So, I'm gearing up for my first game this coming weekend. I'm very interested to see how the superheavy and colossal walkers fare. It appears to me that it is going to be very hard to inflict damage on them, and that stress is going to be the critical factor in eliminating them.

The blast templates on the Warlords' missiles and howitzers are also absurd. UN forces are going to have to watch their spacing carefully.


UN FORCES




OPFOR

Will be interested to hear how your game goes.

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Take lots of pictures, and let us know.

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Thanks,
Troy


Once Upon a Midnight Dreary....

Since my hill-making foam was the wrong thickness, and a bunch of urban blocks are incomplete, the rest of the battlefield is maybe a little sparse. I pulled out some unpainted village buildings to help clutter things up a bit.

H-15h33m

Forces have assembled.

Games ends on 5+ (on d6) on turn 4, on 3+ on turn 5, or at the end of turn 6. We had three objectives, which are held by having the only unit within 6". If both players are within range, the objective is contested. A held objective remains held until contested or taken by the opponent.

DEPLOYMENT

UN Armoured Company, RightFlank


UN Warstalker Company, Left flank


OPFOR Titan Company, Left Flank


OPFOR Armoured Company, Right Flank

TURN 1

Two platoons of Liberators take cover to the sides of the city streets. They unleash a withering barrage of fire on the UN Dreadnought and lead Jackal, knocking some systems out and building up lots of stress. The Horatius tanks of Company HQ move into the ruins a bit further behind and add their firepower to the mix.


The UN Jackal and Leviathan on the left flank exchange fire with the OPFOR Trajan (out of shot). The rest of the company moves up the street, having limited success firing back at OPFOR tanks. The Dreadnought is immobilised.



OPFOR titans have moved to secure the woods. While deploying, I had not considered that my grav tanks are unable to enter forest terrain, and I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with this, but a platoon of Komodos and another of Cougars secure the town and lay down their own heavy barrages on one of the OFOR Warlords, inflicting some minor damage and lots of stress.



The rest of the UN tanks wait in cover.

TURN 2

UN warstalkers continue to advance on the OPFOR tanks. I'm able to shield the command unit, but all the other Jackals are accumulating massive amounts of stress. The Dreadnought continues to lay down fire, but it also has too much stress and isn't going to last long. It did succeed at a damage control check at the end of turn one. Foolishly, I repaired it's defensive systems. If I'd given it back it's mobility, it may have been able to advance and shield the Jackals from some of the incoming fire.

The warstalkers on the left flank take down the OPFOR Trajan and continue to advance.



The OPFOR tanks are doing well. One Liberator is destroyed, one has a weapons system knocked out, and they have a bit of stress, but they're holding up well.



More Cougars advance and engage the second Warlord.


A Sekhmet and the assault drones emerge from the woods and inflict serious casualties on the newly arrived Cougars. My Komodos take a pounding from the Warlords, while my other two platoons of Cougars wrap around the flank.



By the end of the turn, all my Jackals are gone thanks to stress, as is one Warlord. I did try rallying one Jackal, but failed to remove sufficient stress.

TURNS 3 and 4
I seem to be missing a turn's worth of photos somehow.


The mighty Leviathan and the command Jackal are all that's left of my warstalker squadron, but they have secured the city objective.



The OPFOR assault drones move to contest the village, knowing that my Komodos will disperse due to stress at the end of the turn, and expecting to claim the objective. OPFOR armour moves out of the city to engage the UN armour that have moved around to the rear. I had been planning UN armour into the city to engage the OPFOR HQ, but this is no longer feasible, and I have more pressing concerns, so those tanks double back and resecure the village.




The strategic advantage is probably in the OPFOR's favour at this point, with my Komodos and one squadron of Cougars gone (although the OPFOR have also lost their second Warlord) but on a roll of six the game ends after turn four, with the UN holding 2 objectives to OPFOR 1.

UN VICTORY!

POST BATTLE THOUGHTS

Overall, it's a big thumbs up. Much fun was had. A few observations:

• Messing with paper chits is a big PITA. It will be nice to have some proper, cardboard counters.
• The game would be better with fewer superheavy/colossal vehicles than we used. I made do because this is what I have to work with at the moment, but I look forward to employing a higher proportion of more standard vehicles, and infantry. The bigger vehicles are really just stress-sinks and, as I expected, extremely hard to damage. I would absolutely not want to play a titan vs titan fight with these rules. To maximise fun, a limit of one colossal or two super-heavies per battlegroup (with a bit of flex) seems like a reasonable guideline to me.
• My opponent was a bit iffy about the whole rally procedure. It's a big cost, to spend a turn rallying. However, as I pointed out, if it's a hard choice to make, it's probably a good rule. I actually gave a number of rally orders; unfortunately, my die rolling all game was pretty mediocre. Twice I needed a decent roll and couldn't get it, once the unit accumulated enough extra stress that rallying had become pointless no matter how well I rolled, and once I cleared up all accumulated stress. I'm of the opinion that skillful use of rallying (and, ideally, screening a unit that needs to rally so they don't keep getting hit) is something good players will learn to do.
• The Initiative system I'm a little iffy about. My opponent was very iffy. I won two initiative rolls for the entire game and, as a result, most turns involved him moving all his units, then me moving mine. Admittedly, that's going to be somewhat of a statistical outlier, but it is going to happen sometimes if you play enough, and it could potentially make a game very frustrating for some players.
• I really wanted to run some really big games (I had some absurdly huge Epic armies back in the day), but I think there's too much going on to scale it up as large as I was hoping, on a regular basis at least. I will definitely see how far I can push the envelope, though, if I can find players willing to come along for the ride.
• It plays fast. We played four turns in about three hours. Given it was the first game for both of us, that's a pretty good effort. There were very few rules questions, it's all streamlined and straightforward.
• The scatter rule for area effect weapons is pointless, unless the target has significantly higher evasion than the combatants around it. I don't think I will bother with scatter at all in future. Every time it came up today, it was meaningless.

Excellent report, great photos, and I'm really glad you enjoyed your first game.

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