Author Topic: QS with Commands: Kurita vs. GB 50,000 BV (lots of pics)  (Read 4101 times)

Cambo

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So a buddy (Son of Kerenski) and myself have been playing Battleforce lately and decided to give the advanced Commands rules a spin just to see how they play.  The hard part in generating the scenario was having something small enough so it wasn't overly complicated for our first time, but large enough to have a decent chain of command and command points. In the end I built a scenario involving an understrength cluster vs. an understrength battalion, used the standard Command point numbers for both, and added a field HQ just to up the command point value.  I ended up creating 4 stars via the BFB GB random generation tables, and then generated Kurita lances (again via the random generator) until the BV roughly balanced, then hitting the quick balance tool to randomize the pilots until the BV was roughly equal.

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Bears
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
assault1                      Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Masakari (Warhawk) C          85    2,998                               4/5 2,998 
Masakari (Warhawk) Prime      85    3,194                               3/4 4,408 
Gladiator (Executioner) A      95    3,112                               3/4 4,295 
Daishi (Dire Wolf) Prime      100    2,712                               4/5 2,712 
Kodiak                        100    2,927                               3/4 4,039 
                                                                            18,452

heavy1                        Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Vulture (Mad Dog) B            60    2,284                               4/5 2,284 
Vulture (Mad Dog) Prime        60    2,351                               4/5 2,351 
Nova Cat A                    70    2,629                               4/5 2,629 
Thor (Summoner) C              70    2,379                               4/5 2,379 
Thor (Summoner) Prime          70    2,298                               4/5 2,298 
                                                                            11,941

lights1                        Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Dasher "Fire Moth" A          20    639                                  2/3 1,163 
Dasher (Fire Moth) D          20    2,307                               2/3 4,199 
Uller (Kit Fox) A              30    1,310                               3/4 1,808 
Uller (Kit Fox) C              30    1,147                               4/5 1,147 
Puma (Adder) Prime            35    2,083                               3/4 2,875 
                                                                            11,191

medium1                        Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Black Hawk (Nova) Prime        50    2,663                               4/5 2,663 
Black Hawk (Nova) Prime        50    2,663                               2/3 4,847 
Black Hawk (Nova) Prime        50    2,663                               4/5 2,663 
Ryoken (Stormcrow) C          55    1,881                               3/4 2,596 
Ryoken (Stormcrow) C          55    1,881                               2/3 3,423 
                                                                            16,192

                                                                            57,775
Defender


Kurita
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a1                            Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Charger CGR-3Kr                80    2,092                               4/5 2,092 
Sunder SD1-O A                90    2,003                               4/6 1,903 
Sunder SD1-O D                90    1,947                               4/5 1,947 
Atlas AS7-K                    100    2,175                               4/6 2,066 
                                                                            8,008

a2                            Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Tai-Sho TSH-8S                85    2,001                               3/4 2,761 
Akuma AKU-1X                  90    1,959                               3/4 2,703 
Mauler MAL-1R                  90    1,460                               4/5 1,460 
Sunder SD1-O A                90    2,003                               4/5 2,003 
                                                                            8,928

a3                            Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Awesome AWS-8Q                80    1,605                               4/5 1,605 
Victor VTR-9K                  80    1,717                               3/4 2,369 
Banshee BNC-5S                95    2,065                               4/6 1,962 
Atlas AS7-K                    100    2,175                               3/4 3,002 
                                                                            8,938

a4                            Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Zeus ZEU-9S2                  80    1,769                               3/4 2,441 
Gunslinger GUN-1ERD            85    2,286                               3/4 3,155 
Hauptmann HA1-O B              95    2,208                               4/5 2,208 
Fafnir FNR-5                  100    2,636                               3/4 3,638 
                                                                            11,442

h1                            Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Black Hawk-KU BHKU-O Prime    60    1,731                               3/4 2,389 
Grand Dragon DRG-5K            60    1,358                               3/4 1,874 
Avatar AV1-O Prime            70    1,395                               4/5 1,395 
Maelstrom MTR-5K              75    1,694                               4/6 1,609 
                                                                            7,267

