Warzone games that I never posted

Games wise, this year has been strange this year. I playe a bout a dozen games (everything from SAGA, over Star Wars: Armada and Battlegroup to Warzone) that I played, but did not take photos of and thus never posted. But there are also a few where I took photos. I think now is the time to at least post those. Ithaca been a while since they were played, so the details have become a little too fuzzy for game reports. Hope you enjoy them anyway!

Imperial (Ministry of War) vs. Bauhaus

Bauhaus vs. Imperial

Bauhaus vs. Imperial

Bauhaus vs. Imperial

Bauhaus vs. Imperial

Bauhaus vs. Imperial

Bauhaus vs. Imperial

 
Imperial (Wolfbanes) vs. Bauhaus

Warhounds vs. Vorreiter

Vorreiter firing on the Warhounds

Vorreiter assaulting

Table (Imperial corner far left)

Table (Bauhaus corner far left)

One of only two surviving Blood Berets after the Etoiles Mortants have landed

Oakenfist taking on the Etoiles Mortants

Meet your destiny

Drawn into the Blood Berets

 

Imperial (Ministry of War) vs. Brotherhood 

Valkyrie drop

The enemy is down the road

Table (Imperial side front left)

Table (Brotherhood side rear left)

Mortificator screen

Look who is coming to the party

Imperial firing line

By the village

Brotherhood bastion

Blood Berets advancing

 

3rd and 4th February games of our Warzone: Resurrection League

Just short note to let you know, that the after action reports for the third and forth February games of our Warzone: Resurrection League are not online, including the table with the standings after the first month.

They can all be found here or by going to the Warzone League menu at the top of the page.

The sub page for march has also gone live, so for those who want to know who plays who this month, you can go there as well. But with the first games taking place this weekend, you should not wait too long for the first game reports anyway!

 

2nd February game of our Warzone: Resurrection League

Just a short heads up, that the report for the second game of our Warzone: Resurrection League is up. This time it was Martins Mishima vs. Micheal F.s Brotherhood. I can tell you it was a tight game… so enjoy the full report (click here)!

 

Warzone Resurrection: Brotherhood Valkyries (3rd Entry / part 2, 5th AHPC)

Following up from yesterdays post, these are the other troops I needed for the tournament, some Brotherhood Valkyries. Now Imperial will only see its full release at Salute this year, so right now, the troops available are only a nucleus and they lack troops that can parachute anywhere. Luckily Imperial is allowed to take a few Brotherhood troops as support and amongst the choices are Valkyries, Brotherhoods parachute troops. Now one thing I noticed with many of the Brotherhood minis is, that they have more or less of a medieval look. So I wanted to give them a look like they are wearing medieval armour. This was only re-enforced, when I looked at the detail on the minis and found that the nay place (including joints) that does not seem to be covered by armour seems to be their buttocks. I guess the sculptor was male! 😉 They are described as very pure in their believes and I wanted to depict this with very shiny armour. I still had some Vallejo Airbrush Chrome paint that I had bought for a project I scrapped before I even started it so I gave that a try for the armour (including the buttocks). And I liked the final results a lot and did not want to ruin it with strong contrasts, so the joints and seams were only shaded a little bit. The effect did not last when I put on the matt varnish in the end, but now they have taken on a look of burned magnesium that I actually like a lot, too, so I have refrained from giving the armour a coat of gloss varnish. Otherwise they got dark weapons with chrome tips washed in blue, to show that they are electrified. The capes were done in red / white (red / gold for the squad leader) to keep with the medieval theme and blue translucent visors on their helmets and that was it.

Valkyries

Valkyries (back)

So this is it for this week. Last week was taken up by painting the next theme round entry and a visit to my better halves family, but there will be more next week.

Oh and before anyone asks… these and the Imperial troops shown in recent weeks did well in Hamburg, earning me the 4th place overall.

