Here's a battle report of a recent game of Quadrant 13, the company-sized rules for sci-fi games from the TooFatLardies. The scenario is a simple one: the Dwarves must capture a mining base from the Ikwen militia protecting it, with the Ikwen expecting reinforcements from their Chuhuac allies at any moment.
Dwarven Briefing
Many years ago, Dwarves began mining on Teruis VI, an unglamorous planet in a nondescript part of the quadrant. With the prime deposits emptied, the mining works were leased to the Ikwen on a 50 year lease. The usual terms and conditions applied.
New deposits of valuable minerals have just been discovered so, activating the appropriate clause in the lease contract, you gave the Ikwen notice to quit, with a three-month window for them to do so.
Demonstrating that no creature in the galaxy can be trusted (except other dwarves…and few of them, besides) the Ikwen have refused to leave, claiming that ancient rights based on “finders keepers” supersedes your contract. It would be laughable – your contract was drawn up by dwarven lawyers, for Gold’s sake – but the Ikwen are still there and still digging up your ore!
The lawyers have argued for long enough. Your mine has sent an expeditionary force to evict the Ikwen squatters. You know the Ikwen are a client race of the mercenary Chuhuac, so you can expect them to intervene, but even the funky chickens (as they are sometimes contemptuously called) will not be able to stand against good, dwarven technology.
The campaign is going well. Now you lead your mine’s household company against one particular Ikwen mining base. Your mission is simple: capture the base, disperse any opposition!
Your Troops
Company HQ
- Big Man 1 (Level IV)
- Sniper
1st Platoon
- Big Man 2 (Level III)
- 3 x Infantry Squads (8 men each in Powered Armour)
2nd Platoon
- 3 x Infantry Squad (8 men each)
- 3 x Cane Toad APC
Drone Platoon
- 3 x HMG Drones
Tank Platoon
- Big Man 3 (Level III)
- 2 x Goanna Tank
- 1 x Goanna Tank with Shield Generator
Emergency Reinforcements*
3rd Platoon
- Big Man 4 (Level II)
- 2 x Infantry Squad (6 men each in powered armour)
- Raven VTOL
*Most senior Big Man uses whole turn to call in. Each time Blinds appears, roll D6: appear on a 5 or a 6. Battlefield inserted, then Raven can act as usual.
Ikwen/Chuhuac Briefing
The arrogance of these dwarves is unbelievable! The planet was leased from them, fair and square, with a good price paid...but now superior Ikwen engineering has uncovered new, richer deposits, the little men want it back immediately, with no talk of compensation or recompense.
You have been fighting their claim through every law court you can find, refusing to accept that their so-called 'contract' gives them the right to throw you off Teruis, or certainly not before you have had a chance to reap the rewards of your work. Now, however, the greedy little ankle-biters have sent in troops to take the mines away from you by force.
Unfortunately, the campaign has very much been going in their favour so far: after all, all you have to oppose them is the militia that, really, is no more than a glorified police force...but you have called for help, and your Chuhuac allies have sent a lightly armed expeditionary force to back up your troops.
Their arrival coincides with a dwarven push to capture the mine in Amerge Sector. Time to singe a few Stunty beards!
Your Troops
On Table At Start
Ikwen Company HQ
- 1 x Chuhuac Big Man (Level III)
- 1 x Rotary Cannon Drone
Ikwen Militia Platoon
- 2 x Ikwen Engineer Squad (12 Ikwen each)
On Third Appearance of the Blinds Card
Chuhuac Company HQ
- 1 x Herdmaster (Big Man Level IV)
- 1 x Recon Specialist
- 1 x Sirrus APC
- 1 x Vasseth Strike Tank
1st Platoon
- 1 x Big Man (Level II)
- 1 x Recon Specialist
- 2 x Chuhuac Squad (12 men each)
- 4 x Sirrus APC
Strike Tank Platoon
- 1 x Big Man (Level III)
- 3 x Vasseth Strike Tank
Battlesuit Platoon
- 1 x Big Man (Level III)
- 6 x Battlesuit
The Game
The battle began with the Blinds (nice moustache, shame about the lack of beard!) representing the Dwarven expeditionary force appearing on the road near where it curved around the volcano-like rocky outcrops. The Ikwen militia, clustered within the mining compound itself, kept their heads down, but managed to spot the lead couple of Blinds as one Dummy (a small party of scouts) and a platoon of Goanna heavy tanks. Two of the Goanna's were using the standard railgun as their main weapon, the other was fitted with a shield generator that gave a defensive value of ten in a 90 degree arc positioned 18" from the front of the vehicle.
As the Dwarven tanks grew closer to the compound, they spotted a tracked drone carrying a rotary cannon in the sandbagged emplacement where, presumably, the Ikwen usually kept their rovers. This was lurking there, waiting for something Dwarvish to approach the gate whereupon it would fire into their rear.
This needed to be dealt with, so Goanna 2 just drove straight up and over the side of the sandbagged emplacement, crushing the drone under its tracks. Unfortunately, the tank slipped a track when doing this, and was thus rendered immobile for the rest of the game. This turned out to be not a problem, as all it meant was that the Dwarves now had a sort of pillbox right outside the Ikwen's front door!
