One Force, Two Force, Red Force, Blue Force - The Battlefield AAR

The other game I played at the wargaming meetup was The Battlefield. I was really pleased to finally get a chance to play. I've known about this set of rules for some time now (there's even a half-finished WW2 adaption somewhere in my Google Drive...). It's goal is to simulate playing a First-Person Shooter on the tabletop, with a fantastically innovate action point system. 

Ben (who was running the game) had used the game's near-future options with some house rules for his scenario. In a war-torn city, two opposing forces have located a munitions dump with critical supplies. 

Blue Force was smaller and more elite, with a Spec Ops team, an Engineering Team, a Sniper team, two Assault Teams, a VTOL, and two armored transports. They also had two reinforcement points. 

Red Force had two Assault Teams, a Support Team, and Grenadier team, a Tank, a heavy APC, and armored transports. They had four reinforcement points. 

I was one of two Red Force commanders, controlling the Support and Grenadier teams and the two armored transports. 

Blue Force quickly captured the munitions dump by using their VTOL to drop the Spec Ops team onto the roof. 

With the heavy cover provided by the munitions building (and the heavy weapons restrictions - neither side wanted to blow the entire supplies cache up and level multiple city blocks!), Red Force was stuck trying to suppress the Blue Force infantry that was occupying the buildings. 

Meanwhile the Blue Force VTOL swung around to the side and started hammering the Red Force Tank and APC with its Rockets and Chain Guns. 

Dismounting from their transports, the Red Force infantry had to keep their heads down as they approached the munitions building. 

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the VTOL to deal with the Tank and APC, both falling to a hail of Chain Gun fire. After making sure the Red Force infantry were tucked safe and sound in the nearby buildings, the VTOL returned back to the munitions building to provide cover to the Blue Force infantry inside. 

The Red Force transports took even less time for the VTOL to sort out, and a desperate CQC charge by Red Force infantry into the upper floors of the building fizzled out. 

With that, Red Force decided to retreat rather than try and press forward. With no mechanized support, and the VTOL patrolling the area, it would have taken a miracle for the reinforcements to reach the munitions dump. 

Ben ran a great game (which looked amazing - the smoke columns had little tea lights in them to simulate the flickering flames) and I'll happily look forward to playing more of The Battlefield in the future. 

With the (currently) ongoing invasion of Ukraine, I've been reflecting on my willingness to play games set in "modern" eras; anything from Vietnam to "ultra-modern." While The Battlefield is intended for use with modern conflicts, I think I'd rather adapt them to WWII, or use them with scifi minis like Ben has done.