 

Brotherhood: Guardiani Oblati

So essentially now the quest begins, to build a second force for Warzone. This time Brotherhoods Guardiani Oblati. To be honest, I have no intention of playing Brotherhood, but being custodians of the faith, some of their units may be taken by other factions as well. Mostly it is Troopers and Valkyries, but one Imperial leader may also take the Guardiani Oblati as his bodyguard. So what are they? Essentially these are the elite bodyguards for high ranking clergy of the Brotherhood (and some high ranking corporate members). They very well versed in the Art, to the point that during their training they actually lose their need for normal sight (at which point they are blinded). Another thing they lose during their training is all human feelings. They lack any fear or concern for their own wellbeing, as well as any compassion for their enemies. Their only goal is the protection of their charge. They are equipped with the best of armour which sports a whole range of close combat and ranged combat weapons (much like a Swiss Army knife) to tackle any enemy. They do not enter the battlefield in a normal way, but materialize via the Art when their charge is in desperate need.

Costing 100 points a pair, they are quite expensive in game terms (especially since they self destruct when the Warlord they protect is killed), but on the other hand, they are the best bodyguard unit in the game right now. So I could not resist getting me a pair of these. I spend a long time thinking about how to paint them. This was not made easier by the fact, that they were much shorter and more squat than I had expected. So in the end I chose to mimic a historical unit, who’s mission it is to protect high clergy as well (although not as emotionally detached). A cheer for the first person to guess the unit! To mimic their looks I gave their armour a steel look and painted their tunics in diagonal stripes of orange-yellow and blue (I chose to leave the dark red stripes out to make them look less busy).

In the end I was quite happy with the choice. For one it somehow made them look less squat and a really brought out the details in their armour.

Being blinded the view slits in their helmets gave me some headaches (what do they need them for anyway?)! I asked for inspiration on the Warzone Facebook groups and a few people suggested a glow effect. I really liked that idea to show, that their sight is actually paranormal. Hope it looks somewhat decent, since this is my first attempt ever at a glow effect!

Guardiani Oblati

Guardiani Oblati

Guardiani Oblati

Guardiani Oblati

 

Four player game of Warzone Resurrection

Last Friday we got together for a big 4 player game of Warzone. So what did we play?

Major Richard Meier was not too happy. Just last week a Mishima force had landed in the regions of Venus guarded by Bauhaus 274th Garnisions Regiment. The had caught the roops in the region in the rear, their lines being orientated towards the Dark Legion citadel close by. As usual when the enemy managed to break the Bauhaus lines in the cold regions of Venus, it fell to the 23rd Gebirgssturm Brigade to push them back and this time Meiers battalion had drawn the short straw. His attack was scheduled for tomorrow and now that they were making final preparations he was called to a meeting with the Fenrisbrigades commanding officer. He did not like having his preparations interrupted at such a moment. But what he liked less was an operation being called off. He really hoped, that his was not what this meeting was about.
Meier entered the office, snapped his heels together and saluted. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed another person in the office, but could not clearly make him out. “Herr Major, how far are your preparations for the liberation of Schwarzbrunn?” “Well under way, sir. My Rangers scouting the area have reported that the Mishima forces have set up positions facing our lines only. It seems they rely on the hope that the Dark Legion has not noticed they have taken over our holdings, so they can leave their rear unguarded until reinforced.” “I fear their plans are more sinister than that!” said the other person lurking in the shadows of the room. Rising from behind his desk the commanding officer said “May I Introduce you to Inquisitor Ignatius. He has some information you might find interesting. Inquisitor…” “The Brotherhood has gained information, that this attack last week, was not sanctioned by neither the Mishiman Overlord, nor the Lord Heirs. This was the action of one heretical Clan, trying to establish a holding of their own. They are not hoping that the Legion has not noticed their presence. The Legion actually knows they are there fully well. Tomorrow at dawn there will be a high level meeting between the head of the Clan and a leading Nepharite of Algaroth. And we want to purge the heretics. The Bauhaus high command has assured us your support. Will your troops be able to smash a way through the enemy lines for us so we can crash the party?” At this Meier grinned. “One of my Venusian Ranger squad leaders was born and raised in Schwarzbrunn. Why smash through the enemy lines when we have an unguarded mountain pass to get into their rear and crash their party!”

And so they did! We had already split our forces up in teams. Arnd (Mishima) and Andreas (Dark Legion) on one side (“team evil”) with Ingo (Brotherhood) and myself (Bauhaus) on the other (“team good”). And the forces were:

Mishima: A custom Demon Hunter Warlord, a squad each of Ronin Samurai, Hatamoto, Demon Hunters and Shadow Walkers, as well as two Meka suits combined into one squad.

