Valor & Steel & Flesh game 2 AAR

 

The battlefield

So, our second go at the Valor & Steel & Flesh rules, with some changes from last time. As an example I revamped the vehicle rules adding some hit location rules. 

This time around the British had gotten hold of a defecting scientist and stashed him somewhere in the town. The Irish patriots aided by Rouge Noirs minions want the scientist for their own, of course the minions do not want to share. So the minions had a secret objective, if they got the scientist they could break off their alliance. Each of the heroes had their own unique aspect, one was a coward (but had to hide that fact) another British officer felt he had to prove himself  The junior minion leader believed in promotion by eliminating his superior, while one of the Irish leaders had a martyr syndrome.  

The town, held by the British forces

British reinforcements arrive from the left, the Irish & Minions come in from the small bridge

The Canadians aided by a Scottish unit defend the town & guard the prisoner. They also have a damaged armoured Land Ship,  a machine gun trike & an outdated Nordenfelt MG tractor.

The game started with an automaton assault against defending automatons. It was an even match and since they could no no fear, neither side retreated.

The minions are deployed in force, supported by their own Land Ship & a pair of Irish light armoured vehicles.

The Irish/minion forces were allowed to place barriers, either as road blocks or as cover for their units. They split up barriers fairly evenly. 

British Unilancers (actually Prussians subbing in) get bogged down in the grassy fields

As stated above the Unilancers got bogged down on the field. I have already updated the terrain charts, and reclassified what this terrain is so that it should not be that bad next time. (also rolling 3 dice for movement would have helped, I counted them as cavalry)

Main thrust of the British, 2 light MG Tractors, a land Ship , Hardlove suited troops & a guard unit.

The canadians begin to realize that the main enemy thrust seems to be by passing a lot of their defences.

So, due to a poorly communicated/designed initial rule, the defender forces were on overwatch but found it difficult to react to the enemy and spent too long in place. Eventually the Scottish unit did pull up stakes and advance towards the automaton melee.

Canadians are well prepared to defend in depth

In the top right portion of the picture you can see a minion electro cannon that had been under ambush orders took shots at the British armour. 

The Canadians enjoy the view from the roof, but the enemy artillery has noticed them.

With few targets and an enemy Land ship that has so far defied their attempt to damage it, the Canadians work on repairing their Land ship that is currently immobile.

Regular Minion unit on the right, while an Electro rifle unit advances on the left

A unit of dismounted Irish cavalry were forced back by rifle fire and took shelter in the ruined church. Meanwhile the electro rifles rained down electrical fire on the machine gun tractor. Ultimately the machine gun tractor was knocked out by an internal explosion.

Meanwhile the Unilancers continue to struggle, & draw some fire & take a casualty

In the town, the Minions launch an assault against a unit of defender automatons. The minions send in automaton soldiers & spiders supported by infantry & a powered ram carrier

Under artillery fire, the Canadians vacate the roof.

The melee continued throughout the game as the predominantly automaton units gave no quarter (not in their programming)

The Irish/minions also had access to some 'mad' bombers that they could be scattered among their units, one of them is sneaking up on the British... Also at this time the Irish, while searching the second building that they reached, found and captured the scientist

The minions throw in a unit of rifles into the fray in an attempt to eliminate the automatons, while the British send in their highlanders.

Minions & a bomber hug the wall as they advance on the machine gun tractor & trike.

The British Land ship, with its engine running again launched itself into the minions in an attempt to run over some minions and drive through the barrier to intercept the Irish and their prisoner.

Automatons & a flamer unit use the cover of the bridge to fire upon the Unilancers

Guards vs Jump troops, vehicles standing off against vehicles with artillery thrown into the mix

In the end there was nothing that the British could do to stop the Irish from extracting the prisoner. While the battle raged over the table top, the Irish quietly won the day.

So, after this game and after the feedback from the players, I feel I have some changes to make. 

• Update the vehicle and morale charts to d10 from d12 (just better to reduce die types)
• Update vehicle & morale charts so that good bad things are on an ascending scale.. This will allow modifiers to be used on the charts
• Ditch the vehicle hit locations
• Reassess the unit activation system (possibly taking from Fantastic battles)
• Fix up armour penetration system
• Change melee to a single roll vs roll system for units instead of the current match up figures.

I am sure there was some other items, but that is what comes to mind right now. There is every chance that the original game will be largely replaced by my rewrite.

Overall it has been fun playing VSF again. I suspect I may have won over some  new players to the genre.