Trouble in the Tarmac - 1st Game

This is the first scenario of the Phase I of the Campaign Book Damocles of AT-43. The scenario is not really well balanced as some of the people already commented in the relevant AT-43 forums. However, I was having the intention to play the Damocles campaign and my intention was to try the scenario. But, as someone pointed to me, the scenario only has some meaning if you play the whole book as the Phase I is clearly design with the worst tactical positions for the Therians and too high advantages for the other Armies, like the Red Block. However, as our Therian player is newer to the game than us and as the real outcome of the game is totally irrelevant for us, we just played it and tried to enjoy as much as possible :D

Army Lists

Red Advanced ReCon Force (Red Block - Frontline) [1430/550]

Assault [1430 AP]

Cap. Vrachov on KK5 [545 AP]

8 Krasny Soldaty with Serg. Tymofiyeva (1 Grenade launcher, 2 Medics, Smoke Grenades) [230 AP]

6 Dragonov Kommandos (Sergeant, 1 ATGauss, Medics, Elect. Warfare, Smoke Grenades) [240 AP]

2 Sierps (Sergeant) [415 AP]

Reinforcements [550 RP]

3 Strielitz Kolossus (Sergeant) [310 RP]

1 Molot (Sergeant) [240 RP]

Therians Cyphers [1498/371]

Assault

Omega Tiamat (Space Suit) [446 AP]

3 Assault Goliaths (Space Suit) [378 AP]

7 Assault Golems (1 Flamer, 1 Alpha overseer, Space Suit) [362 AP]

6 Grim Golems (1 Flamer, Atis-Astarate, Space Suit) [312 AP]

Reinforcements
1 Wraith Golgoth (Space Suit) [371 RP]

The Game

Actually we played twice. The first time, the Therian player tried a very aggressive tactic which leads to the annihilation of the Therian forces. The second time, the Red Block was kicked out of the planet.

We rolled for the role of defender or attacker and the Therians were the defenders, which actually seems to be accepted as a disadvantage for this scenario.

The layout of the battlefield was a bit improvised as due to a mistake we were lacking the second Damocles map and some nanogenerators. So, we solved the issue by painting the needed landing pad on the table and using some low walls in upright position as nanogenerators. Also the Therian player is lacking some miniatures, namely level 1 AFVs, so in some moment of the game we just use some of the Red Block Molots as proxies for the Therians Succubus.

1st Round

The Therians win the authority check and let the Red Block start. The Krasny Soldaty move bravely behind the container on the left of the battlefield and prepare themselves for combat (Take Cover, Overwatch).

The Therians Assault Goliaths deploy also behind of the containers on the right of the battlefield (the side with the nice AT-43 poster ;D ).

The Dragonov Kommandos enter the battlefield on the right side and take position behind the container close to the nanogenerator.

As you can see the first three movements were more or less passive movements, however, now Tiamat gets deployed on the battlefield, on the border of the Therian deployment zone and Dashs around the container were the Krasny unit was hiding and run over them.

She killed three of the soldiers just by moving over them and after that she engaged the other five Soldaty in close combat and killed all of them, also the engagement in close combat removed the Combat Drills of the unit.

From my point of view, the idea could have been great. The Therians wipe out in one movement a full infantry unit, except for Tymofiyeva, but she was lucky with the dice for avoiding being killed by the moving Tiamat. However, the movement left Tiamat in my Access Zone and vulnerable to the attack of Cap. Vrachov on his KK5.

Cap. Vrachov enter the battlefield and fire every single rocket on Tiamat a close range. The result was a molten metal inferno. But, of course, Tiamat tried to hack the body of the closest overseer. Here we made a mistake, the only other Therian unit were the Assault Goliaths, but they were not having an overseer (or at least I can not see it on the Army List) and therefore Tiamat should have been removed form the game.

Also the Therian player forgot to make the routine Creation before engaging in clocse combat, which close the Therian activation of Tiamat and gives the floor to the Red Block for the activation of Cap. Vrachov.

The Therians deploy the Assault Golems behind the container and take cover there.

The Red Block Sierps enter the field and having line of sight on the Assault Golem fire a little inferno on them which manage to kill four of them.

