DZC Invasion Preparation - Scourge vs Stephen's UCM

(With Invasion a mere three days away, excitement is growing at OB Towers. There was a flurry of activity on the Facebook group on Sunday regarding the submission of lists, and talk of a recent self inflicted injury sustained by Dan (following which, I shall now refer to him as Thumberlina). With so much going on, at the moment, I realise that I will need to publish a couple more blogs this week just to keep up with my games).

Club night and six DZC players arrived. With three of us toting the Scourge menace we all rolled off to decide our opponent, and to avoid any jelly alien on jelly alien action, (not a pretty sight).

The dice gods paired me with Stephen's UCM, thus avoiding Ed's Tron PHR and Dan's (sorry Thumberlina's) Rusty Resistance. No bad thing. 

Stephen's list is below. Three dedicated AA units, the two groups of Rapier and the four Wolverine A. The HQ Phoenix also has some AA, and is a level 4 commander, to my level 5 Oppressor. He has five troop units, three of Legionnaires and two of the new shiny Hazard Suits. Anti-tank consists of two Katana and three Gladius. An Eagle has both demolition and anti-tank. With my destroyers, I have better close combat troops than him, but he has five troops units to my four.

Above: Stephen's UCM list.

We are playing Recon+++++ (I lose count on how many pluses there are now). Any building that is at least six inches away from the table edge contains a piece of Intel. Your troops enter a building and when they search they roll a D6. A roll of one and you find the Intel, but it explodes, and is no longer available to your opponent. Roll two to five you get a piece of Intel and roll a six you find a focal point, but no Intel, and no Intel is then available to your opponent.

At the start of our game there were nine buildings holding Intel, the only thing of note, one of those buildings was a ten pointer on my side of the table. 

In the early game I attempted to reduce some of the AA fire coming my way. A group of four Minders approached a Condor still carrying it's Rapiers, (My first catch of the day). I misjudged the distance by a tad, and unfortunately, only one was in range, which then, died to opportunity fire. The Reavers approached the Wolverines, who, through some unlucky dice roles, fluffed their lines, and the three Reavers and a Maurader, voted them off the show. 

With the hope of getting the initiative in the next turn I then moved the Reavers towards the three recently dropped Rapiers. Despite my +1 to the roll I lost the initiative (doh!), so I played the Central HQ Directive Commander Card, and lost the re-roll (doh! again). Stephen activated the Rapiers, so I played Quick Thinking, and activated the Reavers first, and unsurprisingly Stephen called opportunity fire with the Rapiers. Not a problem, he was looking for fives to hit, and then threes to wound or fives to kill. [Paging Mr Don't Get Cocky Kid, you are required in the wargaming hall]. Stephen's to hit dice rolls were 5,5,6 - 6,6,3 - 6,6,5 with his nine dice and the wounding dice caused all three Reavers to blow up (doh! for a third and final time).

Above: The Reavers about take on the Wolverines, but soon to become undone against the Rapiers

Stephen did that rare and wonderful thing, he then retired those dice from the game.

The loss of the Reavers put me onto the back foot for the remainder of the game as I tried to keep the UCM troops from entering new buildings for Intel. The UCM dropped the building holding the only Focal point and by turn five we were four Intel points each. Stephen now had his chance to move a unit of Hazards into a new building, and if he won the subsequent initiative roll for turn six, he could search before I removed the last two building points. 

Well reader, no prizes for guessing, I lost the roll off, and the Hazards carried the day. But it was still a very enjoyable close game. Thank you Stephen.

Good wargaming to you all