Operation Rancor Snack
Our custom Operation for Legion for the month of August has us playing Rebels vs Imperial to "conquer" our local gaming store. Operational Achievements are granted to winners in a R vs I match, and Major Achievement is granted to whichever side holds more of the three territories at the end of the Operation.
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| Sabotage the Moisture Vaporators was a required card for this map. |
Commandos and Han had just come out (writing this up about a week late) and I was getting in an Imperial vs Rebel game against my buddy David. He was running:
Vader - Reflexes / Saber Throw
Speeder Bike x2
Stormtrooper x2 - Trooper + DLT
Stormtrooper - DLT
Snowtrooper x2 - Trooper + Flamer
And the expected command cards.
I was running:
Han Solo - Duck and Cover + Improvised Orders
Leia Organa - Grappling Hooks
Rebel Commandos - Duck and Cover + Proton Charge Saboteur + HQ Uplink
Rebel Commandos Strike Team x2 - DH-447 Sniper
Fleet Troopers "198th Platoon C" - Trooper + Scatter Gun + Emergency Stims
Rebel Troopers x4 - Z-6
Rebel Troopers
As Blue Player I killed Battle Lines, while he killed Long March. Clear Conditions just stayed where it was.
Setup:
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| His forces set up with full DLT teams on each side of his deployment. Flametroopers inside them, and the short DLT and Vader forming the core. Speeder Bikes in reserve. |
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| View of the "pan handle" in Major Offensive. |
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| Non-Heavy Weapon troopers to the left, and 198th taking up position near the center of the "pan handle". |
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| Snipers on top of slightly elevated terrain in reserve. Leia on the biggest thing I could find (height 2). |
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| Saboteurs move forward / behind a rock to stay out of easy LOS. |
Round 1
Opening up I went with Coordinated Bombardment. The idea being that between Leia and the Snipers I could hopefully put some suppression and maybe even some kills on the Flametroopers before they could move forward. Leia did good work, splatting 1 Flametrooper mini each, and suppressing them and an extra Stormtrooper.
I would wind up being able to put sniper fire on the nearest Flametrooper as well, keeping a lot of tokens on it through it's activation and into the next turn.
My forces moved up, as did his, to contest the different vaporator points on the map. His speeder bikes moved from the rear into a striking position. I meanwhile had a large group of infantry pushed into the midfield.
My Saboteurs had raced up and set a mine down near the closest vaporator.
Round 2
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| Here's where things get interesting. |
Han's 2 Pip command card is legitimately terrifying. My Fleet Troopers were exposed, advancing in not particularly great cover.
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| HQ Uplink, go! |
Han and a Rebel Trooper unit behind heavy cover would be the main targets of the card though.
These poor guys were about to get overwhelmed. But they had a job to do. Sabotage!
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| Stormies hiding near a vaporator. Flametroopers not loving life. |
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| Bikes committed to their approach, and Vader / DLTs moving up the middle. |
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| On my Left flank, Stormtroopers repair a vaporator, while the Flametroopers advance. |
Han's distraction worked. The Fleet Troopers couldn't be fired on and they advanced, laying into the Stormtroopers.
Meanwhile the Flametroopers got close enough to cause a lot of pain to the non-Heavy troopers.
I push my other troopers forward in the hope wiping out his left flank and securing the center of the map (and 2 of the 4 objectives).
But right flank is deep, and Vader is pushing up the middle too.
Round 3
Well that went about as well as it could. The idea at this point is to get the Fleet Troopers firing, because they can cause the most damage by far!
Aaaand not so much. I draw Leia's Commander stack, and Improvised Orders it into a commando. Still, the commandos can do good work and they nearly wipe out the Stormtrooper unit.
Vader is coming though, and seeing how close he can get to wipe out the Fleet Troopers.
Again, a lot of forces available to push up my left flank, if I can't clear his right flank out and pivot quickly.
I still have Leia and the snipers back in reserve, as well as a single Z-6 Trooper squad.
Speeder bikes activate first and do... this to the Z-6 unit I had sitting out in the open near the middle of the field. Whelp, that was fun.
Vader gets some fire put down on him, but he and the Stormtroopers clear out my Fleet Troopers (and I forget I have Stims on them).
Pain is coming on Turn 4. Master of Evil will just straight up panic every trooper I have, and Indomitable would be "less" bad, but I'll need to make sure Vader doesn't survive the turn.
Fortunately I have the best option to do that with Han's 3 Pip Command Card. David selected Indomitable, and I would have to be happy with that, so I stuck with Han's command card. Most of Round 4 not pictured.
Vader is hurt, as I took the Kylo Ren method of Jedi extermination: "I want Every Gun To Fire On That Man". He is eventually finished off by rushing my last Z-6 unit into the fight. I've taken out David's left flank, but he does still have 3 trooper units (2 DLTs and a Flamer) and a bike squad moving up on my left. And I have... not a lot in front of them. Vader has done his work.
I'm out of Han Command cards. Leia is able to push my troopers back to the objectives. I am now going to have to at least tie it 4-4 on objective tokens, and win on points.
One of the bike units is into the back field and is shooting snipers.
The other units advance toward mine. But they have neglected their objectives. I quickly secure the one on my side of the board / set up securing them for the next turn.
Final turn, and he's just not going to quite be able to cap the final point.
This stormtrooper unit can only activate the objective once.
The bikes will pull north, but they can't activate my objectives.
My objectives are firmly covered by Han and troopers.
Final position: 1 point to David for my 2nd placed objective - just to the left of my deployment.
Full 2 points to David for his 1st objective, located directly in front of the "fat" part of his deployment.
Full 2 points for me holding David's 2nd objective, placed just next to his "panhandle" deployment.
And full 2 points for me holding my 1st objective, placed in front of the "fat" part of my deployment.
All for a final score of 4-3, Rebels narrowly secure the Junkyard.
But that is enough to swing the territory and hold all locations on the planet. The Empire has (as of the game played) 2 weeks to try and take some territory back, and push the Rebels off of the planet.
Key Takeaways
Sniper Strike Teams - Good in the Early Game. Once the game gets going, they aren't much for a reserve, but you wouldn't really expect a 44 point unit to be that. I probably should have set things up so they could shoot and hold one of the objectives, but terrain did not let that happen. For 44 points though, they did quality work - hitting Evade Token Vader without worry, and putting early round suppression on things. Would take again.
Full Commando Team - Didn't detonate anything, but David told me that dropping the one mine made him rethink how he was going to maneuver his forces, putting them into the kill box for my own troopers. Expensive, but a quality unit.
Han Solo - His Cards did not disappoint and were easily the best part of using him, and he kills troopers reasonably well. Vader did not engage him, which may have been a tactical error on David's part, but I was doing my best to play keep away. Works well as part of team "#1 Parents".
Emergency Stims - I could have used them, but I think it would have kept just the commander of the team upright. More play needed (and remembering I have them).
HQ Uplink - Worth the 10 points for use with Han's cards alone.
Duck and Cover - I don't think I actually got to use this, just because no one seemed to want to shoot Han, focusing down my troopers instead. Plus Vader melee'd my Commandos.
Improvised Orders - I didn't work every time, but it helped the mixed bag of order tokens a TON. I don't think you can use 2 on the same pull, which limits how much I want to put one on Han and the other on Leia, but it is well worth it to take 1.
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