CoTGB: The Anchorhead War (Second Battle)

Next report from Mark at Mos Pattaya of the ongoing campaign using the Challengers of the Great Beyond rules:

As news spread of the destruction of Anchorhead by the Sand People, refugees from many remote settlements fled to Mos Pattaya and the other larger towns to seek safety. Leaders of the Moisture Farmers’ League, using the slogan “the only good Tusken is a dead Tusken”, raised funds to hire a mercenary outfit to take the fight to the Sand People.

 

Early in the Month of the Crottled Greep, the mercenaries headed into the Dune Sea, into an area long known to contain Sand People camps and home territories, on a search and destroy mission.

Biffo at the Krayt Gorge

For this game the two sides were:

Mercenaries (6 life points)
1 x Crime boss (leader) (Lorm Woathsom) - character (3 slots)
1 x Medic (Dr McCoy) - character (2 slots)
1 x Sentry gun (Robot Walker) - character (3 slots)
2 x Starport thugs (Humanoid scum) - squads of 6 (6 slots)
1 x Cadets (Battle droids) - squad of 6 - (2 slots)

 All these figures are plastic Star Wars minis by Wizards of the Coast. No longer in production.

Sand People (7 life points)
1 x Champion (Liet Kynes) - character (3 slots)
1 x Maverick (leader) (Stilgar) - character (3 slots)
1 x Marksman - Tusken with jezzail rifle - character - (2 slots)
3 x Proud warriors (Sand People) - squads of 6 - (6 slots)
1 x Trappers (Jawa) - squad of 6 - (2 slots)

The Trappers are WOTC Jawa figures, the others are from the Ironclad Minis ‘Sanwar’ range. The additional squad accidently left out of the shot is from my Archives Cultists, they are very old Citadel Necromunda figures from the ‘Redemptorist’ gang. You’ll be able to spot them in some of the following pictures.

Here is the tabletop, showing the Krayt Gorge and initial deployments. The Trappers + a Proud Warriors squad are hiding in the wood. All terrain (buttes, thornbush & rock thickets) is impassable, except for the camp, three small dunes, and the green wood (which is growing around a soakhole, hence the Tusken camp).

The Sand People are coming from the West (L side) as the mercenary column approaches from the East (R side). The huts represent a Tusken camp. Each hut passively defends at S:M3 / M:M3 and counts as being in cover. If the Mercenaries can destroy them all they can remove any Proud Warriors squad on the table (they have run off to defend their families).

After 3 turns the Mercenaries are advancing cautiously towards the camp, trying to ensure any Sand People movement in the open will be punished by shooting.

The Sentry gun has moved off the dune at R to a position from where it can shoot at the warrior squad way across the table, and on turn 3 it fired, causing three hits. In a non-initiative response move a warrior squad (ex-Redemptorists) hidden in the wood has appeared on the flank of the gun ...

Turn 4 was a busy one, the Sand People won initiative 3-5. The Warrior squad that emerged from ambush charged the Sentry gun, which scored only one hit using opportunity fire against them (not aimed fire = no bonus dice). In the ensuing melee the Warriors took the gun to condition Red (they destroyed it next turn). This is at bottom of the photo.

Another Warrior squad, and the Champion, charged into the Cadets, who failed to score any hits as they came in. The melee ended with 3 Cadets & 2 Warriors down, and the Champion lost 1 life point (of 5) (Blue marker). The Cadets go to condition Green. This is in the centre of the photo. The Mercenaries responded by moving up a thug squad to where it can charge or shoot at the other Warrior squad (top of photo) next time.

At the end of turn 6 this was the position. At top of photo the Mercenary leader (Crime lord Lorm Woathsom) has scooted around the large butte to be out of LOS of the Sand People marksman, who is hunting him, just out of shot on the dune at R. The various explosions each mark the destruction of a unit.

At L, the Sand People have lost a warrior unit, though the leader (Stilgar) survives on condition Yellow and another Warrior squad is nearby on condition Green. This is the unit that previously destroyed the Sentry gun. The Mercenaries have 2 Scum squads in this area, 1 on condition Yellow and 1 undamaged. Both sides have been using the leadership bonus in the melee here.

Over on the R the Sand People have a Trapper squad untouched in the wood. They also have a Warrior squad on condition Green, and the Champion (Liet Kynes) who has lost 3/5 life points. But the Mercenaries have lost their entire Cadet squad, and their Medic. It should be noted that Dr McCoy did heal 1 lost cadet, and inflicted two hits on the Sand People attackers, before falling. There are lessons to be learned here about forward deployment of Medics ... they need to be close to the action but not too close. Probably safer to use them supporting units in shooting mode rather than getting close to mêlées,

Win/lose check.

🚩 Mercenaries: Living: 1 character + 8 squaddies = 2 lives. Dead: 2 characters + 10 squaddies = 4 lives.
🚩 Sand People: Living: 3 characters + 12 squaddies =5 lives. Dead: 12 squaddies = 2 lives.   

