Stardate: Wonday, 107-130 ABY/TAg Market Island Security Forces
Subsector: Shannekam
Planet: Zenya
Region: The Tau-Tau Autonomous District
Situation Report: Evacuation of Vandalla Island and Re-disposition of TAg Market Island Security Forces
Mid-day, Local Time
Since the Ooverton Constabulary Battalion suffered fewer casualties than the Vianda Constabulary did, it was redeployed to Kulovaan Island to bolster the defenses there. Meanwhile, the civilians and the survivors of the Vianda Constabulary were brought to Pierson Station. Two days after the Battle of Vianda, the civilian population of Kulovaan Island was also evacuated to Pierson Station, but without incident.
This situation could change within the next day or so.
Reinforcements from Bongolaan (and Tarsus) are estimated to arrive within one to three days. During this time the Zenyan Planetary Assembly has been called to debate and possibly vote on a course of action regarding these islands. An Imperial ambassador is reported to have arrived at the capital of Kairobi. How his presence will affect any vote is unknown at this time.
Meanwhile, the Tau-Tau defense force is in the final stage of mobilizing against the Sith Mutant infestation on Gadnek Island to the south.
GM Notes:
The actual battle discussed in the previous posts was played-out solitaire using the rules Future War Commander. I made a small modification to the rules in order to adapt them for boardgame play. The Battle of Vianda was fought using Squad Leader boards. Since each hex in Squad Leader represented about 40 meters (m) and one centimeter (cm) in Future War Commander (FWC) represents 20 m, I simply reduced the weapon ranges and movement rates by one-half.
The rules themselves are based on Warmaster and is more of a game than a simulation. This fit the bill and was fairly easy to play, even solitaire. The game can be somewhat frustrating because you have to roll two six-sided dice (2d6) against a headquater's command rating in order to successfully activate a unit. That is, get a unit to move and/or shoot. Units can be activated more than once per turn, provided their commander makes his command roll against worsening modifiers.
During the Battle of Vianda, the 1st Maniple (Company) of the 7th Cohort was suppose to quickly seize Vianda Mountain. Instead, thanks to my bad die rolls, the unit stood in place for several turns. This also happened to me during a Korean War scenario of CWC during a convention. My friend Adrian ran a CWC game for a convention a couple years ago. One player consistently blew his activation die rolls, so his forces remained stationary for most of the period. Towards the end, Adrian finally let him start moving his forces just once if the player failed his activation rolls. (He suggested doing this after three unsuccessful activation roles during a convention game).
An even bigger issue I have with FWC and it's cousins Blitzkrieg and Cold War Commander (BWC & CWC, respectively) is the way it handles commanders. According to the rules, commanders, or any command group is immune to direct fire, but can be subjected to indirect fire (artillery and airstrikes). Also, the command radius (the ability to control combat units) is based on the distance between the commander and the farthest combat unit within the group.
I think both of aspects of these rules is outright silly, especially when you have situations of headquarter units far in front of their combat units. So several months ago I wrote a two-page set of house rules modifications to change this. In short, command units can be attacked directly, if there are no combat units closer to the attacking unit. In a sense, combat units screen their headquarters from direct fire. I also changed the command radius measurement from the farthest unit to the closest. I figure with even World War II-level communications, combat units can effectively relay orders from their headquarters.
Despite these issues, FWC is an easy enough set of rules to host mass sci-fi battles.
