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| Disclaimer: This may or may not have happened at CE. I just love the picture. |
Although I sit here,
drowning in a sea of phlegm, bile, and tissues, I find that all I can
think about still is Dropzone. As such my zoner pals, I have decided
to remove the Cloak of Self-Pity (as heavy as it is) and bring you a
tale of adventure from Critical Engagement!
First things first, I'm going to apologise for the lack of pics. Edchopp was taking them, but hasn't sent me any yet. It is a lot of text, but it is all good, I promise!
Lets have a look at my list. It hasn't changed a great deal over the
year, so it may be familiar to some of you:
Command
Coyote,
CV4
2
x Firstborns
Armour
2
x Tarantula
2
x Tarantula
Infantry
2
x Braves
2
x Braves
3
x Kukri
Infantry
2
x Braves
Firedrake
Special
Jaguar
Jaguar
Special
3
x Yari
Gates
Eden
Eden
Spirit
Spirit
Haven
Haven
Haven
Haven
Haven
The
most significant reshuffle I have made is moving the three Kukris to
an Infantry battlegroup. This was due to only being able to have 2
squads in an Armour battlegroup, as I split my Tarantulas up. In
regards to why I split up the squad, it makes them much easier to
deploy. I can typically get 2 out in turn 2, instead of waiting until
turn three for all four of the blighters.
In
regards to deployment in general, I will get the Jag's out of the
Eden's in turn one, and use the Firedrake as a gate to bring through
2 Havens (although that is more scenario specific). In turn two, one
Eden pops out two Tarantulas, and the other either the other two
Tarantulas, or two Havens. One thing I have learned whilst using the
Firedrake is to resist the temptation of shooting it in turn one.Yes,
it is a bitching awesome template of forever that you may get lucky
with and kill a tank or two, but that can wait for turn two, and
infantry deployment is typically more important. The only time this
advices differs is when playing in either direct deployment, or focal
point missions (you'll see an example of why later).
That
said, let's run have a brief run through of my games:
Game
One – Backbreaker
This
was my least practised game, and in honesty the one I was most wary
about. Backbreaker is ToO, but if you get the objective in your table
half of their edge you get more VP's. My opponent was a young man
named Rob Jones, who had travelled a long journey from Bishop's
Stortford in Essex, to the other side of London. Respect to that man.
Rob's list shaped up something like this:
Command
Desolator,
CV 4
3
x Reapers
Armour
3
x Hunter
3
x Reaper
Infantry
2
x Warriors, Intruder A
3
x Reavers
Infantry
2
x Warriors, Intruder A
3
x Reavers
Special
4
x Minders
2
x Destroyers, Invader, Maruader
2
x Destroyers, Invader ^
Fleet
2
x Corsairs
This
may not be 100% correct, as I don't have a copy of his army list.
Having said that, you can basically ignore everything else and focus
on the six Reavers! I'm not sure if you are aware, but to highlight a
key point for everyone – Reavers are complete bastards. They have
2DP, and two E10 guns and one E9 gun, all able to shoot different
targets. They are a bloody nightmare, and Rob had six. Still, DzC,
and this mission especially, were all about deployment of Infantry
first, and dealing with the gribblies later.
Rob
won the initiative, but to my surprise decided to go first. He
deployed a unit of warriors into his bunker, drove on all his tanks
(keeping an even split of Reapers across the table for an AA bubble),
and moved his other squad of warriors up the table. His one biggest
error of the turn however, was getting his Invaders out. I had to
keep my poker face firmly on when they both deployed out of his
Marauder, in the middle of the open road. His aim was to get the
Destroyers into the building on my left, but he could have waited a
turn and deployed on turn 2, as I had no AA of effective range to
stop him. His Desolator steamed on, and his Minders floated about a
bit. Three of the Reavers parked behind the middle building, and the
other three on the building on my left. My priority was to take his
Destroyers effectively out of the game by destroying the Invaders. I
knew if I took out both Invaders it would take his Destroyers at
least three turns to get into the building. I ported my Jags down
onto the same road as the Invaders, facing them head on. This move
left them dangerously open to all six Reavers but it didn't matter,
as troops win games! A squad of braves jumped into my bunker through
a Spirit, and the other Spirit raced up to the building on the right.
