Showing posts with label EpicA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EpicA. Show all posts

Sunday, 12 November 2017

The Invasion of Scipio - Chapter 6 - The Battle of Flavius

The Delta valley was a ruin and most of the cities were wiped out by nuclear weapons deployed by both sides in an attempt to deny the other territory. You can read about the state of the invasion here:
 
The only two cities left in tact are Theseus and Flavius, both of them would have to be evacuated in the short term to avoid the effects of the nuclear fallout but could be saved and eventually rebuilt. Flavius was of particular importance for it's industrial and energy infrastructure. Xeno droptroops are assaulting the city while the Imperial defenders have dug in and are lined up to oppose them. 

The battle lines are drawn around Flavius with the Xenos having landed and consolidated their position in the north-west commercial sector and the Imperial defenders still holding onto the damaged industrial sectors in the south-east.
Map of the Flavius showing battle lines.
View of Flavius battlefield showing the deployment of the troops, damage caused by the orbital bombardment is evident in the industrial ruins in the top right of the photo.
 
This battle would be played out using Epic Armageddon, each side has three objectives on their half including the blitz, 1 point would be scored per objective held at the end of three turns. Lists used were the following:
 
The war drums of the Imperial machine are beating as the final battle in the campaign begins. Imperial troops ready their lasguns as the xeno horde positions itself for a final assault.

 
Xeno Dominatrix war engine taking position ready to assault the Imperial lines.

The Imperial armour lined up to oppose the attackers and counter-attack at the first opportunity.

 Xeno troops lined up using the cover of the buildings, ready to assault the Imperial defenders.

Imperial infantry company with heavy fire support have bunkered down in the middle of the table to provide a strong point for resistance.

Firing opens on the xeno right flank, the dominatrix and the shadow sword exchange shots from their large guns, each of them taking damage as a result but neither destroying the other.

On the opposite flank Imperial Chimeras and infantry attack a swarm of genestealers as they advance, they manage to surprise the xenos and force them to retreat out of the warehouse.

Both sides pour more troops into the middle of the field, Imperial tank regiment advances down the middle as Xenos spread out amongst the warehouse and silos.

On the other side of the battlefield, the xeno orbital bombardment fails to arrive at the designated time. The scouts of both sides skirmish off against one another, the genestealers charge the sentinels and wipe them out in one round of combat.

Imperial troops fire on the xenos and advance once again into the warehouses at close range, they overwhelming power causes losses on the bugs as they are forced to retreat.

Meanwhile the tank regiment and bombards fire upon the bio-titan and surrounding troops causing damage and shock.

The carnifex and hive tyrant finally make an assault on the tank regiment, however, they take fire from the infantry regiment bunkered up in the middle of the table. As a result their strength is reduced and their assault against the tanks flounders.

On the other flank, Once again the xeno orbital bombardment fails to land, robbing the xenos of their offensive power. The Shadowsword is forced to retreat due to fire from the Dominatrix, the xeno swarms advance through the power plant and onto the objective. The resulting assault ends in both sides taking heavy losses as one swarm is wiped out and the chimeras are broken the objective remains contested.

In the middle of the table the swarms have taken heavy losses from their failed assaults and from Imperial artillery. The Imperial armour advances taking the objectives on their opponent's board.
 
In the final move of the game, the Shadowsword lines up the bio-titan and finishes it off with it's macro-weapon, the resistance on this flank has collapsed.

The game ended on turn three, the xenos were contesting one objective in enemy territory but had lost the objectives on their own side of the table. The Imperial player was very clever with assaulting out of the Chimeras early to prevent the xenos getting their assaults off. Furthermore, the orbital bombardment failed to activate twice while the Imperial bombards were devastating in their effect.

Flavius was saved and the xeno threat has been wiped from the Delta Valley. The cost for the planet was high as three cities and untold millions have been wiped out completely but now the rebuilding process could begin. There was still work to do to hunt down the remnants of the invasion fleet and whatever bugs had managed to survive the nuclear fallout...........
The ruins of Flavius, now purged of xenos.
 

