Post by turtle on Apr 11, 2009 4:56:36 GMT -5
So just played a game with 2 experimental armies against each other. The scenario was Escalating battle, which was interesting. We packed the table with ruined buildings to represent areas on the outskirts of Paris that have been destroyed from the fighting.
I didn't keep a good turn by turn breakdown, and I know for certain we missed some rules, but it was a pretty close an interesting fight.
This is also the first time we played with the full facing and movement rules, which really help to tone down how powerful elite and veteran units are. It keep them powerful, but limits how much they can do when things get hairy.
Armies:
US Experimental
1 Airborne Officer with Rocket Hero and Thompson - Elite
1 Mechanic - Veteran
1 Buffalo w/ M1919 - Regular
1 Buffalo w/ TEG - Regular
1 Rocket Trooper squad - Veteran
1 Robot Trooper squad - Green
German Experimental
1 SD Officer - Elite
1 Wehrmacht Officer w/ War Hero - Veteran
1 Rohlingsoldat with MG42 - Regular
1 Rohlingsoldat with Panzershrek - Regular
1 Sturmaffe - Regular
1 Skinnies squad - Green
1 Volksturm Heavy Weapons Team w/ MG42 - Green
Looking back now, I realize that he couldn't have taken the extra MG42. I had previously called him on taking 2 special orders too, I think my friend has a habit of cheating which I need to call him on more often to ween him away from. But, anyway...
Play began with the Rohlingsoldat w/ Panzershrek and Wehr officer deployed in the middle of the table inside a building, while my Buffalo w/ M1919 and Robot Troopers deployed on the right side in a hilly park.
The fighting started early with Robot Troopers firing to suppress the Rohlingsoldat advancing from the middle to take out the Buffalo on the right, they were out of range unfortunately. I bring in my mechanic. He brings out the Sturmaffe on the right on his side.
My mechanic hangs around out of sight, waiting for the second buffalo to come on the table. The Sturmaffe advances on my units in the park.
Next turn, the Sturmaffe advances closer to my units. The robots shift position to take some shots at the Sturmaffe, they manage to suppress and wound it once. The advancing Rohling w/ Shrek advances once more and fires a rocket, which misses thankfully. I bring out my Rocket Officer and fly him closer to the Wehr officer preparing to take her out. The Robots fail to suppress the Sturmaffe or wound it further, but do manage to suppress the Rohling. The Wehr officer chucks a grenade at my Rocket Officer, doing 1 wound. The Buffalo w/ M1919 does 1 wound to the Rohling. The German player also brings in his second Rohling with MG42 in position to lay down fire on the robots.
Now things really heat up on the next few turns. Wehr officer uses command to free up the Rohling w/ shrek, which proceeds to roll a 6 to hit and a whopping 18 damage, blasting apart my Buffalo in 1 hit. The robots suppress the sturmaffe, which is dangerously close. My Rocket Officer jumps down from his perch and kills the Wehr officer with a lot of shooting.
My rocket troops and final Buffalo eventually come out, along with my friend's SD Officer, Emaciated and MG42 team. My Officer rockets into a position where he can respond to these incoming units, but it suppressed by MG42 fire. The emaciated keep running to get into position to attack the robot troopers. The Rohling w/ MG42 blasts apart 1 robot trooper while the Sturmaffe eventually charges in and smashes up another, then leaves the third to emaciated as it goes after the remaining buffalo. My rocket troops zip around and using cover well to avoid MG42 fire, manage to kill off both Rohlingsoldats and avoid retaliation from their Unstoppable ability. Unfortunately, they are later gunned down by the SD officer. My Officer seeks shelter from the MG42 fire, but due to some good rolling from the SD officer loses his last wound, this leaves all my units at a dangerous -3 Drive and no command, although my friend is in a similar situation.
