Albedo ACP164 Kickstarter

The Albedo Kickstarter from Sally 4th that I mentioned in an earlier post is now live!

As mentioned then Albedo is a superb hard military/political SF story/comic from the 1980s, it just happens that the worlds are populated by anthropomorphic critters, not humans.

Sally 4th who are doing the Kickstarter have released a starter set for each side on pre-order (now order, mine have been posted), so that you don't have to wait til the Kickstarter deliverable to get playing.

They've also released a quick start beta rule set. Interestingly the rules are a version of Buck Surdu's Combat Patrol rules. These were on my list to check out, so now I'm play-testing the ACP164 version rather than the currently available versions - they are already on the table and playing well, and use a neat card activation/decision/DM system for everything. Full report to come.

So if you like SF, or even just modern skirmish (they also have a superb terrain set for built up areas), then back the kickstarter now!

Skirmish Rules Testing: Part 6 - FiveCore

Presentation

FiveCore is a rules family/system from Nordic Weasel Games, available through WargamesVault. As well as the Core book there are loads of supplements with additional and optional rules and even different ways of doing things (e.g. activation, damage). I picked up several which looked like they'd be useful (which was probably a mistake). Good production quality and each individual book is well laid out.

Set-Up

No major variations, most weapons covered in generic terms. Used FiveCore's Sandbox supplement to set up a presence patrol scenario, with patrol points to be visited and encounter points which may, or may not, contain enemy.

How It Played

Note: Doing these run-throughs is taking up a lot of time, and spare evenings have been hard to come by lately. I've also found that within the first couple of turns I have a feel as to whether I'm going to get on with the rules or not, so I'm no longer going to play every rules set to the end of the scenario - also saves me boring you with repetitive description. These descriptions will probably also be more high level.

Insurgents just visible on the two roof tops - and man down in the ditch!

The patrol set of and almost immediately came in sight of the first encounter point. That was a dud but as FireTeam 2 turned the corner onto the main drag the next one spawned a group of 4 insurgents who I put on suitable building tops. They took out the point man who was moving down the ditch and the others took cover and started returning fire. Several UGL rounds were lobbed onto the roof tops but kept missing. Eventually the weight of SA80 and Minimi firepower took the insurgents out and a flanking attack by Cpl Hore and his #2 wasn't needed.

Rules Impressions

Whilst all the options were nice in the end they were totally overwhelming - perhaps I should have just stuck to the core book. It was nice to compare though their standard move/normal/fire turn type (neat idea, especially the move turn where everyone can move but can't be shot!) with their action-points based system. Whilst the idea of rolling Kill and Shock dice was nice, the constant changing of your dice mix was a real pain. The 1 and 6 for results instead of even just 5 and 6 also seemed to increase the mental gymnastics. 6S for suppression from an MG was nice though. Killing was very hard (6s on Kill only), and there are very minimal DMs (probably just as well) for cover - you're either hiding (so out of sight) or not.

The patrol mode worked quite well, and the encounter spawning, and I could see myself using the Sandbox book as a campaigning ruleset regardless of the main rules.

Overall

Overall through I though they were too complicated in presentation and too fiddly in the mechanics, so I'd only give them 5/10 - maybe 6/10 if I had only read the one book!

Skirmish Rules Testing: Part 5 - Black Ops

Presentation

Probably the glossiest rules set in this sequence, a 64 page book from Osprey. Layout pretty good, but like most commercial sets lots of words between the main rule tables.

Set-Up

Black Ops is all about stealth so I decided to change the set up. Rather than a presence patrol through town I now put a big compound in the middle of the table, with lots of cover to approach through. The TV crew were now "hostages" in the compound, the boss and his main crew were asleep, whilst guards patrolled outside and  in a sangar on one of the block-house roofs.

