Mission
Patrol 22 is to insert and patrol according to the AO indicated in the grids given and is to report on any enemy activity and gain any intelligence.
The first few turns went without a hitch. A 'blip' came up in the first turn and proceeded to move around the board, and approached the tail end of the LRRP formation.
I had some lucky dice rolls and the LRRPs spotted the blip, which turned out to be the LMG team, who in turn seemed oblivious of the hiding LRRPs.
Still seeing nothing the VC were joined by another blip, which turned out to be the section command element.
As LRRPs tried not to openly engage the enemy I didn't attack the VC. Instead the information was sent via radio to the Tactical Operations Centre as per SOP.
As my system for moving the enemy blips and figures required a new direction to be determined when two or more groups join up, the VC merrily went on their way unware that they were under the watchful eye of the LRRPs.
With the VC now out of sight, the LRRPs pushed on to their first check point and then set up a hasty ambush in case the VC came snooping around.
The ambush didn't go as well as expected - the VC spotted the LRRPs before being spotted themselves and went right in to counter ambush drills.
The jungle and the prepared position of the LRRPs made it difficult for the VC to gain the upper hand in the battle, as slowly, one by one, the VC went down, and the battle went in the favor of the Recon Team.
Once the firefight was over some of the LRRPs searched the bodies of the dead VC for intel while the other LRRPs covered them.
It was just as well they were covered for a new blip had shown up and started to pour fire down upon the LRRPs until the blip was spotted. As soon as it spotted the blip faded away in to the jungle.
Grabbing the intel they had found the LRRPs began to shake out in to their formation and head back the way they had come for extraction.
Another blip decided to change their plans though.
Seeing how sucessful the LRRPs had been at hiding before I kept the rear security in place. This was a big mistake. The VC spotted the LRRPs and opened fire, taking out the JNR Scout in the team.
The JNR RTO returned fire and killed both VC.
Not taking any more chances the LRRP team moved to the extraction point, taking their wounded comrade with them.
End notes
The game ran very smoothly after coming up with the new ideas for the blinds. This added a bit of tension to the game as I was not sure what would be out there. Of all the blips that did appear three were blinds and even though they were not representing actual figures, they did cause some worry with hit and run tactics until they were spotted by the LRRPs.
The rules state that any figure wounded is removed from play. As LRRPs didn't leave people behind I decided that I would leave the wounded LRRP on the table and carry him off.
I left the wounded VC on the table as well, as searching the bodies for intel played an important part of a LRRP patrol. I think next time I will add a rule that any dead/wounded VC that doesn't have continuous LOS on it will be removed and a blood trail put in its place.
I used the spotting rule - I am still not sure if I like this rule or not yet, but it did work well for jungle warfare and made for a very close up battle. It did prevent me from using the resources a LRRP would have, namely artillery fire and gunships.
I have an idea on how to fix this though. More on that another time.
Grenades were used a few times in the battle, and I was not overly impressed by them. I found it almost impossible to suppress troops with them. You have only a 10% chance of killing with a grenade, and if you don't kill with one, you have only a 10% chance of suppressing with one.
Because of this I ended up using a lot of rifle fire as this was very effective and pinning enemy troops.
I will go over the grenade rules again to see if I was missing anything, but failing that I might tinker around with them. Grenades do have a Morale Modifier, but again I need to read over the grenade rules again to see if I missed something.
I played with what scenery I had on hand at the time, and I definitely need to make more scenery, especially for playing in jungle areas.
Gaining the intel was an important part of my game, as I have charts for a campaign that rely on intel for follow up games.
Disposable Heroes Point Blank is a great game for having an opponent. Not knowing what your opponent will do and moving the right figures at the right time makes for a great game.
Playing it solo was not too bad. I was able to get it to work for me, but I definitely need to have a scenario and a set of guide lines for what the mission objectives are and a clear cut set of Victory points.
As I will have to play this one solo (my regular wargaming buddy is a Vietnam Vet and doesn't want to play, which is perfectly understandable) I will continue to improve on my solo system.
But I intend to play a Rhodesian Bush War campaign with my mate, so I will still get to play some games of Point Blank with him.
I am happy to discuss and share ideas for anyone wanting to try out my solo rules.
12 comments:
Fantastic report Ian. Rules seems to work quite well. I have no idea how effective grenades are in real life.
My impressions was they where designed for use in enclosed spaces that would do lots more damage and out in the open to distract/disorienatate the enemy. But that may be complete BS so ignore it lol !
Good report I particularly like the way you analysed it at the end. I'm curious as to how you determine what the INTEL is and how to use it later.
@Brummie - I am sure I am missing something with the grenades. I will post again about them when I go over the rules.
@Irqan - basically when a body is searched intel found on a 1 on a d6 die roll. Intel can be maps, documents etc. Finding intel gives victory points to the LRRPs, is used as modifiers for the enemy setup and for missions in the campaign.
Looks awesome, I'd like to play sometime.
Looks like fun, thanks for all the pictures
Great write-up Shelldrake. I'm impressed you go those yellow arrows on your photo.
Thanks for the comments guys.
@Beccas - that was easy. I have a program called "PhotoImpact" and it is very easy to add arrows or text over the top of a photo.
I'm impressed Ian. You seem to have come up with a very decent set of rules there. I've not got or tried Point Blank myself, but am intending to try "Charlie Don't Surf" soon, and that will probably have to be solo
I agree with Brummie. Grenades are most effective inside. Outside, they do more more than wound or Kill. Review the grenade rules but you may want to leave them as they are. The most effective grenades outside are smoke to keep the Snakes and Hogs from accidentally shooting you! Ask you Vet friend if that's not true.
Loved your battle report. Wished you lived in San Antonio.
Bronco_6
Cheers Bronco - the main problem I had with the grenades is that they couldn't even suppress effectively.
Having actually used grenades myself and fortunately being in a bunker when a fellow soldier dropped it at the foot of the protective wall (instead of at the target area) I can vouch for the concussion power of them - and if you are next to one when it goes off, there would be more than a 10% chance of being suppressed by one.
I realize this post is a bit old, but I came across this recently and I think you might be doing grenades wrong. They should have a 27.1% chance to wound (3d10 vs each target in the blast radius according to rules on the bottom of page 14) and 50% - 60% chance to cause a Trained Private with Gut 6 to fail their Gut check and gain a suppression counter. The wounding chance increases to 48.8% if thrown into an enclosed space.
Thank for the comment and input.
It is rather a moot point though, as I won't be using the rules anymore for this campaign.
I am returning to 'Arc of Fire' for this and other games, and have to do very little tinkering at all.
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