The Commander Series Forum

Well I thought I should write up a report about the other non-buggy FWC game on Monday.

Dave and I decided we wanted to up the ante a little so went with a 2500 vs 2500 Encounter game with no restrictions on massive units.
I brought my new shiney Orbital Combine army, and Dave, the yellow terror of his Space Marines. The terrain was basically a ruined town surrounded by low hills with a few wooded areas thrown in for good measure,

Both our forces were fairly small, Dave was mostly infantry, but with some smart missiles, terminators and *gulp* a Titan (the Reaver sized one)
I had a Valgaross super-heavy, 4 Jagon medium tanks and a smattering of elite infantry with IFVs

Starting behind a hill I moved up to the crestline, opposite me I could see some infantry and a smart missile tank running down the hill toward the town, as one unit, the four Jagon’s turrets answered the request from the CO’s AI and aligned as 1, secondary weapons causing some hits on the lead infantry unit. We had a few problems with unit selection and Dave realised his smart missile vehicle wasn’t able to fire indirectly, so it moved up to the crest line, firing at the lead Jagon. There was a bright flash of light as the marine missiles expended their warheads on the tanks shields. With incredible precision, the turrets re-aligned and rapid fire pulses of plasma ripped the launcher to shreds…

Unfortunately, the AI controlling the OC forces was beginning to fail, someone had decided to rip out the Unix Server it was running on and replace it with an Celeron PC running Windows95…. and services were beginning to fail.

As communications started to fail and the distributed targeting systems started going offline, the OC forces finally saw the Titan on the other side of the town, every unit fired ripping the Titans shields to pieces (we made a mistake here too, I was firing plasma which should have taken them down even more easily) and ripping into the thick armour causing serious damage. As the glare from the multiple firings faded, so did the targeting screens on each tank, local systems and manual sighting systems engaging.. tactical computers went dark and communications ceased with their wingmates.
(it was at this point, that I failed my command roll (a 10!) three turns in a row, then had 1 turn where I succeeded once, then another failed turn! All in all for command throwing on subsequent turns 11,11,11,7,11,11)!!!!!!!

The battle at this point became a bit of a turkey shoot, the OC unable to coordinate fired during initiative only, unless they raised their rapidly diminishing shields. 1 by 1 the Jagon’s submitted to the massive fire from the titan, Dave learned quickly as he moved his infantry into range, to take down my shields with his marines, and use the titan to finish them off..

To add insult to injury in the middle of this catastrophe, 2 squads of terminators teleported to the rear of 1 IFV, the infantry debussing, but with no support the elite Drazzar got wiped out.. before the OC could respond, they teleported out again (did I mention how much I now hate terminators!!)
Shortly after this, the remaining jagons had their shields wiped and the termies jumped right in, assaulting the unprepared tankers…

When I had managed to succeed a command roll, I pulled the remaining infantry back behind the hill, and the Valgaross (which was a bit out of position) up to the crest line with LOS to the Titan..
Over the next turn or two, the mighty panzer took fire from the Reaver, shields depleting, then recharging during initiative until finally I succeeded a command roll. Given the hammering and back luck I was receiving I’d decided not to be a gentleman, I hadn’t reminded Dave to re-raise the shield on his titan, and the Valgaross opened up, ripping away at the titan. I failed command again, but luckily the marine CO was too close and the huge ball of plasma engulfing the Reaver suppressed them, giving me one more chance… which is all I needed, fire poured into the titan finally finishing it

Unfortunately I had to rush off at this point. A clear win for the Marines, there was no way I could winkle the marines out of the city with a huge anti-armour unit and a handful of infantry, not to mention those flipping terminators were still sitting on the other side of the city jeering at me….

The tac screens on the mighty Valgaross finally flickered back to life as it withdrew to the backside of the hill to join up with the infantry… at HQ an enterprising staff officer had shot the PC AI server with a heavy needler and replaced it with a Raspberry Pi, the battered battlegroup raised shields and roared off to a prepared defensive position in the next valley…

