I haven't been writing battle reports like I used to. I want to start again, but also don't want to clutter up other threads. My brother feels the same way! So here is our battle report thread.
2016 Jingle Bell Bash - Bring two 350 point armies
My very first Heroscape event, happening a little over a month after I started playing. Like a scrub, between the two armies, I brought Major Q9, Raelin, Rats, Stingers.
Two brothers on the same team, battling against all comers. Heroscape doesn’t get any sweeter than that!
Our Army:
@The Dewk
Vulcanmech Incendiborgs, Fen Hydra (300 points)
@DewNoHarm
Thorgrimm the Viking Champion, 3 x Knights of Weston (drop 1 Knight) (290 points)
The basic idea was to use the knights to set a line and protect the Incendiborgs. Thorgrimm would serve as a wild card - buffing the borgs, protecting the front line, or even acting as a lone-wolf hitter. His spirit would then go on either the borg’s card or the Hydra’s card (if Thorgrimm fell). The Hydra was for mid-game mayhem or clean-up if needed.
Battle 1
Map = Kaltengeist
Opponents = @Sir Torin Brokenshield! and friend Colby.
Armies:
Sir Torin Brokenshield! = 4 x Horned Skull Brutes (300 Points)
Colby = 3 x Anubian Wolves, Khosumet the Dark Lord (300 Points)
Spoiler Alert!
I was worried when I saw the armies. Horned Skull Brutes have better stats than Knights. Anubian Wolves have equal defense, better move, and average at least the same offense as Knights. This seemed like a strong syergistic melee army that could control the board. The Dewk was not worried because he saw something about the map which favored our army … narrow choke points. This became a battle of positioning.
In the first round, I moved my knights into the choke points that were in the middle of the board and on our right hand side. The Dewk moved the mechs slowly to height and behind the choke point lines. Minor skirmishes happened at the choke points with both sides losing only one or two figures. Sir Torin moved a brute through the left-side choke point, which my knights had not quite managed to cut off. The Dewk made a key shot with one of the mechs from across the board, and managed to get that brute. This left the unguarded choke point clear.
In Round 2, the battle grew more heated. Thorgrimm managed to take the left choke point ahead of his knights and was assaulted by the brutes. He survived with strong defense rolls, though and didn’t take many wounds. Meanwhile, Colby had managed to park some wolves on the right hand choke point. Using "barge into battle", Sir Torin cut through the Knights and made an upward rush on the right hand mech. Meanwhile, The Dewk's mechs, who were on height, were firing off 3 attacks of 4 each Order Marker. This thinned out the ranks of brutes and wolves considerably, but the breach on the right hand side was still a problem.
In Round 3, Sir Torin managed to make a hit against the exposed mech before I got a couple of knights to seal the breach. The Dewk’s mech on the right side ended up having to take care of business and killed the brute that was adjacent to it. At the same time, my knights managed to take up a position on the left choke point with Thorgrimm and a major battle ensued there. Between Thorgrimm’s protective aura and the Mech’s height advantage, though, Round 3 ended with many wolves and brutes dead and only a few knights lost. Thorgrimm was finally dead, but his spirit lived on, appropriately, in the Soulborgs.
In Round 4, the knights and mechs started moving forward to press their advantage. Eventually we reached our opponent’s start zone. Although the brutes and the Anubians managed to get some hits in, by the end of Round 4, only Khosument and a brute or two were left. The battle ended shortly after.
Record = 1 - 0
Battle 2
Map = Grendel
Opponents = @BiggaBullfrog and friend Adam.
Armies:
Adam = Gladiatrons x1, Blastatrons x2, Warden 816, Isamu
Biggabullfrog = Major J15, Hoplitron x5, Guilty McCreech
Spoiler Alert!
This battle began with a … ahem … discussion over whether Adam’s blastatron’s homing device power could work with Biggabullfrog’s Hoplitrons/Major J15. As tournament director, The Dewk made a ruling that they could and we began.
While the last map favored us, this map disadvantaged us. On Grendel, you start low and have to make your way up to the center of the board. This would be fine except that the Knights of Weston and the Vulcanmechs only have 4 move.
Round 1 was mostly spent positioning by both sides. But by the end of Round 1 we were in trouble. My knights were locked down on lower positions by Gladiatrons (with Blastatrons on height and in range). Two of the Vulcanmechs were ahead of the knight front line (and one was adjacent to Major J15), and two hoplitrons controlled the center of the board.
Biggabullfrog and Adam executed their plan perfectly during Round 2 (and the term “executed” here has multiple meanings). Adam’s blastatrons eliminated around a squad and a half of my knights as I struggled to move them up the hill toward the blasts. Sure the knights took a couple of gladiatrons, but they lost far more than they gained. Further, Major J15 was able to take a redundancy marker from the mechs with every vicious swing of his scythe, while The Dewks mechs were only able to put 1 wound on him in return. The hoplitrons continued with their mayhem, mostly by trying to attack the Vulcanmechs. By the end of the round, one mech was gone, the knights were only beginning to gain any ground, and Biggabullfrog and Adam were looking like they were going to win the game easily.
