Another game

    So after  my first game with Quadrant 13 i was keen to try again, this time with bigger forces. On the 8th February I again had a free morning so ran through the same scenario again, but this time I added a second platoon to the colonial defense force. I used the same enemy generator from Platoon Forward for the mercenaries, so this should increase their force size in line with the defenders.
    I'm not going to give an in depth AAR, it was three weeks ago after all, but suffice to say Quadrant 13 is definitely a company sized game. The card activation is still great, the combat is believable, but you really need at least two platoons to play. In my previous game once a card was drawn for a platoon they were able to shut down an enemy platoon (given average dice) for the turn. having a second platoon meant you had to worry what those other guys were going to do.
    I didn't play the game through to a conclusion, but totally thumbs up for a hard sci-fi company sized game. But whats the problem? well I want to play platoon and smaller too. In an ideal world Too Fat Lardies would have published Coc in Space and i could use that, but they haven't, yet. I did consider converting it, but  knew i just don't have the time, so what to do?
   Try Gruntz, sounds too gamey, I downloaded Fast and dirty, it looked good but couldn't quite get it, write my own system, yeah riight! So here I am back again with tomorrow's war/Force on force, i know there is a good game here somewhere, and I'm gonna make it work. so that's where I am now, re reading tomorrow's war and planning out one more game of it, as soon as I'm done I'll be back.
  

First Game

Last Sunday (the 31st of January) I had a free morning so had the opportunity to give my 15mm minis their first game.

I used Q13 as my rules and as I was playing solo used Joe Legan's excellent Platoon Forward to generate my enemy and scenario. I have designed simple army lists for both the colonist's militia and a crack mercenary force.

The militia are using GZG colonial defense force, which I have rated as tech 2, regular troops. each squad has one SAW, and a single use anti tank gun. Each platoon consists of 2 - 3 squads plus a small command squad and a two man mortar. I also gave them a heavy, and slow tank with large caliber howitzer.

The mercenary force are GZG (new) New Swabian League, slightly power armoured troops. I rated them as   tech 2 veteran heavy squads. Each squad had two SAWs plus all troops assault rifles look like they have underslung grenade launchers. They have slightly smaller squads of 9 but no command squad, just a big man, to represent their more elite status. I have also given them a number of drones, GZG hover drones, and spider drones, which have two weapon options, either an auto gun of anti tank gun.

Using Platoon Forward for solo play is great, to decide on your force, and the scenario generates a number of blinds, which when revealed are rolled for which, if any troops are available. I obviously had to modify the troop tables to reflect the OOB I had chosen for my force.

I chose to play scenario O, defense against a raid, in this scenario the enemy troops come in on two blinds, which when one is revealed they are diced for, one is the enemy force, the other a dummy. The real blind is then replaced by a number of real blinds, like this;

The Colonial Militia are in cover in the shack village. Once the blinds started to get revealed the strength of Q13's card activation system began to show. two turns of early activation by the mercenary squad and auto gun armed spider drones put far too much shock on the two militia squads to mount a serious challenge. As the mercenary objective, according to the scenario card was, recon the area and assertain enemy force I judged this a success and called the game.

Surviving militia troops cower in the village 

So what did I think; well Q13 is brutal if you get a run of cards against you, but knowing Too Fat Lardies games I already expected this. Just one platoon per side is too little, once the first was shocked in to inaction I had nothing to respond with. this is a large battle game, so really you need a few more units, and cards in your deck. But the system plays great, the blinds work well, and the suppression provided by the shock  feels real. Tomorrow i get another chance to try it again, so maybe I'll adjust the forces a little and play the same scenario again.