First Encounter.
50pt Starter Forces - Karist Enclave vs Kaigus Pact
Signalling his troops into their assigned positions, Kaddar Prentis triggered his armor's na-cybel infusers. The Kaigus had been shadowing his patrol for a week now, never coming close enough to trigger a fight, but always there on the edge of scanner range. Their twisted mockery of the human form could not be allowed to pollute the coming Ascension. Here and now, the Karist patrol would punch through their lines, putting an end to the vile creatures and cutting off their avenue for reinforcement.
The Forces
The Kaigus Pact - Canto Mualii
Click for larger image.
The Karist Enclave - Guardians of Alsa Patrol
Click for larger image.
Deployment
Click for larger image.
The mission for this battle is Forward Unto Victory, with the Breakthrough Primary Objective. With only 50 points per side they used a 4'x4' board, and decided to ignore the mission's secondary objective (Demolition), allowing the game to remain focused with the small number of units on the board. Michael, playing the Kaigus Pact under the command of Curator Mualii, selected the DNA Harvest Faction Objective, while Iain, playing Kaddar Prentis' Karist Enclave patrol, selected Secret Cache. The Kaigus Pact are the attackers, and deployment is using the Broad Front map, which has diagonal deployment with 12" between the zones. During deployment, Iain put his unit of Karist Troopers in Cover, granting Michael an additional command point for the start of the game.
Turn One
The battle opened with the Vapor Thralls going On The Move and dashing forward into the middle of the table, their Concealing Vapor blocking line of sight from the Karist Troopers to the Kaigus Commander.
Diminutive Krii block line of sight across the battlefield with their clouds of vapor.
From their temporary roost under the antenna, the Minnows overflew the scuttling Krii, settling behind a barricade to their rear to Aim and blast the thralls with cybel energy, causing two injuries.
Minnows use their speed to get behind the advancing thralls.
Backing up the small Angels, the Trooper squad advanced through the ruins to take up position around the Secret Cache, their Aimed fire killing off one of the bases of Vapor Thralls and leaving the other injured.
Karist Troopers take control of the Secret Cache.
The Shatter Thralls dashed forwards towards the Karist lines, unable to get close enough to inflict any damage but going On The Move to make themselves harder to hit and hopefully forcing the Karist troops to go around, taking longer to get to their Breakthrough zone.
Shatter Thralls try to slow down the Karist advance.
Curator Mualii remained in place behind the pile of stasis coffins, taking cover and blasting at the Minnows with his Genostaff. The staff's Miasma killed off one of the angels, and left the rest of the brood Confused.
The Biologis Curator takes out a Minnow with his staff's Miasma.
To complete his activation, the Biologis summoned his namites, spending a command point to spawn a unit of Tamakin onto the battlefield.
Tamakin are built from trace elements by the Curator's namites.
Setting their targeting lenses on the Biologis Attendants, the Karist Assault Squad dashed forward into the antenna yard. The rain of wild fire from their Radwave Emitters and Pulse Carbines brought down one of the Biologis troops, leaving the unit with 2 suppression points.
The Assault Squad takes aim at the Biologis Attendants.
To the rear of the battlefield, The Kaddar Nova and his bodyguard Tempests moved up around the crates to take Aim at the Shatter Thralls. One base of the tiny thralls exploded, adding suppression to their attackers. The remaining base was left on suppression level 4 due to the Kaddar Nova's Shock ability.
The Kaddar Nova and Tempests pick on someone most definitely not their own size.
Talons clattering on the coarse asphalt, the Tamakin advanced towards the Troopers by the Cache. A rain of close range darts dropped on the of the Troopers, leaving the unit on suppression level 2.
Tamakin take down a Karist Trooper.
Meanwhile, the Attendants moved up to the hole in the antenna fence, opening fire on the Assault Squad. Their hail of darts and poison blasts were ineffectual against the Troopers' armor, just adding a suppression point and no damage.
With the first turn down, neither side had reached their Breakthrough zone, nor did they receive any points for their Faction Objectives. VPs remained tied on 0.
(We may have forgotten to grab a photo of the battlefield at the end of turn 1...)
Turn 2
Moving swiftly on to turn 2, Michael scored Priority and elected to go first, activating the remaining Shatter Thrall and charging the Tempests. Defensive fire from the Karist unit obliterated the tiny thralls (as expected!) and the resultant Concussive Blast from their destruction added another 2 suppression levels to the Kaddar and his companions.
Wary of the approaching Tamakin, the Karist Trooper unit Took Cover around the Cache while bringing their weapons to bear. 5 shots from the Radwave Emitter and a fusillade of Pulse Pistol shots downed two of the thralls. The Troopers finished their activation by successfully Shaking Off a point of suppression.
Karist Troopers get their own back against the Tamakin.
Winging their way behind the Biologis Attendant unit, the Minnows once more unleashed their Cybel Pulse blasts, but were unable to do any damage against the lanky warriors.
The Minnows add a suppression point to the Attendants but don't manage to hurt them.
Curator Mualii left the security of his coffin stack, taking up position behind the barrier so recently occupied by the Minnows. His staff blast splashed ineffectually off the Karist Troopers' armor, so he spent two command points to summon up another brood of Shatter Thralls.
More Thralls can only be a good thing...
The Shatter Thralls immediately charge the Troopers through a hail of badly aimed Defensive Fire before exploding. Of the 5 hits caused by the explosion, 3 were blocked by the cover of the ruin, and the Troopers' armor successfully protected against the remainder, but they gained another 4 suppression points due to the hits and the Thralls' Concussive Blast.
...until they get too close.
Pushing for the Breakthrough Zone, the Kaddar's unit went On The Move and Dashed forwards, but didn't quite make it to the deployment line. Taking the opportunity to snap off some Wild Fire at the nearby Attendant unit, some lucky critical hits from the Nova's gauntlet inflicted an injury and pushed the Attendants' suppression up 4 levels.
The Kaddar Nova heads for the score line.
Taking advantage of the Attendants' momentary distraction, the Karist Assault Squad charged through the hole in the fence. Defensive Fire from the Kaigus cut down one of the advancing Troopers, with the remaining four bringing pistols and swords to bear. The wounded Attendant was swiftly cut down, leaving the Proctat alone and on suppression level 6, although he passed his Willpower Test and remained in the fray. The Troopers managed to Shake Off a suppression point, back down to level 2.
Troopers get up close and personal.
Rather than throwing themselves against the entrenched Karist Troopers, the Tamakin unit Dashed for the Breakthrough line, Wild Fire from their Dart Hosts pinging off the Troopers' armor but causing 1 injury from suppression damage as the Troopers were already on level 6.
The Tamakin go around the entrenched Troopers.
Not wanting to leave the Secret Cache uncontested, however, the surviving Vapor Thralls moved in close to the Troopers, once more shrouded in Concealing Vapor and brining the second turn to a close.
Both sides had still failed to score from their Faction Objectives, but each had a scoring unit in their Breakthrough zone (Tamakin for the Kaigus Pact, Assault Squad for the Karists), and thanks to the small model count and both forces advancing so far, neither side had a unit remaining in their own deployment zone, meaning that both forces scored 10 VPs from the Breakthrough mission this turn.
The battlefield at the end of turn two. (Click for bigger)
Click to move on to Turn 3!