My mechanic tunes up my TEG Buffalo with +2 AP while staring down the Sturmaffe that's too close for comfort. He blasts the ape down to 1 wound left before the ape gets into close combat where it goes berserk. Fortunately it botches a CC attack allowing my 1 CC buffalo to win a combat, hitting the ape back with 6 strength, killing the ape. But due to the unstoppable ability, it stays up but fails its final hits on the buffalo.
Meanwhile, my lone Robot trooper is proving its worth as it survives multiple turns with the sturmaffe and later skinnies hitting on it in CC. Surviving all these attacks and in the process preventing me from losing that last bit of drive that would have routed my entire army.
At this point we're both really battered, low on drive and units. I only have 1 buffalo with a short ranged TEG, 1 robot trooper still in CC with Skinnies, and a mechanic tuning up the buffalo for all its worth. My opponent just had his MG42 team, his SD officer, and his Skinnies left.
Unfortunately, due to the it being late we had to call it a night then and called the game a draw. Night had fallen on the battlefield and both sides slunk off into the darkness to lick their wounds. The battle could go either way with just 1 wound or model killed being the difference.
Some other thoughts on the game:
I like rocket troops, but they require some finesse to use, and better knowledge of the movement rules. I also need to remember that they move and shoot, which I didn't use as much as I should have. I also should have just given my commander a TEP instead of keeping his Thompson.
Buffalos are great, with high armor, but wow watch out for those anti tank weapons, they'll usually do 2-3 points of damage, especially the shrek. So, any hit will usually kill if the armor save isn't made.
Robot Troops are awesome. I love these guys and I might actually buy another unit of them. They're limited in purpose, but do a great job of soaking up fire with 2 wounds and high armor. They also do a great job of suppressing. Walking fire also helps them move around while still attacking, and even with a 6+ shooting, 9 shots a turn while on the move usually results in a few wounds put out. If I can find a jeep I may load these guys on a jeep to cart them around the place to get around their slow movement.
My only problem with them is with the model, some of the arms have a weak spot between the shoulder and elbow joint, I've already had 1 model's arm fall off at that spot and another is slightly bendy at that spot. I may have to replace that with brass rod and that's a lot of work to get right for such small parts.
I didn't keep a good turn by turn breakdown, and I know for certain we missed some rules, but it was a pretty close an interesting fight.
This is also the first time we played with the full facing and movement rules, which really help to tone down how powerful elite and veteran units are. It keep them powerful, but limits how much they can do when things get hairy.
Armies:
US Experimental
1 Airborne Officer with Rocket Hero and Thompson - Elite
1 Mechanic - Veteran
1 Buffalo w/ M1919 - Regular
1 Buffalo w/ TEG - Regular
1 Rocket Trooper squad - Veteran
1 Robot Trooper squad - Green
German Experimental
1 SD Officer - Elite
1 Wehrmacht Officer w/ War Hero - Veteran
1 Rohlingsoldat with MG42 - Regular
1 Rohlingsoldat with Panzershrek - Regular
1 Sturmaffe - Regular
1 Skinnies squad - Green
1 Volksturm Heavy Weapons Team w/ MG42 - Green
Looking back now, I realize that he couldn't have taken the extra MG42. I had previously called him on taking 2 special orders too, I think my friend has a habit of cheating which I need to call him on more often to ween him away from. But, anyway...
Play began with the Rohlingsoldat w/ Panzershrek and Wehr officer deployed in the middle of the table inside a building, while my Buffalo w/ M1919 and Robot Troopers deployed on the right side in a hilly park.
The fighting started early with Robot Troopers firing to suppress the Rohlingsoldat advancing from the middle to take out the Buffalo on the right, they were out of range unfortunately. I bring in my mechanic. He brings out the Sturmaffe on the right on his side.
My mechanic hangs around out of sight, waiting for the second buffalo to come on the table. The Sturmaffe advances on my units in the park.
