JUNGLE PATROL

played an interesting small 40K game this week thaat i think would make
an interest -ing SGII scenario, if y'all happen to hav	the figures  for
it.

the setting was on a newly discovered planet that had once been home to
a high tech civilization that had, appparently, been  blasted out of
existence about  30,000 years  ago. todate no survivors of the humanoid
race have been discovered.

the humans  are exploring the  ruins that  dot the surface, and have
established numerous base camps on the	surface. THERE IS NO SHIP IN
ORBIT, as the planet is visited by a chartered civilian supply ship 5
times each Earth year.

the battle is fought between a routine jungle patrol operating in the
vicinity of the ruins of  massive, jungle covered  city

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THE PATROL;

basically, 4 veterans and 17 plain joes/jolenes in light  body
armor/helmets with short range tactical comms and vision enhancement
gear. smallarms, pistols, grenades,  and knife-bayonets, with one
machete for every 4 ttroopers.
one SAW for each 9 bods. the patrol has one LR comm-link that is carried
by a plain joe/jolene RTO.

the  4 veterans are the sergeant patrol leader,  2 corporals squad
leaders, and the medic.

the 40K scenario used vet IG profiles  for the	4 vets, and normal IG
profiles for the plain joes/jolenes of the patrol. and the basic IG
armor save of 5+ was increased to 4+ vs primitive  weapons. the  weapons
used  were IG lasguns, laspistols, and 4 light plasma guns.

naturally, LOL, i used some of my belovd IG miniatures to represent the
patrol.

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THE STONE AGE SAVAGES;

these were the nifty Neanderthals from	REAPER MINIATUREs-some of BOBBY
JACKSON's best works. in addition to the out of the  bin  cave-dewds,
there  were many, many conversions (hair, animal skins, extra
flint-tipped  weapons, coup de splat clubs , etc.)  made from the 6
basic Neanderthal's that REAPER makes.

NO BOWS, ARROWS, SLINGS, OR SLINGSTONES,  just spears,	axes,  knives,
one- and -two handed clubs.
NO ARMOR or SHIELDS of any type, just filthy animals  skins, dirty hair,
dirty skin and offensive  breath.

the savages used the  WHFB feral ork profile for the boyz and the
bozzez.

the savages  were organized in warbands of 10-20 bods, but could  detach
smaller  scouting parties of 2-6 bods at will. 

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THE TABLE;

the  table  for the  game was 10 ft long by 5 ft wide, covered	with
jungle terrain. there  several gullies and jungle  streams on the  table
(location mapped by the native player, BUT NOT ACTUALLY PLACED ON THE
TABLE UNLESS THE PATROL ENCOUNTERED THESE). 

 if and when, a jungle	stream was  encountered by the patrol, dice
were tossed to find out if it  was fordable or not. (1D6 for each 6" of
stream length that   soldiers were actually in contact	with, and on 1
toss er  section! score 1 thru 4= fordable, 5 or 6=not fordable!)

if and when a gully was encountered by the patrol, 1D6 was tossed again
to determine if  the patrol could  cross it or had to  travel parallel
with it until a crossing point	was found.

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THE GAME;

the object of the  game  was for the  patrol to enter the table at one
narrow end, and march across the  table, exiting  from the other narrow
end. patrol cannot  exit from a wide  edge!

all patrol movement began at the  table  edge with the patrol pointman,
and the rest of the troopers following in a single file. 

the patrol MUST  REMAIN in plain view through out the battle-strangers
in a strange land and always under  observation kinda thang!

the  savages use 1" round  counters marked "real" or  "dummy" to make
movements on the  table.  counter is replaced  with a miniature
immediately when  the  patrol has LOS,	or gets a sensor scan, is  shot
by a soldier (reconn by fire) or the  savages throw  their  weapons at
the  soldiers or move into HTH combat.

soldiers  move at reduced  speed through the jungle-savages move at
normal speed through the  jungle.

soldiers move  every turn until the  savages  declare and ambush, then
normal movement  sequencing is	used.

the  savages can preposition (on a map)  up to 4 different ambush sites,
and may have up to 6 roving warbands.

once  contact is made, the  savages are  assumed to move  directly
toward the patrol as fast as possible!

(these cave-dewds communicate by ESP!)

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THE RESULTS OF MY GAME;

in our game the  IG patrol lost 13 bods to the	savages in a running
fight that started halfwy across the  table, and inflicted 60 fatalities
on the cave-dewds.

in the	end  5 walking	WIA and 2   healthy troopers  escaped off the
narrow end of the  table after 4 or 5  firefigihts. 

IF the IG armor had not been increased to a 4+ save vs primitive
weapons, it might have	ended  at the  initial ambush site  under the
shitstorm of thrown weapons; 12 IG were hit, but only 2 KIA. in the
berserker rush to HTH that followed, another 2 troopers were KIA,  5
were WIA (1 litter case, 4 walking  wounded), and  1 trooper carried
off!  half the patrol KIA, WIA or MIA for 13 KIA savages, and the
survivoring cave dewds routed off.

i forgot to use the frag  grenades (they are no longer thrown weapons,
but a  HTH  factor) repeatedly in my close  combats.

i could have gotten away with more  of the patrol intact, but, i refused
to leave  any WIA behind that could not  move  under their own power, or
to abandon the slower moving  WIA troopers to the  natives.

i left my dead where they  fell, but took all weapons, ammo, food,
water, meds, and ID off the  bods before  i moved on.

and i made sure that an cave-dewds that were shot down, stayed	dead! 

overall, it  was a fun and  nerve  racking  game, and i think that it
ought to work with SG II even better than it did  with 40K.