Dropzone:London - a gamers tale

"Winner winner chicken dinner"

Continuing my tournament write ups from last year, this was originally posted on the hawk forums.

So Dropzone:London has been and gone and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I will run through my army and the armies I faced, I won't go into too much detail, just the major points in the games.

My list has evolved a lot over the last few months and I think it is pretty tight, everything has its job to do. It can pack a punch and be quick to claim objectives.
Command
Kodiak (Lieutenant CV3)
Ferrum

Armour
3 Sabres, Condor with Missiles
3 Rapiers, Condor with Missiles

Infantry
2 Legionnaires, Raven
2 Legionnaires, Raven

Infantry
2 Legionnaires, Raven
2 Legionnaires, Raven

Special (Scout)
6 Wolverine A
6 Wolverine B

Special (Heavy)
2 Gladius, Condor with Missiles
2 Gladius, Condor with Missiles

My first opponent was a chap called Alex, he also had UCM, and this would be the first time I have ever had a mirror match. His army was; 

Kodiak with CV4 boss, 4 Wolverine A
3 Sabres, 3 Rapiers with condor
2x3 Legionaires with 2 Bears sharing a Condor, Ferrum
2 Praetorians with Raven, 4 Wolverine B
2 Gladius, 2 Scimitar
Archangel 

Mirror match.....FIGHT

When I first saw his list I thought that it wasn't too mobile, but as it was Targets of Oppurtunity I was a little scared of the Praetorians. Legionnaires are the squishiest infantry around and they will eat my troops! 
For the tournament, the 3 central buildings were hardened, therefore armour 8. This made a huge difference to playabilty. 
I won the roll to go first and let Alex start, after the first turn he had all his anti-armour down the left flank and his rapiers stranded on the right. I completely avoided his tanks, but did send up my drones to say hello.
Alex went first on turn 2 which was a shame as I had a plan to down the praetorians Raven, but Alex decided to remove his tropps from his objective building that was almost gone, and his drones took on mine, only managing to take out 2. In reply I moved my drones to his raven and only 2 hit out of 6 DAMNIT, so I had a choice, take 2 S6 shots needing 4's or 1 S10 - I went with the S10 and rolled a 1 grrrrr. My boss evaporated a Rapier, and my Sabres made up for the earlier bad rolls with a 5 and a 6 to remove the 2 remaining Rapiers. I sent my Condors roaming forward to go hunting a Ferrum. The Gladius were pumping shots into any building they could find. Turn 3 the Archangel turns up and has a pop at my Ferrum, all reaction shots failed, I hastily supported my Sand crawler with the 6 Wolverine A's after that. My troops were frantically searching, 2 squads in the building in my half, and 1 finds the objective and legs it off the board. My drones decide to fly up and have a pop at the Kodiak, and take 3 dp from it, my boss then attempts to finish him off and rolls a 1 to hit - something I have become accustom to. To my surprise another squad of troops finds and objective, gets back in a Raven and gets halfway off the board. Turn 4 Alex applies Field Repairs to his boss, I fail miserably to do anything with my drones - 4 left only 1 hit, boo. My boss then hits and smokes Alex's Kodiak with the laser of doom. The praetorians are obliterated in the building they took shelter in. Alex only has a couple of bases of damaged troops left. I move my Raven off and I have 2 secured objectives. We carried on to the end but Alex had no chance of getting any objectives, his Ferrum got popped and his anti-tank units were still stuck out of the way. 

Result 4-0 to me

Game 2 was against Thomas (Poulpox on the Hawk forum) and his beautiful Shaltari - Thomas won best army which was well deserved!
The mission was Recon and I had not had a competative game against Shaltari before, I know the basics about them - quick but fragile. 

Thomas' army was as follows;
Coyote (CV4), 2 Yari
Jaguar, Ocelot
3 Kukri, 3 Tomahawk
1 squad of First Borns, 2 Thunderbirds
1 Warspear
3 squads of Braves 
4 Havens, 1 spirit, 2 edens and a Gaia 

Pretty pretty Shaltari

Turn 1 - Thomas wins and goes first, and we both learn something. We have both in practice games been playing Recon incorrectly. 
For me, I thought as soon as you enter a building you search for intel, but the infantry need to have started the turn in the building, for Thomas he was unaware that we could both search for intel from the same building once our opponent had searced (as long as it wasn't an objective or booby trap). 

Anyhoo, at the end of turn 1 Thomas has 3 squads of troops in buildings and so do I, my last squad has high tailed it to the middle left of the board and the First Borns are dematerialised.
Turn 2, Thomas gets 3 bits of intel and one turns into an objective which is half way to his board edge on a Haven, I try to send masonry down on the braves head, but its hard work! The braves exit an almost destroyed building, but with no gates around are all alone in the open. My 3 units search for intel, and find 2 objectives - what a stroke of luck, they both get the flock out of there, the Warspear removes an empty Raven of a searching unit, which completely strands the unit. 

