One Page Rules: Robot Legions vs Dark Elf Raiders

Another day another One Page Rules battle!

For this one I took my newly painted Robot Legion into battle against the Dark Elf Raiders and we played 2000pts a side.

We used the card objective system again, but instead of our “house rule” of keeping the cards hidden we played as intended with them openly displayed. We found this to be better than hiding them as you could act to try to prevent the opponent gaining their objectives, as well as working to achieve your own.

Here's an example of the scoring cards.

There was a table already set up, so we just used that as it was.  The terrain is 15-20mm scale so we just assumed with was a space-halfling village we were fighting over!

We deployed, and I spread the Robot Legion out to seize the three closest objectives on Turn 1. I had no scoring cards that would count, but it was a set up ready for turn 2 scoring. I only had one unit in ambush, my flying psychic. I kept him floating about ready to drop into a key location on turn 2.

The Robot Commanders deployed and ready to push their troops forwards.

The Dark Elf Raiders did similar, but kept three units in ambush, so they had less on the board to contest and capture objective on Turn 1.

The opening moves were cagy from both of us, with cautious moves forwards to secure the objective markers available to us. The Robot Legions opened hostilities, with a few shots that knocked off a dark elf jetbike.

End of turn 1, the dark elves took the early lead with 2 Victory Points (VPs) scored.

The battle lines at the end of turn 1.
I put a string force in the centre, claiming three objective markers.
The dark elves keep their strength over on my right flank.

Turn 2 opened with the ambushes arriving. I dropped my Robot Legion psychic into a world of pain over by objectives 5 and 6. I had scoring cards that applied to both; however, my reasoning was not for the psychic unit to survive and take an objective.  I was convinced he’d be wiped out immediately! But I put him there so that my opponent HAD to deal with him, which would take the attention of ne of his units (at least) away from what I was doing elsewhere.

The Dark Elf ambush was rather more comprehensive! He dropped a flying transport on my left flank, carrying his psychic leader, and on the other flank he dropped his strike unit.  Normally, ambushers must deploy more than 9” away from all enemy, but these chaps are able to deploy closer (more than 1” away). He dropped then down ready to take out my tripod. Nasty!

All those poisonous shard guns pointing at him I really didn't hold out 
much hope for my psychic.  As it turned out he's a tough little blighter!

Dark Elf Raiders pounce from beneath the sands and set ready to take 
down the giant Robot of Doom.

A Dark Elf flying tank swoops in to threat the Robot Legion's left flank.
Aboard is their psychic commander.

You can flank me all you like but when I need 3's and I'm rolling like this, there's not
much you can do!

Turn 2 then proceeded and my opponent opened his action trying to deal with my ambushing psychic. I was surprised as I thought he’d got for killing my tripod. However, that suited me, and amazingly my psychic shrugged off the enemy attacks and survived! He would go on to absorb a lot of attention and firepower, and still survive on the board.  A nice little distraction unit that worked to me satisfaction. Definitely my “most valuable player” for the game, I think.

So I responded by wiping out the dark elf ambush.

The tripod backed off and used is death ray to thin out the ambusher's ranks.
The a unit of Robots moved back, killed off the dark elf survivors in melee, and 
stepped back up to the line.  This scored me a "destroy enemy unit in melee" card!

The dark elf flying tank swooped in on my flank, but again the toughness and regeneration capabilities of the Robot Legions held out against it, blunting the action here and holding our ground (and objectives).

When it charges, the tank scores automatic "impact" hits, but the Robots were able to 
shrug off most of the damage, although they were pinned.

I pushed the Robots into the field, taking the centre and denying the dark elves one of their scoring cards (make sure there are no enemy units within 6” of the centre of the battlefield).

The dark elf forces mostly sat back, not pressing forwards into the Robot positions. 

End of turn 2, the scores evened up with both sides on 4VPs.

The Robots are well positioned holding the centre ground of the battle.

The dark elf leader is lurking close by though, ready to take out some metal dudes.

Turn 3 began with the dark elves, now much denuded force.  Robot Legion attacks had stripped off a lot of the dark elf units and battered those remaining. Two main fighting zones developed.

The dark elf raider transport, supported by flying troops, pushed on trying to seize the objective marker and collapse the Robot flank. My Robot tripod commander moved in to deal out some damage and shore up the position, wiping out the dark elf tank, and securing the flank there.

The Robot Commander counter-attacks with his tank-killing weapons.

The dark elf psychic wisely disembarks and uses his metal powers to inflict some damage.

The raiding tank is torn to pieces by concerted Robot attacks.
They go on to kill the dark elf psychic and shatter the incoming flying dark elves.

On the other side of the table. My heavy melee unit pushed in to support my badly wounded psychic who was still causing the dark elves trouble. The dark elf commander and his unit were wiped out and the Robots took control here too.

After bitter fighting the three-legged Robots destroy the dark elf leader and push on to link up 
with their psychic (surprised to see him still alive)!
The dark elf unit remaining stands little chance against the lethal Robot blades.

End of turn 3, both sides scored to get the points up to 6VP each.  A very close game!

