First contact with Shaltari (Dropzone Commander)

As you can guess from the tittle. I had my first game against shaltari yesterday. I have played against Shaltari in 1v1v1 games before, but facing them alone is somehthing new to me.

I wanted to play the game with my Pheonix air heavy list. I knew that it would be a bad decision as the Shaltari has the awesome Kukri AA and even the Shaltari Jaguar walkers have AA guns.

Pheonix air heavy
Clash: 1502/1500 points
Standard Army
    Standard Roster [1502/1500 pts]

        Field Command [490 pts]
            Phoenix: Phoenix(General) [330 pts]
            Falcon Squad: 4x Falcon [160 pts]
        Armored Formation [276 pts]
            Katana Squad: 3x Katana [111 pts]
            Ferrum: Ferrum [165 pts]
        Legionnaire Corps [246 pts]
            Rapier Squad: 3x Rapier, Condor [166 pts]
            Legionnaires: 2x Legionnaires, Raven A [80 pts]
        Legionnaire Corps [160 pts]
            Legionnaires: 2x Legionnaires, Raven A [80 pts]
            Legionnaires: 2x Legionnaires, Raven A [80 pts]
        Expeditionary Group [196 pts]
            Wolverine Squad: 4x Wolverine A [72 pts]
            Praetorians: 2x Praetorians, Raven A [124 pts]
        Air Wing [134 pts]
            Archangel Squad: Archangel [67 pts]
            Archangel Squad: Archangel [67 pts]

The game was agains Jamo and his list is below:

Shaltari
Clash: 1507/1500 points
Standard Army
    Standard Roster [1507/1500 pts]

        Gate Group [253 pts]
            Haven: Haven [20 pts]
            Haven: Haven [20 pts]
            Haven: Haven [20 pts]
            Spirit Gates: Spirit [43 pts]
            Eden Gates: Eden [50 pts]
            Eden Gates: Eden [50 pts]
            Eden Gates: Eden [50 pts]
        Court of Elders [241 pts]
            Coyote: Coyote(Shaman) [145 pts]
            Firstborns: 2x Firstborns [96 pts]
        Warrior Clan [275 pts]
            Braves: 2x Braves [70 pts]
            Braves: 2x Braves [70 pts]
            Kukri Squad: 3x Kukri [135 pts]
        Warrior Clan [70 pts]
            Braves: 2x Braves [70 pts]
        Warfist [245 pts]
            Caiman Squad: Caiman [110 pts]
            Kukri Squad: 3x Kukri [135 pts]
        Warfist [315 pts]
            Jaguar Squad: 2x Jaguar [220 pts]
            Ocelot Squad: Ocelot [95 pts]
        Arrowhead [108 pts]
            Warspear Squad: Warspear [108 pts]



(Some of the units above might be listed into incorrect battlegroups, as i have no idea how the Shaltari does battlegroups.)


I wanted to make good use of the UCM Command cards and tought that i would want to have the inniative instead of giving it to hte Shaltari, i took a Pheonix with lvl 5 commander. The Pheonix was paired with a squad of 4 Falcons, for as they say in Orbital Bombardment blog. Together the Pheonix and Falcons are just "Horrible Bastards". This is indeed true.

Rest of the list is pretty standard. Two Archangels so i could benefit from the Ace in the making cards. I had a decent run with these but nothing spectacular as the Shaltari AA blanket was far too good.

Mission (6x4 Board)

The scenario was Targets of opportunity, which has 7 objectives in three difrent waves. 2 objectives at each palyers table side an 3 in the midle line, all in buildings. You can see the placement from the second picture down. All units started in Readiness and Fast movers in reserve. Neither Jamo or me got FM:s to the game on first turn.

The battlefied

Objective placement (Red dots)

Turn 1 and 2

I started out pretty strong getting my two squads of legionaires into the objective buildings in my table side. I Also got the light dropships wit legionaires next to the midle objective building and the far right objective building in the middle line, ready to occupy next turn.

My Pheonix and Falcons came in to the board from my right table side and started to pound the objective building in the far right, at Jamos table side. I got it down to 4 damage points with Pheonix, Falcons and Katanas firing at it. I had hoped that Jamo would have gone in to the building with some infantry before i started the demolition works, but he didnt. Now it was far too dangerous to go in to the building so i had secured one objective from Jamo.

