The Battle For New Terra (Part 3): A 5150 Campagin

Here is Part 3 of my Transatlantic campaign game of THW's 5150: Platoon Leader. I have built everything I needed to play out of recycled materials found on the rig, and scrap parts from the metal junk baskets.   

Location: New Terra
Mission: Attack, Destroy all PEFs
Star Army Investment Level: 5
Hishen Investment Level: 2

Troops.
Locke: Star, Rep 5
Rocket Launcher, Rep 4
Plasma Rifle, Rep 4

Squad 1
Leader, Rep 3
Troops, Rep 4

Squad 2
Leader, Rep 4
Troops, Rep 4

Squad 3
Leader, Rep 4
Troops, Rep 3

Board Setup

 This mission, Locke kept Squad 3 in reserve.  Locke, the two weapon teams and squad 1 all enter the table in section 8, triggering PEF checks all the buildings from sections 7, 8 and 9. Each of them no spawning any enemy.

Squad 2 entered the board on section 7, triggering PEF checks in the building in Section 4. This also results in no enemy.

At this point, the 3 PEFs are generated via the normal rules, Section 1, 2 and 4. all get one.

PEFs are formed.

Squads moving up the street.

Next turn, results with all the PEFs moving towards someone. The PEF in 4, moves into the building and triggers an insight test with Squad 2. Bad case of nerves.

Locke and Squad 1 moves forward and triggers an in site test with the smaller building in section 1, getting a result of a full squad.

Locke and troops were able to react first, and very quickly dispatched the Hishen squad. After finishing moving just a little further forward, they triggered the last two PEFs in sections 1 and 2. One was a bad case of nerves, and the last one automatically requires a roll on the reinforcements  table.. resulting in a big fat "Nothing"

Star Army Wins, and this results in the moral of the Hishen being reduced to zero and automatically ending the campaign.

-------------------------------------

Final thoughts..

 All though not clear in the rules, the rules do say that for PEFs that fail to produce anything when approaching a building, says that if you enter that building after you need to resolve the PEF again in the building. But it doesnt say to lay a PEF counter down, I have been placing blue tokens on it to remind me. Going forward, I will treat these as a special kind of PEF, that you need to clear in order to obtain the victory conditions of the attack mission. I had 4 blue tokens on the board and I just ignored them.

The low IL of the Hishen did hamper things a lot. As I rarely got any spawns. But Its a good level to allow you to learn the game. I increased it to 2 this game, but as luck would have it.. I got seldom got the PEFs to actually trigger, although I had a ton of re rolls.

Again, I would like to say if you are just starting to get into wargames/miniatures this 5150 Platoon Leader is an ideal ruleset due to the simplistic nature. Although its too simple for me in the big picture tho.. not enough variety in the results. But, 5150: Star Army, although the same basic game concepts, with its more detailed rules, a little more clunky rules offers me a pretty good game complexity that I like.. Picture it as Platoon Leader as 5150 Basic, while Star Army is 5150 Advanced. I have yet to try 5150: Battalion Commander.. That one is on my list to try out hopefully in a few weeks.


 

Battle For New Terra: A 5150 Campaign. Part 2

This is part two of a campaign game of 5150: Platoon Leader by THW that I am playing while sailing across the Atlantic for work. Making everything out of things I was able to scavenge from the recycle bins. It may not be lead, it may not be painting, or fancy terrain.. just good old simple gaming :)

 
Battle of New Terra:
Mission: Attack
Investment Level: 3
Enemy Investment Level: 1

Locke: Star, Rep 5
Platoon Asset 1: Rocket Launcher; Rep 4
Platoon Asset 2: Plasma Gun Rep 4

Squad 1: Star Army
Leader: Rep 3
Troops: Rep 4

Squad 2: Star Army
Leader: Rep 4
Troops: Rep 4

Squad 3: Star Army
Leader: Rep 5
Troops: Rep 4

With the ruse foiled by Lockes last recon mission, the Star Army now decides to strike out at the invading forces. Locke and his platoon, along with his special weapons team are ordered to attack. Lockes mission is to move 3/4 of his troops of the board sections of 1,2 or 3.



Locke and the weapons team move and take the first middle building while squad 1 and squad 2 move up on each flank. Squad 3 moves up and moves to support Locke.

