Warzone, Imperial vs. Bauhaus

It seems, this is one of those cases where I waited too long posting something. About two months ago I played my league game with Björn. Which means that by now my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I am going to try my best to summarise the game.

It was somewhat special. Since one of the other members of our group and myself were on the team redesigning the factious for Warzone, I had access to the new Bauhaus rules, before they were published. Therefore it was not only a league game, but also a playtest for the new Bauhaus. In addition we decided to play a somewhat larger game, playing 1500 points and a Mega OOC.

These were the forces we fielded (if I remember correctly):

Bauhaus were led by Angelica Drachen and featured four squads of Hussars, two squads of Etoiles Mortants (only one with Rapid Deployment), two squads of Juggernauts, one squad of Venusian Rangers and two close combat Vulkan Battlesuits.

Imperial were led by a close combat Blood Beret Custom Warlord, four squads of Trenchers (one led by a NCO with Imperial Banner), four squads of Imperial Special Forces (two of them Infiltrating Black Berets), one squad of Life Dragoons / Young Guards, one squad of Blood Berets with plasma carbines, one large squad of Blood Berets with Heavy Chainrippers led by  SGT McBride and accompanied by Isaac Alfreds and a single Grey Ghost sniper.

We played on a table with inner city run-ins and rolled a scenario where one side had to control three objective markers along the centre line by the end of turn 3 or later.

Before the game started, Björn was unlucky with his Bauhaus. I had won the set-up initiative and placed my Infiltrating units first. Due to the sheer number of infiltrating units on the Imperial side (four in total) virtually every spot on the table where one could infiltrate was already taken when it was the Bauhaus infiltrators turn. Which meant that the first squad of Etoiles Mortants had to set up in their own deployment zone and the Venusian Rangers could only set up slightly in front of it.

The game started with the two squads of Black Berets that had infiltrated into the centre of the table rushing forward, attacking Angelica Drachen, a squad of Hussars and Juggernauts with their chainswords, rifles and flamethrowers. But they were not too lucky, as Bauhaus losses were minimal and they hardly caused any wounds to the Juggernauts or Drachen. In return they were counterattacked by their Bauhaus adversaries as well as one of the Vulkans. In addition, the second squad of  Etoiles Mortants parachuted in to take them on. Even though one of them was pretty lucky with his Heal Rolls, the last of them perished  early in the second turn.

On the left flank there was a constant slugging match between the Life Dragoons and the Venusian Rangers supported by a squad of Hussars. Due to the heavy cover, both the Dragoons and Rangers were in and their camouflage skills this led only to minimal losses, until two of the Dragoons charged to of the building and fired their automatic shotguns at the Rangers, taking them out of the game.

On the right flank things were even more heated. Even tough the close combat Blood Berets had infiltrated onto the table, they were far from the enemy and took heavy losses on their way in. But once they were close to the enemy, their Heavy Chainrippers made short work of both the Hussars and Vulkan. Even one of the Juggernauts that had charged them through the ruins could not turn the tables and was taken out as well.

If you look at the first turn, things did not look good. Imperial had lost almost a fifth of their points and Bauhaus only two Hussars. By the end of the second turn Imperial had barely caught up. But all the heavy losses in the beginning had paid off. The Bauhaus forces in the centre had taken too long to mop up the Black Berets and on the flanks the situations had stalled enough to prevent a Bauhaus advance. All the time the remaining Imperial units (Trenchers, the other two squads of ISF and the ranged combat Blood Berets) had advanced towards the centerline, while their comrades bore the brunt of the Bauhaus wrath. By the third turn, they secured all three objectives. Out of the Bauhaus forces only a single Juggernaut would have been able to (maybe) contest one of the objectives, but he would have run into a torrent of fire from up to five units. So the game ended with an Imperial victory. And here are the pictures to accompany the story:

Trenchers in the street

Fighting in the Bauhaus deployment zone

Etoiles Mortants taking out the Black Berets

Clash on the flank

Blood Beret taking out a Bauhaus Juggernaut

Black Berets struggling with a Vulkan