TURN 1:
The Stealth formation teleported into the large black building, and the annoying no 1's teleport roll can be seen in the picture below labelled 'some dice'...
...it was, however, almost the last good luck Ryan was to have.
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Not in any particular order, as I'm going from memory...
STRATEGY ROLL : Marines!
The Marines began the game by trying to put the Thunderbolts on CAP... after two 1's, it was the Tau turn.
Barracudas go on CAP.
Devestators Double forwards and lob some shots at the Broadsides on Overwatch. Only the Vindicator hits, and the Broadside suit passes its save.
Crisis Formation Doubles into the tower building and lobs some long range shots at the Devestators (no kills).
Hammerhead formation Doubles forwards to lob some shots at the Whirlwinds, laying just one hit which is saved.
Warhound Titans Double over to the wood-from-which-all-the-trees-have-fallen-off, and shoot the Stealth formation, killing 4 units and breaking them.
Whirlwinds attempt to retain and fail, Marshalling off their BM.
Recon formation Doubles forwards to spread out around the black building, lighting up the Warhounds. They lay a BM on the Devestator formation.
Tactical formation Doubles forwards to occupy the three bunkers, and kill a single Tetra.
Fire Warriors 1 Double forwards and lay some BM's on the Tactical formation (some hits, no kills).
Land Speeders Double to lay a BM on Fire Warriors 2 (actually killing one!)
Fire Warriors 2 attempts to Marshall, fails, and rallies off its BMs.
I had been intending to send in my Thunderhawk now against the Fire Warriors, but without any BM's on the enemy formation I was wary of doing that. Instead I sent it in against the Crisis Formation in the tower.
And I did it in a stupidly brave/foolhardy manner. Like,
really stupid.
Two Skyray shots hit the Thunderhawk as it comes it, which are saved.
The Barracudas bounce onto the Thunderhawk, laying two hits, both of which are saved.
The Thunderhawk then lands in the centre of a triangle between the tower, the large black building, and the Broadside Suits.
The infantry disembark, all charging the Crisis units in the tower.
The Broadside suits unleash their Overwatch, and my Thunderhawk is Markerlit and in Crossfire from the Recon formation that is now clustered around the Black Building.
Broadsides score 3 AT hits, of which I save 2, and 3 AP hits, of which I save 1. Two Assault units are killed.
The Assault formations then roll to attack, killing a single Crisis Suit unit.
The Crisis Suits get no kills in return.
The Broadside suits score no kills from their supporting fire.
The Land Speeders nearby score 3 MWFF hits, and wipe out the remaining 3 Crisis units.
The Broadsides take a BM for supporting a losing engagement.
Assault formation 1 has two units remaining and breaks (It had been shot at, been hit in a crossfire, and lost two units)
Assault formation 2 occupies the tower.
Thunderhawk remains where it is, damaged and with 3 BMs on it.
As an air assault is treated as one formation until the end of the assault action, we applied one BM to the whole formation for coming under fire from the Broadsides (they targetted both the thunderhawk and Assault 1) and also only one BM for claiming a crossfire kill.
As both the Assault and the Thunderhawk formations were in crossfire, we played that I was allowed to choose which formation took the BM for taking a crossfire casualty. Is this correct, or should both Assault 1 and the Thunderhawk have taken a BM for being hit in a Crossfire, after the engagement was resolved?
I think it should have been the latter.
Anyways, if the latter, then the Thunderhawk should have broken at this point as it was on the ground, and popped out of existence at this point. It scored no further kills this game and so it was effectively had popped out of existence anyway. ÂÂ
The Initiative 2+ Crisis formation (which was to be a focus for playtesting in this session) was therefore destroyed without recieving any real testing at all. ÂÂ
SC Crisis formation Doubles out wide, laying some shots on the Tactical formation for no damage.
Predators Double forwards, put the Hammerheads near the Bunkers in crossfire (using the Tactical formation in the bunkers) and kill 4 Hammerheads, the remainder retreats, broken.
AX-1-0's enter the board, and using the Markerlights from Recon 2, place two TK hits on the Warhounds.
Ryan then exclaims 'Awwww CENSORED!' as his TK (d3) hits both roll a three, meaning he strips the shields and a single DC from each Warhound, but fails to kill either, as the hits must be applied across the pair in this case.
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End of turn, the Thunderhawk disengages, the Barracudas disengage and receive a BM from AA shooting but take no hits. The AX-1-0's are hit once and make a saving throw, also disengaging.
The Ghostly Thunderhawk disengages.
Warhounds rally, raising a shield each and dropping down to 1 BM.
Stealths rally and stop being broken.
Devestators rally, removing all BMs.
Broadsides fail to rally.
Assault 1 rallies.
Recon 2 fails to rally.
thanks for the battle report E&C
