Initial thoughts: From Ashes 15 mm rules

I've been on a bit of a 15mm foray lately, reading up on various rule sets, while getting some paint on my pile of shame.

One of the rules I came across is called From Ashes, published by Void Scar Miniatures, currently in a bit of an open Beta.

As I'm bound to do I set up a quick demo game, getting a feel for the game flow, using available minis.

The forces used were on one side two units of Relthoza infantry (from Planetfall, but they cross over into 15mm very well), using the official Vanguard rules.
On the other side two Squads of Khurasan War Force Reserve suits, using rules of my own devising, so this session doubled as playtest of those rules.

First turn:

Initial setup, two squads on each side, but with a points differential:
The spiders clock in at 90 Req, while the Marines, despite only having four units, stand at 115 Req.

Three data caches are placed around the central line as objectives.

From Ashes has a wide variety of scenarios, but this is a little bit home cooked, to have something simple; jut go for the objective markers.



First activation: the Marine Command Squad
takes cover in a small building, and orders the
Grenadiers to Advance (hence the red die)

Each side performs one activation at a time, so next up is the spider cyborgs!

The first squad march ahead, with dual Advance actions.
Each Action has a corresponding number for each, so which orders has been given is tracked by the dice.

The Grenadiers march on, taking one Advance and one Engage order.

This would be a first learning opportunity; if the Advance action had been taken after the Engage, the "Scope" rule on the Plasma Rifles would have come into effect, making it easier to hit the opposition.

Also, the command team would have benefited from advancing further upfield, lending support in the second round as well.



The first actual dice roll, for the Grenadiers
to hit the Target spider squad, turns out quite
OK. 12 D12 in total, hitting on 8+, and
managing 7 hits in total is way better than average.

This in turn means that the poor spiders gets 5 Blast Markers, 3 from the Rockets (red dice above), and an additional two for more than 6 hits in total. This is a quite large amount of blast markers from a single action.
The are placed 1" from the target unit, as per the rules.

Then comes the next step; Damage! The plasma rifles wielded by all Martian Marines comes with a Damage rating of 3, same as a chain gun or other medium support weapon. This means that the roll needed to damage Def 7 Targets, like the poor spiders, is 4+ on a D12.

After assessing the damage the dice are allocated to individual bases (or Units in game terminology).
The rules for critical damage means that every third step above the bare minimum to cause damage cause one additional HP lost, ensuring that high powered weapons can cause a large set of damage!

In this case three of the bases end up with damage dice, with one getting 5 HPs worth of damage.

The rules for Vanguards gives them a 11+ 'save' of sorts for every HP lost, which means committing damage to individual bases can be a good idea.

In this particular case only the third base managed to reduce the amount of damage taken, hanging on with a single HP left.

To lend assistance, the second squad of spiders starts to Advance across the field, using what will probably become a standard of Advance+Engage action combo.

In this case the targeting involves the rules for Cover as well, since the Target has quite a good position behind a building. The way this is handled in From Ashes is that each piece of covering terrain triggers a 'cover roll', having a 50/50 chance to hit the cover instead.

Each base has 3 shots using low powered rifles, so 15 dice in total is rolled, giving worse than average with only 6 making the cut.
Then again, it evens out when 5 / 6 actually hits, 3/5 cause damage, and cause a full base of Grenadiers to bite the dust!





In the end, the house bore the brunt of

the fire, taking three Blast Markers from the 10 hits it received (enough Blast Markers can cause certain terrain to be removed!), while the Grenadiers only got a single, but took 3 HPs worth of damage instead.

This action concludes the first turn, all that is left is the SitRep phase, where victory conditions are checked (N/A this turn) and Blast Markers removed.

Tune in next time for a second turn, with some thrilling conclusion!