AT-43 Battle Report 08062008: Therians vs. Karmans...again

Who would have thunk it?!? Two battle reports in two days? It is madness, I tell you. Madness!!!

Seriously though, I was able to get in another game for our local Damocles campaign. Continuing on from last week, we played the third scenario, Holding the Production Line, except I played against a new opponent this time. Soon to be yet another Red Blok player (but with infantry this time instead of walkers! Yay!), James took the field with John's monkeys to give them a push around and it gave me a chance to try out the new v2.0 nucleus cannon rules.

In this scenario, both players are trying to take control of a factory on the surface of Damocles. Half of the board is outside of the factory while the rest is supposed to represent a few rooms inside, including one of the consoles that controls the factory. Here you can see the field of battle in its semi-3d glory (I never made a board for the interior side of the map).

On James side of the board, he was fielding a Nova platoon composed of a unit of two Easy Trikes (these were kept in as reinforcements), a full unit of Anakongas with flamers, a full unit of Wendigos with grenade launchers, and a King Buggy.

For my army, I was again fielding a Cypher platoon (my old stand-by) with Nimit-Urash and an Incubus Golgoth (both of which were upgraded to v2.0 cannons), a full unit of Grims led by Atis, and a full unit of Storm Golems (which was kept as my reinforcement).

Rolling for Authority, I managed to win and I brought on my Incubus and positioned it right outside one of the entrances to the factory on Overwatch. This really gave me a strong position on the board as anything trying to get into the factory would pass through my line of fire.

For his turn, James brought his Wendigos onto the board first though he wisely kept them toward the far right corner, putting them onto Overwatch but keeping the stacked containers between his troops and my walker.

Next on my side was good old Nimit-Urash along with my new model for the hyperlink antenna. He took up position just to the right of the Incubus and also went onto overwatch, creating a nice little crossfire the Karmans would have to cross to make it into the factory. He also created a Hekat right in front of him like a little rabid dog just waiting to get off its leash.

James brought his King Buggy into play next, but again he positioned it so that it stayed out of the line of sight with the Incubus. As with the Wendigos, the Buggy also went onto Overwatch.

My last unit to come onto the board was the Grim Golems led by Atis. Using dash, they quickly moved up the wall of the factory and headed into the closest entrance. This put them into line of sight with the King Buggy but with their optic camo they were safe.

James brought then brought on his last unit, the Anakongas, and then the bloodbath began. Moving along the far wall of the factory, they tried to run into the safety of the entrance.

Unfortunately for them, they did not quite make it. The Incubus and Nimit-Urash both opened fire on them, tearing the unit apart and leaving only the mechanic and the Guru unscathed. Man, these new nucleus cannons are nasty!

The first turn ended with neither side gaining any VPs or RPs but I did realise that I had made a pretty silly mistake. Since the only units that I had near the hyperlink antenna were walkers, all it could do was sit there and look pretty because I couldn't turn it on. D'oh! It also turned out that James didn't realize that he could have canceled some of the routines that I had performed in the first turn. I had been wondering about but I thought he must have had something tricky in mind. It looked like things might be a little trickier on this next turn.

For the next turn, James won the Authority check and moved his King Buggy into position to attack. Turning to show the boardside of the buggy, he opened fire on Nimit-Urash and the Hekat, destorying the legs on Nimit and putting a point of damage on frame of each walker. The really scary thing (at least in my book anyway) was that the Hekat had been damaged by a flamer!

First up on my side was Atis and the Grims (sounds like a rock band...). Moving quickly into the factory, they were able to move deep enough into the building to capture my first objective, one of the containers.

The Wendigos went next, moving up behind the King Buggy to stay out of LoS with the Incubus and avoid the fate of their Anakonga brothers.

The Hekat went next but thanks to some careful positioning by James it was not able to get past the Buggy to get to the troops. Foiled again! Nothing left to do but attack the Buggy, damaging the engines and the frame in the process.

What was left of the Anakonga unit bravely moved forward to try and reach the Buggy so that they could repair it but they were just short!

The Incubus went next and opened fire on the Buggy, destroying its engines and damaging the frame again, while Nimit followed it up with a failed snipe as shot failed to penetrate the armor. I held off on firing the sonic cannon since I knew that James would now keep me from creating another one or repairing any damage until I killed his unit leaders and reduced his Leadership Pool.

This brought the second turn to a close with no one having any VPs yet but I did manage to gain 100 RPs for capturing the container. Only 400+ to go...