Jamo got into the other building with objective at his table side. He also moved gates next to the middle building. The objective in my side on the left also started to take some hits from the Ocelot and Caiman which arrived via ground to the battle. Also two squad of Kukris materialised from the gates in Jamos side.

On turn two i made a huge mistake. I didnt activate my Preatorians and occupied the middle building with first activation. Instead the Shaltari got into the middle building first. I retaliated with Ferrum drones and took down the small gate which was used to get into the middle building. After this a squad of Kukri showed up and gunned down 7 of the 8 drones. This luckily left me one to give command range to the middle building for me to play cards to the Preatorians.

I tried to search with my both of me legionaire squads in my own table side, but neither found objective. Shaltari didnt find objective at their table side either. For turn two me and Jamo had got all our FM:s to play. I made a pass with both at a gate in Jamos side, one was aided by Ace in the making and got in some hits but they were saved by Shaltari cheese... i mean Shaltari shields...

 

Jaguars materialised into the middle of the board, ready to take on my Katanas and Rapiers in my side. Ocelot and Caiman gunned down the objective building in my table left side, taking my legionaires with it.

One objective building gone from my side.

Turn 3 and 4

Preatorians and Firstborns fought it out in the middle building. Braves had lost one to falling masonry. Preatorians got 5 hits in but all were saved by those darned shields... I lost 5 Preatorians, but i played a card to negate one failed morale test.

Took a beating with the Preatorians

Shaltari had a far to good AA coverage with 2 squad of Kukris and the Jaguars for me to do anything with my air units.

Shaltari AA Blanket

Turn Four the Ocelot one shotted a 10 damge point house. My Ferrum crew were going trough the field manuals like never before, searching for the part talking about "Ferrum out of cover", which only said "Have fun in the afterlife".

I had some time to lauch some new drones before the Ferrum would be gunned down, so i headed to the left objective in the midle line where shaltari got infantry into the objective building. The midle building were also reinforced by Braves to free up the Firstborns with the objective. I found objectives in the middle right buildings in the middle line and my side. I got these both out. My Preatorians whoopped the Braves, but couldnt do anything to prevent the Firstborns from leaving.

Shaltari Found the objective in their table side and got it into the gate which allmost managed to fly out of the table. I sent my Archangels after it. I lost one angel but whith the fire from both i got the gate down. The objective was now on the groung, but an infantry gate picked it up. I had antisipated this and moved my Falcons into position next turn to counter this. They came in 12" and fire at the infantry gate. They took fierce reaction fire, but only one went down. I killed the gate.


Turn 5 and 6

I flew back and behind the objective house with 4DP:s left and went to the deck. I lost one Falcon to this and were down to last 2. Shaltari infatry gate materialised on top the same objective that i prevented from leaving last turn.  Jaguars and Caiman shot at my Katanas killing some and taking 2 DP:s in return with one Jaguar.

It was now time to send the Falcons to earn their bread again. They came in 12" and faced same reaction fire again. I didnt lose any Falcons and they fired their shots. One hit the infantry gate. I rolled to damage but didnt sucseed. I sent one remaining Archangel to kill the same gate, but i was gunned down before it could fire.

Now the whole game hung on the objective and the middle line left side building. shaltari were inside and had found the objective. They had lost one from the six braves. I fired with the Phenix doing 10DP:s to house. 6 Falling masonry and the Braves went down. The game was now tied at 2-2.

We played of and the Shaltari cleaned the table from allmost all of my units. The game ended with Shaltari winning with kill points.


All in all, another great game. The Shaltari seems to be a tough nut to crack with my UCM. I just dont know how to face them. I need to get my new units painted and then start working on a anti-Shaltari plan.


Feel free to comment and if you like my Dropzone stuff, Subscribe! I try to do reports every time i can. Also i have been thinking about starting a small serie to talk about difrent factions and their units and what i think about them. I am by no means no guru in this game, and we might do things a little diffrent in our meta. For starters that we allwas paly on a 6x4 board.

-Nojis

UCM Heavy Hazard Suits. WIP (Dropzone Commander)

I have made some progress on the modelling front. I made some bases for my new Heavy Harzard Suits. The bases are still WIP. I need to get some fine aquarium sand for the open areas and to hide the metal under the suits. I must say that i really like the models for hte Hazard suits.

Here are some pictures. Tell me what you think?

Ace in the making... Not really. (Dropzone Commander)

One more Dropzone game for this year. Hurray!

