Dodgson's World: The Hellfire Campaign Part 5

I seem to be missing an AAR and the accompanying photos. Hmm. Ah well, never mind. Last time around, we fought a battle north of Alacrity. The insurgents held the field but at some cost to themselves.

After the last battle in Alacrity, both sides pulled back to lick their wounds. Casualties had been heavy and neither side felt ready to try again immediately. The rebels camped north of Alacrity while the Company occupied the town, only to retreat southwards to give themselves time to recover before assaulting again. While the two main forces recovered, other elements of both sides began converging on Alacrity once more. By the afternoon of the fifth day, the insurgents felt able to move their main force into the town. ShortCom responded by sending in the remnants of Jessop's Regiment. The insurgents hunkered down, ready to make taking the town costly while Prince Bishopette Athaniel Moor tried to complete her mission of kissing babies and raising the flag for the insurgents.

In the meantime, Liberty Battalion of the insurgents had made its way by secret mountain trails to the outskirts of Alacrity. It immediately moved to pin the remaining ShortCom forces.

In Alacrity, the insurgents had occupied a number of key buildings. They dug in and hoped to weather the ShortCom storm just as they had before.

Unfortunately for them, the ShortCom commander had finally got to grips with the technology available to him. The artillery barrage quickly destroyed one company of insurgents, while the long range shelling for the supporting light tank saw off another. The insurgents had nothing with which to counter this long range assault, so they girded their loins and moved quickly forwards from building to building until they were within range of the enemy and could attempt to take out the enemy with their short-range RPGs. Sadly this did not work. There was nothing for it but to try to break out by close assaulting the vehicles and making a gap in the enemy's lines.

The company guarding the Prince Bishopette charged forward to engage the enemy mobile infantry. They outnumbered the enemy 2:1, their blood was up, and they were fighting for something they believed in. They could not lose. Reader, they lost. As the melee raged backwards and forwards, they held the upper hand at all times but could not quite close the deal. Then disaster struck. A ShortCom snatch team grabbed the Prince Bishopette and bundled her into a waiting APC as the insurgents were driven back. As they caught their breath, ShortCom troopers covered the withdrawal of the APC. The campaign was over. The insurgents had failed and ShortCom could now dominate all of Fidelis Superior.

This was a fun little campaign. The rules required a certain amount of interpretation and sportsmanship on the part of the players, but that suited us nicely. Hellfire itself is a pretty good set of rules. The combat calculations felt a bit clunky at the start but we soon got to grips with them and I'm sure that the mental arithmetic has rejuvenated our ageing brains a little bit. The only problem with the rules is that they don't quite play quickly enough to fit the time available to us, but that won't stop us playing them again when we have more time.

Dodgson's World: The Hellfire Campaign (Part 4)

D-Day+2, afternoon
Chastity GHQ

"Sir, we've caught the rebels just south-east of Salvation. Looks like we have them outnumbered. Reports suggest it is their Liberty Battalion without any support."
"Tell the men to hit them hard, Lieutenant."

The Company concentrated its forces in the Salvation area. 26T Infantry Battalion formed an improvised brigade with the Spaceport Defence Company, the remnants of 36R Airmobile and the remnants of the Salvation Gendarmerie.

Part-way through the battle (rebels at bottom of photo)

The battle saw the rebels advance on a small village outside Salvation. Their vehicles tried to stand off and use their superior range to slowly destroy the enemy forces. They quickly took out the Spaceport Defence Vehicle and the transport vehicles of 36R Airmobile were soon knocked out. The infantry proved a tougher nut to crack and it was necessary to dismount the Liberty Battalion's infantry companies. They pressed forward against heavy fire.

The assault was not without cost. Liberty Battalion 2nd Armoured company was almost entirely wiped out and the support section was reduced to just one damaged lorry. Nevertheless, they held the field at the end of the day, but it may prove to have been a Pyrrhic victory.

