Battle Report: From Ashes

A From Ashes battle report: 

 

Recently I got some spare time on my hands, and decided to do a proper sit down and play through the new v1.2 version of the From Ashes rules, especially since I recently completed a few new units.

To that effect, and to create some more exposure for a very fun game, I'm now writing up this battle report, on a blog page! (Are we back in 2010? How I wish...)

I digress...

 

Scenario:

A Triarchy expeditionary force, looking for new streams of food and resources to support their barren colonies, has made landfall on Planet P XII. Finding a potential site in a small valley a few klicks into the foothills of a major mountain range, a scout party is dispatched to establish a presence and subdue any local opinions.

The inhabitants of the valley, mostly miners and small time farmers, are not going to go down without a fight; they did not win their freedom from the Mining Union just to accept new rulers!  

 

The forces:  

I opted to keep the forces small, only 200 points each, to focus on playing through an entire game in the time I had available. A starting force is usually 300 points, with regular games being upwards of 600 for a normal size, or 1000 for a large one.

Xeraak Triarcy:

A Meta Command unit (25) - a bit of a must in From Ashes, especially for Xeraak (more on that later)

Revenant Cyborgs (50+10) - Solid unit of plain infantry, upgraded with an Overseer, for both Order shenanigans and a Shield.

Hunchback Cyborgs (42) - Useful long range support, especially considering their Barrage rule. Plasma Mortars, in essence.

And to round it all off I chose a unit of recently completed Combat Harvester Mechs (70), both because I recently completed them, but also because I wanted to try them out in a real scenario against the Vanguard infantry.

Verse Dominion:

Vanguard infantry (58) - Always a good choice for Verse, combining decent firepower with a large amount of HP and some nasty drugs. I took two to really reinforce the guerilla aspect of the Verse, and because it suited the scenario.
 

Ringleader (20) - Your average, run of the mill cult leader, with a henchman as bodyguard. Supports the light infantry as only a cult figurehead can, helping them stay in the fight.

2 Reaver attach Buggies (60) - A force of light infantry needs some fast attack for support, especially when defending their home village! I opted for the chaingun version to put some lead downrange, and hopefully cut down a few of the pesky cyborgs on their way in... 

 

The deployment: 

From Ashes uses a concept of Combat Sectors to decide the size of the game area, in this case I opted for a single 2x4 Combat Sector, as the forces involved were small. 

In the middle are the Capture Points, visualized with acrylic tokens. Each of these will provide 3 Victory Points to whoever has the most forces within 3", starting at the end of the second turn.

The defending Verse Dominion forces are deployed within the village, ready to leap into buildings for protection.

The Xeraak Meta commander choose to deploy their force in the shadow of a great stone pillar just outside the village, setting up a two pronged approach.

Turn 1

In a flurry of activity both commanders spent their respective first activations ordering their infantry units around - a key feature of From Ashes is that Leaders can spend their actions ordering their subordinates, spending their own activation to get more effective troops.

For the Verse this was a mixed bag, the east Vanguard unit did respond to the first order, but the second was lost in the confusion. In stark contrast the Xeraak managed to get four Orders off, thanks to the Overseer in the Revenant unit. Two went to the Revenants, running forward to start the approach towards the center objective, while the Hunchbacks spend two Orders ranging in their Barrage weapons on the large building where the Vanguard just took up positions.  

Thanks to the scattered shooting from the Revenants (due to their free Fire on the Move), and the sustained barrage from the Hunchbacks, the Vanguards in the house took some wounds, although most of the fire was less than effective, thanks to the armour bonus from occupying the house and the numbing effect of the Vykos drugs all Vanguard use. 

A more significant effect was the placement of 4 blast markers, which in From Ashes is considered a form of terrain rather than a unit status marker. It means that any shooting action in close vicinity will have a harder time to hit!

Meanwhile the south unit of Vanguard kept up the pace, rushing towards the fortified house containing the south Capture point. Whatever was in that house must have been critical to the village!  

Next up was the Harvesters; large Mechs merging human components with a largely mechanical frame. The Combat version deployed here sports two large Plasma Destroyers, easily capable of removing entire bases of light infantry in a single action.

Due to the protection of the building the losses were not as severe this time, although the first unit of the game bit the dust, and even more blast markers were placed just outside the building. The shrapnel and dust must really be flying!

