Mosley Station – Tomorrow’s War

Tomorrow’s War is meant for not-too-distant “hard” sci-fi skirmish gaming, but I thought I’d see if it could work for skirmish gaming a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… Mostly I just wanted to play some more Force on Force and no one was available to play this weekend so I recruited my kids to help out and busted out the old Grenadier Star Wars miniatures as an enticement. 

To be honest, though I do own a copy, I haven’t yet given Tomorrow’s War a full read through. I’ve skimmed through it enough to note that it is pretty much identical to Force on Force with the added feature or Tech Levels.

I decided the Imperial and Rebels would be at about the same tech levels for the purpose of this scenario…

SITUATION

Tatoonie.

Manfred Bothans has stolen super secret plans for the new Death Star. He has been trying to locate some rebels to hand it over to. He finally met up with some at Mosley Station on Tatooine

SCENARIO

Duration: 8 turns

Initiative: Imperial Forces have the initiative through the game.

Fog of War: Deternimed normally by Reaction Tests

Table Size: 5’x3’

IMPERIAL MISSION

Capture Manfred Bothans and recover the stolen data tapes. To capture Manfred Imperial troops must move into contact with the Cloud Car he is trying to escape in before he can get it up and running (it is in bad repair).

IMPERIAL VICTORY POINTS

Per Rebel killed, captured or seriously wounded: 1pt

Capture of Manfred Bothans and recovery of stolen data tapes: 5

IMPERIAL FORCE

Initiative Level: D8

Confidence Level: Confident

Supply Level: Normal

Body Armour: 2D Stormtrooper Armour or 1D Scout Trooper ARmour

Troop Quality/Morale: D8/D8

Imperial Forces

Scout Team

3x Scout Troopers with Blasters.

Stormtrooper Team 1

4x Stormtroopers with Blaster

Stormtrooper Team 2

3x Stormtroopers with Blaster

1x Stormtrooopers with Heavy Blaster

Stormtrooper Team 3

3x Stormtroopers with Blaster

1x Stormtrooopers with Heavy Blaster

REBEL MISSION

Delay the Imperial forces long enough for Manfred Bothans to get away. It will take him 8 turns to get the cloud car warmed up and ready for flight.

REBEL VICTORY POINTS

Per Imperial Trooper killed or seriously wounded: 1pt

Delaying the Imperials long enough for Manfred to escape: 5pts

REBEL FORCE

Initiative Level: D8

Confidence Level: Confident

Supply Level: Normal

Body Armour: Light 1D

Troop Quality/Morale: D8/D8

Rebel Forces

Rebel Team 1

3x Rebel Soldiers with Blasters

1x Rebel Soldier with Heavy Blaster

Rebel Team 2

3x Rebel Soldiers with Blasters

Rebel Team 3

3x Rebel Soldiers with Blasters

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

My helpful recruits ready to play! They decided to play the Imperial troops and I was left to play the Rebels.

Imperial troops Entering Mosley Station. The furthest is Team 1, in the middle is Team 2, the closest Stormtroopers are Team 3 and beside them is the Scout Troopers.

The Rebels. The Team of four closest to Manfred “Many” Bothans’ Cloud Car is Team 1. The Team in the middle is Team 2. The group furthest from the landing pad is Team 3.

All the Rebel Forces began the game “Hidden”.

TURN ONE

The Stormtroopers begin rushing up to cover of the buildings. One rebel team attempted to react but the Stormtroopers got to cover before they could lay down any effective fire.

In the process both Finnegan and I rolled ONES for our reaction tests so we each pulled a Fog of War card. He got something about a vehicle breaking down – which didn’t apply,

I got one about a suspected Gas attack (which would force the Rebels to don their Chemical defence suits and hamper their Troop Quality for the rest of the game!?)… Gas? In the Star Wars universe…? We decided to ignore that one too…

The Scout Troopers snuck into the ruined building on the edge of town and took fire from Rebel Team 3

TURN TWO

Beginning of Turn Two… where to go from here…?

Stormtrooper Team 3 rushed into the building straight ahead of them. Rebel Teams 1 and  2 reacted and brought fire down on the Stormtroopers, but with little effect. The Stormtroopers return fire caused one casualty.

Stormtrooper Team 2 also moved into the building behind Team 3

The Scout Troopers exchanged more fire with Rebel Team 3 and dashed for cover behind the building across from them.

Stormtrooper Team 1, from cover behind a building engaged Rebel Team 1. Neither side caused the other any harm…

TURN THREE

Rebel Team 2 did a first aid check and found their comrade to be only Lightly Wounded.

The Scout Troopers started off the Imperial turn moving into the building and bringing fire down on Rebel Team 2. Rebel Teams 2 and 3 reacted but their fire was totally ineffective. The Scout Troopers fire, however, caused another casualty and a morale failure, pinning Rebel Team 2.