"Sir, our troops have retreated in the face of the enemy and we have taken heavy casualties. 36R Airmobile and the Salvation Gendarmerie were both wiped out, but we gave the rebels a bloody nose."
"Very good, lieutenant. Plenty more troops where ours came from. If this needs to be a war of attrition, we will win it. No doubt about that."

The general is right. The forces that the rebels lost are ones they can ill afford to lose. If it comes to a straight infantry fight the Company has the numbers and the weapons. We'll have to see how it pans out next time around.

The situation at the end of the afternoon on Day 2

ShortCom Forces (Yellow)
1 26T Infantry Battalion
2 Spaceport Defence Company
3 36R Airmobile Battalion
4 Salvation gendarmerie (1 company)
5 Alacrity gendarmerie (1 company)
6 Joados Marauders (1 company of mercenary Thaugs)
7 Jessop's Regiment (2 troops of armoured infantry with artillery support)

Insurgents (White)
1 Dedicationalist Sect, Fidelis Guard (1 infantry battalion)
2 Liberty Battalion (1 improvised armoured battalion)
3 127 Mobile Brigade (2 infantry battalions)
? Unidentified forces

Dodgson's World: The Hellfire Campaign (Part 3)

D-Day+2, morning.
Chastity GHQ
"General, 36R Airmobile and the Alacrity Gendarmerie were engaged on a recon in force. They report an encounter with a large rebel infantry force north of the Thrift Mountains. Initial reports suggest light casualties on the part of our troops and much heavier casualties for the rebels. Our force has withdrawn from the field. They claim to have identified a doolie wagon carrying Prince Bishopette Athaniel Moor."
"That's good news, Comms. Get me Ops on the line and we'll soon have this rebellion crushed."

The Company had deployed two small units to the north-west of Alacrity to scout a single possible enemy force. They found the entirety of 127 Mobile Brigade comprising the 44th (Whistling Joeys) Battalion and the 45th (Staunch in Righteousness) Battalion. The rebel forces deployed quickly in the abundant bad going in the foothills of the Thrift Mountains and waited for the Company forces to come. The Company entered from off table with the gendarmerie marching as fast as they could for the nearest cover. The Airmobile unit dropped its passengers off behind some convenient cover and the transports skedaddled. Steve was taking no chances with his vehicles in this game! His troops took fire from early on, especially from the rebel artillery but the rebels might as well have been firing blanks for all the good it did them. The rebel infantry closed on the Company forces and opened fire. A few casualties were caused but they took many times more in the process. As the rebels massed to assault, the Company forces pulled back. They had done what they came to do. Time to let command know and for GHQ to task a larger force to wipe out these pesky rebels.

The battlefield. Rebel positions marked in blue. Company forces marked in Red

The Gendarmerie retreated in some disarray. I think Steve did not realise half his unit was pointing the wrong way!

The biggest problem that the rebels faced (apart from my dice) was that many were equipped with energy weapons and the Company forces were wearing ablat armour which is designed to stop energy weapons. The other problem they had was that half of them had no armour while the other half were wearing flak armour which is ineffective versus energy weapons. The Company had no such problems. This made this apparently uneven battle much more even.

The situation at the end of the morning turn on Day 2

ShortCom Forces (Yellow)
1 26T Infantry Battalion
2 Spaceport Defence Company
3 36R Airmobile Battalion
4 Salvation gendarmerie (1 company)
5 Alacrity gendarmerie (1 company)
6 Joados Marauders (1 company of mercenary Thaugs)
7 Jessop's Regiment (2 troops of armoured infantry with artillery support)

Insurgents (White)
1 Dedicationalist Sect, Fidelis Guard (1 infantry battalion)
2 Liberty Battalion (1 improvised armoured battalion)
3 127 Mobile Brigade (2 infantry battalions)
? Unidentified forces

Dodgson's World: The Hellfire Campaign (The Battle for Salvation)

Meanwhile in Salvation ...

