Combat Patrol, Star Wars

 

This was our first test game of Combat Patrol and we wanted a reasonable comparison to the following game of Xenos Rampant, so we kept the sides modest. Two Stormtrooper sections, verses two Rebel Trooper sections. The Rebels were led by Princess Leia and the Stormtroopers, by some half brained Imperial desk-jockey, who seemed to have brought a water pistol with him, rather than a real gun!

Each side had assistant section leaders, so in essence there were 5 leaders on each side, with effectively 4 fire teams.

Stormtrooper Blue section pushed to secure the Imperial right flank & the storage tanks. Stormtrooper Red section filtered through the cliffs on the left flank, to secure the high ground on the left & form a defensive line behind a central row of storage bins, centre left of the compound.

The Rebel sections went far left and right, aiming the flank the Stormtrooper positions, Leia leading the Rebel left section.

On the Stormtrooper left, the flanking team struggled to get into position on the hill. Their central supporting fire team, did establish a fire base, but their heavy weapons specialist was rapidly stunned, wounded and ran out of ammunition!? Unlucky day!

However, the flanking Rebel team on the hill was also fairing badly, with the muppet bringing the largest head, quickly accumulating 2 head wounds! Repeated cries of keep your head down, were only met with cries of “how”, or was it Oww?!

Stormtrooper Blue section, on the Imperial right, seeing the problems on their left, decided to split. One fire team headed for the central bins, while the far right team secured the reinforced barrier, near the storage tanks.

Sadly for them, Leia & her band of groupies, managed to work around the rear of this ‘strong’ Stormtrooper position, with Leia despatching two Stormtroopers with sporting shots to the back of the head!

Finally left flank Red section Stormtrooper fire team managed to reach the crest of the hill, only for their Section leader to get wounded and the rest of the team pinned!

In the central bins area, things were going from bad to worse for the Imperials. The Stormtroopers were taking fire from all sides, while the Imperial lacky officer waved his waterpistol about and shouted vague instructions. Eventually the Stormtroopers themselves decided to take matters into their own hands and rush the rebel troopers in front of them (at least this way avoiding the flanking fire).

Leia, having now shot her 3^rd Stormtrooper in the back of the head (while he was frantically  trying to reload – you don’t see this side of her character in the films!), decided to move-in on the central position.

By this time, the Blue Section Stormtroopers had decided that battlefield commissions were definitely not a good thing, as it also seemed to result in a very, very short service life!? Just to add insult to injury, virtually the whole of the red section Stormtrooper fire team, on the hill, discovered that someone had forgotten to pack the spare ammo!?

Our first experience of Combat Patrol suggests it can be a fun game. The card turning resolution system works well and slickly, but figures firing individually, can slow play. Game size of 2 sections / 4 fire-teams, seems a comfortable upper limit, maybe up to a platoon? The troop quality works well, ie, Elite troops could get up to 3 activations in a turn, but Green or pinned troops only 1. This system looks like it could work well for more modern, 4-man fire-team based skirmishes. The Star Wars adaptions look nice, but quoted ranges seem rather odd, ie, a blaster with 200” range! We very quickly switched to cm, just for this game. This needs some work.

Overall though, we thought the rules well worth another visit.