From: KH.Ranitzsch@t... (K.H.Ranitzsch)
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 13:12:46 +0200
Subject: Rhine Dale Raid (long)
Hello Everybody Mike, Corporal-on-Duty, settled down for another night shift. He configured the security systems' main display to show scenes that were rather more interesting than drone-supplied images of leaves and the occasional "bat". He didn't expect any trouble. There hadn't been any since they had landed and established a research base on the uninhabited planet of Rhine Dale (funny name for a planet) a few weeks ago. Nothing much had happened since then. The larger local wildlife gave the base a wide berth, and generally seemd harmless enough anyway. In fact, some of the vegetation was rather more dangerous than the animals. But they had learned - the hard way - to avoid the nasty veggies. Otherwise, the only event - a few days ago - had been a small meteor strike several Clicks away. But the scientists hadn't been interested and nobody went to investigate it. Mike didn't know what the scientists were interested in. He wasn't being told what they were doing and wasn't really that interested. He wouldn't have understood it anyway. An amber sidepanel flashed on the screen. Surveillance drone #2, covering the Southwest quadrant, had detected movement. "Some wildlife", he thought, giving it no more than a cursory glance. Several organisms. Too small for "Cattlefants". "Pigs" or "Monkeys", probably. About ten of them. He returned his attention to the video. The amber panel flashed again. Surveillance drone #2 had gone off-line. Shit! He tried to contact it again. No response Bah. Those thingies weren't that reliable anyway. Not mil-grade drones, just something the scientificos had cobbled together at the instigation of Captain Jane Way, the commander of the security detachment. The REMFs back at home hadn't included proper drones on the equipment list. Too expensive, and unneccessary for an uninhabited planet. Then the squad leader out on patrol called in. He reported small-arms fire and a small explosion. Too far to be sure about the location, somewhere in the Southwest sector. Could it be...Mike called up the last images of drone #2 and played back the last images transmitted. Yes, there were some moving shapes. Not the right shape for "Pigs", rather too big for "Monkeys". Could those be people? Humans? But intel had said the planet was uninhabited. Last image: Some bright flashes. Switch to the records of drone #3. That one had drone #2 at the edge of its field-of-view. Yes, small arms-fire followed by the explosion of drone #2. Big Shit! A proper military drone would have issued red alerts on detecting small arms fire. But the scientificos hadn't thought of programming that. Time to alert Captain Jane Way and the security detachment. They wouldn't be happy to be waked at 4 o'clock in the morning. ----- Those were the first steps of the Stargrunt game Derk Groeneveld, his friends Dirk(?) and Mike(?), and I played at the Rheindahlen Con last weekend. Dirk had thought up the scenario and game-mastered it very nicely. A secret "scientific" base in the jungle region of a supposedly uninhabited planet. Mike, with a platoon's worth of troops played the security detachment. He had about three squads of troops, and a spaceship with Ortillery was orbiting the planet. Derk was commander of a mixed NAC platoon sent to investigate reports about the secret base. They had been dropped secretly some distance away - the "meteor strike" - and their task was to go in, gather intelligence, if possible a prisoner - and disappear as stealtihily as possible without leaving any evidence about their nationality. His forces consisted of a squad of Gurkhas (nice minis, very nicely painted) and two squads of regular NAC Marines. I was commander of a platoon of colonists. Some years ago, a group of civil-war refugees had reached Rhine Dale and settled in a small colony. They wanted to be left alone and didn't draw attention to themselves and weren't registered on any standard planet catalogue. When they detected the shuttles that landed to establish the base, they sent a platoon to investigate and to make it clear that unannounced guests were not welcome. As the colony didn't have any air transport, my troops had to hike in, hence the delay between the landing and our arrival. Skilled in local woodscraft, my troops could move through the dangerous plants like through normal brush. I had brought my own troops, a mixed platoon that fit the description of the colony force well: Standard weapon was combat rifle. Platoon HQ squad: Platoon leader, medic, sniper with laser rifle, two soldiers, Aided sensors (D6), Leader 1, "Regular" squad: 8 soldiers, Hand-held grenade launcher, SAW; Marksman with conventional sniper rifle. Light combat armour (D6). Amazon squad (the GZG SAS figures.nice minis, BTW), 9 soldiers, IAVR rocket, rotary SAW, Marksman with sniper rifle. No armour (D4) Merc squad, survivors a of a mercenary force involved in the Civil War. 10 Soldiers, incl.medic, SAW, two Marksmen. No armour (D4) Marksmen: It was decided that too many snipers tended to overwhelm the game. Each player was allowed only one proper sniper. Other sniper figures were toned down to "Marksmen": Shoot as snipers, but couldn't act independently and go into hiding like snipers ---- I came in from the Southwest (my labelling) corner of the board, Derk on the Northwest corner. The base was on