Battle Report 09/24/18 Texas Toy Soldier, Carrollton TX

[Savage Coyote]

Howdy howdy, another battle report that will receive a hundred views and no comments!  For this one, we were also testing our ability to stream out a battle and/or create a how to play example.  We went with 5k just to eat time and give MiniAdict a chance to run the cameras an computer set up.  His son brought in his mercenaries:

 

Attack Section 1

2x Chieftains

Archer

Nomad

 

Attack Section 2

2x Naginatas

Poltergiest

Nomad

 

Fire Support Section 1

3x Spector B's

Spider

 

vs my ADON unit I've started painting on:

 

Regiment 45 "Bone Collectors"

 

Attack Section 1

2xChancellors

Mantis

Javelin

 

Attack Section 2

Mantis

2x Kestrels

Javelin

 

Attack Section 3

2x Commander II's

2x Chieftains.  

 

No upgrades, doctrines or CP's were used for the game:

 

Turn one.

 

I got to deploy ALL of my force first due to all of my cards coming up in a row, so after I moved, Brandon got to lob some rockets at me ineffectively.  He moved up as well and we got ready for turn two.

 

Turn two:

 

I move first and move my tank up, killing one of the Nomads and maiming one of his Chieftains.  In return, he kills one of my Chieftains and damages my poor painted Chancellor.  He's rolling lights out with Active Phased Array 2 from the Archer running.  My other CAV Attack squad races up the right flank to try and engage his fire support elements.  I take a little damage but nothing major.

 

Turn Three

 

It got brutal quick.  He completely wastes my poor painted Chancellor with Overdriven PBG's, completely gutting it down to track nine or ten.  Just rolling lights out and the Naginatas didn't disappoint.  He also killed my second Chieftain that I'd race into his backfield to try and take some heat off of my heavy CAVs.  Tanks and flesh are cheap!  In return I blow up his other Chieftain and scratch one of the Naginatas, but I'm getting worried that he could turn this flank if he keeps rolling as well as he was.  On the other flank my sucide squad reaches point blank but had to use both move actions to do so, so I don't have any shots.  They all take some damage but miraculously no one dies.

 

Turn 3-5ish

So at this point, due to the recording, talking to a buddy, and whatever else was going on, I forget to use the camera!  Oops.  There wasn't much to really highlight.  We traded a lot of fire on the left flank and his dice finally started cooling off, and my Reinforced, Rugged units were healing like mad.  I think all in all I healed something like 12-14 damage over the course of the game.  The painted Mantis on that flank was pummeled and then eventually blew up his PBG's with a critical fumble.  With all the ECM from the nomad he didn't have much else to do till later in the game.  Brandon's Naginatas starts trying to wade closer, but the fire of the Commander II's and Chancellor cuts them down.  On the other side of the board the Poltergeist is doing a great job of blasting my light armored speedsters, as is the random strike point missile drops.  yet for all that, nothing died!  The Mantis in that group probably healed four or six damage throughout the game and eventually put his boot on the throat of the Poltergeist and rendered is much less effective, doing 6 damage in one round to it.

 

Final turns

 

As we near the end game, he pulls his Archer and Nomad back to try and killl the Kestrels and he mostly succeeds.  Though one Kestral walks up and kills the Nomad in two over drive shots (and dies for it) while the other Kestrel puts down more damage.  With no Nomad he wasn't able block out target locks with his ECM which gave me more bonuses.  My Chancellor, guided missile Mantis, and two Commander II's moved up and killed the Archer, a Spector, and the Poltergeist (with an assist from the other Mantis) while the Javelin killed the last Spector.  Oh, yeah, killed him by punching him in the cockpit after that Spector thought he'd be cute and force me to look up the close assault rules.  Yeah, take your point of damage and like it!  After that, one round of focused fire on the Spider and it was game over!

 

Lessons Learned:

 

- READ YOUR SA's!  Brandon had four units with FCS and three with Chain fire pod but he never used those things.  I remembered about half way through but decided not to remind him so the lesson could be taught at the end.  I think he could have probably won the game had he been able to drop strike points down and the suicide squad with multiple hits.  Nickel and diming them left them around just long enough to overdrive there way through most of the fire support section.  I'm guilty as well, as I forgot my Chancellor and Mantis had Wizzo's till about half way through the game!

 

- MACs go BOOM!  With the new Blaster errata, MACs are dangerous.  Very dangerous.  I landed quite a few hits with the murder machine Chancellor and the two Commander II's.  Dropping critical hits left and right really blew though some of the tougher armor Brandon had one the table.  Be aware!

 

- PBG's are really hot.  I burned out so many times with the new errata rules for PBG's.  And yet, my cheap little attack section sewed chaos in the backfield with all the killing they accomplished.  I'm worried for the Templars and Thug which all have four PBG designs.  We'll see how they shake out.

 

- Rugged makes repair worth it.  This SA, and to a limited extent Reinforced 1 and 2, kept my ADON in the game.  Just being able to stick around after taking several small points of damage was huge.  Brandon said late in the game, "Stop repairing!  All that damage I'm doing is being wasted!"  I disagreed of course, but it sure was helpful!

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2018 by Savage Coyote

[SCUG]

I think this is the way CAV is supposed to be. Machines drop quickly. Embrace it! Awesome stuff. Good lessons learned.  !)

[Ludo]

A blogger friend once told me it's one comment for every 100 views. So don't worry, you're ahead of the curve! I appreciate these!

[chaosscorpion]

Nice Post 

 

MiniAdict great pics!

[hjorhrafn]

Thanks for the report.  I guess I'm going to have to read the new errata now and figure out how best to incorporate it into the book.  

 

[Pegazus]

Padding yer comment ratio.

[Chaoswolf]

Not particularly related to the game, but I had a question that was partially answered, and I wouldn't mind some more info, if you don't mind.

 

I've been following the KS, and I was wondering if it was possible to play as mercenaries. It would appear that this is a thing, would you mind sharing some more details, please?

 

Basically, I don't want to be tied to a faction and having to use only those units that are particular to that faction. I'd rather be able to pick and choose which units i think look cool and making a force from them.

[hjorhrafn]

Yes, you can play as Mercs and pick freely from the models you like without regard to faction.  You miss out on the possibility of faction bonuses if you do so, although rumor has it Mercs/Pirates and such might be getting their own bonuses in an upcoming update.