| Introduction | | Rules | | Setup | | Scenarios | | Conclusion |
Our group meets quite regularly every monday at the 'Alibaba' game club in Nuernberg, Germany. Our gaming group has declared the month April 2002 to the Heavy Gear month. So the campaign should be played in about 5 or 6 games. But how to set up the campaign?
The tactical rule book (I don't know about the rpg) has a section included which describes the process to generate single szenarios and some rules for the time between the battles (e.g repair rules). So to making up szenarios is fairly easy but how to link them? We also had some other goals in mind which should be reached: The outcome of one battle should influence the next one, a szenario should be playable in 2-3 hours by one or two people per side and the campaign should be played with the miniatures that we currently have. After some discussions we came up with a solution that seems to work quite well:
The basic idea is as follows:
Each side (north vs south) has 5000 points to assemble a pool of gears (and inf or vehicles). This should work for 5 scenarios. As a rule of thump the points total should be calculated as follows:
The playes need not include Hunters/Jager or basic infantry as these units are asumed to be allways available for the szenarios. Attention: recon, heavy or motorised infantry has to be part of the pool to be available during the campaign. Don't forget to inlude some technicians if you plan to repair gears between szenarios! You can have a look at the pools of our campaign here
Before the campaign starts and directly after each battle the first/next szenario is generated acording to chapter 4 of the tactical rule book.
Each szenario is played with 2500 (later raised to 3000) points per side. The szenario generator allows each side to spend money on subplots (4.1.1 Subplots Galore) but this will reduce their available points for the force by 10%. Keep in mind that each such percentile reduction is calculated from the basic start value of the szenario! If a gamemaster is vailable then he should keep the results of subplot rolles or the results of the priority assignment (4.1.3) hidden from the other side. This adds some surprises and fun(or fury) to the game!
Bevor a battle each side chooses a force from units of their pool. If two szenarios are play simultaniously then both commanders of one side have to dicede which one gets which unit from the pool. In this case each gear can participate only in one of the simultaneous battles. They can fill the force up with any amount of hunters/jager or basic infantry.
After each battle note damages / destructions of the units from both sides. Infantry 'heals' automatically and starts the next scenario fresh. Note also the victory points gained and deduct the points spent to buy reinforcements or other goodies.
After finishing the paperwork the gamemaster (or both sides if none is available) should generate the next szenario. Each side should at least know the mission design data (type/objective/time limit) so that they can prepare the best force from their available assets.
This is the easy part. The winner is simply the side with the larger amount of victory points on their running total.
Both sides, the Northern Guard and the Southern Militia, have selected the following material for their pool:
Northern Guard |
||
|---|---|---|
| Unit | TV | participated in |
| Assault Hunter | 500 | S1, S4, S5 (killed) |
| Cheetah | 625 | S3, S4(killed) |
| Ferret | 323 | S5 (killed) |
| Grizzly | 888 | S2(killed) |
| Kodiak | 1072 | S3(killed) |
| Jaguar | 628 | S1(killed) |
| Jaguar | 628 | S1, S3(killed) |
| Recon Inf. | 106 | S5 (killed) |
| Recon Inf. | 106 | S5 |
| Recon Inf. | 106 | S5 |
| 4982 | - | |
Souther Militia |
||
|---|---|---|
| Unit | TV | participated in |
| Long Fang Naga | 651 | S1, S3(damaged) |
| Snake Eye B. M. | 857 | S4, S5 (killed) |
| Black Mamba | 671 | S2(3 kills), S3(3 kills), S4, S5 |
| Black Mamba | 671 | - |
| Iguana | 584 | S3, S4 |
| Spitting Cobra | 818 | - |
| Black Adder | 536 | - |
| Recon Inf | 106 | - |
| Recon Inf | 106 | - |
| 5000 | - | |
The following scenarios where rolled:
| Scenario 1: We get you! | |
|---|---|
| Mission: | Disable / Vehicle / Objective |
| Environment: | Northern / Mountains / Daylight |
| Priorities: | North can choose the side of the terrain or to set up second South has 200 points worth of (artillery) support |
| Subplots: | North: none (rolled tempest which is 'available' only in the Badlands) South: 3'' Minefield, MyAllen Tunnel |
| Northern Force: | <2500, Gerhard Friedrich: 2 Jaguar, 1 Assault Hunter, 1 Hunter (=2136) |
| Southern Force | <2250, Bernd Schmid: 1 Long Fang Naga, 4 Jager, (1 Caiman) (=2171) |
