MNG do GSR in a BUA with NQM

Tim, Chris and I met up at Chris' place in a welter of TLAs to have a go at Chris' latest ultra-modern project (for a full guide to the abbreviations used in this blog, see the bottom of the post).

The game started last week when I was away. Phil had run the aliens, possibly from Mars, who had used their GSRs to seize the WIS. Tim had played the GWR supported by some Regular Army. For this game we swapped over.

Chris is looking at modifying NQM for fighting in BUAs. Interestingly enough this took me right back to when I first visited Chris for a game in his first house in Wellingborough, back in the 1980s just after he'd left the Army. He was working through FIBUA concepts using 6mm ultra modern toys, basing what he was doing on information gathered when he was a serving officer.

For this project he has gone back to the lowest level of resolution in NQM, RSO, so each base is about a company, and each hex 300 metres. To take on board what is going on now he is introducing things like drones. I had three drone teams. You can see the operators in the photo above. They are the two figure units on round bases. Two are on the upper levels of the Swans Gate shopping centre blocks, and one is bottom centre left, with its drone behind it. Drones give you recce capability out to 6 hexes, which is really handy. He hasn't done rules for offensive use yet.

Here are the aliens swarming round the base of the WIS magneton, the large grey cylinder to the left. The red brick dust blobs are rubble markers, showing where GSRs have been or particularly heavy shelling has occurred. You can see a GSR centre top, with a skull hit marker on it. Rubble causes all sorts of problems, so the aliens have brought engineering tractors with them (bottom left) at the expense of Heavy Artillery. 

Turn one and I get my helicopter behind Tim's forces and shoot up the GSR from the previous photo. GSRs are tough. They count as Extra Heavy, which means light troops (most infantry) can't damage them.

Phil had got one of his GSRs up to the Swans Gate last week. I moved up some tanks to try and force him back. This one is really nasty as it has AAA capability.

I did hit it, so Tim withdrew it only to move it up to the top of the WIS magnetron. Now I can see it properly, I can start to hit it with my artillery. In the background another GSR is arriving. This one is pink.

Fighting is intense. Tim's most advanced unit takes some punishment from my armour and infantry.

Not a lot you can do against a roll like that!

I'm being heavily pressed on the other flank, as my tanks are engaged by two GSRs.

My infantry have fought their way to the base of the Magnetron. I've got a heavy support platoon in there, but it'll be risky to attack the GSR on the roof with just that.

Another GSR appears, bringing havoc in its wake. It is held off by my armoured unit as we bring the evening to a close.

We had a long conversation afterwards about how it went and where it goes next. Chris is facing a similar problem to that which I have recently had with the "Taiping Era" 1st China War city games. The rules as written are intended for open terrain combat, where BUAs are mostly small villages. NQM is likewise best when armies are moving over large open areas and BUAs are mostly strong points of one or two hexes to be encircled and reduced.

The hex buildings look great and provide a solution to how you represent buildings whilst letting models move within them. Some of them represent open boulevard areas where tanks can move, others closer terrain which is only passable to infantry. And GSRs, which can go anywhere. The problem is that with the markers used and the potential to have more than one base in a hex it is all getting a little bit cluttered. And that was without the use of out of ammo markers.

We kicked around a lot of ideas and Chris is already planning the game in a few weeks time for the next iteration. I think, and I said so at the time, that Chris needs to start with what he wants to see in a FIBUA game and then work forwards to the rule set he needs, rather than starting with NQM and paring back or modifying it. That's not to say that NQM concepts won't be in the game - table 12 will certainly be there - but deciding what to do with the Re-org phase presupposes that one is needed in its current format, and that both Hits and Casualties need to be different but connected. 

I played my normal role of not exactly being picky, but asking Chris what he actually meant and then pointing out how his reply contradicted itself in the same sentence. I know he loves it when I do this (the difference between "contact" and "one hex" as a range distance discussion was a particularly fine example of this part of our relationship, resulting in all the QRS' being manually amended during the game). There's also an issue with ground scale, hex occupancy and weapon ranges. Chris - quite rightly - wants ranges in the BUA to be next hex, unless using artillery outside the BUA with spotters. What this means is it is hard to get infantry into an attack together with their heavy weapons platoons in support. When driving home it occurred to me that Neil Thomas does this quite well in OHW in the modern period by having normal infantry, and what he terms "Heavy Infantry" which is a unit in WW1 with lots of HMGs.

This project has legs, and a lot of potential. I shall follow and participate in it with great interest.

Abbreviations

AAA: Anti Aircraft Artillery (but you knew that)

BUA: Built Up Area, also FIBUA, "Fighting in Built Up Area"

GSR: Giant Stompy Robot

GWR: Gritty Wellingborough Militia

HMG: Heavy Machine Gun. Obviously

MNG: Monday Night Group (which meets on a Tuesday)

NQM: Not Quite Mechanised

OHW: One Hour Wargames, a book by Neil Thomas

QRS: Quick Reference Sheet.

RSO: Regimental Scale Orbat

TLA: Three Letter Abbreviation

WIS: Wellingborough Intergalactic Spaceport (this is a running joke, based upon a promise from a Parliamentary Candidate at the last General Election).

WW1: also know as The Great War.