SENTIENT RABBITS GAMING SOCIETY: 1 Point Armageddon Battle Report
Call it what you will, a clash of titans, the oldest of the younger races holding their own against the most ancient of the old ones, or just a plain old scrap, we decided on Tuesday night to have a 1-point Armageddon battle with two traditional foes, the righteous Minbari versus the insidious Shadows.
Firstly the stage is set, the Shadows player...me!
Admiral: Hash
Race: Shadows
Priority/FAP: Armageddon/1
Selection: Shadows Ship (Armageddon)
Admiral's Introduction:
I've played with Shadows at several tournaments but I'd probably never take this selection competitively. I selected the Shadows Ship, mainly because I have such a cool model to represent an ancient Shadow Ship. Realistically it is likely to be much more effective to use two War level ships (Hunter) or even 1 War and 3 Raid (Hunter + 3 Scouts), I reckon that it will still be a fun game however and to be honest the Hunter model just doesn't compare in grace to the custom modified Shadow Ship pictured below...
You'll have to ask Reaverman where the inspiration came to build this Cthulhu-esque monstrosity (he gave it to me as a birthday present - thanks mate!!!) but it serves as a superb model for use as a Shadow vessel. Sadly my fighter complement does not match the colour scheme but I'll be working on that in the next couple of weeks before Q-Con...
My tactics will have to rely on outmanoeuvring the enemy and hoping to get in on vulnerable arcs, not easy on the Minbari! I'm a bit concerned with regards to the Minbari stealth ability, as I have no scouts and just one real weapon it seems I will be reliant on single die rolls to determine whether I get an attack or not each turn - still, assuming my opponent doesn't swarm my fighters and ships with Nials, their ability to get in close may be able to do some limited damage to a ship or two before being shot down. I can only hope my opponent hasn't got too many ships and we get some scenery for my Ship to manoeuvre around...
Now for the (self?) righteous Minbari...
Admiral: Burger
Race: Minbari
Priority/FAP: Armageddon/1
Selection: Sharlin (War), Veshatan (Battle), Veshatan (Battle)
Admiral's Introduction:
What can I say about Burger - a vociferous presence on the boards, he's well known for his number-crunching abilities leading to well through out stratagems, but can he turn all of that theory into success on the battlefield? His tourney record shows his preference for ISA and also League (Drazi/Vree) bases swarm fleets but at this priority level he's elected for Minbari.
He commented briefly that he'd probably prefer to take two Leshaths as opposed to a second Veshatan if this was more competitive but he's limited himself to 3 ships to enable a quicker game. The Sharlin is a superb War level choice with Stealth 5 and an impressive Neutron Laser on the Forward and Rear arcs as well as long range secondary weaponry and Nials and the Veshatan, while not as hard hitting as other Minbari battle options, has a rare quality of durability that other Minbari ships can often lack. Burger indicated that he was "make what happened to that Morden dude a walk in the park compared to what I'm going to do you n00B!" And I thought this was going to be a friendly game...
DEPLOYMENT:
The scenario was randomly determined as "A Call to Arms" (1 - 3 ACTA, 4 - 5 SS, 6 A) so no scenery or hyperspace jumping...bang goes my strategy of hiding behind asteroids but them's the breaks! I won the initiative (Shadows +6, surprise!) and elected for the Burger (Minbari) to set up first...which he did, tightly packed in the right most corner of the table.
I followed be setting up as far away from his as I could on the other corner...if only there was a rock for me to hide behind!
TURN 1: A Chance Encounter
Pretty uneventful turn really, Burger moved steadily but cautiously forward with his Veshatan trying to narrow down any avenue of escape for the Shadow ship...
...while the Shadow Ship seems to turn and run!
To be honest I was try to commit him to turn a few ships in my direction while remaining out of as much fire as possible. In the firing phase, every Minbari ship is out of range, much to my relief, while I take the opportunity to launch my Shadow fighters. There seems to be little advantage in using the tubes to launch the fighters in the midst of the Minbari fleet to be cut down by mini-beams so I leave them close to the ship, clutching to its tentacles...
