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Wednesday 4 September 2024

Moon Wars Campaign Part 4

This is the fourth post in a narrative campaign between Space X and Blue Origin to control the moon. This will let me play with my Astronauts with guns and associated terrain and vehicles.

Campaign Background

Space X has built a base on the moon to support the establishment of a colony on Mars. Blue Origin has built a base to support the establishment of its O'Neil Space Habitats. Both have found that their dreams are larger than the capital and resources they have available.

Space X has decided on a hostile take over of Blue Origin's assets on the moon and has launched a surprise attack in an extension of their corporate competition for the moon's scarce resources. Luckily Blue Origin has had time to prepare some defenses but they will still always be out numbered by Space X.

Battle Four Scenario  Scenario 21 Twin Objectives     (OHW scenario book)

A final attack by a Space X force of 6 squads that need to defeat a smaller Blue Origin force of 4 squads and capture a base and nearby hill.

Rules used:   FFOL Bigger Battles

Start of the game. A force of six squads of Space X comes from the right hand side of the table.
One squad of Blue Origin holds the hill in the bottom right hand side and three squads of Blue Origin hold the base. These three squads are sheltering behind vehicles that have been moved to provide a  barricade against the advancing Space X hordes.

End of turn 1 - Space X has moved three squads to attack the hill and the other three squads have moved towards the base but remain out of range. The Blue Origin squad on the hill has moved to the edge of the hill and opened fire but has only managed to inflict 4 points of shock on one Space X squad.

End of turn 2 - Space X initiative cards are better than Blue Origin's. In addition to going first they also draw the Queen of Spades which allows them to remove all shock from one unit and then fire. Two Space X squads get to fire at the Blue Origin squad on the hill and despite its cover it is destroyed. The other Space X squad moves towards the solar arrays while the three squads remain out of range of the Blue Origin squads in the base. 

End of turn 3 - Blue Origin shuffle their squads to move one squad to the solar arrays to confront the Space X advance there. The other squads maintain their positions in the base.

End of turn 4 - Space X advances across the battlefield. Blue Origin deploys one squad past the Solar Array and they fire on the nearest Space X squad (sorry no firing indicator) and cause two dead and one shock. The Blue Origin squad in the base fires at long range at the advancing Space X squads but gets no hits.

End of turn 5 - Once again Space X wins the initiative. At the base the top most Space X squad moves to close range and gets 4 killed and one shock. Return fire inflicts no casualties.
At the Solar Arrays Space X draws the Queen of Spades again as well as firing first and kills three Blue Origin defenders and sends the remaining two running for safety.  The last Blue Origin squad moves and fires and kills two Space X fighters and causes two shock. They will need to move first next turn if they hope to survive.

End of turn 6 - Space X again win the initiative and effectively destroy the remaining two Blue Origin squads. The remaining three Blue Origin Astronauts surrender. The battle is lost.

A gratuitous photo of my space base built using electrical conduit sections, clear Christmas ornaments and scratch built computers, screens and machines. 

Final Thoughts: The Bigger Battles rules seemed to work Ok. However they are very dependent on the luck of the activation of each side and the games left me a bit unsatisfied as they seemed to be determined by the first or second turns. I am not sure if the scenarios are unbalanced when using the FFOL rules or it was just the activation cards drawn in each of the games.

I don't think I will play a bonus tie breaker game. Mr. Bezos and Mr. Musk will have to settle for a draw.

Figures

Astronauts with Guns from Pendraken as are the small craters
Buildings and solar array are made by me


What next?

At least my readers have been spared zombies for the past eight weeks, hopefully this will continue 😁