Gloam-Hyyn Serial No. 4: Scouts and Trackers.

T'ym and Taym sat on the edge of the stream, dangling fishing lines and paddling their sore feet in the brown slow moving water. 

"I need a pipe" said T'ym. "Got any baccy?"

"Nah, me bucko, I'm skint 'til we get back to bunkos." Taym replied mournfully.

"Aye, need to pack more next time."

Gloam-Hyyn Scouts

Rear view showing the fish skins they wear

The Trapper on the right is holding a broken trap and I couldn't find the other half in all the debris in the bag, so I glued on an extra big tuft of reeds to hide that fact

They watched the water in companionable silence for a while, ignoring the ever present insects swarming about them and occasionally giving their lines a tug. The fins of a big fish broke the surface several yards away.

"Oi" Taym whispered, pointing. "Lookit that bonzer fella over there!" 

"Bloody oath" T'ym agreed. "Could be some corker grub there."

"Should we try shootin' it, ya reckon?"

"Get off! An' have B'ndyt an' Darby slang us on charges?"

Pack of Sarf-Cyn. They are an Apex Predator, but if caught young, and hand raised, they become imprinted on their Quar and can be used by the Sarf-Cyn Handlers for hunting.

Just then they heard some rustling in the undergrowth behind them. Turning, they saw QM Yawdryl Fr'yd leading his ganga beast, M'tylda, down to the stream. 

"G'day Yawdy" Taym said in greeting.

"G'day M'tylda" T'ym said more softly, offering a fat beetle to the huge beast, who snuffled it up quickly with her long pink tongues and then gently bumped the rhyfler in affectionate greeting.

"An' what are you young buckos doin' then?" the Quarter Master asked suspiciously.

T'ym held up the fishing line in explanation. "Fishin' Yawdy."

The standard Clash of Rhyflers grouping: 1 Trapper, 1 Sarf-Cyn handler and 3 Sarf-Cyn

"Aye well that's fair dos an' good onya" Fr'yd said slowly, looking for fault, as all veteran senior NCOs everywhere have always done for as long as there have been armies. "But yez need to keep yer rhyfles closer to hand, buckos. Some Gloamy shows up snoopin' about an here yez are, boots off an' rhyfles not in easy grab."

Fr'yd looked around some more. "An yez won't be catchin' squat wi' yer footies in the billabong, disturbin' all the fish. 'specially wi' the big 'un yonder." He pointed to the fins floating several yards away.

He gave the fins a harder squint and took his bogen off his shoulder, chambering a round. "Summtin' about that seems mighty crook, if'n you ask me." As he drew aim just below the fins, the big fish suddenly dove and disappeared, leaving only bubbles and slowly spreading ripples.

Fr'yd snorted and lowered his rhyfle. "Anyways, you buckos git yer boots on and back up to the rest of the mob. Shouldn't be wanderin' off anyway. C'mon M'tylda!"

Scout Yawdryl Doudonne L'pyrre crouched in the stream, listening to his scout's report, who had just emerged from the water after a long swim back down stream. "Doo Tollyquar rhyfleys inna couler pecherie. Na pensa mi. Un ganga trouie Tollyquar boiree."

Two rhyflers on their own, fishing, seemed sloppy. It might indicate a vulnerability. Only one ganga being watered could give an idea of the strength of the combat group in the position. If they watered all the animals at the same time.

"Gut tellin di tellin." He looked at the rest of his small team of Scouts and their tamed Sarf-Cyn, which were frolicking happily in and out of the stream, chasing each other and catching fish. "Here be sittin, pensa? Pieges onna coulee, onna bank. Mi tellin de tellin onna Bossquar vite. Sassa kay?" He lowered himself into the water so that just his mudcrawler skin was showing. A breathing tube inserted through the skin let them deep wade or swim semi-submerged for long distances, allowing for stealthy insertions and raiding.

Full Scouting Detachment

He would report back to Caerten Whyfflyn the position and estimated strength of the Toulmorese force facing them, and then return to plan with his Gloamyquar where to lay some traps and when to try some raids.

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These are the last of my Gloam-Hyyn, except for a musician, who just dropped on the MMF Tribe and is being printed.

The Sarf-Cyn were painted in four different colours and then given a sepia ink wash. The yellow didn't come out well, drying all blotchy, so I repainted with a blue-grey. Eyes were just slits of yellow with black lines for pupils to avoid them looking all goggle eyed.

For basing I used a lot of tall rushes, since I think these guys are staying in the heaviest swampy areas. The trappers get to preposition traps, IEDs, booby-traps or dummy counters pre-game to confuse, channel or disrupt the enemy. Which ever rules used they should get some extra cover, stealth and/or infiltration bonuses.

The Last Sortie

 

As I dumped my gear by the door early Saturday morning, it struck me that this was the last time I'd be doing this.

My release date is a month away, and the training schedule is running out. So this would be the last time I packed my ruck for an outing with some cadets.

A little bittersweet, but making sure the youngsters got an opportunity to be in the air was important. I have been glad to be part of it these past 14 years. 

Stormy weather meant no gliding, so they got taken up in the tow plane. 

