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Chronicler wrote:How close to this is it to Johnstown PA? I couldn't make it to coldwars in Lancaster and I'm really want to get my wargaming on.

Gogal wrote:I was hoping to be able to make it... My copy isn't set to arrive till tomorrow and I won't have enough time to build anything ;-;

Premier wrote:Hey Axoid, this sounds awesome. Is there ANY chance that the RRT game on Sunday can be recorded for us gamers stuck elsewhere to see the awesomeness?!

GASPcon Robotech RPG Tactics (RRT) event After Action Report

GASPcon was this past weekend, and we held a large RRT event on Sunday morning. 10 player had registered for the event, and myself and my painting crew had worked the past 2 weeks to have every miniature painted and ready for the event. The board was set-up in 2 sections, the city outskirts (a Mega Mat with some Epic 40K buildings and some vehicles scattered about) and the city proper (Dropzone Commander paper city pack with vehicles and people scattered about). The Zentraedi started at the city outskirts and the UEDF started at the city proper.

5 players were not there at 9am, so we gave them an additional 30 minutes. They still had not shown up by 9:30am, so we started with the 5 players that were there. They were split into 2 Zentraedi players (running 3 squadrons) and 3 UEDF players (running 1 squadron each). Some of the opposing squadrons had linked mission objectives, so I removed the paired ones.

On the UEDF side we had
• Roy Fokker and his Valkyrie Squadron (2x VF-1R upgrades) – slight rules break, Roy piloted a VF-1J mainly to keep the points balanced
• Rick Hunter and his Valkyrie Squadron (2x VF-1R upgrades)
• Kain Weller running in a Close Quarters Squadron (Shock Batons upgrade, with 2x Defenders as support added in).

On the Zentraedi side we had
• Khyron and his Attack Squadron (Veteran Warriors upgrade, with a Quel-Regult added in)
• Azonia and her Attack Squadron (Veteran Warriors upgrade, with a Quel-Regult added in)
• Recon Squadron led by Pirion-Galarr

Each player had their own mission they needed to complete for VPs. The side with the most VPs at the end would be the winning side.

So first a few hindsight notes about the setup and the scenario. The board was 4 feet wide by 8 feet long, which was about 2 feet too long. In addition, the scenario was not play tested prior to running the event, so some tweaks were in order to balance the game play. Finally, with all new players, the event time was too short for the given board size and missions, especially with the half-hour delay. I had it set up and ready for 10 players, which would definitely have been too many. The scenario has already been tweaked to be 6 players maximum, but still have 10 squadrons to choose from. The missions are not decided ahead of time now, but presented to the players and they can decide how many of the 6 missions they want to try and complete (1 minimum), along with which squadrons to take to complete them. Any missions they take and don’t complete will be worth negative VPs. So with the shorter board, 6 players max, and the ability to select squadrons and missions, a 4-hour window should be sufficient.

Mission Objectives (neither side new the other side’s mission. Also, the players were not allowed to share their mission details with their team mates, the thought being the attack came so quick there wasn’t time to debrief everyone. This will change in v02)

UEDF Missions
• Roy: Evacuate some civilians trapped on the far side of the city proper. Get to them, give them new directions for evacuation, and make sure they arrive at the evac zone (either physically escort them or block the enemy from pursuing them)
• Rick: Some vital military supplies were stranded in the city, take your squadron out, retrieve the containers, and get them back off your board edge
• Kain: Use hand-to-hand combat to disable some enemy Mecha, for reverse engineering purposes

Zentraedi Missions
• Khyron: Feed your blood lust and personally kill one of each different enemy Mecha type. Bonus points if you kill all 5 types of enemy Mecha
• Azonia: Get at least half your squadron off the enemy’s board edge
• Pirion: Protect your squadron’s Quel-Regult as it moves to 3 different vantage points around the city, to capture details images of the enemy’s forces

Back to the event, the Zentraedi entered from the outskirts of the city, while the UEDF started on the other side of the city proper. The first few turns were all movement, with both sides trying some boosts to get to their objectives faster. Rick’s squadron was the most successful, as he got to the 3 containers and used Battloid mode to start carrying them back towards his board edge. Rick sent the forth Valkyrie out to engage the enemy and slow them from pursuit of the containers. Roy and his squadron also boosted to try and get to the civilian vehicle, with Roy being more successful at it, leaving his other 3 Valkyries a bit further behind him. Kain’s Squadron was horrible at trying to boost their speed, and slowly marched through the city streets. In fact, Rick’s squadron was working their way back through the city and passed Kain’s squadron as they were still walking towards the enemy. Azonia and Pirion moved up the left side of the city outskirts, working their way towards the first Recon photo objective and towards Roy’s squadron. Khyron worked the right side of the city outskirts, opposed mainly by one of Rick’s Valkyries and the slow moving Close Quarters squadron.

Combat started with Roy’s squadron firing missiles at the approaching Zentraedi, before switching to Battloid mode. A few pods were hit, but they were able to either anti-missile or spread the damage in close formation, while also rolling with the impact. A lot of missiles were fired but only 1 battle pod fell. Roy got to the civilian vehicle, just as the Zentraedi got within weapons range. Some fire was exchanged back and forth, but without any support from his lagging squad mates, Roy was overwhelmed with enemy fire and fell (he failed his 4+ save roll). Fortunately, before he died the civilian vehicle was directed back towards the evacuation route, and managed to get out of LoS of the enemy (it would eventually make it back to safety). Since the enemy didn’t know Roy’s mission was to get the civilian vehicle moving in the right direction, they completely ignored it and fired all weapons at Roy. Even though he died (along with another squad mate), they managed to complete their mission and score their VPs.

While all of this was going on, the Recon Squadron was able to get to one of its three vantage points and successfully take photos. They began moving towards the second vantage point, but never reached it due to time limit.

On the right side of the board, Khyron made it half way across before finally being met with any resistance. Rick’s lone squadron mate laid into Khyron’s squadron with 2 rounds of missile fire, but the Zentraedi’s anti-missile fire was dead-on, and only 1 Regult fell. By this time Kain had made a few successful boosts, but not the rest of his squadron. He closed into close combat with two Regults, but he must have been hung over because he missed every single H2H attack (5 of them, 3 free plus 2 paid with command points). The rest of his squadron was firing into the remaining Zentraedi, but couldn’t hit the broad side of a Zentraedi Battle Cruiser. Only 1 more Regult fell to UEDF fire. Khyron’s return fire killed Rick’s squad mate, as well as 3 of Kain’s squad, including Kain himself.

At this point, the 4 hours was about up. Rick had just dropped off the 3 containers, and was working back towards the enemy. The civilian vehicle was safely out of LoS of the enemy, and was working back to the evac zone. Kain’s Squadron was not able to complete its objective, disabling zero enemy Mecha. Khyron had personally killed 3 different enemy Mecha types, scoring a bunch of VPs for his side. The recon Regult captured ½ of its photos, but Azonia was not able to make it far enough to score any VPs. VPs were tallied, and the Zentraedi came out on top, mainly due to Khyron’s impressive kill tally.

Check out the photos for some inspiration, and I’ll be posting a video of a portion of the game play later this week. We'll be replaying the v02 of the scenario in a week or so, I'll post how that game went. Once I get the scenario finalized, I'll post it here.

Enjoy,
Don