Turn 2: A Walk in the Park
The action starts to heat up as I try to commit Burger's forces to chasing me into the side of the board...while he piles on the pressure with Neutron Lasers. I take a pot-shot at the Sharlin but fail to penetrate Stealth...could have really used a Scout about now but Burger seems a bit negligent with the fighter defences and I see an opportunity to cause some damage...if I could only get a bit closer...
Turn 3: Turn about is fair play..
Time to finally bring the fight to the Minbari - they've been steadily wearing down the hull of the Shadow Ship but it's been holding so far. My revenge comes as I finally make Stealth roll and cripple one of the Veshatan, crucially taking out its forward firing arc. Burger seems intimidated by the Shadow Ship and neglects the fighters which penetrate the Sharlin's stealth and cause some minor damage...his firing in return is substantive take more than 1/2 the hits of the Shadow Ship! I'm going to need some really, really big bandages
Turn 4: Round and round we go...
It's been painful getting here but now that I am in the midst of the Minbari fleet I try to move around outside of the terrible Neutron Laser arcs. The strategy seems to be working but a failed Stealth rolls means I fail to make a dent in the Minbari side this time round.
Turn 5: Now you see it, now you don't!
Look at that smug Sharlin sitting in it's oh so superior Stealth technology...
Ha! One firing round later the Sharlin is dead courtesy of the Molecular Slicer Beam thingy (technical term) and all is well again, the Shadow Ship is looking on it's last legs but one Veshatan has lost engines and weapons and one clear shot on the other could bring victory to the Shadows! Sadly my fighters have now been moped up by Nials but things are still looking fairly even.
Turn 6: Up close and personal.
Doh! Failing initiative I decide to get in close to the crippled Veshatan knowing that it cannot move and the Nials are starting to nip on my heels. My plan is to blow up the crippled ship and hopefully take out the Nials in the explosion. Burger points out that if I can hit the other Veshatan, and kill it, then I will likely win the game however. Tempted, I take a pot shot...and fail to see through Stealth! Darn his Minbari hide!!! (Or should that be bone crest?)
Turn 7-8: Do or die!
With one Veshatan crippled and the other fully operational, I have a lot to do if I want to win but...sadly fail to make Stealth more than once. The hit I manage to get back is excellent taking out the other Veshatan port and starboard arcs and accomplishing over 40 damage but is sadly not enough to kill it in one blow and the accumulated fire of Neutron lasers and Nials finished off the Shadow monstrosity once and for all. Still just one more attack on my side could have swung things radically in the other direction so I'm not too upset...
AFTERMATH:
Hash: It went ok even though I did lose, I enjoyed myself immensely, reminding me how much fun the game is to actually play rather than moan about stuff on these forums. It reminded me of the time when I only consulted the forums for advice on rules interpretation rather than anything else! Anyway, I did miss a few stealth rolls but then I really did handicap myself a little with my lack of scouts even with the Ancient ability giving a bonus to stealth rolls. I did get a few lucky criticals, especially against on of the Veshatan early in the game so I guess that made up for my bad luck with stealth. Burger didn't roll that well on hits either which could have made the game very different. I was greatly impressed by how much the fighters accomplished but this was mainly due to Burger's laziness to kill them off and lack of Nials in his selection in my opinion.
Burger: Victory was mine! It was close and certainly a fairly even match, relying on a few key rolls to make the difference. Again two Leshaths would have been better that the second Veshatan but other than that I think this is a fairly solid Minbari fleet selection that could be taken competitively in 1pt Armageddon tourneys. Importantly the game didn't drag on too long as it does with swarm fleets and there was less record keeping with less ships so it was all good. Roll on Q-Con!
NEXT TIME:
We're planning on another game tonight and maybe some on Saturday (all busy for us Sentient Rabbits) but I may not have enough time to write 'em all up! I'm sure the other guys will want to write up a battle report or two though so look forward to seeing some more in the near future...
Hash - Sentient Rabbits Gaming Society
Call it what you will, a clash of titans, the oldest of the younger races holding their own against the most ancient of the old ones, or just a plain old scrap, we decided on Tuesday night to have a 1-point Armageddon battle with two traditional foes, the righteous Minbari versus the insidious Shadows.
