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Monday, July 14, 2008

AT-43 Battle Report 13072008: the Uneasy Alliance vs. the Karmans

Hey everyone,

Another weekend and another battle report, but this one was a little bit different. We had planned on playing a mega battle between the Karmans and the Red Blok, but unfortunately a couple of the players didn't show up until a few hours after we were supposed to start. Even so, we were able to salvage the game with some slight modifications. It featured an alliance of the Red Blok and the Therians against the Karmans. It may not make sense but when you get lemons...

The Karman army consisted of two Nova platoons containing a King Buggy, two Easy Trikes, a full unit of Wendigos led by Cornelius, two full units of Kaptars (one with snipers, the other with ZZ-cannons), a full unit of Anakongas, a K-warrior unit and a K-fighter unit.

On the other side of the table, the Red Blok came in with a Supra platoon containing Urod and four full units of Dragonov Kommandos, while the Therians (that's me!) fielded a Cypher platoon with Nimit-Urash and an Incubus (both with the v2.0 upgrade on the nucleus cannon), a full unit of Assault golems, a full unit of Storm golems, and a unit of Bane Goliaths. All told, it was about 4300 points on each side, making this one of the largest games that we have played.

The terrain was some of the generic ruins that the Shop has which was both good and bad. While it was nice to have a selection of terrain to choose from, it was not just containers and low walls so we had to wing it on how it would effect the game at times.

Another factor was the size of the board. We have gotten used to playing on the 4' x 3' Damocles map while this table was a massive 6'x4'! There would be no moving onto the board and straight into combat this time.

Since we were facing Nova, we had the choice of who activated first in the turn so we decided to go Therians first, followed by the Red Blok, and finally the two Karman platoons. First up, moved my Assault golems onto the center of the board and attempted to both take cover and go onto overwatch, only to have the drills cancelled by the Karmans. I issued the take cover drill again and this time they choose not to cancel it.

Next, Urod walked onto the left side of the board and after a little bit more of the Nova cancel dance was put onto overwatch.

The first unit of Anakongas moved in next, taking position in the ruined building in the center of their side of the table.

They were followed by the Kaptars who moved in the ruins on the right side of the board.

Swinging back around to me again, I brought on my unit of Storm golems, positioning them completely out of harms way behind a building on the right corner of the field. This unit contained my force commander and there was no way that I was going to let the Karmans taking him out this early in the game!

The first of the Dragonov Kommando units moved onto the board next, taking cover inside the ruins on the left beside Urod.

The King Buggy came on next, taking position behind the ruin the Anakongas were in. I had expected it to come in blazing, but this battle was rapidly becoming a game of defensive posturing on both sides.

Cornelius and his Wendigos moved in next, taking position behind a platform on the left side of the board. Two times around the table and still a shot has not been fired! It's just scary I tell you...

My Banes were next, moving into cover beside the hill on the left side of the board. No good shots were available yet and I didn't feel like losing them this early in the game so cover was the way to go.

The second Dragonov unit moved on next, literally right next to the other Kommando unit.

The K-warriors moved on next but they did not fire even though they had line of sight to my Assault golems! I have never faced these before but from what I have heard, I was glad that I was not the center of their attention!

The K-fighters moved onto the right side of the board next, taking position near the ruins that the Kaptars had moved toward.

Nimit was next onto the board and the first to draw blood! Moving up the center of the board, I opened fire on the two K-warriors and was able to take both of them out in one salvo! So much for the Karman Mortars of Doom...

The third unit of Dragonovs came on next and I have to say that it is a good thing that I managed to take out the K-warriors otherwise these guys might have been sitting ducks! They must be having one heck of a Blok party though...

The second unit of Kaptars appeared next and took up position right beside the Anakongas and the King Buggy. Must have been some bananas in those ruins to be getting all of the attention that the monkeys were giving it.


Next up was the unit of Easy Trikes who positioned themselves right on top of the same ruins but unlike the rest of the units there, they actually opened fire! Launching a salvo of jammer bolts at Nimit-Urash, I managed to get lucky as they only did one point of damage to the frame and one point to the nucleus cannon.