Dark Legion: Galgotha as Warlord, two squads of Undead Legionaries (with Necromutant Leader) and one of Necromutants, two 2-men squads of Nasca Razides and a two-men squad of Praetorian Stalkers.

Brotherhood: A custom Sacred Warror Warlord, one squad each of Troopers (with Inquisitor leader), Inquisitors, Mortificators and Guardiani Oblati as well as two squads of Sacred Warriors (one led by Lukas).

Bauhaus: Custom Juggernaut Warlord, two squads each of Hussars and Etoiles Mortant, one squad of Venusian Rangers and four Vorreiter combined into one squad.

Table (view from the side that would see most of the fighting)

The table was a rectangle (2,5m x 1,5m) cut in half by a river which in turn was spanned by a large stone bridge. There were a few small woods and bushes on the board. Also some houses (two of them ruins) and gardens lined by hedges.

We rolled for missions and got an Ambush. Team evil chose to be the defender, so team good had to place our units first being the attacker (pretty strange, but that is the rules). Each of us had to have one unit within 6″ of every board edge. Ingo put his Warlord and Sacred Warriors on one of the long edges with the Inquisitors in the near corner. Going clockwise from there, came my Vorreiter on the short edge. On the next long edge, but on the other side of the river came one squad of Hussars, the Troopers and the smaller squad of Sacred Warriors in the corner. My other squad of Hussars  and the Bauhaus Warlord were in the remaining corner.

Team Evil had to set up all units with at least 2 men of every squad within 6″ of the table centre. So essentially they all huddled on the bridge, in the river and on its banks. The only exception were the Demon Hunters. On account of them being Dispersible (they double the range for their coherency) they formed a long line from the deployment zone pointing towards the Bauhaus Warlord. All in all there was a distinct emphasis on that flank with almost all units of team evil oriented that way.

“Team evil” deployment zone

Next came our infiltrating units. The Venusian Rangers deployed in the ruins on the neglected side of the boards, while the Mortificators deployed near the Bauhaus Warlord in the woods and hedges.

The objective was for team good to reduce team evil to about ¼ of its initial forces by the end of turn 5. We all had a Corporate Agenda mission as well, but we all completed ours so I am not going to go into that.

We had decided, to roll for initiative within a team and then had the winner roll for team initiative, with the order of activation alternating between the teams. On the first round Ingo won. Up next would be Arnd, then me and Andreas last.

Ingo began with his Warlord, who played a card that would prevent Galgotha from using her skills (including the one which would deny one of our units all cover). After moving forward a bit, he called in an artillery strike on the bridge, which killed one Ronin Samurai, two Undead Legionaries and caused two Nasca Razides from one squad a wound each. Up next came Arnd. He wanted his Meka suits save from harm and played a Snipe of the Cobra card on my Venusian Ranger with the rocket launcher. He failed his armour test and our best anti vehicle weapon was gone (not that it would matter too much). But he also activated his Demon Hunters and  the squad leader and the other Hunter hammered my Warlord with their HMGs. Inspite of a massive 7 or 8 hits, the Bauhaus Warlord saved all but one (and that one would later in that round be healed by a special piece of equipment build into his suit). Now I activated my Hussars near the Warlord. It was obvious, that my Warlord was going to be the prime target so they moved into position to screen him. Three of them also managed to get some shots off at the Demon hunters and inspite of their good armour and high Heal skill, they even managed to wound the trooper. Now it was Andreas turn and he advanced his Necromutant squad at my other Hussars. They started firing at the closest Hussar, but he managed to take shot after shot with his armour. Frustrated Andreas shifted his fire on the squad leader, only to have the seemingly bulletproof Hussar throw himself in harms way and take the shots for his NCO.

