This is the first Battle Report I make in almost two years. It is a 1200 point battle between myself and Mocaiv from www.wargamesunlimited.com who is fielding Zykhee.
As the quick reader will know I have never beaten Mocaiv in the time we have played VOR (effectively from when VOR came to Europe.
The Battle Report is based on a piece of drawing and my memory and may be altered.
Note: Some of the pictures might look incorrect on the Zykhee’s behalf, but that is simply due to the speed of The Zykhee force, they are so fast that they can easily be engaged in one Closecombat, then move on to the next in one turn so it is hard to illustrate this awesome speed in static illustrations.
The forces
Neo Soviet Force: I chose to bring all the heavy fire power I have to battle, simply because The Zykhee with their multiple wounds are very hard to kill.
The Typhoon and the Ursa are both equipt with The Tempest Mortar which can be fired indirectly at any hidden troops and more mportantly, it causes 3 wounds if it penetrates the armour.
The Vanguards’ Wolverine has never failed me either so that was also high on my list.
Next thing was taking all my Rad troopers simply to build a wall to take the first wave of the Zykhee. While they were engaged I could hopefully either bomb the close combat with the Officers grenades or blast the close combat with the Chem Grunts fearsome instant-kill chemical sprayers.
Zykhee Force: Comments to come
Setup
My name is Zakanov, I am a Rad Trooper in Mother Russia’s proud army. I have two goals: Protecting Mother Russia and surviving. I had never met an the Space Elves, known as Zykhee before…
I won the setup. I built a wall of Rad Troopers, placing my Ursa in the middle (first time it saw battle). On the far right I place Chem Grunts well away from any valuable troops.
Officers were also placed towards the right to “help” the Rad Troopers focus on the task ahead
On the left I had the Typhoon and the elite Vanguards and to protect them against any extra fast Zykhee I place two Cyclops with their nasty claws. I had a feeling they were the only troops I had which could take on Zykhee in Close Combat.
The last Cyclops was place in the middle as a sort of rapid task unit.
Mocaiv placed his main force in/around the forest out of sight. His Warrior Monarch was deployed with the Ka’Char on the left (my left) side along with the Death Dancers and the Mystic.
Turn 1
We saw the first ones break over the hill. We all frose, even the mighty Vanguards behind us hesitated for a second, but Kapitain Ashnimov and his gunner in the Ursa didn’t! They fired at the approaching Zykhee and so did we.
Again I got the better roll and eager to try out the Ursa I moved it up on the hill in front of everything. The Ursa is equipt with most powerful weapon in my army, the Tepest mortar. Unfortunately it only shoots every otherturn so I needed to make most of it since the Ursa would most likely be engaged in Close Cobat in turn 3. I had to targets in my mind: The Soulless and The Ka’Char.
The Soulless had previously proven very hard to kill and with 4 wounds each the Tempest would not be able to kill them outright since it “only” causes 3 wounds.
So in the end I opted for the Ka’Char simply to reduce the Zykhee army before they reached me. The Ursa killed three of them straight away and the Rad Troopers on the left side of the Ursa’s hill took out the final Ka’Char shortly after.
Not untill after I killed them did I realise that that particular unit was the single most dangerous to my Ursa.
In the meantime the Death Dancers used their speed tattos to make a magnificent charge forward only to be outshone by the Soulless who not only cleared the forest in go but also had enough energy to kill 4 Rad Troopers with smgs on the far right side.
But the Death Dancers’ graceful charge was cut short, first by the Typhoon killing one of them and then followed up by the Rad Troopers on the far left killing another, leaving only the one who still had his speed tatoo intact.
On the Right side of the table the Neo Soviet had recovered from the horific charge of the Souless and one of the Chem Grunts, caring little for the last Rad Trooper, blasted away killing a Soulless. The Rad Trooper also in the blast area survived only to live another turn for the Jho’Tokk was advancing quickly along with the rest of the Zykhee army…
Turn 2
Things looked good, although the strange, thin creatures were advancing with haste.
The emotionless Soulless did not fall for the temptation to charge into close combat with the Chem Grunts who had just killed one of their mates. Instead one charge forward towards the next intact Rad Trooper squad, while the other killed two Chem Grunts with his soul fire staff. The third Chem Grunt turned around and started to run the wrong way (the right way in his warped mind).
The Jho’Tokk now also reach the fray and killed the last Rad Trooper who still couldn’t believed he had survived the Chem Grunt’s horible weapon.
I thought it was time for Officer Kalinkov to send his trusted pet, the Rad Hound forward to try to wound Soulless, but when the blast from the hound’s cranial bomb had faded away the Soulless was still standing excately were he stood before the blast… except his faceless mask was turned towards Kalinkov.
The Stalkers and the Ra’Gha also moved quickly forward. I decided to meet them with the Ursa instead of just waiting for the inevitable. The Ursa took a step forward and killed a Stalker with it’s Chem Sprayer. I chose to fire the Chem sprayer over the Chain Gun since the splash template of the Chem Sprayer could cover two Stalkers were-as the full-auto template of the chaingun would only have covered one.
On the other side of the board the last Death Dancer charged and killed one of the Cyclops. The Mystic tried to parylise the other Cyclops but with no luck.