But it's time to leave with grace and dignity, instead of hanging around past my Best Before date and getting told to leave.

Bash on Recce!

The Mantovian Royal Army has been upgraded with some armoured reconnaissance assets to fill out the light cavalry regiments.

Ferret armoured cars and Landrovers. 

wondering if I should hit the windscreens with some gloss varnish, or blue airbrush paint

I picked the Ferret because it's rather ubiquitous, was widely used, and most importantly, it's as cute as button.

Two of my Ferrets had their turrets coming away, so I experimentally gave them a tug, revealing the open top for the Mk. 1. After cleaning up the uncured resin, I added the upper body of some spare infantry in suitable poses and a couple of MGs on AA mounts from the Bits Box, left over from building Sdkfz251s.

They will be supported by Fireflies until the Comets arrive from Don. I'm undecided if the Comets will be from a separate regiment or just a "Heavy Squadron," like WW2 German armoured recce battalions had a schwere kompanie of the Sdkfz 234s to support the 222s. 

Full Recce Patrol

Landrovers with dismounts

The Tartarians are using BTR40 scout cars supported by T34/85 tanks.

Tartarian Combat Reconnaissance Patrol

Now to design a scenario for them.

Birthday Trench Assault!

I took the day off to drink tea, eat bacon and play with my Quar. I had some ideas tootling around in my head and opted to use This Quar's War and do another playtest for the Zombiesmith design team. I also decided my Trench Raiders should see some dice rolled in anger and thought a raid to spike a big gun would be fun. The Crusader defense have a company plus two heavy shotguns garrisoning the trenches and bunkers. But they're all asleep in their nests, and need to get into positions.

The Coftyrans are attacking from the trees on the right. In addition to the Trench Raider detachment, there is a company of 3 squads, plus an M3b HMG team and an RCO field gun to make a diversionary attack.

Table set up. There's a squad and an H11 team in each bunker, an HSG in each gun pit in front. The other two squads are in the dug outs in the forward trench line. The gun that the Trench Raiders are trying to blow up is in the left hand trench line.

Sniper and pair of Cryfen LMGs provide overwatch for the Raiders 

Trench Raiders move out

Diversionary attack in their assault waves

M3b HMG team 

RCO field gun 

Cold sentry

Sentry

Standing guard in the battery

Coftyrans get the first card. How far they get (how many activations the card gives them) is the random element before the alarm is raised. Using Group Moves, the Trench Raiders moved three bounds, being slowed crossing the wire, and the Rhyflers got two moving up to the bunker and road block. 

Fortunately, they drew a 5.

Combat Activations can't use group moves, so one squad was sent forward to assault, quickly overwhelming the lone sentry. 

They then assaulted the bunker behind. The Crusaders by this time were trying to mobilize, needing an Activation to deploy each squad or team. In hindsight, I should have put the Bomber Squad up front to take the bunker.

In the trenches I had the squads and HSG teams deploy from the two dugouts causing more delays. But the sentries in the weapons pits could fire the HSGs with half dice until the rest of the crew got there.

Alert! Stand to! Stand to!

Trench Raiders slip past the forward Trench.

The Trench Raiders got into the Crusader rear and were moving up on the big bunker when it's garrison started waking up.

Trying to get up close before the garrison wakes up

I should have brought the Support group (two Cryfen LMGs and the Sniper) along with, they would have been more useful firing on the bunker from the orchard.

Just close enough for everyone to count for Close Combat. But two Raiders have been cut down by the alerted H11 in the bunker.

Both sides taking casualties in close quarters fighting. Trench Raider's Doru SMGs and grenades giving an edge (I gave them the Brawler advantage, rerolling any missed dice)

After about 4 rounds of combat, the Raider detachment retires with only 3 quar left and 4 shock. The bunker Garrison has 8 shock and 7 figures left.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, the Rhyflers were trying to assault the other bunker. They started out getting a slight edge; the side with the least shock gets "the Lead" and adds an extra die per figure.

But eventually the defense had a good roll or two and killed several attackers, resulting in them now having twice as much shock as figures left.

In hindsight, I should have brought the LMG team (in the slit trench) up with the assault team to add some dice to the attack. They were just a smidge too far back to help.

Trying to assault the bunker at the roadblock 

Assaulting squad breaks with double shock

I also sent a squad to attack the HSG nest that was firing into the flank of the diversionary assault.

A second squad tries rushing the HSG nest.

Yeah, that didn't go well 

More hindsight: I should have put everyone prone while the RCO and M3b put some fire on the HSG nest before rushing the squad up. Live and learn I guess? But with the card activation, and everything getting snarly once the shooting starts, you just don't have enough activations to do everything you want. Of course, neither does the other side.

But with the Trench Raiders retiring and the supporting Rhyfler company having two out of three squads shattered, it was time to call off the attack.

I struggled with the Close Combat rules as written, but was able to give some useful (I hope) feedback. It turns out my biggest idea (using reduced firepower dice) was very similar to one Joshua already had. Great minds and all that.

My indulgent birthday lunch. Toasted cheese bun, with fried egg, cheese slice, and crispy bacon with one of several mugs of tea.

All in all, a good day was had.