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!