The legionnaires are far from home, and facing impossible odds to play each turn in a reasonable amount of time ~

Michael Eckenfels, 30 August 2017

AAR: PART 4 (TURN 3)

It should be noted that I forgot about a stunned Irdan unit in the south; here is an updated map for your perusal.

When we last left off, the Irdan hordes were advancing slowly but surely on Outpost Gamma. Let’s get back into the action without further ado!

(1) ENERGY STORM PHASE

More storms?

Why, yes please! 🙁

Let’s add a new storm in Entry Area 1. Thanks, alien planet!

——————-

Now, let’s roll to see the storm’s direction and magnitude…

That’s a “NE-2” result, meaning it travels northeast and is 2 hexes wide.

The problem is, this applies to ALL storms on the board – the intensity and direction of movement. So that 1-hex ‘baby’ storm to the south turns into a 2-hex monster immediately.

And then, both of them move to the northeast, four hexes each.

That kind of sucks. Now we have a super-storm basically smack dab in the middle of our Outpost, and some of the horde to the north has excellent cover.

Remember, storms prevent all units from firing into, through, or from any storm hex (except where a Commander uses Optic Sighting). Legionnaire units defend in close combat at half their normal strength, with fractions rounded up. Movement costs also double for them, in storm hexes. However, disruption fire is unaffected.

(2) DISRUPTION FIRE PHASE

Both Legionnaire Heavy Weapon dudes (Bob48 and SDR) may fire up to 10 hexes away, while other Legionnaires may only use Disruption fire on adjacent hexes. Since there’s no Irdans adjacent (yet), the two Heavy Weapons guys get to fire.

There is no roll, only Disruption.

SDR unloads on the two closest Irdan units.

Bob48 doesn’t have many choices. The Irdan at the storm’s edge nearest to him, is too far for MetalDog to provide an Optic Sight bonus (must be six hexes or less in range). So, he takes out one of the groups closest to their lines.

(3) IRDAN MOVEMENT PHASE

Twenty more Irdan units may move onto the map – ten from the north and ten from the south. I’m guessing the Irdans are still withholding their ranged units, for the time being anyway, and are continuing to pour in the melee units.

I’m not going to draw movement arrows; this is the result of the Irdan movement, including the ten new Irdan horde units.

In the south, we’re facing what seems heavier odds. Ten more Irdan horde units join the fray.

As you can see from both pics, there are Irdan units now adjacent to some Imperial units…

(4) IRDAN COMBAT PHASE

Now, we see if those two Horde units adjacent to our Imperials manage to do anything.

In both cases, this is a little premature for the Irdan to be attempting, but they COULD get lucky. With an Attack Strength of 3 versus a total Defense Strength of 6, makes for a differential of -3. The -1 for the Improved Position applies only to the combat die roll.

So, there’s literally no chance of the Irdan harming these Imperials. We’d use the furthest column to the left, -3 or less, which shows the Irdans would need a 7 or higher on a d6. Since they’d have a -1 to the die roll, that’s impossible; no matter what the result would be ‘No Effect.’

While ineffective, the psychological effect of the Irdans already at their doorstep won’t help. And it won’t take long, I don’t think, before the Irdans are swarming each position.

(5) IRDAN STUN RECOVERY PHASE

Irdans stunned on the previous turn (i.e., not THIS turn) have their status removed. The images here might be a little confusing – I may have shown an image out of sequence, but rest assured the status as it stands now is correct.

(6) IMPERIAL MOVEMENT PHASE

Nope!

(7) IMPERIAL COMBAT PHASE

Yup!

But, I need to make some choices.

The main issue at hand is, how lucky do I feel? Do I want to try to absolutely murderize some Irdan units, or take a chance and spread the attack around, at a risk of not causing significant damage? We need to start mowing Irdans down, and quickly. I’ll probably go for the overkill.

Let’s get back to the Mirth-on-Barthheart action (err. I mean, Mirth and Barthheart-on-Aliens action…wait, that doesn’t sound much better…). Since they’re adjacent, they’re going to need to conduct a Close Combat action. With a total of 12, subtracting the Irdan unit’s Defense of 4, the differential is an 8. There’s no bonus for conducting this in Clear terrain, and there’s no point in rolling as a 1-6 will be a K result. We got some KIA Irdans.

Now to Gusington and Metaldog…they do Close Combat too, with a differential of 6.

Same deal here, too. A 1-6 die roll, with no modifier, is a Kill result. Buh-bye!

Next, SDR is going to fire on this stack of Irdans. He unleashes his Heavy Weapon, with a differential of 2.

That’s a Kill result on two Irdan units!

Staggerwing can’t target most of the Irdan units here, as they’re just below the lip of the Rise terrain. But, he can try to hit one of them that’s within his range of 6 hexes…

That’s another Kill result.

DoctorQuest is now targeting this unit…

That’s a Stunned result.

Good ‘ol Brant now opens fire on a stack of Irdans…guess he’s feeling lucky, here. That’s a differential of -2.

That’s a miss. With a -2 differential, one needs a 6 or higher to get just a Stunned result; there’s no chance of a kill. But he had to try so he didn’t feel like he wasn’t contributing.

(ed note: he was too distracted recording GrogCasts)

BBMike opens up, with a differential of 2…

That’s a Stunned result. Better than nothing, right?

Bob48, whom has been in the Legion since before there was a Legion (they were just known as ‘Leg’ back then), opens up on the Irdans that just crawled their way to the top of the mesa. With a 6 differential, that’s going to end badly for the Irdans…

And a roll of ‘1’ is still a Kill result!

(8) REMOVE DISRUPTION MARKERS and IMPERIAL LEGIONNAIRE STUN RECOVERY PHASE

The Irdans get a few units shaking their heads to clear the cobwebs from the Disruption fire earlier.

(10) END OF GAME TURN

And that’s the end of Turn 3. Not sure if I mentioned it before, but the game ends after the end of the 12th turn. The Irdans are coming on fast, but with 1/4 of the game done I have to wonder if they’ll be able to pry the Legionnaires out of their defenses.

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