The Shire and everything after: One Page Rules: Prime Brothers vs Plague Havoc Brothers

This evening we enjoyed another game of the excellent One Page Rules. Up until now we’ve been learning the game with multiplayer games so we can learn together, discuss issues, etc.

This evening we broke out into one-on-one games. I took 2000pts of Plague Havoc Brothers against 2000pts of Prime Brothers. We use the Objective cards system to determine victory, but we keep the cards secret and don’t play the possible 5^th turn.

Plague Brothers

Plague Champion (1) (psychic (1)) - with plague brothers
Plague Champion (1) (psychic (1)) - with plague brothers
Plague Champion (1) (jetpack & war chant) - with plague mutated brothers
Plague Brothers (5)
Plague Brothers (5)
Plague Mutated Brothers (5) (wings)
Plague Drone (1) (Twin plague sprayers)
Plague Drone (1) (Twin plague sprayers)
Plague Drone (1) (Twin plague sprayers)
Plague Infernal Brute (1) (Twin lascannon, Brute flail)

Prime Brothers

Elite Raider (1) (Energy sword) - with Infiltration Squad
Elite Raider (1) (Energy sword, Psychic (1)) - with Prime Brothers
Prime Master (1) (Energy fist, Fist pistol, Energy sword, Battle rites) - with Prime Brothers
Infiltration Squad (5)
Prime Brothers (5)
Prime Brothers (5)
Blaster Squad (5) (Heavy plasma rifles)
Jetpack Squad (3)
Anti-grav Tank (1) (Twin gatling gun, Twin heavy fusion rifle)

We placed the six objectives, dealt out the initial three objective cards each and deployed our forces. Both of us deployed conservatively, with our units in cover or well placed to make ground towards our objectives.

Both of us deployed our heroes within units. In my case, my psychic heroes were leading my plague brother units. The war chant hero deployed in my plague mutated brothers, and I kept them in ambush, ready to deploy on turn two.

The prime brothers also kept a Jetpack Squad in ambush, but these wouldn’t hit the battlefield until turn four!

The prime brothers take up positions in a firing line

Prime brothers infiltrator squad sneaks forwards into a strong central position during deployment

Plague brothers advance on the flank supporting a plague drone

That tank's going to be a problem...

Turn 1

I was really worried about the Blaster Squad, and the Anti-grav Tank but one of the things I’ve noticed about OPR is that to win you simply need to expend your resources to score the objective points, so I set about advancing to capture as many objectives as possible and score my cards.

In the initial exchanges, I came out better. My opponent’s dice rolling was woeful, and he just couldn’t kick out damage or stop me hitting him hard. My plague brother’s regeneration also proved its worth in keeping the plague brethren alive.

Most notably, the prime infiltrated were wiped out in the centre.

The plague drone's spewers sprayed filth, wiping out the prime infiltrators on the roof

End of turn score: Prime brothers 0 – 2 Plague brothers

Turn 2

I dropped my ambushing mutated plague brethren into the rear of the prime brothers line, ready to take out his psychic commander. As it happens, I’d drawn an objective card to kill one of his psychic units so that was my priority for the turn. My opponent chose not to bring his ambush on.

The plague mutated brothers wipe out the prime psychic's units

I pushed in on both flanks with my plague drones, capturing more objective markers. My Plague Infernal Brute continued as it did throughout the battle, standing off in the backfield and plinking away at the prime brother’s tank. He did hit a single shot in the whole game! D’oh!

The prime brothers pushed out in the centre but didn’t close in on any objective markers. My plague mutated brothers jumped on the prime psychic and butchered his supporting unit, before my plague drone sprayed toxic filth to finish off the psychic, scoring my more points.

End of turn score: Prime brothers 0 – 4 Plague brothers

Turn 3

By now, the prime brothers’ lines were severely thinned out and they were struggling to make headway anywhere. Their ambush still didn’t deploy, but they set about advancing into melee with the plague brethren wherever they could.

Plague mutated brothers trying to eat a tank. They certainly took some chunks out of it.

Not much of the prime army left to try to turn the tide

I now had control of five of the six objective markers on the board, which meant the replenished objective cards game me a good chance of scoring each turn.

The prime brother’s melee assaults weren’t as effective as my opponent hoped, but the prime tank did manage to bring down a plague drone! My plague mutated brothers, pounced from behind onto the prime tank, tearing chunks out of it, and together with fire from elsewhere, taking 7 of the 15 wounds the tank had.

The prime brothers terrible dice rolling, and my exceptional luck continued, but also, I was still controlling the objectives and setting up for good scores.

End of turn score: Prime brothers 0 – 5 Plague brothers

Turn 4

Finally, the prime brothers decided to bring on their ambush and the jetpack unit dropped right into the centre of the field, far from any objectives, and hemmed into a small area by circling plague brothers. It seemed unlikely that the prime brothers would be able to recover the battle. The jetpack troops opened the turn by advancing and pouring fire into a plague brother unit, which was protected by the psychic power of its leader. A couple of plague kin were killed but passed their morale to carry on the fight.

My plague mutated brothers turned their attentions from the grav-tank and flew from the back field to take on the prime jetpack unit in melee. I won the fight be three more wounds than the prime brothers for another objective score.

With only a few prime brothers left the turn petered out to a decisive win for the plague brethren.

End of turn score: Prime brothers 2 – 7 Plague brothers

Overall, another excellent and fun game. My opponent certainly suffered from some pretty poor dice rolls but ultimately the game was lost by the plague brothers being able to score the objectives more consistently. This is a primary feature of OPR that is a real plus for the game play. You really have to concentrate on achieving your current goals and objectives. Sacrificing units to do this is fine and I’ve found that seizing control of objective markers can really set you up for late game scoring as you never now what objective cards you’ll draw. Apparently this swung the game from a loss to a draw in the Dark Elf vs Robots game on the other table with a big last turn score directly from controlling objectives!

My thoughts on why I won this game:

1. Dice

Obviously dice and what they roll are always a factor, and while I was rolling probably above average, my opponent was rolling below average. However, OPR with objective cards isn't won or lost on units destroyed, so I think this is less of a factor than it would otherwise be.

2. Seizing Objectives

There are six objective markers in play on the table and I set out from the start of turn one to try to seize control of as many as possible. By the end of turn 2 I had control of Objectives 2-6, with Objective 1 remaining uncontrolled.

I was interested to note that even when my opponent had the opportunity to move to contest or take control of objectives I had controlled but left undefended, he didn't do so.

This in my view was the decisive action for the win. At the end of each turn, I was able to score points off of the cards I was holding as most of them relate to taking or holding the on-table objectives. My opponent only managed to score any points on the final turn as a result.

3. Goal Focus

Related to point 2, each turn I focussed on achieving the objectives I had on the scoring cards I was holding. Where I had a card that was "destroy X unit", I focussed fire on a relevant target, and I was secure in the objective capture scoring too.

The scoring card system we use is a fan-made add on, and we've been debating the randomness of how they work. It may be that we modify them as we get more experienced. I rather like the idea of fixed scoring objectives, together with a random card draw, but that's "to be considered".

Dark Elf Raiders vs Robot Legion

The other game this evening was a battle between Dark Elf Raiders and Robot Legion. The Dark Elves had the lead throughout the game, but the Robots pulled back a 5-5 draw on the final turn! Apparently an excellent and tense game that saw most the units on both sides wiped out.