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.
Bears
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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
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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.