James won the Authority test again but this time he moved his Anakongas first. Running up to the damaged Buggy, the mechanic fixed a point of damage on the frame. It was still immobilized but he was hoping to buy a little more time by fixing it.

Atis was first on my side and I moved her between the container and one of the nanogenerators. With the unit spread out they were in position to control both of these objectives at the end of the turn.

The Wendigos went next and James again tried to position them behind the Buggy while covering as much ground as possible. He was feeling the pinch and really wanted to get those troops inside the factory!

My Hekat then lept into action, attacking the Buggy again but it was only able to damage the frame again. I had been hoping for a weapon, but at this point anything was good!

Nimit then tried to snipe the Buggy but again he failed to penetrate the armor. The Incubus was far more successful, easily sniping the Saint who was leading the Wendigos. This left only the Guru in the Anakonga unit which meant that I could start using my routines again and while James would still be able to drain away some of my LPs, he wouldn't be able to get rid of the all.

Turn four and I was able to win Authority again. The Incubus was up first and opened fire on the Buggy with both cannons, finally destroying it. This left the path open for my Hekat to finally get to few remaining infantry.

The Wendigos went next and ran for the factory. Making it inside the tunnel, they were finally out of LoS with the Golgoths but they still had the Grims and Atis inside to deal with.

Nimit finally managed to repair his legs and move forward, blasting apart the two remaining Anakongas.

The Hekat dashed forward and plowed through the Wendigo unit, killing both of the heavy weapon troops along with another troop. At this point, we decided to call the game since it was pretty clear that between the Hekat and the Grims the game was over.

Overall, an interesting game. I had really been expecting to be facing more vehicles which is why I brought the two Golgoths, but the only other two James had never managed to make it onto the board. If James had also been using Nova's advantage right from the start, I am sure that things would have been different but then again I just noticed that their disadvantage is that I get to choose who goes first each turn. Ah well, you live and learn.

As for the v2.0 nucleus cannons being too strong as some have argued, at this point I have to disagree. I was able to mince the Anakonga as they came on the board but most of the Karman vehicles could have done the same thing if the roles were reversed. It definitely changes the game though as it finally gives the Golgoths access to the kind of punch they should have.

Well, that is all for now but I will be posting a quick tutorial on my new hyperlink antenna soon, plus I am looking at making some terrain for Frostbite. Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Battle Report 01072008: Therians vs. Karmans

Having completed the first scenario in Phase 1, it was now time for the second scenario, Fire in the Hole! Once again I would be fighting Karmans, but this time I was able to play against Ron who is one of the newer players at the store. For his army, he was fielding a full unit of Kaptars with ZZ-cannons, a full unit of Wendigos with grenade launchers, a unit of K-Warriors, two Easy Trikes, and Venerable Cornelius. (Just a quick note: We decided that heros can be played either with a unit or solo unless the army book says that he must be attached. For example, Urash must be attached to a Storm Golem unit while Cornelius may be attached to a Wendigo unit.)

On my side of the table were Nimit-Urash, an Incubus Golgoth, a unit of Bane Goliaths, a unit of Storm golems and a full unit of Assault Golems. Ron was not fielding any of his experienced units while I had all of my experience on Nimit-Urash who had both the Aimbot and Penetrationbot combat routines (For those who don't know, this means that Nimit has an additional re-roll on his weapons to hit and a re-roll to damage; quite a nasty combination!). So with our battle plans laid out in our minds and the board prepared for the upcoming conflict, we got underway.

I managed to win the Authority check on the first turn and moved my Banes onto the right side of the board, taking cover behind a couple of low walls and securing one of the minor access points.

For his opening move Ron moved his Kaptars onto the center of his side, putting himself in a good position to control one of the nanogenerators.

Next I moved on the Incubus Golgoth on the left side of the board. Having been placed on Overwatch, the Kaptars opened fire on the walker and were able to damage its legs.

In response, the Incubus opened fire with both of its nucleus cannons but I did not shot at the Kaptars. Instead, I made sure to destroy the nanogenerator to deny him the RPs that he would have earned.

Ron brought the Wendigos in next on the right side of the board and my Banes opened fire on them. Unfortunately they had taken cover and while most of the shots bounced harmlessly off of the low walls, one stray blast managed to catch a Karman as he ckeck to see if it was safe.