Stormtrooper Team 1 occupied the building they were hiding behind and brought fire down on Rebel Team 2 – taking out the remaining two rebels!

With no more return fire coming from the building across the street, Strormtrooper Teams 2 rushed across the street and passed through Rebel Team 2’s position. Some ineffective fire was exchanged with Rebel Team 1. StormTrooper Team 2 moved up to the position Team 2 had left and also exchanged fire with Rebel Team 1

TURN FOUR

Stormtrooper Team 3 exchanged fire with Rebel Team 1. Rebel Team one took down THREE stormtroopers with some devastating fire! (I rolled a whole bunch of eights which just couldn’t be matched.

The Scout Troopers moved up to the same building with Stormtrooper Team 3 – as they made the dash tey took some fir form Rebel Team 3 and one of the Scout Troopers went down – his team mates pressed on dragging his body ahead into the building with them.

Strormtrooper Team 2 also exchanged fire with Rebel Team 1, though it was wholly ineffective.

Stormtrooper Team 1 continued moving up from building to building completely out of sight of the Rebel Teams.

TURN FIVE

Some First Aid Check had to be made….

Stormtrooper Team 3 had one Dead, one Seriously Injured, and one Lightly Wounded.

The Scout Troopers, examining their fellow trooper found he had expired from his wounds. They also checked on the Rebel Team 2 casualties and found one to be Seriously Wounded and two Lightly Wounded. They were all taken prisoner.

Stormtrooper Team 2 exchanged fire with Rebel Team 1 and took two casualties.

Stromtrooper Team 1 continued to move up under cover.

The Scout Troopers who had passed their Troop Quality test tried to bring fire on Rebel Team 1… for their troubles they took another casualty!?

IN the end phase Rebel Team 3 moved across to a different building where they could hopefully better engage the Imperial Troopers.

TURN SIX

First aid checks were required for The Scout Troopers and Stormtrooper Team two. The Scout Trooper turned out to be seriously wounded, which effectively put them out of action. The remaining Scout trooper basically sat with his wounded comrade and watched over their three Rebel prisoners. Both Stormtroopers from team two were also Seriously Wounded

Stromtrooper Team 1 finally moved into a position where they could bring fire down on Rebel Team 1 – from within Optimal Range. Unfortunately that put them in Rebel Team 1’s optimal range as well and the rebels shot them up pretty good – causing TWO MORE casualties.

Rebel Team 1 apparently had commando or sniper training or something… I just couldn’t stop rolling eights!?

TURN SEVEN

It sounded like Manfred Bothans was finally getting his Cloud Car fired up…

Stormtrooper Team 1 checked their downed men and found that they were both perfectly okay!? (“Hey, this armour works after all!?”)

Some fire was exchanged between Rebel Teams and Stormtrooper teams 2 and 3. The Stormtroopers were trying to soften up Rebel Team 1 in hopes that  Stormtrooper Team 1 might be able to close assault. They were ineffective in caustin gany casualties or pinning, and, in fact, Stormtrooper Team 3 took two more casualties…

But what they DID do was distract Rebel Team 1 enough – coaxing it to make two reaction fires – so that when Stromtrooper team 1 did rush across the street the Rebel team was down a few firepower dice.

In their rush across the street the Stormtroopers did take one casualty, but they passed morale and continued into Close Assault! Huzzah!

Two rounds were fought and the Rebels were wiped out – every last one of them KIA. The Stormtroopers apparently weren’t taking any prisoners after this team had pretty much devastated their force!

TURN EIGHT

It all came down to one dice roll. The Stormtroopers were right there – all they had to do was walk out and stop Many from taking off… But first they had to check on their downed man.. who turned out to be dead.

Then they failed their Troop Quality test – which meant they would not move and could only react to fire that turn…

So close…

I think Finnegan cried a bit… it’s tough to be so close to such a hard fought victory to have it yanked out from under you by one failed die roll…

Storm Trooper Team 3 also checked casualties and found one of theirs was Seriously Wounded and the other Lightly Wounded.

By the end it was all smiles and “Dad can we play this again tomorrow!?”

Afterwards, as I started downloading photos and writing up the report they kids made up their own game…

Rebels

KIA: 4

Seriously Wounded: 1

Lightly Wounded: 2

Okay: 3

Taken POW: 3

Imperials

KIA: 3

Seriously Wounded: 5

Lightly Wounded: 2

Okay: 5

Yowzah! 66% casualties! And they didn’t even get Many Bothans! A serious blow to the Empire! The survivors would probably be remustered to janitorial duties on the new Death Star…

The Heavier (2d) Storntrooper armour is really handy to have – but doesn’t help much when I can’t stop rolling eights and sevens…

How would I add heroes to this? I guess reading the rules might give me some ideas – from what I’ve gleaned so far I could make them independent leaders of particularly high Troop Quality (for the big characters - Luke, Han, Chewbacca, Leia,  Darth Vader, etc…).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More toys… Just finishing up a few more assorted Moderns.