Rampant Stars- Battle Report- Battle at the Farm II: Farm Harder!

Welcome to my second 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 name 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.  You will see many similarities between this system and Dan’s works.

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 Tripod’s proved to be a bigger problem than the Spaz Marines first thought.  The Spaz Marines failed to destroy the entrance to the Tripods warrens.  Now, they were spilling out and destroying farming facilities and supplies across the planet.  Did those silly Tripods actually believe that this was their planet?  They would need to be taught a lesson in who were the rightful rulers of the galaxy.  But first, they had to be stopped from destroying what made the planet worth having in the first place!  

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

Mission

Missions are generated by rolling 3d6 three times and consulting a mission, complication, and Location chart.  In this case we rolled for mission and complications but decided for ease to keep the farmland board.  Of course, you don’t have to roll any at all, but for a test game we might as well go for it!  

Property Destruction

The defender sets-up the board per the terrain guidelines.  It must have 5 pieces of terrain to be destroyed in the scenario as well.  These can be piles of crates, animal pens, huts, etc.  The attacker chooses a table edge.  The defender deploys within 6 inches of the terrain pieces.  The attacker then deploys touching any board edge they wish.  The attacker is trying to destroy the terrain by reducing each terrain piece by 4 Effectiveness Ratings.  Each terrain piece has an armor rating of 2.

Dawn

The battle starts at the break of dawn.  Initial Line-of-sight is 0’ inches.  At the end of each turn, the Line-of-Sight distance increases by 6 inches.  Therefore, at the end of Turn 1 the Line-of-sight is 6 inches, at the end of turn 2 it is 12 inches, at the end of turn 3 it is 18 inches, etc, etc.  This continues until the full length of the board is available.   

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 stuck with the 1 herd as I was out of toy frogs!  That is something I will need to remedy.

Well then…. This should be something. 

Set-up

This board is 6x4 in size.  There are five objectives scattered across the fields and orchards.  From East to West it is 3 moisture gatherers, a silo behind a hill, a barn by an orchard, a set of barrels by a hedge, and a gathering tower in an orchard.  The herd of frogs is between the barn and the orchard.      

The Tripods have the Scouts to the East to attack the moisture gatherers, Commander in the center heading for the barn, and the drone moving up behind the orchard. 

The Pink Spaz Marines have Tac-squad Alpha near the silo and ready to move up to shield it and make a play at the moisture gatherers.  The Command squad is near the barrels, and the last Tac-squad is flanking the Command team.

Remember, our Dawn complication!  We will try as well!

Turn 1

In the pre-dawn darkness everyone moves forward.  The Drones who manage to get confused and fail to follow orders.  It is too dark to shoot. 

Turn 2

The drones rally, but Scout Tripod Pink gets shaken and fails to follow orders as the rays of the sun crest over the horizon.  The Pink Spaz Marine Tac-squads try to screen a couple of objectives with their bodies.  The Command squad rushes towards the enemy command Tripod and hides behind the main barn. 

Turn 3

The command Tripod fires on the main barn and destroys it!  One objective down, two to go!  The drones rally and move towards the Gathering Tower.  Scout Pink rallies, while Scout Blue double times forward. 

The Pink Spaz Marines spring into action.  The command squad charges the Tripod command and reduces it 5 effectiveness points, but loses 2 in return.   The Command Tripod is forced to retreat and shaken!  Tac-squad Alpha moves and shoots and damages Scout Blue near the Moisture Gatherers and damages it.    

Turn 4

The Drones skirt the edge of the field to avoid Tac-squad Beta and make for the Gatherer Tower.  Scout Blue and Pink both press forward.  The Command Tripod rallies. 

The Spaz Marines press their attack.  They damage the Command Tripod further causing her to fallback shaken.  Tac-Squad Beta moves up and fires on Scout Blue and damages it.  Tac-Squad Alpha moves to intercept the Drones. 

Turn 5

Scout Pink turns and fires on the Command squad and burns down two effectiveness points.  Scout Blue fires on Tac-squad Alpha and takes out 1 at range.  The Drones fail their orders and are shaken. 

Tac-squad Alpha returns fire and blasts Scout Blue down about 4 points.  The Command Squad charges in and reduces the Command Tripod to 3 effectiveness but the Tripod has the last laugh as the defense takes out the Spaz Marine Commander.  Her comrades barely notice as they easily pass their morale test.

The Drones also force the frogs to stampede into Tac-squad Beta.  The Spaz Marines massacre most of the herd, and lose two of their brothers. 

Turn 6

The drones fail to rally.  Scout Blue realizes too late that he needs to fire on the objectives and reduces it 2 effectiveness points.  Pink moves across to support the attack on the Moisture Gatherer.  The Command tripod is shaken.

Tac-squad Alpha rapid fires at Scout Blue and turns him into small pieces.  Tac-squad Beta moves up. 

The frogs that fled are again stampeded back into Tac-squad Beta, but this time the Spaz Marines hack them into pieces and prepare for a feast of frog-legs back at camp. 

Turn 7

The Drones and Command Tripod rally.  Scout Pink takes long range shots at the Moisture Gatherer and reduces it to 2 Effectiveness. 

Tac-squad Alpha fails to fire due to battlefield friction and are shaken.  Tac-squad beta fires on the Drones at range and damages 1. 

Turn 8

This is it! 

The Command tripod takes a very long-range shot at the Gathering Tower and reduces it 1.  The Drones also fire at range, and reduce it 2 more.  Scout Pink fails to fire at the Moisture Gatherer.  With that, the Tripods fail their objectives. 

Tac-squad Beta takes some celebratory shots on the Drones and reduces them to 7 Effectiveness rating.  Tac-squad Alpha rallies in time to see the Tripods shamble off in defeat! 

Kill!  Maim!  Burn!

Conclusion

The alien tripods fled the battlefield after the sun fully rose.  Perhaps they could not stand full sunlight since they lived underground?  The Spaz Marines did not care.  Aliens were only created for one reason, to be killed!  Today, that purpose was served!  In celebration to the great victory, the Spaz Marines held a feast featuring local cuisine.

The alien attacks on the agri-world’s farms had been thwarted across the planet. The Spaz Marines prepared to go back on the attack!  Kill! Maim! Burn!

Final Thoughts   

Wow, this game is quick and fun.  With photos and recording this game took less than an hour to play.  One of the longest parts was determining the missions/complications/location and setting up the board to match it.  The movement mechanics allow you to move across the board easily and cover a lot of ground.  The combat resolution is very quick and the orders allows for a certain level of uncertainty in the game play.  Creating this battle report probably took longer than the game itself.