Stargrunt AAR – Assault on Strongpoint 17 Delta

My friend Chris and I finally got another game of Stargrunt going last Thursday nite at EndGame, Oakland, CA. It was another battle in our on-again, off-again campaign, taking place in our own campaign setting. This particular scenario would see lots of vehicles, artillery, and power armor come into play. Unfortunately, we got off to a late start and were unable to play out the whole game, which I think could have gone either way had we finished it.

For this game, I played the ICC mercenaries and Chris played the Altairian rebels. The concept was a  straightforward assault scenario on a defended line. The merc would have the edge in firepower, technology and overall troop quality, but the rebels had an edge in morale and the advantage of being dug into hard cover and In Position, making them a tough nut to crack. Both sides had been fighting for a while and thus started off Tired, making them easier to break.

The minis are my Pig Iron Heavy Infantry (the ICC Mercs) and Kolony Militia (the Altairian rebels). The vehicles are a mix of the Pig Iron APC and couple of Old Crow APCs that I recently finished. The Altairian walker is a Marauder from Starship Troopers.

Anyway, here’s the batrep, with some scenario info followed by the report and pictures!

Stargrunt – The Battle of Altair

Operation Cyan Rapier: Assault on Strongpoint 17 Delta

After sweeping away the meager Altairian space defenses, the ICC mercenary force, led by the Iron Jackals and Ramstar Striker Brigades, landed on the planet, taking the major spaceports virtually unopposed. Recon units fanned out, moving to engage Altairian scout elements attempting to gain intelligence on mercenary operations. The green Altairian troops that engaged these advance mercenary units were manhandled, either getting wiped out or surrendering.

With their scouts out of the picture, the Altairians dug into prepared positions on the outskirts of several major cities. The ICC mercs made some adjustments to their deployment, moving assault units forward, and prepared to break the Altairian lines.

Situation

Elements of the Altairian 75^th PDF Battalion are dug in to defensive works on the outskirts of the city of New Landing. The Iron Jackals 3^rd Company has been brought in to break the Altairian line.

Mission

The Altarian defenders must hold off the mercenary assault, retaining at least two of their three main defensive positions.

The Iron Jackals must take at least two of the three Altairian defensive positions.

Altair

3^rd Platoon, 75^th Infantry, Altairian Planetary Defense Force

Troop Quality: Green – Regular

Mission Motivation: High

Fatigue Level: Tired

Reeling from the initial mercenary bombardment and landings, the PDF fell back in disarray. Rearguard units were cut off and wiped out, but bought the main force time to re-group and set up on prepared positions 35km south of New Landing. The 3/75, rallied by the determined Lt. Skue, now awaits the mercenary assault.

Elements of 2^nd Assault Platoon, 102^nd Guards, Altairian Planetary Defense Force

Troop Quality: Veteran

Mission Motivation: High

Fatigue Level: Tired

The Guards have seen action all over the landing zones in the past few days, acting as the “fire brigade” for the hard pressed PDF. With the mercenaries pushing hard on the regular PDF units, the Guards must once again rush to shore up the lines.

ICC Mercenaries

1^st Section, Bravo Company, Iron Jackals

Troop Quality: Regular

Mission Motivation: Medium

Fatigue Level: Tired

Since the initial drop and seizure of the New Landing Spaceport, the Iron Jackals have relentlessly hammered the Altairian PDF. However, the high operational tempo has stretched both men and equipment thin.

 Nevertheless, the Iron Jackals Bravo Company, led by Captain Killan, has identified a weak point in the Altairian defense and now moves toward the enemy line with a coordinated assault. The contract will be fulfilled.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mercenary scouts observe the battlefield but an Altairian sniper zeroes in, pinning them down and killing the sergeant!

I am always reminded (painfully) that in SG, snipers can put Suppression markers (pin down) troops even if they don’t hit anything. Chris’ sniper not only pinned my scouts, he killed their sergeant! I had hoped to spot some of the hidden enemy positions and start dropping mortars on them before running my infantry forward. Go to Plan B!

An IFV carrying the Iron Jackals power armored assault squad rolls onto the board, then sprays the suspected positions of the sniper hoping to flush him out. But the sniper stays hidden.

The merc mechanized troops roll on in force, driving up the center and the right flank.

With my scouts pinned and Shaken, I needed my HQ squad in there quick, so I rolled my APCs forward looking to get troops out as quickly as possible now.

