Tomorrow's War: Battle Report- Star Wars Lost and Found

This is the first scenario in the Tomorrow’sWar rulebook called Lost and Found.  Hopefully after this battle report you can see for yourself how accurate my review was.  Some people feel that this scenario is unbalanced.  We will have to see what happens.    

An Imperial Tie Striker was lost on routine air patrol on the forest planet of Tabletooine.  The Imperial pilot escaped and is evading rebel troopers in a nearby outbuilding.  Imperial Stormtroopers from a nearby garrison have been sent in to locate and rescue him and recover the Tie’s recorder device. 

The miniatures are old Star Wars Micro Machine toys that are probably 10mm scale or so?  The terrain is my trusty green mat, lichen, and electrician’s box that have served me well for so many games.    

Forces:

The Galactic Empire

1 Squad of Garrison Stormtroopers

Troop Quality/Morale: d8/d10

Tech Level 3

Armor: 2D

1 Imperial Navy Leader- Blaster Rifle

Fireteam Alpha

1 Repeating Blaster

1 Concussion Grenade Launcher

3 Blaster rifles

Fireteam Bravo

1 Repeating Blaster

1 Concussion Grenade Launcher

3 Blaster rifles

Fireteam Charlie

1 Repeating Blaster

1 Concussion Grenade Launcher

3 Blaster rifles

Rebel Scum

Rebel infantry

Troop Quality/Morale: d6/d10

Tech Level: 2

Body Armor: Blast Vests 2D

Team 1

1 Leader with Blaster rifle

1 Medic with Blaster rifle

1 Repeating Blaster

1 Concussion launcher

3 Rebels with Blaster Rifle

Team 2

1 Repeating Blaster

1 Concussion Grenade Launcher

3 Blaster rifles

Team 3

1 Repeating Blaster

1 Concussion Grenade Launcher

3 Blaster rifles

Team 4

1 Repeating Blaster

1 Concussion Grenade Launcher

3 Blaster rifles

Mission

Imperial forces are attempting to rescue their downed pilot and retreat with them off board.  A Stormtrooper team needs to come within cohesion distance of the pilot to add them to the squad and get them off board.  The Rebel Scum are trying to stop the Imperials form succeeding. 

The pilot adds no firepower, defense, or morale to a squad they are with.  If the squad they are with is wiped out, then they move to the nearest cover.    

Terrain is 1D defensive terrain. Woods and building block LOS.

The Rebel Scum are in ambush so they will fire first.  In addition, they can not be targeted unless they are in optimal range and a TQ check is passed.   

  

Turn 1:

The Stormtroopers survey the scene and push forward.  Alpha and Beta move up and take position in the ruins.  Charlie rushes ahead and takes cover by a woodline.  Their officer surveys the scene.  According to his intel, the pilot should be near the barn in the courtyard.  Everything seems quiet.

In the far barn, the rebel officer watches the Stormtroopers begin to deploy in his magnoculars.  Her is confident that he has set-up a kill-zone around the barn.  Team 3 moves secretly in the woodline to approach the barn out of Line-of-sight.  Squad 4 moves up in the cover of the stream bed, and out of view of the Imperials.

No one takes a shot, instead they are waiting for the optimum time to fire. 

Turn 2:

The Stormtroopers maintain the Initiative. 

Alpha squad moves forward to secure the stream bed by the nearest bridge while Bravo covers them.  Charlie repositions to cover the bridge crossing as well, but hugs the tree line.  With no enemy sighted, the Officer and Alpha squad breaks cover and dash to the streambed by the bridge for cover.  Still no sign of the enemy, this could be a cake walk after all.     

The rebels continue to creep into position for an ambush.  Team 3 rushes from the jungle and to the edge of the barn out of sight of the advancing Imperials.  Team 1 leaves the barn and moves through the jungle into a better firing position on the approach to the barn.  Team 4 hugs the stream bed and moves forward.  Team 2 readies to fire next turn. 

Tension is mounting as the Stormtroopers approach their objective. 

