{"id":3558,"date":"2015-01-04T01:01:19","date_gmt":"2015-01-04T01:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=3558"},"modified":"2015-01-04T01:01:19","modified_gmt":"2015-01-04T01:01:19","slug":"taliban-fighters-spank-marines-and-seals-in-the-first-hawks-club-game-of-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=3558","title":{"rendered":"Taliban fighters spank Marines and SEALs in the first HAWKs club game of 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For our first club night of 2015, Duncan hosted his WWI version of the battle of Four Corners (Look, Sarge, No Charts: 1914<\/em>) , and Noah and his son hosted a Sangin<\/em> (name of the rules) modern Afghanistan skirmish. \u00a0I played in the modern game, because I wanted to see how the rules worked.<\/p>\n

\"Setting<\/a>
Setting up the battlefield over a Cigar Box Battles desert map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Noah put together the terrain with Miniature Building Authority Middle East buildings over a Cigar Box Battles mat. \u00a0He added some Woodland Scenics trees and a scratch built rocky mountain. \u00a0The table looked quite good.<\/p>\n

\"Another<\/a>
Another view of the initial setup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were using the rules called Sangin<\/em>, which are a set of rules for modern skirmish actions. \u00a0I don’t know if they are Afghanistan specific or Southwest Asia general, but there was a lot of detail that gave it an authentic feel.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My mortar team and the rest of my group in their initial positions on a hill overlooking the town<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each player had about eight figures, representing a Taliban group or an understrength infantry squad. \u00a0I had a mortar team and small group of infantry.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
Two of my men manning a recoilless rifle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The game had a couple of interesting mechanics. \u00a0First, figures have a rating, called “body,” which determined the number of phases (and the sequence of activations) within a turn. \u00a0All of my figures got four activations in a ten phase turn, but better troops could have activate more frequently and worse units could have activated less frequently. \u00a0I have to say that with different figures in the squad activating in different phases, it could get difficult, even with eight figures to keep track of who was supposed to activate when. \u00a0Some colored marks or something might have been helpful.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Marines advance through the trees toward the town<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Second, after a figure activated (executing up to three activation points), the figure is marked with a chip that indicates how it ended the activation (e.g., kneeling, hidden, prone, running, etc.). \u00a0The markers had the modifiers for the soldier for spotting, shooting, and defensive benefit when a target. \u00a0That was quite convenient, but there were a number of additional modifiers that still required the use of the chart card — at least until we get more familiar with the rules.<\/p>\n

\"Chuck's<\/a>
Chuck's and Kevin's Marines advancing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the first game I have played in quite some time that used percentile dice. \u00a0I always liked percentile dice until I realized that if you have no modifiers less than 5%, you can get the same effect with a d20. \u00a0Still, there is an intuitively please aspect to knowing that you have 45% chance of success, which means you have to roll 01 – 45 on percentile dice. \u00a0In Sangin<\/em>, figures each have base percent chances of success for things like shooting, using heavy weapons, spotting, morale, etc. \u00a0These base percentages are modified by wounds, cover, posture, etc. \u00a0That worked pretty well.<\/p>\n

\"Chuck's<\/a>
Chuck's squad, having been hammered by RPGs, mortars, and AK-47s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another aspect of the rules that will take some getting used to is the ranges. \u00a0The burst radii for weapons seemed really large. \u00a0They were probably in scale to the scale of the figures without any distortion, but none of us know that when we started. \u00a0That meant that grenades had unexpectedly large burst radii and troops were deployed too close together. \u00a0In the above picture, you can see a large percentage of Chuck’s squad incapacitated and marked for morale checks (white squares) as a result of a 60mm mortar shell.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
Two Navy SEALs that I spanked with a recoilless rifle shot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have to say that in general I like when the ground scale is close to the figure scale. \u00a0I took a lot of flack for that over the years with Beer and Pretzels Skirmish<\/em> where even on a large table figures seldom got beyond medium range. \u00a0Keeping your ground scale close to your figure scale also tends to under-represent the value of rifles over submachine guns, pistols, and carbines as well, but somehow it feels<\/em><\/strong> better to me.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A view of the center of town that shows the Cigar Box Battles mat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In general, there were a lot of things I liked about the rules. \u00a0I think I will want to play them a few more times before making any decisions, but I think they have a lot of potential. \u00a0I think with more experience using the rules, Sangin<\/em> will run quickly and play well. \u00a0I am looking forward to the next time Noah runs them.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An artsy view of my recoilless rifle team and their SEAL targets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While eight of us were playing Sangin<\/em>, the rest of the guys were playing Duncan’s WWI Look, Sarge, No Charts<\/em> variant.<\/p>\n

\"Duncan's<\/a>
Duncan's WWI version of The Battle of Four Corners<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another view of Duncan's game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lots<\/a>
Lots of routing French<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A final view of Duncan's game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n