Sunday 4 January 2015

SAEAE AAR - ¡LOCO LOCO! #2

We rejoin the game as the train, el Loco-Loco, makes its appearance. The Colorado commander realised what was need and ordered his artillery unit to move to the rail junction and bombard the train. It was imperative to destroy or stop the engine before it reached the junction. The action resumes on the right flank of the Colorado position where the Villista cars are attacking.....

....Villista HMG car goes down 
in a hail of Colorado bullets

 Loco-Loco driving forward, 
explosives laden car at the front


 Villista car driving away from the battle as the Villista cavalry, 
including those on the now cleared hill, look on


The battle continued unabated with losses mounting on both sides. The Huertista artillery had dreadful dice rolls until it was almost too late. The train could take four hits and they hit it three times in succession, the last being as it crashed into the junction!

 CRASH!

 DERAILMENT!

 MELEE!

The Villista train failed to detonate on impact. Troops from both sides swarmed towards the crashed loco, one side intent on detonating the explosives; the other determined to stop them. Cavalry, infantry, machine-guns, artillery all blasting and hacking at each other, desperate to gain control of the wreckage.

 BOOOOOM!

The Villistas finally gain the train and set off the explosives killing everybody nearby which included some key Colorado units. This caused panic in the remaining Colorado troops who began to flee the town pursued half-heartedly by the stunned Villista survivors. The Villistas had gained the town and the rail junction but at some cost to themselves.

Colorados
3 x Infantry
2 x HMG
1 x Artillery

Villistas
1 x Infantry
1 x HMG
1 x Cavalry
1 x Car/HMG

¡Viva la Revolución!

8 comments:

  1. Outstanding! I haven't looked at SAEAE for a while now, and know that it needs an update (I pondered some changes to how hits were applied to reflect the effects on morale as I recall), but I'm thrilled to see it getting an outing. any feedback you have is more than welcome.

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  2. And how did you run the rules for the train in the end? Your last post on the subject was more a set of notes.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it! SAEAE is a really good and fun set of rules you know :)

      The Train Rules (WIP)

      1. Train is held off table until activated as per SAEAE.

      2. Once activated it remains subject to activation as per SAEAE.

      3. Top speed is 2 squares per move; normal speed is 1 square per move.

      4. Can move only on laid track, diagonally, straight & curves.

      5. Train has 4 MPs (or maybe 5 given the high motivation??) and takes hits in the normal way.

      6. On reaching its target the explosives detonate on 4,5,6 D6.

      7. Blast radius is the 8 squares around the explosives wagon.

      Mines WIP

      A. Track mines - If train is moving at 1 square speed and has escorts they can find and remove the mine.

      B. Track mines - if train is moving at 2 square speed and passes over a live track mine the mine detonates on 5,6 D6. Train then rolls for derailment: 1, 2 D6. If train wins it continues forward.

      C. Attacking side can sweep for mines prior to train rolling.

      D. Defending side has a random number to place inc some blinds. No more than 3 inc dummies otherwise it will slow the game too much.

      Thoughts?

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    2. Looks as good as anything. I can't see that there's much in the way of decision making for a Loco once it's committed, so a series of die rolls to set the narrative sounds just perfect.

      I was also pleased to see you using vehicles. I must revisit those rules, even if just to convert them to my more recent adventures in square gaming :)

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    3. I agree, once that loco is committed, unless there's a way of switching tracks, it's on its way to glory.

      The vehicles, yes, I used the cavalry stats for them but wondered if they should have the same MPs. I'll experiment.

      I am really fond of gridded wargames, they remove a lot of ifs, buts & maybes from games. I tried to talk your Dad into having a gridded game of HotT. He pulled a face and said no ;)

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    4. Yes, I know that face ... :-)

      I wouldn't play square-grid HOTT, it has to be said; I'm happy with the free-form version. I do like squares as a way of regulating games, but still prefer ungridded rules if I can get them.

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    5. I bet you can't get my Dad to play SAEaE - on a grid with paper figures :)

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