Gruntz: Mechs vs Sharkmen

Monday night saw Matt and I playing Gruntz again, this time at 250pts. I decided to try out a new force this time, Battlemechs. When I first started playing Gruntz I wanted to use an all mech force but didn't have the models necessary to field one. I decided the best way to rectify this was to buy the 25th Anniversary Battletech Box Set. Not just because of the cheap models but also because I've always liked Battletech. Sadly the box was out of stock everywhere and I had to wait a few months till they became available again. By then I'd rebased some 10mm Pendraken Dwarves from an old HOTT army to use with Gruntz. I spec'd the Mammoths as tanks and the gyrocopters as flyers and made the fluff so that the magic they used became missile attacks or laser blasts and justified the power armour as magic breastplates etc


The Kinn mounted in their Wooly Mammoth 'Tank'

After that another Gruntz player at the club, Paul, decided to get some more use out of his FoW stuff and made up a Weird WWII German force. I thought this was a great idea and decided to use some of my U.S. forces as the basis for a counter force. I had Marines and Shermans backed up by some Rebel Minis mechs and superheroes.


Mechs and tanks of my WWWII 'Freedom Force'



Marines and Superheroes of  'Freedom Force'

I'd had fun with these forces but I'd hadn't got around to making a mech force so I thought I'd give it a try for Monday's game.

As I was going to use Battletech (BT) models I decided to spec them up fairly close to how they looked. As we were doing 250pts I wouldn't be able to have lots of models so I decided to go with a light, two mediums and a heavy mech and see what points I had left after that. As Matt usually plays with quite a few squads of infantry I decided to make the light mech, a Cicada, an anti-infantry mech and equipped it with two flamers and a longer range option of a light missile launcher as a back up. I also gave the first of the mediums mechs, a Commando, an anti-infantry focus but equipped it with a heavier flamer and a gatling gun as a longer range AoE weapon and again a longer range option of a light missile launcher as a back up. The other medium mech was a Jagermech so I spec'd it as a long range sniper with two medium missile launchers and an HMG for close in protection. The heavy I used was one of my favourite BT models, the Hunchback. I spec'd his main armament as a heavy gauss gun and supported that with a heavy flamer and a light missile launcher. This left me with about 60pts so i started to spec up the commander who i also wanted to be in a mech. But this is difficult to do with the current version of the rules so I had to compromise and use him as though he was in a very heavy suit of power armour. I then added in a squad of my U.S Marines to round out the points and to use to either hold or take an objective.

Of course when Matt puts down his force he doesn't have any infantry, typical! He'd decided to use a giant flying lizard with a couple of huge sharkmen with laserbeam eyes backed up by a couple of crab men and a five smaller flying lizards. This is one of the great things about the army builder in Gruntz, you can spec up any kind of force you want. The sharkmen were spec'd as tanks for instance. Matt could have used some of his many tank models but going with giant sharks with laserbeam eyes is way more fun.

We set up the terrain and Matt put down the Blue transport as my objective. I had to get to it, start it up and fly it away using skill checks to see if I was successful at each stage. I did have a bit of a problem though. None of my mechs would fit in the cockpit! So this meant that one of my gruntz or my commander would have to do it covered by the mechs.

My starting position.

A view of the whole table

The first couple of turns for both of us were spent either getting into firing positions or closing on the objective.

My position at the end of turn 1.

Matt's forces at the end of turn 1.

My commanders skill of six helps me win the initiative roll and I make Matt go first. He proceeds to threaten the transport by landing his flying lizard on it. I counter by moving my commander up close with the hope of boarding it next turn. My Hunchback opens fire on the lizard doing some serious damage. Elsewhere the Jagermech incapacitates one of the crabmen, if it doesn't manage to heal itself next turn its a goner.

My positions at the end of turn 2.

Next turn Matt's crabman fails to heal his wounds and dies. Matt also decides to assault my Hunchback with his flying lizard before its gauss gun can inflict more damage on it. He does some damage but not enough to cause the Hunchback problems. In the Hunchback's turn he toasts the lizard with his flamer leaving it almost dead. Matt also moves up his small flying lizards to threaten my right flank so I move up the marines as a counter. I then move my commander up to the transport and make the skill roll to repair its engines so its ready for takeoff.
 

Matt prepares to move up his giant flying lizard.

Realising that I could make off with the now repaired transport Matt moves his small flying lizards into a position where they can fire on the transport hoping to destroy it. They do some damage, but not enough to destroy it. Matt also used one of his sharkmen to ram the transport doing massive damage to the tail leaving it with only one damage box left. My marines then let rip as a squad and kill two of the small flying lizards. The Cicada also moves up to fire on the lizards but with no effect.


The situation after Matt's attacks on the transport.

A close up of the action round the transport.



The view of the action from Matt's side of the table.

My commander then makes all his skill checks allowing him to strip off his armour and board the transport, jump into the cockpit and start to move it away from the action. However before he can take off the sharkman gets a free attack only needing to do one damage to destroy the transport. He hits but needs an eight to do any damage he rolls the dice and it's a seven. The sharkman roars in frustration as the transport takes off.

Luckily for Matt he wins the next initiative and his flying lizards chase the transport trying to bring it down but again the dice aren't with Matt and they fail to do the one damage they need to destroy it. My commander then activates and tries to break contact with the lizards. Again Matt fails with his free hit and the transport flys off the table winning the game. But as we are having so much fun we continue with the game.

The lizards struggle to bring down the transport.

Matt seeks to gain revenge for his loss by ganging up on the Cicada

The sharkman on the right eats his way through the marines breaking them,
 while the other one looks to threaten my mechs.

The Jagermech kills the sharkman on the roof while all around melees rage.

After much mayhem and carnage time runs out and we call it a night. I end up with one mech left and Matt is left with his commander and a sharkman. We both agree that it was a really fun game, probably the best game we've had, and that both forces worked well and were fun to play. I was particularly pleased with how well my mechs faired, and look forward to fielding them again.