l1                            Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Raptor RTX1-O Prime            25    721                                  4/6 685   
Jenner JR7-K (Samuli)          35    1,001                               4/6 951   
Owens OW-1 C                  35    964                                  4/6 916   
Venom SDR-9K                  35    798                                  4/6 758   
                                                                            3,310

m1                            Tons  BV    Mechwarrior                    G/P Adj BV
Daimyo DMO-1K                  40    1,148                               4/5 1,148 
Strider SR1-O C                40    944                                  4/5 944   
Kintaro KTO-20                55    1,357                               3/4 1,873 
Wolverine WVR-8K              55    1,576                               4/6 1,497 
                                                                            5,462

                                                                            53,354


After previous experience we played with individual unit initiative, as otherwise it always devolved to wolf pack-ing/clustering.

Also our artillery rules were a little skewed, as we used the dive bombing scatter diagram instead of the areal bombing one the rules suggest.

Turn 1: GB win Init

I'm afraid I didn't get a copy of the Kuritan commands this turn, but it was evade and alpha.


Unfortunately the Hello HQ isn't that great on the first turn, but the GBs stop the Jenner lance from advancing from the edge of the board so that they can focus on the wolverene lance the Kuritans have marched up to long range with the Nova Cat in the Heavy Star using Dead to Rights.  Kuritans cover with evade command that negates the bonus.
The GB blatantly abuses the setup rules to run a flanker along the eastern edge to try and get to the Kuritan HQ to remove command points and maybe get back shots, but at a speed of only 6 due to the slow Puma it's not getting very far.

Turn 2: Kurita Win Init
GB

Kurita



The Kuritans spread out while the Wolverine lance charges directly into the fire, and the GB's angle towards the water for the OV negating that will allow the use of the Alpha command, unfortunately forgetting about the 'stand' part of 'stand and deliver' and thus invalidating the command.  The GB light star continues it's attempt to flank.  The GB's think they have the Wolverine lance until the 'No Joy' command is played in combat phase (unable to target unless adjacent) so the Wolverine Lance makes the Nova Cat in the heavy star pay for scratching the paint of the Strider last turn (but it survives with 1 pt of structure left).
Both sides use remaining command points to call in arty strikes that have a 1 turn delay on arrival, so projecting where the enemy _will_ be becomes a bit of an art.


Turn 3: Kuritans win Init
In what will become a depressingly familiar scenario the Kuritans win Initiative, and the GBs pull commands that don't have much bearing on the current situation.


The Kuritans use their Jam Transmission to remove the Hold the Line command, while the GB assault start limps into the water afte the suplurious Alpha last turn, and with the winning of Initiative the Wolverine lance runs behind the assault star, while the Medium star tries to cover.

The Wolverine lance kills the Kodiak in the assault star and savages the Masakari using the Bravo Zulu command, while the medium star misses on everything.


The arty strikes this turn are surprisingly accurate with only 1 shot drifting, but nothing of catches any damage, as the Wolverine lance dances on the edge of his own teams Arty.
More strikes are called in.

Turn 4: Kuritans win Init



The GB Assault and Heavy stars turn to face the back stabber with the Heavy star covering it's side just incase. The Wolverine now joins them in the water for partial cover and OV reduction, willing to take the pain.  While the Victor and Sunder lances in the middle move towards the action.  The GB flanker sees the heavies comming at him and decides to take the pain for one turn to allow for flanking and HQ positioning.


Artillery showers down, with the Kuritans again hitting nothing but air, but the GB artillery misses it's target, and drifts directly into the hex where the Victor and the Sunder Lances where huddling, 2 points of damage to all 8 units!


The Assault star combined with the Medium star completely wipeout the Wolverine lance, but not before it manages to finish off the first Masakari of the Assault Star, and leaving the Daishi(the cluster commander's mech) with 2 pts of structure left.

The Light star loses the Puma, and one of the ullers but destroys the Zeus in the Fafnir lance.