"Sir, there's a motorised column of rebels heading our way."

"Don't worry, lieutenant, The Salvation Town Militia is more than a match for a bunch of scruffy rebels."

"Sir, they outnumber us!"
"I said not to worry, lieutenant. They'll never take the town. We'll fort up here and pick them off as they approach. We have the advantage of terrain and morale. What could they possibly have that could defeat that combination?"

"Sir, the perimeter guards report heavy casualties. The enemy is standing off and shelling us from across the river. We have nothing that can touch them at that range."
"Don't worry, lieutenant. We'll just pull back further into the town. That will negate their advantage and then we can pick them off in the streets."

The comms officer at Chastity GHQ turned to the heavily be-ribboned officer behind him. He licked his lips. The sight of an officer with that much gold braid on him was intimidating and he was not happy to be reporting bad news.

"General, reports are coming in of heavy casualties in Salvation. The town has fallen and the local militia are in full flight. Indications are that the rebels attacked in full strength with a large contingent of heavily armed technicals. They shelled the town from a distance and then drove in to pick up the pieces. The militia took heavy casualties before fleeing. They claim to have put up a brave fight and damaged the rebels badly but the satellite imagery suggests otherwise."

"Thank you, Comms. Get me ADC Kurz. I think we need to do something about these people."

Dodgson's World: The Hellfire Campaign (Turn 1, Part 1)

We began our Hellfire campaign this week. It will probably take a month or two to complete. The goal of the campaign is for the insurgents to capture a city, get Prince Bishopette Athaniel Moor to that city, and to hold it for two days while she kisses babies and has her photograph taken everywhere. This will be a huge boost for the insurgent cause and will go a long way towards forcing Short Company to either leave the planet or to change their working practices. Naturally, ShortCom does not wish this to happen, so their goal is to prevent the insurgents from achieving their goal.

"Sir, the Fidelians are revolting!"
"Come now, lieutenant, they are rather grim by our standards, but that's a bit harsh."
"No, sir, they are revolting. Satellite images indicate six columns of Fidelians coming our way. Scouts on the ground report that the Church of Fidelis has mobilised its Dedicationalist Sect Guard battalion, while the Fidelian resistance movement appears to have dispatched The Liberty Battalion, the 44th Whistling Joeys and the 45th Staunch in Righteousness battalions. This is it, sir. What shall we do?"

General Short examined the map of Fidelis Province and checked the forces available to him. He knew he had the technology and superior firepower. He just needed to deploy it properly.

ShortCom Forces (Yellow)
1 26T Infantry Battalion
2 Spaceport Defence Company
3 36R Airmobile Battalion
4 Rural gendarmerie (1 company)
5 Rural gendarmerie (1 company)
6 Joados Marauders (1 company of mercenary Thaugs)
7 Jessop's Regiment (2 troops of armoured infantry with artillery support)

Insurgents (White)
1 Dedicationalist Sect, Fidelis Guard (1 infantry battalion)
2 Liberty Battalion (1 improvised armoured battalion)
? Unidentified forces

"Tell the garrison companies at Salvation and Alacrity to stand fast. We'll mobilise support for them from Thrift and Chastity. And get Intelligence to scan these movements. We need to work out where their main strike is going to come from."
"Sir, Intelligence says they are struggling to identify anything at the moment. There's too much cover in the mountains."
"Ok. Get me the commander of 36R Airmobile on the blower. We'll send his troops into the mountains to scout that blip in the north. Tell Jessop's Regiment to move out and intercept the other blip just north of Thrift, and get 26T Battalion to move out and intercept the insurgents as they leave the mountains. We'll get them in a vice and crush them."

