The legionnaires are far from home, and facing impossible odds.  Still. ~

Michael Eckenfels, 26 July 2017

AAR: PART 3 (TURN 2)

Just a note – if the map or counters look different from this point forward, it’s because I’ve moved to another format. The VASSAL module is awesome for pure play-through, but when it comes to writing up an AAR and needing more finite control over the pieces, it’s not meeting my needs.

The differences are minute, and hopefully you’ll see it as an improvement for the purposes of this write-up. I encourage you, if you’re a fan of VASSAL, to go click on the link above and check it (and other DwarfStar products) out.

We’re one turn in and we’ve only managed to pop two of the Irdan Rebel units, but this should hopefully change as they come within range of more weapons.

Of course, that means THEY have a chance to hurt the Legionnaires, too…

Here’s the map at the start of Turn 2, reflecting the move I’ve made from the VASSAL module.

(1) ENERGY STORM PHASE

Rolling for the Storm Appearance Table…

…it turns up as a 2, which means one comes in at Entry Area 2 on the map.

Furthermore, I need to roll on the Storm Direction and Magnitude Table, to see how far into the map it goes as well as how intense it is. For that roll…

…a 3 means a result of “SE-1,” so the storm is of the 1-intensity variety, and it moves four hexes in a southeasterly direction from Entry Area 2.

That is Bad News (with a capital B-N) for the Legionnaires.

The storms always came out of the west and went eastwards – something about the planet’s magnetic field and core and the way they interacted. The Legionnaires didn’t care much about the science, just that the storms both made their fire ineffective and screwed up their suit’s systems. The Irdans would very likely be looking for a storm through which to attack the Legionnaires.

To clarify, no Legionnaire can fire into, through, or from a hex with a Storm over it – they can only participate in Close Combat. And the problem with Close Combat is, if it takes place in a hex with a Storm present, the Legionnaire unit(s) there have their attack and defense ratings halved.

The only exception is MetalDog (the commander) and his Optics. Since his power armor is equipped with high-resolution optical equipment, he can place up to two Optic Sight markers at the start of the Legionnaire Combat Phase. For a Storm, it has some limitations, namely, it can only be placed on a hex that is on the edge of a Storm, it cannot be placed more than six hexes from the Commander unit, and only the Commander and any Troopers stacked with him may fire on such a hex (of course, the Commander’s range for fire is only four hexes, so…).

(2) DISRUPTION FIRE PHASE

Heavy Weapon Troopers can perform Disruption Fire against any hex up to their range (10 hexes), while other Troopers can only perform this fire against an adjacent hex. Let’s do a couple since we can now.

SDR attempts a Disruption attack on a stack of two Irdan melee units. If the attack succeeds, it will affect all Irdans in the hex. These rolls are made on the ‘0’ column of the Combat Results Table.

And SDR rolls a…

…which results in a Stun on both of those units.

In the north, Bob48 performs his Disruption attack, but he doesn’t have a tempting stack to fire at up there, unfortunately.

Rolling, he gets a… 

…which is great, but it still only results in a Stun.

(3) IRDAN MOVEMENT PHASE

Here’s where the fun really begins, as twenty more Irdan units appear on the map, and the ones already there get to move.

Let’s look at the northern sector. First, the units on the map move…

…then, new ones appear. Up to 10 can come in during any Irdan Movement Phase…at least, they can, until they run out of units!

It’s getting a little crowded up there.

It’ll get that way in the south, too. Again, first the Irdan units on the board already move…

…and then the new units come in…

It’s hard to tell if any Shooter units are present, as all the units on top, both north and south, are Melee. The Irdans might be waiting on the “right moment” to move the Shooters in on the Legionnaire’s positions.

(4) IRDAN COMBAT PHASE

The Irdans are not yet adjacent to any Legionnaires, and they don’t shoot this turn, so I’m guessing there aren’t any on the map. Either that or they don’t have any within a range of 3 hexes (the Irdan Shooter’s limits). Who knows?

(5) IRDAN STUN RECOVERY PHASE

There are several Irdan units that shake off their punch-drunkenness and clamor to get back into the fray – specifically, two units in the north and three in the south.

Now things look decidedly more deadly, with more Irdan units on the map.

(6) IMPERIAL MOVEMENT PHASE

(Note, this is the “Imperial/MINER Movement Phase,” but I’m going to drop ‘miner’ since the Twargs don’t appear in this scenario.)

MetalDog heard the chatter over the comms as they dropped natives and more came closer to their bastions. He had to rein them in, because it sounded like more than one of them wanted to leave the protection of their fortifications and go after the Irdans directly!

We’re not moving this Phase; it would be silly to do that right now.

(7) IMPERIAL COMBAT PHASE

Now that the Imperials have more juicy targets to fire upon, this should get more interesting.

First, we go to the north.

SDR opens up on a stack, looking to engage them both. That’s a 10 attack, minus 8 for the total Irdan defense, getting a differential of 2. The roll is…

…a 5, earning SDR a kill.

Next, Mirth and Barthheart fire at the two closest Irdan units.

Both of their differentials are ‘2’ (6 attack minus 4 defense = 2 differential).

SDR’s heavy weapon barked from over their shoulders, and out of the corners of their eyes, they saw almost a dozen Irdans disappear in a flash of death. Both mirth and Barthheart were too busy to cheer, though, aiming at their own targets.

Mirth’s roll = 

Barthheart’s roll =  

Both are Stun results.

They watched as their targets dropped, rolling in misery, taking them out of commission for the near term.

Moving to BBMike, he targets the Irdan unit trying to flank them.

He rolls a  which is a big fat miss!

And last but not least, we have BayonetBrant opening fire on the unit behind the two that just got stunned.

He rolls a which stuns them, too.

The final results of the Imperial side’s firing, in the north. Two more dead Irdan units, and three stunned.

Now, to the southern part of our defenses. Things are decidedly more hairy here, as there’s slightly more Irdan units coming at the Legionnaires.

SDR fires on the far western Irdan stack of two units, rolling a 

…another bad roll. It stuns the Irdans, but doesn’t eliminate them.

Next, Staggerwing fires at the stack that’s just below the rise of the plateau. As such, he gets a -1 penalty for the fire, so he’s just going to target one of the Irdan units.

He rolls a …which is yet another stun result.

As his troopers fired, Irdans fell, but more seemed to appear out of nowhere to take up the charge. Their guttural growl, which sounded like a giant vat of rocks rubbing on each other, was unnerving. He raised his wrist-mounted blaster and took aim at a small group of Irdans that seemed to be looking right at him, with a thirst for Terran blood burning in their eyes…

MetalDog rolls a  …another stun result.

Gusington aims over the barricade with his energy rifle, targeting another close group of Irdans.

He rolls a  …so he must need a step stool, perhaps? He completely misses.

In hindsight, I might have done better to move DoctorQuest into either SDR’s or Staggerwing’s space, so that he could have fired. Lesson learned, and hope it doesn’t hurt for the Legionnaires later.

Here’s the map, with the effects of the Imperial Fire Phase: two destroyed Irdan units, and six more units stunned.

(8) REMOVE DISRUPTION MARKERS

I just realized I should have left the Disrupted markers on the board, but it’s easy enough to go back and see which Irdan units were stunned as a result of Disruption Fire. I fix those units and we’re ready for the next turn. Stay tuned for more alien-on-human action!

Chat about it below, or in our forums, or hit our FaceBook page >>