[FAM&SG2] Incident at North Haven Part 3 (AAR)

SO now I set about preparing for what I thought would be the most
interesting
scenario. AN assault on an underground base pitting a small group of
power
armor against a larger group of security men (in combat armor and
autorifles) I
had two goals.

1. Make sure Zack won one game so he would be excited about continuing
on in SG
(His enthusiasm had been barely dampened by the two defeats).
2. Test out the FMA rule sin this type of setting.

To prepare I grabbed the box top to my Formula De game (our late night
family
entertainment), some other cardboard boxes, scissors and tape. I then
constructed walls and hallways with the cardboard and scissors and set
them all
inside the formula de box top. There was one way in, a central hallway
then
another hallway going down one wall.  ALl together there were about
12-15
rooms.	I made some partitions and closets within some rooms, and desks,
consoles etc. It came out rather nicely in about 2 hours worth of work.
A whole
exciting FMA game would now be played in an area the size of 2' by 1 or
1.5'. I
was pretty psyched with my handiwork.

SO the mission is this a squad of 6 PA guys (all elites with 4 2s a 1
ldr and a
3) against 12 CSF guys. The CSF player was given 28 chits  (12 live 12
dummies,
1 objective chit and three booby traps). He set these about in all the
rooms.
It would be the PA player's job to scan or search each room (If he was
smart)
before he entered. Character stats for the CSF men (they were all vets)
would
be genned up as they appeared for the first time. All were armed with
combat
rifles and grenades. The CSF player could also move his counters dummy
or real
as he saw fit as if they were normal troops.

For this game all movement was 1d6.

SO here we go. The 6 PA (one with a PPG) guys get through the airlock
(It was
assumed they ahd stealthily taken down the up top access.)  Zack of
course
rushes the first guy out does a scan and uncovers 3 guys in a  wide main
hallway. The fight is on. Essentially, the power armor guys would never
even
get into that main hallway for the whole game. All action would take
place in
the access room, security control hallway (right outside the access
chamber
room) and the security office adjacent. Though lots of firing and
grenading
would go on in that main hallway also. This was through no fault of the
system,
which works great for this kind of scenario, but due to the
inexperience/ineptitude of the two players.

A few key points to be made. Especially in this room to room type of
scenario.
A figure blocks all access by him if he's in a	doorway. Player models
also
black firing unless you want to kill your own guy. Over watch is
important. Per
the rules we allowed overwatch as the one action and then in an enemies
action
the overwatch player can fire. But what I did is I made it so the
overwatching
player HAS to pass a quality die roll to shoot. This is important in
this short
range split second type of action here you are not sitting there
tracking the
guy for two minutes before you pick him off. In real life even sitting
in a
room aimed at the door, in a porperly executed breach against quality
shooters,
you will most likely be shot before you get a shot off. It just takes
your
brain a second or two to process what's going on and pull eh trigger.
Now if
the other side is noisy or screws up you may get the drop. It's way
we've
always noted that it is the SECOND guy through the door that's apt to
get shot.
ANyway I digress, but that's the reason for enforcing a quality dr check
before
executing an overwatch. If you fail, then the guy who just came in will
get off
his shot with his second action. What I'm toying with is if you still
survive,
then you can shoot if you pass a second quality roll? I'll toy with it.
But
this kind of thing is essential to captured the dynamics of a split
second room
entry.

Also of course you have several guys on overwatch or in the room you are
in
better shape. Of course if the other player has several models so is he.
WHich
brings me to another point. Grenades rule. Both player rapidly realized
that
any movement into a room had to be started off with grenades. Adding the
extra
quality roll to put the thing through the narrow openings was important.
We
also allowed a hook shot around a corner while keeping covered.

Another mistake made (I mentioned this already) was there was a lot of
freezing
in the door frame (We call this the fatal funnel). This automatically
blocks
any further movement into the room unless the guy gets hit and falls
down or is
physically dragged out of the way costing an action (can't be done
unless the
guy was hit).