Bridge over busy waters

At this point, it was Ingos turn again. He activated his larger squad of Sacred Warriors to move them forward and protect his Warlord, but Lukas also used a skill which would deny the Mishima Meka suits cover for the rest of the round. Arnd found most of his troops boxed in on the bridge and decided to activate his Hatamoto and move them towards the riverbank. Now I decided to go Warlord hunting myself and Rapid Deployed my first Etoiles Mortant squad close to Galgotha. Unfortuntely for them, the Mishima Warlord had an early warning system and saw them drop from the skies. So he was able to fire at them before they do anything. Two of them took the hits on their armour, but the trooper with the flamethrower died. Her mate picked up the flame thrower though and fired it at both enemy Warlords. They had enough troops around who willingly sacrificed themselves, but none the less this still killed two Undead Legionaries and two Ronin Samurai. The remaining three Etoiles Mortant charged Galgotha in the rear and managed to cause her two wounds. When Andreas activated, he found most of his troops in no position to come to Galgothas help, so he actived his two Nasca Razides close by. One went into Sentry, while the other shot at the Hussar who had so far managed to survive all the fire coming at him. This time it was too much, but we calculated that it had taken well over 20 shots (with more than half of them being hits) to kill him! Unfortunately he also managed to kill the Hussar squad leader.

Hussars and Trooper

Ingo now actived his Inquisitors. They advanced towards the enemy and their squad leader cast a spell on one of the Meka suits damaging it in the hull. With things heating up around them, the Mekas decided to charge the Etoiles Mortant and whipped them out in close combat. While charging through the river, the one that had already been damaged took some more damage to its legs. With things having gone well for the first Etoiles attack I decided to deploy the second squad as well. But their combat drop did not go as well. They scattered into the Razides and being stunned were unable to do anything else. In turn they would be cut up by the Razide who had gone into Sentry and by Andreas now activating his Undead Legionaries. To add insult to injury, one of the Etoiles was also turned into an Undead Legionary when she was killed by the Necromutant squad leader.

Mekas going for the Etoiles Mortants

At this point, Ingo advanced his Troopers and managed to get some shots at the Necromutants (but I cannot tell to what end, since I was away from the table for a few minutes). Arnd also advanced his Mishima Warlord towards the Bauhaus one. I activated my Warlord and he fired his HMG at the Demon Hunters, killing the one who had already been wounded and wounding the squad leader. Andreas advanced this other Razides out of the river and towards the Bauhaus Warlord with guns blazing. But failed to wound him, but they wiped out two Hussars close by.

The next activation saw Ingo advance his remaining Sacred Warriors and Arnd his Remaining Ronin Samurai. Now the Vorreiter charged forward and hammered the Meka suits with their HMGs. Andreas tried to prevent this by playing a Dark Legion card that would keep me from firing, but Ingo managed to take that out of play with one of his cards (never have I been so happy to see Brotherhood on the table!!!). Unfortunately they spread their damage on virtually all locations, but destroyed the already damaged one. Andreas advanced his remaining Undead Legionaries.

Vorreiter advance

The rest of the first round was quiet uneventful, with the remaining troops either advancing or my Venusian Rangers firing their rifles at the Legionaries on the bridge, killing one. The Praetorian Stalkers deployed on the side of the river where the majority of the team evil troops were.

All the Dark Legion hordes

Before the next round began, Arnd placed markers for his Shadow Walkers amidst the pines close to the Bauhaus Warlord. Now it would be crucial who would win the initiative for him to survive. But Arnd won the initiative, so this would be hard. Next would be me, followed by Andreas and Ingo coming last.

Obviously Arnd activated his Shadow Walkers first and their markers were replaced with actual miniatures. He played another Snipe of the cobra on the Hussar blocking their approach on my Warlord killing him. Now the two Shadow Walkers charged my Warlord, scoring seven hits. This was though luck, since their attacks do not allow for armour saves (unless it is impenetrable armour, which has to be re-rolled on a successful test) or heal rolls. But he managed to save three of them. This cost him all his four wounds, but then the chemical resuscitator kicked in and he regained his last wound, keeping him alive! It is amazing how good my dice were that day! Up next came m Vorreiter. Their initial goal was to shoot the remaining Meka, but that one was covered by the two Nasca Rizides close by and hard to hit. So the first two Vorreiter shot at the Razides, killing them both. Now the other two were free to shoot at the Meka, hitting it in the rear and leaving it barely intact. Unfortunately, their fire also killed the last remaining Etoiles Mortant, but a small sacrifice it was. Andreas used a card to remove his Praetorian Stalkers from the board and Re-rapid Deploy them close to the Vorreiter. Their drop went wrong, but they did not scatter too far. One of them was close enough to use this flame thrower on two of my Vorreiter.