Atis and her Grim Golems unit deploy on the left side of the board, on the border of the deployment zone and get visual of the Dragonov Kommandos behind the container and teleports there killing three of then.
In the control phase we got the reinforcement points for the containers and the nanogenerators. The Red Block got 375 RP and the Therians got 200 RP and 4 VP for the landing pads.

2st Round

On the second round the Red Block got the authority and as first movement, the Sierps run over Atis and her Grim Golems. Here we got a question regarding the running over infantry rules as actually two Sierps run over the same fighters, therefore we consider that they should have rolled twice to avoid being killed by the Sierps as the rule speaks about "an AFV" and not about "an AFV unit". The Sierps killed all the Grim Golems except one and also Atis was killed.

As the Therians were clearly destroyed as fighting force we decided to play it again and see if it was possible to get the scenario turned around.

The funniest part was that Jag, the Therian player, was all the time saying something which could be translated as "I don't care about the outcome, I came here to do it this way" (textually he kept saying "I came here to speak about my book", which actually is a reference to Paco Umbral who was once interviewed on Spanish TV by a very aggressive journalist who apparently told him that he was invited to the program to talk about his last book but as it turned out, the journalist was asking him about everything else except about the book :D :D )

There is a Visual Archive of the battle with some more pictures.

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

DAMOCLES system and Red Block Army Lists

Last Friday we started testing the 1st draft of the DAMOCLES system. The idea behind this system is to allow for a fast and elegant way to set up a battlefield for the AT-43 game. At this moment is limited to a battle between two players, but in the future it could be that it could accommodate more players.
The two corner stones of the system are:

1. the deployment of terrain elements and tactical markers (access zones, VPs and RPs)
2. the implementation of a random system for victory conditions and game objectives based on cards.

For the play testing of the system I was feeling a bit more open minded about the composition of the Army List and I prepared the following four. Note that the system requires for each player to prepare three Army List in advance and to select one of them after the setting up of the game.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heavy Red (Frontline) [1500/435]

Assault
Captain P. Vrachov in KK5 [545 AP]
Lieutenant Dragomira + 3 Dragomirov Kolossus [540 AP]
2 Sierp (Sergeant) [415 AP]

Reinforcements
3 RPG Kolossus (Sergeant) [435 RP]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Red Children (Frontline) [1470/530]

Assault
3 Sierp (Sergeant) [615 AP]
Urod (Colonels Odin & Manon) [570 AP]
9 Dragonov Kommandos (Sergeant, 3 Sniper Gun, 2 Medic) [285 AP]

Reinforcements
11 Krasnye Soldaty (Sergeant, 1 Grenade Launcher, 2 Mechanic) [220 RP]
9 Spetsnatz Kommandos (Sergeant, 3 Flamer, Medic, Combat engineer) [310 RP]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Red Swarm (ARC) [1500/490]

Assault
16 Krasnye Soldaty (Captain, 3 Grenade Launcher, 2 Medic) [390 AP]
15 RPG Soldaty (Lieutenant, 3 MGauss, 2 Medic) [340 AP]
12 Dragonov Kommandos (Lieutenant, 3 Sniper Gun, 2 Medic) [395 AP]
3 Dragomirov Kolossus [375 AP]

Reinforcements
2 Sierp (Sergeant) [415 RP]
3 Krasnye Groupa G (Grenade launchers) [75 RP]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the end Red Swarm was randomly removed from the selection and I took Red Cross for the play testing against UNA.
Battle report coming soon...

First Contact with the Therians

Yesterday we played for the first time with Therians.
I was with my Red Block and was the attacker on the Mission 6 of the Rule Book - Extraction.
The Red Block Army List was Frontline 995/930:
Assault [995 AP]
6 Dragonov Kommandos (1 Lieutenant, 1 ATGauss, 2 Elect. warfare, 2 rifles) [230 AP]
8 RPG Soldaty (1 Leader, 1 MGauss, 2 Medics, 4 SM Gauss) [150 AP]
3 Sierps (1 Sergeant) [615 AP]
Reinforcement [930 AP]
3 Dragomirov Kolossi [385 AP]
Cap. Vrachov on KK5 [545 AP]

Therian Army List was Cyphers 725/1275:
Assault [725]
Omega Tiamat [445 AP]
6 assault Golems (1 Relay, 1 Nucleus Gun, 4 Rifles) [280 AP]
Reinforcement [1275 AP]
1 Wraith Golgoth [355 AP]
6 assault Golems (1 Relay, 1 Nucleus Gun, 4 Rifles) [280 AP]
1 Wraith Golgoth (including 1 Alpha) [365 AP]

I was taking a lot of pictures for the game but for unknown reasons, this morning the synchronisation between my mobile phone and my computer decided to deleted all of them except six :(
Have no idea where or how to rescue them. Sorry about that.

