Friday night is games night

We went out to John's place for our monthly games night on Friday and this gave me a chance to try out a couple of things.
First of all, I've been playing around with the Yom Kippur Flames of War stats based on those that have come out in the Vietnam Tour of Duty supplement. As a result I've had to upgrade the points on a T-55 so that it now costs the same to field 7 T-55s as it does 3 Centurion Shot Cal or M48A4 Magachs. I played three games of 420 points that was basically Israeli tank platoon on Egyptian tank company to see how the points balance.

In starting positions - scenario 1 is the 'Valley of Death'. With new points and uparmoured/upgunned  on previous stats, could T-55s survive charging headlong into an Israeli platoon of similar points?

The Magachs wait at extreme range. Their 105mm guns have an extra 20cm on the T-55s' 100mm gun.

The first round of Israeli firing leads to four bails and a burn. This forces a morale test which the confident Egyptians pass quite happily.

The brave Egyptians get back into their tanks and advance again.With Hen and Chicks they are rolling a single d6 at +1 for over 40cm and an additional +1 for moving. That means sixes to hit the veteran Israelis.

The inevitable end result. The company commander dies and the remaining tank can't test morale. Israeli clear win!

Game 2 was entitled 'Use some cover you idiot'. The Egyptians started behind a hill and advanced with tthe town blocking the Israeli line of sight.

"Hey! We've moved more than 20cm and we aren't dead yet!"

Already a better start for the Egyptians. Frontal armour on a Magach is 13 + 2 (blue dice) is a 15. AP on a 100mm is 16 and Firepower is 2+ (green dice).  Boom!

The Israelis find they have to move. Never mind, with modern stabilisers they have full RoF and if they move 15cm or less they suffer no +1 penalty to hit. It has never been so easy to be mobile! Take that T-55s - one bail and one kill.

Hen and Chicks is not especially noted for enhancing mobility, but the chance of a flank shot is just too good to pass up. The miracle 5 is rolled - but not by the flanking tank! Nevertheless the shot penetrates when you roll a 1 for your armour save and then it is pretty likely to go klabooie! Scratch one more Magach. The surviving Israeli tanker fails his morale test - but Israeli armour is unflappable. He rerolls morale successfully.

The end of the game. The last Magach bails one tank and kills another, but can't force a morale check. In the next round  a one is rolled, which is never a good result. The Egyptians win! It is 1 game all. Time for the decider.

The last game saw the Magachs replaced with Centurions. A Shot Cal is practically the same as a Magach in terms of stats but I just wanted to use some different models. We played out the same scenario as game 2 again.

The Israelis started with a much more mobile defence and moved up to the town hoping to cover all of the flanks. The right hand Centurion got bogged, but managed to free himself. Hen and Chicks prevented the T-55s from making an impression - moving +1, target concealed +1 = 6s to hit. On the other hand the Israelis were +1 for concealed target against conscripts - they needed threes. The resulting carnage can be seen above.

It is hard to know exactly how balanced a full 2000 point game will be because neither side had any support or the chance to bring superior numbers to bear on any one particular point, but it is already obvious that the Egyptians are better off than they were. Suicidal charges are just that - The superior Israeli gunnery makes a real difference, but just using a bit of terrain was a big game changer and forced the Israelis to counter with their own manoeuvring. When you have 9 Israeli tanks vs 21 Egyptians then the Israelis are going to have to think very carefully about how they deal with these numbers. This is a good thing.

The stats that I used are here:

Sh’ot Cal	140	Tracked	13	6	2	105mm gun, coax MG, 0.50” AAMG, Protected Ammo, Modern Stabiliser, Semi Indirect Fire, unflappable
105mm tank gun		100cm/40”	2	17	2+	Smoke

M48A4 (mod)	140	Tracked	13	7	1	105mm, coax MG, 0.50” AAMG, Protected Ammo, Semi Indirect Fire, unflappable
105mm tank gun		40”	2	17	2+	Canister, Smoke

T55	60	Tracked	12	6	1	100mm gun, 12.7mm AAMG, coax MG, Smoke Generator, Hen and Chicks, infra-red night fighting
100mm tank gun		32”	2	16	2+

I have to admit, I'm not used to using smoke and didn't think to include it in any of the playtests. I have used it in previous games and it has made a slight difference. The RoF on the T-55 is to account for slightly more room for the crew and the addition of stabilisers to the T-55 compared to the BF stats for the T-54. I've run these past Owen who thinks that AT on the 105mm gun should be 18, but I think that this unbalances the game too much in favour of the Israelis. It means that T-55s need to get a 6 at close range  for a bail. I think a 5 to bail gives better balance when you lump it in with all of the other special rules working in the Israeli favour - hen and chicks and modern stabilisers in particular.

Alongside these test runs I also had my first couple of games of X-Wing. Very reminiscent of Wings of War and a really fun little game. I had the basics down very quickly and we were able to have a prolonged dogfight in our second game because we were choosing better options for manoeuvre and actions.

Y Wing in a crossfire - lucky it has good shields!

On a side note, as I left to go to John's I dropped the Millenium Falcon on the ground. I had a heart wrenching moment where I thought it might have shattered, but it didn't even have a scratch on it. What I didn't realise is that I had also dropped Darth Vader's Advanced TIE on the ground until I was unpacking at John's place. I realised it must have been under the car as I drove out. Sure enough, when I got home, there it was on the garage floor. Damage report? One wing fell off, which I easily glued back on. These models are tough - or maybe they just know how to use the force!

There is a bit more of a write up including the other games that were played on the club blog here:
http://rotoirregulars.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/games-night-5th-april-2013/

Nate