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 😁

Moon Wars Campaign Part 2

 This is the second 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 Two    Scenario 25 Infiltration  (OHW scenario book)

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

All four Blue Origin squads enter on turn one.

Space X have one squad set up at the start of the game. Two squads enter the north side of the table on turn three and a further three squads enter the southern side of the table by the road on turn six.

At least two Blue Origin squads need to exit of the north side by the road to win.

Rules used:   FFOL Bigger Battles

The vehicles accompanying the Blue Origin squads are purely decoration. They represent the squads' supplies as they walk to freedom.

Start of Game. A lonely Space X squad guards the road north. They are green - indicated by the green counter.

End of turn 1 - Blue Origin advances two squads to the hill and two squads straight for the exit. The Space X squad moved over the hill top and their fire has killed one Blue Origin Astronaut and put a lot of shock on the rest of the squad.

End of turn 2 - Activating first in a fire fight is very important. In this case both Blue Origin squads activated before the Space X squad which was eliminated by the short range fire. This was also helped by Blue Origin drawing the Queen of Spades which allowed them to remove all shock from the squad and then fire.

End of turn 3 - Space X has deployed two squads from the north. One in the rocks with cover and one from the road. The plan is to hold on until the Space X three squads arrive on the road from the south. Space X fire has killed one Blue Origin Astronaut and added 2 shock.

End of turn 4 - The fire fight continues. Two more Blue Origin astronauts are killed versus one for Space X, Shock is incurred by both sides. However, Blue Origin has moved up the other two of its squads into range.

End of turn 5 - Once again Blue Origin gets lucky with the activation cards meaning that they shoot before Space X. As well they draw an Ace which is wild and can be used as a Queen of Spades to remove the shock. The Space X squad in the open is chased away with a lot of shock and is no longer in the fight. The Space X squad in the rocky area suffers two dead and one shock. Blue Origin only suffer one shock.

End of turn 6 - The three reinforcing squads from Space X move onto the board but it looks like they are too late. The Space X squad in the rocky area was decimated and its remaining squad member has retreated. Blue Origin head for the exit.

End of turn 7 - Blue Origin once again win the activation draw and will escape. A last ditch volley by the leading Space X squad put one shock on the trailing Blue Origin squad but now they are low on ammo.

Final Thoughts.      If one side gets the balance of the activations and moves or shoots first they get an enormous advantage, especially if they out number their opposition. Anyway a fun scenario to play out.

I decided not to add any additional terrain for LOS blocking to reduce the impact of long range fire. Mainly because I didn't have anything appropriate and also to see if the first game's outcome was just an anomaly. I think if the activations are more even there will be a better balance.

Now it is one win each for Space X and Blue Origin and the campaign is still balanced.

Figures

Astronauts with Guns and the vehicles are from Pendraken as are the small craters.

The road is from my modern terrain. Not really appropriate but it will have to do.

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.

Moon Terrain and Cities

 I have updated my moon terrain and made up some moon bases to fight over.

Moon Base X   Space X's moon Base

The base is made up of four sections. Central Control and main entrance (top centre), defence centre (left), Power (right) and habitat (bottom centre)

Close up of the Habitat and Central Control.

Moon Base Blue  - Blue Origin's Moon base.

Blue Origin have built their base underground with only the habitat domes visible

Airlocks lead down to the tunnels of the base.

I sprayed my moon boards and craters a darker grey. They still show the texture of the flock so it looks good to me. I also built two sorts of rough ground. Large rocks that will provide cover and also be impassable to vehicles and small rocks that will just be impassable to vehicles.

Anyway, something better to fight over and fun to make.

Space X's base is built from Electrical Cable junction boxes. The glass bubbles are from Christmas ornaments I picked up a long time ago cheap from office works.

I have decided that both companies will use Northrop Grumman Aerospace Jumbo Lunar Lander as I already have plenty of these.