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