Firstly the stage is set, the Shadows player...me!
Admiral: Hash
Race: Shadows
Priority/FAP: Armageddon/1
Selection: Shadows Ship (Armageddon)
Admiral's Introduction:
I've played with Shadows at several tournaments but I'd probably never take this selection competitively. I selected the Shadows Ship, mainly because I have such a cool model to represent an ancient Shadow Ship. Realistically it is likely to be much more effective to use two War level ships (Hunter) or even 1 War and 3 Raid (Hunter + 3 Scouts), I reckon that it will still be a fun game however and to be honest the Hunter model just doesn't compare in grace to the custom modified Shadow Ship pictured below...
You'll have to ask Reaverman where the inspiration came to build this Cthulhu-esque monstrosity (he gave it to me as a birthday present - thanks mate!!!) but it serves as a superb model for use as a Shadow vessel. Sadly my fighter complement does not match the colour scheme but I'll be working on that in the next couple of weeks before Q-Con...
My tactics will have to rely on outmanoeuvring the enemy and hoping to get in on vulnerable arcs, not easy on the Minbari! I'm a bit concerned with regards to the Minbari stealth ability, as I have no scouts and just one real weapon it seems I will be reliant on single die rolls to determine whether I get an attack or not each turn - still, assuming my opponent doesn't swarm my fighters and ships with Nials, their ability to get in close may be able to do some limited damage to a ship or two before being shot down. I can only hope my opponent hasn't got too many ships and we get some scenery for my Ship to manoeuvre around...
Now for the (self?) righteous Minbari...
Admiral: Burger
Race: Minbari
Priority/FAP: Armageddon/1
Selection: Sharlin (War), Veshatan (Battle), Veshatan (Battle)
Admiral's Introduction:
What can I say about Burger - a vociferous presence on the boards, he's well known for his number-crunching abilities leading to well through out stratagems, but can he turn all of that theory into success on the battlefield? His tourney record shows his preference for ISA and also League (Drazi/Vree) bases swarm fleets but at this priority level he's elected for Minbari.
He commented briefly that he'd probably prefer to take two Leshaths as opposed to a second Veshatan if this was more competitive but he's limited himself to 3 ships to enable a quicker game. The Sharlin is a superb War level choice with Stealth 5 and an impressive Neutron Laser on the Forward and Rear arcs as well as long range secondary weaponry and Nials and the Veshatan, while not as hard hitting as other Minbari battle options, has a rare quality of durability that other Minbari ships can often lack. Burger indicated that he was "make what happened to that Morden dude a walk in the park compared to what I'm going to do you n00B!" And I thought this was going to be a friendly game...
DEPLOYMENT:
The scenario was randomly determined as "A Call to Arms" (1 - 3 ACTA, 4 - 5 SS, 6 A) so no scenery or hyperspace jumping...bang goes my strategy of hiding behind asteroids but them's the breaks! I won the initiative (Shadows +6, surprise!) and elected for the Burger (Minbari) to set up first...which he did, tightly packed in the right most corner of the table.
I followed be setting up as far away from his as I could on the other corner...if only there was a rock for me to hide behind!
TURN 1: A Chance Encounter
Pretty uneventful turn really, Burger moved steadily but cautiously forward with his Veshatan trying to narrow down any avenue of escape for the Shadow ship...
...while the Shadow Ship seems to turn and run!
To be honest I was try to commit him to turn a few ships in my direction while remaining out of as much fire as possible. In the firing phase, every Minbari ship is out of range, much to my relief, while I take the opportunity to launch my Shadow fighters. There seems to be little advantage in using the tubes to launch the fighters in the midst of the Minbari fleet to be cut down by mini-beams so I leave them close to the ship, clutching to its tentacles...
Turn 2: A Walk in the Park
The action starts to heat up as I try to commit Burger's forces to chasing me into the side of the board...while he piles on the pressure with Neutron Lasers. I take a pot-shot at the Sharlin but fail to penetrate Stealth...could have really used a Scout about now but Burger seems a bit negligent with the fighter defences and I see an opportunity to cause some damage...if I could only get a bit closer...
