THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE HAMMER’S SLAMMERS THE CRUCIBLE RULES SYSTEM HANDBOOK

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All photos by John Treadaway & Peter Merritt Click thumbnail to enlarge

Bio weapons... Unfortunately, the main PRA player had caught COVID just before the game, and so yours truly had to sub. So, after initial briefings and extremely useful reminders of the key rules by JT, the PRA were deployed in hasty defensive positions across a wide general arc covering the four main roads in to the site. The undoubted qualitative advantage of the Mercenary Arietes – command/control as well as equipment – was offset to an extent by the close terrain and the PRA being in defence. The Game Captain Christopher got off to a good start with his tank platoon crashing through the woods astride the NE track, whilst the armoured infantry skirted to come in from the north. Certainly his three tanks had a good view of the defenders – it’s just that it also worked the other way, as he found to his cost when one of the new self-propelled AT guns sent a (very lucky) round crashing through the side of the lead giant ‘King Cougar’, which promptly exploded! Whilst this unfortunate set-back had more effect on the player’s morale than overall result, it did lead to a more cautious probingL: the PRA main weapons only had a decent chance if they could get some side-armour shots. As the Ariete gradually eroded the PRA armour, a late probe by the Heavy APCs caught them in a close-range cross-fire from one of the multi- barrelled SP/AAA and hidden PRA tank-hunter infantry in the mine buildings. by this time the PRA was short of command points due to earlier losses, so could not afford the luxury of using said CP to enhance shooting, aiming etc.

Upping the Ante: a Hammer’s Slammers Battle Report