Squad Hammer: Mech vs. Mech!

 

Hello, Humans!

It's still NovHammer, so here's more NWG stuff.

Today I'm trying out some clever (but still in development) rules for stompy giant robot combat using Squad Hammer Core.  I didn't write this one.  I'm just testing out some test rules that I have access to.

Time to get excited!

Here are the forces.  The Green team has a Locust, a Shadow Hawk, and a Thunderbolt, with pretty standard armaments.  (Yes, these are Battletech figures.)

The Blue Team

The Orange team has a Commando, a Catapult, and a BattleMaster. (These, too.)

The Other Blue Team.  Wait...

Since all of my giant robots are blue, I had to paint the bases to differentiate.  So, Green vs. Orange.  Here's the table.  I don't have much in the way of 6mm terrain, so I used what I could.

I don't know, some sort of badlands outpost.

Round 1:

To determine who goes when, you put different colored dice in a bag and draw out a die at a time.  If the die is your color, your side gets to go.  There's one die for each Mech, and obviously you remove a die from the collection if a Mech is destroyed.

Starting across the table like I often do, the first turn is spent just taking Redeploy Orders to try to get to the action.

Should have taken the bus.

Round 2:

The Shadow Hawk gets itchy and takes 2 Heat Damage to use its jump jets to ascend the hill.  It then takes 2 more Heat Damage to launch all of its Rockets at the BattleMaster.  Rockets can also target another nearby Mech, so it fires at the Catapult as well.  It misses the BattleMaster, but blasts the Catapult for 4 Weapon Damage.

Imagine swarms of rockets flying around spastically,
like in Robotech.

On its turn, in retaliation, the BattleMaster fires all six of its Lasers at the Shadow Hawk.  It has to fire all six, because that's the rule, and that means it also takes 6 Heat Damage as it fires.  Three of the Lasers find their target and devastate the Shadow Hawk, cracking its reactor.  But before that can matter, the Catapult follows up with two rockets, and the Shadow Hawk explodes! (Also damaging the Locust in the blast.)

KABOOM!
The front row gets showered in Mech guts.

Round 3: 

The BattleMaster risks taking 6 more Heat Damage, but doesn't even manage to Breach the Locust with its Lasers.  (Once you take more than 12 Damage, you're "Breached" and susceptible to Critical Hits.)  The Thunderbolt just plain misses, but the Commando doesn't and Breaches the Thunderbolt, critting its fire control. The Locust and Catapult both Recover to remove Damage, leaving the Catapult nearly good as new!

Catapult: "That's why I use extra thick exterior paint."

Round 4:

The Thunderbolt is desperate to Breach the BattleMaster and so fires Lasers, wrecking the BattleMaster's armor and destroying its Lasers. Unfortunately, the Catapult wrecks the Thunderbolt's armor in turn, giving the Commando just enough of an opening to disable it. (The BattleMaster Recovers and the Locust tries to flank.)

Round 5:

The Orange team repositions, except for the BattleMaster which takes another Recovery Order. But it's not enough! In a "Hail Mary" attack, the Locust runs up the hill to the high ground, going for the accompanying crit bonus, and manages to roll 10+ on the Machine Guns three times! And it takes all three hits to destroy the BattleMaster.

Like rain on a tin roof.  And then like dynamite on a tin roof.

Alas, and we knew this would probably happen, the Catapult opens up on the Locust, blowing it straight to heck!

Squashing a bug with a catapult seems like overkill.

And that's the game.  Let's see...

I think I like what's there so far.  The rules are quick and easy and there's some choices and resource management going on, although playing both sides it's kind of hard to really dig into the strategy.  I also forgot to use the Light and Heavy Mech special abilities (except for the Heavy Mech's bonus to Crit saves).  It's easy to make robots to fight with, especially if you have Battletech stats already.

I'm looking forward to trying this again.

Ĝis la revido!

Jason "Ludanto" Smith C;E