 Turn 4 started with very little dark elf power left in play.  The Robots survived mostly intact.  We looked at the scoring card we each had, and it looked bleak for the dark elves.  They didn’t really have the capability left to score their objective cards, whereas it looked likely that the Robots did.

We played out the final turn with desperate last-minute moves made. The dark elf remnants were swept away and the Robots took the field.

End of turn 4, the Robots took the battle with 8VP to the dark elves 6VP.

A damned close-run thing!

Another excellent battle and a lot of fun to play. The game was in the balance until turn 4 really. Turn 3 was devastating for the dark elves, and they lost too many units to be able to really contest turn 4 though, but if the scoring cards had been kind the dark elves still have enough battlefield control to score so all was not lost until the end.

Robot Legion vs Prime Brothers 

On the other table, another Robot Legion took on a force of Prime Brothers. It was another close battle but the Robot Legions prevailed in the late game too!

Pictures of the action.

D'oh!

 

 

 

 

 

Orks, "'Ere we go!", "Waaaaagh!!" Etc.

My journey with One Page Rules continues at a pace. We’ve played a few games now and very much enjoying it.  Its wonderful to hear jaded old grognards like us howling with joy and laughter at a game. We play all sorts and while we love our hobby, games can be quiet, even muted as we earnestly push our Panzer IV’s or Alexandrian Companions about the tabletop battlefield. One of my friends said, “I never thought at 61 I’d be playing with Games Workshop toys”.

Anyway, these rules have lit a fire under my paint table and I’m really pushing on with painting armies I never thought would make it out of the box.  

This time it’s a collection of second-hand sci fi Orks that I’ve gathered over the years.  They needed a bit of rapair and some larger bases, which I added.  The ones with jetpacks are still a bit unstable, especially were they have some metal parts added, so I may have to figure out some additional method of shifting them to be "bottom heavy". Some of them have at least two or three coats of paint on them, I think. Can I be bothered stripping them? Of course not! So, an undercoat of black, white zenithal highlight, and away I go. 

As usual, things lick along at a pace, but I realise after the skin-wash and metal stages, that the zenithal may not have been the best choice.  I’m now faced with getting the black back in as I’m painting these little fellows as “Goff” Orks, which are mainly black. Pareto’s Principle kicks in and with this batch I reckon the last 20% of the work is going to take 80% of the time.

I’ll also be painting the chequerboard patterns – that’s going to take time as well.  I used to have a lot of transfer sheets, with these sorts of patterns on them, but I think it threw them all away during the last house move.  Ah well.

I think the next batch will be left black without the zenithal highlight, and I’ll under-paint in the skin with white.  It’ll still take time, but hopefully less time that the current processes.

Anyway, here's the kick off with the first batch.

 

The first batch of about 50 little green dudes.

One of the Bosses, or "Nobs" as the Orks call them.
He's certainly had a good few coats of paint and the detail is starting to be lost.

"Da Boyz". These have hand weapons and pistols - a suitably Goff load-out.

Here's the paints I'm using for the ork skin. It worked out well I think.

Here's the box of other Orks awaiting attention, and a few bags of bits for repairs!

There's about 100 models in here I think. Mostly Boyz (basic Orks)
Some I think are from the old GorkaMorka game, and their design
hasn't stood the test of time.

And the metal is on.

These should look good when they’re done though.

TBC...

...continued

OK, its been a week or so and I've made a bit of progress on these little chaps. Not going to lie, but these orks have been a pain to paint.  I've not been able to segregate parts for swift painting, or use my usual time-saving techniques, because the models themselves mix some different colours at their core. And of course, being Goffs, I wanted to lay down some checkerboard patterns, which took a bit of time to get done.

However, about 90 of the little chaps are done so not bad progress considering...

Obligatory Mob shot. Goffs like infantry wave attacks...

Ahem...WAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

These dudes have some serious firepower. Shame they're such a "bad shot".

Well...he looks like he's down to sort stuff out.
This is a good example of just going with these rescued models
as they come. If I'd have built it the squig back-banner would
have been vertical.

These helicopter things were relatively easy to paint, but feel VERY fragile.
I reckon they'll break easily in the rough and tumble of a game.

I got 10 of these jet-pack orks. Some of the parts are
metal, which makes them top-heavy.
These Weebles will wabble and very definitely
will fall down.

This is a metal model and its lovely and heavy! I like it too. The pet squig is fun!

Another nice leader, but some of the details are obscured. I rockon I painted over maybe
three or four other layers of paint applied by the previous owner! (Or "one thick coat")

This one is mad for grenades and I love it!

More to do of course. I have 20 orks with machineguns, and a good stock of "characters", as well as a small gathering of goblins (grots). These are reclaimed second hand models so I'll be doing the same with these as with the others.

I also have a couple of boxes of extras. Some "killa kan" walkers, and the big boss himself Ghazghkull Thraka. Not looking forwards to building these but they look simple enough, and Thraka might be fun to paint.  

With those finished, I sould have a solid One Page Rules army at 2000pts.

Part 2 - The showcase