and 21B- a general purpose section- in the cover of the woods to the west of Doornspruit.    

MNU approaches Doornspruit from the west.

The MSS section (21D) deploys to the west of Hill 23.  A BTR deploys with 21D (presumably dropping the section off at the edge of the battle zone).  The Sniper team (20A) is also deployed with them.

The remaining 2 sections are mounted in BTRs in reserve and can enter the battlefield on the friendly table edge on any turn Klotz has won the activation.

BATTLE BEGINS!

TURN 1: Activation: MNU 1, Prawns 1.  Rerolled: MNU 5, Prawns  3.  MNU goes first!

I have to admit I stuffed up here.  MNU does go first, however, only those units with Rep 5 or greater should've been able to be activated.  That means all of the platoon- bar Klotzy's command element- would've been stuck twiddling their thumbs!  Oh well, learned that lesson.

The sniper team was the first to move in the early morning light, sneaking into position on Hill 23.

Sniper team moves into position and spies a PEF!

Spying a PEF across the road, they look closely through their optics and see it resolve as a Rep 4 Prawn walker!  

Light tank, with mini-particle beam and heavy machine gun equivalent.

A single hurried shot from the sniper team missed.  The prawn walker passed 0D6 of his received fire test and simply halted.  It was a lucky day for the sniper duo as they were not likely to do well against the well armed walker.

21D- the MSS section- picks up from its position and climbs to the top of Hill 23.  The position is dominant, affording good fields of fire into Doornspruit.  They spot another PEF in the middle of the fallow fields!

Blurry!- 21D climbs Hill 23.

Which resolves into a Prawn rifle squad.

Prawn squad in covered positions.

21D passes its In Sight test and opens fire with it's riflemen.  The support weapons need a full turn of activation to set up before they can fire so I didn't include them for the fire-fight.  (I totally forgot about the hasty set-up rule).  They still roll a goodly number of dice but the Prawns being in cover saved them from a hiding.

One obviously dead and one stunned

Prawn return fire was fierce.  The two plasma casters (alien rocket launchers) failed to do anything but the two SAWs and the ACR fire took its toll on the humans on Hill 23.  Luckily the damage rolls were poor, resulting in 3 stunned humans and 2 out of the fight.

Pinned!  Pinned!

21D fails its Man Down Test and then partially fails a Cohesion test- resulting in 1 in 3 remaining models "leaving the field".  I marked them down as extra casualties.

Extra casualties 

Hearing the sounds of the fighting, 21B pushed up through the woods to engage the Prawn squad in the fields.

Prawns across the field!

Oops- we get In Sighted by the Prawns

The Prawn squad passes it's In Sight test for 21B moving into it's field of view and opens fire.  (At this point I made a house rule that if a figure has already fired, it can fire again, but sacrifices one of it's firepower die in the process- something I borrowed from Force on Force).

One KIA and one Out of the Fight!

21B passes its Recieved fire and Man Down tests and returns fire with a fury.

Another KIA and another 3 stunned!

One of the 21B RPG men sees the Prawn Walker out in the open and lines up a shot.

Take this rocket up you're tail pipe!

But he misses and the walker fires back knocking him and another soldier Out of the Fight.

Klotzy, seeing 21B with several casualties moves up, bringing the medic with him to check on the squad's casualties.

Medic!

Note that in the strict sense of the rules, the medic can only check on one casualty per turn, but in order to stream line things a bit- like in Force on Force- I allowed the medic to check on any casualties in a Squad he comes into cohesion with.  The medic checked on the downed figures- one was Just a Flesh Wound who got back up into the fighting, one stayed Out of the fight whereas the third was found Obviously Dead.

Hoping to finish off the Prawn squad in the fields, the BTR-80 made it's way around Hill 23.

BTR-80 draws a bead on the squad of Prawns down range

The gunner's aim must've been off as he failed to hit anything.  Prawn return fire (from the SAW) simply bounced off the APC's armour plating.  

I might add that at this point, the Prawns should've been able to move and shoot but I forgot their go and rolled straight into turn 2.  

TURN 2: Activation:  MNU 1, Prawns 4. 

Prawns take the initiative and the final PEF surges towards the Maneuver Support Section getting hammered on Hill 23.  

PEF charges forwards!

Things were looking dicey- if this was a sizeable enemy force, the MNU was going to get a kicking before their reinforcements turned up.  With bated breath the dice are rolled and it resolves as.....

.... "Nothing.  Just a case of nerves".

Phew!  Lucky for the humans.  The Prawns must've been unhappy though.  

The prawn squad in the fields still had most of it's members still stunned (it takes a full turn of activation  of doing nothing to recover).  The squad did have a plasma caster and a SAW active though and the aliens took aim at the BTR-80 coming around Hill 23.  The SAW rounds missed completely, but the plasma caster landed a plasma ball onto the front armour plate.  With a sudden flash, the BTR-80 erupted into a fireball- completely destroyed. 

The nearby sniper pair passed their Man Down test and resolutely stuck to their position.

BTR-80 destroyed!

The Prawn walker backed up, getting out of the line of sight of 21B's RPGs.  Once safely out of the way it sprayed death at the sniper duo.  The firing was semii-effective-  stunning the sniper and sending the spotter retreating to hide behind Hill 23.   

Backs up.

With that, the Prawn turn was over and it was up to the humans of MNU to finish the prawns off.

21 Sunray- Klotzy's command team- made their way into cover to the left of 21B.  The prawn squad in the fields fired on them as they came In Sight but inflicted no casualties.  

Return fire from Klotz's command team was much more deadly- killing the only two un-stunned Prawns.

2 more KIA.

Sensing their moment, 21B darted across open ground to get a visual on the Prawn Walker.

Run into cover!

The Prawn walker passed it's In Sight test and fired on them- but rolled poorly and the lucky humans emerged unscathed.  The RPG soldier was much more accurate- hitting the walker and disabling it for the rest of the battle.

Kocked out by an RPG.

TURN 3

The writing was clearly on the wall for the Prawns by this time as MNU won the activation roll.

Klotz's Command team opened up on the remaining Prawn soldiers in the field- who'd just recovered from being stunned.

Their firing was deadly- knocking 2 prawns Out of the fight, 1 prawn Obviously dead and stunning the remaining Prawn.

21 Sunray's fire wipes out the Prawn squad.

With 21B ready to Fast Move across the field and storm the Prawn position with no opposition- I called the game.

RESULT- MNU VICTORY

Aftermath

After rolling on the campaign table- the Prawns lose one level of Campaign Morale- leaving them teetering on edge of defeat.  

GENERAL THOUGHTS

It took a lot longer than 2hrs!!

With a larger map and more figures, the THW (Two Hour Wargame) mantra went out the window.  I have to admit I got frustrated flipping from table to table, but again I suspect it's something that will improve with time as I get more familiar with the flow of the game.

It turned into a suprisingly easy mission for Klotz and his platoon though that was certainly due to the fickle dice!  That final PEF could've turned into a Prawn platoon that would've destroyed the humans piece meal.  

One gripe I have is how easy it is for vehicles to be destroyed by infantry and how seemingly impervious infantry are to the effects of vehicle weapons.  The actual mechanics of hitting a vehicle when shooting at it with a man are much, much better odds than vice versa.  The vehicles in this game- whilst admittedly light- didn't seem to have much impact at all.  I think a house rule is in order, but I'll need to think about it.