Hello fellow mechwarriors! I had the pleasure of hosting the Alpha Strike portion of the 2018 WWE scenario yesterday. Weather was actually on the cool side and drizzly which is a little odd for around here in September. Made for a good day to stay in and throw the dice. 8)
Myself and fellow forum members koalabirb, JamesPryde, and guest player Mwenski, took on the AS portion of the 2018 WWE. Part two of the Green Ghosts vs the Marik Protectors and the Stotzing Militia. We followed the force building guidelines, so the Protectors came in at 70% of the Ghosts deployed PV. Mwenski and myself took on the Protectors, while koalabirb and JamesPryde ran the Green Ghosts.
Deployment
Per the scenario, the Protectors forces were divided in half (roughly, kept lances together) and deployed on the north and south sides of the board. The Green Ghosts came in on the east side, making a run for their dropship on the west side. While the Protectors deployed their full force on Turn 1, the Ghosts only deployed half, with their remaining formations deploying one per turn until all were on the board. Protectors started with three mech lances and two vehicle lances. Ghosts started with two vehicle lances (mostly VTOLs), two mech lances, one Clan star, and one Word of Blake level II. Pictures of the game are attached. (We had the right minis for most of the force. A few proxies in the mech forces. All the VTOLs were proxies, so if you see an aerospace fighter, it's a VTOL ;) )
Combat
Our strategy as the Protectors was to hang back and throw out as much long range damage as we could. We had the lower skills. The Ghosts were higher in skill, but could throw way more damage around at medium and short range than we could. Getting in close was not a good idea. Plus, the points we could score were simply based on how many units we killed/lost. Our objective was not about stopping the entire force from getting to the dropship, but just getting as much revenge as possible. >:D
Things went the Protectors way right off the bat, at least as far as the dice were concerned. One lance of Green Ghosts VTOLs were taken out promptly on the first turn by Mwenski and his direct fire group, even with the VTOLs' TMM of 4. Turn 2 went much the same way. This time my group (made up of mostly IF units) was able to get on some action. Took down the Ghosts Warhawk with a barrage of indirect LRM fire from two LRM Carriers and two Longbows.
Turn 3 the Ghosts got scarred and turtled in the trees for a bit, waiting for the remainder of their forces to deploy. We continued to fire on any units we could get LOS on. Sadly, by the end of turn 3, it was clear that at least one Green Ghosts unit would make it to their dropship. Turns 3 through 6, a lone J.Edgar managed to evade the fire of our Awesome, Stalker, two Schreks, Tarantula, and Spider! :o And in the process, get back shots in on the Awesome and the Spider before it finally boarded the dropship. Nothing like getting shot in the back by a mosquito. :D
Turn 4 is where things started to change a bit. The Ghosts started to press forward as the last of their units came on board, still using the woods for cover. This is also the point where our awesome dice rolling started to go away. We never went cold, but the success of the first three turns was gone (must have been the pizza). We were able to finish a couple more units off, but now the damage was starting to come back. And the ranges were shortening, so what damage did hit was at medium range and far more deadly. My Awesome was hit for 9 damage from their Dire Wolf S. Ow! :'(
Turns 5 and 6 went much the same. We took a few more units out, but were really starting to get hit hard and lost more of our own. Unfortunately, this is where we ran out of time and had to call it quits.
Had we more time, it would have been a close game I think on the points. The Ghosts were at the point they could rush one of our positions and likely get by, but they would take some more losses in the process. Where we stopped, we had nearly double the points of what the Ghosts had.
All in all it was a very fun game, and a good scenario to boot. My biggest critique is that no stats were given for the Green Ghosts dropship. It was on the board and in play, but with no stats, and no AS card, we used it as an objective marker and no more. Would have been nice to have the AS card for it.
I would like to say thank you to everyone for playing, and an extra thank you to Mwenski for driving down to join us. Thank you for bringing the dropship!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Valkerie