the Northeast corner. Terrain was fairly close, with lots of brush and hills. There were some woods, mostly along the edges. Along my South edge was a lot of Each squad diced for arrival. Looking out of the first wood, my Amazons saw the first surveillance drone and shredded it with a small-arms salvo. Bit of an overkill, really, the markswoman would have eliminated it much more inconspicously. But you never know. It could have been a battle droid. I then move in cautiously, observing frequently - there were lots of dummy (?) counters on the table. Derk came in leading with his Gurkha squad. They ran into a flesh-eating Porcupine plant. One of the Gurkhas was caught by the tangle vine of Porcupine plant and impaled on its spikes. We diced to check whether he would cry out and give away the position of his squd. But his Gurkha discipline held. He died silently. After that, the Gurkhas advanced more cautiously, attacking any suspicious vines with their Kukris. The porcupine plants lost all the following fights ;-) In the meantime, my point squad came under fire from Mike's sniper, who managed to kill teh squad leader, a soldier and the Medic!Breach of the Geneva convention! The case will be documented and a complaint lodged with the UN Security Council and the Interstellar Criminal Court! ;-) The sniper single-handedly managed to hold up my advance for several turns When Derk's Gurkhas climbed over a hill, the Gurkhas came under fire from Mike's outlying patrol. Derk's regular follow-up squad wanted to charge through the Gurkhas at the enemy. But his combat movement die was awful and he ended up right where the Gurkhas were, in a nice concentrated heap, visible for miles, on the top of the hill. This was too tempting a target for me to miss and I shot two squad salvos across the board. Result, two Gurkhas and a Regular soldier dead. mike's killed another one. While all this was going on, Mike tried to call down the Ortillery. But the radio operator - played by umpire Dirk - aboard the spaceship was not too cooperative, at 4 o'clock in the morning. It started off with comments like "Your drone broke down? And you want Ortillery? Forget it", later it was "So your patrol has been eating berries again and is hearing things?", "Your sniper is hunting monkeys, so what?", "ok,OK, If you think it's important I'll wake the boss. Hold the line, please"...Muzak... The Ortillery never came in. Mike decided to switch his sniper's attention to Derks' Gurkhas. Bad move, bad luck - he gave away his position. My sniper first suppressed him, then the merc squad took revenge for their dead comrades. My advance continued, hidden behind a very convenient hill and I moved towards the poorly defended Southern edge of the base. Mike counter-charged Derk's force atop the hill. Too tempting a target for my sniper. One trooper dead. Even so, Derk's force retreated off the hill, and then went away without havein achieved his mission. At that we ended the game, as the clock was rapidly approaching the supposed time of the game, aven if I would have liked to play through my attack on the base. ---- Observations: Thanks to all involved for a nice game. Lots of fun, nice athmosphere. An interesting psychological observation. Mike and Derk became very much engaged in their two-way fight and mostly ignored me sneaking around the cover. A good illustration of how a diversionary attacks works. One thing I should have done: go around the (nicelly modelled) board and see how my troops looked from the other side. They must have been fairly inconspicuous. I occasionally forgot to move some standing in the bushes along with the rest of their squad. A few days ago, I had finished reading Rommel's "Infantry attacks", where he describes a lot of his WWI actions using infiltration tactics. Definitely useful inspiration here, and a good read in general. Several people were interested spectators, and the next day I gave a short intro game of Stargrunt to three of them. Among the spectators was a Britsh soldier who had served with the Gurkhas in Hong Kong. --- Modelling comments: The surveillance drones were very nicely done: Head and torso of GW Space Marines, hovering on a wire. Nicely painted. Mike used OUDF figures, like I did for my regulars. It was surprising how much the same figures could be changed just by a paint job. Mine were in scruffy two-tone green cammo, Mike's in smart black with yellow insignia. Totally different impression. Cat's whiskers make good antennas for backpack radios. --- Other highlights of the convention: A lot of very nice people, always the most important point. From Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the British Army. Lots of well-presented games. A spectacular pirate game with many large-scale vessels, including a whiteish ghost ship. a "Darkest Africa" game of an Ancient Roman expedition catching animals for the Circus being attacked by Massai. Two 1/300 WWII games on very nice terrain (Normandy Boccage and Western Desert), an obscure 19th century South American war, Sumo, a multi-player ACW skirmish (I at least survived it, unlike most of my Confederate comrades-in-arms) etc.etc. Several Full Thrust games, but somehow I never manageds to get in on one of them. I made third place in a "Hordes of the things" tournament. I got to see my first non-German Euro coins as change for all the stuff I bought off Dutch and Belgian traders. Actually, it wasn't that much, no, honest. Greetings