My version of FUBAR Ultra

In my last game I tried out FUBAR with some of the Ultra changes that were suggested here:

http://www.forgeofwar.uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=229

I also tried out some of the suggested movement rates for 15mm too.  After playing with all these rules from hither and yon I decided to up-date my copy of FUBAR so that I could have all of my rules in one place.  So I took that one page format and tried to change it in MS Word... didn't really work right!  What an annoying mess.  It goes to show you what a tight editing job Craig and company did to squeeze all of text and tables into just one standard page of paper!

So be warned, this isn't a one page FUBAR any more.  It's more like 8!  

So what's in it?  First I changed around the activation rules to incorporate the Ultra suggestions.  Then I switched out the movement rates to the suggested 15mm rates which took a little figuring.  I'm not sure what I think about the smaller movement rates though.  4" in one turn seems a bit too little for infantry as does 8" for vehicles.  I might have to look that over again to make sure I have the correct rates.  Finally I added a few clarifications for suppression and assault rifles with under/over grenade launchers.

Anyway, here it is:

Tgunner FUBAR Draft 1.0

The Gunny's Last Stand? FUBAR Ultra Pt 1

Hi All,

Well we just wrapped up our game a few minutes ago and man, what a game!  It was a rip-snorting, good ole fashion, shoot-em up! I've played FUBAR several times now and I've have had a lot of fun with it.  But I've always come away from it feeling disappointed, or even cheated, when it came to the activation system.  Then back  in August Craig posted this as a set of activation rules to consider for the next version of FUBAR:

"I am thinking that we would be better moving to a system similar to, but a little simpler than, Dead Men Walking, i.e.:

Roll Activation die:

- If you roll equal to or more than the required activation number your unit can take two actions this turn.

- If you roll less than the required activation number your unit gets only one action this turn.

The list of possible actions could include:

- Move

- Shoot

- Assault (move to enemy and attack them - takes two actions)

- Run (double move - takes two actions)

- Aimed Fire (+1 to shooting rolls - takes two actions)

- Disengage from close combat (single move away from combat - takes two actions)

- Overwatch, reserving your fire until later in the turn (takes two actions)

- Counter-attack, reserving your action until you are assaulted later in the turn, denying the assaulter his assault bonuses (takes two actions)

So as you can see this opens up a huge number of tactical options, but doesn't disproportionately punish the player who made the poor roll."

So I tried it out tonight and I have to say, it's a real, honest game changer!  Tonight's game was so much more satisfying than any of my other games of FUBAR.  

So back to the game.  I started with only a few squads per side then my son, Jeremy, announced that he wanted to play so I really expanded the game!  This was easily the largest game, figure wise, that I've ever played in 15mm.  

Here's the line-up:

USCMC Section- Gunny Anderson, two rifle squads of four men, and one M577 APC.

US Army platoon- two seven man squads split into two fire teams with 3/4 men (the 4 man team had the squad leader).  The US Squads had no MGs, just M41 Pulse rifles with grenade launchers! The platoon also had one Seraph scout mech, a sniper, and a Bradley III MICV attached.

Supporting the US force was a RAM mortar platoon with three salvos.  Either the gunny or the Army LT could call it on a 4+.  It has a 2" blast zone and hits with 4 FP on a 4+.

The LRL was much larger and much more scary!

The center piece of the force was a full LRL rifle platoon with three six man squads: one with a MMG, the other two with RPGs.  The CP team had four men and the LT could call arty like the Americans.

The LRL hoard in all its glory!

Supporting the LRL platoon were two four person Centerville insurgent cells with four people- 3 ARs and a fourth trooper carrying an AR and a RPG (with just one shot).  Also the LRL brought two light armored technicals armed with a HMG, on M1A4 Step III MBT (heavy armor, heavy gun, HMG), a Neo-Soviet Cylon Class gunbot (light vehicle with light armor and two HMGs), and finally 10 Neo-Soviet Raptor I Class Cyber-Driods (treated as Aliens style bugs).  

The LRL's objective was simple:  clear the last remains of the USA/USCM's defenses in front of the city of Centerville on Crossland Island and secure the National Guard armory in the town.  To win the LRL had to take the bridge across the Crossland River and secure the armory.  To win the US player has to stop them!

It was an ugly situation.  When I set-up the armory I got this feeling... it was the Alamo!

The Alamo with the bridge to its front

Indeed, it was an ugly fight and it cost the US and the LRL dearly!  Both sides took awful losses in the fight.  The butcher's final bill still isn't known yet.  I still have to roll on the survival table to see.  But regardless the Americans held but only barely.  While the Neo-Soviets haven't reached the battlefield, yet, their reach was felt.  The Raptor attack bots were swift and terrible foes.  Even the Gunny had to go toe-to-toe with these horrible beasts!

