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Wednesday 24 July 2024

Moon Wars Campaign Part 1

 This is the first 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 O'Neil Space Habitats. Both have found that their dreams are larger than the capital 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 always be out numbered by Space X.

The campaign will be four battles taken from the One Hour Wargames scenarios. Rules will be Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles. Hopefully the two systems will match up. The table will be 120cm by 90cm instead of the 90cm square recommended by OHW to hopefully account for the longer weapon ranges in Bigger Battles.

Battle One    Scenario 26 Triple Line

Space X has launched a surprise attack on Blue Origin. Space X attacks with 6 units and Blue Origin has 4 for defense.

Battle Two    Scenario 25 Infiltration

Blue Origin forces need to break through the Space X lines to escape encirclement. Once again Blue Origin is outnumbered 4 units to 6. 

Battle Three    Scenario 22 Ambush

Space X is besieging a Blue Origin base. While outnumbered 6 units to 4 a Blue origin relieving force needs to surprise and destroy the larger Space X force to break the siege.

Battle Four     Scenario 21 Twin Objectives

A final attack by Space X to defeat a smaller Blue Origin force and capture a base and nearby hill.

If the honors are even after 4 battles I may have a bonus battle.


Battle One    Scenario 26 Triple Line

Space X has launched a surprise attack on Blue Origin. Space X attacks with 6 units and Blue Origin has 4 for defense. All the squads count as green except for the Space X robot tanks that are regular.

Surviving squads for each side will be upgraded to regular for the next battle.

Space X force is white and Blue Origin force is orange. 

The OHW scenario uses a river crossed by a bridge but I have changed this to a line of craters with a gap in the middle as forcing Space X to go through a small gap while under fire would make it too difficult. In retrospect this was probably incorrect.

Only the craters, the hill and the rocky area on the right count for terrain effect, all other items are for decoration only. 

Victory conditions is holding the hill at the end of turn 15.

Start of the game. 4 Blue Origin units defending the base. Per the scenario rules they cannot move until a Space X units comes within 6 inches.

End of turn 1 - Space X has advanced on to the battle field. One squad each in the three craters from left to right and two squads in the right side crater from which they will advance through the rocky area. The Space X  robots have killed two Blue Origin astronauts and inflicted two shock but one robot has been destroyed.

End of turn 2 - the Space X astronauts have crested the craters. Another Blue Origin astronaut has been killed.

End of turn 3 - Space X advances on the right. The advanced Blue Origin squad has been destroyed. One Space X astronaut has been killed by return fire. 

End of turn 4 - Space X advances on the flanks and retreats in the center. One hit is made on the Space X robot.

End of turn 5 - Space X advances across the line. On the left one Space X astronaut is killed  and another in the squad on the right plus three shock. The robot receives another hit and is destroyed.

End of turn 6 - this was a bit of a surprise. Nearly all the Space X squads activated before the Blue Origin squads and the result was two Blue Origin squads were basically destroyed with either dead or shock meaning they did not return fire. With only one squad remaining against four and a half Space X squads Blue Origin decided to retreat.

A gratuitous photo of the Blue Origin base. Soon to be added the Space X's Luna portfolio via hostile takeover.

Final Thoughts: The Bigger Battles rules seemed to work Ok although the vehicle rules are a bit vague. I was a bit worried by the final turn as it led to the destruction of  the Blue Origin force but I think that it was a result of the random activation not the rules. 

One drawback of using the two systems is that I think Bigger Battles needs more blocking terrain than is provided by the OHW scenarios. I may add additional terrain in future battles to help with maneuver.


Figures

Astronauts with Guns from Pendraken as are the small craters
Robots from GZG games (I think)
Buildings and solar array are made by me.


6 comments:

  1. A very creative background story and tabletop setup. It will be interesting to see how future games so with more terrain for the Bigger Battles rules.

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  2. Astronuaghts with guns? how do guns even work in space?!!
    that's a very unique setting and your table is very atmospheric. or not because it's the moon and there is no atmosphere, but you know what I mean; it looks the part. That moon base is brilliant, especially the bio dome.
    I like the FFOL rules but have really only played the skirmish version. I have the bigger battles but not played.
    good start to a new campaign. 😁

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    1. Thanks for the kind comments Stew.
      There is actually a paper published in 1965 “The Meanderings of a Weapon Oriented Mind When Applied in a Vacuum Such as the Moon” well worth a look as very interesting as well as having a fun title. 😂

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  3. I haven't caught up with you're posting in full, but had you seen Lunar Landing from Blacksite Studios? It might have some ideas you could incorporate into your gaming...

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    Replies
    1. I had not seen that Dutch. Thank you for telling me.
      I will add it to my wish list 😊

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