How It Played

The attacking Brits moved in two groups, coming from SE and SW and converging on the back gate. The random guards drifted close, then away, then finally the sangar spotted Fire Team B, who immediately took casualties. The shooting caused a nearby guard to walk over and a firefight developed around the small sheepfold, but eventually the sangar was taken out, and the guard. Despite the firefight and lots of noise markers though the enemy leader stayed sound asleep!

On the other corner a guard drifted around the corner right into the rear-guard and was shot dead - but still the boss snored.

Now it was time to get into the compound. The grenadiers put smoke rounds up over the wall and filled the compound.

Cpl Hore made a dash through the smoke whilst his 2ic took a gun group to try and get on top of the sangar to provide covering fire once the smoke cleared. The insurgent boss finally woke up but with all the smoke his team had nothing to fire at. Hore and co burst through the smoke and were lucky to get two initiatives before the enemy and took the boss and his 2ic out, liberating the prisoners. The two remaining enemy on the roof, and the one guard behind the compound decided it was time to bug out!

Rules Impressions

The random activation as OK but meant you couldn't plan things, and the single action on activation gave limited options. Firing seemed pretty lethal, with guys going down all over the place, hitting on 4+, 3+ if aimed, saving only on 5+. The observation test is very weird and I needed the Internet to try and sort it out. It looks like is actually a REVERSE observation test - you take it to show that you are still hidden, not to see if you've been spotted. UGL rounds were pretty useless, needing 6+ to be on target.

The random walk for the guards worked well, but what surprised me was how poor the much vaunted noise mechanic appeared to be. The problem seems to be that the noise count is halved for hard cover, and halved again if further than 12" - so the boss hardly hears anything. Nice idea, just doesnt seem to be executed well.

Overall

A bit disappointing given that they are Osprey (but in some ways not surprised) and are likely to be one of the more heavily played sets tried here. I might bring through some modification of the noise mechanic (although interesting that there's also a version of that in AK47), but otherwise nothing much for me in it, Overall 6/10 (just).

Albedo Wargame!

Wow! Sally 4th are going to do a skirmish game and 28mm figures based on the Erma Felna/Albedo comic books of the late 80s/90s. More details of the game at http://albedopatrol.com/Forum/index.php?topic=12.0 and here.

If you haven't come across Erma Felna and Albedo before it was a stunning military/political series/world produced by Steve Gallicci which just looked "right" militarily (Steve was an ex USAF illustrator) but also got into the political and moral implications and reasons for the military action. One of the best bits of military SF ever as far as I'm concerned. Oh, and all the "people" were actually anthropomorphised animals and Steve single handedly kicked off the whole "Furries" sub-culture.

You can see almost all the comics on Steve's archive at http://www.stevegallacci.com/archive/edf/. I've just got  a few gaps in my own collection, so better fill them fast before the prices go up!

Really looking forward to the Sally 4th release. I can use the figures with whatever comes out of my mass-skirmish rules assessment, and put their own rules into that assessment (and I've dug out my old Albedo RPG to check those out too). Sally 4th are apparently going to sell a few figures and make the rules available for free when they start the Kickstarter so people can immediately get playing - great idea.

Will post up images and AARs as I can do do them!

20mm ECW - Lord Brookes' Regiment

Just finished Lord Brooke's regiment using Tumbling Dice early ECW figures. Just love the colour! Basing to follow. Currently doing an NMA Regiment.

Skirmish Rules Testing: Part 4 - Chain Reaction

Presentation

Chain Reaction is the master ruleset from Two Hour Wargames. I also picked up NUTS (WW2) and FNG (Vietnam), all in PDF, but the differences were minimal. Rules seemed reasonably laid out.

Set-Up

No major variations, most weapons covered in generic terms in CR.

How It Played

Cpl Hore moved down to his favourite corner, and for once there wasn't an RPG waiting for him - just a PKM instead!

Cpl Hore issuing commands

Hore and Jones survived the first PKM volley, kept their cool and took the insurgents out. For some reason the next group of insurgents left the comfort of their cover and started to move down the street so Hore and boys took them out. But then a lone gunman opened up from the building that Hore was sheltering behind and started creating carnage amongst the media team and LCpl Walls team.