Later that morning.
"Sir, reports are coming in that 36R has made contact with enemy forces in the mountains. Looks like they've found the Dedicationalists and it's got hot. An insurgent armoured battalion has also attacked Salvation."
"Very good, lieutenant. Keep me apprised of the situation. Once 36R has crushed them, they can scout the others. And let's see what we can do to help the gendarmes at Salvation."
"Sir, update on the situation in the mountains. 36R has met stiff resistance and is taking heavy fire from the insurgents. One fighter from Omega Company is down. No survivors. Alpha company is also reporting heavy casualties."

The battle between 36R Airmobile and the Fidelis Guard was surprisingly one-sided. The ground attack craft were put out of commission in the first turn as ground fire shot one down and destroyed the sensor array on the other, putting it out of action. Half a company of Airmobile infantry was shot out of the sky with no survivors. The remainder managed to land before their craft was destroyed but then they were shot up by the insurgents with no survivors. The remaining company tried a flanking movement but decided to withdraw quickly when the rest of the battalion was so quickly destroyed. In all this, the insurgents lost only one stand of infantry. Steve's dice rolling in this battle was terrible and mine was really good leading to a very one-sided game. Also, I got so involved with the game that I forgot to take any photos of it!

"Sir, reports in from 36R. The support company is out of action and Alpha Company has been destroyed. Beta Company is withdrawing. We're still awaiting reports from Salvation."

Next time we meet, we'll fight the Battle for Salvation and then continue with the campaign. Theoretically, this battle should be fairly one-sided, because the ShortCom forces are so weak, but you never know what the dice will throw at you.

Hellfire: A little more hell on Dodgson's World

Figures: Irregular Miniatures

Buildings: Various
Terrain hexes: GHQ Terrainmaker

The heroic resistance fighters of Dodgson's World took on the brave liberators of Dodgson's World at my house last night. The rebels arrived mob-handed in a selection of improvised armoured vehicles worthy of the A-Team (circled in blue in the image below). Their goal was to seize the air traffic control equipment from the New Clemency spaceport and make off with it. This would make it hard for ShortCom to land new troops and would disrupt ShortCom activities massively, thus giving the rebels a chance to focus on defeating existing ShortCom troops before new ones could be brought in.

The situation just after the start of the game

 The spaceport defence company, augmented by a small militia company and a company of mercenary Thaugs who acted as the police for the spaceport village occupied the spaceport buildings (circled in red above). A battalion of ShortCom regulars was known to be in the area and they might be made available to the spaceport defence troops. They would enter from the right of the picture when Steve had rolled enough points for them. A single d6 was rolled each player turn and the value added to the previously rolled total. The troops would become available once the total reached their points cost.

Another view of the game at the start.

The rebels rolled forward as fast as they could. The spaceport defence vehicle heroically drove out to meet them, and was promptly destroyed by rebel fire. The militia company holed up in the hangars fared little better and was soon retreating towards the control tower having taken more casualties than it liked.

Lorries packed with troops follow up the armoured spearhead.

As the rebels raced forward, elements of 26T battalion started to appear. The troops in the control tower had made contact and emphasised the seriousness of the situation. Two companies of infantry and two guided missile carriers were soon tearing up the road towards the spaceport. The missile carriers met the same fate as the spaceport defence vehicle but the infantry made it into the cover of nearby buildings and prepared to assault the rebels.

Reinforcements arrive

Rebel vehicles screamed up the apron. The fire from their gunners drove the spaceport defence company and the militia back but returning fire immobilised one vehicle and took out the gunner on another. Light losses for the rebels. It seemed like nothing could stop them.

The lorries approach the control tower ready to deploy their troops and carry off the control equipment.

As the lorries deployed their load of troops, the spaceport defence company was routed. The troops entered the control tower and began dismantling the equipment. (At this point, I got too carried away and forgot to take any more photos.) The troops in the control tower came under fire and took some losses but three turns later they had loaded the equipment onto a lorry and were prepared to skedaddle with the loot. At this point, the two companies from 26T battalion broke cover and close assaulted the vehicle companies. A combination of  melee and RPG fire saw the artic and one of the cars destroyed. The rebels were pulling away. Seeing nothing else for it, a ShortCom RPG gunner fired his weapon at the lorry with the equipment on board. He hit it and turned the lorry into a fireball. At this point, there was nothing for the rebels to do but scoot away. They had not achieved their objective.

