Home
Search
Login
Register
Show Posts
16
Battle Reports / One commander, Skald Berzerker vs The Warlord
« on: April 17, 2019, 12:24:50 am »
Played a game of Armoured Digital last night at Jolt against Ben Jordan. It was my Skald Berzerker against The Warlord. These are freshly arrived minis, so paintwork was minimal (my white undercoated tanks vs my opponent’s straight out of the box greys).
I’d brought a Centaur with shield module, a Wombat, a pair of Squirrel transports, a Wolf, a Rhino and two Elephants.
Ben came with a Vampire with sensors, a pair of Armadillos for his transports, a Viper, a Bear and a couple of Elephants.
Initial deployment had both of us in neighbouring sectors, facing off over some open ground between a bunker and a rock formation. I put both Elephants where they could fire using their Artillery trait over the bunker, or swing their guns on to closer targets if need be. The Rhino was covering my left flank and the Wolf ready to race off around the long rock formation to try to flank Ben’s forces and hit his Wombat. My command vehicle was in the centre, slightly hidden between rubble piles around the wall.
Due to a woefully mismatched set of surprise dice, I got the jump on my opponent and got to play four orders cards before he could react. I drove my Rhino forward to the crater and laid into the nearest Elephant, piling on the railgun hits but having less effect than I’d like. However, he got close enough to gain a sensor lock on the opposing Viper and feed the target data back to my artillery. Despite the stealth tank’s slippery nature, I managed to land two hits and nearly destroy it. Ben advanced his rearmost Elephant, and then opened up with answering fire at my Rhino and Command vehicle, leaving a single point of main damage and one of mobility damage on my combat tank. I used Systems Crash to shut down the fire, and then sent the Wolf racing off around the back of the rocks and took some artillery hits on one Squirrel, which somehow failed saves and took both sensors and main damage. Our logistics phase saw Ben build a new Bear and me gain the first resources from the mine in the centre.
Turn 2 went in with more of the same. With another six orders rolled up for me, I went in hard for shooting. My Rhino continued to carve up the Elephant, scoring a kill, and my Elephants began to emerge from cover to engage with some direct fire. The Rhino and Bear traded shots until I managed to destroy that as well, taking some damage in the process. After a cheeky attempt at using Core Wipe on Ben’s new Bear, my Wolf raced around to a position that it might be able to strike from next turn. My misdirection from turn 1 was successful, and Ben had come packing a Hard Reboot that became useless as I didn’t play any System Crash cards. Logistics saw me rebuild the Rhino and Ben produce a new Bear, as well as my spare Squirrel being used as a battering ram to destroy the heavily damaged Viper.
Turn 3 is when things started to go sideways for me. The final Elephant managed to finish off my Rhino, but then a few missiles from my command vehicle put him out of commission as well. I tried delving into more electronic warfare but failed to Core Wipe the Bear again. I started manoeuvring the combat tanks in the centre of the table, but my Elephant failed to mark the enemy command vehicle. His Elephant took an unsuccessful crack at my Wombat, but caused no damage. His Bear and Vampire, meanwhile, made a string of assault moves towards my flanking Wolf, failing to score main damage but breaching its defence systems and sensors. Bears are rather underwhelming on the move!
Turn 4, and Ben chose to use The Warlord’s special skill: to once per game automatically win the surprise roll by three dice. Until now, my surprise of 4 was running rings around his of 2. Unfortunately for me, this was also the turn that Ben rolled up 7 orders cards. I was in real trouble. It opened with the Bear firing on the Wolf to the flank and causing some main damage, but he quickly switched targets and took a firing position within sensor lock of my command vehicle. Using a Rapid Fire order resulted in a lot of shots coming my way, of which four hit. Unfortunately for me, I forgot entirely that I was carrying shields and rolled up what I thought was a single save (too much time spent playing demo games and I forget some of the special rules!). Boom, command vehicle dead. I ejected to a position near my production vehicle, but I still had communications coverage to everything except my Wolf, thanks to the decent comms systems on the Elephants. The loss of the command vehicle also invalidated most of my orders, as half of my hand were only useful on the command vehicle. Damn! His Viper moved into the space and splashed my Rhino before I could respond effectively, cutting off my comms with the two drones on my left flank. At this point I looked at my useless orders cards and took a big risk. If I could run across the battlefield on foot, I could potentially get close enough to hack his command vehicle’s ejection harness and steal the vehicle. I started running across the table by discarding my useless orders, before playing the Redline card on my Elephant to ram his command vehicle (and hopefully, distract it long enough to not notice me on foot). I scored a point of damage on Ben’s Vampire, but in return received two Protection Compromised results and then took two points of damage. Considering that Ramming deals explosive-type damage, it was a result that I hadn’t seen coming at all. To add insult to injury, I also failed the engines test at the end of the Redline, taking a point of mobility damage as well.
