Scouts Out!

Scouts Out!
C Troop musters for action

Monday, October 22, 2012

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.

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