DAMOCLES system versus Red Block - UNA

Battle Report !

As already mentioned in the previous post, we are now trying to play test the DAMOCLES system for the easy generation of general scenarios for AT-43.
Last Friday I was confronted with a double task. First I should try a battlefield designed with the new system and second I was going to do that with some-one who has never played AT-43 before.

For the layout of the battlefield we roll 3 dices each and after pick up two of the three we added the four dices for a total of 15 terrain elements categories. One terrain element category can be:

• 1 large terrain element (bunker, hill)
• 2 medium terrain elements (container, high wall)
• 4 small terrain elements (low wall)

We also rolled for the amount of tactical markers (Neutral Access Points, Drop Points, VPs and RPs) in the same way (3 dices, picking up 2, adding the four chosen) for a total of 8 tactical markers:

• 2 neutral access points (one on each side of the battlefield, 20cm long)
• 1 drop point (in front of the ONI container on the right of the table)
• 2 VPs markers (one in front of a low wall, the other one associated to the drop point)
• 3 RPs markers (one inside of the bunker on the right side, one on the ONI container, one on the Red Block container in front of the ruins)

Armies

Red Block

Red Cross (GenCol) [1430/570]

Assault
6 Dragonov Kommandos (Sergeant, 1 AT Gauss Gun, 2 Medics) [210 AP]
8 Krasnye Soldaty (Captain P. Vrachov, 1 Grenade Launcher, 2 Medics) [240 AP]
8 Krasnye Soldaty (Captain P. Vrachov, 1 Grenade Launcher, 2 Medics) [240 AP]
Lieutenant Dragomira + 3 Dragomirov Kolossus [540 AP]
3 Dragonov Groupa S (Snipers) [125 AP]
3 MedTech [75 AP]

Reinforcements
Urod (Colonels Odin & Manon) [570 RP]


UNA

Assault Platoon Ember (M.IND) [1500/500]
Assault
11 Steel Troopers + Col. Stark (2 Laser Guns, 2 Medics) [425 AP]
3 Death Dealer TacArm + Lt. Epstone [425 aP]
2 Fire Toad + Serg. Borz (Light Laser Canon) [650 AP]

Reinforcements
12 Star Troopers (Sergeant, 2 Missile launchers, Medic, Combat eng.) [285 RP]
1 Iron Rain (Sergeant) [215 RP]


The Battle

1st Round
After explaining more or less the game and part of the mechanic we put our activation sequence and of course I forgot to tell my opponent about the "Promise" of Col. Stark.
UNA (12 LPs, max wager of 6) does not spend any LPs for the Authority check, Red Block (14 LPs, max wager of 5) uses 4 LPs and wins easily. The UNA player was concern about not having enough LPs for the first round even in view that a quick calculations about number of UNA units (3) and amount of LPs (12) indicates 4 LPs per unit, but being new to the game maybe is better to discover by oneself how the things work or can work.

Red Block 1st Krasny unit moves on the right of the battlefield just behind of the bunker and searches cover there and enemies to kill (Take cover, Overwatch).
UNA activates the Fire Toad squad and moves then in the center of the table, between the two containers from where they dominate the board (Overwatch).
Dragonov Kommandos take positions to the left of the ONI container and the AT Gauss fires and hit the leader Fire Toad. (UNA does not use the Overwatch after movement, Dragonov Take cover).
UNA brings the Death Dealers into play and fires and kills 4 Dragonov Kommandos, one of the Medics manages to save the life of the ATGauss bearer but the other Medic dies together with the Sergeant).
Red Block finests (Dragonov Snipers) move in front of the decimated Dragonov Kommandos unit and manage to kill one of the TacArms. (Take cover)
UNA Col. Stark unit enters the game and I realise my error about the Promise, I explain the issue to the new player and we keep playing. The UNA troopers move behind the bunker, out of any LoS.
Red Block second Krasny unit moves in front of the Fire Toads, but still they keep waiting, so the revolucionary soldiers take cover and look for enemies to kill (Overwatch)
UNA has no more troups, therefore Red Block Kolossus enter the battlefield to the left of the ONI container and in the open but with the cover provided by the low walls (5+). The Fire Toads wake up and open fire on the Kollossus. A good day to die shines in the lasers of the UNA as the three Kolossus are destroyed in a rain of metallic pieces, but Lt. Dragomira keeps the ground, fires on Serg. Borz and takes cover.
Here I am not really sure about the result. I think that Dragomira got him with a rocket and a MGauss impact, so it would amount 3 points of damage, which together with the point fo damage from the ATGauss gives 4 points of damage to Serg. Borz. However I am 100% sure that at the end of the 1st round, Serg. Borz was having only 3 points of damage on his Fire Toad. So either i counted wrong the damage of the rocket or the MGauss missed the target...
With 5 units of the Red Block on the battlefield and due to an error putting my activation sequence I never realised until much later that I have forgotten the MedTech. That is a pity as I have still did not tried it.

Control Phase:
Red Block controls the ONI container with the RPs tactical marker, so Red Block gets 100 RPs.
Also one of the two objective cards was "Get Visual (LoS) of all VPs and RPs tactical markers on the battlefield for 2 VPs", which Red Block manages this round, so 2 VPs for the Red Block.
UNA does not control anything, so no RPs for UNA in the first round.




2nd Round

Now UNA wagers for the Authority test but Red Block gets it.
Dragomira fires its weapons to the Fire Toads without any succes and gets cover behind the ONI container.
UNA Fire Toads fire on Dragomira but she survives. The Fire Toads divided their attack in two salvos. The 1st one did one point of damage and Dragomira just ignored it. The second one did again a point of damage, but Dragomira ignored it also. (To kill Dragomira with 1 point of damage weapons it is needed to cause at least 2 points of damage in the same salvo by succesfully hitting her with at least 2 impacts which manage to penetrate her armour).
Red Block Snipers take down Lt. Epstone with a magic bullet shot (Take cover).
UNA Death Dealers fire on the Dragomirov Kommandos or the Snipers (I can not remember it properly) but without any success (very nice cover saves :D )
Dragonov Kommandos move in front of the Snipers and get a nice shot on one of them sending him to a better place (Take cover)
UNA Col. Stark troopers move inside of the bunker to control the RPs tactical marker, but in doing so the activate the Overwatch of the two Krasny units. Even with the Improved Cover given by the bunker some of them (also the two special weapon beares) join the Death Dealer in that better place.
Red Block Krasny unit behind the bunker fires again on its activation on the troopers inside of the bunker and moves away (Take cover)
The other Krasny unit does not move but fires inside of the bunker.

Control Phase:
Another 100 RPs for the Red Block for controling the ONI container and 100 RPs for the UNA for controlling the bunker.



3rd Round (and final)

We played this round just for the fun of it as the result of the game was irrelevant. As said, the idea was to try the DAMOCLES system and to show the new player how the game goes.
Basically, the UNA Fire Toads destroyed and killed the clone of Lt. Dragomira by firing a full salvo of 6 Laser Canons.
The Dragonov Kommandos failed to kill the Death Dealer TacArm which was left and moved to the side of the Snipers.
The Death Dealer fired on the Snipers killing all of them.
The Krasny fired on the Troopers inside of the bunker and they fired on the Kommandos.
There were some more casualities but, in general terms that was the end of the game.

Conclusion:
The DAMOCLES system seems to work, but some adjusment about the amount and distribution of the tactical markers are needed (working in progress) as it was clear that there were not enough RPs to bring any Reinforcements into the game.
The new player seemed to like the game, so maybe we just managed to convert a former ToW player into an AT-43 player :D :D :D