Praetorian Stalkers attacking the Vorreiter

Just like I had seen in my previous game, these weapons are so strong, they cut through any vehicles armour and it was no different this time… both Vorreiter perished! The other Stalker fired his HMG at the Vorreiter squad leader, but only managed to damage his bike. Ingo activated his Inquisitors, again all they could do was advance and have the squad leader cast a spell at the Meka, but damaged as it was, this was enough to destroy it.

Inquisitors advancing

There was not much, that Arnd could do, so he advanced one of his Demon Hunters. I activated my Venusian Rangers who moved out of the ruins and fired at Galgothas back, causing her one more wound (she was now down to only one). Andreas activated his Necromutants who cut into Ingos troopers and my Hussars with their fire. Ingos Troopers also took a heavy beating, loosing all men but the Inquisitor leader. Now Ingo activated his Mortificators again and they charged forwards throwing grenades and blazing away with their pistols. The first used a flame-thrower like ability to toast the Demon Hunter squad leader and kill a Necromutnat. The others managed to kill the remaining Ronin and inflict a massive 4 wounds on the Mishima Warlord. His resuscitator failed to kick in and he was dead.

At this point we had to call it a day since one of us had to leave. While we had already played a couple of hours, we had only gotten into the second round, but it was clear to see where things were going. Ingo had only lost his troopers and I about a third of my points. While my Warlord was in a pretty bad shape, we were sure that he would be able to take care of the Shadow Walkers with some help of the Hussars, especially since the Mortificators were releaving the pressure on him. The Brotherhood Warlord was still in mint condition, protected by his best troops and his Guardiani Oblati bodyguards still undeployed. On the other hand, Arnd had lost more than  ¾ of his force and was left only with a squad of Hatamoto and half a squad of Demon Hunters. Andreas was better off. Galgotha was in as bad a shape is the Bauhaus Warlord, but presented a good target. His two remaining Nasca Razides were down to one wound each and we all agreed that the Praetorian Stlakers would not last a round, if my Vorreiter were to activate first. So we all agreed, that this would have resulted in a win for team good!

All in all it was a pretty bloody fight, especially since team evil decided to concentrate its fire on one flank, virtually ignoring the other. In can not speak for the other team, but I had a feeling that Bauhaus and Brotherhood paired quite well. For the first time I had the feeling that Bauhaus really packed some punch in this combination where the other side was not able to influence me as much with their cards. Having already seen the revised Bauhaus cards, I think they shall do fine on their own in the future as well. Oh and for those interested, we played with the V1.3 errata of the rules previewed last week.

 

 

Warzone Ressurection, Bauhaus vs. Brotherhood once more

The other weekend Ingo came around for a match of Warzone again, this time outside our mini league. Just as with our league games, this too was played using the advanced game rules, at 1000 points using the standard OOB. We rolled a Delta Mission which meant in addition to the Primary Mission (Reconnaissance) we also had a Corporate Agenda Mission each. The former meant that we would have to control three table zones for a win or two for a minor victory by the end of turn 5. The Corporate Agenda Missions were different for both of us. Ingos mission was for more than 50% of the members of one of his squads to survive (he chose the Sacred Warriors) while mine meant that one of my squad leaders had to cause more wounds than any other squad leader (I chose the Venusian Rangers, although I am not sure why in retrospect).

The table was a large hillside rolling down to the Bauhaus left, with a small hilltop valley on the centre right. There were two small woods in the left corners and a larger one on the right flank, with another woods and two bunkers in the centre. Since the Primary Mission called for set-up in opposing corners, this meant, that one of us would have to set up in the open, while the other got the woods. To be fair, we rolled for this. I won and decided to set up in the open.

Table set-up

So what did we field?

I decided to go a new direction with my troops. So this time they were led by a custom Juggernaut close combat Warlord, with two squads of Hussars (one with six men and one LMG the other with just five men and no support weapon), two five-women squads of Etoiles Mortants with a flame thrower each, one five-men squad of Venusian Rangers with one rocket launcher and a three-men squad of Vulkan suits (all with Rapid Deployment, one of them in close combat configuration).