I used my Firedrake to pull through two Tarantulas, to aid the
demolition of the Invaders.
I
won the initiative on turn 2 and used my Jags first. Because the
Invaders hadn't moved far enough to gain
 |
| Rob is left pondering what could have been... |
From
this point on it became a game of Rob trying to win back the EMP, and
myself trying to collect and escort as many objectives of the table
as possible. My Spirit darted of his board edge turn 3 due to his AA
bubble not being quite wide enough. My Firstborns and Braves turned
the Warriors into purée, and hung about to become the occupiers and
found the objective in turn 4. I got Braves in the left building, and
although it took 3 turns, help from the Firstborns and eventual (and
successful) combat with all three Destroyers bases, I found the
Objective but couldn't get it off the board. The middle objective was
found by a squad of Braves, and gradually taken of the board by an
Eden.
Now
you may remember Rob's EMP was left hanging about in the open,
chilling just behind the monorail station. Being the cheeky boy that
I am, I fancied getting hold of it and trying to get it off. My Yaris
sprinted 12” and grabbed it from right under his nose! The holding
one was immediately obliterated by a Destroyer squad though, so a
Reaper could collect it. The next few turns involved my Tarantulas
and Braves (lining the windows) shooting at the AA unit, and
eventually they managed to destroy all three. My two surviving Yari
then collected it again, and darted towards his table edge. Rob's
last attempt to halt my plans was with his Corsairs; they came on,
hit once, and being a jammy sod I made the passive save, leaving the
Yari free to extract it from his table edge.
The
game finished 11-0 to me, securing me 20 tournament points and a
excellent start. I have to give Rob credit for the amount of units he
destroyed though; two Jags, a Firedrake, two Tarantulas, one Kukri,
one Haven and a Spirit. I even used two Field Repair cards on one
Jag, meaning he caused 6 DP to that one unit!
Game
Two – Security Breach
Out
of the missions we made, this was my favourite. Not only was it as
fluffy as belly button after wearing a new jumper, it worked too! It
also meant we didn't have to play Recon, which (in my opinion) is too
random for a tourney. My adversary was the mighty Edchopp, and his
red UCM:
Command
Kodiak,
CV3
Ferrum
2
x Praetorians, Raven
Armour
3
x Sabre, Condor
2
x Longbow, 2 x Raven
Armour
6
x Katana
Eagle
Infantry
2
x Legionnaires, Raven
3
x Fireblades, Condor
Infantry
2
x Legionnaires, Raven
2
x Legionnaires, Raven
Fleet
2
x Archangels
This
was a slightly different list to what Edchopp normally plays with, in
that he had no Rapiers at all. On both first look and reflection, I
really like the list. It is off meta, and relies on the awesome power
of the drones, and the slightly less reliable sniping of the
Archangels. He did however still have the Demo Squad (6 x Katana and
an Eagle), and I freaking hate the battlegroup. The use of it is
fine, because why would you not, it is just so unbelievably good! I
know a lot of people don't agree with me on this point generally, or
on forums, but you're wrong. Yep, I'm putting that out there, I'm
right, you're wrong. Try playing against it, you'll end up weeping.
God damn Mega Mike for finding it.
The
game itself was a tight affair and ended in a draw. To be honest
nothing really incredible happened, apart from two almighty rage
quits from both myself and Edchopp. I made a mistake in deployment,
and tried to be greedy by destroying a Katana with my Firedrake,
instead of deploying Havens for fine gate coverage. Although I did
get the shot off, Edchopp wasn't stupid enough to clump them together
(the man has learned from past mistakes) and spread them out. I
destroyed one. Meh. This mistake could have cost me the game, but as
it was my fault and I didn't want to let Edchopp know I had made it,
I kept shtum and instead beat myself up internally. On Turn 2 we both
found the intel required to get into the central three buildings,
with Edchopp occupying the middle, and myself the left and right. A
bit of shooting happened and the Jag's took a bit of damage, but this
was the turn of Ed's mistake. He completely forgot to move his
Praetorians into the central building, which was now contested by my
Firstborns. Boy, was he mad. I've known Edchopp for a long, long
time, but I don't think I have ever seen him rage like this, and this
is including his reaction after the 19-1 hammering I dealt him at
Invasion last year! I only realised the mistake seconds before him,
but didn't think it was nearly the deal he had made it to be. As it
turned out, the Praetorians got in the building next turn, the
Legionnaires found the objective on a 5+, and handed it off to the
exotics. My Firstborns rained down the pain and massacred the
Legionnaires. On the 4th
turn I butchered his Praetorians, leaving one man alive. Edchopp
happened to have a Tactical Withdrawal card though, much to my
displeasure, and got the objective and lone warrior into the awaiting
Raven. I managed to get the shot in with my Yaris and destroyed the
Raven, killing the one, solitary Praetorian. Edchopp ended up
collecting the objective with a Sabre and holding it at the end of
the game. Although the Tactical Withdrawal caused me much anger after
I had managed to pull myself back into the game, it wasn't this move
that made me lose it. It was my dice. The little plastic Judases.