| The Northern troops aim was to disable the Caiman (which has no weapons, was only the target for the sceario and because of this costed no points). But the terrain was very unfavourable to them. The Naga was placed at a hill edge with a free firing area. The North made a pincer attack but the right flank got struck in the mine field and lost an Hunter (fumble roll!). The left flank attacked with an Jaguar and the Assault Hunter over the plain (in evade mode). The Naga took aim of an Hunter and killed him besides impossible odds because again a fumble was rolled. The Assault Hunter got through the defense line and shot at the Caiman, but failed. In the next turn the enemy succeeded only with the last possible shot to kill the Assault Hunter. If he had survived he had a very good chance to blast the Caiman. But this way it was a full triumph for the South (3 victory points). | |
| Scenario 2: The Hammer Strikes | |
|---|---|
| Mission: | Destroy / All Forces / Objective |
| Environment: | Northern / Mountains / Rain |
| Priorities: | none (both had the same distribution tactic) |
| Subplots: | North: Leftover Ammo South: 3'' Minefield |
| Northern Force: | <2500, Reimund Stoehr: 1 Grizzly, 4 Hunter (=2401) |
| Southern Force | <2250, Martin Fritz: 1 Black Mamba, 4 Jager (=2191) |
| Scenario 3: The Weak Spot | |
|---|---|
| Mission: | Provide / Communication / Random Increasing |
| Environment: | Badlands / Desert / Dusk |
| Priorities: | North has bought 300 points worth of support South has dropped the northern troops by 10% |
| Subplots: | North: he can collapse a McAllen tunnel beneth an enemy gear South: a northern gear has a vendetta with an own gear |
| Northern Force: | <2700, Gerhard Friedrich / Helmut Fritz: 1 Kodiak, 1 Jaguar, 1 Cheeta, 1 Hunter (=2705!!!) |
| Southern Force | <2700, Bernd Schmid, Martin Fritz: 1 Long Fang Naga, 1 Black Mamba, ? (=) |
| Scenario 4: Hide and Seek | |
|---|---|
| Mission: | South: Defend / ECM / Objective |
| Environment: | North / Jungle / Dawn |
| Priorities: | North can choose the side of the terrain or to set up second South dropped the northern force by 10% |
| Subplots: | North: a hero joins the force South: a coward was found in the northern force The intelligence of the north was bad (relocate a quarter of your troops) |
| Northern Force: | <2700, Gerhard Friedrich: 1 Assault Hunter, 1 Cheeta, 4 Hunter (=2645) |
| Southern Force | <2700, Bernd Schmid: 1 Snake Eye B.M., 1 Black Mamba, 1 Iguana, 1 Jaeger, 1 Caiman (=2682) |
| Scenario 5: The Last Defense | |
|---|---|
| Mission: | South: Destroy / Terrain / Objective |
| Environment: | Badlands / Desert / Night |
| Priorities: | North can determine the terrainfeatures and selects the side first South has 10% less troops but has 900 points worth of support |
| Subplots: | North: still secret South: bought an additional subplot, still secret |
| Northern Force: | <3000, Helmut Fritz: 1 Ferret, 1 Assault Hunter, 5 Hunter, 2 Recon Inf (=2935) |
| Southern Force: | <2400, Bernd Schmid / Martin Fritz: 1 Snake Eye, 1 Black Mamba, 2 Jaeger (=2288) |
|
In this final scenario the southern troops have got through the lines and are in for the kill of an, aparently not so, secret research facility. Well the South used their superior support (they choose 4 fighter airstrikes and 2 artllery barrages) to bombard the faciliy (which had 200 Points damage capacity). The first two figters damaged the building heavily and the third attacked two gears inflicting light damage on them. The forth fighter got lost for a while but later attacked the facility again, nearly destroying it. As the building was still not totaly destroyed the South had no other chance then to attack the well placed defense. And believe it or not, the north managed to destroy some gears. With them the Snake Eye! But all that heroic defense was to no avail as the last southern gear (the "Killer" Black Mamba which had by far the highest kill rating in our camapign) gave the facility the rest. So the scenario was still won by the south. |
|
Well our campaign was quite a desaster for the Northern Guard. The losses of at the first two szenarios made it quite difficult for the north to field adequate forces an the remaining battles. Nonetheless, despite the frankly desastrous casualty ratio, they maneged to make most of the scenarios a close thing. Another major drawback on the northern side was the importanst player, Gerhard. I knew his luck (or better the absents of it) from out Fire and Fury battles. If your teacher will tell you that over the long run all results of a d6 are equally possible, then ask him to proof that with Gerhard as the die roler. After that session he is forced to rethink his opinion. I am also one who has most of the time no luck with the dice but at least at some times I have a lucky day and roll good results. Not so Gerhard. I have playd quite a lot games with him (also different rules/games) and up to now I have never see him rolling good. The most is a quite OK one but even that is really seldom.
But on the positive side at least the southern players had much fun and also I myself as the gamemaster and terrain builder was quite satisfied. Another important result is, that the campaign rules work well. If I will do another mini campaign based on this rules I would give the looser of a scenario 1 victory points worth of repair.