As merc infantry deploy into some woods and the IFVs come on line, the Altarians bring their heavy-hitting walker into play.

Walker and APC exchange fire but do no damage.

Based on previous experience I expected to see one of these go down, but both survived!

At the ruins, the Iron Jackals HQ squad un-asses their APC and immediately tries to rally the scouts that have been pinned by the sniper. The CO will soon be even busier trying to deal with this FUBAR situation.

I feel I wasted too much time rallying my broken scouts. Should’ve left them crying and gotten my arty online sooner.

The Iron Jackals  power armor squad emerges from their IFV into a storm of fire as the dug in Altarians open up with everything they’ve got. Although their light weapons can’t seem to bring the PA troops down, the armored mercs recoil under a hail of fire and are heavily suppressed. A rebel missile team slams a rocket into the APC’s side and brews it up.

Every game I make (at least) one Dumb Mistake. This game, running my PA squad’s IFV too far forward before deploying them was it. In another game a while back, I made the mistake of deploying the PA troops from their transport too early, and they never got near the objective. This time they were too close. The rebels couldn’t manage to kill them, but they did keep them seriously pinned down for the rest of the game. Had I been able to free them up, I would have close assaulted the rebel HQ, which was sitting right on top of my objective. That’ll learn me.

With the right flank approach blocked, one of the other merc IFVs move to the left, dropping off its squad of troops and a heavy assault cannon team on its way forward. But an Altairian panzerfaust squad inside the rebel CP knocks out the oncoming vehicle.

Merc mortar fire rains down on the right flank, hammering the dug in rebel troops, including their HQ squad. The danger close fire mission also disables one of the mercs own power armor troops! Both sides reel from the impact of the heavy rounds.

The mortar barrage was pretty punishing. I knew I was risking hitting my own troops with it, but that was the price I paid for losing my scout spotters early on.

A merc fusion gun team rushes forward through the trees.

The rebel walker was the last threat to my remaining IFV (now that the rebels had expended their supply of panzerfausts on my other two IFVs) and I hoped to put a fusion hole in the damned thing as quickly as possible. They took a suppression marker as they set up their gun but I think I could have gotten a shot off had we continued.

The battle fully developed. The remaining merc IFV moves forward to flay the rebel line with cannon fire, but the rebel walker still lurks off to the right (out of the picture). Both sides struggle to urge their suppressed troops into action as the mercs reposition for another push and ready another mortar barrage, and the rebels rush to shore up their wavering line.

 

Here we had run out of time we had to stop the game. As I mentioned, had we continued it could have gone either way. The survival of either the rebel walker or the merc IFV being one of the keys to victory. Although my forward units were getting hammered, I still had two squads moving into position and one missile team I hadn’t deployed yet, another mortar barrage on call and my heavy assault cannon team set up and starting to get hot. The rebels were still mostly dug in but those units too were pinned and taking casualties. Chris also had two squads getting into position on the line and a largely un-engaged flank to play around with.

 So, in our narrative we decided that the fighting was fierce and stalemated. Both sides were exhausted. Although the mercs didn’t punch through, the rebels were so depleted they had to pull back anyway.

The next battle for Altair will probably be another city fight. A decisive victory for either side at this point could determine the campaign!

Stargrunt Battle Chronicle

I’ve made a list of all the Stargrunt battles we’ve played. Looking at them this way, you can see the story that is emerging from our games.

We’ve created a setting for our games that all the players have contributed to. Each of us has made a few factions, building and incorporating ideas from each other into the background. The big conflict is the one between the United Democratic Socialist Systems, an alliance of star systems that have broken away from the yoke of corporate oppression and Old Terra national entities, and the Interstellar Corporate Commission a huge conglomeration of colonial interests funded by Earth’s mega-corporations.

But there are other things going that we haven’t even touched on yet – pirates, frontier skirmishes, territorial power grabs, the death throes of old Terran national blocs, local civil wars. It’s a big setting and there is still lots of stuff we can do!

Here’s a list of all the SG battle reports that I have, in the order the games were played. Some are posts on TMP, with links to pics on Flickr, others are links to my minis blog.

For our very first game, my opponent Jonathan and I did a simple platoon vs. platoon fight to learn the rules. Minis are Pig Iron Heavy Infantry and FASA VOR Union (now available through Ironwind).

