Battle Report: Enlightened Aircav vs Empire

 

So I finally got the chance to get all my enlightened rotorcraft on the table! Playing a more elite take on them had been my goal from day one, and with the new box I’m giving it a shot. My opponent, forewarned of aerial shenanigans, brought an Empire list stacked with anti-air, so it promised to be a bloody match.

Zooorp!

Lists

Enlightened

 

Empire

(just written up from the pictures, not 100% sure it's correct) 

Round 1

Setup 

I derp right out of the gate by shooting my citizen soldiers at the fanguns, only damaging 1 and losing 3 bases to overcharge 1. In return, he opens up on my left flank, his bulnabangs dropping a pandora and with it a third of my other command unit. Their victory is short-lived though, as my Hellions tear them to shreds and the remaining command unit and aegis crawlers successfully land on the objective.

On the right, my heavy walkers weather a storm of shots, slowly dropping to about half health from planes, rocket teams, and the fanguns. Overcharging the Hyperion takes the Fanguns down to basic, and the Atlas eats another one. At this point however, my Hyperion is at 2 health, so the crabs get out to try and repair it. They fail on an 8, so what happened next is entirely on them.

 

Before . . .

Seeing an opportunity, the Empire Jezzails line up a shot and barely sneak past the shielding from the aegis crawlers. It detonates the Hyperion’s core, a wave of destruction ripping through my piled up units. Including the crawlers. Which also detonate, cataclysmicly. In the end 3 crabs, 2 sickles, a command soldier, and half of the remaining health on my Atlas go up in smoke.

 

. . . After

The round ends with some repositioning, Empire forces advancing forward or going on lookout against my aerial bullshit. My Scythes were able to fly cleanly through the AA envelopes, killing a few models, suppressing some units, and only one of them blew up to overcharge. Empire leads 15 to 10.

Round 2

We start with another bang. The Terracotta charge the Atlas, kill it, and watch as the explosion cuts down 2 of their number as well as 2 lion automata who wandered a bit too close. Thus starts our lethal slugging match. I’m mainly taking down opposing infantry (rocket fireteams are as always the bane of my existence) and lions, while the Empire forces, offended by the sheer gall of transports, eliminate my pandoras with prejudice. A loooong charge by the AA chariots wipes my command infantry off the left objective, which leaves me sweating quite a bit since both flanks have somewhat collapsed at this point.

And then the cavalry arrives. My Pandoras drop in right behind their backfield objective, disgorging a pile of very pissed off Heavy Constructs directly at their command. The first charge takes out more than half of them, followed by the overrun. The enemy commander is the sole survivor, and subsequently breaks and runs. I’m back in the game.

Stomp'd

At this point Empire is leading 35 to 19, holds the right flank securely, but has lost their backline objective. I’m loosely hanging onto my own backfield with a unit of Hephaestus laser crawlers, and my left flank is hanging on a prayer. It’s anyone’s game.

Round 3 

To continue the theme, the last aegis unit is wiped by the laoshan, and, of course, promptly explodes. How could it have gone any differently? Still, at least this time, my opponent loses just as many jump infantry as I do, so all is well. The Hellions make a nuisance of themselves but fail to overly fix the slow collapse of the left flank, though they hang on for one more all important scoring turn (Bulnabang failed their rally and were out of range to shoot them). My constructs and reamining command platoon clean up more enemy rocket teams, though the jezzails manage to line up 2 constructs for a double headshot. My remaining Pandoras are also elimated thoroughly, and my crabs reposition to aid their construct bretheren, wanting no part of the pile of terracotta.

Holding both objectives for the turn lets me swing the score, leading 37 to 36.

Round 4 + 5

 

Round 4 Start

At this point there’s very little left of our forces, but both of us still have a viable path forward. Crabs clean up the remaining lion squatting on the objective, but are in turn taken out by the Jezzails. This leaves the objective clear for my constructs to march back on. My backfield hephaestus are still shooting, clearing off the scoring units remaining on the left flank. The Doksuri try to engage them in turn, but it’s too little too late. It comes down to a forlorn charge from the Fangun into the Heavy Constructs, hoping to (with a lot of luck) kill one and drive them off the objective. However, the dice laugh at this plea, coming up XXX. 

 

Round 5 Start

Round 4 ended 56 to 44 for Enlightened, and in the end Enlightened won 74 to 57.

Analysis

The Pandora point bump hurts, though the backfield heavy constructs definitely hit hard enough to be worth it. Perhaps an upgrade cost for aerial assault? The full strength pandora unit left my command too far forward and out of the mutual support enlightened relies on, so plan oops all aerial is not looking too good. I think the wave of gribblies plan is still optimal for Enlightened generally, though now with some great extra peer review options, a flexible tool for hitting the opponent’s flank or backfield, and finally a great ranged anti-heavy unit (though they’re very fragile).

Closing

A thanks to my opponent for a great game. I was sweating when the flanks collapsed on me round 2, especially with how behind on points I was. Might try heavy focused next time; crabs definitely proved their worth and I want to get my undertakers on the table. I’m also looking forward to seeing what (hopefully) Empire gets next week; what they have is solid but some more options would be nice.

No AI was used here.