The Gunny's Last Stand????

Good thing the old Gyrene brought his K-Bar!!  I took a lot more pictures of the game and I'll write-up a more formal, blow-by-blow of this epic struggle this weekend when I have time.

Needless to say, I'm very impressed with this new FUBAR Ultra.  It still keeps the feel of the older versions but it's more dynamic.  Even if you fail an activation roll you still get to do something with the unit that you tried to activate and that did lead to many tense moments in the game.  Ultra FUBAR is a much more dynamic, and more importantly, fun game.  I think I've found my easy standby game for modern and sci-fi gaming.  When I want a harder, crunchier game I'm reaching for Force-on-Force. But when I want a simple, beer and pretzels game to toss dice and blow stuff up Ultra FUBAR is my game.  

Try it out, really, it's a serious game changer!

Anyway, more later.

Semper fi, carry on.

USCMs and the LRL in FUBAR

I'm getting ready for my FUBAR game set for tomorrow night so I decided to go ahead and stat out my forces for the game.  I want a fairly quick game so I'm fielding only a section of USCMs and a couple of squads of LRLs with some technicals in support.  In addition to the usual FUBAR rules I'm using stuff from the Afganistan module and the Khurasan 15mm module.  Because I'm using 15mm I'm using the following mods to the movement rules:


 Walk–4”
 Duck & Weave or Assault – 6”
 Run–8”
 GotoGround–2”

So here is my OOB:

Alpha Section, 1st Platoon

Gnry Sgt Anderson:  Elite with M41 Pulse Rifle and Medium Armor

A: 2+ E: 4+ Save 5+

The Gunny has been there, done that.  Bugs?? So what.  Rebels.. yawn.  It's just another day in the Corps.

1st Squad:  Cpl Miranda, PFC Jordan (M56), Pvt Cooper, Pvt Juariz

Miranda is a Veteran, all the other marines are Seasoned.  Good old Jordan has grown a lot of the last year!  He's a fireteam leader now.  Miranda might be bumped up to Sergeant if he pulls off this mission and take over Alpha section.

2d Squad:  LCpl Higgins, PFC Crossley (M56), Pvt Mohammed, Pvt Franks

The whole squad is Seasoned.  Notice that Crossley is now a PFC! He won the Purple Heart a few months ago and recovered enough to return to duty with Alpha.  He's a fireteam boss too. 

All Marines are wearing medium armor.  The individual marines are armed with either M41A Pulse Rifles or M56 Smart Guns with the following stats:

AR:  24" 1 FP; 12" 2FP SUSAT sights with give +1 FP if the unit doesn't move (only AR)

GL:  16" (min 8") 3FP
M56 Smart Gun:  Same as light machine gun but with a SUSAT sight.

Supporting Anderson's section is a M577 APC:

Move: 12"  Armor: Medium  Weapons: Plasma cannon (Light cannon) Heavy MG.  2 Crewmen (Seasoned Driver and Commander/Gunner).

OPFOR

Going up against the boys of Alpha section are more LRL soldats.  These guys cracked Army heads last year near Centreville and now they're looking to seal the deal by taking out the Gunny's marines.  

3ème Peloton, 1ère Compagnie, 21e RI. 2d brigade d'infanterie

CP:  Sous-lieutenant Antoine DuValle, 1 Sgt, 2 PVTs

All seasoned.  DuValle is armed with a SMG, the Sgt and the PVTs are armed with ARs.  

1st Squad:  Cpl Jean Ouellette, 1 RPG, 4 Rifles
Cpl and RPG seasoned, others green.

2d Squad:  Cpl Pierre Devereux, 1 LMG, 4 Rifles
As 1st Squad.

3d Squad:  Cpl David Bellard, 1 RPG, 4 Rifles
Only the NCO is seasoned, the RPG and rifles are green.

All LRL troopers are Green, NCOs and special weapons troopers are seasoned.  All are armed with ARs and wearing light body armor.  LMGs and RPGs use the usual game rules.

Green Rating for LRL:  LRL troops are generally inexperienced but very eager troops.  They activate on 4+ and have an expertise of 6+.  The suppress as normal green troops.  Squad leader experience levels count toward their own shooting and activating the unit.  Otherwise the whole unit counts as green.

2 Technicals in support:
Rockjumper Pickup. Seasoned, Light Vehicle Armor. Armed with a Heavy Machine Gun.  There may be some Centerville Insurgent Cells in the action too...

