Armoured Clash: Trying out Enlightened 2K

 Another new army to try today, the Enlightened. I love the faction in Dystopian Wars, but what I’ve seen so far in Armoured Clash is not what I’m interested in. They look like an infantry based melee army, with some light walkers supporting, but not particularly fast overall. Still, the models are neat, so I’m giving them a shot. 

Preparing to scuttle

We played Pitched Battle at 2K points to provide a good baseline. We did end up trying 6ft x 4ft, and rivers were ruled as open ground as they would have disadvantaged the Empire significantly. All other terrain was size 3. The objectives were also slightly off to put them at actual points of interest (a bridge, crossroads, and town, played as a garrison building).

Deployment

 

Eve of battle

I ended up splitting my objective holders into 3 groups, pointed straight at the objectives. My fire support units ended up between these blocks to be able to support either side. I did not put anything in reserves due to the wider table, having initially planned my tripods to go there and outflank. I’ll see how that works some other time.

Empire deployed Artillery centrally and fairly forward, behind AA Lions and Rocket Fireteams. The top objective got a fairly light force, Bulnabangs and Terracotta with another Rocket Fireteam to potentially support. And finally, the lower edge of the center got the chunk of armor with the Laoshan and Fanguns, as well as Steambikes, Jezzails, and the Command Platoon. Definitely not a formation aimed at quickly seizing objectives.

It felt like half my force had Vanguard, so a lot of things moved up. Sickle Rotorcraft moved up into cover of the hill, the Monowheels and Hellions sped towards their respective objectives, and the Mars Tripods also advanced via Forlorn Hope into cover of the town.

 

Lots of things moved up

Round 1

Holding the line

The battle began with a giant spider, sprinting into no-man’s land, an ominous glow spilling from its mandibles. The commander of the Laoshan, however, shows nerves of steel and orders a barrage at the charging behemoth, causing some damage but not crippling the beast. A beam lanced out at the Laoshan and the command platoon behind it, but goes wide, causing minor damage but also blowing out several generators (Overcharge 1, causing 3 damage total to enemies and 4 to itself). The secondary batteries also blaze at the Laoshan, but only deal light damage while blowing out more conduits (Overcharge 5, 2 damage to each). The enlightened commander vows to reconsider slamming the big red button.

However, he doesn’t get the chance to share this change of heart. The Laoshan returns fire, causing the great beast to stagger and collapse, a monument to man’s hubris.

After that explosive beginning, the sides start jockeying for position. Enlightened forces advance towards the points of interest identified by their late commander, while the Empire rains fire down upon them. Enlightened Intelligence later recovers a recording of an apparent Crown Attache in Empire Command summing up their plan as “Sit quietly and bombard all the scary buggers”.

The Monowheel Cavalry draws particular ire, surviving both an artillery bombardment as well as fire from the Steambikes. The lion statues prepare to shoot down the incomming rotorcraft, but are out of position and impotently watch them fly past, their fire almost wiping the Steambikes.

Sickles living dangerously

The Phobos Tripods also find themselves in the crosshairs, arcing rockets and a stupendous railgun shot dropping both. On the other hand, the Mars Tripods overcharge their particle beams but only cause minor damage to the Laoshan, half the unit exploding from their own discharge (Overcharge 11, 2 damage to the Laoshan and 8 damage to themselves). 

The big red button proved too tempting

By the time the dust settles, Enlightened forces hold all objectives, while the Empire barely moved forward. Still, their hold is tenuous.

Enlightened 27 vs Empire 15

Round 2

 

Start of Round 2

Things start off with a bang, with the lions trying to make up for the previous failure to draw a bead on the Sickles. Bounding towards the rotorcraft, they open fire, downing half the drones. As they scatter to evade the incoming fire, they zoom towards the rocket fireteam, their machine guns dropping most of the unit. Their rampage, however, is soon brought to an end between the Bulnabang and the Laoshan’s turrets.

On the northern flank the Strider Cav thunders into the Terracotta Warriors, downing many but eventually being pushed back. A return charge leaves one befuddled drone standing, though with more terracotta shards scattered around. Still, Enlightened reinforcements further secure the bridge.

 

It's almost like we're hitting a brick wall. Oh wait.

On the central crossroads, the Heavy Constructs take a beating but are slowly pushed back under a hail of fire from the Laoshan and Artillery. Meanwhile the brute squad arrives at the outskirts of the southern town, but fail to claim it due to the Fanguns on the other side. Other units mostly advance to reinforce the enlightened hold on the objectives.

The Enlightened still hold the bridge, but were pushed off the crossroads and the town.

Enlightened 40 vs. Empire 27

Round 3

The brute squad, tired of cheeky tanks, advance into the town in force. Empire forces, however, are quite willing to shell the place to get them out, an artillery bombardment finishing them off. Their command platoon subsequently moves into the bombed out ruins, claiming the objective for good. The last remnants of supporting troops are also driving back, though the Heavy Constructs return to hold the crossroads. The Fanguns attempt a glorious charge to drive them back, but fail and in turn lose one of their number.

They just won't die

On the bridge, Enlightened forces whittle away at the Terracotta statues, leaving just one remaining. This leaves the Enlightened holding two objectives to the Empire’s one

Enlightened 62 vs Empire 46

Rounds 4 and 5

Sadly we had to call it due to time, but decided to talk out the remaining rounds. The Enlightened were solidly in control of one objectives, while Empire held the other two. With the boosted score for the last round, and the remaining units they would have finished off, Empire would have pulled ahead, so we decided victory went to the Empire!

Round 4 Enlightened 77 vs Empire 70

Round 5 Enlightened 97 vs Empire 110

Lessons Learned

Another great game, the system continues to impress. I think I’ll build some taller buildings to play at size 5 so that Behemoths don’t give your artillery LoS to the entire field, but that’s a minor concern overall.

Enlightened are definitely interesting, though they won’t be my main faction. 2/2 Infantry is crazy tough, especially the Heavy Constructs with durable on top. They also scale linearly, so you can save your bolstered slots for other units, and the extra speed was also relevant.

My target priority was terrible. I spent too much fire trying to knock down the Laoshan, instead of smacking the Artillery that had been placed entirely too far forward. Overcharging ended up mostly worthless even on good cards due to poor rolls. I didn’t outflank the Tripods due to the 6ft x 4ft table, and that proved to be the wrong choice. Ignoring anti-heavy units and focusing on infantry and anti-infantry continues to be the right choice I think.

I’m not impressed with the Wells at all. I think I’d have to run it on a flank, trying to rely on range to keep it safe early and then go for enfilade shots to get value out of coruscating and hopefully activate point blank. But that’s a lot of hoops to jump through, instead of just taking more infantry. The Mars is just slightly worse than comparable anti-heavy light tanks when you don’t have point blank or use overcharge, but the Wells is putting out about half the dice of other behemoths, though slightly cheaper.

On the Empire side, Rocket Fireteams continue to be amazing. The Laoshan did solid work, anchoring a flank, as did the artillery. Surprisingly, the Bulnabang worked well as a reactive troubleshooter. They hung out in the backfield, jumping forward to remove my rotorcraft and hellions when I overextended to finish off units. Also, hanging out in range to jump on an objective was a threat I had to honor, though I don’t think it made too much difference in this game.

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