The Ion Age, Patrol Angis: Stalking through the woods, (warning: may not contain much woodland)

 

After much anticipation, I played my first solo game of Patrol Angis by Alternative Armies. I had spent a lot of time painting my starter set models and very little time throwing a table together using a battle systems game mat, some trees made by my good friend and part-time lover Robbie Grant and the original 15mm Critical Mass terrain that the great men themselves used in their fantastic and fondly remembered demonstration tables, (courtesy of my beloved friend Adam Davies).

This scenario is called ‘Stalking in the Forest’, but my decision to play this solo game was fairly last-minute and I hadn’t prepared enough trees, so opted to use my lovely new/old and much loved critical mass buildings instead.

The scenarios in the Patrol Angis book are set on the world of Dando III where the Prydian Army are fighting a hit-and-run war against the League of Yordan forces who have laid claim to the mineral rich world by means of a bloody and very un-knightly, (word) coup.

This scenario sees the dashing Baron Balthazar and his adjutant Jerome, (whose name I remember by thinking of Robson and Jerome. Spare me your judgement) leading their Lance, (the Prydian name for a platoon) of Retained Knights through a densely wooded area while trying to evade or destroy, (but ideally evade) a trio of Retained Yordish Knights each piloting a deadly Duxis battlesuit.

I opted to play the Prydians because Balthazar is just awesome in the background and the Yordists are classic villains, (and dicks) in the true sense of every great space opera setting. In this scenario, the silent player is aggressive meaning that the Yordist player will make every effort to close with the enemy foregoing actions like overwatch, self-preservation, precise shot and anything else that gets in the way of getting right up in the Prydians’ grille and giving them a bloody good kicking! Another feature of this mission is that troop-specific special rules are disabled, so no jump jets, Cybernue enhancements for Balthazar, etc… but being a veteran wargamer, I decided to use them.

 Deployment

Both forces were set up within 5cm of opposite table edges in accordance with the scenario rules. I opted to keep the Duxis battlesuits in a single post of three models to make them more survivable. I split the Prydian post up into Demis, (4 man fireteams) and Minas, (2 man fireteams) to offer me greater flexibility and also just because I wanted to learn about how the action point allocation works by having lots of options to play with. For other beginners, I recommend that you leave the Prydians in their 10 man posts for your first game and run the Duxis as three individuals.

I rolled initiative and the Yordists won with 7 to the Prydians’ 6, meaning that both sides would receive 7 activation tokens plus an extra 1 for the Yordists as they were the initiative player.

I continued the phase by allocating tokens to the Yordists, (they allocate first, being the initiative player) then to one of the troop elements of the Prydians. Having only a single troop element on the Yordist side, I allocated their 8 tokens in one go and split the tokens between my Prydian troop elements. Without an understanding of how the game worked in practice, I just wanted to ensure that every troop element could do something, but – in theory – I could have loaded a few elements with lots of tokens.

Now let’s get to the bit that everybody wants to see: photos of wee men killing each other on a grown man’s dining room table.

Game Objectives:

Prydian Army - Exit the board via the enemy deployment zone with as many troop elements as possible or destroy all enemy troop elements

League of Yordan - Kill all Prydians

The Yordists begin the festivities by unloading a blistering barrage of railgun, laser and howitzer fire at the Prydian lines to no effect.

The Prydian Anvil 888 team respond with a precise shot action scoring 1 out of 2 possible hits which is multiplied by the weapon's AOE rule, (If I had thought ahead, I would have placed an additional activation token on the Anvil 888 team. Usually, a support weapon can only fire once a turn, but there was a loader in the same Mina which would have allowed a second shot in the same turn).

The initiative player allocates damage from combat. I decided that if it were me, I'd have spread the damage across my troop element, so they received one DMR each having failed all three armour saves!

The Yordists return fire following the Silent Player guidance of targeting priority. Robson and Jerome, (don't judge me) take cover and Jerome snap fires back scoring a lucky hit.