The Rad Troopers who had killed the last Ka’Char moved forward towards the building in the middle of the battle field. I did this to be able to add fire power to the whole center of the field and to give Yuri a good place to turn off, if he chose to.
The Vanguards moced backward to get a clear shot at the Jho’Tokk next turn.
Turn 3
We had reached the ruin but to what end? The Zykhee were many more than we thought. They came pouring out of the forest, and we were in the middle of it alone.
The Ursa shoot dead two of the Ra’Ghar emerging from the forest. The Rest of the unit charged the Ursa to revenge their fallen comrades.
The Jho’Tokk continued their charge and killed the Chem Grunt fleeing and then charged the Rad Troopers in the main Close Combat.
Things were heating up at the big black rocks, so Officer Gulyayev decided to clear things out a bit and threw a Tox/Class 2 grenade in the middle of the brawl killing two Stalkers and two Rad Troopers (acceptable loss she thought, and I have to say I agree).
The Soulless ran over the few bits of dog left, charge Kalinkov and killed him on the spot.
The Rad Squad in the middle of the field had reach the ruin and I thought it would be a good time to start wearing the Soulless down, so they opend fire on the two Soulless, causing three wounds, but killing none.
The Typhoon had move slowly forward on the left side fired again and killed the Warrior Monarch who was still deciding what to do out in the open without the Ka’Char. He performed the warrior’s dance and was still standing after the smoke had cleared from the heavy shell.
The advancing Rad Squad on the left side killed both the last Death Dancer and the Mystic, but the Mystic managed to cast a spell on the Cyclops which effectively meant he wouldn’t do much for the remainer of the battle. But it meant the left side of the battle field was now mine.
Turn 4
We were firing everything we had at the faceless monsters who didn’t seem to care about the bullets passing through them. Suddenly a man stood next to us, a Vanguard. But he was strange, he was bigger than most men, but moved like he was hovering or floating… It wasn’t untill on of the others pointed out that the Vanguard had two holes through his chest that it dawned on me that he was not natural. But the stranger shot at the Zykhee so we didn’t ask questions.
Yuri Alibek turned up and placing him in the ruin with the Rad Troopers seemed like a good idea because it would reinforce my covarage of the middle of the field.
Hopefully he would do more damamge than the Vanguard had done so far, they fired all they had on the advancing Jho’Tokk and failed to cause a single wound.
On top of that the Vengefull Ra’Gha caused 3 wounds on the Ursa (maybe advancing the not so close combat oriented Ursa was a bad idea after all).
One of the Soulless killed two Rad Troopers while the other charged Officer Gulyayev.
The Jho’Tokk charged, but didn’t wound, the Cyclops who had been firing his beam at them but without causing any casualties.
Only blood spild by the Neo Soviet was the Rad Troopers in the ruin who killed the Warrior Monarch (again).
I was seriously starting to worry whether I had thrown my first victory against Mocaiv away by aggresively advancing my whole force and esspecially my Ursa.
Turn 5
Now it came for us, the faceless horror. One second it was far away, the next it stood over me with on of the others broken corpse by it’s feet. I thought I was dead but then the big Vanguard stepped in. The creature hit the Vanguard with impossibly hard blows, but it was like the hits just passed through him.
The Ursa moved out of combat to get a shot at the Soulless running towards the middle ruin, but failed to penetrate the armour with the Mortar. But the Ra’Gha saw their chance and jumped on the Ursa and ripped it appart.
Then the Souless charged the Rad Squad and Yuri in the ruins killing only one of the Rad troopers. The other Soulless killed Gulyayev in one mighty blow and moved on killing the last Rad Trooper around that area on his way.
The Cyclops engaged with the Jho’Tokk killed the rider and the beast ran off. The remaining two Jho’Tokk charged the Vanguards killing two including the guy with the Wolverine, one of them was then shot down by the remaining Vanguards.
The Rad Trooers and the Typhoon on the left started to advance towards the right edge. The Cyclops stil parylised didn’t move this turn.
Turn 6
As if the Vanguard knew the battle was won he lowered his defences and let the faceless Zykhee strike him down only to find that he disappeared in thin air as he had appeared only moments before.
The Soulless killed Yuri and the other Soulless was still on the move, but as if they suddenly woke up, the Vanguards who had done failed to wound most of their targets this game, took carefull aim and killed the two Soulless in one go. Now with the Soulless gone things were coming to a closure.
As to return the favour the Rad Troopers in the ruin shot dead the last Jho’Tokk and two of the Ra’Gha. The Battle was over and the last Rha’ Gha fled.
Conlusion
I now know that the Vanguard was Yuri Alibek, the Ghost of the Great Bear. He saved me from my faceless executioner, why I don’t know but he did, and me I survived ready to protect Mother Russia another day.
I won, Yippee!
Looking back I made one big error, I should never had advanced the Ursa! It was imposible to turn it around and fire at anything when it was first engaged in Close Combat.
I think the Rad Troopers which I previously have had very low thoughts about, again proved to be a lot better than given credit for. The Vanguard on the other hand did the worst performance ever.
Yuri didn’t make the big impact other than taking a few blows form the Soulless but hey, now I have him painted up for next time.
In the end I can only say bringing multiple wounds (Tox/class 2 grenades and the mortars) and instant death weapons such as The Chemgrunts paid off big time.