Dropzone Commander - Battle report

Long has it been this lockdown period. I have yearned to throw dice on a board and move plastic soldiers!   I have finally managed to get myself  my first game in 7 months, however lockdown is just about to occur again so this is my first and last for a while.. grumble..

We played the "Crucible" scenario, which I am told is one of the better balanced scenarios.

The scenario is that there are two mobile/hidden objectives in garrisons on the left and right and then one open objective in the middle.   For every turn you hold the middle objective you get one victory point. Carrying the mobile objectives off the board gives you two victory points.

Rough overview of our 1200 point lists.

Scourge (Lee)

Despot

Hunters

Reapers

Warriors

Aged ones

Destroyers

Eradicator

Reaver gunships

UCM  (Will)

Kodiak

Broadsword

Snipers

Legionnaires

Sabers

Rapiers

Eagle

Osprey

Falcon A

My UCM won the initiative roll-off and started to deploy conservatively hoping to use the superior UCM railgun range to snipe the scourge as they advanced. 

The snipers take up residence in a garrison to provide line of sight for the Kodiak orbital laser

The legionnaires jump into a forward garrison and search for an objective (and fail).

The scourge speed up the board with the two Reaver gunships taking up position behind a large garrison.

The Reapers and aged-ones disembark from their transport and speed forward towards the central objective.

The Sabres disembark early and try to take advantage of their superior range but all fail to hit. Their base 2+ to hit is modified to a 6+ due to disembarking and shooting at skimmers. Not surprisingly they all miss their shots.

After all my Sabres had shot their railguns, Lee's horrible scourge sped up the middle but were just out of range to return fire on my tanks.

My poor Legionnaires cowered in the middle of a garrison, which was now the target of the nearby Scourge Hunters and their dropships. The Legionnaires would spend the entire game being slowly killed by colleterial damage and failing to find the objective.... I don't think they passed basic training!

The Kodiak called in an orbital strike on the nearby ground troops as they would be nice and easy to hit (3+) in comparison to the skimmers at (5+). I had hoped to catch the Reaper tanks in the subsequent blast but I overestimated the size of the blast hit, which ended up hitting only the foot troops and just barely their transport. Thankfully all were annihilated in cleansing fire.... mmm toasty

Having spotted the very nasty Harbinger carrying the horrible Eradicator the UCM Rapiers open fire with their AA guns to try and bring down the transport. They took the dropship down to half health, which was not enough to bring it down. Damn! 

In pure and spiteful retaliation the nearby Intruder transport dropped off some nasty Destroyers who promptly let off their 6 x E10 shots on my rapiers, killing two!

I decided upon some retaliation of my own and opened fire with the Eagle gunship and Condor machine guns, which did a fair bit of damage but wasn't enough to turn them all into pools of slime and ash. Those destroyers are pretty tough with their "resilient" trait, which makes them immune from critical hits.

Lee's Eradicator disembarked and skulked around the edge of the map to damage my two Condors and annihilate my poor bear APC, which would result in my Legionnaires being stranded in the Garrison for the rest of the game.

Not content to leave my last remaining AA unit alive, Lee's Hunter tanks moved forward and opened fire, which easily destroyed my Rapier.

Sensing weakness, Lee moved his Commander in the cute Despot up through the side of the map, hoping to cause some chaos at my backlines.  He didn't count on my Osprey having AA missiles, which promptly destroyed the fragile air transport and plummeting the Despot to the ground. Just like a cat the Despot landed on his feet/claws without damage... however the future was not rosy for the plucky Despot.

BRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTT went my UCM Falcon A who opened up with its twin chain guns, which caused a critical (2 damage) and killed the Despot instantly.  

Off camera Lee's warriors claim the objective on the far left and then fly off the board to claim 2VP.

