Tonight I debut a small board I made out of my Star Station Zero art (scaled up to 25mm squares this time), for playing Forlorn: Hope.. But I haven't got all my xenos painted for that, so I decided to bash together a game of
Combat Cards.
The board is perfect for quick games because it fits on my desk, so no need to move anything around setting up a bigger game. I'm so pleased with it I'm going to make another one just for Combat Cards games, that will be similarly gridded but designed to set up 3d terrain on.
(Excuse the photos, I'm playing late at night and my lighting isn't the best.)
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Just add minis! |
The official scenario calls for a square map, but I just used my FH board instead. A quick count showed that the board was 14 squares long, which meant distances would be:
VL= 14
L= 7
M= 4
S=2
VS=1
I would allow 1 diagonal move per card activation per figure.
I grabbed my good 'ol Khurasan zombies and things from beyond for the attacking force:
12 zombies (Swarms)
5 horrors (Creatures)
=17pts
And my freshly painted Artcrime Productions mercs for my troops. I chose:
1 Sarge (Command) 2pts
1 heavy weapon 3pts
2 infantry 4pts
1 fire support 4pts
1 Armored 4pts
=17 pts
I set up as per the scenario, with 1/3 of my force separated off at one end of the board. The zombies would enter the board via the entry points on the map. I drew my first hand of 6 cards and started to play!
Turn 1
I played RAPID MOVE on the Valkyrie, CAUTIOUS MOVE on the sarge and hung onto 2 op fires and a recover card.
Zombies move, the Valk uses op fires and eliminates 1, shakes the other. (The Heavy firepower of the suit granting it a +1 shift against the smushy zombies and rendering the horror's light protection useless).
Turn 2
Bad hand.. I discard the whole thing. I still get no immediately usable situations (you get to play any new situation cards after you finish playing or discarding), but I got 2 op fires.
Zombies move.. 1 contacts a trooper who op fires with his shotgun, blasting it it back a space.
Turn 3
Tension mounts. The Valkyrie blasts apart another zombie, while the the shotgunner fires again into the staggering zombie, blowing off it's arm (Out Of Action)
Zombies move. The armless creature lurches to it's feet and stares blindly at it's tormentor. No further contacts, just a lot of groaning.
Turn 4
The AGL manages favorable drift and blows up 2 zombies, one is a mess and Out OfAction the other is blown off it's feet (shaken). Sarge's SMG patters off a creature's thick hide, forcing it to fall back.
The Zombies move closer, 2 make contact and fight a round of close combat.. the first takes down an infantryman (OOA), the heavy weapon wrestles with a Zombie, both are covered in blood and screaming (both shaken).
Turn 5
The Heavy gunner recovers, smashes loose a rack of barrels and rolls behind them (Dig In card). The Valkyrie accelerates into a creature (Assault move) and smashes it in a stupor, but is also knocked back by the collision.
Zombies move. The Sarge op fires, badly injuring a tentacled creature bearing down on him (OOA).
Turn 6
My men panic (My cards suck) I discard, but gain no useful situations.
Zombies move. At the back of the board, the shotgunner knocks out the legs of one Zombie (shaken), wriggles free on his back (falls back), but is grabbed by a third and feels the tearing bite of the monster... He pulls a pin on his own grenade, taking the zombie out with him (both eliminated).
In the central chamber a terrible melee ensues, leaving one of the troopers unconcious (OOA)
Turn 7
Bravely, the trooper goes BACK IN ACTION and eliminates the staggering Zombie that downed him in a close assault then moves over to the Sarge... Sarge cautious moves back into the room, the Valkyrie rapid moves back to cover his rear.
Zombies move. My AGL op-fires and shakes one of them, halting it in it's tracks but not harming it further, as the 40mm explosive fizzes harmlessly in it's ribcage.
Turn 8
The combo I have been waiting for is unleashed! My Heavy gunner recovers. The Valkyrie moves into room.. The Sarge uses ISSUE ORDERSand all units within 2 squares OPEN FIRE!
The Zombies are knocked back in a wave of pus and gunfire.. The deck is exhausted and I have hit my time limit.. Game over, I win!
At the end of the game, I only lost 1 Infantry unit, and eliminated 4 Zombies, 2 creatures. Did the layout help me? Yes, the zombies could not bring superior numbers to bear often, but equally, my fields of fire were very restricted.
I really enjoyed the game and am sold on the Combat Cards system. Once I was rolling, the game moved very fast and I managed to get through the whole game just looking at my cards and the QRS.
Zombies are not an especially tricky opponent, so I'm eager to try my own system of solo play against a shooting enemy. I'm going to try drawing 6 fresh cards for the enemy force each turn and using logic to play them out. During my turn, any time I move a figure in range of an enemy model, it will get a d6 roll of 6+ to play a "free" op-fire card, This is to simulate the uncertainty of how may op fire cards your opponent may have in his hand. This means the "AI" has a slight advantage over the player, but is more than compensated for by the lack of covering fire IMO.
Next report, we'll see how it goes!