Lasers for Days! - Battle Report - CEF vs PRDF 150 points

Lasers for Days! - Battle Report CEF vs PRDF 150 Points

After the immovable object that was the Caprician heavy armour in our last game we decided to try out the much more flimsy CEF frames against the PRDF. The PRDF army that we'd built had a lot of trouble wading through the multiple 8 hit box heavy mounts without much anti-tank firepower - so there is a Red Bull on the way! (Thanks to the guys on Terra Nova DMZ Facebook page for the suggestion) In the meantime (postage from America to Australia takes AGES...) Ryu wanted some more firepower in his army so he chopped out the infantry block and added an allied King Cobra to his strike squad and upgraded his CO to a "Supreme Commander".

Army Selection

Ryu's slightly modified PRDF army makes a return with the notable addition of a southern King Cobra elite support gear. This thing was a terror with its particle accelerator. The force still comprises of a strike squad and a Fire support squad. The fire Support Squad contains the CO in a Warrior IV, a Destroyer Crusader, an Argos and a Cataphract. Attached is a Sweeper Skirmisher and a Regular Skirmisher. The strike squad is made up of a Scourge Warrior IV, Sweeper Warrior, Scourge Warrior a King Cobra and two Vanguard Warriors


My newly painted CEF forces focused heavily on particle accelerators and rotary lasers. Like the PRDF, they have both a strike and a fire support squad. The Supreme CO is mounted in a CF6-16 and backed up by his fire support squad consisting of a trio of BF2-19 frames with one support pack and a pair of anti-tank packs.Attached to them are a pair of BF2-25s - one with recon pack and another with an anti tank pack. Both of them are upgraded to have medium rotary lasers. The Strike Squad is led by a CF6-16 with an assault pack. He is backed up by an F6-16 with support pack and a pair of BF2-21s with an assault pack and an anti-tank pack. Attached to them is a Morgana FLAIL team and an Anti-Tank FLAIL squad.



The Mission

We rolled up a six turn game and decided not to use any battle conditions as the table was already very heavily covered in terrain. We decided on the following story for the engagement and chose missions reflecting this.


The PRDF forces came across a southern soldier in a battered King Cobra gear. He told them of CEF forces burning their way through small farming villages in one of the precious few regions of the badlands that has enough water near the surface to be farmable. The CEF were brutally slaughtering any civilians they could find and crushing the under-powered defence militias in their way. The PRDF vowed revenge and followed the King Cobra pilot to the scene of a recent battle, but little did they realise they were being watched... 

The CEF trap was sprung and the frames moved in to recapture the supplies that they had left behind. They were tasked with finding the identity of these "Good Samaritans" and killing their leader and his squad to send a message to the Terra Novans that the CEF were not to be trifled with. 

Seeing the frames charging towards them, the PRDF commander knew that he needed to break out of the trap to be able to call for reinforcements as the CEF jamming made long range communications impossible. To avenge the villagers he vowed to take the commander's head, along with the rest of his squad. 

The two heavily armed forces raced towards each other as the villagers cowered in what was left of their homes...


PRDF - Break the line, assassinate, and wipe them out (Fire Support). Assassinate was secretly his primary objective.

CEF - Capture, assassinate, wipe them out (Fire Support). I selected capture as my primary objective.

Deployment

The PRDF had 4 dice for initiative and won the roll. Fittingly, he chose to deploy mostly in the shattered factory area and train station areas of the village. The two objectives that the CEF needed to capture were near the train lines so racing along the train lines would give them an advantage if things went badly.  Both forces deployed very aggressively as far forward as possible and took advantage of the abundant heavy cover.

Turn 1

The PRDF won the initiative and activated their strike squad first. They moved though the trees cautiously - worried about starting a long range fight with the CEF fire support squad's lasers. The squad leader used the evade order and the others used ECM.

Seeing how hard it was going to be to take on the PRDF with evade and ECM active the CEF strike squad went for the PRDF fire support squad that had not yet activated. Their fire was largely ineffective as the Cataphract was rolling an obscene number of 6s on re-rolls... this however, did burn his command points. The command CF6-16 Assault Frame went on standby in case someone got cheeky. The day was saved by the Assault Pack BF2-21 who raced up to the treeline and caught  a Crusader napping. His rotary laser opened fire and managed to overkill it! The FLAILs went into standby and waited for something to do.

The BF2-21 didn't have too long to rejoice though as the skirmisher behind the Crusader took offence to seeing his mate's face burning and tried to jam the assault frame's sensors. The CF6-16 used his standby token to try and use his ECCM to help but failed - leaving the BF2-21 crippled for the turn as pictures of goats or something filled his screen. Taking advantage of the now crippled target the Argos opened fire and tore most of his frame apart with his heavy rotary cannon - leaving the BF2-21 with only a single hit point!




The Cataphract took a braced shot across the table at the Support Pack F6-16 and caused 4 damage, crippling the machine. the Anti Tank FLAIL squad took a risk and snap fired at the huge, armoured monstrosity - managing to scratch a point of damage off! The skirmishers used their ECM and the PRDF commander then called an evade order to make the CEF shooting more difficult.
 

