TTS 09/14/21 Battle

[Savage Coyote]

So we haven't played in a long while as a group.  Got together once in July but due to schedules, work, commitments ect, it just hasn't happened!  That changed last night as several of us were able to get together to play at Texas Toy Soldier in Carrollton TX (DFW.). We had four 3k forces divided into two teams of 6k each.  Myself and young Brandon commanded a Malvernis force while Micheal, @Smaug, and @geoffj commanded a mercenary/Terran/Space Egyptian force.

Malvernis:

My Force
Attack:
4x Poltergeist
Nomad

Specialist
2x Shadows
Ghost

Brandon's Force
Attack:
2x Poltergeist
2x Hunter

Recon:
2x Shadow
2x Nomad

Specialist:
2x Banshee

Merc/Terran/Anubis Guards

Michael's Force
Attack:
Butcher A
Dictator A
Gladiator II
Imperator

Recon:
2x Cougar
2x Spartan

Terran/Anubis Guard
Attack:
Starhawk VII
Falcon
Nightshade
Anhur

Recon:
3x Talon
Serket

 

So we set up, us having five cards and them having four.  While they had two recon flips, it never really came up to be a big disadvantage for us.  I think having an extra card balanced it out.  Anyway, turn one almost all of our stuff raced forward except for our tanks who moved up and took shots at the Serket.  Between the six Poltergeist we took the CAV down.  In return, the mercenaries fired at one of my Shadows for two damage, and my Ghost took a damage from the Falcon.  Smaug would pick on that Ghost with a special hatred for the rest of the game.

Turn two saw more of the same and the ECM war kick off.  We were able to use our Nomads to gain supremacy for most of the turn, allowing our Shadow's APA to help out.  My Poltergeist's put a few points of damage on Smaug's Falcon and young Brandon's Poltergeists combined with some of mine to take one of Geoff's Talon's down to it's last track, which my Ghost cleaned up and killed with it's LLBG's.  Smaug paid him back and added three damage, a Suppression token, and Knock-Down state to the Ghost. Michael mauled one of my Shadows and damaged the other.  Young Brandon's Banshees raced into the face of the Anubis Guard formation and did some damage to the Falcon. To end the turn, Michael's recon squad regained electronic superiority as we moved into the third and final round.

(forgot to photograph that turn, sorry!)

On the final turn, there was a little more "going for broke" and so Michael used his recon squad to target my last Shadow and did three damage to it while Smaug and Geoff rushed forward and mostly killed the two Banshee's.  The Banshee's and Ghost sucked up a lot of fire that let the Poltergeists really assert themselves so it was a good trade.  Micheal's attack squad finished off my mauled Shadow and took some fire from young Brandon's Hunters.  Via card manipulation on both teams parts, four of our sections went last and we avalanched the Anubis Guards, killing the Falcon and Nightshade while putting seven damage on the Starhawk VII.  probably could have been eight or nine as we forgot he'd stood still and was Stationary, but thats why we play the game.

 

Final thoughts:
The final turn had some "final turn play," though I'm mostly confident the six Poltergeists could take on the remaining CAVs and be successful.  Nothing is assured with dice, but they are pretty stout tanks!  The only thing that came up was CAV's blocking line of site to targets, so watch out for that!
 

[Smaug]

Good times had by all. I have to admit I was very skeptical of my dice, which made it difficult for me to decide targets. I knew those poltergeist where going to be a problem and I felt I had nothing to hit them. Again...dice🤬🤬🤬

[Krugerannd]

Very nice. Poltergeists are on the To Purchase list along with some Razors. Did you find the APA to be useful? I've got 3 Shadows but haven't seemed to get the knack yet. They tend to explode on me.

[Savage Coyote]

On 9/15/2021 at 3:05 PM, Krugerannd said:

Very nice. Poltergeists are on the To Purchase list along with some Razors. Did you find the APA to be useful? I've got 3 Shadows but haven't seemed to get the knack yet. They tend to explode on me.

Oh, APA is really powerful.  As an example, in the last turn, three of my Poltergeists fired on their Starhawk VII.  It was at medium range (7) and stood still (-2 to the target number.). I also had a shared target lock from a Nomad with EST (another -1) and then APA (another -2.). All in all I needed a 2 to hit, and a four to inflict a damage.  Although in actual game play we forgot the Stationary Bonus so I was needing 4/6s to hit/damage.  I did 7 damage tracks to a fresh 10 track, armor 7, 698 TV superiority CAV in one turn, in large part to APA in my opinion.  Without the APA and just the EST target lock, I'm hitting on 6's and damaging on 8's.  By dropping the number even by two, I have a better chance of doing two damage on a roll.  Next turn?  Even without APA, that CAV's toast (unless the mercenaries can clear the terrain and threaten the tanks which I don't believe they could.)

So I try my hardest to include both APA and ECM (especially since APA can't really do anything to ECM now; one enemy ECM set will ruin your day haha!)