Dropzone Commander Intro Scenario

Rapiers preparing to kill my dropships dead!

As I mentioned in my last post me and other Martin had a game of Dropzone Commander planned for the weekend. I had all my Scourge nicely painted but I had promised to paint the UCM part of the starter box as well as other Martin was too lazy to paint his own. ;)

Of course the intention was to do them gradually day by day but as I kept pushing it forward I found myself frantingly speed painting the night before the game! And the Legionaries actually ended up completely unpainted as I wanted to prepp them more before basecoating them. Oh well, they look... ok to game with and much better than unpainted models. Now I just need to touch up the details and finish them off so I have to nice looking demo armies.

For this battle I didn't get to use my entire Scourge army as none of us had enough UCM to make up the cost difference, so we instead played the solid intro scenario that comes in the two-player starter. It's very bare bones, but excellent to teach you the game. Basically there are three objective buildings set up in the middle of the table (center and each flank) - each objective that you control at the end of the game is worth 1VP while objectives moved off the board is worth 2VPs.

Reapers providing cover as a second Marauder dropship is preparing to unload its Hunter gravtanks.

As none of us had played before we simply got stuck in and while other Martin headed for the right flank building first I opted to rush my AA units into the middle of the table to create a no-go zone for his dropships. I followed this with infantry to the central (large!) building with my tanks providing cover. His AA went up the left flank while his tanks supported the infantry.

The Rapiers were easily the UCM MVPs this game!

None of us managed to find any of the objectives and other Martin decided to send one of his squads in their Bear APC toward the objective on the left flank that neither of us had approached (as it was covered by his Rapier AA tanks). This seemed like it might not be a good idea, but in the spirit of trying new things they raced off down the road, passing in front of the large building where my two squads of Scourge infantry was frantically searching for the objective. This proved too tempting a target (and I was curious to try out the fabled Scourge plasma rifles) so I lined the walls with one of the squads and proceeded to blow up the Bear. A lucky roll on the Destroyed Vehicle table meant that the none of the legionaries inside survived either! Aww...

One of my Warrior squads throwing fiery plasma death at a Bear APC far below.

My joy was cut short though as the UCM Rapiers (who have a HUGE gatling cannon that rolls lots of dice against infantry) and two Condor dropships opened up on the Scourge warriors they could spot in the windows. None survived. So we were each down to one squad each and none of us had yet to even find an objective, less making it off the table with it!

My Reapers waiting to pounce as soon as the enemy MBTs are taken out.

As this was going on the UCM Sabre tanks kept pummeling the central building while my Hunter gravtanks very unsuccessfully tried to take out the Rapier AA tanks who very successfully shot down two of my dropships! My own AA kept back as they were no match for the Sabres, however their dropship flew over and started spraying plasma at them, although it mostly splashed off their armour. It wasn't until my Hunters made a lightning raid to knock out two of the Sabres that my Reapers dared approach and blast two Condors out of the sky.

After not doing any damage on the Rapiers the Hunters redeemed themselves by quickly destroying two Sabres.

On the fifth turn the Legionaries in the house on the right flank actually found the objective and hurriedly mounted up in their Bear APC which proceeded to race back toward their own lines. If the UCM could get it off the board other Martin was guaranteed the win as I still had to even find my first objective. As things started to look bleak (my Hunters were too far away to catch the Bear) my single surviving Marauder dropship saved the day by swooping in ahead of the Bear and blowing it to bits! While the Legionaries inside survived they were much too slow to make it out in time. Thank the jelly godess for guns on dropships! :D

With their APC disabled the Legionaries are caught in the open with Reapers not far behind...

So what it came down to in the end was whether I would be able to find my objective or not. If I did it would end in a draw, otherwise a UCM victory. I had been searching for three turns but as I went for the large building it was tougher to find what I was looking for. However, on the very last turn I managed to finally roll a four - enough to find the objective - meaning the game ended in a draw. Yay!

We both had a good time and other Martin was really happy that playing had not resulted in an immediate headache, which was the norm back in the day of 40k and Fantasy. His comments after the game was that he felt it a little bit confusing to activate several different units in one activation, and that it was slightly frustrating not to be able to fire at aircraft without AA weapons. However he also mentioned that this was most likely down to us being completely new to the game and that things like this would feel natural after a bit more practice.

In fact he was enthused enough to immediately start talking about (finally) assembling and painting his own UCM and considering what to get to make it into a fun 1000 point army we could use next time. This is great as I think the snowball effect is very strong with DZC as the models are easy and fun to work with and quick to paint which boosts your motivation which makes you paint more units!

As for myself, I'll finish off the starter set UCM but after that I'm a little bit torn. I really would like to build up a 1000 point Resistance force but at the same time I could make a fun 1000 point UCM army for the same price as the Resistance starter. Hmm...

Oh, and we rounded off the day with a game of Infiltration. It's a game I've been wanting to pick up for a long time as I love the theme and I don't really have any push-your-luck games in my collection besides the original Drakborgen (Dragon Quest). What made me pull the trigger now was because of my recent reimmersion in Netrunner and the fact that the game is not featured on FFG's site anymore meaning it's more than likely going out of print soon, if it hasn't already. Designer Donald X. Vaccarino has said that if he wanted to release it again with another publisher it would go back to its original theme of crooks breaking into a bubblegum factory. A theme I'm not in the least keen on.

A playmat from Netrunner for that little bit of extra theme...

Anyway, three of us played (Anders was an observer during DZC) and one of us left the building early, while two of us pushed on. Other Martin ended up wounded on the second floor and had no choice but to try and look for a second exit while I raced back downstairs. Unfortunately I didn't make it out but was arrested in the foyer! Other Martin on the other hand found some Blackmail Files allowing him to escape with loads of data, clearly winning him the game. Fun and quick! Will play again soon. :)

That's all for today. More later...