Finally, the CEF fire support squad fired every thing they had into the forest but after the dust settled, they had only managed to put 2 damage points on the Scourge Warrior IV and 2 damage points on the two Vanguard Warriors. ECM + Evade = frustration!

Turn 2

PRDF wins the initiative and not wanting to try their luck at another pounding in the forest, activated the strike squad to get moving before their enemies. Their shooting was largely ineffective as they rang forward - the Scourge Warrior braced and managed to cause 1 damage on the CEF CO, but embarrassingly, the CEF used the "I got your back" rule to get a Support BF2-19 to snap fire its laser cannon, and overkilled the poor guy - bracing for that extra dice is a risk! Due to a combination of cover and command point re-rolls the rest of the squad's firepower missed.


The CEF Fire Support squad saw the PRDF exiting the forest as a real threat - their capture objective was in front of the train station and would need the PRDF strike squad to either all die or move forward in order for them to take it... so they activated and opened fire - fluffing most of the rolls at the strike squad in the forest until the two BF2-19 Anti-Tank frames showed their mates how to shoot. The first managed to score 3 damage on a Vanguard and 2 on the Sweeper Warrior as he opened up into the forest with his rocket packs. His brother BF2-19 on the other side of the board took aim at the Cataphract and managed to score a point of damage with his particle accelerator. The Cataphract, worried about being crippled, snap fired back but missed. The Recon BF2-25 ran behind the strike squad and activated his ECM in preparation for the inevitable PRDF Fire Support counter-attack...


The PRDF fire support squad opened proceedings with the Argos executing the Assault BF2-21 who feebly snap fired back with an entertaining double 1... Obviously used all of his luck on the Crusader! The Argos used his other action to standby along with the Cataphract. The Skirmisher forward observed the BF2-19 that had shot the Cataphract and his friends managed to score a damage point each on it with their indirect fire weapons. Additionally, the blast caught the Morgana FLAIL squad for a point of damage! To end the turn, the CEF activated their Strike squad. The squad leader managed a damage on the Argos with his rotary laser, and the FLAILs outdid themselves with the Morgana FLAIL forward observing the Argos and the Anti-Tank FLAIL squad hammered it for two damage.

Turn 3

PRDF again won the initiative and the strike squad came charging out of the forest - realising that the laser cannons on the CEF forces had 12+ inch optimum range encouraged them to get closer. The Vanguard Warrior rushed forward and used ECM defence to discourage snap firing - which proved to be a good idea as the recon BF2-25 immediately did and missed him! The Scourge Warrior IV used the Coordinated fire order on the CEF CO and fired his bazooka - missing. The CO snap fired back and left the Scourge on 1 hit box! The King Cobra missed after a lucky re-roll by the CO.


The CEF fire support squad, having mostly used their actions snap firing at the PRDF gears leaving the forest moved into safer positions ready to counter attack. The BF2-19 AT that had been dueling with the Cataphract took aim and hammered it for an impressive margin of success of 4 (roll of 8 vs 4). The commander burned a CP and re-rolled a three! The Cataphract copped 3 damage and another one from haywire - well and truly crippling it. Knowing that the PRDF CO was going to be very hard to get to in the railway siding that he was hiding in decided to try to flush him out with some indirect fire. It was largely ineffective and only caused 1 damage despite catching a Skirmisher, the Cataphract and the Argos in the blast.


The PRDF fire support squad answered first with the Argos opening fire on the BF2-25 Recon Frame. Agile kicked in and his heavy rotary cannon missed on MOS 0 (luckily for the frame!). The rest of the squad moved around and used ECM to try to protect the CO from the quickly advancing frames. A Sweeper Skirmisher cheekily separated from the group and moved into a heavily covered position near what he had correctly assumed was my capture objective and activated his ECM defence - the CEF were running out of turns to capture it! The CEF fire support frames finished the turn with the BF2-21 AT frame blowing the head off the Argos with his particle accelerator. The Morgana FLAIL moved to forward observe the crippled Cataphract for the FLAIL AT Squad, but watched in amazement as the huge machine rolled a triple 6 for its defence roll...

Turn 4

PRDF won the initiative and activated the strike squad - taking a while to debate what best to do as most of the game revolved around their flank, but they didn't have the manpower to do all of the objectives. The CEF CO was there to assassinate and would die if he could focus on him, but his squad needed to be reduced to 50% for "wipe them out". They needed to break through into the CEF deployment zone with 50% of their actions but needed to leave a model contesting the capture objective! Very hard decisions! In the end he focus fired the CEF CO with all of the strike gears, but due to many being crippled, too close or defensive re-rolls, the CO was still standing defiant at the end of the strike squad activation.

The CEF fire support squad moved to protect the CO and apparently for their fog lights confused with their lasers as after a lot of flashy firing they had managed to miss all of the crippled PRDF attackers leaving the CO in very real danger! To top it all off the scout BF2-25s moved to engage their targets - the AT one managed to whiff his rolls on a skirmisher in no cover and the Recon one managed to fail his comms roll to forward observe the PRDF CO! PRDF having ECM on all of its trooper gears makes comms very hard to do! The only decent shot of the activation was the BF2-19 AT Frame finally knocking out the Cataphract after 4 turns of dueling.