Nimit-Urash came onto the board next right beside the Banes. He opened fire on the Wendigos with the Sonic Cannon but even with the Aimbot routine he was only able to take out one more Karman! Next, I fired the Nucleus Cannon at the nanogenerator that was near the Wendigos and was able to easily destroy it.

Once I had finished firing, I used the Reconfigure routine to remove one of the low walls that was in front of the Wendigos (I need to remember to do this first next time...) and then I created a Hekat.

Next, Ron brought on his Easy Trike squad and opened fire on Nimit-Urash. As the electrical bolts shot from the two Trikes the scene quickly went from this...

...to this.

For his last move, Ron brought on Venerable Cornelius and placed him next to the Wendigos.

This wrapped up the first turn with the Karmans earning 5 VPs for controlling one of the major access points while the Therians earned a mere 2 VPs for controlling one of the minor access points (since the Incubus cannot control the access point because it is a vehicle). As for reinforcements, both of us remained at our starting values of 300 RPs for the Karmans and 69 RPs for the Therians.

As with the other turns in the game, second began with the roll for Cosmic Hazards, but this time something actually happened! A meteor came screaming down out of the sky headed right for one of the Kaptar heavy weapon troops!

The piece of rock hurtled from the sky, bounced harmlessly off of his head, and landed at his feet. So much for a cosmic assist on this one...

Ron won the Authority check this time and opened fire on the Hekat with his Wendigos. He managed to score several hits but when he went to roll for damage we realized that the ZZ-rifles of the Wendigos are too weak to penetrate the armor of the Hekat! Oops...

First up for me this turn was Urash (big surprise there...). Without his Golgoth he was way too vulnerable so I had him use Reconfiguration to create a low wall next to the Banes and high- tailed it to some cover!

Ron moved his Kaptars next, moving them closer to the Incubus. Openning fire with the ZZ-cannons, he was able to disable its legs and damage the frame but the weapons remained unscathed.

The Hekat then rushed forward and attacked the lead Easy Trike. At this point, they were the only things on this side of the board that could damage the Hekat and I was eager to removed that threat. There was a flurry of grim scythes as it attacked but I was only able to do one point of damage! Rolling for damage, I was lucky enough to hit one of the jammers but this still left them as a formidible threat.

Moving next, the Trikes flew over toward the center of the board and opened fire on the Hekat. I expected the worst but in a stroke of sheer luck they only managed to score two points of damage, one to the legs and the other to the frame!

The Incubus was next. First I repaired a point of damage that it had take to the frame and then used the nucleus cannons to snipe the two heavy weapon troops in the Kaptar unit.

Since Ron My Banes were next and they let loose a storm of nanomuntions at the two Trikes. The shots ripped into the Trikes, destroying the rest of their weapons and damaging the engines one of them.

This ended the second turn with the Karmans now at 10 VPs and I only had 4 VPs. Needless to say I was getting a little concerned at this point but at least I was able to keep his reinforcements off the board.

Ron won the Authority check for turn three and started things out by moving his Wendigos forward to deal with the Bane Goliaths and Urash. Opening fire with the grenade launchers, he was easily able to ground both units but luckily (for me at least) no one was hurt. Then the rest of the unit opened fire on Urash.

This is how many cover saves that I would have to make for Urash to survive...

You can imagine how well that turned out.

My Bane Goliaths stood up next. Yay. (I really don't like indirect weapons...)

The Easy Trikes went next and they quickly moved to the other side of the table behind the unit of Kaptars in the hopes that the one and only mechanic could repair at least one of the weapons.

After this Ron moved Cornelius up to take control of the nanogenerator located in the middle of the board.

The Hekat went next and I have to say that this was one of two really silly mistakes that I made during the game. Instead of simply having the Hekat walk over the whole unit, definitely killing both heavy weapon troops and probably killing some more to boot before I even attack in close combat, I walked around the unit so that I could get to the medic and one of the heavies. What was I thinking?!?!? Grrr...

After all of this, I only managed to kill the medic and made a drastic mistake that would come back to haunt me.

Ron charged his remaining Kaptars forward to engage the Incubus in close combat. For most troops this would be a futile attack, but with their power grips there was a chance that they could do some damage to the Golgoth. Luckily for me only two of the unit could engage me and they both failed to damage my walker.

To end the turn, my Incubus charged forward through the Kaptar unit, killing two troops, and then opened fire on the nanogenerator that Cornelius was trying to secure, easily destroying it and denying Ron those RPs.