If I happen to make a mistake that is all my fault, then I am happy
to accept responsibility, and deal with it in a normal manner.
However, if Lady Luck happens to bend over, remove her silken undies
and drops a wet, steaming, stinking load on my face, boy can I flip
out. It's just the competitive nature in me! It's the most
frustrating thing in the world to have your best laid plans screwed,
by consistent bad dice rolling. To put things in perspective, I had
escape plans for two not yet found objectives, of which I was the
occupier in their buildings. I started finding them on a 5+, and then
4+, 3+, and 2+. It took me seven dice rolls to find a single
objective. I also made one passive save on my Jaguars all game. It's
these kind of things that can take the shine of a game...
We both ended up with 3 VPs, so split the tourney points 10 a piece.
Edchopp's list was different, and fairly dynamic in its own way. I
can see him having issues if he loses the Ferrum, or both Archangels
in a game, but due to the AA saturation you have to lay out for the
drones it is tricky to spare reaction fire on the fast movers.
Interesting stuff really!
Game
Three – Seize and Control
The
last game of the day was a focal points mission, and against another
Shaltari player, GettodaDropship (who I will be referring to as Gtdd
for the duration of this post, as his tag is a pain to type). Fairly
unbelievably, I have never played against a Shaltari player before,
either in friendly or competitive format, so this was going to be
something a little different for me. We were both on fairly similar
points after my draw with Edchopp, with myself edging it, and we both
knew a decent win would bring us the crown for the day. Here is his
list:
Command
Coyote,
CV4
2
x Yari
Armour
5
x Tomahawk
3
x Kukri
Infantry
2
x Braves
2
x Braves
Firedrake
Infantry
2
x Braves
2
x Braves
Special
2
x Jaguar
Fleet
Warspear
Gates
Gaia
Eden
Eden
Spirit
Spirit
Haven
Haven
I
know the units in this are correct, but I'm not sure on battlegroup
lay out however. We started to get activations muddled halfway
through turns, due to the games pace, so it may be a little different
to this. His list was fairly different to mine, and had taken a
different, dare I say more popular approach to gate usage than me. He
had enough to ping things across the board freely, whereas I am in
the school of thought that if you use your resources correctly, you
don't need to redeploy often, if at all. It's just two different play
styles really, neither wrong or right! Also he had included a
Warspear, which I had not been expecting. I wasn't too fazed by it
due to the mission format and that I wouldn't need fine gates too
much, but it was good to see in a list anyway.
There
was one problem for Gtdd in this game,which was apparent from the
first shot of the game. It seemed that Lady Luck had handed me a tub
of wet wipes, apologised, and turned and kicked him squarely in the
lovespuds. His luck was not on form for this game, which made a
potentially very interesting, shenanigany match up a little less than
it should have been. We both rolled for board quarter, and Gtdd won
and picked. We then rolled for first deployment (as it was direct
deployment), I won, and let him deploy first. His five Tomahawk went
down, along with a Haven, his boss and the two Jags. I set my Coyote
and Yaris up and that was it, because I had a plan!
We
rolled for initiative, Gtdd won, and gave me the first activation.
