Freistadt - Frei? - battle report
Played on the 10th of January 2010

The scenario was hastily created during our latest gaming session in order to allow six players to participate in a single game. Each team had three players with two units each. Victory conditions were simple. On the table there where four “objectives” (labelled A-D) and the side that controlled two or more after three hours of gaming could claim the victory.  

Scene setter
 Grünwald is the sleepy provicial capital of the Zagorian North western costal province with the same name. The swampy areas along the coast is rich on oil but the rebel movement, ZAP (Zagorische Arbeiter Partei) has been active in the area, forcing GOM (Global Oil and Mining), who owns the exclusive rights to the findings, abandon their pumps. ZAP has now been in charge for a while and one of their first actions was to change the name of the city, from Grünwald to Freistadt.

 GOM has for some time put pressure on the the Zagorian self proclaimed ruler, Major Marcus Doppelmeier (aka Big Mack), to send strong elements of his army to the area in order to restore their sort of law and order. The later successes scored by Big Mack in the mining provinces (see Gold digger in distress) the confidence of the army has grown and the mighty major has made up his mind to surf on the waves of success. (Rumours of some extra cash from GOM have not been confirmed.)  

 The gaming area (160x240 cm)

Black – Roads             Green – Forests             Grey – Urban areas      Blue – Water 

Blue green – Swamps (passable by boats)

 The objectives
A – The Bank              B- Road junction            C- The airport              D- The oil well

 Order of Battle

Big Mack

Not available at the moment

ZAP

Not available at the moment

Deployment

Turn 1
Big Mack starts his move by ordering his tanks (BM 2) and towed guns (BM 3) to ponder at the ZAP forces (Z1) hiding in the urban areas across the river. They were unable to score any kills but caused so many “pinned” hits that Z1 was forced to fall back. ZAP tries to payback by shelling the unprotected guns (BM 3) but fails. As Big Mack sees that the rebel’s main threat in the city is temporarily out of the action he allows his bold mech infantry (BM 6) to advance towards the financial centre (objective A). They don’t manage to go all the way so instead they come under fire of one of Z3’s RCL that covers the road. I don’t know how much Bongo-Cola the gunners had consumed, but they fail miserable to hit anything…

 In the swamps the second infantry unit (BM 4) slowly advances but comes under fire from the heavy ZAP-guns (Z5) and get one “pinned”. The armour cars in (BM 5) and the tanks (Z6) engage in a duel but no one scores.

Turn 2
The commander of the ZAP-militia (Z1) tries to turn his shaken unit back and in his desperation he shouts ”There are 100 cans of Bongo-Cola left behind, let’s go back and save them!”. The trick works… for a while but they are not able to take up their former positions. With a safe flank the mech’s put the pedal to the metal and drives all the way up to the banking district and dismounts right down the barrels of the defenders (Z2) HMG’s. They are soon overwhelmed by the forceful attack and the unit is annihilated. As the area is cleared of rebels, Big Mack sends his tanks (BM 2) across the bridge and heading for the airport (Objective C)

In the swamp the infantry (BM 4) manages to resolve the morale check and now its pay back time. They unleash their RPG’s on the tanks of Z6 and SCORES! One of the ZAP-tanks explodes and in the turmoil the infantry quickly moves forward, leaving the surviving tank vulnerable for fire from the towed guns and the armoured cars… not good for the shaken ZAPpers as two additional “pinned” is placed upon them. As Z6 is activated the fail utterly ad routs of the table.

 The road to the oilfields and towards the airport looks like wide open for Big Mack as the only rebels in the area are the small group of support weapons in the forests. Big Mack’s last move for the turn is to let his brand new ZaMarinKo (Zagoriche Marine Korps) move in for a landfall in the rear of the defenders.  
 

 At this point the Zagorian sun sets and an instant tropical darkness make all the fighting’s come to a halt. Under the protection of darkness ZAP pulls out, saving what ever they can save from the evil hands of the capitalistic lackeys. 

 ... when the sun rises the next morning...

...Big Mack can survey the sad remains of the city. There are just a hand full of lukewarm cans of Bongo-colas left in the bar near the pool and the rebels has skipped with the entire Blue Oysters Milli-Vanilli CD-collection!

 Well, the ZAP city of Freistadt is no more, and as soon the supply of cool beverages has been restored and the CD-collection has been replaced he can give GOM a green light to move in and start pumping.

 As he lean back in the sun chair by the pool and sips on another cola an idea descends on him… Suppose he can find a Milli-Vanilli CD-collection on E-bay? ... or even better… if his finance minister could find one, then he wouldn't have to part from any copies in his own collection…. Better call the finance minister at once…

An after action review

Although the game lasted for three hours , we only managed to conclude two turns. The main reason was, as usually, that the teams was arguing over strategy, rules or just... chatting away.

Chatting is time consuming but on the other hand, as long as they are chatting about the game, I take it as a sign for that they enjoy it. Arguing about the rules is perhaps  more of a problem but I guess it comes down to that we play the rules too seldom.

The scenario was hastily improvised but both sides had fun. From the battle report it's easy to think that it was unbalanced in favour for Big Mack but it wasn't. Both side had about 650-700 points and the rapid advancement of the federal forces was mainly due to a couple of lucky rolls. The game could as easily had shifted the other way.

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Disclaimer:

All the stuff on this page is purely fictional and has noting to do with the reality. Zagoria is a country made up for gaming purpose only.
Pictures, intrigues personalities etc is there to spice up the story, but are only the result of my imagination. These notes should not be mistaken as a description of my attitude against different nationalities, religions, cultures individuals etc. If there is anyone that has any objections to the content of this page, let me know and I will deal with it as  soon as possible.
laros6006@yahoo.se