Ingos force was led by a custom Sacred Warrior Warlord. There were two Trooper Squads, both with two snipers each and an Inquisitor Squad Leader, one squad of Sacred Warriors led by Lukas and a squad of Mortificators. To round things off there were two three-men squads of Inquisitors.

When the regular troops deployed, I put my two squads of Hussars in my deployment zone, with the Warlord being sandwiched in between them. Ingo put his troops into the woods (left to right from his view) Inquisitors, Scared Warriors, Troopers, Inquisitors, Troopers. Up next came the infiltrating troops and I put my Venusian Rangers in the larger woods on my right flank facing the Brotherhood deployment zone. Ingo found a small spot in said woods that was far enough from my troops to deploy and put his Mortificators and Warlord there. My Etoiles Mortant and Vulkans remained in reserve.

Brotherhood forces emerging from the forrest

I activated first and chose to activate my Venusian Rangers, to turn them around and fire at the Mortificators. But this was not to be, since Ingo played one of those fine Brotherhood cards on them that prevented them from firing (am starting to hate this card). So they just moved to bring them closer to the Hussars and Warlord and cut off an easy route of retreat for the Mortificators. Not that this would have been neccessary, since the Mortificators instantly charged my Rangers cutting them all, except for the Ranger with the Rocket Launcher, to pieces. I had previously played an Arachnid Infestation on the woods, but the Mortificators managed to dodge all poisonous spider attacks and took no harm. Same went for the Brotherhood Warlord. Otherwise not much happened that round. Both of us advanced our troops some more, with my Hussars shooting at the enemy Warlord, who always transferred the damage to the Mortificator close to him, who managed to dodge every single one of the attacks. My Rapid Deployment troops decided not to deploy just yet.

Hussars attacking towards the forrest

The next round started with the Mortificators killing he remaining Venusian Ranger. They then stormed towards my troops lobbing grenades at them. While two of them fumbled (unfortunately we played this wrong did not have them explode in their hands), the others still managed to kill of four Hussars in the smaller squad. Again, they managed to simply dodge the return fire. It is amazing how Ingo managed to succeed on all dodge rolls those two first rounds, even though he only had a 50% chance! 😦
But the real action this round was around Ingos deployment zone. Here the first unit of Etoiles Mortants Rapid Deployed into the back of one squad of Troopers. The flame thrower managed to kill all troopers except for two and their Inquisitor leader, but those were easily dispatched, when the rest of the squad charged them in the rear. One of the ladies had so little to do, she even managed to fire her pistol at the nearby Inquisitors (who had already activated and could thus not fire back), but failed to do damage.

1st Etoiles Mortant drop

The other squad of Etoiles Mortants wanted to Rapid Deploy at the other edge of the woods, but their drop went slightly wrong and they scattered into the open fields. Their flamethrower could get into position, but not as good as anticipated, and only killed one Inquisitor and wounded another, plus two Scared Warriors. The other members of the squad were too far away to engage the enemy so just fired their pistols at them, but failed to make an impression, due to the heavy armour of their targets. This squad was subsequently cut up by fire of the Inquisitors and a charge by the Scared Warriors.

2nd Etoiles Mortant drop

This round also saw my last unit, the Vulkans Rapid Deploy, but their drop went really bad. They scattered into the woods and could not activate this round. The squad leader even dropped right into close combat with the Mortifocator leader.

Next round, I was lucky enough to win the initiative and active my Vulkans first. Their squad leader picked his Mortificator opposite up and through him through the air, killing him on impact (I rolled a natural one). The next Vulkan moved out of the woods and fired his heavy flamethrower at two Mortificators killing them both and ridding the Warlord of his protection. The Warlord was now charged in the back by the remaining Vulkan in close combat configuration, who caused the Warlord one wound. This was on account of his ridiculously high ablative armour rating. But as more and more armour panels exploded defeating these attacks, his armour grew weaker.

