Gruntz Battle Report - FMC vs Khanate strike force

We played half of another game of Gruntz last weekend.  The action was broken up by other considerations, brewing beer and making dinner, so we didn't get to finish the game.  This was my second game and The Traveller's first.

The table.

The Khanate forces started with one platoon inside the town.  Starting on turn six they could roll for other units to come on from the right table edge, above.  The squads started in hidden deployment, we numbered the buildings 1-6, with the tower and the bunker (white sytrofoam with a red choochoo train on it) off limits.

The town, looking towards where the FMC will come in.

There were four objectives, the train pieces.  One was in the bunker, requiring three successful skill rolls to hack and get open.  The other was in the interior of the tower.  The two others were in a random terrain piece, a successful skill check by a unit in contact with the brown pieces or the granite pieces, one per side.

The Light Armored Recon company.

My force was four mechs, three APC's, a grav scout, a Falcon VTOL with a four man recon team and an infantry platoon with three squads, a Lt, a medic and a sniper.

The Khanate strike force (CMG).

The Khanate Strike Force was two rifle platoons, one in three APC's.  They had two battle suits (represented by sand vipers), a Blood Talon drop ship (Saber) and one medium tank.  Each platoon had a Lt and a medic.

The Wort, boiling away.

The beer brewing kept pulling us away from the game.  Emmmm. Wort.  Sweet, sweet wort.

The LAR moved in towards the village.  The recon team was dropped on top of the tower.  They had the BOGINT perk, so they were represented by two pennies.  The grav scout moved forward and detected enemy infantry in one of the buildings.  He fired them up, to no effect, and ate two plasma and laser shots back, which rocked him pretty hard.  He then backed out of site and spend the rest of the game scanning for the hidden objective on this side of the table.

Infantry, APC's and mechs, advancing on the village.

Two of the Somua APC's moved forward and debarked their infantry.  One squad attempted to get the gates open in the gate house, failing their skill roll.  The other engaged the infantry in the building and wiped out most of the squad, with only two troopers surviving.  Either we played the building rules wrong or we will need to make it harder to kill infantry inside one.

The gates finally open, allowing more troops to move into the village.

The next couple of turns involved the LAR pushing forward and driving the dog soldiers out of their buildings, while the mechs and the third squad pushed around the flanks.  Just as all was looking lost for the aliens, their tank blew onto the field, slamming a big fat Gauss round into one of the APC's and freezing the FMC left flank.

Sadly, that was where we stopped the game.  As with the first game we found that infantry die fast.  The armor was good, resilient but not too good.  I think we will need to improve the range on some of the weapons as well as adjusting building rules, unless I just read them wrong.

I know that I'm going to need at least one more infantry platoon as well as armor.  I think The Traveller will want to invest in some battle suits, since that is how his army gets heavy weapons.

We both enjoyed the game and the rules are still very promising.  If we are able to get a few more games in I may gen up a quick campaign for us to string some battles together and give it some form.  I like Gruntz and I can easily see this being my go to, medium scale, Sci/Fi rule set.