There is a picasa album with the surviving pictures.

The Therian list is not exactly as required by the scenario but as it was modified on the spot we did not care too much about it, anyway the excess in APs is not so big and it is in the reinforcement list.

The layout of the battlefield you already know.

1st Round
Red Block waggers 1LP and win the initiative and decides that the Therians can start their deployment.
The Assault Golems appear behind the three low walls on its deployment zone and move behind the container to control the Wreck.
The Dragonov Kommandos make a rush movement on the left of the battlefield and take positions between the container and the border of the terrain, controlling the container and looking into the open ready to shoot.
The Therian player loses 2 LPs due to the 2 Elect. Warfare specialists.
Tiamat enters the game, on the border of the deployment zone, in front of the Dragoniv Kommandos. With 4 LPs she creates a Succubus and with 2 LPs more she Dash towards the Dragonov Kommandos and lands on top of them killing two. Other two manage to scape from below of the monster. Still one of them is in the engagement 2.5mm limit. Tiamat attacks and he is gone, as he was one of the Elect. Warfare guys, the Therian recovers 1 LP.
The lieutenant is one of the dead. He was the company commander, now the Sierp sergeant takes this position. The Red Block loses 2 LP for this reason (actually we forgot this point but as I never used all my LPs it was not a big mistake, we were both a bit shock by the fury of Tiamat, it was really impressive. Unluckily the picture is gone).
The Sierp unit enters the battle and makes a rush movement on the right side of the field, between the four low walls and the border of the terrain and go into overwatch. Three LPs less for the Therians.
The RPG Soldaty move close to the first of those 4 low walls.
End of the round.
Control Phase:
Therians get the control of the Wreck (2 VPs) and the capture and control of the container behind the Wreck (250 RPs).
Red Block gets the container and the nanogenerator close to the four lower walls (400 RPs).
Therian does not get any unit as Reinforcement. Red Block calls in the Dragomirov Kolossi.

2nd Round
Red Block wagers and get the initiative.
Dragomirov Kolossi enter the field by the access point on the left, just behind Tiamat and launch a salvo of rockets to her which damages her legs let her immobilised. The MGauss salvo goes to the Assault Golems behind the container as three are visible but unsuccessfully.

The Assault Golems move to its right, from behind the container in the direction of the two low walls to take control of the nanogenerator and the access zone but they were making a normal move and it is not enought for them to get close enough to try to control the access zone, so they rethink their movement and try to hide around the container from the approaching Sierps and open fire on the Dragomirov Kolossi, but their armour is too hard for the aliens to penetrate it.

Sierps move close to the container where the Wreck is and having line of vision to the Golems, they fire all its weapons (3 hits, 3 misses). The mortar deviates 3cm (for the 3 misses) away from the Golems but the radius is 10cm and double number of impacts (for the 3 hits) and all the Golems are reduced to molten metal and little incandescent bits.

Tiamat uses the repair routine and get one leg operative and makes a Dash movement over the Dragonov Kommandos and the RPG Soldaty. The Dragonov ATGauss and the last Rifleman die, only one Electronic warfare specialist survives to keep control of the container. Two RPG Soldaty also were killed by Tiamat, but one of the Medics save one. Tiamat attacks on close combat 4 RPG Soldaty more (3 SM Gauss and the medic which has just saved the live of the other soldaty). She kills all the four, but the other medic saves the life of the attacked medic.

RPG Soldaty try to move away from Tiamat but one of the medics is engaged with her, so the unit only get to move 7 cm not being able to rush (only free units can rush and they are engaged) [This part was edited].

