Battle for Xilos

Pictures in reverse order. Sorry!

Introduction:
Sot looked around his forward operating base while perched up high on his command crawler. He prowled the perimeter making sure the defenses were being established and they were ready for the inevitable assault of the C3. The Ghar had a recent set back from their previous battle and the last commander was slogging around the transmat station with the rest of the Outcasts.

They began establishing kinetic barriers while another group of Outcast began to get the transmat station online. Sot ordered his Flitters and Tectorist Scouts to forge ahead and give advance warning for when the Concord would soon arrive. He would not have to wait long for battle!

Turn 1:
My friend James and I have been reversing the rolls of the campaign so far so it was up to the Ghar to defend the transmat station. With only half the C3 forces rolling on in turn 1 I received the majority of the dice pulls. When the first C3 dice came out of the bucket about half my force was on ambush fire. My goal was to unleash as much disruptor ammo as possible to build up as many pins without causing the Concord to break. I forgot this plan as I quickly destroyed an X-launcher who came onto the board. Oops! Luckily, I began dishing out pins to a couple of Strike Squads. And when the heavy hitting X-Howitzer came on the random deployment placed it behind a bunch of rocks limiting the vision of the weapon. With turn 1 wrapping up I rolled for the transmat station repairs.

Transmat roll: 1 – (This was going to be a long game!)

Turn 2: The Concord started to roll in by force this turn. A medium plasma floated into play and immediately made itself known by convincingly blowing up a battle suit. A C3 command team added to the assault by pummeling them with more fire and stacking on pins. Luckily my command crawler started lending support to this flank dishing out disruptor fire on the medium drone stripping it of its buddy drones and eventually stacking 4 pins on it.

The Assault Squad began moving toward the X-Howitzer before reinforcements arrived on its flank. The revived X-Launcher and a Strike Squad pummeled the assault squad with pins from shooting and net ammo.

The majority of the C3 forces had now arrived. I had started to get pushed back a bit but I wasn’t breaking yet! It was time to roll for the transmat repair.

Transmat roll: 6 – (Yes! Way to make up for last turn’s roll!)

Turn 3:
The C3 started piling the pins into the Assault Squad as two Targeter Probes attached themselves to the unit. The mighty X-Howitzer used this new data from the Probes to easily deploy net ammo on them. With so many pins my Assault Squad went down activating their plasma dumps destroying the Targeter Probes in the process.

The Concord’s Drop Squad finally passed their command check and approached the Battle Squad with guns blazing. The weight of fire popped another suit taking them to half strength. Luckily the Command Crawler fired up its plasma amplifier and got three good rounds of disruptor ammo liberally spread between the Drop Squad and the medium plasma drone.

Transmat roll: 6 – (Excellent! With rolls like this I should have this game wrapped up in no time)

Turn 4:
More of the same occurred this turn. The bright spot for me was that my scrappy assault squad was keeping the X-Launcher, X-Howitzer and a strike squad occupied on my left flank. Even with a bunch of pins they miraculously passed their rally order removing all the pins on them! James was not amused! They put their plasma amps to good use and launched their gouger guns at the X-Launcher forcing it down.

The command crawler and battle squad were placing some serious pins on the medium plasma drone, command squad and drop squad to the point where they had a difficult time passing orders. Even though I only had 3 models protecting the right flank I was feeling confident that they would hold.

Transmat roll: 1 (Drat, this will be a battle of extremes it seems like!)

Turn 5:
The C3 were getting desperate as they were accruing pins, but not casualties. My plan was working as they couldn’t utilize the reinforcement rules (although this tactic did feel very unghar like…). However this turn the C3 were able to unload their firepower on the assault squad. The X-Howitzer and X-Launcher both unleased net ammo on the unit pinning them out. My left flank was now wide open; however the transmat was getting close to completed.

Transmat roll: 4 (I came so close to closing out the game on a lucky roll of a 6. It looks like we were about to play one more round!)

Turn 6:
It was anticlimactic, but I needed to know if this would be the last turn. I used an early dice pull to repair the transmat. I rolled a 3 and the station would be repaired! Victory for the Ghar Empire! This win now ties my friend James and myself at 1-1 in our mini campaign. I can’t wait to try the third scenario next week!