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Batrep 9/14/21 - How I learned to love Recon.


Krugerannd

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So today we had our 3rd game in a series where we learn the rules and try new things.

Below we have the Templar force The Order. Today they brought a Attack squad of 2 Centurion Mk.2's, 1 Crusader and a Spartan and a Specialist Squad of 2 Flail fire support tanks.

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Here we have the Malvernis Force The Swift Death consisting of an Attack Squad of 5 Banshee hover tanks, a Recon Squad of 4 Nomad vehicles (played ironically by Templar Mambas) and a Specialist Squad of 2 Butchers (with external FCS and Ammo Bin add-ons), 1 Specter B and 1 Shadow.

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The initial deployments were as thus.

The Templar spread out a bit and the Flails started behind the hill on the Right expecting to rain rockets down from afar while the CAV's blasted anything coming over the bridge.

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The Malvernis deployed the Specialist Squad in the Center to blast anything trying to come over the bridge while the Banshees deployed on the left side with intent to cross the river and hit the flank while the CAV's forced the bridge. The Nomads spread out to provide overlapping ECM bubbles so that if someone got frisky with their MAC's or R10's there would still be coverage. 

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The Malvernis got the first activation and started by advancing the Nomads and activating the ECM. The Banshees on the second card flip and followed suit and advanced forward 10" to activate Double Time but skipped their next action as they didn't want to get too far ahead just yet. Templar got the 3rd card and activated their Flails which tried lobbing Rockets at the enemy but they missed. Malvernis got the 4th card and activated their Specialist squad. The Shadow, having flashbacks to last game where it died Turn 1 ran for the Forest and grabbed a Target Lock on a Centurion which it passed to the rest of the squad via EST. It then remembered it's Chameleon ability and tried very hard to look like a tree. The Specter B moved forward and pelted the rearmost Centurion with Guided Missiles at Extreme Range and actually did 2 damage and a Suppression and Knock Down due to a Critical Hit, Shock and a Failed Piloting Check. The Butchers moved forward and appeared to lay down an additional 3 damage but then it was realized that sometime during their activation their owner had a stroke and started playing Warhammer 40k rules and completely cheated on their attacks. He then apologized and walked all their shooting back. The last activation card went to the Templar Specialist squad where the Spartan took shelter in the valley and popped it's ECM, the Rearmost Centurion stood up and tried to repair itself and failed and the front most Centurion advanced and found out it was out of range for any MAC attacks. The Crusader advanced but couldn't get a target lock to pass with EST due to all the ECM and couldn't shoot anything due to the short range PBG's it carries.

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Next up I forgot to take pictures in order so I'm sure I missed something. For Malvernis the Banshee's did a double move and started crossing the River. The Nomads moved up as far as they could to keep the ECM umbrella out as far as they could. The Specialist squad advanced on the Bridge in preparation for crossing while the Shadow remained in seclusion in the forest. For the Templar the Centurions moved past the Spartan to range on the enemy. They did manage to ding a Banshee despite Double time and a lack of target locks. The Flails managed to drop a brace of rockets on a Nomad and damage it pretty good. 

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Here we have a picture of some Banshees enjoying the water.

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So those of you may remember that the 2 Centurions had advanced to bring their MACs to bear on the enemy. This time the Banshee's advanced to bring their PBG's to bear on the Centurions which they promptly Overdrove. End result 1 Banshee with no gun (Crit Fumble) a 2nd Banshee getting scratched and a severely dead Centurion.

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Here the Remaining Centurion fired it's MAC's and dealt 3 more damage to an already scratched Banshee. The Crusader racked up it's PBGs and laid a hurt on the lead Butcher for 6 damage due to Overdriven guns and a high roll. The Butcher, shaken by the hit, did not return nearly as much damage.

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On Round 7 the Banshee's destroyed the 2nd Centurion with massed Overdriven PBG's and managed a shot against the Spartan which knocked it down on a failed pilot check. At this point my opponent conceded defeat and we ended the game.

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Things learned today.

