Having painted up a number of in fills an excuse to give them a first outing.
The additional Russian and Chechen support units will come in handy and will give both sides that extra punch.
Now to break the freshly painted curse.
Looking back of previous scenario's I thought about giving the original scenario a run out a mere 8 when it first landed on the table, at the time with less figures using Chris Peers at close quarters rules. I was interested to see if Xenos Rampant gave a better feel.
It did not disappoint.
June 1995 somewhere between Benoi and Vedeno - Chechnya.
A Russian BM21 has broken down on a major supply route, a couple of sections of infantry and supports have been left behind to protect the rocket launcher whilst reinforcements arrive with a repair party. The area is known for insurgent activity who would like nothing more to get their hands on the extra fire power. The Federal forces must protect the vehicle and drive off the Chechen fighters.
The table looks a little better than 8 years ago with more rural looking buildings and repurposed woods. The BM21 can be seen in the centre of the table with the access road at the bottom of the picture. The Chechens will enter randomly on the table edges, with the reinforcements for the Russians appearing on 1d6 turns.
The centre point of the table, 2 squads a HMG and Sniper hardly seem enough to hold back the insurgents.
With the defenders awaiting the column, Chechen militia appear on the wood lined hill tops over looking the valley and the stranded rocket launcher. The Russian HMG and Sniper covering this flank to hold back the fighters.
On the opposite side of the table a Chechen sniper team appears the Russians unable to see him at over 12" push up the hill to drive him off.
A second sniper is spotted and again the Russians advance to close the gap.
The sniper having drawn out the infantry instead of firing calls down mortar fire on the infantry, in the first salvo 50% of the advancing troops are killed or wounded and the rest flee back down the hill.
At the far end of the table Chechen's creep into the settlement ready to slow the rescue party.
The Russian HMG chews up the militia in the tree line.
The Chechen mortar disproving the myth that freshly painted troops always lose, switches his focus to the sniper sending him running for cover.
Meanwhile the rescue column makes it's way on to the table.
Rpg rounds hit the column and the lead BTR70 is destroyed sending the infantry running for cover.
Another whoosh of AT rounds and the BMP1 falls back behind the house.
Before the rescue party could regroup from out of the barn another RPG round smashes into the BMP forcing it to retire.
The rescue mission had failed their would be no break through today.
That was fun, heavy weapons such as HMG's can really hurt infantry as can mortar rounds if you catch them in the open.
The vehicle rules felt like they needed a little extra, if played correctly XR only allow for one vehicle but they can certainly handle multiple vehicles, the only potential downside is the attritional nature of the rules where strength points chip away at units. So I introduced a chart similar to that found within Bolt Action.
It worked well and resulted in the lead APC being destroyed in short order after being hit by a unit with the Anti-Tank capability. Hopefully this does not break the rules but makes the use of vehicles more challenging for larger games and could make for tank on tank encounters a little quicker.
Feedback welcome.