Just a quick note about this picture... The second trike is supposed to be on top of the base on the left but unfortunately the post has broken and John has not been able to find a good way to repair it. Any suggestions on how to fix this while still keeping it so that you can add the altitude riser are appreciated!

My Incubus moved on next right beside Nimit and opened fire on one of the Trikes. Those things are far too dangerous to leave on the field but unfortunately for me I was only able to do one point of damage to the frame and take out its engines. It might not be able to move next turn, but I still had to worry about those jammers!

The last Dragonov unit moved on to the board next and thanks to some fancy shooting on their part, the damaged Easy Trike lost one of its weapons. Huzzah!!! Now I only had to worry about three jammers instead of four...

This brought the first turn to an end with both sides at 0 VPs.

For the second turn, I activated first and moved my Incubus even closer to the Easy Trikes. I opened fire on the damaged one and managed to blow it apart, leaving only one on the field.

Urod went next and thanks to my urging opened fire on the last Trike. Unfortunately I didn't realize just how bad its accuracy was until I watched all of the shots sail off into the blue. Whoops!

Moving out of cover, the Anakongas jumped out into the open as they started to advance across the battlefield.

This was followed by the Easy Trike moving right in front of them so that it could open fire on Nimit. Even with the intervening terrain, he was still able to do two more points of damage to my frame leaving Nimit in pretty rough shape, especially since he could cancel my repair routines!

Nimit returned fire, managing to destroy the Trikes engines and take out one of the weapons!

One of the Dragonov units went next moving out of cover to shoot at the K-fighters across the board with their AT gauss guns. Even at that extreme range one shot managed to find its way home, taking out one of the fighters.

The Kaptars hiding in the ruin on the center of the board opened fire in response to the death of their brother and managed to take out the medic and two of the three AT gauss gunner. A painful price but hopefully one that would be worth it. The Wendigos followed this, moving up onto the platform that they had been taking cover behind to get into a better firing position.

My Banes went next, moving from their cover to line up a salvo against the one remaining K-fighter. Unloading all six nucleus guns, they managed to finish off that unit in short order.

The King Buggy moved next, flying around the ruin to take a firing position against my Incubus. Thankfully the rubble provided some meager cover against the few ZZ cannon shots that found their mark, leaving me completely undamaged.

The Kaptars in the ruin on the right side of the board moved up onto the second floor and opened fire on the badly damaged Nimit, inflicting just enough damage to destroy the Golgoth and leave Urash standing there feeling quite vulnerable.

On the other side of the board, one of the Dragonov units moved further into their ruin and the three AT gauss gunners climbed up to the second floor to try and get some shots off against the Wendigos. Sighting the movement, the Wendigos opened fire with their ZZ rifles and the two grenade launchers, wiping out the gunners and knocking the rest of the unit to the ground.

My Assault golems in the center moved next, coming out into the open to fire on the Trike with the nucleus guns and the Anakongas with their rifles. I failed to wound any of the Anakongas but I did manage to take out the last weapon on the Trike! Now I just had to destroy it before the Karmans could move a mechanic up to repair it...

Back on left side, another unit of Dragonovs moved to the second story to open fire on the Wendigos. Raining down gauss rounds on the platform, they succeeded in killing three of the armored apes.

My last unit to move this turn was my Storm golems on the right. I was hoping that the Karmans might have depleted enough LPs that I could create a Hekat so I had to move my commander out into the open, but no such luck. Even so, I did manage to take out two of the Anakongas at pretty extreme range so it seemed like it was worth it.

The Red Blok had the last move of the turn as the final Dragonov unit on the far left advanced up behind Urod, as you can see here in the picture of the Red Blok Party House.

As turn two came to a close, the Uneasy Alliance found itself ahead 8 VPs to 1 VPs. Was the game over? Were the Karmans able to make a comeback? Come back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of the Semi-Mega-Battle!!!

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