1. Again it's a numbers game. The side with more squads gets more cards in the initiative deck and more opportunities to react to and counter enemy moves

2. If one side brings a recon squad and the other doesn't, the side that doesn't is at a severe disadvantage. Between ECM not allowing target locks making long range fire inaccurate and preventing the use of Guided Missiles and the Recon Squad ability to move flipped initiative cards to the bottom of the deck that weakly armed, poorly armored squad can cause problems way out of proportion to the points spent.

3. Overdriven PBG's hurt like hell. Keep them away from you or kill them on the other side of the table.

4. Fire Support Models need Target Locks, and LOS (if possible) in order to use Rockets effectively. The idea of raining Hellfire down on your enemy from a safe distance away is a nice one but in practice without Target Locks the penalties to Long or Extreme range bombardments are too high. I don't think a single IF salvo fired today landed on target. All damage done was from scattered shots.

5. Hover tanks skimming over water look cool. Hover tanks skimming over water and then destroying Super Heavy CAV's in 1 turn look REALLY Cool.

P.S. CAVBoss if you're reading this every faction needs to have models for it's Recon Vehicles. They are too damn useful not to use and by my count Malvernis, Ritterlich and Almirithil have none and Adon has the Dragonfly aircraft which is nice and all but it doesn't have ECM.

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Edited by Krugerannd
Misspelled words
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Things learned today.

1. Again it's a numbers game. The side with more squads gets more cards in the initiative deck and more opportunities to react to and counter enemy moves.

Absolutely. This is designed to give forces with more flexible builds (more squads) to have a greater effect on game play while also discouraging points heavy squads.

2. If one side brings a recon squad and the other doesn't, the side that doesn't is at a severe disadvantage. Between ECM not allowing target locks making long range fire inaccurate and preventing the use of Guided Missiles and the Recon Squad ability to move flipped initiative cards to the bottom of the deck that weakly armed, poorly armored squad can cause problems way out of proportion to the points spent.

Correct. Have more reconnaissance is always a good thing during a fight. If you know what the enemy is doing and he has no idea what you are then you are going to have an advantage. The expanded initiative deck will lessen this a bit as it will add more cards that will help, especially in smaller games like this.

3. Overdriven PBG's hurt like hell. Keep them away from you or kill them on the other side of the table.

Yeah if you let them close the range and get good numbers to hit they can really tear holes.

4. Fire Support Models need Target Locks, and LOS (if possible) in order to use Rockets effectively. The idea of raining Hellfire down on your enemy from a safe distance away is a nice one but in practice without Target Locks the penalties to Long or Extreme range bombardments are too high. I don't think a single IF salvo fired today landed on target. All damage done was from scattered shots.

Trying to rain hellfire with models not specially designed with that idea in mind is hard. Building a force group with that in mind can make a big difference in how effective they are. Most models have rockets for more of a harassing effect. The game is weighted towards direct fire to keep the rocket duels to a minimum and keep the models moving about. The extreme range mod can be overcome with a model with wizzo, a target lock, and 2 models with FCS. In the rules update fire support models will get some help with this. Great tactic is to have a recon model (equipped with rockets) with fire support models, all of them using CFPs. The recon model can lock up the spot and on a successful strike point transfer that to all the others hiding behind a hill. Ouch!

5. Hover tanks skimming over water look cool. Hover tanks skimming over water and then destroying Super Heavy CAV's in 1 turn look REALLY Cool.

!!!

P.S. CAVBoss if you're reading this every faction needs to have models for it's Recon Vehicles. They are too damn useful not to use and by my count Malvernis, Ritterlich and Almirithil have none and Adon has the Dragonfly aircraft which is nice and all but it doesn't have ECM.

I've said in the past that if people will tell me where there are holes in model types I can look at filling them in! SO make a list!!!

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3 hours ago, Krugerannd said:

P.S. CAVBoss if you're reading this every faction needs to have models for it's Recon Vehicles. They are too damn useful not to use and by my count Malvernis, Ritterlich and Almirithil have none and Adon has the Dragonfly aircraft which is nice and all but it doesn't have ECM.

Adon has the Highlander which brings ECM2 and Smoke on a Chieftain chasis. The official model isn't out, but it's a case of modding the turret.

Also, remember that there is an external ECM module that can add ECM 0 to anything.

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