The PRDF CO activated the remains of his fire support squad next and made a fateful decision - seeing the CEF forces closing in and with the heavy hitters of his squad now burning, he made a break for it along the rail tracks at top speed using the evade order and moving a skirmisher behind to use ECM defence. The BF2-19 Support from the CEF strike squad took offence at this and snap fired his medium laser cannon - scoring a margin of success of zero after a re-roll from evade - the agile skirmisher dodging the shot that would have otherwise overkilled it!


The CEF strike squad could see their quarry getting away and raced to catch him. Unfortunately for the PRDF CO, the nature of racing along the rails on his road wheels meant that his back was to the strike squad as it crashed through the trees after him. The Squad leader winged the CO with his rotary laser and a BF2-21 AT Frame managed a MOS 0 hit on him with its particle accelerator - crippling him... but there was no one there to finish him off! Until I looked at the table wondering what to do with the hopelessly out of position, crippled support F6-16 Support Frame - it had a clear shot between trees, the building and the other gears with its laser cannon! The hail Mary shot paid off with the crippled CO rolling only a 2 versus a perfect 8 from the frame - overkilling him despite the re-roll.

Turn 5

With the PRDF CO dead the CEF finally won an initiative roll. The fire support squad activated first and the BF2-25 AT Frame started off proceedings by opening a box of rape on a pair of skirmishers - overkilling one and crippling the other with 4 damage. His squad mates were inspired by this and the BF2-19 AT managed to kill a Sweeper Warrior with his rocket pack and the BF2-25 Recon shot the crippled skirmished dead from behind with a long ranged shot. The CO tried to forward observe for the BF2-19 Support's mortar but failed horribly... damn jamming!

The PRDF knew the writing was on the wall and needed to try to focus on VPs. The strike squad activated and the King Cobra hit the CEF CO on a 3 with his particle accelerator - MOS 0. The CO didn't want to be crippled so rerolled ... and got a 1! The CO was left crippled with 1 damage box and finished off by a Vanguard Warrior's autocannon. The remaining gears tried unsuccessfully to damage the large BF2-19 Frames.  

Knowing that they currently had 1 VP each from Assassination and fearing that the PRDF may have had this as their primary, the CEF needed to deny them any more VP somehow. The CEF had killed the Fire support squad giving them 2 VP total, but Capture was now out of reach with the King Cobra holding the objective - this meant that the CEF's primary objective was achievable. If they could stop the PRDF from advancing into their deployment zone and mitigate any more casualties being taken in their fire support squad they may just pull it off... With this in mind, the CEF strike squad moved up hitting the Cobra for a damage point with a BF2-21's particle accelerator. Unfortunately, his boss' rotary laser failed to capitalise on the haywire's crippling effect and missed horribly!

Turn 6

The CEF again win the initiative roll despite losing their CO as the PRDF lacked a squad leader at this stage. The CEF activate their fire support squad and the BF2-19 Support Frame takes a shot at the Vanguard Warrior and misses - but takes a point of damage from snap fire from the crippled gear's medium autocannon! The firefight continues with the BF2-19 AT killing the Vanguard with his rocket pack. The PRDF by this stage had a collection of crippled warriors that all missed their targets and knew that they could not move into the CEF deployment zone without being picked off by the CEF strike squad who would activate next. The CEF strike squad activate and try to finish off the King Cobra unsuccessfully, ending the game with the elite gear on two hit points.

Conclusion

The battered PRDF forces saw the overwhelming wave of approaching CEF frames and despaired. With no commander and so outnumbered there was no hope. Just as the remaining two warriors emptied their rocket packs into the enemy there was a crackle in the PRDF comms channel. Emerging from the forest was the CO - on foot, shaken and bleeding, but alive! The Sweeper Warrior pilot called to his Vanguard comrade and ran, ducking laser fire to scoop up his commanding officer, engage his secondary movement system and race away from the battlefield. As they left they saw the crippled King Cobra standing defiant, firing his weapons into the approaching CEF forces and screaming curses at them over the open comms channels. Soon after, the sound of gunfire and the comms channels both became eerily silent...

The PRDF commander had bailed out of his still running gear seconds before it was shredded by the CEF's lasers. He had scrambled through the carnage hoping to find his comrades only to see them cut down one by one. The valiant sacrifice of the southern King Cobra pilot had allowed them to escape and warn their comrades of the oncoming CEF forces. He vowed that the next time they met, the Earth forces would pay dearly for the lives they had taken today.

The CEF forces managed to complete assassinate, and wipe them out, but failed their primary objective (Capture). This left them with 2 VP. The PRDF forces had only achieved Assassinate, but as this was their primary objective, this left them with 2 VP also. Casualties ended up giving the game to the CEF forces as the tiebreaker - despite almost being wiped out, the PRDF had stopped the CEF finishing their objectives.