The game was a draw thanks to Steve's last lucky shot with the RPG. Up to that point, it had felt very one-sided. Rebel casualties were amazingly low because of the lack of anti-vehicle weaponry among the corporate forces while corporate casualties were huge. Despite this, he prevented me from achieving my victory condition (escaping with the equipment) but by destroying it, he also stopped his own victory. To be fair, I think this was the best outcome he could expect by that point of the game. No doubt both sides will spin this into a propaganda victory.

After two games, we are of the opinion that Hellfire is a decent set of rules. The mental arithmetic that is needed to calculate combats is, no doubt, good for our ageing brains and will offset some deterioration there. However, we are also both of the opinion that these rules, more than many others we play, require the players to play within the spirit of the rules rather than the letter of them. Playing them with a rules lawyer would be even more hellish than other rules sets.

I was a bit worried that I would not have enough buildings to cover the table. Turns out I did, although there is little coherency in the architecture, and I really need to get more of them painted.

Hellfire: Hell on Dodgson's World

Actually playing games has not been a common occurrence over the past year. I've done a bit of solo gaming with Four Against Darkness which was fun but figure games have not been much of a thing. Last night Steve and I finally managed to get our diaries to coincide, so we dug out Jim Webster's Hellfire rules and the Hell on Dodgson's World scenario pack that Irregular Miniatures used to sell. I bought these back in the nineties and got them painted really quite quickly compared to some projects that I have pursued. This shows in the paint jobs, and I need to return to them and given them a new lick of paint plus some better attention to their bases.

Hellfire

Hellfire is a generic sci-fi rules set designed for 6mm. The introduction notes that the rules were written with a background in mind that is not overly militarised. To quote the rules:

'It is a universe where the black sheep of the family returns with a battalion of genetically engineered warriors he has hired, to be met by the family who have called out an ad hoc local militia. It is a universe where most armoured vehicles are improvised on site.'

That said, the rules are sufficiently flexible to cope with mechs and other features of more militarised backgrounds, although the more techie among us may not be overly fond of the generic nature of the weapons. The focus is on command and morale, not on the differences between a 3.82mm pulse rifle and a 15mm accelerator cannon. As a result, weapons are divided into broad groups: personal weapons, crew-served weapons, vehicle-mounted weapons, etc. The only differences within each group are whether the weapons are projectile or energy and guided or unguided.

The game uses Command Points, familiar to most people from DBx and similar rules sets. These are used to move your troops, to call down off-table artillery and to rally disintegrating groups.

The core of the game is the reaction system. Units have a reaction code which is an eight-digit code. As units are fired on, take casualties, etc., you check the leading number on the reaction code and roll on that table to check their reaction. Then you cross that number off and the next number in the code becomes the leading number. If you reach the end of the code, all further reaction tests are taken on table 1 (the worst table). Reaction codes can be constructed in a number of different ways to reflect the ups and downs of the combat experience. Higher numbers at the start and lower numbers as you progress through it would show a unit that gradually deteriorates through the battle. Putting some higher numbers mid-way through or towards the end would indicate a unit that is likely to peak after being through a bit of combat but then to tail off, and so on.

Overall, the game plays well. It's a bit clunky in places and the combat system requires some basic multiplication and division, but at my age a spot of mental arithmetic is supposed to help me keep mentally active, so I should not complain. There are areas where you need to agree with your opponent how things should be played, and there are no detailed terrain rules. It's up to the players to agree how terrain affects game play. There is no points system, so you need to create your own scenarios. There are several scenarios in the back of the book that you can use as a guide to get started. We did not find any of these areas to be a problem but competitive/rules lawyery players should probably steer clear.

