Close Encounter in the 'Dawn of Man'

In 2023 I made a scenario and played a prehistoric 'fantasy' wargame between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals using my own house rules. Is it possible to create a scenario for en even earlier period than this 'prehistoric' game?

In 2024 I made a 54mm 'Ape Army' for Sci-fi and Fantasy wargames. Even If my Apes depicts 'Chimpanzees' I envision that they also could substitute for early Hominids in the 'Dawn of Man', like those in the beginning of '2001 - A Space Odyssey' too. In that movie the evolution accelerates when the Hominids receives a Monolith from space some 4 million years ago, and they learn to develop tools and weapons. -Not only for hunting, but to battle each others as well. What if these early Hominids eventually got armed with simple spears not only received a 'monolith' from space, but actually got into a close and violent encounter with aliens armed with high tech weapons? -That could be an interesting scenario for another prehistoric Sci-fi/Fantasy wargame.

I don't have many 'alien' miniatures either, but I made some 'V'-miniatures last year. Like the early Hominids there aren't detailed records of the "Visitors" history either and all we actually 'know' is that they're from the 4th planet from Sirius in the 'Canis Major' constellation. They're a militaristic race of reptilian aliens, who travel to stars and plunder other worlds. We don't know how old their world is, and for how long they have been space travelling and plundered other planets. So for the scenario for this wargame I presupposes that they had such technology and were performing such activities at the same time as the 'Dawn of Man' on earth.

I had almost everything needed to play this game at hand, but decided go fancy and 3D-print and paint a 'Monolith' to set the scene:

The Rules

For this little skirmish game I wanted to combine FUBAR 4th Edition with FUBAR Dark Fantasy, as they have (almost) similar Core Rules. Close Combat and morale rules are slightly different between them, and are played as FUBAR 4th edition. I'll use FUBAR Dark Fantasy for the Hominids due to their melee weapons, and FUBAR 4th edition for the "Visitors" due to their ranged weapons and body armour. Their laser rifles are treated as 'assault rifles' according to the rules. 

However, some house rules seemed necessary; I guess early Hominids are 'comparable' with modern Chimanzees which are very fast, so I let them move 8" insted of 6". They also have brutal strength, a strong bite and deadly teeth, so I think they will be far superior to the reptiles in hand-to-hand combat, so they get to improve their expertise with +1 in melee for their physical strength and another +1 for their 2 handed spear.

The Scenario

About 4 million years ago an alien space-ship on their way home to their planet after a plundering raid on another planet, experienced technical difficulties when passing our solar system. The technical challenges resulted in that they needed to drop their loot from one of their cargo bays.

The dropped loot was valuable hard drives from another ancient world, and salvage patrols was eventually sent from this reptilian's home planet near Sirius to see if this loot could be found and salvaged. Several patrols searched through our solar system to see if the hard drives could be found by smaller crafts and recovered by larger vessels. 

One of these smaller 'Search and Rescue' patrols were searching planet earth. When passing the area we know as the African continent, they spotted an objective which could be one of the hard drives. They decided to land to have a closer look before contacting their Motherships and report their possible find...

Forces:

• The Shock Troopers:
• 1 squad of 2 fireteams:
• Fireteam 1: 2 troopers with High-Output Energy Rifles (like assault rifles according to the rules) and 1 trooper with a heavy laser blaster (like a LMG in the rules)
• Fireteam 2: 2 troopers with High-output Energy Rifles (like assault rifles according to the rules) and 1 trooper with laser launcher (rocket launcher in the rules).
• The Shock Troopers have body armour which will save on 5+ and are 'Veterans'.

• The Hominids are not 'organized' but fights as 3 groups of 5 each. They have not yet developed the capacity of throwing their spears, so they can only use them for thrusting. They will fight as 'Seasoned and their  experience gains a +2 in melee. They have no armour but will save on a +6 due to a 'stray shot'.

Mission:

• The Shock Troopers: To gain access to the 'monolith' for one turn to decide if it's a rock or if it's one of the lost hard drives.
• Hominids: They see the 'Visitors' as invaders and a threat to their tribe, and will try to eliminate them.

AAR

Time:    30 minutes

Turns:   3 (!)