The Jenner and the BlackHawk-Ku lances combine to remove the Nova cat from the Heavy lance, but don't do much else, while the Heavy star removes the Strider for their trouble.


Turn 5: Out of Time  :'(
But with an artillery round due to fall on the almost dead assault star, it was pretty obvious that the Clans were going to lose this one, though it was closer than the initial estimation due to the 7 lances vs 4 stars or 2,000Tons vs 1,200Tons would have suggested.  If the initiative and command picks had gone their way the GBs might have squeaked by... maybe...  The points weren't even close with the Kodiak and the Nova Cat alone accounting for 70pts worth the Ghost Bear's 115pt damages, while the Wolverine lance and Zeus accounted only for 76 pts.


Also the Ghost Bears were counting the Command point cost against their command points which severely handicaped them.  >:( (doh!)

Notes for the future:
Don't bother with numbered chits like the book says, the lookup takes way too long, make generic chits for all the commands, with the effects listed on the back side (will work on that template)
Give the clans an edge, the QS rules nerf them to a certain degree, but they put out a holy hell of a lot of damage.
Randomly generated lances/stars are nice, but with some tweaking they could become alot better.  A star with units that can move 13 really sucks when it's tied down by one unit that only does 6.
Remember about Requests... the right command could have made all the difference, and the generic faction command list sucks, look at making a custom one.
The piloting skill randomizer balances the 2 gunnery with 5 piloting, but there's no piloting in Quickstrike, maybe resolve that better in future.   It also doesn't help when your fire star has the worst gunnery and your recon star has the best, that should have been the other way around.

Invariably whenever I post a game on these forums I generally make a mistake, and as this was the first game with commands I'm sure there are plenty.  Please tell me what they are O:-)  I've yet to see anyone post an advanced QS game here and am interested in the feedback.

Son of Kerenski

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Re: QS with Commands: Kurita vs. GB 50,000 BV (lots of pics)
« Reply #1 on: 05 August 2012, 07:20:21 »
Nice write up Cam. I quite enjoyed the orders, and to think...we drew ones at random. Never requested a single one.  :D

That Jenner lance actually was good as far as movement profiles were concerned, 2x8's & 2x7's...hell of a lot better than the gimping of your Dashers by their Uller/Puma star mates!

And the telling turn was definately turn 3, when I got the Wolvie lance in behind your Assault Star with Bravo Zulu. The only mistake you made in the game.


I'm afraid I didn't get a copy of the Kuritan commands this turn, but it was evade and alpha.


It was actually Final Glory (Jenner Lance) & Evade (Wolverine lance) but it didn't matter for the Jenners as you cancelled it with Hello HQ?
« Last Edit: 05 August 2012, 07:22:21 by Son of Kerenski »

markhall

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Re: QS with Commands: Kurita vs. GB 50,000 BV (lots of pics)
« Reply #2 on: 05 August 2012, 12:49:45 »
Nice to see some BF reports.

Interesting to see the orders in action.
Thanks for sharing.

Drufause

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Re: QS with Commands: Kurita vs. GB 50,000 BV (lots of pics)
« Reply #3 on: 09 August 2012, 09:41:06 »
I posted a deck of small command cards for use check them out here http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,21899.msg488916.html#msg488916
Combat Command Counters Thread
http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=191.0
quote by OgreBattle on 09/08/2011
"Knowledge and social skills usually use separate attributes, and often when you're good at one you take the other as your dump stat."

Son of Kerenski

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Re: QS with Commands: Kurita vs. GB 50,000 BV (lots of pics)
« Reply #4 on: 12 August 2012, 04:25:22 »
Cool!  O0

Maybe I could do some graphic icons up for them, make them a bit more distinct...

StuartYee

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Re: QS with Commands: Kurita vs. GB 50,000 BV (lots of pics)
« Reply #5 on: 25 October 2012, 14:53:26 »
Great write up! I especially appreciate the captioned pictures.

I haven't gotten into Battleforce yet, but your AAR makes me want to try it out even more!  :o
"I can't save his life, it's too embarrassing!" - Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC SSC

 

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