This brought turn three to a close and had the Karmans at 15 VPs while the Therians only had 6 VPs. At this point my only hope was to eliminate his remaining infantry to keep him from getting those last five points.

Ron won the Authority check for turn four easily and activated his Wendigos first, which is when my mistake from before came back to haunt me. Opening fire on the Bane Goliaths with the grenade launchers, Ron was able to roll four hits, meaning that each Bane would have to make two damage tests. Considering the low power of the grenades and the fairly heavy armor on the Banes, we were all surprised when he killed not one but two of the Banes!

After that, the Wendigos moved forward and the rest of the unit opened fire on the last remaining Bane, easily destroying it. If only I had just moved the Hekat through them instead of going around them... Ah well, you live and learn.

The Banes were next in my activation sequence, but with my LPs being at a premium now I decided to simply skip my turn rather then spend them needlessly.

Cornelius moved next, getting behind one of the containers and out of the line of sight with the Incubus, which was activated next.

Opening fire on the last remaining nanogenerator, I easily destroyed it and then moved through the Kaptar unit again to try to kill as many as I could. This part of the plan did not work very well as I only managed to take out one of the Kaptars. This was the second major mistake that I made. I should have just focused on destroying the Kaptars instead of shooting at the nanogenerator, though with the dice falling as they did I still would have left one Kaptar on the board which would have been enough to control the access.

After I did this, the Kaptars charged the Incubus again but were still not able to do any major damage.

On the opposite side of the board, I charged the Hekat through the Wendigos killing both of the grenade launchers and another troop and then I killed a fourth one in close combat. Even so, it was not enough to keep the Karmans from winning the day.

All and all, it was a great game! There were several times when we were playing that it really looked like things could go either way, though in the end there were simply too many targets for my Golgoths to handle and no where near enough infantry on my side to hold the objectives.

That is all for today, but be sure to come back soon as we have another game tomorrow! This time it will be the third scenario, Holding the Production Line, and I am hoping to use the upgrade rules for nucleus cannons. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! Plus you will be able to see my new and improved scratch built hyperlink antenna. So until next time, may all of your dice come up Dragons!

AT-43 Battle Report 27042008: the Therians vs the Karmans

This battle was the very first in our local Operation: Damocles campaign. Unfortunately there were some scheduling and communication problems for a number of the players (such as "The campaign already started?" D'oh!) but it seems we have the bugs ironed out now and the rest of the campaign will be smooth sailing. Still it was nice as this was the first time that John (the owner of Little Shop of Magic) and I had really been able to sit down and play a one-on-one game.

As with one of the earlier battle reports, this time we played the first scenario again but this time we actually used the full map. Here you can see it in its full 3D glory!

We each would be fielding a 2000 point army for this battle. Here you can see my Cypher platoon, led by Urash himself. In my army, I had a maxed out Assault Golem unit, a minimum Storm Golem unit, a Bane Golem unit, an Incubus Golgoth (proxied in this game with the Poltergeist), and Nimit-Urash. My sole Hekat was created during the game and not part of the original force.

On John's side of the board, he was fielding two maxed Kaptar units (one with snipers and the other with ZZ-cannons), a unit of two Easy Trikes, and a unit of K-warriors. His commander was a Saint leading the Kaptar unit containing the snipers.

John won the roll to pick sides and in this case decided to be the defender. Not a big surprise to me as we had discussed that the scenario seemed to put the defender in a pretty strong position right from the start. Admittedly he does begin with fewer units in the beginning but being able to rack up VPs right from turn one seemed to make up for this drawback in our last game.

As defender, John deployed his two Kaptars on the board (ZZ cannons on the left, snipers on the right) while the other two units remained as reinforcements.

Rolling for Authority, John won the roll easily and decided to let me activate first. First up was Nimit-Urash himself walking onto the left side of the board. I let loose with the sonic cannon and nucleus cannon on the sniper Kaptars in the hopes that I could score some easy kills right off the bat but no such luck. The sonic cannon failed to even hit a target while the nucleus cannon easily took out one of the Kaptars. At least I had first blood but I had really been hoping to do at least a little more damage.

I ended Urash's activation by creating my Hekat right in the between the Kaptars and his Golgoth. As an aside, I have to say that it is kind of ironic that the Hekat, one of my least favorite miniatures for the entire AT-43 line, is now an integral part of my army every single game.

