Battle Simulation

[calculus]

Rather than work on the dice roller tonight, I took the rules I've got so far and ran a 3vs3 fight.

The green team had an artillery/spotter, a soldier, and a melee. Purple was all hand to hand. One direct rocket on each.

Purple charged up the center, using jump jets to go over the canal. Green's artillery started running for safety, and began chipping systems off of the attackers. Nothing devastating though, since there was no other spotting. When purple came in range, they all fired direct missiles on the same turn at the same target. The soldier got in a crushing counterblow to one of the attackers, but the last rocket was a (+8) with a combination of a pile of spotting(+4), a bad defense roll for the green soldier(+2), and then some sweet rolling on the damage hits, left the green bot with one white dice. He stumbled back, but was chased down and out. The artillery managed to just keep moving back into artillery range, and kept the spotting up for the green melee bot. With the loss of the green bot, the initiative changed from being rolled each turn, to belonging to the looser (green). Green ended up winning, but only by inches.

[schoon]

Thanks for the report. I've been thinking about playing a few "solo" battle myself just to get the feel for the tactical and design options.

Have you tried an artillery heavy force against a "soldier" force?

[Mantisking]

I'm assuming Green was the defender, right?

[calculus]

Mantis, even battle, but with all hand to hand frames, purple had no choice but to rush.

[calculus]

Schoon, I've been wanting to try an artillery force. It seems like it could be quite strong with a few tweaks.

[Mantisking]

Mantis, even battle, but with all hand to hand frames, purple had no choice but to rush.

Even number of frames and attachments? So why did Purple set up on the other side of the map when he knew he was all melee?

[calculus]

Because I don't know the rules for setup. I was just playing "stick units on opposite sides of the board."

And of course the initiative rules were my own as well, since those have not been previewed.

[The Trilobite]

Sweet!

Thanks for putting this up for others to learn from. I also really like the watercolors-ish look of the map you made. I gots me an app called Brushes for my requisite computer slab: I'll try to remember to use it to put together on-the-fly maps if/when I get to play.

As for the simulation itself, I'm a little surprised (and pleased) that green ended up winning; I'm used to wargames where 'the combined firepower of the entire battle of Gettysburg' has 'the effectiveness of a blind hog rooting for acorns', but a burly dude with a sword can mow down lines of infantry without breaking a sweat. I'd be curious to see another one of these, maybe even with the same forces.

[calculus]

Yes, that map was drawn on slab of computing using "Papers".

As it was, the victory could have gone either way depending on the dice. Yes, it would be great to play the same scenario again and see how it shakes out differently. I'd be a better commander certainly. In hindsight, I moved my soldier bot forward thinking to gain more shooting time, but it would have been much wiser to have stayed back behind cover for the swarm of single shot rockets. Would have also given the artillery another turn to knock another system out. Not sure how I could have played purple better. Hand to hand units really need cover to move through on a long attack run like this, or they take a bit of damage. Might have been better to make dashes from cover to cover, than the big open run I did. The jump jets were handy.

[Axhead]

First off, thanks for posting a bat rep! You get +1 official Axhead cool point for doing so!

Schoon, I've been wanting to try an artillery force. It seems like it could be quite strong with a few tweaks.

Until someone gets inside their range and then you are toast. If all you have is scissors the other guy just needs a rock... Did you see this stuff http://lumpley.com/comment.php?entry=174? Brilliant read even for veteran gamers. Going artillery heavy should be viable, but entirely artillery seems dangerous to me.

I don't know the new set up rules but the old ones ment that you could start just outside of the defenders direct fire range, so on turn 1 ALL of the melee mechs could be inside artillery range.

[Axhead]

Yes, it would be great to play the same scenario again and see how it shakes out differently. I'd be a better commander certainly.

And thats what keeps us comming back right, the desire to fix our mistakes. I don't really care about winning but I HATE loosing cause I did something poorly.

Not sure how I could have played purple better. Hand to hand units really need cover to move through on a long attack run like this, or they take a bit of damage. Might have been better to make dashes from cover to cover, than the big open run I did. The jump jets were handy.

Maybe give the lead guy double blue so he could act as cover for the two guys behind him. That way you could still get a fairly direct attack line but without leaving you mecha-pechas hanging in the breeze. Did you remember their free green d8 for no range weapons, thats a biggie too.

In hindsight, I moved my soldier bot forward thinking to gain more shooting time, but it would have been much wiser to have stayed back behind cover for the swarm of single shot rockets.

Although I really like your AAR maps, its hard to follow the action. One possibility is to split up your shooters so you can get cross shots on the incoming melee bots. This way its hard for the melee bots to be in cover from both shooter (ie cross fire). Plus when the bad guys do show up on your door step you don't have all of your eggs in one basket.

[The Trilobite]

Purple!

Green!