The first 3 buildings in sections 7, 8 and 4 turn out to be empty, while PEFs are generated in sections 1 (one PEF) and 5 (two PEFs)

 This caused a few things to happen, the 2 PEFs directly in front section 8, where the Locke and the weapon teams, were the first to trigger the insight tests and turned out to be just bad nerves. This left the last PEF in section 1 in LOS to both Locke and Squad 2. It turned out to be a full squad of Hishen troops.

In sight tests were made, and Squad 1 lost to the Hishen, while the Hishen lost to Locke and his team.

The Rocket Launcher managed to be the only team to get a shot to hit, and its 5" blast decimated the entire Hishen squad.


Squad 3 then move to the sector 5, while squad 1 and 2 moved up the flanks. Each time they triggers PEF checks on the buildings as they moved near them. With the Hishen investment levels so low, they all turned out to be nothing.

The reminder of the mission, Locke ordered all troops to dash off the field. Knowing full well, that now the only way enemy troops could spawn, is if his men entered a building or the Hishen got lucky on its reinforcement roll.

Squad 3 and Locke were able to make to the edge of the board with making several fast moves, while Squad 1 and squad 2 were both short, inches away from the edge.

On the last turn, the activation rolled turned up a seven. A 6 and a 1.. sure enough it was the Hishen that rolled a 6 and got reinforcements. Right next to the edge of the table, in sector 1 a lone Hishen rocketeer arived in the same building where the previous Hishen squad was previously blown apart.

Fearing the worst, as I have seen a RL in action just a few turns before, Squad 2 needed to get the in sight test, which they did. With the whole squad opening up, only 1 shot managed to hit!! I thought it was over, but the damage roll turned out to be a 6+ killing him outright.

With this last building being cleared, squads 1 and 2 leave the table to complete the mission.
Results:
Star Army Morale: 5
Hishen Morale: 1


I know I have been kinda lucky with the low investment levels of the Hishen. So on my next game I am going to bump it up to maybe 3.. See how different it will be.

So far, I am liking the 5150: Platoon Leader rules, as it deals almost entirely then foot based troops. So you do not vehicle models, or anything else for that matter. The rules are very fast once you understand them, as this game took me all of 30 minutes to play. Which, for me, being on a rig. I can get a quick game or two in before I head off to bed before the next shift.

Compared to 5150: Star Army, SA has a more serious feel to it and is considerably slower but it has much more detail and customizing to it. I would assume that Star Army was designed for those who like more complex games that involve a larger range of models.

 

The Battle of New Terra (A 5150 Campaign)

This is my first attempt of an actual real campaign game. The last few days I have been practicing with the rules and getting a rules down pat. Now its time to begin the campaign.

Controlling Star Army (Moral 3, IL 3) vs the Contesting Hishen (Moral 4, IL 1)

Patrol Mission. City Outskirts of New Terra, 0900
Mission: Recon sector and confirm if any Hishen have advanced into this sector. Avoid unnecessary casualties and return upon completion.

Locke moves his squad into the SE corner of town. His mission is to confirm enemy sightings in the area.
3 PEFs appear, sectors 1, 3 and 5. Sector 5 turns out to be the bad case of the nerves and nothing is there.

Locke fails to activate while the PEFs in sector 1 and 3 move towards him.

There are sounds of movement ahead that seems to be coming from the building, but again it turns out that there is only a few rats in the old warehouse.

Locke and squad moves towards the warehouse and no PEF is generated, meanhile a in sight check is made vs the last PEF. 2D6 passed, and its a roll on the enforcements chart. Total result:3 Nothing! Locke and his squad complete the recon with out incident.
 

 

It appears that the rumored contact in the outskirts was nothing but enemy propaganda, as the sector contains nothing but shadows and silence. Not falling for the bait, the Star Army can send its troops on the full attack.

This was my very first game, with no contact what so ever. It was an easy win, but Ill take it none the less.

Shaking Off The Rust

Just to get back into the swing off things, I took everything out of storage, fired what ever I could find on the table and played a solo game of Tomorrows War.

Took me a little bit to remember how this system worked but I figured it out.

Some quick shots of the table. Actual report later this week.

The Battle of the Dragon Tongue River

Warmachine: Legion vs Khador

Last week I was able to have Tens from Basement Motive over for a game of Warmachine/Hordes. The game was 50 points and straight caster kill, His Legion army vs my Khador army which was an upgraded list from what I took to the tourney the week before.

