Saturday, January 23, 2016

Battle Report - Dindrenzi vs Aquan

Recently, my son acquired a Dindrenzi core helix to go with his Works Raptor. This was our first game with them. His core and recon helix versus my Aquan core and Terquai recon helix. It was a very close game but in the end I was able to wrestle a minor victory from him.

True to his forces, my sons approach was direct and overwhelming. His primary objective was to recover a crashed Works Raptor escape pod. The Aquan forces in the area were in possession of the pod but looking to recover the local computer/sensor equipment possessed by the Dindrenzi. There was also a secondary objective to acquire a small supply depot for both sides.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures. My tablet doesn't appear to have been in focus for some of the pictures.

Aquan Forces
Core Helix
1 x Sedna Heavy Skimmer
3 x Lamana Medium Skimmers
4 x Imzani Light Recon Skimmers
1 x Khitari Strike Shoal
1 x Stinger Missile Battery

Terquai Recon Helix
1 x Iophon Heavy Gunship
2 x Temporal Portals
2 x Nabis Heavy Infantry Cadres

Dindrenzi Forces
Core Helix
1 x Kratos Heavy Battle Tank
3 x Eris Medium Battle Tanks
5 x Leto Light Tanks
2 x Damocles Mk 2 Sky Pods
2 x Nyx Infantry Cadres

Works Raptor Recon Helix
3 x GX-74 Heavy Interceptors
5 x LR-6 Recon Tanks

Aquan/Terquai Forces Deployed
Deployment of the Dindrenzi - The LR-6 Recon Tanks move to acquire the secondary objective.
Lamana's move and open fire on the Dindrenzi Medium Tanks damaging one of the tanks.
A lot happened between pictures here. Both Sky pods were deployed. The First Nyx Cadre took the bunker, the second advanced toward pod both opened fire on the Imzani inflicting heavy casualties, destroying three. The Iophon relocated to zero in skydrop marker and opened fire on the bunker destroying a Nyx fireteam. The temporal portal materializes and out from it spills a Nabis Cadre who open fire on the Nyx on the field destroying two fire team with minimal losses. 

The GX-74 Interceptors advance and open fire on the Iophon. Its shields unable to stop the torrent of fire fail and the gunships goes down in flames. A major loss for the Aquans this early in the battle.
The Sedna opens fire on the Kratos causing some damage.

Khitari Strike shoal attempt to storm the bunker and dislodge the defending Nyx Cadre.

The Khitari are repulsed from the building losing three fire teams while on destroying one of the Nyx fireteams. The Kratos Opens fire on the Sedna causing some damage. A stinger missile battery is dropped from orbit and opens fire on the GX-74 interceptors causing no damage.

Turn two - The Aquans win initiative and reposition the Lamanas to open fire on the Kratos causing further damage.

The Kratos and Eris tanks pound the Sedna. Finally it explodes leaving the Aquans without any heavy units. Elsewhere the Nyx in the bunker destroy the lone Imzani. The Nyx Cadre in the field is destroyed in a firefight with the Nabis Cadre.

I unfortunately didn't take anymore pictures after this point that are worth anything. The Kratos was brought down with some extremely lucky rolls from my Khitari Strike Shoal remnants. We had set a lower zero hour score for our game and the game hinged on my stinger missile battery to win as I was down one point still.  With an amazing roll the stinger missile destroyed the lone Circe giving me two points and wrestling a minor victory from my son.

In reflection the Aquans would have likely performed better if I had tried to stay to the edges and picked at his forces as opposed to holding the line. The Nabis Squads really did an awesome job at this and both squads were still alive at the end of the game. My son played well with his Dindrenzi and without two extremely luckly rolls at the end of turn 2 would have beaten my Aquans. Looking forward to our next game!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Planetfall Assault Helixes/Helices incoming!

Assault Helix renders have been found on the Spartan Games forums. I must say that they all look amazing. I am particularly excited to pick up the Relthoza and Dindrenzi sets!

http://community.spartangames.co.uk/index.php?/topic/17045-new-assault-helixes-are-inbound/?p=304260

The two walkers are very cool and reminiscent of the Firepower Leviathan. Personally I like the new stinger missile equipped hover tanks.
I love this helix from what I can see of the renders. The pair of walkers look fantastic as do the assault hover tanks. I am hoping that the walkers have a rule similar to the RSN Assault Helix robot for their blades.
This helix is also fantastics looking. I think these might be the coolest looking walkers. It appears that both the walkers and tanks have flame weapons though the walkers appear to have additional arm mounted weapons.
I may actually be more excited to add this helix to my forces than the dindrenzi! The new demi-leviathan looks absolutely amazing. I am also really liking the light assault walkers. Very much looking forward to acquiring this helix and seeing their statistics.
The larger walkers are amazing looking. I like the curled power fist in particular. It looks like a giant robotic version of the sorylian heavy infantry. The smaller assault walkers look similar to the medium or scout walker with new weapons.
All I can think of when looking at these renders is battletech/mechwarrior. From the renders I am guessing that both of these walkers are using heritage and/or legacy laser weapons with lots of pinpoint. The larger mechs also appear to have a secondary weapon, maybe a grenade launcher.
Overall, this release has some amazing new models and may perhaps be my favorite release from an aesthetic standpoint so far. Hopefully we will not have to wait long for the release!

Just realized that these are up for pre-order on Spartan Games website. If ordered before Monday the 25th they will come with racial specific objective tokens. A very cool deal!

https://shop.spartangames.co.uk/SearchResults.asp?Cat=2099

Hope everyone enjoys the update. I must say I am extremely excited to see these new models in person!