I recently fought my first battle on the internet against my brother who lives in Australia. I hosted the battle by setting up the board & minis and then setting up the camera which I constantly moved around the table for offering different viewpoints as we played. Because we were focussed on making sure we could play, I didn't bother taking pics as normally would be the case.
The forces:
Land Raider Company: 700 points
Warhounds, each armed with an Inferno Gun and Turbo Laser Destructor. 500 points
Assault Detachment: 250 points
Deathwing Terminator Detachment: 350 points
Land Speeder Squadron: 200 points
v
Goff Mob: 650 points
Goff Gutrippa Sqaudron: 100 points
Great Gargant w/Ork Gargant (with Gutbuster ball ammo, Gatling Cannon, Supa Lifta Droppa, Gork Head, 2 Battlecannon): 750 points
Kult of Speed: 400 points
Skullhamma: 100 points
35VPs is required for the win.
Playing via Skype: This actually wasn't as bad as we had feared. The connection held up and my brother was able to understand what was going on through the limited video cam available. I had taken a couple of overview pics of the battlefield to help familiarise him with the battlefield before we started. Soundwise it was even better as we were both able to hear one another clearly - almost as if he was in the same room even though he was on the other side of the world!
My brother doesn't have any dice (hard to imagine, I know) out there so had downloaded a dice rolling app which allows him to roll as many D6 (or D10s, D12, etc) at once as he decided. We trust each other not to cheat, but did offer to let the other see the roll if we wanted to verify the result. He used a pen & paper to draw a rough copy of the battlefield and also to note down units & orders which meant I could rumble him if I thought there was any skullduggery afoot (not that I thought there was)!
The game took us about 4 hours but it is worth mentioning that the two of us also had meals at this time - and that I'm not used to playing Orks so there was a fair amount of reference checking. I can imagine Marine v Eldar battles taking half the time.
It isn't ideal but is more doable than we maybe first thought. I can imagine it being a lot more difficult for larger battles so we are probably going to keep it to battles for 2 - 3 K at the moment.
Net Epic Evolution: My brother seemed to pick up the rules without too many problems. His one issue was that he wanted to reserve fire for one unit after close combat was resolved (in order that he could mop up the survivors) but this is not permitted in NEE and I can't see any way to change this without compromising the rules. He seemed to like that the new system increases tactical choices. We used standard damage tables and avoided plasma generation for the Warhounds (sorry DS & Primarch - it's a definite for next time); the Titans & Gargant were treated as being on charge and first fire orders like Praetorians.
Turn 1: Goff Mob (which had no transports) moved into woods at the back of the board, headed for an objective. I thought they were safe. I was wrong. The Marine assault detachment headed for the same objective and was able to take it and for 4 stands to engage my Boyz in close combat. The Goff Nobs move through the same wood to the edge where they have perfect position to pick off all 3 of the Assault Squads now exposed Rhinos. Marine player counters by charging a Warhound across the board and frying about 4 Boyz and 2 Nobs, 2 nearby Gutrippas with a combination of an Inferno Gun & Turbo-Laser destructors. Being able to make Warhounds charge & ff makes that Inferno gun absolutely lethal against troop-heavy forces (remember that with the new +1 to FF, +1 to hit units on FF that the accuracy of the weapon is much improved also). It would have been worse had those assault troops not engaged the Boyz in cc; i.e. there would have been 15 Boyz stands at the mercy of that weapon!
All over the board Marines swarmed towards objectives. My Skullhamma ws picked off before the end of the turn after coming under heavy Land Raider fire. It was up to my Gargant to take the objective that the Skullhamma was intended to hold, destroying a few Land Raiders as well. War Buggies take another one, but were jumped by the Land Speeder squadron, who in turn were jumped by the other War Buggy squadron. In close combat between the buggies and the Land Speeders, pretty much 1 Buggy died then the Speeder was done in by the secondary attacker. Except the one nearest the objective - he managed to destroy both Buggies and take the objective! Nooooo! Ork Nobz warbikes are able to get into a position to attack some of the Land Raiders and picked off a couple of them.
Once the dust settled, my Orks had only claimed a single solitary objective and broken the Land Speeders. The Marines meanwhile had taken a huge 6 objectives, while 1 remained unclaimed. Worse still, the Kult of Speed was only 3 away from breaking, while the Goffs were 2 away! Had those assault stands not got involved, the game may have already been over!
Marines: 30 VPs
Orks: 7 VPs
Turn 2:
Orks win initiative and the Boyz in the wood charge the Assault Marines (to take cover from the damn inferno gun as much as anything). Land Raiders decimate my Nobz Warbikes - but luck is on my side with Morale Checks as both sets of Buggies roll over 4. My Goff Nobz try to put one of the Warhounds out of commission but despite 3 of 5 hits getting through, the only thing that happens is that the f'ing Inferno gun is put out of commission. War Buggies shoot the remaining Land Speeder down, taking (if they can survive to the end of the turn) an objective. The other squadron move on to take the unclaimed objective. The Marines are stretched across the board which means they have little to fire at, moping up the last Gutrippa and picking off some more Goff Nobz. The Goffs are broken, but I manage to roll a 4 which means the Boyz stand strong - and crucially - will not have their CAF impaired for going on Fall Back orders. The Gargant makes the Imperials pay by trashing several Land Raiders and manages to break the company!
The close combat in the woods is a mixed affair; the Assault troops get the better rolls but are still broken by the Boyz. One last desperate close assault will determine who holds an objective and whether the battle is won or continues for another turn... Marines win the melee and the match!
At the end of the turn, the Orks now had three objectives and had broken the Land Raider Company, the Assault Detachment and the Land Speeders from turn 1. The Marines had taken five objectives and broken the Goffs and the Kult of Speed.
Marines: 38 VPs
Orks: 28 VPs
Conclusion: I couldn't see what I could have done differently, and my strategy to deploy across 2/3 of the board and sacrifice an objective was sound; there simply weren't enough Ork units to play across a wider front. I was desperate to try out my nice and newly painted Gargant, but in future would settle for a Slasha; as Great as the Gargant is, 750 points is a huge chunk out of a 2,000 point force. I took some consolation from the fact that turn 2 went much better than the first, and that had the evenly matched close assault went differently, we would both have been on 33 VPs a piece.
From the Marine perspective, the Warhounds really could have been left to deal with the Goff mob while the assault squad supported the Land Speeders. Had that one change been made it could have been an absolute trouncing for the Orks with the game over at the end of turn 1.
My suspicions are that the Orks are always going to get battered on Turn 1 but become much more powerful in Turn 2 when they are in range of enemy units and able to make good use of their larger activations which enemy forces really should fear. it will be interesting to see how they fare in a 5k battle soon...
So, now that we know that NetEpic can be played to a reasonable standard over the net (though it will never be the same as good old-fashioned face to face play), there's no excuse not to try out NetEpic Evolution. Who's next for a game?
