Xenos Rampant WW2 AAR

Bruce and I played two games of Xenos Rampant recently. He hosted a 28mm Vietnam game (for which I cannot find the pictures) set in an urban location. Charlie carried the day. I then put on a 1/72-scale WW2 Sicily game (mostly to get a bunch of figures on the board for the first time). I've no idea why this paragraph in centred (stupid Blogger bug).

This was a 50-point game with two commands for each side. Axis were split German and Italian while the Allies were split infantry and tanks. Three hidden value objectives were placed (town, hill on left, hill on right) and deployment side by die roll (we ended up coming in perpendicular to one another).

The Axis used their superior position and auto movement to grab all three objectives quickly. Above the Italians approach the Brits. Below, the Allies sent infantry against the closest objective (left hill) and the tanks to hook right to move on the centre objective. Bruce positioned his 88 on a hill with good fire lanes, which partly drove the Allied strategy.

A bit of tank jam. I will thrilled to get these model on the table final (some are for Tim in Saskatoon; others a built; a mix of plastics and metals).

The allies also set up their Grant on overwatch support the infantry advance.

This Panzer 3 (sitting atop an objectives) took a real pasting all game long and just kept shaking the hits off. Bruce proposed an alternative hit mechanism where every hit above the armour value adds an additional hit (official rules are every multiple of the armour adds a hit). This would allow for a tank to get a quick kill on a luck set of dice. We'll try that the next time we bring Xenos out.

Below we see the battle taking shape. The Italians are on the hill to the left but are taking casualties from British indirect fire (mortar teams). The Germans are in town and on the hill on the right, with the British tanks cowering behind the hill from the 88.

The Italians were eventually routed and the Allies captured the left hill, which swung the battle (only one German command versus two British).

As the game moves into overtime (rolling each turn for dusk), the British tanks advance up the hill, finally KOing the Panzer 3. In the end, the middle objective is contested and the British eek out a narrow win on points (the British infantry took a beating and most of the Germans lived to fight another day).

Overall, a pretty fun game. I could spend some time further differentiating the tanks a bit. It felt like WW2 in the Mediterranean and we were forced to use historical tactics. Plus, I was thrilled to get these troops out onto the table (I started out with 1/72 figures 45-odd years ago) after years of having them ready and tucked away in a drawer.