Throughout the game I can only think of one mistake that Gtdd made,
and it was this one. Why? Because his Tomahawks were clumped up, and
he had completely forgotten that I had a Firedrake... My wonderful
Hornet of destruction hummed on the board, and shot and hit a
Tomahawk, catching three under the template. Gtdd failed all the
passives, and all three died. Ouch. From there, his Jaguars moved the
right edge, his Edens and Spirits rocketed out to the right and left,
and the Gaia stayed near his deployment zone with the Firedrake. My
Jags went out of the Edens around mid-table, my boss stomped forward,
and my Yaris edge up the left. Because of the distance between his
Edens, I knew his Jags couldn't leave the right of the table because
of the squad size. I also knew that I could expect two Tomahawks out
of his Eden on the right, as my units were closer to that board side.
On turn three we did largely nothing to each other. A spirit deployed
Braves in a building near my deployment quarter, to which I countered
by bringing the Firstborns through one of my Spirits into the same
building. His Jags and single Eden moved up the right, and he got a
squad of Braves out into a building on the left (which effectivley
pinned down my Yaris, as Braves shot E9, 2+ to hit rifles!). His
Kukris got out near the back of the board to my surprise, and his
Yaris on the far left. My Jags stomped towards the central building
and focal point, and shot a Yari down. One of the Edens brought out
the Kukris on the right, ready to shoot down his Eden next turn. The
Firedrake took a pot shot at something (I have no idea as to what,
apologies!) but missed, and the second Eden repositioned a little
over to the right.
The
aim of my plan for the game was to isolate the high cost / threat
units from the rest of his army, by making it difficult for him to
reposition in time. It unit terms, I brought the Tarantulas down in
front of his Jaguars, in the hope of distracting fire power, and
destroying a unit. It didn't go 100% to plan though unfortunately, as
Gtdd's Firedrake got lucky and killed one, and his Warspear (of all
the things!) got another. My Kukris brought down his Eden, and my
firstborns butchered his Braves. I will point out, that on 24 dice I
rolled seven 6's, and he rolled zero on 12... My Firedrake tried to
shoot down a Kukri, failed, and took a point of damage in return fire
as they moved up. Gtdd's Jaguars shot at the Kukris, and managed to
shoot down one. His Coyote shuffled forwards and shot a building, as
did mine. My Jaguars stalked over to the right hand side a little,
with the idea of shooting Gtdd's Jags in the following turn.
Turn
4 and 5 seemed to mesh into one. Between my Tarantulas and Jaguars, I
managed to kill one of his Jags. Gtdd brought through a unit of
Braves into a building next to my Tarantulas. At some point I lost
another Tarantula, I think to Firedrake and Brave fire, and I moved a
squad of Braves into the central building to secure it, and gain two
more E9 shots a turn. I moved my Firstborns into the same building as
his recently deployed Braves, in the hope of securing his quarter
(due to the Firstborns immense points value). His Tomahawks hoped out
of the Eden on the left, and were promptly reduced to smouldering
wrecks, courtesy of the Firedrake (who had been a bad, bad boy al
game), and his remaining Jaguar also jumped of the same Eden (on a
different turn) to contest my quarter. His Braves in the left hand
building had chosen to vacate it, as I had been shooting it with gaus
riffles for three turns and the foundations were getting shaky. They
moved into a slightly larger abode, but were unexpectedly joined by
four bases of my Braves, who annihilated them in the subsequent turn.
In that CQB, I got eight 6's, to Gtdd zero...
The
game finished with my Braves picking off the Kukri, and myself
consolidating into a position where I would own all four quarters,
and the central focal point. The final scores were 12-3 VP, so 19-1
TP. The luck did run dry early for Gtdd in our game (his lack of
passive saves and impotent AA was just ridiculous), though I would
like to feel I had manoeuvred myself into a decent position by turn
3. I guess we will never know!
All
in all, I finished on 49 tournament points out of 60, and as such am
very happy. I am still adamant that Mega Mike is a better player than
me, even with all his bridesmaid results! In regards to my list, I am
very happy with it. Everything has a purpose, and I have ironed out
any useless or impractical elements within it. I got to play three
very different armies, each of which works in their own right, and
found my list adaptable enough to deal with everything that came at
me. There is a chance that the Tarantula or Firedrake will change
when they are made official in Reconquest, but I don't see it
happening, simply due to how balanced they are. My star players of
the tourney have to be the Firstborns. Although the Firedrake nearly
earned his points back in game two, and killed 5 Tomahawks in game
three, the Firstborns were on song! Every squad I put them against
was obliterated. They only took six hits all tourney, and dodged
every one! In response they took out 1 Warrior squad, 1.5 Destroyer
squads, 1 Legionnaires squad, 1 Praetorians squad (I'm counting
that!), and 2 Braves Squads. If you have no exotics in your army, no
matter the race, take them. They are game changers
If
you have any questions regarding my list, my opponents list, or the
games, just leave a comment!