Turn 3: Turn about is fair play..
Time to finally bring the fight to the Minbari - they've been steadily wearing down the hull of the Shadow Ship but it's been holding so far. My revenge comes as I finally make Stealth roll and cripple one of the Veshatan, crucially taking out its forward firing arc. Burger seems intimidated by the Shadow Ship and neglects the fighters which penetrate the Sharlin's stealth and cause some minor damage...his firing in return is substantive take more than 1/2 the hits of the Shadow Ship! I'm going to need some really, really big bandages
Turn 4: Round and round we go...
It's been painful getting here but now that I am in the midst of the Minbari fleet I try to move around outside of the terrible Neutron Laser arcs. The strategy seems to be working but a failed Stealth rolls means I fail to make a dent in the Minbari side this time round.
Turn 5: Now you see it, now you don't!
Look at that smug Sharlin sitting in it's oh so superior Stealth technology...
Ha! One firing round later the Sharlin is dead courtesy of the Molecular Slicer Beam thingy (technical term) and all is well again, the Shadow Ship is looking on it's last legs but one Veshatan has lost engines and weapons and one clear shot on the other could bring victory to the Shadows! Sadly my fighters have now been moped up by Nials but things are still looking fairly even.
Turn 6: Up close and personal.
Doh! Failing initiative I decide to get in close to the crippled Veshatan knowing that it cannot move and the Nials are starting to nip on my heels. My plan is to blow up the crippled ship and hopefully take out the Nials in the explosion. Burger points out that if I can hit the other Veshatan, and kill it, then I will likely win the game however. Tempted, I take a pot shot...and fail to see through Stealth! Darn his Minbari hide!!! (Or should that be bone crest?)
Turn 7-8: Do or die!
With one Veshatan crippled and the other fully operational, I have a lot to do if I want to win but...sadly fail to make Stealth more than once. The hit I manage to get back is excellent taking out the other Veshatan port and starboard arcs and accomplishing over 40 damage but is sadly not enough to kill it in one blow and the accumulated fire of Neutron lasers and Nials finished off the Shadow monstrosity once and for all. Still just one more attack on my side could have swung things radically in the other direction so I'm not too upset...
AFTERMATH:
Hash: It went ok even though I did lose, I enjoyed myself immensely, reminding me how much fun the game is to actually play rather than moan about stuff on these forums
. It reminded me of the time when I only consulted the forums for advice on rules interpretation rather than anything else! Anyway, I did miss a few stealth rolls but then I really did handicap myself a little with my lack of scouts even with the Ancient ability giving a bonus to stealth rolls. I did get a few lucky criticals, especially against on of the Veshatan early in the game so I guess that made up for my bad luck with stealth. Burger didn't roll that well on hits either which could have made the game very different. I was greatly impressed by how much the fighters accomplished but this was mainly due to Burger's laziness to kill them off and lack of Nials in his selection in my opinion.Burger: Victory was mine! It was close and certainly a fairly even match, relying on a few key rolls to make the difference. Again two Leshaths would have been better that the second Veshatan but other than that I think this is a fairly solid Minbari fleet selection that could be taken competitively in 1pt Armageddon tourneys. Importantly the game didn't drag on too long as it does with swarm fleets and there was less record keeping with less ships so it was all good. Roll on Q-Con!
NEXT TIME:
We're planning on another game tonight and maybe some on Saturday (all busy for us Sentient Rabbits) but I may not have enough time to write 'em all up! I'm sure the other guys will want to write up a battle report or two though so look forward to seeing some more in the near future...
Hash - Sentient Rabbits Gaming Society
Serves as an excellent distinctive model for a Shadow Ship at armageddon level. Especially since it's been hinted that the Shadow Ship will have two variants with the younger one at War. We're hoping to build some ACTA enthusiasm with a few reports over the next couple of weeks prior to the 17th June Valhalla event @ Farnborough Wargamers Society, UK!