Turn 3:

Charlie and Bravo take positions to cover Alpha as they move across the first bridge.  As they approach the opposite side, the point Trooper calls out a warning.  Rebels have been spotted in the tree line.  Since the unit was all ready declared active and action taken before spotting the rebels, the Stormtroopers are caught out in the open!

Team 2 decides to open fire at the Imperials, but the Stormtroopers try to react with movement.  They succeed by 1!  The Imperials scramble to cover in the barnyard for cover.  The rebels can still fire at them, but the Stormtroopers will have improved Defense dice. 

Team 2 is 5 rebels with 2 light support weapons for 7 Firepower Dice.  The Stormtroopers are 6 troopers with +2 dice from armor, and +1 dice for cover for 9 dice.  The rebels score 4 successes and the troopers score 7.  No damage. 

Rebel team 3 comes around the barn, and captures the Stormtroopers in the open in optimal range.  Since the Rebels were in Ambush, the Stormies can not try to fire back.  The Rebels have Firepower of 5 figures +2 for light support and +1 for optimal range.  8 dice vs Stormtroopers with a defense of 6 +2 for armor, but no cover this time for 8 Defense dice.  The Imperials get one success more than the rebels so no hits are taken!

Rebel Team 1 also fires on Alpha squad, but the Imperials can not fire back as it is an ambush!  9 figures with +2 for light weapons vs. 6 figures with +2 armor and +1 cover.  11 firepower vs. 9 defense.  They both score 6 successes and no casualties! 

Finally, Rebel Team 4 in the stream bed moves up and fires on Charlie.  Firepower 5, +2 for light support, and +1 for optimal range.  Charlie has Defense 5, +2 for armor but no cover.  3 hits vs. 4 defense.  No injuries are taken by the Imps. 

There was a lot of shooting, but not much hitting by the rebels. 

Turn 4:

The Stormtrooper keep the initiative. 

Bravo rushes the bridge with a move and fire on Team 2 of the rebels.  The Rebels try to react by going deeper into cover to block Line-of-sight.  However, the Rebels fail to react.  Stormies shoot with firepower 5, +2 for light vs. Defense 5 and +2 for armor and +1 for cover.  6 firepower vs. 5 defense dice.  Two rebels go down! 

Charlie decides to shoot at Rebel Team 4 in the stream bed.  The rebels try to react with fire.  The Stormtroopers win and shoot first.  One rebel goes down in the round of fire. 

Alpha decides to move up to rescue the pilot and shoot at the Rebels in the barnyard, and the rebels opt to react by trying to move out of Line-of-sight. 

The Imperials win the reaction test again.  10 firepower vs. Defense of 7 dice.  The close range firefight leaves all the rebels down and injured.

Team 2 activates and checks its casualties.  1 gets back up, but the other is seriously injured.  They decide to return fire on the Stormtroopers who try to react with fire of their own.  The Stormies win and open up first.  3 rebels go down, and they last fires back hopelessly and ineffectively. 

Team 1 opens fire and the stormies try to react with movement this time to take cover.  The rebel shots from Team 1 rip up the streambed, but leave the Stormtroopers unscathed. 

Team 4’s causalty is lightly wounded.  They decide to fire on Alpha in the barnyard.  The Stormies of Charlie and Alpha try to react with fire of their own.  The Imperials win the reaction tests again and light up the rebels by the stream.  Two more rebels go down.  Their own shooting is ineffective. 

Turn 4:

Imperials maintain the initiative.

Alpha moves behind the barn to secure the downed rebels of Team 3 as prisoners.  However, Team 1 tries to react with fire.  They fail and Alpha secures the downed rebels and has the pilot. 

Bravo aggressively moves towards Team 2 who try to react with movement.  The Rebels succeed and flee back into the jungle and away from the oncoming troopers. 

Charlie opens fire on Team 4 who react with fire of their own.  Impies win and shoot away.  Charlie takes out the Rebels in team 4. 

Team 2 checks for injuries.  1 dead and the a mix of serious and light wounds.  They choose to fallback off the board and disengage from the battle.  Team 1 surveys the battlefield and decides to fallback as well.   Their best chance at securing the Imperial pilot has now passed and there is little point in losing more men in a futile gesture. 