Next turn, the Sturmaffe advances closer to my units. The robots shift position to take some shots at the Sturmaffe, they manage to suppress and wound it once. The advancing Rohling w/ Shrek advances once more and fires a rocket, which misses thankfully. I bring out my Rocket Officer and fly him closer to the Wehr officer preparing to take her out. The Robots fail to suppress the Sturmaffe or wound it further, but do manage to suppress the Rohling. The Wehr officer chucks a grenade at my Rocket Officer, doing 1 wound. The Buffalo w/ M1919 does 1 wound to the Rohling. The German player also brings in his second Rohling with MG42 in position to lay down fire on the robots.
Now things really heat up on the next few turns. Wehr officer uses command to free up the Rohling w/ shrek, which proceeds to roll a 6 to hit and a whopping 18 damage, blasting apart my Buffalo in 1 hit. The robots suppress the sturmaffe, which is dangerously close. My Rocket Officer jumps down from his perch and kills the Wehr officer with a lot of shooting.
My rocket troops and final Buffalo eventually come out, along with my friend's SD Officer, Emaciated and MG42 team. My Officer rockets into a position where he can respond to these incoming units, but it suppressed by MG42 fire. The emaciated keep running to get into position to attack the robot troopers. The Rohling w/ MG42 blasts apart 1 robot trooper while the Sturmaffe eventually charges in and smashes up another, then leaves the third to emaciated as it goes after the remaining buffalo. My rocket troops zip around and using cover well to avoid MG42 fire, manage to kill off both Rohlingsoldats and avoid retaliation from their Unstoppable ability. Unfortunately, they are later gunned down by the SD officer. My Officer seeks shelter from the MG42 fire, but due to some good rolling from the SD officer loses his last wound, this leaves all my units at a dangerous -3 Drive and no command, although my friend is in a similar situation.
My mechanic tunes up my TEG Buffalo with +2 AP while staring down the Sturmaffe that's too close for comfort. He blasts the ape down to 1 wound left before the ape gets into close combat where it goes berserk. Fortunately it botches a CC attack allowing my 1 CC buffalo to win a combat, hitting the ape back with 6 strength, killing the ape. But due to the unstoppable ability, it stays up but fails its final hits on the buffalo.
Meanwhile, my lone Robot trooper is proving its worth as it survives multiple turns with the sturmaffe and later skinnies hitting on it in CC. Surviving all these attacks and in the process preventing me from losing that last bit of drive that would have routed my entire army.
At this point we're both really battered, low on drive and units. I only have 1 buffalo with a short ranged TEG, 1 robot trooper still in CC with Skinnies, and a mechanic tuning up the buffalo for all its worth. My opponent just had his MG42 team, his SD officer, and his Skinnies left.
Unfortunately, due to the it being late we had to call it a night then and called the game a draw. Night had fallen on the battlefield and both sides slunk off into the darkness to lick their wounds. The battle could go either way with just 1 wound or model killed being the difference.
Some other thoughts on the game:
I like rocket troops, but they require some finesse to use, and better knowledge of the movement rules. I also need to remember that they move and shoot, which I didn't use as much as I should have. I also should have just given my commander a TEP instead of keeping his Thompson.
Buffalos are great, with high armor, but wow watch out for those anti tank weapons, they'll usually do 2-3 points of damage, especially the shrek. So, any hit will usually kill if the armor save isn't made.
Robot Troops are awesome. I love these guys and I might actually buy another unit of them. They're limited in purpose, but do a great job of soaking up fire with 2 wounds and high armor. They also do a great job of suppressing. Walking fire also helps them move around while still attacking, and even with a 6+ shooting, 9 shots a turn while on the move usually results in a few wounds put out. If I can find a jeep I may load these guys on a jeep to cart them around the place to get around their slow movement.
My only problem with them is with the model, some of the arms have a weak spot between the shoulder and elbow joint, I've already had 1 model's arm fall off at that spot and another is slightly bendy at that spot. I may have to replace that with brass rod and that's a lot of work to get right for such small parts.
