First Gruntz Game!

   Well, Zach came over yesterday and we had a little game of Gruntz - our first official 15mm sci-fi game. I only have a few pictures, and the game was very short, but I'll still share.

The Forces:

ZM: Terminators (Rebel Minis, I think). We worked them up as if each individual T-800 was a 4-man infantry squad. I put four squads on a card, and that made each card a 4x T-800 'squad'. Each T-800 was worth 14 points. He took three squads of four, for a total of 12, making it (12x14) 168 points for his forces.

T-800 card, using Barracks

JW: FedArms (Khurasan and Ion Age)  I chose a well-rounded selection of differing units because I wanted to try them all out. I had a commander, three squads of rifle infantry, a mortar, a mecha, and an armored car. Total 171 points, so a slight point advantage.

Setup:

The table was pretty simple, about 3x4. The FedArms were protecting a fenced in area, and the T-800s were doing what they do - seeking to eradicate human life! As the attackers, the T-800s took the first turn.

The valiant defenders facing the road down which marches doom!

TURN 1:

T-800: Each unit activated and took two Move actions. This allowed them to reach the bridge over the stream, in a tight clump.

A blurry shot of a heck of a target.

FedArms: Infantry squads fired at long range, to no effect. What few hits were generated did only minor damage (one point of damage to a single T-800). Then I fired the mortar. Direct hit on front center T-800. He vanished (Waxed, in Gruntz parlance). Then the blast of the Area of Effect took over. Damaged (but did not Wax) five more Termies. Activated my commander, who moved to the gate and used his second action to raise the gate. Then the armored car, an Ion Age Red Adder Lifter, moved forward and fired it's gatling gun, also an area of effect weapon. It missed, and deviation of the beaten zone meant no hits. Finally I activated my last unit, the Havelock Suit. He fired his Missile Pod (yet another area weapon) and scored a direct hit on the T-800 right in the center of the entire force. This meant the blast would get every other Termie. The results were three more dead machines and several damaged to one degree or another. The follow-up shot with the railgun proved an anti-climatic miss.

TURN 2:

T-800: Having passed all required Mental tests, the T-800s were unfazed in their mechanical hearts. Onward they strode! This time they paused and fired. And this is where we made waht was probably the biggest rules error which made it virtually impossible for Zach to win. We only gave each of the Termies a single shot as if they were single humans. He had paid points as if each was a squad of four - after battle analysis concluded that he should have been firing four times each. As it was, his fire was light and ineffectual, managing only a single point of damage on the Red Adder, barely scratching the paint.

FedArms: Again, everyone lit up the T-800s, starting with the area effect weapons on a still very compact body of robots. All three weapons hit, and casualties were heavy. One squad was eliminated totally, while the other two were reduced to a total of five (damaged) machines. Directed fire from the infantry added a bit more damage to the reeling (and now suppressed) foe.

TURN 3: 

T-800: With only five units remaining, Zach began to unclump them. One unit could only move and not fire, as they had been suppressed. The other fired two shots, to missing both.

FedArms: Area effect again. The mortar missed, but the deviation put the shell directly on top of another T-800 - blasting it to bits. The blast damaged two others, now down to only one hit remaining on each. The Adder's gatling fired next, finishing off those two. The missile pod of the Havelock missed completely, but the railgun took down one. The infantry fire began to take a toll, taking down the last two of the soulless killing machines.

It was an overwhelming victory for humanity, but after-battle analysis shows that the T-800s were severely hampered in their return fire, and had underestimated the effectiveness of area effect weapons. We both enjoyed ourselves, though, so that's the main thing!

We plan on fighting a re-match next week, with adjusted firing for the T-800s. I also think that there will not be as tightly packed a group of targets for my blast weapons, either.