Robson and Jerome are out of range for the Baron's deadly Carnwennan pistol to be brought into play, so opt to order another round of fire from the Anvil 888 team. I am now painfully aware that my army is sitting in the open relying on a combination of Chameleon circuits and rubbish Yordish marksmanship to remain alive. The order goes through without issue and the Anvil 888 team unload to devastating effect. I decided that the Yordists would allocate the damage to their least useful - in this particular engagement - battlesuit. The Duxis wielding a Fretan Railgun collapses to its knees in a burning heap. The Yordists receive a re-motivate token which they immediately remove by spending a vital activation token. They have plenty left...

The leader of the Yordist troop element - the Harlequin - swears revenge on Baron Balthazar and unleashes yet another deadly salvo. This time, Robson and Jerome have sung their last. Without an activation token to spend on removing DMR, the pair are hurled into the air in a cloud of dust and ravaged soil. I neglected to use Balthazar's 'Baron' special rule to cheat death, (because I forgot) so I decided that he and Jerome were dragged from the field and restored to health post-battle. The Demi to the left of the hapless comman Mina open up with their Angis AP MK7 rifles and the Minstrel Taser to no effect. The Taser's shocker effect also fails to disorient the battlesuits.

The Yordists take aim at the Demi with the hated Anvil 888 team, but fail to hit.
The Prydian Demi on the right flank use their jump jets to blast off behind the Duxis battlesuits and pester them with fire from their Angis MK7 rifles causing a point of damage. This also grants me the possibility of outpacing the Duxis and reaching their table edge should they mop up the rest of my army.

The Retained Knights hold their ground and receive a punishing charge from the Duxis battlesuits who tear them apart with their Impact Fists before the brave knights even have a chance to respond.

The Mina on the back line open up on the battlesuits with their Angis AP MK7 rifles and a multi-launcher further reducing the Duxis' armour integrity, though not by enough to prevent their wholesale slaughter as the Yordists stomp them into piles of bloody froth and broken Alwhite armour. 

The Sniper Mina on the far left of the Prydian flank make a desperate jumpjet exfiltration to the Yordist rear and open fire with their Angis AP MK7 rifles scoring two hits which the enemy fail to save. Both suits explode in gouts of flame and roiling clouds of black smoke. 

A Pyrrhic victory for the brave knights of Prydia, but a victory nonetheless. I was amazed to realise that this entire game constituted only a SINGLE ROUND of brutal gameplay. I was already in love with the background of this game before I played it, so finding that the game is intense, tactical, cinematic and just generally quite wonderful was something of a relief to me. I hadn't even finished reading Patrol Angis before I dropped another few hundred pounds on the Alternative Armies website, so beware!

Many people looking into the Ion Age have the same questions, so I'll try to answer the ones that I had prior to taking the plunge:

• The rules strike a fine balance between complexity and fast, fluid play. I recommend reading the rules through at least three times before trying it; especially if you're bolting on the solo play mechanics. Bookmark the page with weapons and armour tables and download the reference sheet which - like much of the material - is free.
• This game rewards tactical play. You aren't likely to win it at the point of army creation which is another thing that appeals to me. I think it would make an EXCELLENT tournament game; a fact which has been proven by the brilliant Aris Kohlemainen's Arcticon event!
• You can play 1 platoon a side with the first book, but I see no reason why it can't scale up to at least two a side, even with multiple players. The system is very flexible. 
• This is the starter set that I bought: 
  
  
  https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/15mm-ion-age-miniature-range/products/patrol-angis-15mm-skirmish-wargame-game-pack

At the time of writing, there's a discount on this pack as well as an extra 20% off any purchases at checkout for the month of April 2021, although I've yet to see a month where Gavin DOESN'T run a special offer or discount of some kind.

• The starter set is a complete no-brainer. Combined with the robust solo rules, you can have lots of fun by yourself until lockdown is but a distant memory.

I'm looking forward to my next training scenario, but I'll probably replay this one with a forest and with the lessons learned from my first outing.

Thanks for reading,

Tom