I think my comment was lost somehow.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good read. I always look forward to the next orbital bombardment posts.
One thing, you seemed to take great lengths to remove the possibility to destroy objectives by demolishing buildings. And to win you needed to take almost all objectives. All this should add up to basically remove the destroying buildings-strategy. Isn't it a bit over the top?
Also no KP chart. Was it missed? We felt it get more important to choose between raising buildings and taking out enemy with it.
Which part of your comment are you referring too?
DeleteKeeping buildings with objectives alive is a trend set by Hawk at Invasion; most of their objectives are kept in hardened or otherwise bolstered buildings. It's not that we frown upon building demo, it's just that without aid buildings will crumple, and the game becomes nothing without objectives.
In regards to kill points, we didn't include them in this tourney. There's nothing wrong with them, it was simply a route we decided not to go with. I personally feel that dzc should be about the mission, and not what you kill.
Also, I would disagree that you need every objective to win. Security breach was the tightest afair, as only three objectives were available (I think I'm going to review this though). The others were very open; either five objectives or five focal points. It just happened that I did well and got most of them!
DeleteGhaaa! Second time a comment doesn't go the validation page and just disappears...strange - I havent had this problem before. I really suck at computors...
ReplyDeleteZombie, my apologies. I didn't intend to say that your win wasn't well deserved - it was. My point that I was so extremely bad at making was that the missions you used and the missions we had on our tournament mainly removed the strategy of destroying objectives. In the first two missions you used, if an objective was destroyed there was no possibility to have the largest win. In the last mission you couldn't destroy any objective (I consider 40DP and armour 8 close to "impossible" although we know it isn't but I think you know what I mean).
We had the same general idea, lots of large buildings, 40DP and several times armoured or bunkers were used. And you needed lots of objectives to win a large one. We will try another approach next time where you don't need as many objectives secured to win the largest victory but the buildings have less tendency to armoured and maximum DP is 30. So we will try having only 3 type of victories: Draw (8-8), win (12-4) and Major (16-0) and then have KP Similar to Hawk's. Each mission will have it defined for instance Targets of opportunity will have draw (0 points in difference) win (1-2 points in objectives more than the opponent and Major (3). To get the main win you don't need so many objectives off the table and if you know the opponent can destroy buildings you will need to take that into account. Instead we will have special missions where the objectives and focal points are placed in ways that the destroying buildings isn't as valid but we felt that our current set-up basically removed that strategy.
It feels like there is an development where destroying buildings are bad and boring (with missions that we used in our tournament for instance) I would like to point out that it is one of the absolute coolest ideas with DZC - destroy the buildings the enemy might want to take and keep the rest or to restrict their flexibility and so on. I think I'm pretty bad at explaining this, I hope you understand what I mean.
No need to apologise buddy, I know you didn't mean that. On reflection, I'm not sure if we needed to go to 40DPs, but keeping the buildings survivable is a must. There is no skill or tactics in destroying all the key buildings on a table, and ultimately ruining the game. It is a fine line between building demo being a viable tactic, and hemming it in in case it ruins a game. We had 2 PHR players, and 1 UCM with the demo squad, and neither moaned about the buildings.
DeleteIf I'm going to be honest with you, I really don't think capping mission points so strictly will work. You will get very little differences in points, and you will never feel like you are working for anything worthwhile.
Seriously, have you ever had a game where one player doesn't get into any building in targets of opportunity and just blow them up? Because the second that happens they can't demolish the buildings anymore. I understand the sentiment (I have agreed with it for some time) but now...well...I feel that it is just wrong. Taking one objective and blowing all the others up should be a valid tactic in DZC. And to be honest - I haven't had any problems with it at all in DZC in all games before armoured buildings and regular use of large buildings. I feel it is a problem that has been made up recently by the 40k way we think tournaments should be.
