Welcome to my first Battle Report for Rampant Stars. If you have seen my review of Lion Rampant, Dragon Rampant, Dux Bellorum,
or The Men Who Would Be Kings;
you will be familiar with the design work of Daniel Mersey. He has designed a number of fun games for the
Osprey Wargaming Series. Rampant Stars is an intentional homage
to his rules systems but set in a Sci-fi setting. It is intended to be model neutral system. You will see many similarities between this
system and Dan’s works. This was my
first testing of the rules after feverishly writing them down over the New Year’s
holiday.
The leaders of the
Spaz Marines believe they are the only true inheritors of the galaxy and are
constantly trying to kill, maim, and burn any other sentient species they come
across. Therefore, the Spaz Marines were
not too happy to find alien Tripods on one of “their” agri-worlds causing
problems.
The tripods were
simply trying to herd the grazing animals off their property. They have wandered too close to the entrance
to one of their underground burrows. The
Spaz Marines intend on smashing their way into the burrow entrance and killing
everything not on two-legs. The Tripods
intend to stop them.
Forces
Pink Spaz Marines
·
Command- Elite Mounted- 10 Points
o Commander
o Jump
Gear
o Combat
Gear
·
Tac-Squad Alpha- Elite Infantry- 8 Points
o Armored
o Rapid
Fire
·
Tac-Squad Beta- 6 Points
o Armored
24 Points Total
Martian Tripods
·
Command- Regular Mounted- 8 points
o Commander
o Rapid
Movement
o Long
Range
·
Regular Mounted- 6 points
o Rapid
Movement
·
Regular Mounted- 6 Points
o Rapid
Movement
·
Drones- Regular Infantry- 4 points
o Cerebral
Synapse Link
24 Points total
Missions are generated by rolling 3d6 three times and
consulting a mission, complication, and Location chart. In this case we rolled 8 for mission, 11 for
complication, and 11 for location. Of
course, you don’t have to roll any at all, but for a test game we might as well
go for it!
Forced Entry
The defender sets-up the board per the terrain
guidelines. The attacker than chooses a
board edge and places a 6 by 6 inch box along the edge. The attacker deploys on the opposite board
edge up to 6 inches in. The defender
deploys anywhere on the board up to 12 inches away from the attackers. The attacker has 8 turns or 1 hour to get one
non-Shaken unit to complete a Hold order in the box on the defender’s board
edge. If they complete this objective
they win, if not the defender wins.
Rain
Tut tut feels like rain! Sheets of monsoon like rain fall
across the battlefield reducing visibility to short range.
Location
Outdoor, Farmland
The battle is taking place outdoors near a farm. Terrain
is orchards, fields, barns, and herd animals.
There should be 1d6 large/herds of farm Animals on the board. They block Line-of-sight and are treated as a
Mounted Untrained Mob . They always move
away from the closest unit and are moved after all other units have been
activated. The Attacker moves a herd
first, and then the defender and keep trading off until all herds have been
moved.
We rolled 1 herd… phew.
Well then…. This should be something.
Set-up
This board is 6x4 in size. The Tripods are the Defenders and are on the
South side of the board. The burrow
entrance is marked off per the Forced Entry rules by a crater. The largest Tripod is on the western wood,
looking at the pond and herd of frogs.
The drones are in the burrow entrances, with the two smaller tripods
moving up behind the pond.
The Pink Spaz Marines have their two tac-squads entering
near the fields and the mounted unit on the east side. They will be approaching the pond/barn side
of the board.
Due to the monsoon like rains, all ranges are reduced to
short.
Turn 1
Due to the monsoon rains, all units choose to move
forward. They all activate successfully
on their orders. The herd moves away
from a scout Tripod and towards Tac-squad Beta.
Turn 2
The Pink Spaz Marines all advance double time through the
fields, while the assault unit jumps behind the barn for cover. No shooting occurs through the rains.
The Command tripod skirts the woods with a move/shoot
order and fires upon Tac-squad Beta.
Thanks to being Long-range they manage to burn down three Spaz Marines. Scout Tripod B attempts to move and shoot at
the Assault units, but is too far away due to the rain!
Tripod A tries to move forward, but a failure of command
causes it to be shaken instead! The
drones Hold.
The Frogs flee the advancing Spaz Marine tac-squads.
