IABSM Battle Reports; 22/03/05 Vs Nige's SAS |
Since I painted Nigel's SAS force a month ago we've been dying to get them into a game. Last
night saw their first outing.
I managed to build a dispersal airfield using Timecast buildings from their SE Asia range and
1/100th Stuka's from the Air Combat Collection I then had to work out rules for night time actions
and explosive charge placement and detonation (See Below).
The airfield consisted of two huts, four barracks, two FLaK 20mm guns, an OP with two MG34's, a
fuel dump and truck park plus dispersal pens for four Stuka's though only two were in situ last
night.
The Garrison consisted of seven sections each of eight-man riflemen, plus two five-man gun
crews and eight sentries. I had marked down routes for the sentries to patrol, and they would
proceed with their movement at D6" when their chip was drawn. I decided that sentries would be
included on table and not on blinds, and that once the action started they would be removed.
Alternatively we could have used a fake blind for each sentry if desired.
Barrack blocks 1 and 2 held sleeping Platyoons each of three eight-man rifle squads, plus a Big
Man, whereas Hut 2 and Barrack block 4 contained sleeping gun crews for the 20mm FLaK's.
Hut 1 was the HQ hut and held an eight-man squad and the CO. Finally two three-man crewed
MG34's plus Big Man were located in the OP.
night saw their first outing.
I managed to build a dispersal airfield using Timecast buildings from their SE Asia range and
1/100th Stuka's from the Air Combat Collection I then had to work out rules for night time actions
and explosive charge placement and detonation (See Below).
The airfield consisted of two huts, four barracks, two FLaK 20mm guns, an OP with two MG34's, a
fuel dump and truck park plus dispersal pens for four Stuka's though only two were in situ last
night.
The Garrison consisted of seven sections each of eight-man riflemen, plus two five-man gun
crews and eight sentries. I had marked down routes for the sentries to patrol, and they would
proceed with their movement at D6" when their chip was drawn. I decided that sentries would be
included on table and not on blinds, and that once the action started they would be removed.
Alternatively we could have used a fake blind for each sentry if desired.
Barrack blocks 1 and 2 held sleeping Platyoons each of three eight-man rifle squads, plus a Big
Man, whereas Hut 2 and Barrack block 4 contained sleeping gun crews for the 20mm FLaK's.
Hut 1 was the HQ hut and held an eight-man squad and the CO. Finally two three-man crewed
MG34's plus Big Man were located in the OP.
SPECIAL SCENARIO RULES
1) Blinds need to be spotted twice to identify. i.e. Spot
the barrack block. Score acheived, place blind, spot
blind to see what it is...
2) Spotting can only be at short range.
3) Firing can only be at short range unless fired at by
target whereas muzzle flashes can be fired at at up to
18".
4) Blinds can only have three ID.
5) I've used sentry's placed at the airfield which move
according to a route worked out already in advance.
They can only spot according to above, and cannot
cause casualties from firing as they will raise the alarm
by firing weapon wildly and shouting instead.
6) To kill a sentry, silently, combat needs to be
undertaken as normal but no bonuses for automatic
weapons etc is carried out. If the sentry wins and legs it
then the alarm is raised. If the sentry kills one SAS man
but is killed himself then he makes enough noise to
rouse the garrison.
7) Nige has six five man squads with three charges
each. To place a charge a full move must be spent
stationary doing nothing else. Once placed the charges
are numbered in order of placement and put into the
pack. Once their chip/card has appeared THREE TIMES
the charge explodes.
8)The German's can remove the charge if they spend a
whole move stationary and score a 5 or 6.
9) The German's start in barracks asleep, It takes one full
move's ID to get up and ready before leaving the barrack
block. They can only appear if roused for some reason
i.e. screams of sentry's/explosions
10) Gun crews are also in barracks and must run to their
weapon after the above getting ready. The weapon
takes one full moves ID to make ready/load etc before
firing. They can fire as a reduced infantry squad i.e. 4 or
5 men less one dice - no LMG.
11) Stukas were counted as armour 2 and were counted
as if fired at from the flank. In retropect this should have
been armour 1 or armour 2, rear armour as they proved
buggers to destroy.
Nige's force consisted of two SAS groups each of three
five-man sections mounted on Jeeps with twin Vickers
K MMG or .50 cal. HMG. I decided that the twin Vickers K
would fire at 2D6+3 for the extra barrel (same as a
Panzer I par example) awesome firepower, however as
they are softskin vehicles they are very vulnerable. each
squad had a Big Man attached making the entire force
30 men and six Big Men.
The game started with a multitude of British blinds
circling the airfield. Nige had D6+1 for the game. My
sentires chips came up and they began to walk their
routes. One dice for movement and two for spotting
things at short range.
An SAS patrol activated itself adjacent to the Petrol
Dump when the sentry turned the corner around the
truck depot. One squad placed a charge on the dump
another dealt with the 20mm AA gun whilst the third
placed one on the crew barrack block. Chips for the
charges went into the hat and then we kept a log of how
many times the charge appearred. On its third
appearance - BOOM!!!!!!!
As my sentries continued blissfully unaware of what
was occurring elsewhere the SAS continued to lay
charges on the Stuka in dispersal 2 and a Lancia truck
adjacent to it.
It was at this point that a loud explosion went off - The
fuel dump erupted into a wall of fire consuming two
trucks nearby and immobilising another brace.
At this point we placed all the remaining chips in the hat
and removed sentries and their chips from the game.
After a delay for getting hurridly dressed and armed my
garrison began to mobilise. A patrol of four Jeeps and a
chevy truck hastily drove onto the airstrip from the north
guns blazing away at the ramshackle buildings.
As my troops finally poured from their barracks they
were met with a hail of fire from the Jeeps. One squad
and its Big Man was wiped out immediately the others
cut down to half strength as the SAS MGs spat forth
their hate!
Suddenly another explosion went off as the gun crew
barracks 4 exploded. We diced once for each of the five
crew inside two died instantly and three wounds were
picked up.
As a third explosion destroyed the AA gun the
defenders fire finally started to take a toll of the attackers.
The chevy was destroyed and two crew killed as the
others fell onto the airstrip. Two jeeps were immobilised
and had to be abandoned, their occupants also legging
it off-table. Remaining SAS vehicles fired at the Stuka in
dispersal 1, rendering it unserviceable as the Stuka in
pen 2 exploded in a ball of fire.
Most of the SAS squads had by now left the table, their
work done, run away to fight another day.
At the loss of three SAS men, 26 German's lay dead, with
the airfield in flames, one Stuka damaged, another
totalled, five trucks destroyed along with a 20mm FLaK
and a fuel dump destroyed.
As a first outing the SAS proved a real headache. With
our house rules, which were thrown together quickly,
over the net in the morning proved to really workj, much
to our surprise. Particularly the method of placing
charges as chips in the hat and drawing them out.
SAS vehicles, as historically, proved to have a
formidable firepower but were very vulnerable to enemy
shooting.
The game proved to be really good fun and very
different form what we're used to. Doubtless many more
raids will follow.
SAS Airfield Raid
