With my colleagues in Jasper, Mica and Delta companies having the advantage in the battles for Summit Junction and Bohoni Rd, and my own couple of Lupus platoons facing a superior force including ILR Assault troops I decided to play safe this turn and just commit myself to a nighttime raid to keep the ILR on their toes.
Lt Casputain was given the chance to prove himself again, and managed to roll for probably the easiest raid - just kill 25% of the enemy. Seeing as he only had 8 men and ILR only had 10 (but better rated) he only had to kill 2.
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| EDF attacking from the top, Section House and Yard bottom right |
The ILR was set up with the Assault Section dozing in the Section House, whilst 4 rabbits of the Mech Inf patrolled the area. I decided to use the Nighttime rules from Albedo, but supplement them with the Noise/Guards stealth rules from Osprey's Black Ops which had worked tolerably well last time I used them, and would also enforce a different sort of game.
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| Just a regular nighttime ILR patrol duty.... |
Lt Casputain split his hand-picked section (just cats and dogs, no-one with inferior night-vision), into 3 teams, he kept the LMG team with him, the Section 2ic took the grenadier and 2 more riflemen, and the two felines formed a third team. The plan was for the 3 teams to sweep though the settlement roughly in line til contact was made, and then focus on the kill. Nighttime visibility at only 25% (small moons!) meant a 9" visibility limit.
As the game kicked off the ILR patrol guards did their suitably random bit, and all was quiet for 2 turns as the EDF snuck forward. Then a guard on the edge of the board, turned and found himself walking into sightline of the felines hiding behind a wall. Two shots, one wound. The rabbit shouted but was too far away to be heard. Feeling the weight of the Republic on him he went into a Fanatical Charge (ILR speciality), dodged bullets on the way in and then in the melee (more noise) took another wound and staggered back.
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| ILR Fanatical Charge |
On the other side of the board Sgt Saguenay had led his team across the main road and was nearing (unbeknownst to him) the Section House yard. A patrolling rabbit turned about at the wrong moment and two rifles were set to let rip at his back - but both jammed.
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| Now just don't jam..... aw'shucks! |
The swearing must have been enough to alert another nearby guard who turned into the yard from the other side, fired past his colleague and hit the edge of the wall that one of the EDF troopers was using as cover. The gunshots were enough to alert the third guard, who just happened to be by the section house (the Assault team still snoozing!) and burst in to tell them that they were under attack.
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| Sgt Saguenay's team takes incoming on the edge of the Yard |
Lt Casputain could hear the commotion in the yard, and sent the LMG team across the road to a perfect enfilade shot against the two rabbits still in the hard. But the LMG jammed.
The ILR Assault team came pouring out of the front and side door of the Section House and a frantic firefight started around the yard. The EDF managed to get enough stuns to keep the ILR from causing too much damage, but without getting much damage itself. Things were looking worse for the EDF when Lt Casputain got caught in a graze from some flying brickwork, but luckily he was soon back in action.
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| The firefight on all 4 sides of the yard |
On the other side of the board the two felines managed to subdue the fanatical rabbit, but were a bit too enthusiastic and managed to kill him rather than capture him. With that done they headed off through the back alleys to get to the main fight.
When they arrived they had two rabbits with backs turned in front of them, one guard and the ILR OC. A couple of shots and both were wounded. Then things started going downhill for the ILR. One Morale card had an assault trooper decide to leg it, and then another had the ILR OC bleed out and die! The EDF LMG was still proving ineffective, but Sgt Saguenay's up close and personal fight managed to take out the ILR assault LMG. One of his team was so fed up with a jamming gun that he fixed bayonet and charged the remaining ILR assault troopers, and was lucky to escape (at least temporarily) with his life.
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| A crazed EDF trooper charges in with his weapon jammed! |
With 4 rabbits down, including the ILR OC, it was time to bug-out. Sgt Saguenay pulled back down his alley, waiting to provide cover for his crazy colleague.
Lt Casputain, Sgt Saguenay and their teams made the pullback safely, sprinting to put enough distance between them and the ILR to disappear into the darkness. The two felines were less successful, a couple of wounded ILR guards spotting them from the cross-roads and charging in, resulting in one EDF dead before the remaining feline slinked away.
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| Wounded ILR catches a fleeing feline |
Analysis
EDF pulled victory from the jaws of defeat - with all those early misfires it really seemed as though they be cut to pieces by the Assault team, but the flanking move by the felines really turned it around.
The Black Ops Guard/Noise rules worked pretty well, but activating the Commander (8+ then another 8+ I think) is just too hard - and with radio would have thought would be pretty instant. I might tweak for my next game, but certainly worth having in the armoury. The night rules OK, I played 25% not the "declared" 35% so as to use the lowest range (9") which did end up with the action being close in - and given the short lines perhaps not as much as an affect as I'd expected. Both though gave the game a very different feel to the first one - it certainly felt more sneaky rather than a simple encounter battle.
I think the EDF less well on the counter-game so we'll see what the overall result it.
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