Carnage form the lone gunman

With three guys down and 9 insurgents down it came down to the loan gunman. Grenade after grenade missed its mark. Wall and McDowell tried to storm the building, but McDowell bought it. Then Wall and Gallagher tried and were forced back. Finally Jones managed to get a grenade up onto the roof and the lone gunman was killed.

The lone gunman!

Rules Impression

The first night playing this was a real struggle as lots of rules seemed unclear. After watching a couple of painfully slow YouTube tutorials the second night was easier, but I can't say I liked the rules. The "chain reaction" bit of having one action causing some consequence that caused another action and another consequence  and so on was nice in theory but never flowed for too long and did give some odd situations. The "AI" for the "potential enemy forces (PEF)" was dreadful with them leaving cover to get closer to the advancing Brits, the NPC AI once a PEF was revealed was far better. Kills generally seemed very easy - apart from the lone gunman! The inverse activation was odd - you win the activation roll, but because you had to roll high you cant activate anyone, so the enemy gets to activate instead! But at least it was at group level.

Overall

Some nice ideas I might borrow around the AI, but otherwise it really didn't gel for me. 6/10 maybe.

Skirmish Rules Testing: Part 3 - Azhanti High Lightning

Next up in the Skirmish trials is Azhanti High Lightning. In my 20s I lusted after this but it was already out of print. Nowadays it turns up on eBay every so often for about £30-£50.

Presentation

Large format box with deck plans for a huge spaceship. Must get them all out one day! An A5 LBB to describe the cruiser and another LBB with the combat rules and scenarios. Similar layout to Snapshot, again rules in about 6 pages and  something approaching a QRS double-fold.

Set-Up

As with Snapshot everything was kept at ground level. Normal span points for teams of 2 insurgents. AK47s and SA80s were treated as Assault Rifles, RPG 7 as 4cm RAM, UGL as a downgraded 4cm RAM, and Minimi and PKM as LMG, but without set-up time. Body armour treated as Cloth.

How It Played

Cpl Hore moved off at a pace down to the corner at the T junction as before with Pte Jones providing cover. Then WHAM an RPG round was fired off from the house at the end of the street - 3rd time out of 3 games! But this time the round thudded into the building behind him and he and Jones survived. In the ensuing firefight though Jones got hit, but Wade and Kronfield moved out to the left flank behind the wall and building, came up on the rear of the Insurgent position and killed both the RPG man and the Insurgent leader. The next Insurgent group laying in wait the other side of the RPG house saw their leader go down and instantly decided to withdraw. Already the game was feeling to have a bit more subtlety than previous versions.

LCpl Wall's fireteam moved through Hore's fireteam and took up positions in the compound NE of the T junction. LCpl Wall got it from an insurgent team further down the road.Wilson the Grenadier moved up and put a UGL round in the midst of them.

Meanwhile Hore and Kronfield were moving up behind the same house, but that put them in the line of fire from some insurgents behind the hedgeline on the edge of the cropfield.

Hore bought it this time, but Kronfield poured Minimi fire into the sheepfold that the insurgents retreated into. LCpl Wall's fireteam moved up to provide UGL support,first with smoke to enable Hore to be retrived and then with HE to take the insurgents out. With only one team left the insurgents withdrew, and the Brits organised the casevac of their two casualties.

Rules Impressions

AHL showed a marked improvement over Snapshot, and apart from the lack of spotting rules you could almost see it as the grand-daddy of modern rulesets like Danger Close. The biggest issue though was the activation system which was again prioritising the leaders and making it hard to move in a tactical way. The morale rules worked really well though, as did the to-hit DMs giving lots of missed shots and armour saves. If you fixed the activation model it would be a very playable set.

Overall, 5/10 as is, but 7/10 with a fix to the activation.