Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Sen Toku - Mega Japanese submarines

In 1942, Japanese designed a master plan to attack the USA by using mega submarines, carrying planes and bio-weapons.

About the SenToku

Developed during 1943 and 1944, 3 of the submarines were ready in 1945 to strike San Francisco, Los Angeles and Panama. Thanks to the Japanese military inefficiencies, they changed the plans at the last minute.
They had stock of bubonic plague and were sailing to their objectives until the atomic bombing. They surrendered to US Navy in 1945.



Interestingly, they were all sunk in 1946 before anybody else than the US navy could examine them.

Campaign rules for SOTR/Bellum Europa

Campaign rules

Each Player composes 4 platoons 3 additional support as follow:
Use a 300 point basket and discretionary assign them on 4 platoons and 12 supports options.
 Assign up to 3 supports per platoon and keep the remaining support in a “reinforcement pool”.

Each Player has 1 Attack, 1 Defense and Choice (attack or defend)

Campaign organization:
3 engagements in 3 different locations (Spot) will decide where the final battle will take place.
We will name the 3 locations: Spot 1, Spot 2 and Spot 3
The final battle will take place either in Rear Spot Player A, Rear Spot Player B.

Each Player before starting the campaign will assign 1 platoon in each location, including Rear Spot, only the reinforcement pool is not geographically assigned.
Each Player secretly write for Spot 1, Spot 2 and Spot 3 if he is attacking or defending, using his Attack, Defense and Choice.  Then each Player may schedule Reinforcement using Reinforcement Pool support and units from the platoon in Rear Spot.
When all Players have finished all above, they release the total value committed on each Spot and whether the Player is Attacking or Defending.

Engagement rules
Each engagement have the following rules (exception of the final battle which will have variation)

Before starting the engagement, each player say if he is attacking or defending.

After Attack/Defense resolution, each player note his scheduled and unscheduled reinforcement
Scheduled reinforcement: Reserve Platoon can arrive between Turn 3-6, Reinforcement Support between turn 1-3. Note that reinforcement cannot be sent to other spot. Each Player note on a paper what turn and where reinforcement arrive.
Unscheduled reinforcement: In regards to enemy strength, Player can call in unscheduled reinforcement. Unscheduled reinforcement can arrive between turn 3-6 on a 4+ (turn 4), 5+ (turn 5), 6+ (turn 6). Committed reinforcement will not be available for other spot

Attack:
-   2 free artillery strike
-   Reinforcements are deployed at the end of the turn before entering
-   Attack are deployed at no more than 10 cm from its border
-   1st turn initiative. Note that if both players attack, initiative is resolved as usual.
Defense:
-   Benefit from 1 aerial strike after turn 3
-   1 prepared position
-   Reinforcements are deployed at the beginning of the turn, placed at the border of the table
-   Can be deployed up to half of the table.
-   50% of the force to be deployed as reinforcement.
-   Note that if both players defend, initiative is resolved as usual.

Terrain:
Each Player has 20 points to decide for the terrain on each spot:
-   Small Wood : 8
-   Medium Wood : 10
-   Major Wood : 16
-   Small Hill : 6
-   Medium Hill : 11
-   Big Hill : 14
-   Wall : 4
-   Long wall : 8
-   Small Town : 10
-   Medium Town :  20
-   Farm : 4
-   River + Bridge : 15
-   Swamp : 7
-   Anti-tank (3):  5
-   Mines (Defense only) :  10

Victory locations:
Defender place 3 victory locations, 2 in his deployment zone, 1 in no-man’s-land
Attacker place 2 victory locations, 1 in his deployment zone, 1 in no-man’s-land

Victory Points:
-   Control 1 objective : 10 points
-   Each enemy unit destroyed : value in points
-   Each enemy unit destroyed at 50% or vehicle damaged : 50% value in points
-   Each enemy unit withdrawn : 25% value in points

Final Battle rules

After each engagement, earned Victory Points will decide the Winner.
The winner wins with more 50% more points:
-   All its force can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The winner wins with between 10-50% more points:
-   50% of its force can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The winner wins with less than 10% more points:
-   1 unit can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The loser loses with less than 10% fewer points:
-   All its force can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The loser loses with between 10-25% fewer points:
-   50% of its force can be committed (as reinforcement) in the final battle
The loser loses with more 25% fewer points:
-   No unit can be committed in the final battle

In the average 3 spots, the Player with overall more points attack the Rear Spot of its opponent.

Special engagement rules in the Final Battle:
Defender:
-   1 Bunker and 1 prepared position
-   Reinforcements from Spot 1, 2 and 3 arrive from the flanks
-   1 free standard infantry squad with no upgrade
Attacker:
-   1 free artillery barrage at the beginning of the first turn
-   1st turn Initiative
-   1 artillery strike
-   Reinforcements from Spot 1, 2 and 3 arrive from the rear

Terrain : As above

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Mantic Forge Father completed

I've finally finished my Forge Father (Mantic Warpath) force and I have been quite pleased by the balance quantity vs details.