Result:  Hominids victory

A 'Search and Rescue' Skyfighter flies by an object and decides to take a closer look at it from the ground:

When the Skyfighter lands the crew disembarks, and then they sees that the objekt is surrounded by some sorts of primates:

The Shock Troopers does not know if the inhabitants of this planet are friendly or not. It doesn't look like they have any advanced technology or weapons.The Shock Troopers goes on guard to see how the primates acts:

One group of Hominids rush against the strangers, and it becomes clear to the Shock Troopers that they are not friendly and they opens fire:

And makes one hit, which is 'pinned':

Then a second group of Hominids hastes against the other group of strangers. It's very clear that they have no friendly intentions with this behavior and the Shock Troopers opens fire:

This group of Shock Troopers also have a heavy blaster:

The Shock Troopers tries to hold the Hominids on a distance by heavy fire, but the Groups of Hominids just don't seems to care and and now a third group of Hominids joins the battle. How long can the Shock Troopers hold them back:

Not very long. Despite some hits, none of them were critical and the Hominids didn't seems to care and they rushed into an assault on a group of Shock Troopers:

It's a fierce melee and casualties on both sides, but it still looks like the Hominids have the upper hand:

The second group of Hominids also rush into an assault on the Shock Troopers:

And it's a brutal melee with casualties on both sides:

Finally the first group of charging Hominids have killed all the Shock Troopers in close combat with no further casualties:

That alien gunner is a though one, and really  hold his ground in the close combat for another turn:

-Until the third group of Hominids also made an assault and joined the close combat agains the last alien. Even if he was a brave alien, he was chanceless against this horde:

This was an victory for the Hominids. They tried to enter the space craft, but didn't manage to open it.

While on their way back to their 'base' they heard a nose from above. On the sky they could see another similar ship as the one they just abounded, but it didn't land as the first one. It just opened fire and destroyed the first ship, so the 'enemy' wouldn't take advantage of their advanced technology. They did not have intention to land in a such hostile environment...

... at least, not yet. Perhaps they would come back to this planet in the future better prepared for battle:

The Bots are Coming!

Like other wargaming blogs this blog also suddenly experienced a 'tsunami' of 'mysterious visitors' this September. All this sudden hits are presumably not 'real visitors' or human readers, but more likely 'Web Crawlers', 'Search Spiders' or 'AI Chatbots'. What they exactly was, what their mission was, where they actually came from and why, I don't know for sure. Let's assume it was 'AI chatbots' they were probably searching wargaming blogs to pick up more knowledge of the subject and learn more about wargaming? -And to perhaps also to learn to wargame?? 

This made me think if this 'phenomenon' could be transferred to a wargame, or to a scenario for a wargame? -The Bots are Coming! 

Preparing the game

To be able to transfer this to a skirmish wargame I needed to materialize some 'intelligent' bots into some kind of 'battle-machines'. The answer gave it self, and I searched Thingeverse for some free files that could be resized and 3D-printed to 54mm. It's skinny, but due to the period for my scenario it's probably an early model (T600 or pre T600):

Then they were given a very simple and basic paint job, and a couple of coats of 'blackwash':

The Rules

The Terminators cant't time-travle with weapons, so for this game they are unarmed and they'll only fight hand-to-hand. I think the free FUBAR wargame rules can be amended for a battle between a superior force in close combat VS. a larger seasoned force with ranged combat capacities. 

The Scenario

After several unsuccessfully attempts to assassinate Sarah Connor and preventing her to give birth to the future resistance leader John Connor, the AI defense network Skynet simultaneously tries to assassinate Sarah Connor's father before she's even born, and so to prevent the future birth of her and her son.

Before Sarah Connor was born in 1965, her father was a soldier and fought in an unnamed war. Skynet is therefore sending Terminators back in time to search different conflicts and battlefields in the early 60ies where they have recorded plausible 'Connors'.

In Eastern Congo, 1961 Sergeant Connor is leading a reinforced UN squad which has been ordered to hold a key junction near the village of Kalemie to keep Katangese rebels from moving supplies. The peacekeepers expect rebels — but instead, three T-600s step out of the jungle and advance relentlessly toward the crossing. -What are they, where do they come from and why are they here???

Forces:

• Terminators:
• 3 early and unarmed models of T-600 Terminators which activites independently.
• A Terminator automatically incapacitate a single human opponent per action in close combat.
• Terminators are fast, so I'll let them move 12" instead of 6".
• Terminators ignore moral checks and pinning.
• I will let the Terminators fight as 'Elite' and 'Heavy Tank'. They can be harmed by HMGs (.50 cal.) and RPGs. On early Terminators only their front was heavy armored, so these will have to roll for a save (2+) from small arms if hit from behind.
• Hit effects:
• 1-2: -2 to next activation only
• 3-4: Can only move half speed rest of the game
• 5: immobilized for rest of the game
• 6: Terminator destroyed

• UN :

All UN forces will fight as 'Seasoned' in this game. Their M1 rifles are semi automatic so I'll let them have 2FP on ranges less than 12".

