CHOP! for Xilos – Scenario 3 – Exploration

Following quickly on playing scenario 2, I managed to convince a group of people to play the multi-player scenario 3!

Even though we only got through turn 2 over ~2.5 hours, the game went very smoothly. Everyone had a good time, very unlike massive GW games. I think the alternating activation, and quick activations (except for assaults) keep everyone mostly engaged at all times! I was also pretty militant about pulling the next dice – with 5 people and 46 dice in the bag (in turn 1) I needed to keep things moving!

This was also the first game of Antares for one of our most passionate game players. He’s the guy who owns mostly every game played in the club, but unusually he’s also the guy who runs tournaments for most every game played in the club. 😛

I took a ton of photos!

46 dice! We added another Distort dice in turn 2, as per the scenario special rules. We had some odd pulls – in both turns Dan received most of his dice before anyone else, and Clayton received most of his dice after anyone else!

Pretty much at the beginning of turn 1. We had the Freeborn allied with the Ghar, as Clayton’s Freeborn had been paid off by them to help hold Xilos, and also to give the new player an ally. We changed some of the other rules — we gave the non-Ghar players a 15″ deployment depth, and had the “Ghar” come on from the table edge on turn 1 since I wanted people playing right away and didn’t imagine we’d get to turn 3. 🙂 We told the “Ghar” players they couldn’t assault on the first turn as well, since assault is pretty brutal and they were pretty close.

I deployed my C3 in the closest corner of the table in the photo, Ryan deployed his Isorians to my left, and Pat deployed his Algoryn opposite me.

My corner of the board quickly became a quagmire, with the Algoryn opposite and some of the Builder Relics between us. Then the Freeborn and Ghar came on the table edge and started shooting things!

This was funny. The Ghar put on their Command Crawler, just the one unit, behind the Isorians battle lines. The Isorians spent both turns trying to make the Crawler go away, but just kept being completely unable to do anything about it. I believe that Ryan is looking forward to Isorians getting some heavier weapons.

The problem on my side didn’t dissipate. I moved forward and tried to “cross the streams” of the Batter shields of my T7 and the Algoryn Avenger? I don’t know what that thing is, all the Algoryn’s look alike. 😛 (a little casual fantasy racism for ya!)

While the Isorians were focused on the Command Crawler, these Ghar suits snuck up behind them and started pounding on them.

Behind my view, the Algoryn had a mag mortar and x-launcher on a hill and were trying to pin these suits to death. After they were removed, the mag mortar pivoted and took part in the middle of the battle a bit more, but 2 turns is hard to do much in. 🙂

I moved Arenal Yu up the hill to use her IMTel Stave to remove the Avenger, but whiffed. I was corrected, in that I thought she had 3 shots at SV3 but she actually has a single shot with D3 hits. Because of this, I didn’t give her a Spotter drone, since I didn’t think a model with 3 shots needed it. It turns out that Spotter drone is just a 10 point mandatory upgrade!

Clayton has been super excited about his Nuhu, calling them the best models in the range! I don’t know if I can agree – I don’t really get behind the “dance party” aspect that he’s loving so much, but they are pretty awesome! Apparently his Nuhu are a pair of Space Germans from Space Berlin who are constantly on the look out for the next EDM dance party. The constant oontz, oontz, oontz from his side of the table is pretty hilarious.

I didn’t mean for these to be comparison shots between the Freeborn M4 and my T7, but here it is! This is the best model in the range! I love the hell out of it, and wish that I could get a T7 and an M4 into a 1000 points (or even 1250 – 1250 is “possible”, but super difficult!). It just looks so cool!! (also, the more I look, the more I think the bottom photo is from a different game…).

 

Tactics?

If you got this far in reading, I commend you.

The Nuhu’s use is getting more solidified in my mind. I put her into the T7 with 2 Shield Drones, and the T7 had 2 Shield Drones. This is a lot of points in one place so I wanted to protect it well on it’s way up the table. This also helps give the Nuhu a lot more mobility since the T7 can move 10″ over MOD2 and then she can move another 5″ and still get her shots off. Since the Stave is fairly short range, this additional mobility is pretty important. I do regret (as above) not giving her a Spotter drone, but that’s easy enough to fix.

I took my max number of Get Up!s this game (didn’t get to use them), which I will prioritize in future games. Having a unit that you need to not be Down, but be unable to roll a good number for, lost me my last game and it just doesn’t need to happen.

Drop Command are nice with Acc 6 and a medi-drone, but not as nice as I want them to be. Like others, I do with I could take a Drop Squad without needing to take the Command first. The limitation means that there isn’t room (with my current models) for the Squad, which limits those all-important Lances!

I’ve put on order an Algoryn Plasma Cannon I’m going to use as a C3 PC. Because I need more high SV weapons, I added the Nuhu into this list for her SV6. But she’s ~200 points and limits what else I can fit into the list. The PC has SV6 and is a lot less mobile, but is also ~100 points cheaper so I could get my heavy weapon and still be able to fit more mobility into the list. Movement is key in all of the games I’ve played so far, so having those Drop Squads in the list is going to really help out with that!

 

Fluff?

The Algoryn and C3 have maintained hesitant ties throughout the Xilos initiative, but when actual resources are on the line communication breaks down and the gloves come off. Maybe their fractured alliance can be repaired, but maybe this is the end of their common ground.

You can never tell with any given Freeborn whether they’ll deal with you, or kill you, but this band of space DJs appear to have been heavily bought off by the Ghar Empire and didn’t even ask if there was a counter-offer on the table.

The Isorians have had very little presence on Xilos so far, but showed up just in time to help out their ancient and incompatible enemies, the C3. Arenal believes that their assistance was given only because they were distracted by a Ghar Command Crawler, and they didn’t have time to worry about other things, but I believe the ancient human saying is “any port in a storm”.

The Concord led by Arenal continue to receive a beating at every opportunity given, even simulated opportunities, and there is a good chance that the NuHu will take some time to meditate on the correct forces to send into the next battle. Reinforcements may be necessary. They may also be unavailable.