Finally there was a division HQ room for those who had established comms with the outside world. There was an “on the ground” room for commanders that were up on the division net. My brigade net room was where I spoke with umpires to get reports from my battalions and request info from them. Then the various communication nets started going live in the form of restricted chat rooms in Discord. I could also see and here vicious combat in Fort 2, aka OBJ Grumpy. I received a message that I was on the ground at LZ Baker and could see paras taking heavy fire about a kilometer to the northeast. We sat at our computers waiting for H-Hour. As time drew closer for us to climb in our imaginary planes and gliders, top level rooms were locked up and player-to-player communications stopped. We didn't get past the first lift on Day 1, although we planned for four days. As the battle progressed, I put the markers on the map as needed. The cards have each lift marked on them with the units and target LZ. The final conference was to make sure everybody had their plans finalized and ask final questions.
By the time we had our first conference, we had our plan largely in place and were discussing some of the finer points. Blue had two conferences and we found them very beneficial. A feature of Discord that we found handy are voice chat rooms where members can talk via VOIP for planning, rock drills, etc. Plans were set, then changed and changed again as the brigade commanders weighed options and made their cases with the CG and COS for why they should get resources. Given my resources at hand, on the initial landings, I would have 20 platoons out of 48 on the ground. It would take three lifts over the course of two days to get my complete brigade into the battle area. I had limited resources to get my brigade on the ground. I figured my best chance was to take the enemy completely by surprise and jump right on top, like at Eben Emael. To quote a certain British officer, "I'm thinking of a phrase that rhymes with 'plucking bell'." Umpire Nick Skinner took an actual 1:50,000 map and appended new place names, grid line identifiers and other information.Įarly in the plans process, I chose to land my initial assault gliders directly on the forts. The larger circles are the landing zones for the gliders. For militia I used Hasslefree sci fi troops and a few more Pig Iron.The small circles are my objectives, the forts. I used Pig Iron miniatures to represent the enemy guerillas and BlaxoSmithKline mercs. I like the drab scheme on the Rhino too! I miss the old Rogue Trader stuff - I still look up the old artwork and get teary eyed I've drifted away from GW in favour of a more Roguish style of play. I definitely recommend this system for solo play - after a few plays things flow really fast. I like Chain Reaction as it encourages using smaller forces and you can still get a fun story out of it. Glad you found them interesting! Yes, the reaction system isn't for everyone but I like it (even though I'm still learning from game to game!).
What figs are you using? I see a few Pig Iron, but I can't identify some of the others. The Olive Drab Rhino reminded me of the old RT era art pages showing various camo schemes for Space Marine Tanks. I really think every gamer should at least give CR a try, if only to see a realy well executed example of game design that is completely different from all the other mainstream wargames. You don't see to many CR batreps around! I tried the last two versions of 5150 and found that the THW reaction system isn't really my cup-o-tea, but it's a very well designed system and reportedly excellent for solo play.