Turn 3
The Pink Spaz Marines don’t even try to fire back. Instead, they all double time towards the
objective. The Assault unit tries to
Bypass Scout Tripod A, and Tac-Squad Alpha breaks cover from the fields. However, Tac-Squad Beta is shaken from a
failed command check.
The tripods discipline begins to breakdown. The command Tripod breaks cover and fires at
Tac-squad Alpha and kills 3 Spaz Marines.
The Drones also swarm out of the burrow entrance towards the approaching
Tac-squad. Scout B fails to rally and
stands there shaken, while Scout A is shaken by a failed command check
too.
The frogs hop away from the drones and towards Tac-Squad
Beta.
Turn 4
Tac-squad Beta is shaken yet again and stays hunkered down
in the fields. Meanwhile, Tac-squad
Alpha barrels towards the drones, determined to get to the burrow entrance despite
the losses. The assault unit does the
same. If they are not stopped, they will
make it to the objective!
The Command Tripod blasts Tac-Squad Alpha at takes it
down 2 Effectiveness Rating. It then
fails a Morale Check and falls back 6 inches.
The Drones turn on the Assault unit and reduce it 3 Effectiveness rating,
which bring sit below half and shakes the unit!
They will need to rally next turn.
Scout Tripod A rallies on the edge, but Scout Tripod B at
the pond is still shaken! The frogs flee
from the command tripod and close to Tac-Squad Beta.
Turn 5
The Pink Spaz Marines are all forced to rally.
The Tripods are able to capitalize on the Spaz Marines
rallies. The Command Tripod blasts down
two more in Tac-Squad Alpha, and causes them to be shaken, but they pass morale
checks. The Drones cut down the last of
the assault unit. Meanwhile, Scout
Tripod A double times it around the pond.
Scout B is still shaken and unsure what to do!
Turn 6
Tac=Squad Alpha is forced to Rally. Tac-Squad Beta moves up and opens fire on the
Command Tripod with a Move and Shoot order.
They manage to damage for 2 Effectiveness.
The Command Tripod kills one more from Tac-Squad Alpha,
leaving them with 2 Effectives left.
However, instead of finishing the job, the Drones become shaken and
confused as they try to switch targets.
Both Scout Tripods face the same fate!
The herd moves away from Tac-squad beta
Turn 7
Tac-squad Alpha rapid-fires on the drones, and reduces
them 3 Effectiveness. Tac-squad Beta
pings another point of Effectiveness off the Command tripod.
In return, the Command tripod finishes off Tac-squad
Alpha once and for all. The Drones and
Scout Tripod B also rally.
The frog herd moves towards the pond.
Conclusion
The Grandmaster of
the Pink Spaz Marines took the report with chagrin. His troops had a certain reputation for
fearlessness, ruthlessness, and efficiency.
From what he could hear, they hadn’t lived up to it. I mean, they were defeated by a bunch of
Tripods. I mean who fights with a tripod
anyway? That has got to be one of the
most inefficient ways of moving imaginable!
For the tripods
perspective, they were more than happy to take the chance to clear their land
of amphibian food stock. Without the
silly Spaz Marines it took no time at all to herd them away. It was back to peace and quiet.
Final Thoughts
There was no way the Pink Spaz Marines could win. They only had 1 squad left that was out of
position and could not reach the burrow in the turn. Per the rules, we could end the game
there. Win for the Tripods!
Looking back at the game, we forgot that Move and Shoot
meant that you got Half Effectiveness for shooting, and we also did Double Time
wrong. We moved them twice as far
instead of the d3/d6 respective of unit type.
Whoops! Even with a bare bones
system you can do things wrong on the first play through.
This game was super, duper quick and easy to play. It was also pretty exciting as things went
fast. The I-Go-U-Go nature of the game
did not bog it down at all since there were so few units that could essentially
only do one order a turn play flowed between players rapidly with barely enough
time to contemplate your counter move before it was your turn again.
The Mission/Complication/Location generator will also
keep this from getting stale. Different
sci-fi traits will play a different importance for different conditions and missions. Sometimes they will be a steal and other
times they will be a waste. It is easy
to go overboard on unit costs and end up being out-numbered and outgunned.
The Regular and Elites seemed to match up okay, but I am
unsure how well irregulars and Militia will do.
This game had a lot of shaken units from failed command checks with low command
scores.
Overall, I was happy with how the game played but want to
do some more testing. However, don't take my word for it. Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think.
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