Played our second game of Future War Commander at the weekend.
Has been a long gap between games due to other commitments and issues, however the rules came back to us easily and we had a good, fun, if somewhat one sided, game.
We played the Colonisation Assault scenario with 4,000 pts of Arcadian Marines landing in the back yard of 2,000 pts of Andrayan defenders.
The game lasted just three turns, with the Arcadians destroying the Andrayan battlegroup. The real battle winners were that the Arcadians had paid for upgraded HQ's, CO's and FAO's, which meant they got a lot of moves each turn, and importantly were able to call in two heavy Orbital Strikes on the main Andrayan unit (a Massive Walker), which suppressed it and then destroyed it. Also, in my defence I think I got the points a little wrong - giving the Arcadians a few too many (I use adapted points from those in the FWC rule book as my units are slightly different to the way Author has them).
Took some pictures, which are shown below, as I like to capture each game, plus this one debuted my new FWC bases. I now have 60mm x 60mm bases for all my combat units. This allows me to base 2 or 3 models (more for infantry) on a base, so that they now look like a platoon rather than one unit. I took this from the work of Paintingshed's Napoleonics, and the Baccus Command Horizon bases.
Have to say I like the new look as you feel that you now have an army, and more of my toys can get onto the table without the game getting to be too big.
Plan to follow this basing approach for the low level conflicts in Cold War Commander, such as Lebanon 82, and Vietnam, where battalion size operations (rather than brigade) are the norm, and Infantry play a larger part.
One final thing, although the table looks good, it doesn't look very SciFi. So will get some aquarium plants for the next game so that at least the flora on the table doesn't look like it could have come from the Home Counties.
This firs picture is pretty much the end of the game (I must learn to post photos in reverse order). In the foreground you have the smoked Massive Walker - a Malignant from Dark Realm Miniatures, and the back of the remaining medium walker company (Velites), at the bottom left. The landing pad in the centre of the picture is the origin point for the Arcadian landings. The Arcadians are in Tan, and the Andrayans in Grey.
Next is a shot of the left flank, showing the destroyed Andrayan's (spot the theme!), and the victorious Arcadians. In the middle of the picture are two platoons of marines mounted with their Ramjack IFV's. The vehicles are DRM, and the Marines Adler. I've broken with the FWC rules in that I mount the Infantry with the vehicles on one base, rather than two. I prefer this as to my mind it makes more sense to represent a Mech Infantry platoon like this, in a platoon as the basic unit, game, rather than have a base for the vehicles and one for the Infantry. Have combined the stats of the two units, and they are a powerful assault team (9D6 in close assault), but take up 2 breakpoints (like Massive Walkers). This gives them both a well defined battlefield role, which suits Mech infantry, to my mind, but also a risk factor in using them - they pile on and lead the assault, but should they lose, then your battlegroup feels it.
The picture also shows a platoon of Petard missile launchers (@ three o'clock). I have changed these from the AA weapon that they are in FWC into a smart missile platform, seeing them as something similar to a M901 TOW cherry picker, or BRDM3/AT5, from the cold war era. They are a powerful unit, but only get to fire once per turn.
Next is an earlier shot of the Andrayan advance (you can tell it's earlier as they are still intact). The attack was lead by the Malignant Massive Walker (in the foreground, and who has just KO'd a platoon of Arcadian fast attack buggies), and a company of Velite walkers supported by a platoon of Verger walkers. The multibasing comes into its own in this shot, as the medium walkers are represented by three bases of three walkers - a total of nine - rather than just three single models. Felt like I was commanding a company, rather than representing one. The aim is to have the Velites as the core part of my Andrayan force, with a total of nine bases of them, which will equate to 27 models. Should look good.
This next shot is of the Arcadian fast attack buggy company, who raced West from the landing point to seize the high ground. This proved a good move, as although the unit is not very powerful, by taking the high ground they aided the FAO in calling in the Orbital Artillery Strike, as he could do it with the advantage of being on higher ground. This reduces the size of deviation from target, enabling him to call in two powerful pinpoint strikes on the Malignant massive walker, the first one taking down his shields and suppressing him, and the second finishing him off.
Again the buggies are mounted three to a base, so as to represent a platoon on a 1-1 basis, and I like the look and feel this gives
This final picture is the start of the game, showing the table (not very SciFi) and the landing of the Arcadian forces.
The battlegroup was split into four companies - at the bottom of the picture is the fast attack company mounted in buggies, to the left and the right are mixed Mech Infantry and Tank Companies - two platoons of Marines and two of Rampart tanks in each, an at the top is a company of "left over" items - the CO, a platoon of Petard smart missile launchers, and a platoon of Tiger light tanks. The Arcadians also had in reserve a company of Houndog light walkers (taken from the GZG DS list, in the FWC rules) and a company of Bastion Heavy tanks. Such was the success of the Arcadians that they did not need to deploy the Bastion company.
Incidentally, this was the first time we'd used the reserves rule in any of the BKC/CWC/FWC games we've played, and we liked them - can really see the Panthers and Tigers in our next BKC game being held in reserve ready to plug the Soviet tide at the crucial point in the battle.
So that was that. A fun game, and now leaves honours even with one victory each.
Our next planned game is Warmaster Ancients as Chris has just finished his 6mm Germans, ready to take on my Romans (which were finished in early 2007, but I could never sum up the discipline to paint up an enemy to take them on).
On the painting front I'm pushing on with my 15mm Madhists for Patrols In the Sudan. Have started using/doing the Army Painter dip, and am liking the results it gives for the effort I have to put in. Will post some pictures of these soonest.
