Introduction

Azhanti High Lightning is a game of close-action combat between individuals on board a large military starship. The game covers the weapons and personal abilities which can reasonably be expected aboard a starship; tactics and strategies then become the realm of player input. A variety of scenarios are provided, and many more can be generated using the components included in the game.

Credits
Publisher: GDW 1980
Designer: Franck A Chadwick and Marc W Miller
Graphics: Paul R Banner Chairmaine Geist

Scale
Each Game-Turn represents 15 seconds, and each square on the map is equivalent to 1.5 meters from side to side. Each counter represents one individual or animal.

Components
14 large sheets of deck plans
240 die-cut counters
1 half-size rules booklet
1 half-size technical manual describing the Azhanti class of starships and explaining the deck plan in detail
1 combat chart
1 cardboard box

Counter Manifest

Naval Crew (black on blue)

9 Officers
1 Officer in Cloth
6 Warrant officers
1 Warrant officer in Cloth
18 Ratings
9 Ratings in Cloth

Marines (white on blue)

2 Officers in Combat Armor
1 Officer in Battle Dress
4 NCOs in Combat Armor
3 NCOs in Battle Dress
12 Enlisted in Combat Armor
8 Enlisted in Battle Dress

Intruders (black on green)

4 Officers in Combat Armor
1 Officer in Battle Dress
5 NCOs in Combat Armor
1 NCOs in Battle Dress
16 Enlisted in Combat Armor
3 Enlisted in Battle Dress

Vargr (black on gray)
6 Officers
6 NCOs
18 Enlisted

Zhodani (black on red)

7 Officers
7 Technicians
8 Warbots
8 Maintenance Robots

15 Adventurers (black on light green)
26 Blobs (green on white)
4 Cases of Wine
16 Light wound/Heavy wound markers
14 Light wound/Dead markers

Player’s Value

Azhanti High Lightning (AHL) is a sub-tactical game originally built as a Role-playing Game (RPG) supplement for Traveller, but it is eminently playable separately as a stand-alone game. The rules are not very long and intricate, but they are often loose and the players will have to fix some details before beginning to zap everywhere. In an RPG session, this not a problem at all as the game master is the master, but for hardcore wargamers, it is more of an issue.

Each counter represents a character with just a silhouette and an ID on the front; all data are printed on the back, typically for GDW (Operation Crusader, White Death). The most important data are the weapons capabvility with the bonus/ penalty given, and the morale. Both are crucial and give a good profile of the soldier.

Some are very efficient with a gun but panic at the first odd event, others are good for everything. Depending on the weapon provided, the place in the team will be different and the player needs to think about during set up. Also present are the melee value and a leadership modifier for the leaders (officers and NCOs). The melee value is not very useful as everybody will use a fire weapon, but the leadership is fundamental to organize good teams with a leader to rally or improve the morale of the troops.

Placing all the data on the back is one way to implement limited intelligence, but in this case it often hinders both sides, and knowing the capabilities of all the team members can take a while.

The game turn begins with a decision step to attribute each character an order: cover fire, movement or aimed fire. After this plotting, the turn is divided into six identical action phases. In each phase, each character can expend six action points to fire or move, depending on the initial order. Every step in the action

phase is simultaneous, and here begins the problems. As there are no counters to mark the order of action points expended, and as every character moves or fires at the same time, the turn can become quite messy.

The players will have to write some home rules and add some counters to organize the action turn. It’s not a big deal, but this could have been avoided with a little more development. Sure, with a game master, the problems are not the same, as he will manage the turns in an RPG fashion.

The fire rules are simple and easy to implement, but it will take some time to distinguish between all the weapons provided. Gauss Rifles, for instance, are very good for close assault, whereas Fusion Guns are very powerful as support weapons. Here the Traveller worshippers will have no problems as the rules follow the RPG, and present a full compatibility. The fire proceeds in two parts, first the character must hit depending on the range, the ability with the weapon, position or evading modifiers and a dice roll.