The Imperials are left in control of the field with the pilot.

Conclusion:

Imperial Victory!

Fireteam Charlie quickly secured the rebels in Team 4 as additional prisoners.  The Imperial troops marched the rebels back to their garrison along with the Imperial Pilot safely in tow.  10 Rebels captures, 5 dead or injured, mission accomplished, and no casualties.  The boys in white showed why they are the most feared troops in the galaxy today!

Final Thoughts:

I had read that this scenario was one-sided at I can’t help but agree.  It is intended to teach you the basics of the game, and it does.  It also serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of building a solid foundational scenario to work with.  The Troop Quality d6 vs. d8 was decisive as the Stormtroopers were pretty much doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to do it.  The rebels only won a single reaction test all game, so by the time they got to shoot they didn’t have enough firepower to even scratch the Imperials white armored Defense. 

Perhaps if the rebels had more troops in each Team they could have weathered the firepower and then used it to return fire effectively against smaller fireteams of Stormtroopers.  However, I am not sure since the Stormtroopers were winning most dice offs (Reactions, Firepower, Defense) handily.

Next, I plan on replaying this scenario using Rampant Stars rules to see what happens! It should play very differently.          

Review: Tomorrow’s War/Force-on-Force- Ambush Alley/Osprey

When Osprey was first entering into the game publishing business, they didn’t try to do it alone.  Instead, they struck a deal with Ambush Alley games to publish some of their core rulebooks.  The details are inconsequential and since I believe the two have parted ways.  What is of note is that a series of rulebooks for Modern warfare and a rulebook for Sci-fi were released.  Both were hardback books and Force-on-Force even got a series of campaign specific soft-back books as supplements. 

For me personally, these were incredibly important works.  I had been starting to move around beyond the usual players in the wargaming world and was looking for something different.  I found these two works and immediately realized I had found that something.  Around the same time I also found Stargrunt and Dirtside II as well.  As you can imagine, finding all of these new realms of sci-fi possibility was very eye-opening to me. 

On reflection, I see these games as having a shared philosophy or lineage in design; a lineage that tried to extrapolate the challenges of Modern/post-Korean War to the tabletop.  I can’t speak to how accurate they are in that task.  They all force you to take a different approach to how you play a game than other popular game approaches.  

Tomorrow’s War and Force-on-Force use the same base rules to accomplish their core game play.  Therefore, I am combining them into a single review.  As needed I will call out differentiation when needed.  I have read some people complain about the opacity of these rulesets but I find the way they are built stacks nicely together as you slowly layer on capabilities as you go.  Since I mostly use them for Infantry on Infantry actions I had no real issues using them. 

Things I Like

The game has an integrated Action/Reaction system that I love.  As a unit acts, the opponent has a chance to react using a standard troop quality rating check.  This is an opposed roll so better skilled troops can beat lesser skilled troops.  The reactions are simple move or shoot actions.  Therefore, if your army grunts move up and an opponent sees them, they might take fire before they complete their move.  This leads to a round of fire between units.  This is similar to Infinity’s always active initiative approach.  There is a limit to the number of times you can react because the more you react the less effective you become at it.  When you aren't use to it, the turn sequence can be a challenge to wrap your head around but it really rewards tactical play.    

The system has a very simple and unified core mechanic.  You roll a dice looking for a target number of 4+.  A 4+ is a success.  The system itself adds depth to this basic mechanic in two ways.  The first is by adding on or reducing the number of dice you roll.  So, for shooting you get a number of firepower dice for what you are shooting with and that is the number of dice you roll.  The second way is by using a dice shifting mechanic.  The game uses d6, d8, d10, or d12.  Different situations will cause your unit to shift the dice type up or down. 

Despite the myriad types of troops and units out there, testing is done on a simple Troop Quality test.  This is how good a unit is compared to other units.  This is expressed in a dice type of d6, d8, d10, or d12 and is the type of dice you roll to pass a Troop Quality test.  When in doubt, you make a Troop Quality check.  The game has a few different stats such as Confidence, Morale, and Supply (Tech Level in Tomorrow’s War) but those rarely come into play.  Troop Quality, Firepower and Defense are the main stats with Firepower and Defense being the number of dice you roll.  

