{"id":9469,"date":"2020-01-01T16:33:13","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T16:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=9469"},"modified":"2020-01-01T16:33:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-01T16:33:13","slug":"new-years-eve-combat-patroltm-and-wars-of-ozz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=9469","title":{"rendered":"New Year’s Eve Combat Patrol(TM) and Wars of Ozz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we have been doing every year since 2009, the Harford Area Weekly Kreigspeilers converged on my house for a New Year’s Eve gaming evening, culminating in the wishing each other a happy new year at midnight. This year we played two games. The first was a science fiction game using Combat Patrol(TM). As we are in the middle of a move from Maryland to Florida, much of my hobby stuff is already in Florida. I tried to be careful about what I took down and what I kept in Maryland for New Year’s Eve, but in some cases I had taken things to Florida, like the Albedo Combat Patrol<\/em> (TM) units and Eureka toy soldiers that were needed for our games, so we had to adapt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science Fiction Attack\/Defense<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our first scenario featured Combat Patrol(TM) WWII<\/em>, which works very well for science fiction games as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Long shot of the table.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The (mostly) human side was attacking from the right side of the table shown in the above picture. They had a full platoon of hardened soldiers, an extra weapon squad, some light tanks, a large squad of space ducks led by Duck Wader, and a reinforced squad of Colonial Marines. Their objective was to capture three supply caches. One was in the walled town in the foreground, one was near the tower in the center of the table, and one was in the walled town at the far edge of the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A view of one walled town with a cache of supplies. This town was defended by an ad hoc force of mercenaries (who can be seen on the far two buildings) and a team of space Dwarfs (who can be seen on the near wall).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The attackers had enough forces to attack this town, but it was a hard-fought battle the entire game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patrick and Geoff took it in the shorts most of the game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The attackers had overwhelming numbers to attack the town on their right flank, between the Colonial Marines (Woodbine), space ducks (Archive), and other forces. Geoff and Patrick got slapped around quite a bit, but they were able to blunt the attack and delay the attackers long enough that they were unable to roll up the defenders’ flank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These are some of the attackers, early in the scenario, from left to right, Tom, Duncan, Eric (standing), Kurt, and Chris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A view of the defenders’ center with the tower and supplies on the left and one of the walled villages on the right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The insect men began the game near the water facility. During the game, they tried to turn the attackers’ left flank.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Geoff apparently on the horns of a dilemma.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The heavy infantry (Pig Iron) were supposed by three APCs and a support APC with a tank turret. The Drantakh hover tank (Badger) took TWO shots at the attacking tank but missed both times. Eventually the attacking tank got off a shot and knocked out the Drantakh tank.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the attackers’ left, they advanced with two squads of infantry and a heavy weapon squad to attack the walled village, but the defenders were rushing reinforcements forward to assist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another view of the defenders’ center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another view of the tank duel between the Drantakh and the attackers. Note that the attackers were supported by a squad of terminators (in white).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A confused situation with a Drantakh tank (defenders), Drantakh infantry, a mobile engineer demolition gun (defenders), and a half squad of space ducks fighting for position in the center of the battlefield.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Toward the middle of the game, a LARC (Sally 4th) entered the table full of a squad of space worms. Note the close quarters fight between the Colonial Marines and the Drantakh infantry in the woods.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In one turn, we had SIX vehicles blown up, most from shoulder-fired weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The defenders move up an armored car with a ray gun to support their infantry defending their left-most supply cache.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Darth Wader (Archive) leads the ducks forward.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The LARC conducts a vertical envelopment of the walled town.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In this picture you can see that the heavily armored special assault ducks used their jet packs to “bounce” into the town and seize the supplies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The defenders’ armored car (foreground) has been destroyed, but the fight continues.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The ducks take advantage of bomb craters to advance across the open field.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Advancing Drantakh counter attack supported by the demolition gun.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In this picture you can see all the reinforcements that have been rushed to the village on the defenders’ right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Space bugs! Dave’s lone squad automatic rifleman held off the bugs for several turns.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A long shot of the table late in the game. You can see that the attackers have gotten to the walls. In the next turn, the attackers climbed over the walls and began chucking grenades into the courtyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another, slightly different, view of the table. The fighting was intense, but despite the facial expressions, these guys were having a lot of fun.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The game was very fun. The defenders were defeated on their left, losing one of their supply caches. On the defenders’ right, they were able to hold onto the village by throwing in Venusian giants, space centaurs, and robot troopers to bolster the ad hoc defenders and space dwarfs. The attackers never really threatened the defenders center. I called the game a defenders’ victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone seemed to have a good time, but after four hours of playing we called the game a defenders’ victory and set up the second game for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wars of Ozz<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both people who read this blog will know that I have been developing a set of rules, called Wars of Ozz<\/em>, to go along with a new line of figures to be released by Blue Moon. While we don’t have all the figures yet, we have been using ersatz figures for rules development. Traditionally Chris runs a Santa-themed game using GASLIGHT<\/em>, but this year we wanted to try it with the Wars of Ozz<\/em> rules. When we reset the game, in the interest of time, we elected to leave the green cloth on the table instead of pulling everything off and putting down the white cloth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Setting up the game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I asked several players to bring 12-point armies. You can see in this picture a lot of War of 1812 figures pressed into service as Quadlings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The game in mid action.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The game involved five attackers (on the right) with Munchkins, Gillikins, and Santa’s troopers attacking to seize three hills across the table. There wasn’t a lot of finesse to the scenario as we didn’t know what armies we would have, how many players we would have, or how long we would have until midnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were able to play about 6 turns before midnight, paused briefly for a glass of champaign, and then 2 more turns after midnight before everyone went their own ways. After three or four turns, I was mostly relegated to answering the occasional question and making game master adjudication decisions. Most of the players had never played Wars of Ozz<\/em> before, but they caught on quickly. Toward the end, one of the players who is often critical said he liked the rules and would be interesting in playing them again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy New Year!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We had a very good time. With the upcoming move, I was on the fence about whether this was going to be just one commitment too many this season. I’m glad we hosted the event, and I think all the HAWKs had a good time in the basement, while HAWKs gaming widows sat upstairs in the kitchen drinking wine and husband bashing.<\/p>\n