The Succubus moves between the Sierp and the Wreck to try to block the way (The Sierps were just a few millimetres too far away from the Wreck to be able to control it)
The Electronic Warfare specialist fails the Morale check and falls to Disorganised but the menace of martial court from the Sierp Sergeant rallies him back into Valiant for only 2LPs ;)
End of the Round.
Control Phase:
Therians have no infantry, They can not control any objectives. They consider conceding the game but we decided to play until the end.
Red Block controls the first container with the elect. specialist (150 RPs), has captured a second one with the Sierps (250 RPs), keeps control of a nanogenerator with the Sierps (100 RPs) and captured a second nanogenerator with the Dragomirov Kolossi (150 RPs). Together with the 15 RPs left from the previous round, the Red Block has 665 RPs, more than enough to bring Cap. Vrachov (545 RP) into the battle.

3rd Round
We forgot to recalculate the LPs of the Red Block as Cap. Vrachov has 5 LPs but the game was almost over, therefore it was also not critical for the outcome, also for the fact that the Red Block never used all its LPs, not even half of them.
Therians wins the initiative.
Tiamat make a rush movement over the RPG Soldaty in the direction of the Sierp. All the RPG soldaty survive !!!
Tiamat attacks the Sierp on the back which get damaged on one mortar, one leg and one in the frame. He is still there :D
Cap. Vrachov enters the fight and enclosed Tiamat between himself and the Sierps and opens fire on the Succubus. The first salvo of rockets get home and destroy the Succubus.
The second salvo was intended for Tiamat but it was already point less as the game was more that over.
Without infantry to get more RPs the Therians were not able to bring more forces into the fight except for the creation routine.
With the Succubus gone, Tiamat was not able to bring more AFVs as the space between she and the border of the battlefield was not big enough.
Therefore we considered that the trapped hero in the Wreck (Serg. Tymofiyeva) just eject after the front Sierp moved a bit closer to the Wreck to control it and that she run out of the battlefield.
Two pictures of the final round.

The conclusions of the battle were similar to the time we played it Red Block versus UNA.
Frontline is devastating in small maps were control of objectives is critical to achieve victory. The small amount of APs for the defender makes this scenario quite difficult because it is not possible for him to field enough anti-AFV power to take down the Red Block AFVs which are controlling the objectives and as the level one Red Block AFVs are anti-infantry specialist. it should not be too much complicated for the Red Block to kill the infantry units of the opponent to deny him/her the acquisition of the so much needed RPs.
In the case that we play this scenario another time, I think I will not field Frontline but Supra or even ARC. I liked the way my Sierps and Kossak blocked Tiamat in a narrow corridor making impossible for her to create more AFVs and to attack my infantry. I am playing with the idea of use multiple level 1 AFVs and screen for several minimum size Krasny units with 2 mechanics as a way to manoeuvre close to the Wreck, control it with the infantry, eject Tymofiyeva and make that she joins one of the Krasny units.
This tactic could work very good if Tymofiyeva could be able to switch from one unit to another. There is nothing in the rules which goes against this idea, but I need to check it more carefully.

What do you think?
Ideas, critics, suggestions are as always more than welcomed.

Visual Archives

As from today onwards it will be also possible to see some pictures on the picasa server.

The first ones are from the Antenna for AT-43.

More arriving soon...

Quick Fingers !!!!

Madrid (Spain).

Xmas time.

Metro (aka Subway).

A couple goes into a crowded train, close to the end of the wagon, on the corner. Later a girl enters the train and moves directly between the two of them, blocking the way.
The train is packed, so it could be seen as unavoidable. The girl blocking the couple does not moves to much, but lingers over the female member of the couple. Both start thinking that something is going on but still are not really sure.
Anyway, the first girl, suspicious of the girl interposed between them, try to keep the grip on her handbag solid, however she think to feel something estrange as the other girl makes a controlled move around her.
Alarmed she start to check her handbag, but as suspected, the purse is gone. Just on that moment the train stops on the next station, the people start moving, including the estrange girl, who just before leaving point to the ground of the subway where the purse lies.
Obviously, the money was gone, with the girl, but at least the cards (IDs and bank) where left behind.
Total time of the action, less than 30 seconds.

Be aware. They are faster than you can think and they are in every subway system of the big cities.

Merry Xmas