In this game, casualties matter.  If a guy goes down you can’t just leave him there to die or remove him from the board.  Instead, you must get to him and see his status.  If he is injured, how are you going to help him?  If he is dead, that requires Morale checks and impacts your Troop Quality with a dice shift, etc.  Casualties matter a great deal and cavalier charges are suitably punished.  This is a “hug terrain tighter than your children” style of game as things in the open get red-lined real good.  Note that red-lined does not equal dead, but combet ineffective.        

Things I Do Not Like

What about those other stats such as Morale, Confidence, and Supply level?  Well, they really do not serve much of a purpose and only create “If This/Than That” type of situations that may add to the “realism” of the firefights but gets confused/forgotten because you are normally using Troop Quality for everything.  I see why they were added, but they end up being extraneous chrome in most situations whne  TQ (Troop Quality) check would have been sufficient.  They are more for adding twists into a scenario than core gameplay stats.      

The more chrome you add on the more complicated and cumbersome the game becomes.  Things like the “Grid”, drones, AI, combat vehicles, off-board artillery support, etc. all work alone but trying to get it all together in a single game can be a challenge.  This game excels at small unit actions in low-intensity combat.  The more you mix and match unit types, the more cumbersome and brain taxing it becomes.

Both games have a lot of chrome add-ons to try and facilitate any scenario you can come up with.  These bog the game down more than help it, but thankfully they are not required for a satisfying scenario.  Instead, they are tools that you can pull out as needed instead of trying to memorize all of them for all games.  This set of rules is a toolbox approach to help guide you when you go beyond the core rules.      

Meh and Other Uncertainties

This is a “small scale” game in that the action is small unit on small unit skirmish at 15mm to 28mm skill.  You will have only a platoon to a platoon plus of guys on each side.  It plays on 2x2 to 4x4 boards and assumes that everything is in range and in the thick of things.  That means you need a lot of terrain and cover or your game will end really fast and be really boring as SAW gunners obliterate each unit at range.       

Tomorrow’s War is best for human or near-human vs. near-human type encounters.  It really isn’t designed for things like Tyranids, Gundams, and other really far-out their aliens/machines.  Since psychology is a big part of the game; human and near-human fits best.  In addition, for a sci-fi game it feels a bit like “moderns IN SPAAAAAAACCCCCCEEEEEE!” and fits a hard sci-fi feel. 

There are no army lists or points in this game.  Everything is scenario based.  These rules are not intended for pick-up games or competitive tournament style games.  They are intended to be played between a group of players who are committed to playing to see “what happens if?” type of scenarios.  This will not be to everyone’s liking, but I have no issue with it.  Both books come with some basic Force Orgs to get you started and some sample scenarios to play as well.  However, once you get a handle on the material it is intended for you to get out there, do your own research, and make scenarios you want to play.    

Force-on-Force has solid anti-insurgency rules, and when combined with the action/reaction makes this game viable for solo-play.  Since Ambush Alley made the rules, it makes sense to me that they would have the insurgency rules well covered.  Tomorrow’s War carries them over as well. 

Final Thoughts

I think these games excel at small unit skirmish games between regulars and regulars/irregulars.  The firefights are crisp, brutal, and tactical.  It works best with similar unit types vs. similar unit types with the difference being Troop Quality (i.e. infantry vs. infantry or vehicle vs. vehicle).  The more chrome you add the bigger of a bog it gets but if you select the right tool for the scenario you are playing you can avoid that issue. The engagement ranges are short and the battles sharp.  The action/reaction system will also force you to re-think tactics that have served you well in other tabletop games as they just do not work the same in these rules and that is a good thing. 

I have really enjoyed using these rules and they helped me consider gameplay and design differently than I had in the past.  They have been a big influence on my thoughts about design since I started playing them.  Therefore, I recommend you pick up one of the books that meets your gaming interests.  I don;t think you need both, but some people find Force-on-Force easier to translate into a game than Tomorrow's War.  I had the Force-on-Force first so i don;t know how true that is.