So the Sand People have won again, after a somewhat shaky start. The mercenaries did try a strategy of pushing for the Tusken camp using firepower to cover their open flank, but in the end it fell short. It looks as if only Lorm Woathsom and one squad of Starport scum (undamaged units) will be able to get away. The Sand People have only the Trappers undamaged, all other surviving units are on condition Green or Yellow.

Next - the Imperial garrison on Tataouine gets involved.

Cheers from Mos Pattaya
Mark

CoTGB: The Anchorhead War (First Battle)

Mark Stevens from Mos Pattaya has run a series of battles in a linked campaign, using Challengers of the Great Beyond. The figures used are mostly from the now defunct Wizards of the Coast Star Wars range, but there are a lot from other manufacturers mixed in. I'll now leave it to Marks battle report...

The so called Anchorhead War is not widely known beyond the arid Outer-Rim world of Tataouine. It got its name from what could be seen in retrospect as the first skirmish in the conflict, when indigenous primitives (Sand People) attacked the small moisture farming settlement of Anchorhead on the edge of the Dune Sea.

The two sides each comprised the statutory 16 slots:

Sand People: life points 7

1 x Maverick character - Stilgar (Leader) (3)
1 x Beast rider character (Sand People warrior on giant lizard) (3)
1 x Marksman character (Sand People warrior with jezzail sniper rifle) (2)
4 x Proud warrior squads (Sand People warriors, 6 pet squad) (8)

Anchorhead defenders: life points 7
1 x Psi-master character (Jedi master Kyle Katarn*) (Leader) (5)
1 x Sentry gun character (Community defence weapon) (3)
4 x Cadets squads (Assorted armed inhabitants, 6 per squad) (8)
* “Honestly guv, I was just passing through”

Here’s the (900x900mm) tabletop, featuring the little settlement and surrounding buttes and patches of thorn scrub & rocks, all impenetrable. The two forces are lined up facing each other off-table at R, attackers nearer the camera.

This is a "modified" ambush scenario. The Sand People will attack from the South (bottom of photo). The defenders will start with their character models (Jedi Master, Sentry gun) and one squad on table. The other squads are assumed to be coming from surrounding settlements and will arrive from the North on the first turn after turn 2 when the defender side does not win initiative.

After 2 turns the Sand People seem to be overrunning Anchorhead. At top R the explosion marker shows where one warrior squad has charged the sentry gun. It failed to score any hits on them as they charged, or in the melee and they destroyed it (4 melee hits).

Near the sentry gun you can see Jedi Master “Leaping” Kyle Katarn. He was attacked by the warrior squad now in the Main Street. At lower L yet another Sand People squad survived an opportunity fire shot from the moisture farmers (2 hits) and dominated them in the melee (3 hits).

After 6 turns the Moisture Farmers are staging a bit of a comeback, but probably it won’t be enough. At top of shot 1 Sand People squad is being shot at by 2 Moisture Farmer squads, but so far each side has suffered only a single loss. But Kyle Katarn is having more success: he has used his psi powers to Mind Control the Sand People squad with the blue marker, and now he is moving them towards the big melee at bottom of shot.

In the big melee the Sand People now have 2 squads involved, one of which is on Condition Green. The Moisture Farmers have lost 1 whole squad, and have another squad on Green, but the Mind Controlled Sand People may be about to pile in! 

Elsewhere, the Sand People beast rider is still back on the start line from lack of Initiative Points. Stilgar (the Sand People leader) and the Marksman can be seen behind one of the houses. They were plotting an attack on Kyle Katarn but he has moved away.

Losses (life points) are: Sand People 1; Moisture Farmers 3.

The game ended at the end of turn 11, with a clear win to the Sand People. The photo shows the final position. At top of shot are 2 Moisture Farmer squads, one on Condition Green. They have destroyed a Sand People squad and Beast rider. To the L of them, another Sand People squad and the leader Stilgar (Maverick) have taken the Jedi Master Kyle Katarn to Condition Red. He chose to continue mind-controlling the enemy squad rather than (say) push the attacking squad away. The mind controlled squad is at bottom R of shot.

 

Both sides began with a life count (used for determining winning / losing) of 7, based on “more dead than alive” A life point is equal to 5 squad members or 1 (sometimes 2) character models. Kyle Katarn is a 2-point character.

At the end of the game the Sand People have lost their Beast Rider (1 life) and 13 squaddies (2 lives) so have 3 dead, 4 living. The Moisture Farmers have lost the Sentry Gun (1 life) and 15 squaddies (3 lives), and Kyle Katarn, being a character on condition red, isn’t dead but counts against the total life count of the force, so have 4 dead, 1 living.

In forthcoming instalments:

🚩 The Moisture Farmers hire mercenary help and go after the Sand People
🚩 The Imperial garrison gets involved
🚩 The Sand People step it up and attack Mos Pattaya (it’s the Tet offensive).

Cheers from Mos Pattaya (not on the front line yet)

Mark