GZG-Verse

 GZG-Verse

The Following is a list of games and campaigns based in the Ground Zero Games Universe.

Stargrunt 2/Dirtside

The rules for Stargrunt 2 and Dirtside can be found in the Rules section from Ground Zero Games website, and are free.

Full Thrust

The rules for Full Thrust can be found in the Rules section from Ground Zero Games

 website, and are free.

Campaigns

This is a list of campaigns we have or are playing.

Grendel Invasion

Grendel Invasion

 Grendel Invasion

Date: 2136, 3rd Solar War

In an effort to gain an advantage in the war, the ESU has chosen to open a new front in the NAC owned system of Valyran and to take the world of Grendel.

>ESU Data on Valyran

>Game 1 (Full Thrust): Convoy Attack

>Game 2 (?):

>Game 3 (?):

Convoy Attack

 28-10-2176 (3rd Solar War)

NAC Back story
Captain Pittman was in command of the RNS Serpent, A Furious Class escort Cruiser and they had spent the last three weeks escorting two Heavy freighters and a Tanker to Grendel.
The tanker, high tide, and Freighter, Scarlet Ring, docked with the orbital station to start loading, while the Downtown established Orbit and its cargo was shuttled up.

The Serpent allowed small groups of personnel 24 hours shore leave but stayed alert in the planets vicinity.
It took six days to load the merchant ships. On the fourth day two Destroyers, Mystic and Oracle, arrived. They were on a three month Patrol and stopped off to replenish supplies.

The merchant vessels undocked and broke Orbit with RNS Serpent. The Destroyers decided to join them to the jump point.

Captain Pittman was in his office going over the ships status reports when his XO, Philip Deards, called him to the bridge.
"What is it Phil" he said
"We detected four jump spikes about a minute ago, something has jumped in, scan-techs are trying to ID now"
"Put us on Yellow One and get us in a position between the contacts and the Convoy. I want Mystic to stay close to the Convoy and Oracle to form up with us until we confirm what those contacts are"

Within Eight minutes everyone was ready at Yellow One Alert positions, Captain Pittman hailed the unknown ships asking them to identify themselves but no reply came. But it did seem to get their attention as they started heading towards them at increased speed.

"Sensors, report"
". . . Getting better confirmation Sir, Military ships, One Cruiser, Three Escorts . . . ESU drive signatures confirmed"
"Red Alert, we have hostiles, they know we are here, scan those ships and get me some intelligence on them"
The crew scrambled to battle stations, he could hear the throb of the reactor increase as systems came to life, weapons powered up and the screens went active.

"Scan confirming three Destroyer class vessels and a Heavy Cruiser"
Damn, the ESU had the advantage in displacement, he opened the channel to the freighters,
"Merchants, make full speed to the jump point, we will delay them here"

NAC Convoy

>RNS Serpent Furious Class Escort Cruiser.
Captain Trevor Pittman

>RNS Mystic Ticonderoga Class Destroyer
Captain Barry Smythe

>RNS Oracle Ticonderoga Class Destroyer
Captain Catherine Chilcocks

>MSS High Tide Heavy Tanker
Captain Henry Adams

>MSS Scarlet Ring Heavy Freighter
Captain William Newport

>MSS Downtown Heavy Freighter
Captain Christopher Hudson

ESU Back Story
His head felt fuzzy as he came back to 'Reality', the urge to Vomit was strong but fortunately he didn't.
He slowly became more aware of the bridge around him and could see others coming back round, he had lost count of the number of Jumps he had done and it never got any better.

"Status" he croaked.
The bridge crew went into autopilot as their training kicked in.
"Reactor back online . . . systems nominal"
Well, the ship came through OK.
"What's the status of the Destroyers?"
"All within 60'000km"
As jumps go, that was a good result, multiple ships jumping usually ended up with some drastically off course, He would commend the navigation teams.

"Captain, we are being hailed"
A second later six contacts lit up on the sensor screen, three merchants, two Escorts and a Cruiser.

He opened a comms channel to his group,
"All ships, red Alert, we have our first target"

ESU Raiding Force

>VKK Stalingrad Gorshkov Class Heavy Cruiser
Captain Lev Kamkin

>VKK Strogiy Warsaw Class Destroyer
Captain Fyodor Ambrosov

>VKK Azov Warsaw Class Destroyer
Captain Ivan Kuzmin

>VKK Kerch Warsaw Class Destroyer
Commander Igor Dybenko

The battle

>Turn 1

The ESU ships close in, the Serpent and Stalingrad exchange fire, the Stalingrad takes some bad hits which is added to by the Oracle.