Turn 3 the Haven is off and I am damaging the troops that are in buildings, I find a piece of intel which gives me 4 intel and 2 objectives off the board (=8). Thomas has 3 pieces of intel and 1 objective off (=5). I line the walls from my stranded unit wich stops anyone entering - and have a pop at the spirit gate that approaches, obviously missing it. My other unit of troops has their raven downed so they are stranded too. I place a cunning underground monorail between 2 buildings from centre to his half. I got 1 unit immediately back from reserve so they bust a gut to the middle. Thomas gets a unit into the centre building - it's damaged but not too badly. Turn 4 my troops enter the building with the underground monorail attached, if I've planed correctly and roll well I should get 2 pieces of intel from this manoeuvre - the ocelot shoots it and does 10dp IN 1 SHOT!!!! fortunately I didn't suffer too much from FM. His exotics come in the side of my defended building, but I haven't activated them yet, so I hop out and down the building troops and all. I'm standing in the open, but relatively safe, the Shaltari have too much on their minds to bother with some legionnaires in the open. The braves that entered the centre building roll a 6 and find an objective. There are no havens or spirits around, Thomas opts to jump out with the objective, it's 8-7 at the moment. I open fire with the rapiers and the 10 shot salvo, decimating the braves, then its a mad dash to secure the objective. First the 2 remaining Tomahawks come - they die, then the Yari's. Turn 5 I kill the Yari's and we call it there, I have 8-6 in victory points and the capacity for 2 more pieces of intel, plus I am surrounding the objective. 

Fantastic game, was very tactical and I admit I was a trifle lucky to get 2 objectives from 2 of my 3 back board buildings.

Game 3 was against Adam (Iron Skies from Hawk forum) and his UCM. It was Land Grab but the middle Focal point was worth double. 

Adam's army was;
Kodiak (CV3), Ferrum
6 Sabres, 3 Rapiers all in an Albatross
2x3 Legionnaires 2 Bears sharing a condor
2x2 Legionnaires in Ravens, Rapiers
4 Wolverine B
2 Gladius in Condor

Adam's UCM

Turn 1, I wanted to see where Adam went with his troops, I knew troops were key to this scenario, as they are a lot of points per base. Adam split his troops, 1 unit in a raven came down my right with the albatross and his drones, the bears and condor with Raven #2 went left. I stayed central with all 4 ravens, I did not commit early with my troops. My drones went right to match his. Also my sabres and gladii followed and my wolverines and rapiers went right. Adams Gladius went left too. I had a few pot shots at the centre building.
Turn 2, I used the Central HQ directive card to go first, my drones shot down the raven, both bases of men survived and jumped into the building with the FP. Adam unloaded the bears 1 unit entered the FP building to my left and the raven went into a different building (nearer to me). I sent 3 squads of legionnaires against his 1 squad (these kind of odds I like). I got the jump on his 6 sabres and killed 2. His drones flew 30" straight for my ferrum, I had a couple of reaction shots and I think I got 1 or 2?!? This unnerved me slightly, my wolverine A's were too far away - I had left my Ferrum and Kodiak unsupported.
Adam got 1st activation on turn 3, obviously the drones went first, I reactioned with the Ferrum and 3 wolvies and there were 4 drones left, they did 2 damage to the ferrum and his kodiak missed. I took out 2 more drones when I moved the wolverines - only 2 left that's ok. I was whittling down the infantry on my right in the FP building, and I trounced the legionnaires I was outnumbering. A bear went for the centre building. I killed a couple more Sabres and a rapier on the right.
Turn 4, I moved all my troops into the FP building on the left 8 bases against 3 (partially softened on both sides (30 v 11) in total, again these kinds of odds I like. I wiped out the troops in the building on my right and got rid of the Sabres; I still had 4 Gladius near the FP to Adams 2 rapiers. His 2 drones both hit my Ferrum, I failed to hit with reaction fire! He took a S10 and did 1 damage, then his Kodiak hap a pop, hit and wiped it out. I finished off the last 2 drones with wolverines as I didn’t want them moving on to my boss. The drones were replenished and came after my Gladii. The other bear unloaded into the central FP building which was quite damaged
Turn 5, Adams drones came after the Gladius, and did 1 dmg on 1, the Kodiak finished it off – I still had 3 left, they shot the central building as did my wolverine Bs and took it out along with the troops inside. The CQB was a massacre. Adams Legionnaires were toast and I was down to 6 bases (4 squads). 
At this stage I had my FP, Adam had his, I had the right FP (3 Gladii against 2 Rapiers) and I had the left FP (6 troop bases and rapier against 2 Gladii, 3 Wolverines and a bear). I killed a wolverine with my last rapier, the rapier was then toast, which meant Adam had the left FP, and the other bear was making its way over to it to make sure.
Turn 6, Adam goes first, his drones kill another Gladius, 2 left is still OK- it outnumbers the 2 Rapiers. His boss has a pop at a Gladius, I’m hoping for anything but a 4+, he does it DAMNIT!! Now Adam is winning this FP, I take drastic action; the building has 5 dmg points left, so my Wolverines open fire and take it out. If I can’t have it, no-one can! Now it’s the battle for the left FP. My Sabres take out the wounded bear 16 less points for Adam; he still has 2 Gladius, 2 Wolverine Bs and a bear to my 6 bases of troops inside the building. His Gladius shoot the building and don’t wipe any bases I don’t have much to shoot, so my Legionnaires line the walls and shoot the 2 Wolverine Bs.......... KABOOM! They both go up in smoke. I suffer through some more shots on the building, not enough to hurt anyone inside thankfully. In the end I held that FP by 22points only because I managed to kill the Wolvies

I win 6-4 and oh my days that was hard fought. Big thanks to Adam for a t’riffic game.

Conclusions

Really great tournament and ecstatic that I won all 3 games  I bagged myself (pun fully intended) a DzC KR double bag, so was super pleased
Thanks to H&L, Hawk and to all my opponents