I am not a great painter and lack times and mancave to do it. Everything has to be done within a 2hour time frame until the next session. and that's when I am in Hong Kong! Give me 1 or 2 weeks of business travels and then my motivation gets down and I need few days to find the courage to paint again.

In total, that's 21 models, with 1 Huscarl, 5 Drakkarims, 5 Stormrages, 10 Steel Warriors.

So here they are. I tried to vary the different tone, with bronze/bolt gun as the main colors. The big boss has been painted with less bright than the main stream force, the Stormrage have blue wash over the armour and the Drakkarim have more bronze.

I plan to play them for Run n'Steel as Brotherhood. They have very similar squad composition.

HUSCARL

Huscarl ready for battle
Huscarl giving orders to squad leaders

STEEL WARRIOR
Steel Warrior readying for battle
Steel Warrior : Half Squad

Leader
Trooper
Trooper
 STORMRAGE VETERAN
Stormrage Squad
Leader
Leader (back)

Trooper
 DRAKKARIM
Drakkarim Squad

Drakkarim Squad

Drakkarim Squad
Leader
Trooper
Missile Launcher
Missile Launcher
Back details
Trooper

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Run n' Steel rules

I finally compiled the rules for the game and tried them recently. They come nicely and can be played at multilevel games with a maximum of 3 levels to avoid confusion.

I have also completed the 4 Codex, 1 for Kaizer, 1 for the Entente, 1 for the Cult, 1 for the Brotherhood.

  • Kaizer is a conscript army based, with a massive number of soldier of low quality supported by few elite and veteran. Their key advantage is to access to a good number of events and special order "Fanatic". They have
  • Entente field a smaller number of units compared to Kaizer but has access to more reroll and equipments and the "Battle Cry" and "Sacrifice Order. They have a high number of officer to buy orders and carry them.
  • The Brotherhood has the lowest number of units, but with all of them very tough and very deadly. They are generally slower. Their main weakness is to field useless units (the scribes) that bring points to their opponent and they need to protect. 
  • Finally the Cult has a very small and specialized elite force and a large low quality army. They have no "Order" card, but instead use "Gift" card which enhanced elite unit to a better level than any other opponents.

Run n' Steel
Number of Players: 2-6
Playing Time : 120-180 minutes (More players, longer the game)
Number of mini : 6-12 average

The game mechanics are the following:
Each player select a force that include main force and cards (armor cards, equipment cards, order cards, gift cards, event cards and psy cards). Each player draw a mission card (there can be maximum 1 Defender, and minimum 0 Defender)
Each force remains hidden from each others, all players cards are distributed among the main force and a deck (event, order cards and unused equipments, armor and psy cards). Each main force unit get assigned a Blip and a Reinforcement blip when possible.
Player design the game board with rooms, corridor, caves, doors, bulkheads, ladder, ... They also set objective points.
Each force deploys on its deployment board and select reinforcement entry points.

After the game start, blip are swapped with units and reinforcement blips arrived on the board. At the end of the game, each player sum-up all his victory points and the winner is designed.


Attacker Mission:
  • Hunting Party : The Attacker mission is to kill all enemy officers
  • Taking Ground : The Attacker has to control as many Neutral and Defender Objectives as possible within 20 turns.
  • Kill 'em all : The Attacker has to kill as many enemy as possible.
  • Move, move : The Attacker has to control as many objectives as possible with 20 turns with minimum loss
  • Taking Ground  left : The Attacker has to control all Left Flank Objectives within 20 turns.
  • Taking Ground  right : The Attacker has to control all Right Flank Objectives within 20 turns.
  • Taking Ground  center: The Attacker has to control all Central Objectives within 20 turns.
  • Sacrifice : The commanding officer must survive
  • Sabotage : Destroy Enemy Objectives
  • Blitz : Attacker has to cross the board and exit using enemy reinforcement entry points

Defender Mission:
  • Take n' hold : The Defender must take Neutral Objectives and hold them for 10 turns
  • Hold it! : The Defender must keep its Objectives untouched
  • No way! : The Defender must prevent enemy units to reach its deployment zone.
  • Sacrifice : The commanding officer must survive
  • Let them come : The Defender has to kill as many enemy as possible.
  • It's a Trap! : The Defender has trapped the Attacker and can deploy all its reinforcement at turn 2 on any flank, ignoring official reinforcement entry points.
  • Sabotage : Destroy Enemy Objectives
  • Escape : Your force must withdraw using enemy reinforcement entry points.

Now, looking for a file storage server somewhere....

Monday, June 4, 2012

1:72 Update

So finally, with my buddy, we went to the store and made some crazy shopping.

Some boxes are missing (1 russian infantry, Antitank specialists and 2 45mm guns), but in total this is a huge amount of stuff for HK$ 1500+, less than US$210!

In total, we got fr German and Russian combined :
286 infantry
8 vehicles
7 tanks
3 guns





For the german, just in infantry, I have:
26x K98
30x MP40
18x MG42 (HMG/LMG)
8x Officer
2 MP40 with Explosive
11 Snipers
2 Radio
9 Panzershreck
8 Mortars
2 Flamethrowers
18x Stg 44
6x Panzerfaust