Ameos cursed inside his helmet. The Riavaui had laid a perfect
trap, attacking the colony, hiding their true numbers until his unit had
fully deployed, scattered across the area, and were saddled with hundreds of
helpless colonists to protect. Now the fleet was fully engaged, and there was no
ticket off this rock, and the Riavaui were swarming all over the
place.
He could hear the captain's orders coming over his headset, and could
see the feed from the recon drones on his retinal display. "All right
men, change of plans. We've got multiple hostiles coming from
all directions. Time for a fighting withdraw."
This game was played with the 4th edition of the FUBAR rules, with one
change. The activation rules were replaced with what I call the Keep
Your Cool check. Every unit activates every turn, regardless if they
pass their activation roll. But if they fall, their actions were
randomly determined using the following table and a D6 roll:
1. Fire if nearest enemy unit is in range and LOS, otherwise move 6 toward objective
2. Assault nearest enemy if within 8, otherwise run 12 toward objective
3. Duck & Weave toward object
4. On Guard
5. Gone to Ground
6. Hesitate - does nothing this turn
The forces were:
2 Squads of 5 Veteran Marines, Heavy Armor (3+), Assault Rifles
3 Squads of 5 Seasoned Raivaui Thralls, Tough Skin (5+), Assault Rifles
1 Squad of Raivaui Hounds, (Used rules for Bugs from FUBAR Sci Fi)
The
Marines were trying to escape off the far side of the board. The
Raivaui deployed on the board edges to either side of them.
Both squads of marines duck and wove their way forward staying in cover. Two of the Raivaui squads opened fire on the lead squad of marines, while the third entered the stream as they moved into a firing position. The hounds ran toward the closest marines.
The hounds moved first in the next turn and attacked, resulting in a vicious melee. The other 3 squads of Raivaui all poured fire onto the other marines, failing to kill any, but the heavy barrage of fire caused them to lose their cool and Hesitate, losing their turn. The melee, lasted several turns until finally the hounds had been killed, taking two marines with them. The first squad regained their cool, and continued forward under heavy fire. Their armor and the cover provided by the terrain prevented them from taking causalities.
Then one of the Raivaui lost its cool and assaulted the first squad. Following suit another squad assaulted the second. Although the Raivaui shooting had suppressed the marines, it was not effective at killing them. Maybe up-close and personal it would be different.
The brutal close combat lasted a couple of turns, with the third Raivaui squad standing by on guard to see the outcome. The marines came out on top, with four men left in the first squad, and only one in the second. Wasting no time, the remaining Raivaui opened fire, and suppressing the lead marines and causing them to lose their cool two turns in a row. They cautiously crossed the stream under fire, and then sprinted to safety off the board, leaving the sole survivor of the second squad behind.
Weighing his choices, and having killed four Raivaui already, he decided to make straight for safety. The Raivaui moved to cut him off, opening up with withering fire.
Moving forward under the cover of the rock formations, he sprinted across the stream and into the woods to safety, while the Raivaui bullets simply bounced off his armor.
Half the marines made it to safety in the end, their superior training and armor really making them difficult to kill. Although the Raivaui were effective in suppressing them, and making the marines lose their cool, it was almost impossible to kill them with firing. Close combat proved to be more lethal, eliminating the advantage of soaking up damage by opting to be suppressed. Over all I think the random actions generated when failing the activation/keeping your cool check did a good job of simulating units forgetting their training, ignoring orders, panicking etc.