Next up my Broadsword trundled forward and took a shot at the now visible Scourge Eradicator. The tank only has the one shot so with trepidation I rolled its single shot as I needed 4+. I got it and then rolled a critical, which meant that the Eradicator suffered 6 wounds!  OWCH

Feeling wounded the Eradicator scuttled forward to hide from the Broadsword and unleashed its frustration on the nearby Garrison holding the Snipers. The Harbinger also joined in with this but thankfully the snipers did not take much damage.

My response was short and swift with another call to the heavens, calling in another juicy orbital laser strike on Lee's centrally located Hunter and Reaper tanks. BOOM.. there were no survivors!

Lee picked up his Destroyers and scooted them forward with their flying transport but was then shot down by the legionnaires using the reduced rule to gain some short range AA,.

The Kodiak was on a roll and called in another Orbital death beam, which finished off the Eradicator. I was getting very lucky with getting 5+ rolls! 

A warm glow of satisfaction warmed the hearts of the snipers who called in the strike... satisfaction or the burning wreckage of the Eradicator... either works ;).

Unfortunately Lee's destroyers survived their dropship having being shot down and promptly jumped into the garrison to dispense some PAIN on my Legionnaires. They were shot to pieces and at below 50% casualties, failed their fortitude test and fled the scene in terror.... worthless troopers!

After having claimed the left objective in a previous turn, Lee's warriors fly back on to the board and using the ol' transport slingshot method, gets his warriors into the garrison, which was housing my worthless Legionnaires who had spent the entire game a) failing to find the objective  and b) getting killed by falling bricks.   15 dice were rolled in CQ, which lead to 4 legionnaires being slaughtered. 

Unsurprisingly they fled the building!

That was of course something they shouldn't have done as then Lee's Marauder transports opened up and disintegrated the one remaining trooper...  not even his dog tag survived.. sniff :(

With my AA Rapiers being long dead, the Harbinger came out of hiding and took some pot shots at my Condors to do some damage while simultaneously popping out some plasma bombs to severely damage the garrison holding my Snipers, with the resulting collateral damage killing off off one unit of Snipers.

With all of my Legionnaires dead, Lee's Warriors find the objective and then fly away to claim another 2VP.

My survivors from the Destroyer onslaught who were now out in the open found themselves the target of the two nearby Marauder air transports who promptly reduced them all to ash with a barrage of fiery plasma.

Now fully fed up with my Kodiak causing so much destruction, Lees Reaver gunships fly up and over the course of two turns chip away and eventually destroy my Kodiak. My Osprey gunship was feebly trying to kill them with his AA missiles but consistently failed to do any damage. He would forever remember the battle where he failed to protect his commander.

The final board!

There wasn't a great deal of ground units left on the board. Only the UCM Broadsword and Sabres remained on Terra Firma. Plenty of air transports were milling around, admiring the view but otherwise being pretty useless.

The VP were counted up with the UCM having 2VP (sitting the Sabres on the central objective for the last two turns) and the Scourge with 6VP (two objectives and two turns of central objective ownership)

Winner = Scourge 

Final thoughts:

Will's UCM:

I need more AA as one unit of Rapiers isn't enough.

I lost the game due to playing too conservatively and not being aggressive enough to capture the objectives or protect troops in Garrisons. 

The Kodiak was MVP with almost all the kills due to the orbital laser. 

My regular tanks and gunships were pretty useless against the skimmers who with their evasion were too difficult to hit when using weapons with either a single shot or poor base accuracy.

I would had been in a lot of trouble if the Scourge Eradicator was anywhere near my gunships.

Lee's Scourge:

My strategy was to use the speed of the units to get to the objectives before anyone else. I was able to grab an objective and hold the centre objective from very early in the game. 

I had wanted to gain air superiority and use the Reavers to cause chaos. The Eradicator was to scare off all flying units and force troops out of a building.

For the next battle I want to try out some of the scourge nasty CQ units as troops out in the open don't do well!

Are you looking for a gaming club in the South East of England? 

If so join us at Wycombe Warband.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/397460790427301/