Vulkan attacking Brotherhood Warlord

The remaining two Mortificators now charged my Warlord, almost killing him. The Hussars charged them in turn to protect their chief, but again all attacks were dodged or sucked up by their armour. Those Hussars too far away decided to fire into the melee with the enemy Warlord to reduce his armour, but only hit the Vulkan (luckily they did him no harm). The Brotherhood Warlord turned to face his assailant, but though he slashed him seven times with his sword only did one damage, which the Vulkan auto repaired. On the other flank the remaining squad of Etoiles Mortant were attacked by the Inquisitors, but suffered only one killed by some kind of dice god miracle. In turn they annihilated said Inquisitors through a combination of flamethrower fire (which also caused massive damage to the other Trooper squad) and close combat attacks.

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

The next round saw Ingo win initiative and his Mortificators promptly killed my Warlord and one of the Hussars in close combat with them. Now things did swing back to my Vulkans. While the Warlord managed to safe the first hit from the Vulkan, the other two were able to defeat his now weakened armour and killed him. The other Vulkan managed to kill the remaining Mortificators by firing his flamethrower into the close combat (unfortunately killing one of the Hussars as well. On the other flank, the remaining Etoiles were killed of as well by the remaining Inquisitors and Troopers. So essentially this meant, that both of us had cleared their deployment zones with more or less losses and both had lost their Warlord.

Now we would both have had to maneuver our troops into position for the next phase and probably to secure those target areas. But it Was clear that we would most like each take one and contest the other. Already having played six hours (no idea why it took us so long to play those three rounds) it was already well into the evening, we both decided to call it a draw and end matters here.

 

Warzone Ressurection, Bauhaus vs. Brotherhood

Last Sunday Ingo came around for a match of Warzone in our mini league. Essentially this was the top of the table match, since we botch won our first match last month. As with every game, this too was played using the advanced game rules, at 1000 points using the standard OOB. We rolled a Bravo Mission which meant in addition to the Primary Mission (Supply Run) we also had a Secondary Mission (Vital Intelligence). The former meant that there were three supply markers along the centre line. If one was to manage to carry two of those into his deployment zone by round three or later, he would win. One marker in the deployment zone and possession of another would mean a minor victory. The Secondary Mission meant that there was an intelligence marker on the centre line. A miniature had to spend a complete round touching it to retrieve the intel for five bonus points.

The table was dominated by a huge ruined church with a hedge-lined graveyard on one flank, while there were two small woods on the other flank and a cornfield in the middle. Otherwise there were some bushes strewn over the table. Background wise we said that both forces had been send to investigate the reported destruction of a minor cathedral on Venus and while not at war with one another, the forces met  in the morning mist and assumed that the other was the enemy and therefore started firing at one another.

Table seen from the Brotherhood side

Table seen from the Bauhaus side

So what did we field?

Mine, the 23rd Gebirgsturmbrigade the “Fenriswölfe”, used the same force as last time. Max Steiner as Warlord, with two six-men squads of Hussars with one LMG each and Scout training, two five-men squads of Venusian Rangers (both Squad Leaders had Medic Training) with three rocket launchers between them and a three-men squad of Vorreiter.

Ingos force was led by a custom Inquisitor Warlord.  There were two Trooper Squads, both with two snipers each and an Inquisitor Squad Leader, one squad of Sacred Warriors led by Lukas and a squad of Mortificators. To round things off there were two squads of Inquisitors one with three and the other with four men.

Brotherhood Troopers

Ingo won set-up initiative, but decided to let me set up first. So I deployed my Hussars one squad on my left flank, the other in the middle, with the Vorreiter between them. Ingo deployed his troops all in the centre and one squad of Troops on the right flank opposite the church. The Warlord was deployed in the rear surrounded by Sacred Warriors, and Inqusitors to protect him from harm.

Hussars in their starting positions

Now it was time for the infiltrating troops. One squad of my Venusian Rangers was deployed in the church ruins, while the other was deployed in the grave yard and corn field (with one Ranger already touching the intel marker). Max Steiner was deployed in the corn fields. Ingo deployed his Mortificators in one of the woods on the left flank, with the intention of attacking Max Steiner.