The Stalingrad launches all it's Salvos racks, the volley targeted at the Serpent are all shot down, but the Scarlet Ring is hammered.

The Destroyers on both sides take pot shots which does little.

>Turn 2

Both fleets close in as the Merchants go flank speed to try and reach the jump point.

The Strogiy finishes off the Scarlet ring, the Mystic and Oracle both target the Azov, the ESU ship takes Heavy damage and the bridge is smashed leaving command in disarray.

The Serpent and Stalingrad continue trading shots with the Stalingrad taking Heavy damage and also taking a Beam to the bridge killing the command crew.

>Turn 3

The Azov and Stalingrad drift past the still accelerating Convoy, the Oracle and Serpent take some long range shots which do little.

The Mystic damages the Kerch but the Kerch and Strogiy return fire tearing the ship to pieces.

>Turn 4

The Kerch and Strogiy go full power and accelerate away from the area.

>Aftermath

NAC

-Serpent: Minor Damage

-Oracle: Undamaged

-Mystic: Destroyed

-Scarlet Ring: Destroyed

-Downtown: Undamaged

-High Tide: Undamaged

ESU

-Stalingrad: Heavy Damage, Captain lost

-Azov: Heavy Damage, Captain lost

-Strogiy: Armour Damage only

-Kerch: Light Damage

 

"Convoy Strike"

Mission 2

The Germans are pushing more troops and supplies to the front, they are obviously building up for an offensive. Strike sorties are being sent out to hunt down any German rienforcements heading to the front.

Mission: Close Support: Interdiction

Points Value: 150pts

Cloud Cover Altitude: None

Special Rules: None

Soviet Forces (150pts)

-MiG-3 (Load 1)

-x2 MiG-3 (Load 2)

-x2 IL-2m (Load 1)

Luftwaffe Forces (150pts)

-Fw190A

-x4 Bf109F

CONVOY (100pts)

-Panzer IV Tank

-x2 sd.kfz 222 Armoured Cars

-x5 Sdfk 251 Halftracks

-x4 Opel Blitz Trucks

Set up

The Game

The German Convoy was making steady progress along the road, their Fighter cover lingering overhead in a V formation.

The peace was broken when Soviet planes were spotted on an intercept course.

The German planes moved to intercept and the initial formation cross was brutal, one of the IL-2's took some hits from a BF109 but in return shoots his Attacker down. One MiG-3 was lost to a BF109 while another MiG let loose dome rockets that reduced an Armoured car to a steel bonfire.

The other IL-2 takes hits from a BF109 as it blows the second Armoured Car to bits with a rocket salvo, a MiG passes low and drops a bomb, but does little other than crater the road side.

Both side bank round to come back for another pass, a tailing BF109 makes some hits on an IL-2 but receives hits from its tail Gunner.

A MiG strafes the Convoy, taking apart a truck.

The BF109 tailing the IL-2 continues its attack but is taken down by the tail Gunner. A second BF109 swoops in and finishes off the Soviet plane.

The FW190 Speeds into the battle and tears apart a MiG but is damaged the second IL-2's tail Gunner, but he carries on his attack into the Russian plane and takes it down.

The Last MiG-3 starts accelerating away from the area but is caught by the Fw190 and shot down.

Aftermath

Soviets

Managed to shoot down two Bf109s with both pilots killed. They also damaged a second BF109 and the Fw190.

Their Convoy attack was not great, only managing to take out a Supply truck and two Armoured Cars.

They are awaiting a replacement for three MiG-3's and Two IL-2's

Luftwaffe

They took down all three MiG-3 planes, two pilots were killed while the third bailed and made his way back to friendly forces. They also shot down both IL-2 planes, crews to both planes bailed, one crew managed to reach friendly forces while the other was picked up by German forces.

They are awaiting Two Bf109's, another BF109 is being repaired and the Fw190 is also being repaired.

Victory

The winners of the engagement are the Germans (93VP, Soviets scored 82VP)

Soviets -1 Ground Superiority.

