Monday 6 April 2015

One-Hour Wargames - Scenario 7 - Flank Attack (2)

Or The Battle For Mount Fuji

The evil Xilians have established a base on Mount Fuji and are preparing to unleash Hideous Death. Japan - indeed the world - is doomed unless someone can prevent this. The base is guarded by three monsters, Ghidorah, Gigan and Space Godzilla.


Against them the JSDF can only muster Kiryu.


But wait! What's this coming in from the east? Reinforcements in the form of the Togusatsu hero Valiant Monster Fighter and Mothra.


The stage is set for Scenario 7 in Neil Thomas's One-Hour Wargames. I suspect that this isn't something he'd considered as a possible way of fighting it but I was in the mood for a monster game and the idea of merging it with my scenario project came to me in a flash of inspiration.

In this scenario one force is defending a hill against what appears to be a weak attack from the front. But a flanking attack is hard upon them. Victory goes to whoever controls the hill. Rather than six units a side, which translated to six monsters would make for an unwieldy game, I went for three a side. The split for the attackers - 1/3 frotal force and 2/3 flank attack - still works.

This is the actual setup.


The heroes were straight off the mark, with Valiant Monster Fighter getting stuck into Space Godzilla using his awesome martial arts abilities.


Mothra has some powerful abilities, but had rolled badly for atomic power on the first turn, so couldn't make use of them. She opted to support Valiant Monster Fighter with close combat attacks against Space Godzilla.


Unfortunately Space Godzilla retaliated with a tail sweep which knocked Mothra out of the sky


He then turned, powering up his telekinesis ...


... and flung Valiant Monster Fighter off the mountain.


Before Mothra could recover, both Space Godzilla and Gigan were on her and she was blasted and sliced into defeat.

Less than one turn into the game, and the attackers were already down one monster.


Ghidorah moved to attack Kiryu, blasting it with lasers.


Kiryu retaliated, launching rockets, lasers and even the mighty freeze ray at Ghidorah, hoping to bring him down, or at least seriously damage him, as quickly as possible. The freeze ray hit, but Ghidorah resisted the damage..


Retaining the initiative Kiryu used its rocket packs to get in close to Ghidorah, and inflicted damage with its drill and blade.


Space Godzilla attacked with his energy blast, but couldn't use his telekinesis because Ghidodorah was in the line of fire as well.


Valiant Monster Fighter couldn't get back into close combat, but could use his energy drain on Space Godzilla. It had little effect however.


Gigan flew into the attack, and a titanic struggle ensued.


The end of the second turn - Ghidorah and Space Godzilla were putting Kiryu under pressure. Kiryu had used most of its expendable weaponry and was desperately hoping for the atomic power needed to recharge it. Valiant Monster Fighter and Gigan continued to fight.


Gigan got in some telling blows with his hooked claws, and then backed off before Valiant Monster Fighter could retaliate.


Ghidorah flew off the mountain in order to give Space Godzilla a clear shot at Kiryu with his telekinesis, but Kiryu launched a final volley of rockets ...


.. and knocked Ghidorah out of the sky. Turning, Kiryu then charged Space Godzilla ...


... and threw him off the mountain.


Unperturbed, Space Godzilla floated upwards ...


... and used telekinesis to hurl Kiryu across the battlefield.


This had used up all of Space Godzilla's power, though, leaving him open to an attack by Valiant Monster Fighter. He grabbed Space Godzilla ...


  ... and threw him into the nearby town.


Gigan returned to the fray. His claws had a longer reach than Valiant Monster Fighter's punches, and he made use of that to avoid retaliatory attacks.


Before Kiryu could recover, Space Godzilla rose above the town and used his energy blast to destroy the mechanical monster.


He then turned and mentally pushed Valiant Monster Fighter away from Gigan. Valiant Monster Fighter was now alone against three alien monsters.


He went back into the attack against Gigan who was the only opponent he could now reach. He inflicted hits and, amazingly, survived the return attacks.


Ghidorah recovered and re-entered the fray.


He positioned himself higher up the mountain, and used lasers to wear down Valiant Monster Fighter.


Valiant Monster Fighter saw a chance to score some useful damage on two monsters, and attempted to pick up and throw Ghidorah. But for all of his skill, he failed.


Before he got another change, Space Godzilla launched atomic energy at him, and he was down. The Aliens had won.


The game lasted five of the ten turns I had allocated to the game.


Launching the weak Mothra into close combat on the first turn was a mistake. She has some powerful abilities, but relies on decent atomic power to use them and should otherwise stay out of reach. Ghidorah resisting almost all of  Kiryu's freeze ray, and Valiant Monster Fighter's failure to throw Ghidorah off the mountain also contributed to humanity's defeat. Space Godzilla made full use of his range of abilities to cause general havoc and create openings for his allies.

The game was fun, but how did it work in relation to the original intent of the scenario? This seems to be to force the defender, who will be strung out along the hill facing one direction, to turn and face an attack from another direction, whilst the attackers have to keep up the pressure om the exposed flank. To some extent you got this on the first turn, with Mothra and Valiant Monster Fighter able to pile into Space Godzilla on the end of the line, but once everything else started to react became a much more fluid fight. There were movement effects relating to the mountain, but since all of the monsters bar one could fly and the one that couldn't could leap they didn't influence the game. Maybe some more ground-based monsters would have helped, making getting thrown off the mountain more of a disadvantage. I'd say that as a version of Neil Thomas's scenario it didn't really work, but as a scenario in its ow right - be the only side in control of the mountain, it has distinct possibilities. And that's part of the fun of this exercise with the scenarios; looking to see what works with them, and what doesn't.

Follow the rest of the scenario refights HERE

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