Battle for Xilos

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 1, please see this battle report from Week 1: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1466969458

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 2, please see this battle report from Week 2: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1467594757

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 2.1, please see this battle report from Week 2: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1467807985

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 3, please see this battle report from Week 3: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1468169482

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 4, please see this battle report from Week 4: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1468790273

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 5, please see this battle report from Week 5: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1469300182

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The very ground itself was breaking up.

With blood in his eyes, Karyle risked a glance across the rocks he was using as shelter from the hail of Mag Repeater fire to see the source of the lightning storm and ceaseless shaking. An expanding wave of energy filled the far end of the massive tunnel, violent tendrils of energy whipping out and seeming to pull it along ever closer. Sections of rock formations, equipment, even the very ground itself: all were crumbling in its wake, disappearing into the rift and adding to its expanding energy.

The fire had momentarily ceased, their Algoryn attackers having stopped to view the encroaching wall of death as well.

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SCENARIO EXPLANATION:

This scenario was played using the rules out of the Xilos supplement book primarily, but because there were only two of us, we modified the scenario to work on a smaller scale and fit within the typical 6 turn limit. Playing on a normal 4’x6′ table, we sectioned off the table as A, B, and C for each 2′ section. Our forces were deployed in C, and needed to make it across the table laterally to the dropships sitting in A in order to escape. We deployed a full 15″ into the table instead of the normal 5″, deciding that for our narrative the two sides had already been fighting, and the game itself begins just as the rift begins to move and they are all forced to make a fighting retreat.

The rift began moving at the beginning of turn 1, 2d6+1 while inside of section C, and 3D6+1 once reaching B. Scoring was simply 2 VP for each unit to “escape” by reaching a dropship, and 1 VP for each unit sitting in Section A at the end of turn 6.

END SCENARIO EXPLANATION

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The Algoryn had followed the train back into the tunnels after their initial attack during its journey (see Ch. 5), waiting to attack until they’d reached the inside of the tunnels. There had been no time for formal planning or strategies. Karyle and his men had no other choice than to fight, with no ground to fall back towards. Their Guildess had traveled deep within the tunnels with several teams, and any remaining Overseers on the surface of Xilos had lost communication several standard hours previously.

The rift had appeared like a storm deeper inside the tunnel, seizing up Boromite and Algoryn fighters with fear and swallowing them alongside their horrific screams as it spread outward from the core of Xilos. All either side could do was retreat to the dropships stationed at the tunnel entrance if they wanted to live, but the hatred between them was so strong that they would each risk certain death to see the other destroyed.

Karyle put his X-Laucher crew to good use, utilizing Grip ammunition to stop the Algoryn in their tracks, unable to outrun the spreading rift. Pushing towards the mouth of the cave, fire was exchanged back and forth, but the Boromites simply weren’t as fast as their hated enemies.

Shouting into his comm feed, Karyle led the charge toward the dropships, “They’ve pushed their assaulters ahead to block us off from the ships, the bastards! Overseer Alaric, report!”

The Rock Rider Overseer replied calmly, as though the battle were no more exciting than an afternoon in the shipyard, while simultaneously spurring his mount to its peak speed. “Understood, Overseer Karyle. We’ll make a hole.”

The Algoryn had positioned a squad of Infiltrators and an Assault Squad on the Boromites’ escape route, the Infiltrators in position to do serious damage to the retreating weapon crews. Speeding easily across the uneven terrain, the Rock Riders plowed into the Infiltrators at top speed, their Lectro Lances crackling loudly as they found their targets. The squad of four riders saw only one fall while eliminating the Infiltrators outright, pausing a moment to allow the mounts to regroup. The Assault Squad, too late to help the Infiltrators, assaulted head-on into the Rock Riders. They, too, met a terrible fate while not managing to down a single Rider. A slight strain to his voice from momentary exhaustion, Overseer Alaric pinged the ‘All Clear’ icon to the remaining boromites in the tunnel and concluded, “The path is cleared. Holding dropzone AF636.”

The rift lurched forward rapidly, then, swallowing the rear guard of the retreating Boromites as well as one of the AI squads. Their Worker Gang and Lavamites dissipated in an instant, a sharp screech signalling their sudden end across the comms. Karyle was helpless to their plight, only just managing to escape the energy wave himself. A single remaining Gang Fighter stood only feet away from the wave, entranced with its power, unable to look away. Karyle’s bodyguards held him back as he attempted to run for the ganger, too late to pull the fighter to safety as the wave took him.

“We have to leave NOW, sir! NOW!” Karyle shrugged out of his bodyguards’ grip, pausing only a moment before turning back towards the dropships and beginning to run.

The Algoryn commander mirrored Karyle across the field, the distortions in the air and the blood in his eyes making him unable to tell if it indeed was his enemy Kurar. Barely making it to the ship in time, the energy field a short distance behind them, Karyle’s squad and the Rock Riders began to climb aboard.

Standing in door as it lifted off, Karyle worried at the fate of his Guildess while looking across to the Algoryn ship lifting up above the trees. “…this isn’t over. We WILL find you, and your debt will be paid. In blood.”

The dropship door closed, its main engines bursting to full power to see the pair of Overseers away from the collapsing Xilos.