 

 

"Supply Problems"

Mission 1

A Small Supply yard has been located by Wehrmacht reconnaisance units, they are sending ground forces in but we must achieve air dominance and soften the defenses up first.

Mission: Air Superiority: Fighter Sweep

Points Value: 100pts

Cloud Cover Altitude: 5

Special Rules: None

Soviet Forces (100pts)

-x4 I-16

-M1939 61-K (37mm)

-M4 (4×7.62mm)

SUPPLY YARD

1× Large building (Warhouse)

3× Small buildings (housing/offices)

4× Trucks

Luftwaffe Forces (120pts)

-Ju87B (Weapons load 1)

-x3 Bf109F

-Fw190A

Set up

The Game

Normally I would write this up as a turn by turn account, but we lost ourselves in the game and I ended up taking way less pictures than I planned.

So,

The game Started with the Luftwaffe Fw190A taking the lead towards the storage facility, followed by the dive bomber with the three Bf109's to his left.

The Russian I-16 planes altered course and headed straight at them.

Two of the I-16's starting banking round in anticipation of engaging the Bf109's, the other two I-16's maneuvered to engage the Fw190 and Dive bomber.

One of the I-16's slipped onto the Fw190's tail and started Unloading into it, the hail of gunfire causing damage to the German plane, but the Dive bomber came up on the tail of the Attacker and blew the Russian plane out of the sky.

The Bf109's performed a side slip manouver and passed behind the attacking I-16's.

The German planes continued towards their target, but one of the Russian planes managed to take down a Bf109. The German planes keep closing and Anti-Aircraft fire starts.

The Bf109's peel off just before the facility in an effort to distract the I-16's but one makes a few hits on the Dive bomber but in return is hit by its tail Gunner.

The Stuka reaches the target and goes into a dive, it releases its 250lb bomb into the warhouse, a critical hit is scored and the whole building goes up.

The Stuka starts climbing back to altitude as Fighters from both sides manouver for attack positions.

The Bf109's came in low speeding towards the facility with the Fw190 ding the same but coming in from the opposite direction, the Russian Anti-Aircraft fire concentrated on the Fw190, the Crossfire tore the plane to bits and killed the pilot.

The Bf109's came in and opened up with their cannons reducing two trucks to scrap metal.

As the Bf109's sped over the facility the I-16's were too scattered to engage them, and while all this was going on the Stuka had lined up for another attack.

The two 109's raced off back towards base with two I-16's chasing them, the last I-16 tries to intercept the Dive bomber but the Stuka drops its remaining Bombs on another building blowing it to pieces.

The German planes disengage from the area.

Aftermath

Soviets

Managed to shoot a Bf109, the pilot ejected and managed to get back to friendly forces, AA fire took down the Fw190 with its pilot and they damaged the Stuka.

They are awaiting a replacement for one I-16 while another is being repaired.

Luftwaffe

They took down one I-16 and the pilot safely ejected, they also damaged a second I-16.

They bombed the warehouse and a secondary building plus blew apart two trucks.

They are awaiting a Bf109 and Fw190 replacement.

Victory

The winners of the engagement are the Soviets (46VP, Germans scored 23VP)

Soviets +1 Air Superiority.

 Eastern Front 1942

Our first campaign of Sturmovik Commander, set on the Eastern Front in 1942.

The first we had to do was choose our Squadron composition . . .

Campaign Special Rules

Fatigue, Honourable Defeat

Soviet Air Force (400 points)

Air Superiority: 3

Ground Superiority: 3

Strategic Superiority: 3

Planes:

x6 La-5

x3 MiG-3

x4 I-16

Pe-3 (Recon)

x3 Il-2M

Luftwaffe (400 points)

Air Superiority: 3

Ground Superiority: 3

Strategic Superiority: 3

Planes:

x6 Bf109F

x2 He111

Fw189 (Recon)

x3 Ju87B

x2 Fw190A

x2 Bf109F (Cannons, Ground attack)

To win the Campaign (Breach the front lines) one side must have a Ground Superiority value 3 points or higher than their opponent for two turns in a row.

MISSIONS

1. Supply Problems!

2.

3.

4.

5.

Sturmovik Commander

 

Sturmovik Commander is a WW2 game focusing on Aerial combat, the rules are easy to use but has a lot of depth allowing you to play a huge variety of missions.

You can find the rules here.

Below is a list of games we have played.

Campaigns

1. Eastern Front 1942