I Hosted a variation of the FNG Introductory Infantry Encounter at The Trumpeter Table Top Games Society's June 26 meeting. The guest of honour was our own ranking officer B6! We were joined by Gord, a fine chap with a fair bit of 2Hr Wargames experience who helped to run the fire teams of the fictional 2nd squad, 1rst Platoon, Mike Co. 3/4 Marines around the table.

Of course I got caught up in running the game & taking pictures took a back-seat to having fun, but we managed to get a few shots once we got well stuck-in.


The first fire team, the original group from the Intro Encounter, has been pretty much shot up by a very P.O.'d VC NCO with a PPsH. The dice for this guy just kept rolling hits and OOF's. B6's Star went down like wheat before the scythe with an Out Of the Fight result.


Reinforcements in the form of the HQ element of the squad have come in via the Eastern side of the road, quick-moving in an attempt to revive B6's Star w/ the Corpsman!


As the Lt., RTO and Corpsman moved down the road towards B6's wounded Star, the RTO moved towards the low white stone wall in front of the hooch while the Lt. jumps into the woods to rally a Hunkered Down Rifleman.The Corpsman needs to continue to Fast Move in order to get to the injured Star in time! A flash of gunfire erupts from the flimsy bamboo structure hitting the Corpsman (oh no!!) and causing the RTO to duck back.


A view down the long road. Out Of Fight and Obviously dead form a tight knot where the brief action was most devastating.


Now fire team Bold Badger has caught up with the rest of the squad and enters from the cross-road. Lucky for them they have an M79. With any luck this guy will make up for the way B6 & Gord have been throwing Marines into the meat-grinder! (At the rate these guys are going I understand why B6 likes to play with 15's. A whole lot more infantry on the table.)


Of course they might do well to wonder what danger may lurk inside this small copse of woods.


Together with the rallied rifleman, the Lt and the M60 gunner have moved up the embankment East of the rice paddies and are waiting for fire team Bold Badger to move into position.


Bold Badger comes into sight of a small hooch & triggers a Contact Roll resulting in contact with the remaining members of the VC Section. In Sight tests are rolled and one member of Bold Badger is Obviously Dead. Fortunately the M79 manages to put the VC in the hooch into Duck Back. The rest of fire team advance with no opposition and finish the job.


With the area secured this version of the Introductory Encounter has hopefully met its objectives: provide a fun opportunity to explore the potential of FNG & the core mechanic, the Reaction System, of the Two Hour Wargame family.

Thanks to B6 & to Gord for the feed-back, support and for coming out to play with me.

I wrote up some play aides and host notes based on the Introductory Infantry Encounter on page 23 of the FNG rule set. I'll use these again to when introducing FNG at local gaming shops & events here in Vancouver. Since turn out at events can be random, these are intended to work one on one or with groups of up to four plus a host.
Help yourself if you want to use them too:
http://drop.io/vjk1ttq/asset/peabody-s- ... sitrep-pdf Direct Link to Sitrep (Part One, main hand-out based on the P23 intro encounter.)

http://drop.io/jyauptw/asset/peabody-s- ... troops-pdf Direct Link to Troop List & Host tips (Part Two, Marines & VC)

A note on the terrain:
This game featured Palm Trees by B6 and other trees by Colin.
For this game I unleashed the prototype of my 'Secret Terrain Project', something that has been occupying all my spare problem-solving time for weeks, that is starting to look ok, but still has a ways to go. To that end I took advantage of the always large turn-out at Trumpeter's evenings to get feed-back and advice on some of the ideas I have for detailing (gardening?) the hexes. I'm looking forward to using Chagadiel's tutorial on wire-armature trees for double & triple canopy forest and populate my woods areas w/ those!

Thomas

Thomas, that is outstanding even if the terrain isn't even half finished in places. Those paddy fields are a stroke of genius.

cool i have never seen a hex system like that. your huts are great

Those hex tiles are going to look very impressive when finished. They look pretty good now even half done!

great !

agreeing on the terrain too

Pretty dang awesome! I can't wait to see how the hex terrain turns out either.

Looking cool Peabody. I'm with everyone else on the hex tiles... great looking start on the terrain.

Guess I'll just parrot the above: the hexes are pretty cool!

I'm amazed that you got Todd to play! That's a stroke in itself! It sounds like you had a bloody, but good time.

Thanks for the props guys, the hexes have been fun to model. I'm running some tests for water effects this week.

I think the hex idea makes a cool table for playing the hills & valleys of I Corps and the Central Highlands.
I don't see any reason to try to attempt urban areas w/ this system. But an FSB would rock.

@Darby, Todd is a gentleman and a scholar, it's not at all difficult to get him to come play a game. You just have to play from 7 to 10 pm! He says it is your turn now to come on up to B.C. and join us. I'll cook Thai food as an added enticement.

TR

Thanks for the props and compliments Peabody. I had a good time indeed. I've spoken to Tony at Trumpeter's about joining the club so game night may become a regular event for me!

As for the FNG/THW rules and mechanics, I'm still not all that keen on them and I find them still a bit complex for my liking, however I shall stay the course a tad longer as a player because Peabody is bound and determined to get them figured out to a fine art. Thus far, he's doing VERY well.

Oh and yes Darby... we need to get you up here at some point. That would be a blast!

-B6

people @ fof wrote:We play games together

jealous..

B6,

Agree with your comments on FBG/THW rules and mechanics, but, as you say, I'll keep on truckin for a bit longer.

Btw, what Vietnam rules did you use before FNG/THW?

Thanks,
Terry

BravoSix wrote:As for the FNG/THW rules and mechanics, I'm still not all that keen on them and I find them still a bit complex for my liking, however I shall stay the course a tad longer as a player because Peabody is bound and determined to get them figured out to a fine art. Thus far, he's doing VERY well.
-B6

Glad to hear I left a good impression with the game! I think I can deliver a smoother, more enjoyable session next time.
THW: the first cut is the deepest, for certain. But I see potential there. If Gord joins us again maybe he will want to help run the VC, if so, I'll run a team of grunts too!

Looking forward to trying other rule sets as well; I've yet to make heads or tails of Charlie Co. and a local guy says he has some nifty home-brew rules for 15's. And what about this set that Piers is involved in?
So much potential for fun...

Oh! Yah, jungle! I'm ordering some of those palms too... Colin convinced me that some Woodland Scenic trees are worthwhile. B6 has shown us where to get the cool palm trees. Chagadiel's Triple Canopy Wire Armature trees will complete the picture perfectly.

TR.

I've found that the most enjoyable games are those where all the players are on the same side. The US can get so much firepower that it makes playing the VC/NVA a bit brutal, unless you're really skilled at hit-and-run and put something in for dummy counters for when out of LOS.

Before writting up FNG, I used tweaked Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40k) and Charlie Company. I tried to use the RECON RPG for skirmish, but it took waaaaay too long...

Wow, this month's game is not too far away! 17 July! Getting the rest of that terrain gardened & finished. Put some muddy paths in the jungle & Spent Saturday twisting wire trees (should have taken guitar lessons...).

Have been working on a set of rules/guidelines for putting VC tunnel ambushes & withdrawls into play for same side games. Wont feature them at this month's game, but will have them out for feed-back. Maybe try them out if time permits.

Will need to make one or two of those 'Spider Hole' conversions, a nice marker w/ a VC with an RPD popping up to say "Boo!". Thank heavens for inexpensive plastics that are easy to convert!

TR