Deletewe use KP as a way to encourage active fights. A player can spend all his turns just blowing buildings but our KP system will make sure they doesn't win. In our system the looser get full KP as long as they have taken like 200KP from the opponent and the winner must have over 800KP to totally win, giving the looser a way to fight to the end. You will need to blow buildings up to win, most likely (but blowing too many up means you don't get the KP so you will loose the tournament) but to be honest you can't just fire at everything and hope for the best. There is some quite delicacy to this and several way to counter it.
I have been sceptical to a 3 point system for long. But to be honest, that system actually works when using KP as a tie breaker. I'm so infatuated by 40k that I forgot the reason why I left it! Destroying buildings is a key point to DZC and I really love that aspect.
So after a few tournaments (we are far from being able to enjoy games as often as in Britain) we have seen that one of the key aspects of the game is gone - and we never had a problem with it when we started out with DZC. On the contrary, we thought it really cool to have the possibility to drop enemy buildings to increase the chances to win but you sacrificed a great deal of KP possibilities that you can use very effectively in an tournament setting.
So I think I'm asking whether you actually have had games where all objectives got destroyed? Again, I'm thinking targets of opportunity. We have only had games where one central and the building on my side was destroyed and that meant I had more infantry to take the two objectives that were left. I don't think I'm making much sense but feel the sentiment on hawk's forum that destroying buildings are bad for the game.
Hi Egge, I kind of agree with both of you to a point. There probably wasn't enough possibility to destroy key buildings, but I don't think it should go the polar opposite. I think there is a happy medium.
DeleteThe 40 dp for large buildings is in the rulebook. There are no 30dp buildings. It was Hawk who introduced the 30dp buildings at Invasion "to make it more simple" to remember the dps. After playing all 3 of our missions a few times now, I think we can review them and tweek them to make them better. There is definitely room for improvement. I also concede that kill points should be re-introduced into the missions. It's an extra layer to the missions that some armies are good at and others are not.
I think when you have missions that rely on objectives which will normally remain on the table, the player with the best troops will win. This was a reason I took 3 units of destroyers for the tournament (but I will go into that in my write up......coming soon)
I know a couple of people that have been on the end of an urban redevelopment opponent. It was no fun at all. The game will invariably end in a draw unless you or your opponent gets extremely lucky. At Invasion 1 guy took 3 hades and a load of Enyos, his sole objective was to destroy buildings and stop you winning. He drew all but 1 of his games. The one he lost was the bunker assault mission because he couldn't destroy the bunkers. 2 of our team-mates played him - it was a shit game.
In conclusion, I think a good mix of missions is key. Some where you have the ability to destroy the focal points/objectives and others where you can't touch them.
The thing is for me, if I face an opponent that has an boring army and we draw that is fine - especially if he draw the entire tournament (i e doesn't win it) I'm kind of fine with that. I'm so used to 40k where the guy with the most boring army wins so if some dude bring one boring army and get somewhere in the middle that is a massive improvement. I think destroying buildings will not be a often used tactic if you don't regularly win so people will develop the strategy to a more balanced army in the end. I did think Hawk changed to 30 DP because that 40 was too much but that can very well be an assumption based on the voices in my head telling me lies again.
DeletePlus I do feel that three hades is freaking cool!
So 40k - bring boring army and win.
DZC - Bring boring army and end in the middle.
One thing we should remember also, tournaments should always represent the TO's preference which I think this tournament did a great job of doing. The community in total will be better as long as TOs do their own thing - it would be massively boring if everyone had the same idea,
This topic is far to involved to discuss properly over a comments section! No, I haven't had that particular experience happen to me, but I have lost 1/2 squads in the second turn due to a building falling on them. That happening can more or less finish your game. If somebody brings a building demo army, I'm not saying that they won't be able to tactically destroy a building, but they shouldn't be able to level a whole city in one game.
ReplyDeleteI don't think were going to agree on this point ;)
I hear ya though I have heard the same problem with "double tapping" and a roll of a 6 on the destroyed air table.,
DeleteOtherwise; Agreed! :-)