Since I had to set up first, first initiative automatically went to me (the only initiative I won during the game) and my Vorreiter moved forward and engaged the Mortificators. Despite of a total of nine hits with the vehicle mounted HMGs only two died on account of their ability to dodge and armour. Ingo activated the Sacred Warriors and through a combination of a tactical card and a spell cast by Lukas this left Max Steiner unable to fire that turn or directly claim cover to hide behind. So Max tried to get out of sight completely, but since his route was blocked, he was unable to do so and tried to at least get as much cover between himself and his shooters as possible. But to no avail. When the first squad of Inquisitors activated he received enough hits (one of them critical) to leave him dead. Things did not go well for me for the rest of the rounds either. The Mortificators attacked my Vorrreiter (which lay the groundworks for one dead the next round) and my left hand Rangers through the cornfield, which left three of them dead, while the Rangers themselves had no luck attacking the Inquisitors opposite them. Their brethren in the church did not fare any better. Also three dead (including the Squad Leader who was carrying the supply marker) at the loss of a single Brotherhood trooper. This was especially frustrating, since the Rangers from both squads were using enough cover to give them protection between +6 and +10 (on a D20)! All our other troops just advanced. So where did this leave us. Well I was down about half of my points and ⅔ of my resources, while Ingo had lost only a minimal amount of troops. Not good!

Venusian Rangers in the church ruins

The next round began with the Mortificators going into void to avoid being fired at. So my remaining Vorreiter moved forward and fired at the Inquisitors, but with only limited success, since they shifted hits around within the squad, so the best they did was cause some wounds. At least they took the incoming fire in stride, with all hits being spread all over their hit locations. My Rangers in the centre engaged in a slightly ineffective firefight  with their opposites, with no side suffering any losses. Things did not go so well for the Rangers on my right flank who perished only taking the two Brotherhood Trooper snipers with them in the firefight. Again my Hussars just moved forward to get towards the supply markers. The squad on the left had one of the troopers and the LMG go into sentry mode, to protect the rest of the squad from the Mortificators should they pop out of void.

Vorreiter

The next round saw the Vorreiter charged by a squad of Inquisitors each. Again they stayed alive, but took more damage, while one only dealt out a wound himself, with the other disengaging to be able to fire next round (which he never got the chance to do). In the centre one of the remaining two Rangers was cut up by a Sacred Warrior in close combat, the other was shot up while trying to run for the supplies on the left flank. While the Venusian Rangers had booby trapped the area around the cornfield, the Sacred Warriors were able to virtually ignore this on account of their high armour. The Hussars in the centre managed to pick the supply marker up and started carrying it towards their own deployment zone.

Sacred Warriors advancing

The next round things really started spiraling down. Both Vorreiter died, the one in close combat at least taking an Inquisitor with him. The Hussar Squad leader on the left picked up the supply marker and started to make a run for it. Unfortunately through the use of a tactical card his squad lost the ability to fire (rendering the models in sentry ineffective). At this point the Mortificators came out of their void and ripped into the Hussars. While the Squad leader lived, he saw his squad perish around him. At the same time the other squad of Hussars moved back towards the deployment zone with the supplies. Just two inches short of it, the Hussar carrying the supply marker was hit by a spell (at maximum range and despite three pieces of intervening cover) and disintegrated. So essentially two inches had separated me from a minor win at this point. The next round saw more Hussars die in the centre, I lost the chance to pick up the supplies that now lay so preciously close to the finish line with less than two rounds. When the squad leader on the left flank also died carrying the supplies, I lost all chance for a victory and we called it a day.

Hussars making off with the supplies

All in all it was a bit of a frustrating game (just the game, not the opponent). I found that it is really hard to make a normal (Bauhaus) Warlord survive long enough, when one is playing forces that have the ability to deny you cover. So although I always said it was cheesy to play a custom Warlord, I think I will have to go down that route in the future. Another bummer was the fact, that my Ranger died like flies although they were making real good use of cover. The fact that out of nine Inquisitors only one died, while all the others were down to one wound was bad as well. Add to this the luck of the dice and the fact that victory was snatched from me by just two inches this sure was no fun. 😦

Snatching up the supplies in the centre

Up tomorrow we will have the 3rd Duchy of Warsaw Line infantry for the Napoleonic wars… after two weeks in the mail their flag finally arrived today, so stay tuned!