So as I can remember

Debrief on OC forces.
This was the first time I used the lovely OC miniatures from PlasmaBlast and I used the list on the FWC download page. I normally play contemporary armies so OC as advanced was a treat. The tanks are super tough, the 4S save is brutal for your opponent, but they are vulnerable to infantry (although in groups, the secondary 2/60* is useful). I used 4 Jagons, which are medium tanks (still 250 points though!) and I was very impressed by them despite the intensely useless command throws (?I have to play again, as this really wasn’t a test of how good they are) . The Valgaross is simply awesome, it doesn’t seem to be the fire magnet of a massive, but can dish out good damage with a whopping 6S save, so its very unlikely to get it knocked out in 1 go. The Drazzar elite infantry (which is what I used) are pretty much the equivalent of a standard space marine, and the IFVs are pretty good especially since they can carry 2 units of infantry. I haven’t used the other forces yet, but I like this army, the breakpoint is terrible (I had a 4 with 2500 points!!) and the CV of 10 would normally be excellent (as long as its not yours truly playing). I think this most definitely an anti-armour force, and the addition of lots of plasma weapons is good, I can’t wait to take on the Krayts and have them finally fight someone their own age ?

I don’t usually fight against Marines, and boy are they tough, almost impossible to supress and just plain competent. They are a little weak in AT, esp against advanced panzers, but the titan made up for this.

Well hope you enjoy my first battle report, I have a few pics, but have to transfer them from the Camera.

Dave if you have anything to add, please do. Given the rolling I had it was probably the most frustrating game of FWC I’ve ever played (even more that the last one against dave where I threw 3 command blunders (almost in a row!)), taking out the titan at the end eased the pain a bit but sitting there watching my lovely tanks taken apart 1 turn at a time was hell. I should’ve taken another HQ in retrospect, but with such expensive troops and a CO with a CV of 10 I thought I would be ok.. clearly not, although I think having such bad luck with command is not at all typical

Graham

Enjoyable report

It was a good(ish) game - I felt for Graham, as he was unable to anything vaguely resembling tactical manouver due to his attrocious dice rolling.

This was the first time I'd used Power Marines (aka Terminators) and an Avenger (aka Reaver) titan. The termies are fun - we weren't sure whether the CO or the units themselves needed LOS to the teleport point, so just went with 'as long as the CO (direct or via a recce) or the teleporting units can see the target' for purposes of teleporting.

Due to both of us have big units, it ended up being a bit of a slug-fest, but that's half the fun .

One question I had was what happens to command units that get affected by secondary plasma; i.e. they are within 5cm of a unit that gets hit by a plasma weapon? Are they supressed on 4+ like everybody else, or on 6? We went with 4+, as there was nothing specific in the rules about it.

The OC list is a tough one - loads of shielded armour and (usually) excellent command units.

I need to get my Big Mama's (aka Land Raiders) finished so I have a bit more long range AT capability. One thing I forgot was that the Avenger rocket launcher is a template weapon - may have made taken down shields a bit easier. Also, I was rolling to hit Graham's armour or 6s for direct fire, as they were on a hill and have adaptive camo, but we realised (discussed with Steve P) that it should have 5+, as Adaptive Camo only works in open terrain - never mind...

what happens to command units that get affected by secondary plasma?

Good point, I'd say suppressed on sixes

I've fought Bren's OC a couple of times now and as you say, the shields are the real bitch. You can't get into assault if the shields are up, and my shooting at the moment is like Graham's command.
However when they fight the Khazari (twice now) there is the issue of only secondary weapons, and v the Krays. well you know the outcome if the Aryx is flying

Excellent news Paul

Earlier today my cheek stung from the resounding slap of a challenge laid squarly at the wbbed feet of my Krays

It'd be rude not to accept it

Thanks for posting the report and washup posts chaps; very entertaining reading indeed. I look forward to seeing some pics.

As Paul points out, O.C's primary weapons (on armour) are all hard attack (#) so fielding little or no armour against them will handycap them from the start. I've also been on the recieving end of the Aryx, ; O.C secondry weapons are all AA capable but with less dice and range so just remember to keep that bad boy at long range, Steve.

A couple of questions:

The Valgaross. I have one but I never finished painting it, let alone using it in a game. Do you use the list stats or have you tweaked them? The list gives its secondry weapon as hard attack (#), as is the primary, so it has no ability at all to damage Infantry, Transport or L.Vs, hence my reluctance to use it.

Adaptive camo, Dave? eh ..... O.C don't usually have it. . Have you added it to the vehicles as an option?

No idea - Graham said they had it....

Never trust Xenos filth

All in all for command throwing on subsequent turns 11,11,11,7,11,11)!!!!!!!


Remember it's 2d6 not 5d6

Though I've had some games like that too.

They wouldn't even be good D&D stats

That's terrible, am surprised you did so well