One Page Rules: Alien Hives vs Dark Elf Raiders

One Page Rules fever continues to sweep through our gaming group and this week, after our first trial game, we took to the table with a "proper" battle. Following my trials with painting my Tyranids (hereafter Alien Hives) I took them into the fray against the Drukhari (hereafter Dark Elf Raiders).

We played 2000pts and the lists were as follows.

Alien Hives

• Hive Lord (winged, psychic) (530pts)
• Winged Grunts (10) (175pts)
• 4x Soul snatchers (5) (195pts)
• Hive Warriors (3) (160pts)
• Soul-snatcher Cult Allies
• Cult Leader (Psychic) (65pts)
• Cult Leader (40pts)
• 2x Minions (10) (plasma rifle) (125pts)

Dark Elf Raiders

• Dark Lord (100pts)
• Torture Master (Psychic) (85pts)
• 3x Warriors (5) - Barb cannon (190pts)
• Witches (5) (180pts)
• Winged Warriors (5) (230pts)
• Shadow Warriors (5) (265pts)
• Jetbkes (3) (240pts)
• Light Skimmer (1) -Teleport Gate (325pts)

We also used objective cards to determine the victor, and all agreed that it added some real spice to the game!

Throat-clearing

Now then, as I was involved in the game I didn't take any photos, so the images are brought to you via the mobile phone of one of the other players (thanks J). Also, we didn't take a careful note of details so I'll talk about the match in broad terms.

Into the battle

We set the table and terrain in a random way, making a simple ruined townscape emerging from a bombed out desert, chose sides and began the set up. We agreed the bomb craters were difficult terrain and cover. For the buildings, they were climable, and blocked line of sight if there were no windows or gaps, but otherwise offered cover.

We set up six numbered objectives using the usual objective placement rules (they clustered around the middle of the board) and started deploying one unit alternately. Both sides kept units in reserve, using the "ambush" rules. 

The Dark Elf Raiders set up their forces mostly in cover around 12" into the field.

I was playing on the team with my Alien Hives and the plan was simple: throw the soul-snatchers into the dark elf raider lines to cause havoc, and use the rest of the army to try to achieve the objectives.

So we deployed the soul-snatchers up front, and the rest in cover in a second line. The Winged Grunts and Hive Lord were flying high above, ready to swoop down into the battle. After deployment, the soul-snatchers used their special ability to surge fowards and occupy as many objectives as they could, and set up ready to swarm into melee.

The battle would last the regulation four turns.

The Alien Hive deployment and pre battle surge gets them into a good starting position

Soul-snatchers hunkering down in a crater for cover

Let the swarming commence!!

Soul-snatcher cults line up their shots

Soul-snatcher cultists with a good overwatch position

Dark Elf jetbikes lurking on the flank

Turn 1

The soul-stealers did their job well, but the dark elf raiders weather the assault. Most of the soul-snatchers were wiped out by barb-gun fire. Otherwise the positions didn't change much.

Score: Alien Hives 2 - 0 Dark Elf Raiders

Turn 2

Both sides dropped their ambushing units into play. The Alien Hives dropped theirs onto objective markers and into the Dark Elf Raiders backfield, whereas the Dark Elves generally bolstered their line, plugging gaps punched by the now-dead soul-snatchers.

In a brutal exchange the Alien Hives were left with only three units, whereas much of the Dark Elf army was still intact.

Despite this , the Hives were able to stay ahead with achieving their objectives to maintain their lead.

Score: Alien Hives 4 - 2 Dark Elf Raiders

The Hive Lord descends on an objective to capture it

The Dark Elf Raider's Light Skimmer teleports in ready to sweep into the soul-stealer cultists

"Err...that thing has an energy ram on its bow...I don't fancy our chances..."

9 Impact hits and a failed morale check later, "...yeah, though so..."

Turn 3

The Dark Elves turned their attantion to trying to achieve some objectives, while the Hive Tyrant wreaked havoc. The Dark Elves turned almost all their firepower on the flying beast, but lacking serious heavy firepower it lost only one of its 12 wounds!

Score: Alien Hives 7 - 4 Dark Elf Raiders

The soul-snatcher cult pushes forwards to capture another objective

Turn 4

With most of the rest of the Alien Hive destroyed, the final turn petered out with the Hive continuing to score objectives and the Dark Elves realised they couldn't catch up. Despite another round of fire trained on the Hive Lord, it survived practically intact, scoring further victory points.

Score: Alien Hives 9 - 5 Dark Elf Raiders

At this stage, the Dark Elves have free reign across the board, with little but the Hive Lord left to stop them.

The End

The Hive Lord flew back up into the sky, leaving its army dead, but having achieved a solid victory against the remaining Dark Elves.

All told is was an excellent battle and the five players at the table all enjoyed the evening. 

Observations - The Battle

The Alien Hive focussed on achieving objectives from the start of the battlefield and were able to score them consistently throughout the four turns. Sacrificing the soul-snatchers seemed to pin down and distract the Dark Elves.

Using the random objectives, there's a certain amount of luck in what you draw, but pushing on to capture as many objectives as possible seems to be a useful tactic. Certainly in turns 3 & 4, the Alien Hives were able to pick up points from objectives they already controlled, and had moved on from.  The Dark Elves didn't use their mobility to contest or capture these undefended objectives.

Observations - The Game

OPR are decetively "simple" and make for a wonderful free flowing game. But they also have a lot of tactical depth, with every turn presenting difficult decisions about what actions to prioritise.

I've not played enough yet to fully explore all of this fun gameplay, but I'm keen to get into it more. This battle I learned:

• Trying to get into melee is very costly in lost units.
• Be flexible, and focus on the current objectives.
• Keep an eye on the time. Four turns fly by!
• Accept losses, but make sure you gain something for it. Sure we lost all the soul-snatchers, but they did a great job of tying up much of the Dark Elf action in turns one and two. 
• Roll 6's!

We are very much enjoying them, and I'm busy finishing off half-built armies that I purchased for Warhammer 40,000 but would never finish for that game system. Getting into an new army in 40k is incredibly difficult, daunting and complex. Doing so in OPR is a joy!