Battle Report from over the seas! Dropfleet PHR vs Shaltari

Battle for Supremacy!

Light Fleet Engagement over New Eden!

Over the heads of the Scourge Invaders, a battle involving elements of the Post Human Republic combated the alien menace known as the Shaltari! Not much is known of why these two forces were engaged in hostilities with each other though through analysis and study of their objectives we hope to glean a better understanding. 

The Players:

Fellow Dropzone and Dropfleet enthusiast Michael Russell was able to play a starter game against an Opponent named Maz (I believe).

Michael was using his beautifully painted PHR Vs Maz (someone correct me if I am wrong!

The Fleets:

I don't have the Battlegroup layout in front of me so I will just lay out the ships.

The Shaltari:

Obsidian-class Heavy Cruiser
Amber-class Cruiser
Emerald-class Mothership
2x Topaz-class Frigates
2x Jade-class Frigates
3x Voidgates

The PHR:

Hector-class Heavy Cruiser
Ikarus-class Vanguard Carrier
Theseus-class Light Cruiser
2x Europa-class Frigates
2x Medea-class Strike Carrier's

The Game:

by Michael Russell

As it was an intro game I made it so I had the best chance of getting activation first to demonstrate the mechanics as they are. My opponent had some experience from the Beta but Shaltari were new to him in this setting.

Turn 1:

Turn one my Theseus went flying up the flank on standard orders to throw a cat among the pigeons as it were while my carrier started up the center with the Hector and Europa on the right. The Obsidian countered with the frigates and the Amber squared off against the Theseus. The emerald, perhaps being a little bolder than it should took to the middle.

Turn 2:

The second turn the strike carriers and gates got into position early on and the Theseus went full thrust and got behind the Shaltari, the amber tried to engage and got a parting hit from a critical as it passed. The Emerald flew forward a little and the Obsidian turned to engage the Theseus. My Hector and the Europa hit it with an active scan lighting it up enough to be within Supernova laser range and scoured 6 HP from it.

Turn 3:

Turn 3 saw the Shaltari scramble to reposition to the bigger threat in the PHR. The Obsidian scored some telling hits on the Hector and the Theseus was mauled by the accompanying frigates but got some hits in on the Emerald which was still disgorging troops while trying to get the guns on the slippery Theseus. The Ikarus was getting some bombing runs in at this point but was soon to become the attention of some fire from the Amber and the Obsidian was squaring off against the Hector which resulted in a dent against the Hector and the Obsidian being polished off by the carriers batteries before it could ram my heavy cruiser.

 I'd still not managed to get any troops on the ground at this point due to some Joe levels of 5's and 6's from the Gates defense batteries.

Turn 4:

 The fourth turn rolled around and saw the end of my carrier from the Amber and the Theseus causing some more damage to the Emerald meaning it only had a couple of HP left. The Hector, unable to meaningfully engage due to poor rolls continued hovering around the right cluster and prepared for some space control. not too much else happened as the Medea's were still bombarding the Shaltari forces although I was finally able to get some tanks down on one sector.

Turn 5:

 Turn five saw the ruin of the Theseus and the Emerald to the wrath of the Hector. The Supernova opened up and swatted the last life from the listing troopship causing a radiation burst which alas finished off the ailing light cruiser. while at it, the port batteries inflicted some damage on the Amber which had made its way across the board and one of the gates went down to fire from the Europa's which had been making a nuisance of themselves.

The Amber got some measure of revenge against the Hector by inflicting a point but otherwise it was all combat on the ground where I got a small advantage from my tanks.

Turn 6:

The last turn saw the Europa's making the biggest pain of themselves and the Amber the subject of Laser fire crippling it. The hector was still limping around and the strike carriers were still shelling infantry on the ground. The Gates moved some more troops around but after it was all said and done the Shaltari had the day with 20 points to 9.

My thoughts:

Looking from the outside in, it seems that the Shaltari have an advantage of having weak defense batteries with their Voidgates. All the other factions need Troopships to get Defense Batteries on the ground but the Voidates give you that just for being where you want to be. Of course you need 5+ to take down a Dropship but if your name is Joe or have his luck then you will limit the ground engagement! I think that in bigger games this advantage will be lessened since you will have Troopships and more strike carriers, most times with more overall drops and units than your opponent can toss out since a single troopship can disgorge up to 6 infantry tokens a turn.

Combat wise, this felt right with the beta and it will change once we get terrain added in. I am happy that the PHR did good in space but I am still not a big fan on the Light Caliber Batteries. 

What are your thoughts for the first game we have seen for Starter fleets outside the standard Scourge and UCM?