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.

The Battle Benchy Board Game 1.0.0

Despite confusingly similar names, this game is not the same naval wargame I played and reviewed earlier in the 'Benchy Battle' bloggpost. The game I'm going to play and review in this bloggpost is called 'The Battle Benchy Board Game 1.0.0' (rules is in the file section) and claims to be similar to Warhammer 40000. Even if it's name claims to be a Board Game, it's actually a miniature tabletop game meant to be played  with (specific) 'little Benchies'. I've never played any Warhammer games before so I have no idea how similar they actually are, but I do have a fleet of Benchies, so I'll give these rules a go. 

The STL-files on the page where I found the rules suggests that you can 3D-print wrecks to block line of sight, so I'll just use the wrecks from my previous 'Benchy Battle' and place them where my ships run out of health. 

The Scenario

The scenario will be the same as my previous 'Benchy game'; Navy B are protecting the water of the coast of 'Benchy Islands', while Navy A will try to defeat them and gain control of 'Benchy Islands'.

Forces:

• Navy A

From left to right; Gunboat, Corvette and Battleship 

• Navy B

From left to right; Battleship, Corvette and Gunboat,    

Mission:

• For both navies; To eliminate the opponent to gain control of the coast of 'Benchy Islands'.

The Game

Time:    1 hour and 8 minutes 

Turns:   10

Result:  A win for Navy A by a very narrow margin. 

Navy A was keeping a steady course for Benchy Islands:

When Navy B observed Navy A's offensive course, Navy B was seeking cover in sheltered waters:

It was not too obvious for Navy A where Navy B was located anymore:

Navy B was just lurking inshore, waiting:

When Navy A was approaching the Navy B Corvette made a reposition as the Navy A Battle Ship was heading towards the strait it was seeking cover in:

While in the open the Navy A Battleship turned and gave the Navy B Corvette a broad side and got a couple of hits before it reached cover:

When Navy A was entering the range of fire, the Navy B Battleship moved and gave the Navy A Corvette a 'broad side' a scored a couple of hits:

The Navy A Corvette returned fire and scored a couple of hits too:

This was the situation at the end of the initial clash:

The Navy A Corvette moved out of the Navy B Battleship's line of fire and tried an attack on those 2 Navy B ships hiding behind the small island, and scored another hit on that B-Corvette:

Navy B's Battleship took up the pursuit and gave that A-Corvette the Coup d'état:

Navy A's Battleship moved further into the strait to try to to fall Navy B in the back, but at the same time they were moving out to open waters:

But the Navy B Battleship came into sight, and the Navy A Battleship opened fire and scored another 2 hits:

The Navy A's small Gunboat sneaked around the island and clashed into the Navy B's small Gunboat. The Navy A boat opened massive fire...

...which the Navy B boat wasn't able to save:

At this point the Navy B's Battleship moved into position to return fire against the battle ship from Navy A, and hit with 3 shells:

An overall view of the situation at this point of the battle:

Navy B's Corvette retaliated Navy A's small Gunboat's attack... 

and sunk it in one salvo:

At this time the Navy A's Battleship had moved into a better firing position and gave Navy B's Battleship a final bombardment:

Now it was only Navy B's Corvette vs. Navy A's Battleship left in the battle:

The smaller Corvette tried to out maneuver the larger Battleship and opened fire and hit with one shell:

The Battleship turned around and gave the Corvette a broad side.

The smaller Corvette couldn't survive that massive fire, and sunk:

The attacking Navy A had the last floating ship, and it was heavily battle damaged at this point. This was a scanty victory for Navy A, which now controlled the sea of Benchy Islands

Pros

• The rules are free. The rules are easy to play.
• The rules are actually easy and only 4 really short pages long, but it feels like they're written unnecessarily complicated.

Cons

• This game uses specific types of 'naval' Benchies. I guess you can substitute the different kind of ships. I just played the game with the Benchies I had sorting them after 3 different 'classes'; Heavy, Medium and Light according to the rules and using their actually number of guns for weapon stats. My ships doesn't have rotating turrets either as suggested in the rules, so I'll just have to imagine my turrets turns to get Line of sight. 
• Turn sequence seems very unclear in the rules. I played it by rolling for activation each time for a ship, and a turn ended when all ships on both sides had activated. 

Conclusion

After playing this game I have a feeling that these rules are quite not finished yet. -Like the rules for activation is missing completely. The rues are also unnecessarily complicated written and should be simplified perhaps even with charts. I also think the rules are too specific for the 'Navy Benchy'-models the game designer intend to use for his games, and it would be better to categorize the ships into 3 or 4 different Classes based upon size and weaponry. Due to these shortcomings the rules are absolutely playable, and I did have a good time playing them out on my table. You could too.

I still have my 'Benchies' so I'll think I'll move on and try them out with some other free rules. Please follow my blog and find out.