I played against Herkko and his Scourge again. The mission was Search. Game was played on a 6x4 board which you can see below. As the table is so big, we decided to test how a deployment area of 24" in each direction would work. All units comming from Readiness

Lists were roughly something like this:

UCM
Kodiak CM5
Ferrum
Preatorians / Raven
Sabres
Longbows  / Ravens
Katanas
Rapiers / Condor
2x3 Legionaires / Bears / Condor
1x2 Legionaires / Raven
3 Falcons
2 Archangels

Scourge
Opressor CM3
2x Hunters / Marauders
Reavers / Marauder
Squad of crab AA things / In the huge fish looking transport with AA upgrade
2x2 Destroyers / Intruders
2x3 Warriors / Invaders / Marauder
Minders / Intruder
2x Reaver gunships
1x Corsairer

First turn The Scourge started strong as the Opressor aka Crab Daddy found and objective. This ment that he had to pass it to someone as Herkko didnt want to be without command cards for the second turn also. A squad of hunters in marauder were tasked to this.

Scourge infantry also deployed into buildings here and there, looking for the objectives. Couple of possible objective on the ground were checked by reapers and hunters but found nothing.

Scourge swooping in.

UCM mostly took positions by deploying into buildings and tanks getting into possition to fight the Scourge next turn. Longbows also deployed into good position to smoke or fire into the middle board if needed.

Herkko placed his reaver gunships into an akward position and one of my Archangels shot one down with the aid of Ace in the making card.

Kodiak did its thing and set up shop dialing the orbital satellite.

Turn two. My preatorians found an objective and flew it out of the table. Katanas and Rapiers drove forward cheking couple possible objectives. One of the Squad with Bears and Condor also found an objective. This left me in a difficult situation as one squad needed to go forward and the other backwards out of the table. I got a little greedy and chose to move the squad forward towards the table center with the condor giving the squad and its bear some extra movement. This also left it Exactly in the midle of the board, in the middle of a four way intersection with the Scourge hunters swooping in.... Oops... The bear got destroyed but two bases of legionaires survived.

The other squad decided to stay in the building where they found the objective from. I tought that their Condor would be able to return and pick them up with the bear next turn and get out later. The condor were shot down at the same time as the other bear got shot to molten metal by happy hunter palsma.

My Archangels also tried to swoop in for the kill here and there... but they missed. I think my Archangel pilots actually are commercial airline pilots, as they always just fly a straight line in and out from the battlefield missing with their guns.

Herkko measuring a move towards the middle building.

Herkko also sent a squad of Destroyers into the middle building. We were both pretty sure that there was an objective there as the table was running empty with places for objectives. Herkko got into the building with the destroyers. This ment that i had to demolish it as my only real fighting force the preatorians were out of the game having a cup of coffee as a reward for the objective. Even if they would have been able to get into the building, i prodably would have lost agains the destroyers. I fired a good number of shots into the building and got it down to 18/20 damage points.

Next turn i won inniative and used the katanas to demo the middle building taking the Destroyers with it. The building indeed had an objective.

Archangels did a flyby taking pictures of the pretty battlefield and their brothers in arms getting shot by plasma...

Another possible objective for the Scourge

Middle building after getting demoed.

This point there were only a few possible points for the objectives. One in the middle right of the board and a little toward my table side from there. The Crab Daddy started to push towards them taking on my Rapiers an Katanas. I shot 2 dp:s into it with the Katanas. Losing some of them.

I decided to concentrate on the Crab Daddy and shot it with my Kodiak, Katanas an Ferrum drones. I took it down. What i learned from this was that the Opressor is really not that tough against the Drones, aided by the Kodiak.

The middle right side, just after the opressor was killed.

The game was comming to the end. Without not much happening. I got the second objective out with the Bear. Herkko tried to prevent this by sending his Corsair. It missed and was shot down by Ferrum reaction fire! Yay!

The game ended me with 4 points and Herkko with 2. So a victory for the mankind!


Onto other things. Our order from Asylum wargames arrived today (Thanks Steve!) This will really shake our local meta around! Tough we only have 3 players, but still.

Next week we tought about doing a skenario of our own and starting our campaing. It wont be a normal kind of campaing of linked battles, but more of a story driven and with completely unequal armies even in some battles. We dont really know how that works with Dropzone but we will see. I will also blog abaut these games so stay tuned!

Also i promise that for the next game i will remember to bring my camera as the photos with the phone are crappy!

Bye!

-Nojis