Round 3 marked a turning point. The two remaining mechs (one of whom was attacking from height) was able to wear down J-15 and take him out. Further, the Knights took out the remaining glads and got to the middle of the board and took out one hoplitron. With their “homing beacons” mostly eliminated, the gladiatrons were much less potent. The Dewk did lose a second mech during this round.
Rounds 4 and 5 were a battle of two fronts. The Knights took the middle of the board trying to eliminate the blastatrons and hoplitrons there (with only moderate success). Biggabullfrog ably countered the knights by shoving them lower with the hoplitrons and attacking from height. Meanwhile, The Dewk assaulted a hill full of blastatrons with his hydra which came hungry and ate 3 in one order marker. At the end of Round 5, Biggabullfrog nailed the last Vulcanmech with a hoplitron.
The end of round 5 marked the end of time. Our team ended up with more points remaining (or if you prefer our team took more points than their team did). However, the point total was fairly close - especially since we lost 60 points when the last Vulcanmech fell at the end of Round 5. Fortunately our opponents did not really focus their attacks on Thorgrimm so he survived the battle and added to our point total.
Record = After many sighs of relief, 2 - 0
Battle 3
Map = Elswin Plateau
Opponents = @GinjaNinja and @Belzeblob (?)
Armies:
Ginjaninja = 2 x Roman Legionnaires, Me Burq Sa, Marcus Decimus Gallus, 2 x Chainfighters
Belzeblob = 3 x Aubrien Archers, Crixus
Spoiler Alert!
Elswin Plateau is one of my favorite maps. So many ways to approach the battle on it. The Dewk was worried about the Aubriens - if they frenzied often, the Vulcanmech’s would quickly fall.
In Round 1, I sent Thorgrimm up the ridge to try and take out the Aubriens who were trying to take height as well. The Knights went both up the ridge and across the plain toward the glyph area. Meanwhile, The Dewk sent one Mech up the ridge, while the other two took lesser height in front of the ruins to send shots down on the Legionnaires who easily captured the glyphs (including the defense glyph). Thorgrimm managed to snag an Aubrien and the Mech moving up the ridge also got rid of one so that Thorgrimm could carry on his merry way.
Essentially the battle devolved to a series of the two mechs shooting down at the Legionnaires (and the warlords) on the glyph area. The Knights on the plains tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to pry the Legionnaires from that area while also (mostly successfully) keeping the Romans from attacking the mechs. Meanwhile, Thorgrimm, a couple of knights, and the third mech maintained their position on the height ridge and attacked the Aubriens. A few knights were lost, but Thorgrimm had solid defense rolls and protected the Mech on height with his defense aura. The Aubriens did frenzy, and took all of the redundant system tokens, but were not able to take any mechs before they all fell.
After the Mech’s redundant systems were lost, Ginjaninja made a smooth move and put a Roman Legionnaire next to the Vulcanmechs by the ruins, taking out one. That Legionnaire was quickly dispatched, but it was a skillful move.
Eventually time ran out and we won again on points. Again, Thorgrimm survived adding to the point total. It was interesting to see which opponents would target him, and which would actively avoid targeting him.
This map was somewhat like the second map Grendel - starting out low and having to climb to the height in the middle. Seeing the armies, it was obvious that the Mechs would have to take on the Samurai from range (while the Knights held them back) and the Knights would engage the 10th Regiment.
Round 1, for our part was taken up climbing out of the lower areas and up to the middle area. I lost a couple of Knights to some enterprising 10th on height. Thorgrimm totally ditched the knights to hang out with the Mechs.
With our armies in position, Round 2 was a bit more fruitful. The mechs took out one of the Tagawa and a 10th, and the Knights took a few of the 10th (overall, the 10th rolled below average on defense throughout the game). The mechs lost a redundancy marker but they were on height and they were protected fairly well.
The next few rounds had the samurai attacking the knights guarding the hill on which the mechs were stationed, the 10th trying to get the mechs from range, and the mechs attempting to take out the Samurai. Because I didn’t activate the knights who were adjacent to the Samurai, I was able to move other knights around and take out members of the 10th regiments. Because the defense dice just weren’t falling for Trevon, the 10th fell pretty quickly. One highlight of these early rounds was a Tagawa samurai who had gotten adjacent to two mechs surviving both of their flamethrower attacks in one turn. But by the end of Round 3, the Tagawa Samurai were dead as were most of the 10th.
Round 4 consisted of the knights and one of the mechs trying to destroy James Murphy - who was very wiley and managed to take out a few of them. We also made a mistake and let James Murphy use his whip on one of the Mechs who got destroyed. The other mechs took out the Izumi Samurai, so Leaf_it began moving Kaemon Awa into position while also destroying knights.
For Round 5 we knew we had to contain Kaemon Awa who was on height and looking to avenge the rest of his army (he got a second mech and was looking pretty good). Thorgrimm engaged and attempted to take out KA, but had no luck. Kaemon made short work of Thorgrimm (whose spirit went on the Hydra). Meanwhile, the last two knights rushed (because they were on road tiles) to engage (but not attack) Kaemon Awa. Meanwhile the Dewk brought up the Hydra. Using the Hydra’s reach (which prevented counter strike), the Hydra got Kaemon Awa with one order marker (even if that’s still 4 attacks). The game was over.
Record = 4 - 0
Fun games all around.
Last edited by DewNoHarm; March 8th, 2018 at 01:07 PM.