Battle for Xilos

Krom was late. Three weeks late to be exact. IMTEL had planned for Krom and his strike team make planetfall on Xilos almost three weeks ago and here they were just now making it to the planets surface. If being late wasn’t bad enough, someone hadn’t been made aware of IMTEL’s plans and Krom’s Strike troopers were issued outdated armor from the Sixth Age. The armor was bulky and bright green, but it still worked and that was what mattered. Oh well, the plans of mice and IMTEL.

Planetfall had been uneventful, but scanners had detected a shield generator nearby. Krom’s recon team had determined that the Ghar had only left two squads of suits to guard the generator. This shouldn’t be too hard, but Krom didn’t like the fact that the X Launcher had been left in lieu of the medium weapon drone sporting a plasma cannon. His mama always told him never leave home with out the X Launcher.

The Ghar were soon alerted to Krom and his team’s presence. Some type of pulse emitted from the generator interfered with the spotter drones with his squads and rendered them useless. Not a good start. The Ghar assault suits went down due to some type of plasma contraption, but the battle suits stormed forward spewing blast shots that pattered harmlessly off a Strike squad’s archaic armor. Return fire from Krom’s team was ineffective. His teams just couldn’t seem to hit the Ghar without their spotter drones. The Ghar battle suits continued their implacable advance forward, laying down withering fire. One Strike squad vanished in a hail of Scourer fire. The Targeter probes finally began to mark the battle suits, but even with their assistance, no casualties could be caused on the Ghar. The Ghar opened up on the remaining Strike squad causing them to go down. Krom knew then that the battle was over. He and his team withdrew from the area to reassess their attack plan. Maybe IMTEL would provide some answers. Krom and his team faded into the jungle of Xilos, plotting and waiting to strike again.

So, this was my very first game of Gates of Antares and I absolutely loved it even though I was utterly destroyed by the Ghar. I could literally do nothing to them. I completely forgot to use my spotter drones the entire game, which might have helped me at least inflict some casualties on the Ghar. The game only lasted three turns due to time constraints, but it was never in doubt the Ghar were going to win. I think I will up my Strike squads to six man teams and add an X Launcher for the next game. The reason I had to proxy my Strike squads is because Warlord Games forgot to put the sprues in the Concord Starter Force box. They agreed to fix the problem and send me the parts they forgot to include. Very pleased with their customer service. So the Space Marines are my Strike squads. Anyway, my deployment could use improvement and so could my tactics. I learned a lot from my first game and look forward to a rematch. Sorry the pics are such poor quality, but my phone camera sucks. First world problems, right?