• A squad of 8 soldiers armed with 1 SMG, 6 M1 rifles and 1 LMG are manning the UN-Check Point.
• A Bazooka unit with 3 soldiers armed with 1 bazooka (with armor piercing rockets), 1 SMG and  M1 rifle provides back up support.
• A Jeep with a crew of 3 armed with a .50 cal. HMG provides supporting cover for the Check Point. Luckily they trying out the new Multi Purpose ammunition from Norway.

Mission:

• Terminators: To eliminate the UN unit in search for 'Connor'.
• UN: To pacify the Terminators.

The Game

Time:    55 minutes 

Turns:   9

Result:  This point is a 'spoiler alert', isn't it? It's a win for the Sgt. Connor and his men, but I'm not sure it's a victory for humanity having a battlefield with future artificial killer technology scattered around. One of the 'bots' are even still on.

There are not Katangan Rebels who exits the Jungle and approaches the UN-Check Point outside Kalemie...

The Traffic Sentry shouts them to stop as they're approaching the Check Point. He has not seen 'things' like these before:

The Terminators are ignoring him and keep advancing. Following the Rules of Engagement he warns them that he will open fire if they don't stop:

The Terminators keeps advancing, and the Traffic Sentry gives them a final warning and shoots a warning shoot:

The warning shoot did not scare the terminators off or made them come to a halt. The Sentry aims carefully and fires against the closest Terminator. He can see that he hit, but with no effect at all:

The closest Terminator rushes towards the Traffic Sentry and lethally strike him. The 2 other Terminators changes course and advance towards the Cover Sentry and Search Team. Both the Cover Sentry and the Search Team open fires upon the advancing machines, and score several hits on them with no effect. Not even from their high rate fire LMG:

Sgt. Connor orders his men to retreat:

The UN Jeep covering the Check Point opens fire with it's 0.50 cal HMG, and hits the Terminator which killed the Traffic Sentry:

The UN HMG hits the Terminator with so many successfully shots, that the Terminator stumble backwards, looses balance and fall upon the Czech Hedgehog behind him. The Czech Hedgehog impales the Terminator, and the Terminator becomes immobilized for the rest of the game:

Sgt. Connor's squad are retreating, but the LMG Team falls behind. The UN-Jeep rushes forward and opens fire on the pursuing Terminators: 

Even if the Terminators are hit by several shots of the HMG it doesn't stop them, only slowing them down:

Soon the 2 Terminators catch up with the slow LMG team of Sgt. Connor's squad, and immediately takes out 2 of them:

Even if the UN HMG scores several hits on the Terminators, it doesn't stop them from taking out the last member of the LMG team:

While the Terminators starts advancing towards the Jeep and the threat it's HMG represents, they don't notice the Bazooka team sneaking up from behind:

When ready the Bazooka team aims carefully and fires an armor piercing rocket and hit one of the Terminators from behind, where it's weakest point is:

It was a lethal hit:

The last Terminator turned around and took aim to ram the Bazooka team...

...which made a daring move; They knew that they didn't have time to reload so they started to run towards the Terminator at the same time the Terminator approached them and beat the Bazooka gunner to death. The team leader and loader made to run past him. They immediately turned around and shot the Terminator in the back:

Another success by the 2 remaining members of the Bazooka team! The Terminator was finally Terminated:

Sgt. Connor didn't know he was the target for this mechanical 'kill team', and the androids did not know if they've targeted the right 'Connor'. 

Sgt. Connor gathered his men around the last Terminator impaled at the Czech Hedgehog struggling to get free, but...

... no official reports were given what happened next...

Conclusion

Ironically I used the AI bot ChatGPT to partially create this scenario and figure out a rifle-squad chance vs. a T-600 Terminator. 

I have a soft spot for the free FUBAR wargaming rules, and used the expertise in the FUBAR FB-group to check my suggested stats for the Terminators.

I really do recommend the FUBAR wargaming rules, and signing up to their FB-group. If you haven't tried these rules out, yet, I really recommend you to do.

Blog PostScript

My youngest son is autistic and is not interested in tabletop wargaming. He's very interesting in gaming characters though. While preparing for this game he came with some of his lates acquisitions and played following his own rules. -which I off course let him. In his game the robot (Metal Sonic) was the winner and the Terminators seemed chanceless.