I had another game at the club last night testing the rules for our upcoming tournament. I used more GW ruins this time and I think that did the trick for terrain density. Also, we noticed I had two of the same mission in the packet, so I must be sure to fix that before the day of the event. Indeed, there are a few things to clear up.
Additionally (and not related to this battle report), I believe that we need to include the rules clarifications for existing Fortifications which came with Stronghold Assault.
My Star Eagles force with two base Storm Talons, "Calgar", a squad of Melta Legion, a squad of 9 assault marines in a drop pod, and four Tactical Squads with drop pods and special/combi weapons (two melta, one plasma, and one grav).
Phil brought his blob Imperial guard with a huge mixture of heavy weapons and special weapons. The list included two Infantry blobs with some heavy weapon squads, a Primaris Psyker, and a command squad giving out orders.
Our board with slightly larger pieces of terrain from last time. This still has wide corridors of fire, but still allows for ducking and weaving. Also, don't forget that you may move a single piece of terrain in your deployment zone.
We rolled the mission which uses The Scouring for the primary mission and Purge the Alien for the secondary. For The Scouring, you get a 1, 2, and 3 point objective which are revealed at the normal time. Each player must put two objectives in their Opponent's deployment zone and one outside their own deployment zone. The deployment was Hammer & Anvil. This combination of mission, objective placement, and deployment creates a really balanced field of play.
You'll notice in the above photo that I reacted to Phil's Objective placement by slamming all of mine near the one he placed just outside his zone. In this way, I was able to corral the Objectives in one zone. This was great since he had to spread out to avoid flamers.
Two objectives, however, were remote to his side of the board, but not terribly so.
Phil deployed his 1750 points of infantry. Only Marbo remained in Reserve.
The Marines drop in, some going for the enemy and some going for objectives.
The Star Eagles and Guard exchange fire for the first two turns with the marines in turn 2 clearing a couple of squads in close combat.
The Legion of the Damned fail to land on target four times throughout the game and end up mishapping twice. Phil ends up placing them in the far corner, away from the action.
The bolter half of Masud's squad heads for the remote objective which was revealed to be a 3-pointer.
The Marines push into their front lines, trying to keep the enemy away from the other 3-point objective. My other units clear off the nearby small heavy weapons squads which are also scoring.
Even with damage taken by Marbo, the boys of squad 7 reach the far objective.
I keep the pressure on, though "Calgar" is killed by weight of fire.
The Stormtalons put quite a few wounds into the enemy, but Telekinetic Dome does prove quite useful for the enemy.
Continuing to throw bodies at the enemy.
My surviving Storm Talon clears off Marbo while the marines deal with the other approaching threat.
Although the power weapons from the blob kill the few remaining Marines from the previous squads, Masud and his men advance on the enemy position, taking their 3-point objective.
In the end, the Star Eagles take the day with the primary objective and linebreaker, but at what cost? The enemy takes the secondary objective, warlord, and first blood.
Setup for Another Test Game
Another couple of players did a test game next to us.
I set up the terrain here in a similar fashion. I'm a little concerned about there being no small pieces of LOS terrain for infantry at mid-field. I'll see what I can do about that. Note: I took this picture before adding a single hill to the other side of the table.
Note where James removed the woods to place his Aegis Defense Line and where Mike used his ability to move a single piece of terrain to create a wall of barricades more suited to the deployment type (Vanguard).
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