Artemis Fang hero solo
Coalition Weaver solo
Hunter solo x2
Combat Engineer
Ranger Fire Team squad
Dusk Wolf light warjack (Railgun, Battle Rifle, Ripper Saw, Scout cortex)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Railgun, Railgun, Battle Rifle, Battle Rifle, Ace cortex)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Talon Rocket Pod, Talon Rocket Pod, Flamethrower, Flamethrower, Bomber cortex)
Karas had to run some proxies this game:
Justicar Voss hero solo (proxied by Jax Redblade)
Paladin Weaver solo (proxied by a Terrasaur Carnidon)
Paladin Commander solo (proxied by Artemis Fang)
Paladin Seigebreaker solo x2
Paladin Enforcers squad (proxied with G.U.A.R.D. Exo-Armours)
Palading Defenders squad
Firebrand light warjack (Assault Rifle & Bayonet, Sun Piercer, Recon Cortex)
Morningstar heavy warjack (Gate Crasher, Starburst Missiles, Assault Shield, Assault Shield)
Pre-Game:
We played Skirmish and ended up rolling the same scenario as last time. I won the roll and chose to go first. I placed the resilient Ace Strike Raptor close to the central objective, and a Hunter close to my objective. Karas mirrored my deployment with his Morningstar and Weaver.
Pulse 1.1
I put an Arc on the Strike Raptor. My plan was to fight for the central objective with my most powerful model, and meanwhile push towards his objective with my Hunter and later reinforcements; I figured I didn't need to grab my objective yet because it would be easy to grab before the end of the turn, so I advanced my Hunter and Ace Raptor agressively. The Ace, having a 20" range, was able to put a couple of Railgun shots into the Morningstar, but whiffed his attacks. I placed a gate with 4 Arc near the Hunter.
The Morningstar advanced and placed a gate, out of which Karas deployed the Firebrand and Seigebreaker. He also placed a gate by his Weaver.
Pulse 1.2
I cleared my activated tokens and gave the Ace Raptor his second Arc, then played a Cypher to boost his speed and give him Flight. Now at 2 Arc, he flew up to the central objective and gunned down the Seigebreaker, scoring a point. The Hunter advanced and took a shot at the Morningstar, doing nothing. I collapsed my gate to summon the Bomber Strike Raptor on my far left. I placed a second gate with 3 Arc in my deployment zone behind my Ace Raptor.
Using Repulsor from a Cypher, the Firebrand pushed my Ace Raptor off the central objective and scored it himself. Karas deployed Voss and a Seigebreaker from his gate.
Pulse 1.3
I gave the Ace Raptor his third Arc at last. My plan had been to push my Bomber Raptor aggressively at the far objective, but at this point I realised I was not going to be able to score my own objective unless I pulled him back, as I didn't have any other model that could activate and make it to the objective. So unfortunately that's pretty much all I was able to do in the activation phase. I used up the arc on my gate to summon my Weaver and Fire Team, then placed a new gate near my Hunter.
The Seigebreaker advanced and knocked an Arc off my gate. The Morningstar pushed up to my Ace Raptor and took a couple of swings with his shields. It also put down a gate, out of which popped the Defender squad. I believe it also killed a Fire Team grunt and put a wound on my Weaver. At the end of the turn we were at 2 points each.
Pulse 2.1
I gave the Bomber Raptor his first Arc. The Hunter resumed his long march towards the distant objective. I activated the Ace Raptor and put as much damage as I could into the Morningstar, but the extra armour from the two shields kept him alive. Using a Cypher card, I was at least able to inflict the System Failure effect (we used the wrong token in the photos), shutting down his shooting. I collapsed my Gate to summon my Dusk Wolf and Engineer.
The Palading Defenders, with the help of a buff from a Cypher card, were able to finish off my Ace Raptor. The Seigebreaker took down my Dusk Wolf.
