Scuffle on Eta Bootie IV - Urban War Report

We finally got around to playing Urban War last night and a good time was had by all. UW is one of those games that we keep talking about playing more because it is good fun, but for a variety of reasons we don't play it enough. Anyway, last month we painted up Urban War figures as our monthly project so this month we threw them down on the table and set to.

I had my beloved Syntha, robot masterminds, versus Steve's Junkers, sort of Roman spods with a penchant for blowing themselves up. The scenario was the basic Scuffle scenario with a 50% strategic withdrawal level and 8 turn limit. Strategic withdrawal basically means that after you hit the limit you have to make command tests every time you take a casualty. If you fail, your force routs.

The start of the battle

The battle was set up around a shuttle repair facility. My Syntha set up on the left in the above pic, while the Junkers set up on the right. I deployed my troops in a skirmish line across the set-up area with my melee troops hiding behind the mech bay, waiting to spring out and slice-and-dice the enemy. I also placed my T-synth with its Mini MLRS in cover. My plan was to use its indirect fire capability along with the spotting ability of my Artemis and Artemis Alpha to place area fire where needed. Steve tried to control his right flank with a crew-served chaingun and a few troops. The rest of his force was set up to move through the repair facility and bring the fight to me.

Sniping across the landing pad

The game developed in much the way we expected. The Androsynths moved into covering fire positions on the landing pad. The Hercules biomechs moved into the repair bay to take the fight to the enemy. The Pyro Cyclosynth and T-synth laid down fire on the crewed chaingun and the troops with it. All my shots missed. Yes, that's about as expected. After that though, things heated up and I forgot to take many more pictures! I did manage to get some hits in and the action on my left flank was more in my favour than in Steve's as casualties racked up over there.

Close combat, CLAU to CLAU (if you look closely you can see the head of the Junkers Duckurion)

In the repair bay, my Hercules biomechs charged the enemy CLAU and completely failed to hit it before getting cut into pieces. My Talon Cyclosynth then went in and had an appalling round of combat versus the enemy CLAU. Two hits, two sets of critical damage versus no hits on the enemy at all to start with. It managed to get a hit in before getting cut into pieces but the fight was totally one-sided, despite both figures having substantially the same stats.

Elsewhere on the battlefield the Junkers were taking casualties and we were both closing in on our strategic withdrawal limits. I was one figure away, Steve reached the limit but kept passing the command checks. Then it happened.

CLAU down

The Junkers CLAU advanced into close combat with an Androsynth, destroyed it and one of my Pyro Cyclosynths got a good shot in right after. For about the first time in the game I hit the target with my plasma cannon and the resultant damage took the Junkers CLAU down. This was the last straw for the Junkers force and the rest of the troops ran. Game over.

It was a close victory for me but it could have gone either way. We both agreed that it was great fun. We really should play Urban War more, you know.