"PR and I had our 800 Shard vs. Zykhee game last night. After the spanking his Shard gave me in our 400 point game I entered this game with a bit of fear in my tall skinny heart. Initially I planned to take a Mystic, a Soulless squad, a Wardyn squad, a three-dude Ka'char squad with lightning tips and illusion tats, and as many Ra'gha as I could with blast tips and speed tats. Then, just as I was getting ready to print out my force list it dawned on me that the 162 points I'd spent on my Ka'char squad could get me five stripped-down Ra'gha, and that dropping the blast tip (10 pt.) and speed tat (8 pt.) from two Ra'gha would get another stripped-down Ra'gha. After re-juggling the numbers I was able to squeeze out 5 three-dude squads of stripped-down Ra'gha to go with the Soulless squad, the Wardyn squad, and the Mystic (level 1 with Dark Zone). Now normally I tend to trick-out my Zykhee, but given that in the previous game I was unable to lock-up all of his Concussors in CC, I figured that I'd need every skinny body I could get.
It was a six-turn game. For terrain we ended up with "Shard Beacon" (placed in the center of the board), which would let PR bring in an additional 200 pts of Shard if I didn't destroy it before the beginning of Turn 5. Needless to say at that point my hopes for the game sank even lower.
My spirts were lifted a bit when we began deploying units, as PR only had two Primes, a 4-dude Concussor squad, and a 4-dude Concussor squad plus an Amp Suit (deployed from my left to right as Prime, Concussor squad with Amp Suit, Prime, Concussor squad). I deployed the bulk of my force on the right flank (three 3-dude Ra'gha squads with my Wardyn squad anchoring the flank) as there was woods terrain that blocked LOS to most of those units, and which would provide soft cover the turn before the units would engage the opposing Concussor squad in CC. The remaining two 3-dude Ra'gha squads went in the center with the Soulless squad and Mystic anchoring the left end of my deployment line.
As seems to be my wont, I lost the initiative die roll and PR activated a Concussor squad and began to blast away. In turn I advanced my units 12 inches forward. PR's dice rolling wasn't nearly as smoking as last game, as at the end of the turn I'd only lost one Ra'gha.
Turn three saw my two Ra'gha squads on my right flank break from the woods and lock up in CC with the opposing Concussor squad. In the center, two Ra'gha squads locked up with with a Prime and the Amp suit. The remaining Ra'gha squad began attacking the Shard Beacon. I was able to kill a Concussor from each squad, but my wounded Soulless fell to a Concussor. Even with that loss on my part, things were being to look pretty bleak for the Shard.
The Shard went down hard in Turn four. Even with their AR 6 and BOD 5, Concussors began to go down with my each of Ra'gha getting in 4 attacks. They tried to counter in CC, but they were only hitting on a 3, so while my Zykhee took a wound here and there, it wasn't enough to drop anyone. When the dust cleared only one prime and the Amp Suit were left. Also the Shard Beacon was destroyed.
The game ended on Turn 5 with my two Soulless killing the Prime and three Ra'gha squads finally taking down the Amp Suit.
The lesson I learned from this battle was that you *must* have superior numbers when fighting the Shard, and that you can't lock-up a Concussor squad piece-meal (as I did in the previous battle) or you'll get your skinny a$$ shot off.
Regards..."
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