DZC - Escalation League - Month One

Can't get enough of a good thing? As soon as we had recovered from Invasion, the club were Drop Zoning again.

Mike B started a five month long escalation league, with games on the first Friday of every month. Month one, started with starter box games similar to my recent game with Bryan, but on a three foot wide and four foot long table.

Above: Joe, the odd-man-out, just a little bit behind the other twelve participants, still constructing his Shaltari.

Giving my Scourge time off from their trails and tribulations, and with the adage, keep it simple simple stupid, I plumped for the Resistance as my army of choice. I had picked up the starter box and a few more bits and bobs at Invasion. I was told that this had been a good choice as the box had a very good 'points for your buck' ratio.

Game One.

Targets of Opportunity - Three central medium buildings - versus Alex - UCM

Alex doesn't play Drop Zone very regularly, but has a very good grasp of the mechanics, and we flew through the game. I had a good opportunity early on. My gun wagons risked it for a biscuit, when the Condor, still carrying the two Bears and their Legionnaires, appeared in their threat range. Unfortunately, after all the dice had settled, the Condor had escaped with a single wound left (fiddle). However, I was able to get into two of the objective holding buildings first and start searching before Alex. 

By turn six I held one objective, and Alex's remaining legionnaires, having been only able to search since turn five (until they had removed two stands of Resistance Fighters), failed to find theirs. A win on victory points game me a maximum of four campaign points. 

Game Two. 

Land Grab - Three focal points - versus Tim - Shaltari

Using the Swiss system, I was pitted against Tim, who was a newbie at the club, and had also been at Invasion. 

Three focal points in our game, was good news for me with so many ground units, but bad news for Tim, with so many flying gates. Tim decided to put all his Braves in a twenty point building next to the focal point on his half of the table. I had to be a little more cautious as the building next to my nearest focal point was only a ten pointer. The middle focal point was not near any buildings, so if we were to claim it, we had to be out in the open out the end of turn six. Gulp!

What this game showed me was how resilient the Resistance can be. Gun Wagons and Hannibals with two DPs and Krakens and Lifthawks with four. Coming from Scourge this was quite the surprise. Shots pinged off the Hannibal's tough hides, whilst they pummelled the Tomahawks, and for an encore, they took the final points off the building occupied by the Braves. 

Despite what happened in the game, Tim was a very decent opponent, who kept a smile on his face throughout as his dice failed him at clutch moments. So I achieve another victory, and four more campaign points.

A brilliant start for me. I now have a month to put together a 750 point force. The real question, is whether to go with a commander or not? A Thunderstorm perhaps?

Happy wargaming to you all.