This was our second game. UDSS Militia vs. CEU Panzergrenadiers. It was a quick assault scenario and we tried out the sniper rules, which in SG are pretty interesting. Minis are Pig Iron’s Kolony Militia, FASA’s Vor Union, and Heavy Gear power suits.

In the next game, Altairian Regulars (UDSS) vs. Ramstar Mercs. The Ramstar troops were trying to rescue a kidnapped hostage. They failed and this set up a later game. Minis are once again Pig Iron and Vor Union. Of special interest are the Pig Iron APC and the paper dropship model.

Chris (Irate Squirrel) and Michael Miller were the players in the next game which I refereed. CEU Foreign Legion vs. UDSS Regulars. This was a supply convoy ambush scenario. Pig Iron minis on both sides, with an assortment of different vehicles.

Jonathan Breese and I played again when we did a big city fight game. UDSS Guards vs. Ramstar Mercs. Pig Iron minis again, plus powered armor from EM-4, with AT-43 Red Blok troopers.

And the most recent game, Operation Icepick, which was the follow-on to the first hostage rescue scenario above. Ramstar Strikers (Special Forces) vs. Altairian Nightshade Commandos (Special Forces). Minis are the old Metal Magic Spacelords Cybertech Bunkerbreakers from the 80’s, now available from EM-4, and Mongoose Starship Troopers M.I. This time, the Ramstar corporate mercs succeeded.

The next game we’re planning is a bug hunt! A research team in an alien jungle is about to make a very nasty discovery! The Arachnids from SST will make an appearance as “xenocrabs” trying to rip Chris’ planetary landing party (converted AT-43 Red Blok) into tiny bits. But the humans have a few surprises up their sleeves. Should be a hot one!

Starship Troopers – Marauder

Lazy me. I said I’d put pics up of the SST Maruader weeks ago. But, recently my urge to paint has rekindled fully and I’m forging ahead with new projects, of which the Marauder was the kickoff. I recently bought a squad of GW Space Marines off eBay (I got a deal – them plus a Rhino for about $35). I’ve started working on them but I’ll speak more about them and put some pics up in another post.

So, here’s the Marauder!

I lost the pilot figure somehow, but that’s okay ince you can’t really see it very well inside there. The cockpit canopy was originally clear, and since I liked the way the faceplates of the regular troopers were tinted, I wanted the same effect here. So, I used a thinned out wash of GW yellow ink applied to the inside of the canopy. Turned out pretty good. I find that I like the SST minis more than I thought. The only drawback is they don’t go together so well – the trooper models have a lot of fiddly bits some parts of the Marauder seemed to be slightly off. But, once past that, they’re all right.

Incoming!

More activity as of late. I finished that SST Marauder and it turned out better than I expected (especially since I feel I wasn’t trying so hard). I’ll post some pics up tomorrow.

Also, my copy of FFG’s Horus Heresy is waiting for me at the FLGS. I’ll go pick it up on Sunday and goob about it here after I bring it home. Will I paint the whole set? Dunno. I still need to buckle down and finish off my War of the Ring (FFG) minis…oh, there’s another photo shoot I can do!

And I must tell you now… I bought some Space Marines off eBay. Just to paint and see how they turn out… (the lies we tell ourselves…)

Starship Troopers

A few years ago, I bought Mongoose’s Starship Troopers miniatures game from a friend. I still have yet to play the game (the rules do look pretty good) but I did manage to paint all the minis, both MI and Bugs. It took a long time. The MI troopers were multipart plastics (stress on multipart) and despite this, were very difficult to pose differently. I did a little cutting and repositioning of a few of them, just for some variety. The Bugs allowed for a bit more variation, though painting them was a but boring.

I also got a set of the Grizzly powered armor suits. These are some of the best powered armor minis I have seen and are among my favorite minis of all time. I took extra time and care painting them up. The color scheme isn’t exactly inspired but they did come out very nice.

I do apologize for my lousy camera skills (or lack thereof). So here we go:

Grizzly Squad – Heavy Flamer, Missile Launcher, Rotary Cannon

Squad Leader about to pitch a grenade

Troopers

Sniper – A bit of a conversion – I chopped up some of the weapons and put them back together to make a long-barreled rifle.

Grenade Launcher

I’ll get some pics of the bugs up later!