Christmas War Notes

http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-war-15mm-sci-fi-campaign.html

I decided to take up Chris K's challenge and play the Christmas War along with the other readers of Dropship Horizon (you ARE taking part, aren't you?).  I put my own quirky spin on it, of course. 

When this started, I thought playing the Assassination scenario made a better start to the campaign, and I was just starting out with 5150: Star Army so I wanted a small scenario to start with.  But now I think I have a neat idea for the Assasination scenario that will really bring the Colony 13 mythos into full play, so I think this first game will turn out to be a bit of a prequel.  We'll see.

Scenarios will center around Colony 13, the unluckiest colony in the galaxy.  Poor thing is set at the EXACT point where every sci-fi movie/tv universe intersects -- creating a pocket universe.  That's why it's 15mm -- everything gets shrunk in the pocket universe.  (Told ya it was quirky)

In this case, the scenario at start features a scenario that you might recognize from the Battlestar Galactica reboot pilot -- the representatives of mankind and the Cylons meet for the first time in decades.  The war starts when the Cylons kill the human ambassador. 

To start the scenario, the representatives and their bodyguards are meeting in front of the sacred square.  Squad A (the Red Hats) (a Star Army force in 5150 terms, Rep 4) are playing honor guard and are lined up 18" south blocking the path up to the sacred square.  Just south of them are where the Cylons have just landed their shuttle.    Squad B (Rep 3) is off to the west.  Since I rolled them up as Rep 3 I decided that they were a militia unit and were off  playing a little Pyramid.  After all, the Cylons never actually show up for these meetings....
So for this first game, again to learn the rules, I incorporated a very simple Wild West style gunfight at the beginning.  The Cylon Ambassador orders his centurions to kill the humans.  Do the humans have time to react?   I decreed the Cylon active and let the human bodyguard take an In-Sight test.  They passed!  Clearly on the ball, these Secret Service types.  Unfortunately, they missed completely and the Received Fire resulted in an Obviously Dead result.

Ok, I think I get the reaction test.  On to the rest of the game!  Normal activation rolls result in the Cylons (Rep 4) going first -- a 4 man unit  disembarks and trigger an In-Sight from the Red-hats.  The rest of the game flows as the comic indicates -- the Red Hats manage to put a couple of Cylons stunned but never quite out and are slowly whittled down and driven into cover.

At that point the Milita get involved, though, and their fire combined with the Red Hats manages to kill off a Cylon.  Unfortunately by that time Gold Leader and his bodyguards had returned from the meeting and in a pincer move annhilated the Red Hats.  The Milita fired a few more shots before being massacred, and the Cylons escaped with 1 Obviously Dead and 3 OOF.  (Out of the fight means the suits are damaged but reparable -- I need to come up with a recovery chart for the Cylons).

System Notes
I used the Bugs QRS for the Cylons, unchanged except where the bugs charge the Cylons fire instead.

I used BTA armor for the Cylons.  Way overpowered.  I'm moving that down to Hard armor BUT keeping the roll on the BTA penetration chart.  It seems to make sense for autonomous soldiers.  We'll see in the next scenario -- Breakthrough!