Meanwhile, the Chuhuac reinforcements had arrived at the other end of the table, with two of the Blinds being quickly revealed as concealing a platoon of Vasseth Strike Tanks, and a platoon of Battlesuits that had been rushed to the front so quickly they hadn't even managed to be re-painted in desert camouflage.
Two of the Vasseths immediately engaged Goanna 1, but none of their shots even managed to penetrate the shield put up by Goanna 3. In return, Goanna 1 turned its main gun onto one of the Vasseths and blew it to pieces with one shot. Ouch! The other Vasseth retreated into a more hull down position behind a small building.
Thinking that perhaps they could swamp the Goanna, the Chuhuacs sent their Battlesuits forward. This turned out to be a mistake, as Goanna 1 picked off two of them in quick succession. The others scattered, remembering that they were light troops and really shouldn't be trying to square up to a heavy tank head on.
Meanwhile, the last Vasseth has been threading its way carefully through the coral-like alien fauna, trying to get around the rear of Goanna 1 and into where the Cane Toad APCs were waiting on the road for the signal to go forward.
It took a couple of turns, but eventually it emerged from the undergrowth looking straight down the road at the APCs. Excellent, I thought, time to wreak a bit of havoc!
Unfortunately I had reckoned without the intervention of the Cane Toads themselves. Spotting the danger, the lead Cane Toad dropped off it's squad of infantry and then charged forward and rammed the Vasseth right in the snot locker! Both vehicles were written off in the crash, leaving the other two Cane Toads free to move forward safe from interference. A worthwhile exchange...if you're a Dwarf!
With Goanna 1 just about winning the battle on its own (it had now knocked out the main gun on the last Vasseth), the Dwarves moved their APCs up towards the compound and prepared for the final assault.
The Chuhuac, seeing this, moved their APCs carrying their single platoon, into the compound: although they couldn't match the Goannas out in the open, especially not when hidden behind the Goanna 3's shield, perhaps they would have more success in a more built up setting.
Whilst all this was going on, the final Chuhuac Blind, concealing the Company HQ, was working its way around the back of the mining compound, aiming to engage the Dwarf Blinds (presumably concealing their infantry) without having to go through Goanna 1 first.
The regular Dwarven infantry (i.e. the ones without power armour) de-bused, and started to infiltrate down one side of the compound: gas tanks on their left, barbed wire on their right.
To their right, the Dwarven infantry in powered armour moved towards the Chuhuac Blind concealing the Company HQ. The Dwarfs, confident in their powered armour, were somewhat surprised when the Blind de-cloaked, revealing a side-on Sirrus APC, machine guns bristling, and a final Vasseth Strike tank with a very large missile launcher as its secondary weapon.
Both fired at the Dwarves, blasting the three squads backwards but actually doing no damage: the powered armour doing its job. For the rest of the game, the two sides would exchange fire, neither seemingly able to deal a fatal blow to the other.
The Final Assault
Things rapidly became very confused indeed.
As Goanna 1, now determined to claim that it had won the battle on its own, drove up the ramp into the compound, it was swarmed by a squad of Chuhuac. Despite their best attempts, however, even attacking from the rear, they just couldn't get through the tank's armour. A Cane Toad APC, following on behind Goanna 1, then cut them down, effectively ending any resistance at the front gate.
A squad of Ikwen militia then close assaulted the lead Dwarf squad infiltrating up the side of the barbed wire. One Dwarven squad was reduced to half strength, but the Dwarves, aided by one of their Spider Drones, had cut the Ikwen down, the few survivors of the squad fleeing across the compound.
Meanwhile, back outside the compound, two Battlesuits had done what they were designed to do, and snuck through the 'forest' and attacked the Dwarfs in the rear: taking out the shield generator on Goanna 3 (but not the tank itself) and one Cane Toad...but one Battlesuit had paid the price, and the immobilised - but still deadly - Goanna 2 was looking to see off the other one too.
Goanna 1 then drove forward, and the remaining Ikwen and Chuhuac decided that perhaps the mine wasn't worth any more lives, and surrendered.
Aftermath
What a battle! The Ikwen/Chuhuac had lost three of seven infantry squads; their drone; two out of four tanks and all but one Battlesuit. All they had left was a few ineffectual infantry and APCs and a single Vasseth.
The Dwarves had won, but it had been fairly painful. One APC was destroyed, with another crippled. One Goanna was crippled, another had its shield generator blown up. And there were seven dead Dwarves as well.
A great game where the sheer might of the Dwarves crushed the Chuhuac, who had made the mistake of trying to take them straight on. The Dwarven shield generator was really effective, as was their infantry's powered armour but, in the end, it was Goanna 1 that won the day for them!
Robert Avery
Figures
The Dwarves that John played came from Khurasan, apart from the Spider drones which are from GZG.
The Ikwen and Chuhuac that I played are from Loud Ninja Games (available through Alternative Armies), with their rotary cannon drone again coming from GZG.
The 'vegetation' is all aquarium ornaments bought from Pets At Home. The buildings are nearly all Critical Mass. The roads and two of the gas tanks are from Battlefront.