Through the Mud and the Quar

I set up ALL THE TERRAIN last weekend intending to have a game, but between, prepping stats for the tractors, fatigue and being distracted by the plastics arriving, I didn't get to it until this weekend.

Used the "Quar of Command" notes and "Cocking Up the Mud and the Blood" to have the Coftyrans assault the Crusader trenches. The Coftyrans got twice the Support Points, opting for a all the tractors, a towed field gun and two barrage elements. "Cocking Up the Mud and the Blood" lets you build a preparatory artillery plan. You can apply artillery fire to try and cut the wire, counter battery fire (interdicts the SOS Barrage), and shell the supporting trenches to delay deployment. The defenders can pick an SOS Barrage with two pre-plotted targets.

Terrain set up covering a 6.5'x4.5' area

Royalists get some initial good command dice rolls with useful activation and a few double turns. A section finds a gap in the wire and pushes up to the first trench

Crusader deployment is frustrated by falling Royalist heavy artillery. They only get one section into each forward trench

Defenders take casualties and shock

Royalist right hand section advances under fire

Royalist left wing section advances

Center section pushes up to the trench but are shredded by close range Bogen fire and vollies of grenades. They break with 11 shock and 5 ryhflers, rallying with the help of a pig in some shell craters further back.

Draepkindl arrives a bit late to support the assault

MMG team lays down supporting fire, but keeps jamming. Any automatic weapons would jam if they rolled more 1s than 6s

Crusaders get their mortar set up

Some heavy support finally successfully deploys

By this time the Crusaders had a complete Chain of Command Dice, which they used to end the turn and thus end the barrage on their trenches. This effectively shut down the Royalist attack.

Royalist right in the woods taking fire from the H11 section opposite. Casualties and shock are piling up.

With the artillery lifted the Crusaders get their Heavy Shotgun teams deployed.

HSG on right shredding Royalists opposite

The mortar only has 3 FP, but it ignores cover and got a good hit on the center section trying to rally, killing two and breaking them a second time.

H11 section and an HSG effectively holding the left hand trench

Another HSG and the bomber section effectively holding the right hand trench

Right hand section with 7 shock and down to four ryhflers! The Coftyran commander used a couple of pigs to remove shock from the center and right sections.

Coftyran field gun loses the firefight against the Crusader HSG

Game over, quar! 2 ryhflers and 7 shock. Center section is broken by mortar fire

Crusader Force Morale was still at 11. Royalist FM was down to 5 and they only had 6 ryhflers left to attack with.

The Royalists should have concentrated their attack in one sector, using the tractors as bullet magnets to distract fire from the ryhflers. 

I still need to iron out the activation. 8-10 quar sections are a bit unwieldly. But with 5 quar sections it becomes fuzzy which is a team and which is a section. So I need to clarify that in my own mind. I've said I'll bring this to a friend's in June, so I should try and firm things up.

I could just use Xenos Rampant, but I like the detail of different weapons. Otherwise how is a bomber section throwing grenades (Armour Piercing- reduce cover by one), different from a Heavy Shotgun?

More thought required.