Pulse 2.2
I gave the Bomber Raptor a second Arc, then set the Firebrand on fire (ha ha) with a Fury. The Engineer walked back to my objective to score it, and also tuned up the Bomber Raptor. Which then moved up and took down the Seigebreaker. Finally I put down a gate.
The Morningstar moved towards my models on my left, putting down a gate from which emerged two Seigebreakers. Hidden by the building on the far left, Voss killed my Hunter.
Pulse 2.3
I put a third Arc on the Bomber Raptor. He spiked for speed and Flight, enabling him to move up and get line of sight on Karas' hidden models. He hit Voss with a Talon rocket, who spiked to ignore damage and teleport away. Thanks to the Bomber cortex, the Raptor was able to move up to the far objective. He then finished off the Weaver, the gate, and the Morningstar, allowing me to score. I advanced my Weaver, and used a Cypher to reposition my Fire Team towards the central objective, and put down a gate next to my Weaver.
The Seigebreakers took my Ace Raptor down to one wound. Karas put down a gate near Voss. At the end of the turn we both had 6 points.
Pulse 3.1
I considered activating the Ace Raptor, which would ensure that it would get to activate before dying and allow me to score, but I was worried about Voss pushing my Bomber Raptor off the table again, so I used a Cypher I'd been holding for a while to clear the Bomber Raptor's activation token, allowing it to shuffle to a safer position. My Combat Engineer then walked up and repaired two wounds on the Ace Raptor. I used the same fury again to set a Seigebreaker on fire, and pulled my Dusk Wolf and a Hunter out of the gate. Finally I placed a gate in front of my objective just to block access.
The Palading Defenders put some damage onto my Dusk Wolf and a Seigebreaker went back to wailing on my Duskwolf. The Paladins scored the central objective.
Pulse 3.2
I put an Arc on the Ace Raptor. I used a Cypher to double the Fire Team's output, and took down the Firebrand. The Hunter moved to my left and whiffed a shot. I summoned a second Hunter next to my objective.
The Palading Defenders and a Seigebreaker killed my Weaver, Dusk Wolf, and a Fire Team grunt. The other Seigebreaker killed my fresh Hunter and knocked some Arc off my gate. Karas recalled the Seigebreaker on the right and placed a gate next to my objective.
Pulse 3.3
I gave an Arc to the Ace Raptor, who spiked for Flight and flew next to my objective. He killed the Seigebreaker but couldn't clear the gate so he couldn't score.
Using a Cypher for a speed buff, Voss walked around the left side of the building on my far left and used Repulsor to push my Bomber Raptor off the far objective, allowing him to score. The game ended with me at 9 points and Karas at 12, for an ISA victory.
Post-Mortem:
We really need to play more often so we can get the rules down properly. I think we mixed up pulse rounds and turns the whole game, so we might not have resolved continuous effect properly. I do feel I'm starting to understand the turn sequence better, as well as what I suppose you could call the "gameplay priorities": where to use Arc, holding on to useful Cyphers and cycling through the useless ones as quickly as possible, keeping enough models on the table, etc.
Well, I say that, but at the end of the day I mainly just used Arc to charge and summon Strike Raptors. In fact most of my meaningful activations were Strike Raptor activations. When you can only activate a unit and a solo each round, why not activate the unit that can make 4 attacks with up to 3 extra Power Dice? And when you're allocating Arc, why not allocate it to the model where a point of Arc buffs 4 attacks per activation, as well as buffing the model's survivability? It's simply the most efficient use of the resource. Obviously efficiency isn't everything, it's just an easy answer is all.
Anyway, in the future I'll try to make better use of the rest of my army and not crutch on the Strike Raptor so hard. I was too complacent when it came to scoring my near objective, and that cost me-I actually didn't score it at the end of the game, hence my loss. And had I pushed the Bomber Raptor up earlier rather than needing to pull it back to score my near objective, I probably could have scored the far objective earlier, gaining an additional 2 points. You live and you learn right?
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