In the logistics phase, I started building a new Centaur command vehicle, but with a low resourcefulness of 2 I wouldn’t complete it until the following turn. Ben, meanwhile, sent his nearest Armadillo in to defend his command vehicle and ram my Elephant. He rolled up another
Protection Compromised result but only scored one hit. I had one save dice left, which normally succeeds on a 3+, but against three protection compromised damage tokens I was reduced to a single roll, needing a 6. I failed, and the Elephant was destroyed. However, in return I managed to land enough damage that the reflective armour of the transport shattered, and the Armadillo went down with me.
Turn 5 was not looking good. With no combat drones within range and only three orders up my sleeve, I moved into position to attempt the ejector hack. Unfortunately, Ben managed to get an incredible surprise roll and started to turn by trying to (unsuccessfully) run me over. His Vampire opened up at short range on my Wombat, and the Bear started in from the other side of the mine. I chased after him again, attempted the hack and failed spectacularly. The Vampire reversed over my commander, who was not able to get out of the way in time. Game over!
In the post-mortem, I realised that I’d probably brought the wrong deck to exploit my commander’s faction victory condition, but the main thing that really got me was putting my command vehicle in the wrong place at the wrong time. My first few turns put me in a strong position, but Ben’s new assault units took control of the table centre and then I lost my control over my drones. I should have pulled the Centaur back and accepted the loss of my flanking Wolf in trade, as I had the advantage of range and firepower. All in all, though, it was a fun game that swung both ways over its course, and was on track to be a close one if I hadn’t come so severely undone.
I’d brought a Centaur with shield module, a Wombat, a pair of Squirrel transports, a Wolf, a Rhino and two Elephants.
Ben came with a Vampire with sensors, a pair of Armadillos for his transports, a Viper, a Bear and a couple of Elephants.
Initial deployment had both of us in neighbouring sectors, facing off over some open ground between a bunker and a rock formation. I put both Elephants where they could fire using their Artillery trait over the bunker, or swing their guns on to closer targets if need be. The Rhino was covering my left flank and the Wolf ready to race off around the long rock formation to try to flank Ben’s forces and hit his Wombat. My command vehicle was in the centre, slightly hidden between rubble piles around the wall.
Due to a woefully mismatched set of surprise dice, I got the jump on my opponent and got to play four orders cards before he could react. I drove my Rhino forward to the crater and laid into the nearest Elephant, piling on the railgun hits but having less effect than I’d like. However, he got close enough to gain a sensor lock on the opposing Viper and feed the target data back to my artillery. Despite the stealth tank’s slippery nature, I managed to land two hits and nearly destroy it. Ben advanced his rearmost Elephant, and then opened up with answering fire at my Rhino and Command vehicle, leaving a single point of main damage and one of mobility damage on my combat tank. I used Systems Crash to shut down the fire, and then sent the Wolf racing off around the back of the rocks and took some artillery hits on one Squirrel, which somehow failed saves and took both sensors and main damage. Our logistics phase saw Ben build a new Bear and me gain the first resources from the mine in the centre.