Hell on Dodgson's World
As I mentioned before, Hell on Dodgson's World was a scenario pack for Hellfire. Irregular released three scenario packs (Hell on Dodgson's World, A little more Hell on Dodgson's World, and Dodgson's World: The Hell Continues). These scenario packs chart the attempts by ChiCom to crush the populace of Dodgson's World so that they can exploit its people and resources. Alternatively, they chart the attempts by ChiCom to bring civilisation and prosperity to Dodgson's World. The first scenario is a chase: High Priestess Nissa O'Quinn tries to evade capture by ChiCom forces. The second scenario sees local militias trying to seize control of the local spaceport to prevent fresh ChiCom forces landing. The third scenario has local militias besieging the village of New Hovine in an attempt to capture Prince Bishop Audley Yonk because he is a pro-ChiCom figurehead.

If you bought all three scenario packs, you got Dodgson's World: The Hellfire Campaign free. This is a mini-campaign using the forces from the scenario packs. It is map-based. The local militias are trying to capture one of the main towns in the area and ChiCom is trying to stop them.

Between them, these offer a good range of play.

Our Game
We played Hell on Dodgson's World. I took the part of the High Priestess and Steve took charge of the ChiCom forces. We played at half scale on a 4' x 3' table because Jim Webster once told me that the scenarios were tested on an 8' x 4' table. My games table is 6' x 4' and I don't have space for a longer table. I figured that playing full-scale on a shorter table would excessively disadvantage Steve, because it would mean that my troops could escape from the table more quickly. This proved to be the right decision and it kept the game close.

My forces set up in the middle of the table (blue circles). ChiCom entered from the left side of the table. To win, I needed to get the High Priestess, six bases of infantry and my two crew-served weapons off the table. Steve needed to capture the High Priestess, but he would not know which group she was with until he had her in his line of sight.

The blue arrows show my line of advance. The ChiCom forces followed this as they chased me. The High Priestess was with the top group in the photo, as were the two crew-served weapons. The other two groups were intended to distract Steve's forces and soak up the damage while the main group headed as fast as possible for the safety of the dense jungle just off table.

The above photo shows Luke Company of the Fidelis Guard in the woods. Well, it shows what was left of them after the first two turns. ChiCom showed up, dropped artillery on them and then proceeded to shoot them to pieces without even stopping. It was brutal. We made a few mistakes early on which led to higher casualties for Luke Company, but I don't think it seriously affected the final outcome.

In the foreground, I deployed the two crew-served weapons thinking that I could set up covering fire and take out the troop of ChiCom armoured infantry that were about to appear round the corner of the woods. I messed up. I did not leave myself enough time to both unlimber the guns and set up covering fire. The armour rounded the corner of the woods followed by the command vehicle. Artillery rained down on my position destroying one gun while direct fire from the light tank with the armoured troop knocked  out the other.

Meanwhile the High Priestess in her doolie wagon was still running for the jungle. Every command point I had was focused on getting her off the table. Of course, it did not help that I suddenly started getting low rolls for command points at this time.

With the guns gone, the entire ChiCom force focused on the High Priestess. Despite the risk of killing her, the ChiCom commander called down artillery on her position and the light tank opened fire. Fortunately, this was all noise and few of my troops were killed. The final turn of the game saw the ChiCom APCs closing in to deliver their cargo of infantry, but the High Priestess made it into the jungle the turn before she would have been captured.

With the crew-served guns lost, I could not win the game, but the High Priestess' escape meant that neither could Steve. The game was a draw, but I'm sure both sides will milk their own version of events as a propaganda victory. All in all, it was a fun game and the final chase proved me right in choosing to play at half scale so that the table was long enough. Had it been shorter, my forces would have escaped too easily.

The plan is to play the next scenario in the series next time we meet, but I have no idea when that will be.