New Reinforcements for the LRL!

I just some new forces to round out my growing LRL force:

These are new additions to Khurasan Jon's old Sepulveda Resistance range.  Up until now you had only the basic resistance fighter with a basic, AK47 style, assault rifle, light armor, and  a skimpy skull cap.  These guys appear to be better equipped and armored than their follows as they are the beginnings of the Sepulvedian Regular Army.  So that's the role that they will play in my Liberty games.  My older resistance fighters will assume the role of LRL National Guard troops. 

I placed an order with Jon earlier this week and I can't wait until they show up.  For now I've ordered two command packs and four trooper packs.  That will give me 28 basic riflemen, 4 commanders, 4 medics, 4 RPGs, and 4 SAWs.  That should give me four squads of 11 troops each, or I can organized a more accurate platoon of LRL regulars with:

1 command squad:  1 LT, 1SGT, 1 Medic, 1 runner (rifles).
3 rifle squads:  1 cpl, 4 rifles, 1 SAW or RPG.

That's 22 out of my 48 troopers.  Depending on the troop count I might be able to start a second platoon as well! Down the line I may purchase additional figures to start a company HQ and a heavy weapons section.  It might look something like this:

1 SGT, 1 CPL, 2 drivers, 2 mortar teams (1 tube, two crew), 2 pulse gun/missile launch teams (1 gun/launcher mounted technical style with two crew), and finally two Rockjumper Crawlers.  That would give my LRL regulars a lot of mobile firepower!!

AFV wise, for when the LRL breaks out some actual mechanized infantry, I thinking about dropping the motley array of vehicles that I currently have and replace them with some nice Neo-Soviet gear!

These are some pretty big tracks and two of these machines could carry a full LRL regular platoon!  I may continue to use the hover APCs from GZG to represent the LRL regulars with older hand-me-downs or to represent the better armed National Guard units who would have French surplus equipment left over from the revolution.  

However, fear not.  The Rockjumper Crawler is just too darn useful for the LRL to drop.  It will continue to truck along as the carrier for LRL National Guard units and as heavy weapons carriers in the line companies.  
However all of the good, 1st line LRL units will be armed with newer Neo-Soviet gear!  In fact, according to reports coming out of the Republic of Liberty,  the LRL was able to purchase some of the Neo-Soviet Union's vaunted Red Banner tanks!  I was planning on getting some more this year but I found out that Jon is all sold out!  That's a shame, but I was able to secure a few of these armored monsters before they disappeared.  They should be finding their way onto the battlefields of Liberty pretty soon...  No longer with the USCMC be able to dominate the battlefields of Liberty with their AFVs!

I've also gotten my mitts on a full platoon of Neo-Soviet troops!  It seems that the Neo-Soviets have become very interested in the war on Liberty and have sent materials and even "advisors" to aid the fledgling LRL in its war of liberation!  I wonder how the Republic was able to secure BOTH French Union and Soviet support???

Hopefully I'll have the whole lot assembled by Thanksgiving and ready for an AAR.  Things are looking grim for the USCMC and the Liberty Colony defenders!  Stay tuned!!

Semper Fi, carry on.

Scott

Welcome to Round Down Range 2.0

Welcome back to Round Down Range, my 15mm modern/sci-fi blog.  

I started the original blog last year to track the progress of my Colonial Marine Company project and to track my gaming with them using Chain Reaction 3.0 and Tomorrow's War.  I later expanded it to cover my modern gaming as well.  It was a great blog and it was a lot of fun to run.  But time cramped down on me and I didn't have as much time to man it.  I'm a teacher and 2d Semister is a real pain because of high-stakes testing.  So I had to lay off for a while and focus on work.  

When I went back to work on the blog during the summer I discovered something really bad!  Google and Blogger started doing some weird stuff with user accounts and in the process the original Round Down Range blog somehow got detached from my old username.  So no I can't get into it to maintain it... or do anything with it really.  It' still out there, the poor thing:

www.rounddownrange.blogspot.com

I've tried to get blogspot to fix this but nothing has happened. So, I'm sad to say, it's time to wave goodbye to the old blog and start up another one where the other left off.  I'll still link into it from time to time because it has a lot of my back story for the War on Liberty and for my Colonial Marine information.  But otherwise, the old blog is effectively dead... or is it undead!?!  It's not really gone.  It's there but with a "life" of its own.  Creepy...

Anyway, welcome to the new blog.  I hope you have fun watching me build miniature armies and build onto my world of Liberty.  It's been a hoot!  So see you on the battlefields on a world far away.

Semper Fi, carry on...

Scott