Red Blok seizes momentum

I played a pair of missions this weekend; Mission 4: Skirmish (selected randomly on the spot) with Radon/Mike at Hobbytown on Friday, then Mission 3: Hold the Line with Bryan on Saturday. Each opponent played Red Blok’s Frontline faction.

Friday night’s game was the fastest defeat I’ve suffered, due to poor army selection, bad die rolls, and bad tactics. The key to this mission is that you must seize the containers in the center for RP and a neutral access zone so you can bring reinforcements on.

Our initial placements were aggressive– I placed a max squad in one of the center spaces adjacent to the container. I took cover and overwatch, though I suspected they’d do little good. He replied by popping on a support unit of 3 Mgauss Soldaty adjacent and unloaded at point blank range. (Without moving, so as not to provoke overwatch.) They did some damage, pruning my force back a bit (away from the container, costing me figures close enough to contest control of the container).

From there, he added another unit of infantry [6] to the center, while I added wing troopers to one end and a missile wielding steel trooper squad entered at the other end. A Nakovalny started chasing my wing troopers, while a Hussar decided to teach my steel missile troopers a lesson. I replied with a unit of three fire toads, one of whom was Bad Dog. He placed a second Nakovalny next to his 3 Mgauss squad in the center and continued to chew up my max squad in the middle. End of round 1. We checked control and he controlled both containers, while I controlled both access zones. So he got the max [500 RP], but couldn’t bring them on. Unfortunately, as soon as he controlled one zone he’d be able to bring them all on…

The next round, the steel troopers in the center mangled the Mgauss detatchment. The fire toads and hussar exchanged fire, wounding the hussar, but finishing off Bad Dog. The wing troopers advanced toward the center, harassed by both Nakovalnys along that flank [and with him successfully claiming the access zone with his second Nakolvny]. Other fire thinned his Spetsnatz from 6 to 2, but their morale was exceptional. The turn ended with him retaining control of both containers, despite my scrambling troops forward to contest it.

Turn 3 began with bad news; his reserves were all ready to stream on field. The Hussar smashed a second firetoad and started around the barriers and into the center of the battlefield. The center steel squad was annihilated, as were the Wing Troopers by fresh infantry pouring from the claimed access zone. The remaining units fought as best they could, but were too few to contest the containers and gain desperately needed reserves. The writing on the wall was clear and surrender soon followed.

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Important Lessons:
– Seize the containers! No, seriously, neutral zones are no good without RP from them.
– Reinforcements pouring in from an access zone are deadly. It’s a lot of fire from nowhere. As soon as I lost the access zone, the troops who had been holding it were toast. Maybe they shouldn’t have abandoned it after all?
– Build a knife fighting list. Build a list without so many officers for those matches that give out lots of VP for killing officers.