John activated his Kaptar ZZ-cannon unit next. Splitting his fire, the ZZ-cannons were able to damage Nimit's sonic cannon and the frame while the rest of the unit destroyed one of the nanogenerators on my side of the board.

My bane goliaths activated next and I dashed them up to gain control of a container and a nanogenerator on the left side of the board. I had hoped to be able to get close enough to the second container to capture that as well but I just barely fell short.

Next, John activated the Kaptar sniper unit (no big surprise there since he only had two units on the board). Using the sniper rifles, John was able to destroy the sonic cannon and damage the nucleus cannon while fire from the rest of the unit bounced harmlessly off of the Hekat. Things were starting to look a little rough for Urash and this was only the first turn!

The final activation for the turn came from my side of the board as my unit of Assault Golems moved onto the board and took up position behind a container on the right side of the board.

With the whole unit opening fire, they were able to destroy one of the containers right next to the sniper Kaptars. This denied John a few RPs which I needed to do to keep those Trikes and K-fighters off the board. To end their activation, the Overseer used the Reconfiguration routine to remove one of the low walls located right next to the Kaptars.

This brought the first turn to an end with the Karmans having 4 VPs and 200 RPs while the Therians had 0 VPs and 100 RPs.

The second turn, John again won the Authority test (not being able to wager Leadership Points with my Cypher platoon can definitely be a pain...). First up were his Kaptars with the ZZ-cannons. The regular troopers opened fire first, easily destroying the container that my Bane Goliaths were hiding behind. Now out in the open, John let loose with the ZZ-cannons against the Banes but luckily he was only able to destroy one of them.

For my first activation of the turn, the Hekat dashed forward and slammed into the other Kaptar unit. With its grim scythes whirring, it quickly killed four of the seven Kaptars including the Karmans commander.

Moving to get themselves back into coherency, the remaining Kaptars openned fire on the Hekat but were not able to pierce its armor.

The next unit in my sequence was the damage Nimit-Urash. I quickly used the Repair routine to get his nucleus cannon operational again and opened fire on one of the two containers located between John's Kaptars. At this point I was only focusing on denying him RPs for as long as I could because if his reinforcements were able to get onto the board the game could have easily shifted in his favor. After inflicting a damage point on the container, I used the Reconstruction routine on the Bane Goliaths to bring them back to full strength and then used the Reconfiguration routine to bring the low wall back into play and give my Banes some much needed cover.

As John had no units left on the board to activate, the rest of the turn went to me. First, my Banes opened fire on the already damaged container, destroying it and killing one of the Kaptars that was caught in the cross fire.

To end the second turn, I moved my Assault Golems into the open and fired on the remnants of the sniper Kaptar unit. The hail of fire from the nucleus rifles and cannons was too much and quickly cut down the four survivors.

The second turn ended with the Karmans moving up to 6 VPs while their RPs increased to 350. On the other hand, the Therians still had yet to get any VPs but I had moved up to 300 RPs. This was just enough to bring the first of my reinforcements onto the board as I added the Storm Golems to my sequence.

With his commander killed, John's Authority had dropped enough that I was finally able to win the test, and the first unit to activate was the Hekat. Running around the far side of the container, it stomped through the Kaptar unit, killing both of the heavy weapon troopers before taking down another three in close combat.

John made his morale check and moved the stalwart Kaptars to the other side of the container to take cover behind the nanogenerator. With no more units to move, all they could do at that point was sit there as I destroyed the container, generator, and finally both of the survivors.

The Karmans had fought bravely but in the end the Therians were victorious. The game ended with 6 VPs for the Karmans and 20 VPs for the Therians as they took the control of the now uncontested landing field.

All and all, it was a really good game and I had a lot of fun. I think that the easiest tactic for this mission (especially if you are the attacker) is to simply destroy as many of the secondary objectives as quickly as you can. This opens up the fire lane and more importantly denies the defender much needed Reinforcement Points. If John had been able to hold out for one more turn and hold the nanogenerator, he would have been able to bring in his K-warriors which would have changed things quite a bit I think. I have never fought against K-warriors but I know how annoying Red Blok artillery can be since even if it doesn't kill an infantry unit there is a good chance that they will be grounded and effectively rendered useless the next turn. The K-warriors can do this and will probably cause some casualties at the same time which I think would have seriously taken its toll.

Well, that is all for today but be sure to come back again for the next mission in the campaign! Until then, may all of your dice come up Dragons!