Gruntz AAR - The Battle for Discoville

I actually managed to play a game last night! Yes, it's true!! And I'm writing about it now!!! I've not had much time for gaming since I moved to Ireland to take up a new job (check out the project I am working on at www.worldtreeproject.org. It's awesome). While I'm not playing at all while over there, I am finding a fair bit of time to paint, and have completed my Laserburn Imperial task force after only 30 years. I bought some of the figures I have recently painted back in the eighties which shows that there is hope for all of my so-called failed or stalled projects. Photos of the whole lot will appear when I bring the rest of the force back from Ireland.

So, anyway, this week I am back home near Hull to do work stuff, so I organised a game with Steve. This year we are focusing on 15mm sci-fi and we agreed  to play Gruntz with 300 points each.

Steve brought his disco aliens with some air support and all nicely canned in APCs.

Disco Alien Fighter

Alien infantry boogieing down the street

I fielded a weak Imperial assault group supported by a troop of heavy grav tanks and two scout bikes.

Imperial grav tanks making a nuisance of themselves

We did not have much time so we made the goal of the game be to destroy as much of the enemy as we could.

Game at set-up

One half of the table was dominated by a small town while the other was rural. Steve deployed a dropship in the rural area and his fighter to cover the town. His infantry were in their APCs ready to rush down the middle. I deployed my infantry to take the town, while my tanks were to flank through the countryside and try to break round behind the enemy with a view to encircling and then annihilating them.

We used the initiative cards from Gruntz instead of the standard rules and assigned the cards randomly to the units. We like the chaos and friction that this brings. Neither of us is a fan of IGO-UGO, but I am tempted to suggest that we deal a hand of cards to each side and then assign them ourselves in future games. This should give us the chaos while also meaning that we get to make command decisions about which area of the battle is most important to us. The main reason we have not done this so far is speed.

My tanks begin the process of annihilating the enemy APCs. A scout bike is just visible behind the lorry, ready to fire missiles into the flank of the APC.

 As the aliens advanced into the town, and my infantry seized key buildings, my tanks used their superior armour to weather the fusillade of fire that the APCs laid down. Damage was minor with only a few scratches to the paintwork of my tanks. As we got their range, the APCs lit up one by one, while the tanks' coaxial lasers made short work of the infantry in that part of the battlefield.

An alien APC tries to sneak round to attack a tank in the flank

Over in the town, things were not so easy. My troops' found the enemy hard to hit, and their bolt rifles were underpowered against the enemy armour. Alien casualties were few while the aliens' plasma rifles seared through my troops' armour. The only thing keeping my troops alive was the buildings they were in, and the enemy fighter's multiple plasma cannon were fairly quickly demolishing the buildings around my troops' ears. A biker scout did manage to get in there and score some hits with his bike's missile launcher, but it was not enough. Without help, or better dice rolling, my troops were doomed.

As the last of the APCs went up in smoke, my tanks moved carefully into the town ... and the enemy surrendered.

At this point we had to call the game because of time. We had played 4 turns of 6 in 2.5 hours. Not too shabby given that we are not familiar with the rules. It was a great fun game with each of us getting frustrated by elements of the other's force design. Lessons have been learnt and future forces are likely to see slightly different force composition, although I suspect that Steve's love of big plasma weapons and heavy armour will mean that I need to purchase extra armour piercing ammo for my troops. Anyway, I look forward to the next game. Hopefully I shall have done more with the buildings for the town by then. I need to sort out some posters, for the billboards, signs for the shops, and print out more streets and concrete lots for the town layout.

Figures: GZG, 15mm.co.uk

Vehicles: GZG, Old Crow, 15mm.co.uk

Buildings: MadMechaGuy

Street Furniture: Brigade Models

Imperial Assault Group - Laserburn / Imperial Commander

Back in the mists of time somewhere around the mid-eighties I bought the figures for an Imperial Assault Group as outlined in the Laserburn supplement Forces of the Imperium. I also bought an Imperial Black Guard platoon. The Black Guard got painted, naturally, because they were the elite troops, but only part of the Assault Group got painted. Cut to twenty years later and I finished off the Assault Group. Then a couple of years ago or so (time is somewhat nebulous and illusory, as is my memory of it, so the exact time frame is not clear to me without looking it all up), I fettled the Assault Group a bit. I also decided to give them some transport and bought a bunch of GZG High Tech Grav Armoured Carrier Sleds  plus a few other bits and pieces in the GZG Christmas sale. Then, in 2014 I fettled the Assault Group again, giving them shiny new bases and a quick dip to bring out the detail some more. The transport, however, languished on my painting desk for months. Half of it was painted, but the rest remained part-painted right up until Christmas. In a bid to maintain the tattered shreds of sanity that remained after working at my wife's shop through December, I resorted to finishing these off. The last parts were painted on New Year's Eve and they are now ready to take to the field.

Imperial troopers scream into combat from orbit:

The High Tech Grav APC in the front rank is the command vehicle and carries a five trooper command squad. I figured that these guys were less likely to deploy rapidly from their transport. The front grav sled carries the support squad, while each rank of five grav sleds carries one attack group (platoon). The grav sleds are open so that the troopers can deploy rapidly using their jet packs.

The Assault Group with the command squad assembled for inspection

Just the vehicles

I did buy the figures for a full Imperial Combat Scout Platoon sometime in the nineties. I have since sold their Partizan Scout Cars. Instead of building a full Scout Platoon, I plan to paint only a few squads and sell the rest of the figures, because it just makes more sense to have a squad or two of Scouts supporting the Assault Group, instead of deploying whole platoons of Scouts as my battle force. If 2015 goes to plan, then completing the Scout squads will be my goal, as will painting the tanks I bought to support the Assault Group. Let's see how much I get distracted, eh.

Bwendi Militia receive transport

President Throckmorton P. Gladiolus proudly announced last night that the Bwendi army had received its first consignment of the new Throckwoddle Industries Bullfrog All-Terrain Truck. Throckwoddle Gladiolus, CEO of Throckwoddle Industries, declared that he was pleased to have been able to do his patriotic duty in selling these trucks to the army. Minister for Procurement and Defence, Throckwoddle Gladiolus, stated that this was an historic moment. No longer would the Bwendi militia have to take taxis or the bus into battle. Now they had their own dedicated transport and the army would save a fortune on bus and taxi fares, and compensation payments for damaged public transport.

Captain Pangloss of the militia is quoted as saying, "These are surely the best of all possible trucks. Our militia troops here on Bwendi Prime and on our outworld colonies will surely benefit from their versatility."

A squad of Bwendi militia parade in front of their new transport:



Stats
Imperial Commander - Wheeled Softskin, Hull Class 2, Turreted MG, Autoranger, carries up to 10 passengers, 2 Crew (paid for separately), 34 points.
5150 - Hard Armour, DV 1, 1*HMG, Wheeled, Speed 16/12, Crew 2, 136 points.

The trucks and cargo crates are 15mm Ground Zero Games. Infantry by 15mm.co.uk.