The many blast markers caused the retaliatory fire from the Vanguard to be less than stellar, forcing 9(!) successful hits to be re-rolled for each shooting action, although it did cause a single unit from the Revenant squad to be rendered nonoperational.

The single blast marker inflicted by the Vanguard would not play any further part in the game, though, since the Revenants has the Drone special rule, rendering them immune to the effects.  

The last activation of the first turn fell to the Reavers, gunning their engines and opening up on the Revenants. For all their shooting they only managed to strip the Overseer base of their personal shield... 

The end phase only saw a few blast markers dissipate, and the Overseer did regain her shield - always a good thing when a pair of chainguns are aimed towards you! 

Turn two

Once again winning the Strategy roll off, the Verse sent their Reavers forward ina bid to soften up the Revenants, and possibly place themselves in a good spot to threaten either of the capture points.

The chainguns managed to do some damage, and not only remove the shield from the Overseer, her bodyguards were left needing repairs.

To retaliate the Meta commander ordered the Revenants to respond, causing one of the Reavers to drop two HP. Only a single Order succeeded this time, leaving the Xeraak on the back foot.

The south Vanguard unit finally reached the safe shelter of the armoured building, thanks to some rapid orders from the Ringleader. In response the Harvesters took careful aim and unleashed their considerable firepower on the light infantry. 

Thanks to the improved armour bonus of the fortified house, as well as the drugs, the Vanguard managed to weather the deluge of plasma with only a single base lost. 

The return fire from the light infantry did quite a number on the Mechs, removing the shield and a HP from one of the large cyborgs. This was at least in part due to the Vanguard receiving the "Loud Target" bonus to hit, due to the Harvesters having taken two Engage actions in a row. 

 

 

 

 

To the north the Revenant cyborgs advanced to get into closer range with their wheeled adversaries, and in the end managing to put a further damage point on the buggies, removing one of them.

The Hunchbacks continued to pound the Vanguard in the copper domed building, removing a few more of their number, and inflicting a lot of blast markers. The smoke and debris rapidly filling the air caused the vanguards to miss most of their fire, really proving that such a hot spot was not a good hiding spot, despite the armour bonus.  

 The end phase saw the first Victory points being collected, each side gaining three for their respective capture points being held.

Both sides removed a few Blastmarkers, with the Verse removing three out of four affecting the Vanguard in the reinforced building, expecting to hold on to the capture point for as long as possible.

The Revenant Overseer did manage to get her shield back, but no such luck for the Harvester.

Turn three

For a third time in a row the Dominion player managed to get initiative, taking the opportunity to get out of the debris and dust caused by previous shooting, and taking a firm position on top of the northernmost Capture Point. Unfortunately the shooting went wide, and the one shot that did hit was saved by the Overseer shield. 

The return fire saw the last Reaver reduced to a burning wreck, leaving the Verse force dangerously close to their  breaking point due to the total amount of casualties. Following up on their success, the Revenants then turned their attention to the poor Vanguard in the middle, removing yet another unit from the squad. 

On the south flank things looked slightly better for the miners, thanks to some Orders from the Ringleader, and lucky shots from the RPG gunners, they managed to bring down the damaged Harvester!  

Unfortunately they did then lose one more unit of Vanguard to the combined bombardment of the remaining Harvester and the Hunchback, forcing all remaining Verse units to be considered Broken, and test to not retreat each turn.

The End Phase saw both sides gain VPs for held Capture points, but the Triarchy forces also received bonus points for their opponents being broken! 

Turn Four 
Thanks to the persuasion of the Ringleader, none of the Vanguard units fled, but after failing to make more than a small dent in the Revenant unit the Verse commander decided to regroup and preserve what forces remained. 

The fact that the south flank now was rendered ineffective due to blast markers, and being under threat by a Harvester with 3(!) shields, thanks to the Meta Commander Shield projection ability, was probably a influencing factor in the decision...

End result: 

Verse Dominion: 9 VPs

Xeraach Triarchy: 13 VPs 

So, what could the Verse have done differently?

One thing would be to use the buildings to cut lines of fire to the units, although the additional armour bonus and sometimes aiming bonus is tempting, it also invites fire, due to being visible to everyone. 

For the Xeraak, the Hunchbacks did not perform that well, even if their indirect fire capability is useful, it takes a long time to aim to be effective, and would probably have been more useful using their direct fire mode.

Either way, the Verse proved to be tough opponents, but a first village is now cleared for use as a base of operations!