The lists were as follows

Legion of Everblight 
Absylonia (Tier 4)
Angelius
Carnivean
Ravagore
Scythean
Shredder x3
Forsaken x2
Shepard
Nephilim Soldier
Raek

Khador
Karchev (Tier 4)
Kodiak
Bezerker
Decimator
Greylord Ternion
Battle Mechaniks and Officer 
Man-o-War Shock Troopers
Man-o-War Bombardiers
Man-o-War  Kovnik
Koldun Lord

Deployment 
The game started with me winning the roll off and I choose to let Tenz deploy first. With the Tier list he was able to advance deploy his shredders and advance move two heavy war beasts, the Ravagore and Carnivean. Which was done after the Khador initial deployment.

My force was deployed. After his advance moves I proceeded with my advanced moves my Man O War units.

Turn 1
Now it was time to get things underway. The Shredders were rushed to the front and loaded with Tenacity. The Ravagore advanced and launched its blast into the Man-o-war unit with the dragon fire animus. The initial target was destroyed with two more catching on fire. The Carnivean, Scythean and Soldier ran up behind the shredders. Two of the forsaken advanced towards the large beasts and absorbed the fury from the Carnivean and Scythean. Absylonia fell in behind the heavies while casting Forced Evolution on the Angelius and Carnivore on the Carnivean.

The Khadorian forces advanced closer targeting the shredders with their ranged attacks. Luckily for Tenz the Tenacitys +1 def made all the different with only one Shredder dying due to Karchev's Eruption spell. Also the Carnivean was hit by the Dozer of the Decimator pushing his beast back a inch. This would prove detrimental next turn for Tenz.

Turn 2
All spells were upkeep-ed for free due to Absylonia being resourceful. Tenz was unable to reave all the fury from the beasts so the two remaining Shredders were forced to make a bezerker check. Both failed with one charging the Scythean and the other his Raek. Minimal damage was dealt to the Scythean, but the Raek was wounded of its spirit.  The Ravagore advanced closer and lobbed another blast into the Man-o-war unit with more dragon fire. Killing its target and catching two others on fire. Absylonia then advanced forward applying Massacre to the Scythean and Carnivean. Tenacity was then applied to the Angelius and Soldier. 

The Carnivean would then attempt to charge the Man-o-war unit BUT due to the dozer hit would be just out of range and left hung out to dry! Brutal! The Scythean then charged the Decimator catching on fire from Eruption in the process. All hits from the Scythean would hit bringing the jack down to a few hits left. The Angelius and Soldier moved to the front of his Warlock and the Raek followed around behind. 

Karchev would activate calling for Unearthly Rage and Tow. He then moved away from the battle taking the wounded Decimator with him. The Battle Mechaniks then surrounded the wounded Man-o-wars and the Decimator and being to repair the wounded. The Berzerker charged the Scythean dealing some good damage. The ranged Man-o-wars and the Greylord Ternion unit then targeted the wounded beast ending its existence. The Kodiak would then charge the Carnivean but in a strange turn of events would be just out of range. (really, two failed charges in one game???)

Turn 3
Again The Ravagore advanced launching its blast at the Man-o-war unit with Dragon Fire. As before the initial target was destroyed along with a Mechnik. Absylonia would activate passing around Massacre to the Soldier and Angelius. Tenacity was then applied to Angelius and the Carnivean.  The Soldier then charge the Man-o-war killing it with two strikes. The Carnivean tore into a Man-o-war destroying it and finishing its attacks on the Kodiak doing some heavy damage. 

 The Angelius charged the Bezerker doing massive damage with its armor piercing attack. It continued to attack both the Kodiak and Bezerker leaving both with only a few hit points. 

With all its jacks damaged heavily the Khador force had to act. Avoiding all the melee frenzy the Khadorian force focused on Absylonia with its ranged attacks. The available Bombardiers fired at my Warlock with some minor damage inflicted. The Greylord unit would do the same with similar results. 

It came down to Karchev who fired its Fissue killing a few of its own models in the process but more importantly knocking down a few of my models. This opened the lane for his Eruption spell and targeted Tenz's Warlock. Karchev would boost to hit and just get Abyslonia. With a boosted damage roll she would go down. Khador win. 

Here's to the winner of the battle....but certainly not the war!!

The Victor!

Some Random Shots of the match.