It has been far too long since I've even gotten to play a game let alone write a Battle Report but last weekend I finally managed to get a game of Alpha Strike in against Lorcan Nagle and give some of my new and expanding Snow Raven unit a field test, we chose 3145 for the era as we both had shiny things we wanted to try out, him more so as he had just finished work on the Kurita Lance Pack for that era.
Ryoken-Ni, House Kurita.
Hatamoto-Suna
Shiro
Hitotsume-Kozo
Rokurokubi
Avatar
Warhammer
Wolverine
Jenner
(C3 Linked)
Grasshopper
Firestarter Omni
Panther
Hitman
Alacorn
Alacorn
Ontos (Light Gauss)
Ontos (Light Gauss)
Regulator
Regulator
Pegasus-X
Pegasus-X
Kage Squads x4
100th Raven Battle Cluster, Raven Alliance.
Heavy Star
Loki-G
Cauldron Born-E
Cauldron Born-E
Fenris-H
Fenris-H
Capture Team
Thor-AA
Thor-AA
Black Hawk-E
Black Hawk-I
Black Hawk-S
Flanker Star
Ryoken-H
Ryoken-E
Ryoken-E
Dark Crow-2
Dark Crow-2
Elemental Points x5
The Board
As you can see from the photos we had a rather cool Lava Field table that the shop built for a base and the rivers were ruled as Liquid Magma so that limited movement a bit, due to the massive amount of C3 and other bonuses the Dracs had we decided not to use the Battlefield Intelligence rules though we did use the Unit specific rules from FM:3145 as they transferred quite easily. The Dracs got a +1 To-Hit bonus any time an entire Lance fired ont eh same unit while the Ravens rolled and received a Satellite in orbit with Look-Down Radar for +1 Initiative.
The opening round didn't have a hell of a lot of action was we came on, the bulk of the Ryoken-Ni took up position on their Right Flank opposite the Ravens Left Flank which gave them options to advance on that flank or through the centre though the fact that much of the Mech contingent lacked Jump Jets meant they would have to rely on the bridges. On the opposite side the hovertanks moved in for a sweeping sting but were a bit short on support. The Raven Heavy Star took position among the ruined buildings to deny their Left Flank while the Flanker Star and Capture Team with attached Elementals spread out in the middle and Right Flank. Scattered fire on both flanks managed to connect with one of the Dark Crows which given their thin armour wasn't good but the return fire left one Pegasus naked, while on the opposite side of the battlefield one of the Cauldron Born's manages to do the same to the C3 Lances Jenner
Turn 2 things get nasty on the flank with the hover tanks with the 2 Pegasi getting behind one of the Ryokens and their partner Regulators in front the combined fire taking the mech down to only 1 Structure point and inflicting a Weapon Crit. Meanwhile one of the Thor's in the centre gets shot at by nearly everything opposite it, the Shiro and Rokurokubi connecting and stripping all the armour away and tapping the structure causing a Fire Control crit in the process. Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield the C3 Lance tries to take out both Fenris mechs but only the Jenner connects for 2 points of damage to one mech.
Fortunately for the Kuritans the Dice Gods were favourable this turn as almost the entire Snow Raven force proved incapable of rolling above a 7 and needing 8's for most to-hit numbers, one Regulator was damaged and stripped of armour and a Thor managed to damage the Shiro for a couple of points, the only good news for the Ravens was the Jenner dying at the hands of one of the 2nd Fenris.
Turn 3 I decided to retreat my mangled Ryoken off the board as he only had 1 structure point left, unfortunately this time it was the turn of one of the Thor's to get pounded with fire from the Pegasi, Rokurokubi and Hitman but the kill shot was scored by the Panther, unfortunately a shot from one of the Pegasi also took out the Point of Battle Armour it was carrying before it could do anything. Next up the Warhammer, Avatar, Shiro and Wolverine all targeted one of the Cauldron Born's covering the Raven's left flank and despite it being behind cover and at medium range with its movement modifier every single volley hit and instantly killed the previously undamaged mech.
Fortunately it didn't all go the Kuritans way as the Raven right flank had more success with one of the Black Hawks getting the kill shot on the Hitotsume-Kozo while a Ryoken managed to drop the Rokurokubi while another took out the Hitman leaving the main defence of that side of the board to the Regulators and Pegasi, two of the remaining Black Hawks managed to intimidate the Regulators into pulling back but things were still not looking good. On the other flank the lose of a Cauldron Born made it important to try and take out some of the Kuritan heavy Tanks as they were proving far to deadly, unfortunately though 4 mechs managed hits all they did was strip armour, not a single Motive Crit on any of the vehicles.
Turn 4 and the Ravens won Initiative again, the one thing that had been going their way was the fact that they had won the Initiative every round, sometimes by the extra +1 provided by the satellite. This gave them the opportunity to box in the Pegasi at the back of the Raven deployment zone in an attempt to finish them off, despite the short ranges they were still able to claim their movement mods and so only 1 was killed, their return fire takes out the remaining Dark Crow. On the left flank the Loki also bought it when the Alacorns managed to score full hits on 10's and another pristine mech died, only managing to inflict a Fire Control hit on one Alacorn, in the centre the Kuritas Firestarter goes down to fire from multiple scources.
By Turn 5 we were running out of time but the conclusion was obvious, a last minute realignment of the Raven line saw the Heavy Star falling back and repositioning itself to join up with what was left in the centre while the remaining Black Hawks of the Capture Team tried to push forward and flank the Kuritans. Both fired on the Shiro but failed to do significant damage while the response dropped one Black Hawk. The Elemental point that had suvived the lose of its parent Thor managed to bring down the Panther and the timely appearance of the remaining Cauldron Born took out the Grasshopper but it was obvious the Kuritans were going to carry the day despite the heavy casualties. With only a single Fenris undamaged out of the surviving Ravens and over half their mechs gone the rest retreated.
Aftermath
On consideration I think I deployed my Ravens slightly wrong, putting the Flanker Star on the right among the buildings would have been just as effective and would have left the Heavy Star in the middle where it could react better to changes, additionally I didn't deploy the Elementals early enough to block the Hovertanks which proved deadly. The lack of successful hits in Turn 2 was a real problem though, as can often happen in Alpha Strike one bad turn of poor rolls can often put you on the back foot and leave you hurting too much to have any real chance of victory.