Wednesday, 6 September 2017

The Invasion of Scipio - Chapter 3B - The Battle of the Eastern Valley

The stage has been set and the troops are in their positions, you can read about the scenario and setup here:
http://micromegasatwar.blogspot.ca/2017/08/the-invasion-of-scipio-chapter-3a.html

Today is the day of the liberation or destruction where the fate of the Delta Valley hangs in the balance;

The Imperium troops prepare for the assault.
Image of the Eastern valley showing cities and objectives.
 
The deployment of troops, the xenos are lying in ambush in the captured cities while the Imperial armour advances on the edge.

Imperial mechanised infantry on the right, super heavy tanks and war engines advance from the North simultaneously.

In the first turn, the xeno Trygons pop up and assault the Imperial Basilisk artillery. The help of the Imperial support tanks, Hydras didn't save the Basilisks from being wiped out in the first turn.

The xenos have hidden amongst the fortifications in the military zone and ruins, their heavy guns hiding out of site of the approaching troops. In the first turn, an Imperial orbital bombardment lands on the airfield at the top of the image scattering and shaking the bugs hiding there.
 
Without warning a formation of genestealers jumps out of the fortifications and assaults Imperial mechanised infantry.
 
 
The infantry doesn't have a chance to fire before they are engaged in close range combat with the genestealers, the results are not pretty and the majority of the Imperium troops that faced the assault are wiped out.

Meanwhile the super heavy tanks take fire from the long range guns of the Xenos and move out of engagement range of those genestealers. The Imperium forces were not expecting such a heavy onslaught this early, the xenos seem to have learned from their mistakes.

Meanwhile in the South, the Imperial Tank regiment finds itself surrounded as the Hydras are wiped out and the big bug comes out to hunt. They exchange fire with the Dominatrix while taking evasive manoeuvres.

Up North, the War Engine takes more shots and breaks, the Super Heavy Tanks are assaulted by another Trygon swarm that they manage to fend off. The Imperium is looking shaky and needs a morale boost.

The rumbling of distant helicopters can be heard and gradually build, just in time the Stormtroopers in their Valkyries are being deployed to save the day.
 
The stormtroopers land in the middle of the table to take an objective and clear out the enemy troops garrisoning it easily.

In the South, the tank regiment sees enemy closing on all sides and continues to take fire, they decide to retreat before their formation is broken.
 
The Valkyries release their rockets and break an enemy formation, the stormtroopers however are surrounded and assaulted by enemy xenos. 
 
The stormtroopers are in a fight for their life, they manage to hang out and throw back the waves of enemy bugs, just managing to hold onto their position. 

The thunderbolts in the centre right are sent in to provide fire support to the storm troopers, helping to break another enemy formation and provide an avenue for their escape.

As the game draws to a close, the tank regiment has met up with the war engines in the north as the combined force begins their retreat, the Imperium only contests two objectives while the Xenos still hold the majority of the cities in the Eastern Valley.

The stormtroopers have a brief respite where they abandoned their hopeless position and managed to capture the power plant. They have no supporting formations so their best hope is to hold on and take cover and wait for an evac.

Quiet falls over the Eastern Valley as the Imperial troops withdraw. Their air superiority and bombardment wasn't enough to kick out the dug in defenders who had apparently learned from their last encounter with Imperial troops. The fight for the Scipio valley will continue...

The map of the Delta Valley remains unchanged, the xenos have managed to hold onto the Eastern cities while the rest of the valley is in Imperium hands. Though the Imperial troops have lost this battle this was just the first hastily assembled assault, they are now assembling their reinforcements and orbital support to make another attempt at liberating their cities and relieving whatever citizens may have survived the horror.

Final thoughts: I played the Imperium this time and there were a few things I did wrong:
- First off my list didn't bring enough durable infantry to be able to survive the continuous assaults from the xenos. My opponent played very deftly and used the terrain to his advantage.
- Secondly, I had some really awful rolls on rallying which meant my thunderbolts, warhounds and super heavy tanks didn't get to really leverage their firepower.
- Lastly, in the previous game with a similar scenario, I gave the Imperium a bigger advantage in points to account for having to assault fortified positions.  I also forgot to give the defenders a +1 to hit for being in cover.