Also re: wounded power armor. I made a two-step process out of this.
First off
anything other than a hit is no effect. If you get a hit and fail to
penetrate
then you suppress (I believe it mentions this in the rules). Once
wounded The
model does nothing till the end of the turn. We had a wounded phase
where all
wounded on both sides then rolled to see if they died, were stabilized
or
returned to service. A returned to service guy has to pass a quality dr.
If he
fails he does down ONE QUALITY LEVEL for the rest of the game. (Note:
This is
all done by the PA suits med kit.)

On the next turn there is a subsequent wound roll and anyone stabilized.
1d6.
1-3 the suit immobilizes them and they can't move for the rest of the
game. 4-6
return to service. Automatic one level	quality loss. (Look anything
power
enough to penetrate that suit is gonna fuckin' hurt!) Also 1d4 move
instead of
1d6.

Anyway back to the game. This kind of fighting is very savage. Our PA
trooper
rapidly learned that just because he has a suit on doesn't make him
invulnerable. The CSF player , eventually activating all his guys and
running
them to the vicinity of the fire fight, used a gpood combo of overwatch
fire
(even if mostly masked!) and grenading to slowly force the PA trooper
back into
the initial access chamber room. (Interestingly enough about 4 of his
casualties were due to friendly fire and frags!)

SO the remaining PA guy (all others were dead as were half the CSF) had
been
frantically shouting for help turn after turn. I relented and sent down
four
more PA guys. They arrived to find all their mates dead. They  toss a
grenade
out into the security control hallway that kills two CSF. The remaining
CSF set
up is like this: Oustide the access chamber in the  security control
hallway he
has a guy in one corner on overwatch. Somehow he survived.  In the
doorway to
the main hallway is another with a  grenade on overwatch.

The first PA guys does what? Stops in the doorway. He's shot in the
back. But
it's no effect.   Rather than concentrate on the other guy with grenade
who is
the next threat, cletus here spins around and fires at the first guy! He
second
guy now tosses the grenade but only succeeds in making noise and
suppressing
everyone.There now continues a period of about three turns where both
guys are
shooting at cletus at damn near pointblank range. CLetus is still in the
doorway so everyone behind him is useless. He keeps spinning back and
forth
firing at the last guy that shot at him instead of the next threat. No
one is
hurt of killed though suppressions pop up and a quickly removed. Finally
cletus
goes berserk, attacks the guy in the corner and is promptly wounded. At
least
the next guy can move up but as he does he's rewarded with a grenade in
the
access room and kills him. Now the next PA guys says screw this, and
fires off
his rocket launcher (don't ask me why he brought that down) at point
blank,
hits the grenade thrower in the chest and redecorates the walls. He then
steps
out and finally kills our hero in a close assault. That leaves 2 PA guys
standing vs one wounded CSF guy a few halls down who surrenders. There's
one or
two other wounded CSF guys who were dragged out of the way too.

ANyway, it was a game marred by bungling of tactics and I was glad to
see the
incorrect tactics rewarded in the exact way the y would have in real
life.
Likewise, properly executed room clearing (it happened once or twice in
the
sway of battle) were rewarded with success.

Everyone had GREAT FUN, and we played for about 4 hours. ALl on that
little
piece of board. Would probably make a fun con event. Plus it's so small
fer
chrissakes you could hall it down to a pub and play on some corner table
and
noone would be the wiser.

Zack got a win (even though I told him he would be cour- martialed by
incompetence) and the whoel three scenario event will probably have him
riding
on a sci-Fi and miniatures war gaming hi until I see him gain at
Christmas so
I've done my job to "further the cause" if you will.

I know we weren't playing strict FMA rules but everything I implemented
was
learned quickly and kept the game going rather rapidly so there was no
bog down
and for me at least this last scenario had the right feel to it.

So FMA gets a big thumbs up I'm going to keep playing it and I'm always
printing off what people are suggesting here and will try them. 
Cheers...

Los