Friday, May 12, 2017

Get To the Boat! (TSATF Small Unit Street Fight)

This was the second battle I put on at Recon 2017 in Orlando.  Thanks to Sgt. Guinness for providing all his buildings and Walls for this scenario.  I really appreciated that. 

This was my first TSATF small unit battle that was inspired from many movies out there in various themes.  I wanted to do something a little different and it is of course a battle you can play with many different skirmish rules.  

You will see by the scenario sheet several interesting "things" I threw in.  One was the small unit which is talked about on numerous threads using TSATF.  The allied units were ten (10) man/woman units and the Dervish hordes being 12 man.  The Allies had two (2) Elite British units,  a Grenadier Guard and Royal Marine squad along with two (2) Egyptian units and the government house civilians.  The Dervish surge would come from anywhere in the city and would become more intense in later turns.  Initially the Dervish were able to deploy four units.  Two per Dervish player.  Then the next turn 1 each and then on turn 3 two each again.  And as a GM you can adjust the “surge” as you see fit based on the number of players.  

You can read the scenario brief but you can see it is set in the Sudan along the Nile.  The heavy Gunboat Cairo was sent upriver to evacuate the government staff due to fears of a second uprising.  Well it happened.  At the Gov. house the civilian "squad" and the Grenadier Guards have to plan their escape to the dock.  At the docks the Cairo has disembarked two Egyptian squads and the Royal Marines.  

For the Dervish unit insertion I used the very nice method taken from the nicely done Ambush Alley by way of "hot spots."  These spots were placed in the city area which serve as Dervish insertion points.  As long as they were active the Dervish could deploy and move from these spots.   If the allies had them in sight they could not deploy there.  Or if they were destroyed permanently by having a figure stand on it for a turn.  It proved to be very interesting and enjoyable to all.  Again something different.

It was a very tense battle designed to go 10 turns but to be played a couple of times in a session which we did.  The first was an allied success where the Civilians made it to the safety of the boat.  This blog will focus on this one.  

The second one however was definitely a Dervish success because they actually cutoff the city from the boat making it impossible to advance to the docks.  We had a fight where the Egyptians could not even get into the gates due the Dervish tactic of feeding in troops close to the gates preventing the rescuers from even getting into the city.  Bloody fight at the gate and Grenadier Guards decided to get back into the Government house and go under siege.  It was a lot of fun.

I hope you enjoy the scenario, please feel free to comment on the rules or anything you see here.

Oh, the rules...If you take a look at the scenario sheet you will see the special rules.  One was making the British pretty tough so they can stand up in a city fight.  Egyptians fought as normal.  Dervish units only carried melee weapons.  Eliminated the stragglers, leaderless move and morale checks on the Brits unless they had to rally from a melee.  Guards and RM received more bonuses defending and charging.  All units moved 3d6 unless you were in close order.  You should the scenario sheet clearly.  They seemed to work great and kept the battle moving nicely.  Since the Dervish had no firing, right after all movement was done they immediately took their shots.  It made it simple.  Only wounded civilians were NOT to be left behind.  The small map here is made with an app called Paper 53.  It was just one of my map plans.  You you might notice two gates.  That is the way it should be played.  It provides more variances to the battle.  We changed this in the second battle to look like this.  It is very rough.  


This was a desperate situation.

Last Stand Dan












9 comments:

Sgt. Guinness said...

Great scenario Dan! I had big fun playing it both times. Very challenging as well. The smaller unit sizes work perfectly for this game. I'm looking forward to playing it again, hopefully at Hurricon-17.

Cheers,
JB

Mltiadis said...

THIS IS AN AWSOME SCENARIO AND GAME! I wish you had a more detailed description because this is an inspiration for all COLONIAL FANS.

Sgt. Guinness said...

Hi Mltiadis, Dan has all the scenario specs and is working on a whole new custom built game board for those scenario, and it looks fantastic!
He's also working on a scenario book to go along with his Naval Rules. This scenario will be included in the packet, but he may give you the data anyways.
Cheers,
JB
http://sgtguinness.blogspot.com

Mltiadis said...

Thank you Sgt ! This is an amazing blog. A great inspiration. Dan's game is simply FANTASTIC and I am going to play it as it is, as soon as possible. I realized that description is very detailed and no more information is needed. I was always looking for a game like this, but I lacked the ideas. The terain is wonderful and the figures are nice. [I will try it using my 15mm colonials...]. Please let us know when the scenarios will be ready to sell
cheers
Miltiadis

Sgt. Guinness said...

Mltiadis, I've seen your set up and it's awesome!!!' I'm sure you will be able to execute this scenario with from your existing collection.
When the scenario book is completed I will let you know for sure.
Cheers,
JB

Mltiadis said...

Oh thank you very very much Sgt !

Last Stand Dan said...

Thanks Sgt. Guniness and Mltiadis,
I am sorry I have been so slow to respond to your nice comments. I just posted another blog regarding the new Get to the Boats project. I am going to use The Men Who Would Be King (TMWWBK) for the next battle just to mix it up. The movement is more structured and not random like TSATF so we will see how the play tests go. I am scheduling it for 12 turns and deciding on some modified rules for the Dervish unit insertions as far as how many units and when to be released to the Dervish players. Feel free to email me at dagurule@me.com if you have any more questions about the game or boats.
LSD

WilliamG said...

I would like to put this game on for our group.
Question;
The British do not have stragglers but what about the Dervish ?
You also said the Civilian follow the orders of the Guard Lt. do they move with the Guards or move on their own card draw.
I have enough Arab building,they are a little too new. I made them for the Iraq war. But they will work. I have set up the table and soloed played the game but have the above question. It was fun just playing it by my self.
You have a great sight.
Bill in Wentzville MO

Last Stand Dan said...

If you are using TSATF yes the Dervish do stragglers. So the two units in the Gov. House are under control of the Admirals unit. And when the card for the Admiral is pulled he gets to move both units. Same for the other allies. Card pulled they move the two units under their control. LSD