If the enemy is hit, the weapon round must penetrate, depending on the enemy armor (nothing, cloth, body armor and battle dress), the weapon penetration and again a dice roll. The Marine weapons are usually better than crew weapons, and some large guns are really terrific. You hit, you kill regardless of the second dice roll. The player should better have a look at the weapon chart before setting up the troops.

The results from fire can be light wounds, affecting the characters actions, heavy wounds and death; the last two neutralize the character for the rest of the scenario. Some weapons, as well as the vacuum environment, increase the gravity of the wounds.

Finally they are morale rules, which are also simple and logical. Some actions or events require a morale check that can trigger panic; the panicked character runs to cover and becomes useless until recovery.

All the scenarios happen inside an Azhanti class ship with a precise historical background which is interesting to read, and display some new plans of the starship, accurately presented in the technical booklet. They use a large part of the 14 maps provided and all counters for the intruders, the pirates, the robots, to the blob alien creatures. Some scenarios are unbalanced, but most are pleasant to play with a lot of role-playing inside, when you don’t have to travel between 50 decks of the ship to evade.

All in all, AHL is an interesting game to play if you like Science Fiction and role-playing games. There is enough meat with the different capabilities of soldiers: weapon, weapon skill, morale, leadership modifiers and the different kinds of units: officers, soldiers, crewmembers and robots to provide good reflections and some tactics to develop. As the ship levels are numerous, large and well described, a lot of new scenarios can be created depending on the imagination of the players.

Of course, some mechanisms are outdated and could be updated to reflect current standards, but wandering across some beautifully drawn ship plans and zapping all over the place is quite fun.

Collector’s Value

As Traveller, Game #3 and an original SF game, this game is sought after. AHL was winner of The Charles Roberts Award for Best Fantasy and Science-Fiction game of 1980.

Boone quotes low, high and average prices of 10/69/31.45 at auction and 9/60/29.80 for sale.

Support Material

The Space Gamer 53 gives a Q&A section. Ares 6 and The Space Gamer 32 provide capsule reviews.

Other Games on Assault Aboard Starships

Pièges Galactiques (J&S #7)
The Awful Green Things from Outer Space (TSR/SJG)
Intruder (TFG)
Snapshot (GDW)
Sniper 3: Bug Hunter (SPI/TSR)
Wreck of the BSM Pandora (SPI).

Other Games by These Designers

Frank A. Chadwick:

1815: the Waterloo Campaign; 1940; 8th Army: Operation Crusader; Battle of the Alma; Arctic Front; Assault; Asteroid; Attack in the Ardennes; Avalanche; Bar-Lev; Battle for Basra; Battlefield Europe; Beda Fomm; Belter; Blood and Thunder; Bloody Cassino; Bloody Kasserine; Boots & Saddles; Bundeswehr; Case White; Chieftain; Citadel; Crimea; Drang Nach Osten; the Fall of Tobruk; Great Patriotic War; A House Divided; Kasserine Pass; Battle of Lobositz; Battle for Moscow; Narvik; Operation Crusader; Operation Market Garden; Overlord; Persian Gulf; Phase Line Smash; the Battle of Prague; Race for Tunis; Red Empire; Road to the Rhine; the Sands of War; Soldier King; Southern Front; Space 1889: Sky Galleons of Mars; Spain & Portugal; Stand & Die; Suez ‘73; Tacforce; Team Yankee; Tet Offensive: 1968; The Third World War; Torgau; Trenchfoot; Unentshieden; White Death.

Marc W. Miller:

1942; Battle of Agincourt 1415 AD; Chaco; Coral Sea; Dark Nebula; Double Star; Fifth Frontier War; Imperium; Indian Ocean Adventure; Invasion Earth; Mayday; Battle for Midway; Port Arthur; Battle of Raphia 217 BC; the Russo-Japanese War; Snapshot; Their Finest Hour; Triplanetary; Tsushima; Verdun.