Tuesday, 29 August 2017

The Invasion of Scipio - Chapter 3A - Preparations in the Eastern Delta Valley

After the surprise invasion by the Xenos captured many key cities in the Delta Valley:
http://micromegasatwar.blogspot.ca/2017/07/invasion-of-scipio-chapter-1-planetary.html

The town of Gnaeus was liberated, by the Imperial troops who managed to secure superiority in air and space:
http://micromegasatwar.blogspot.ca/2017/08/the-invasion-of-scipio-chapter-2.html

Now it's time to launch the counter-offensive on the eastern section of the Delta Valley to liberate the cities of Gisco and Barca and finish off the remaining invaders . Time is of the essence to launch this offensive while the defenders are isolated and without reinforcements from the hive fleet. The Imperial troops have gathered their Planetary Reserve forces supplemented by the heavy troops of the Imperial Rapid Response force.



The Imperial troops gather in their staging areas, while the titans conduct live fire drills in the background
 
This will be co-ordinated attack focused on liberating the eastern zone of the Delta valley, highlighted in red below. Xeno troops from Gisco and Barca will be able to support each other, therefore it is imperative to isolate each of these key locations and conduct the attack simultaneously.
 

 
The Imperial troops use dropships to quickly surround Gisco, however, during the invasion the xenos landed defence batteries in Barca preventing troop drops in the vicinity. Therefore the approach on Barca will be from the north by troops travelling overland.

 
Picture of the table set up based on the map above.
 
The scenario has 5 objectives, each is worth 1 victory point for the side that controls it at the end of Turn 3.
  • If the game is tied after Turn 3, regular EpicA rules apply for determining Turn 4 and a tie breaker
  • The Imperial troops have the initiative in this battle having complete air and space superiority, to represent this:
    • They can deploy anywhere in the designated blue areas, 15cm from the table edge.
    • Imperial troops can keep up to 1/3rd of their formations off-table and arrive on any table edge at the beginning of each turn. They don’t need to mark this in advance.
    • They have been given a 150 point advantage for an Lunar class orbital bombardment.
  • The Xenos are defending and can deploy anywhere in the infested areas highlighted in purple.
  • The defensive battery is immobile, and has a 45cm, AA5+, MW with the stats: DC2, 4+, RA. It is deployed next to an objective and is able to count towards capturing it.
  • Other rules follow the regular EpicA deployment procedure.


The hive mind has learned from the defeat and Gnaeus and is putting their troops into position to ambush the attackers

Army lists used for this battle are as follows:

Steel Legion, NetEA 3150 POINTS
==================================================
REGIMENTAL HQ [525] - Supreme Commander, 12 Infantry, 7 Chimera, Chimera
TANK COMPANY [650] - 10 Leman Russ
SUPER-HEAVY TANK COMPANY [500] - Baneblade, 2 Shadowsword
STORM TROOPER PLATOON [350] - 8 Storm Troopers, Valkyrie Transport
WARHOUND TITAN [275]
ARTILLERY BATTERY [250] - 3 Basilisks
FLAK BATTERY [150] - 3 Hydra
ORBITAL SUPPORT [150] - Lunar Class
THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150] - 2 Thunderbolts
THUNDERBOLT FIGHTERS [150] - 2 Thunderbolts

Steel Legion Infantry mustering for battle

Armour checking their comms and last minute maintenance checks.
 
Stormtroopers are ready for boarding onto the Valkyries

Tyranids, EpicUK, 3000 POINTS
==================================================
NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [225] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 8 Termagant
NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [225] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 8 Termagant
NORMAL ASSAULT SWARM [225] - 2 Tyranid Warrior, 8 Termagant
BIG BRUTE SWARM [350] - 2 Hive Tyrants, 6 Exocrines
DOMINATRIX SWARM [500] - 1 Dominatrix
GENESTEALER SWARM [150] - 6 Genestealer
GENESTEALER SWARM [150] - 6 Genestealer
SPORE MINE SWARM [150] - 6 Spore Mine Clusters
SUBTERRANEAN SWARM [250] - 1 Trygon and 2 Raveners
SUBTERRANEAN SWARM [250] - 1 Trygon and 2 Raveners
SUBTERRANEAN SWARM [250] - 1 Trygon and 2 Raveners
NEST SWARM [275] - 4 Termagant, 4 Biovore

The hive is ready for upcoming onslaught
The report and results of the battle are given here:
http://micromegasatwar.blogspot.ca/2017/09/the-invasion-of-scipio-chapter-3b.html