Perfidious Albion Once More (Tomorrow's War AAR)

The Bwendi Bugle

19th March 2313 Standard Reckoning

Perfidious Albion Attacks Aid Station

Once more Albion has struck at the institutions that are the envy of civilised planets everywhere. This time their assault was on the Rocktoad Aid Station in Pyntagahl province. A company of Albion regulars reinforced by a Special Forces Team attacked the aid station in the early hours of Tiwsdaeg evening. Bwendi Republican Army forces were on manoeuvres in the area but were hampered by their Biochem protection gear. They were training to operate in the event of a probable Albion gas attack. It is known that Albion has large stockpiles of chemical agents ready for deployment against the peaceful Bwendi people.

A Bwendi newscopter supplied this view of the BRA platoon advancing with a Callixus IFV in support

As our heroic soldiers advanced in their bulky biochem gear, they suddenly came face to face with an entire company of Albion soldiers.

Albion soldiers (left) occupy firing positions to ambush the Bwendi (right). In the far distance (centre back), an Albion special forces squad can be seen cowering before the Bwendi might

The firefight was short and desperate. Bwendi fire caused an unknown number of casualties, but the Albion curs left 2 dead and 5 wounded behind to be captured. Two of their special forces soldiers were unwounded but surrendered as fast as they could. Of the 21 Bwendi soldiers involved in this fight, 6 were killed and 6 were wounded. The roll of honour for the dead now adds these brave soldiers to the Wall of Heroes in Landfall City:

1. Corporal Airport Carruthers-Smythe
2. Lance Corporal John Jones
3. Private Riley Carpark
4. Private Fabienne D'Iscard
5. Private Seamus Besworth
6. Private Cedric Carpongo

Their sacrifice was not in vain, for the Albion forces might have escaped with more valuable medical equipment and supplies than they did. As it was, they were able to steal one of the aid station's Machine That Goes Ping Mk.1 before they were driven off at great cost by our heroic Bwendi soldiers.

Commentary
This was another game that we set up using the TW campaign system but on a 2'x3' table this time, because we felt that 4'x3' was too large last time. I chose to try using multi-based figures for this game. It worked very well and meant that I could keep my troops together easily. The large bases also provided a useful platform for wounded markers, making it easier to move my fireteams. I chose not to use individually-based figures to make change in this game, but I might do that in the future.

I rolled high for momentum points and scored 8, which gave me the opportunity to buy an IFV to support my troops and an additional fire team. This is the first time we have used vehicles and it was not problematic at all. Steve's only comment on the vehicle was "Next time I should try attacking it." The IFV actually saved the day for me, because I chose to draw a Fog of War card at the start of the game and got gas. No, not that sort. The card is called 'Gas Gas Gas'. My troops deployed in biochem gear, which reduced their troop quality by 1, from d8 to d6. You should have heard me whinging about this during the game! Rolling d6 versus d8 in TW makes quite a difference. The IFV was unaffected by the gas so it rolled normally, which saved my bacon, because it was able to wipe out two fire teams of Albion troops. Steve really needed to get his RPGs into the game against it, but he chose to withdraw his troops as fast as he could once the special forces got close enough to the objective for him to score the victory points for his mission.

Steve's mission was Snatch and Grab, which involved getting a unit to within 3" of an objective marker on my side of the table and then getting some troops off the table. It does not state that the troops leaving the table have to be the same ones as the troops that get to the objective. Presumably that means that the spotters radio the results to their compatriots. Once he had achieved this objective, Steve skedaddled pretty sharpish. This was in turn 3.

My mission was to occupy an objective on Steve's side of the table and ensure that there were no enemy troops within 5" of it at the end of the game. Steve basically handed success in this mission to me by skedaddling so early on. I had at least 2 turns to complete my objective, so I scored a victory on that account too. Had Steve held his positions to the end of the game, he might have scored a full victory.

When Steve's troops left the table, they also left 9 unchecked casualties on the table, so my lot were able to secure them. I scored 7 prisoners of war and found 2 dead bodies.

My own casualties were all victims of my rubbish dice rolling. I managed to roll 3 ones on one first aid check and wound up with an entire fire team that was dead. This seems to be par for the course for me. Still, my troops held the battlefield and saw off the cowardly Albion curs.

The Final Tally
Me: -3 victory points
Steve: -10 victory points
We both achieved our objectives so we both won, but our casualties ensured that in fact we both lost too. I lost a little bit less than Steve though!

Some additional thoughts and a whinge
Tomorrow's War works for us, despite the fact that we keep getting things wrong with the rules! It works really well for 'realistic' science-fiction warfare. We have enjoyed every game so far and the rules have given me plenty of opportunity to complain about my dice-rolling, which is all to the good. Most of the rules are straight-forward and easily applied when you remember them and the game flows well. The biggest problem is in keeping the reaction rules straight. That section of the rulebook is not well written and I have trawled the forum for answers. I think I have it now but have asked for clarification on the forum. This brings me to my whinge.

We changed the table size for this game because we felt it was too large last time. I did ask on the Ambush Alley forum about table size for the campaign games after the last game but received no response. I have asked other questions on there and have been roundly ignored by the authors. I find this very frustrating, because I want to get to grips with the rules properly and I see that some people get their questions answered while others do not. Perhaps my questions are stupid or obvious. If so, a simple page reference would suffice as answer. Either way, I hold out little hope of an answer to my latest questions.

EDIT: My latest questions have just had an answer, so that is positive and better than my previous attempts did. Perhaps they were just having an off day before?