Turn 2 went in with more of the same. With another six orders rolled up for me, I went in hard for shooting. My Rhino continued to carve up the Elephant, scoring a kill, and my Elephants began to emerge from cover to engage with some direct fire. The Rhino and Bear traded shots until I managed to destroy that as well, taking some damage in the process. After a cheeky attempt at using Core Wipe on Ben’s new Bear, my Wolf raced around to a position that it might be able to strike from next turn. My misdirection from turn 1 was successful, and Ben had come packing a Hard Reboot that became useless as I didn’t play any System Crash cards. Logistics saw me rebuild the Rhino and Ben produce a new Bear, as well as my spare Squirrel being used as a battering ram to destroy the heavily damaged Viper.
Turn 3 is when things started to go sideways for me. The final Elephant managed to finish off my Rhino, but then a few missiles from my command vehicle put him out of commission as well. I tried delving into more electronic warfare but failed to Core Wipe the Bear again. I started manoeuvring the combat tanks in the centre of the table, but my Elephant failed to mark the enemy command vehicle. His Elephant took an unsuccessful crack at my Wombat, but caused no damage. His Bear and Vampire, meanwhile, made a string of assault moves towards my flanking Wolf, failing to score main damage but breaching its defence systems and sensors. Bears are rather underwhelming on the move!
Turn 4, and Ben chose to use The Warlord’s special skill: to once per game automatically win the surprise roll by three dice. Until now, my surprise of 4 was running rings around his of 2. Unfortunately for me, this was also the turn that Ben rolled up 7 orders cards. I was in real trouble. It opened with the Bear firing on the Wolf to the flank and causing some main damage, but he quickly switched targets and took a firing position within sensor lock of my command vehicle. Using a Rapid Fire order resulted in a lot of shots coming my way, of which four hit. Unfortunately for me, I forgot entirely that I was carrying shields and rolled up what I thought was a single save (too much time spent playing demo games and I forget some of the special rules!). Boom, command vehicle dead. I ejected to a position near my production vehicle, but I still had communications coverage to everything except my Wolf, thanks to the decent comms systems on the Elephants. The loss of the command vehicle also invalidated most of my orders, as half of my hand were only useful on the command vehicle. Damn! His Viper moved into the space and splashed my Rhino before I could respond effectively, cutting off my comms with the two drones on my left flank. At this point I looked at my useless orders cards and took a big risk. If I could run across the battlefield on foot, I could potentially get close enough to hack his command vehicle’s ejection harness and steal the vehicle. I started running across the table by discarding my useless orders, before playing the Redline card on my Elephant to ram his command vehicle (and hopefully, distract it long enough to not notice me on foot). I scored a point of damage on Ben’s Vampire, but in return received two Protection Compromised results and then took two points of damage. Considering that Ramming deals explosive-type damage, it was a result that I hadn’t seen coming at all. To add insult to injury, I also failed the engines test at the end of the Redline, taking a point of mobility damage as well.
In the logistics phase, I started building a new Centaur command vehicle, but with a low resourcefulness of 2 I wouldn’t complete it until the following turn. Ben, meanwhile, sent his nearest Armadillo in to defend his command vehicle and ram my Elephant. He rolled up another
Protection Compromised result but only scored one hit. I had one save dice left, which normally succeeds on a 3+, but against three protection compromised damage tokens I was reduced to a single roll, needing a 6. I failed, and the Elephant was destroyed. However, in return I managed to land enough damage that the reflective armour of the transport shattered, and the Armadillo went down with me.
Turn 5 was not looking good. With no combat drones within range and only three orders up my sleeve, I moved into position to attempt the ejector hack. Unfortunately, Ben managed to get an incredible surprise roll and started to turn by trying to (unsuccessfully) run me over. His Vampire opened up at short range on my Wombat, and the Bear started in from the other side of the mine. I chased after him again, attempted the hack and failed spectacularly. The Vampire reversed over my commander, who was not able to get out of the way in time. Game over!
In the post-mortem, I realised that I’d probably brought the wrong deck to exploit my commander’s faction victory condition, but the main thing that really got me was putting my command vehicle in the wrong place at the wrong time. My first few turns put me in a strong position, but Ben’s new assault units took control of the table centre and then I lost my control over my drones. I should have pulled the Centaur back and accepted the loss of my flanking Wolf in trade, as I had the advantage of range and firepower. All in all, though, it was a fun game that swung both ways over its course, and was on track to be a close one if I hadn’t come so severely undone.
