Great Game!

Had an excellent game two weeks ago, just been too busy to talk about it. Went to my friend's house for our usual game, 3000 points of CAV. He was excited to play with his new models, which are quite well painted by the way, and I was excited to play with a couple models I don't normally use. Forces were:

Forlorn Hope (Independent: Free-Form Doctrine)
Armor Section
2x Dictator 60
1 Falcon
1 Puma w/ EST upgrade

Mechanized Infantry Section
2x Lynx
4x Rifle Teams w/ 3 Satchel Charges and AT-23s

Specialist Section
2x Nomad
1x Rifle Team w/ AT-23

Mortar Section
3x Armored Heavy Mortar Teams

Flight Section
2x Dragonfly

Flight Section
2x Ghast

Strikes
2x Cruise Missile
2x(I think) Smoke

Sergeant Crunch (Independent: Spoils of War)
Armor Section
2x Wolverine
2x Lance
1 Nomad

Fire Support Section
4x Conquerors
1 Nomad w/ EST upgrade

Strikes
2x Cruise Missile
5x Smoke

The scenario was a "capture and hold" type with a group of four building set up around a 2" diameter objective at table center. Groups of trees were set up between the buildings (gotta have landscaping you know). Hills were set up on both sides of the buildings and trees to provide a little more cover, the first 12" or so of the deployment edges (played on a 4x6 table lengthwise) were clear. The objective was to place a ground unit on the objective point and claim as many of the six available tokens as possible. To claim a token a player had to have a ground unit on the objective with no enemy models of any type within 6".

Obviously the Forlorn Hope had an advantage in initiative, while I had opted for one section of tough to crack tanks and a section of high powered indirect fire support. The first turn was pretty much the usual movement forward and a couple smokes being called in, of note though was the indirect fire exchange. FH fired his mortar section at my Conquerors, of the three shots they all drifted off target, but within six inches of all the Conquerors, triggering their Counterbattery SA. Long story short, an Armored Heavy Mortar Team was removed the table. On their activation the Conq's fired a salvo strike at the armor section from behind a smoke screen. The first attempt at a target point drifted off the table edge as he was trying to edge around a hill, the second TP was directly on the Puma. Final result was one point on the Puma and a point on one of the Dictators. His Dragonflies also managed a point of damage on one of my Conquerors.

Second turn saw the beginning of the real fighting. FH moved his Mech Inf and Dragonflies up behind a hill on my right flank and dropped a smoke to obscure them. I responded with individually targeted attacks from the Conquerors which removed the Dragonflies from the game but only managed one point of damage on one Lynx. I then moved the Wolverines, which were on that side of the table, and opened fire. Unfortunately my dice gave out on me. Would've helped if Lynxes had stayed soft, but oh well. End result from that was one Lynx with two points of damage and one Lynx with one point of damage. I was really hoping that between the IF and Wolverines I could kill the transports with the infantry in them, but it wasn't to happen. Also of note, two cruise missiles were called in, one on each side and they moved forward to center table. This was most likely a mistake on my part. I should've called smoke instead. The armor section took a pot shot and scored a hit on a different Conqueror.

Third turn was ugly for me. Seeing as how he still had quite an initiative card advantage, he got the first card. The Lynxes moved in and the rifle teams assaulted my Conquerors. They engaged two of the Conqs, one damaged, one not. The damaged one went down, while the undamaged one took three points. The Lynxes fired at the other damaged one and put it at its last track. I don't remember how the fourth one got destroyed, but by the time I got a card I had a damaged Conqueror still in B2B with infantry and another on it's last DT. The one in contact disengaged, and the other failed a repair roll and fell back. The one with a remaining action fired at an infantry stand that had taken a point of damage, but was killed by the return fire. He moved a couple Ghasts forward to attempt to destroy my cruise missile but was unable to, then moved his cruise missile forward to destroy my remaining Conqueror but fell just short. The remaining Conqueror took a shot at a Lynx on its last track and hit, taking it down, but fell to defensive fire. This forced the cruise missile to change targets and impact on a Lance dealing a couple points. The Wolverines moved up and took out the Ghasts with their flamers as they were lined up nice and pretty, this also put them in a good position to claim the objective next turn. The Lances took pot shots at the remaining Lynx, but to no avail. My remaining cruise missile took out the Puma rendering his armor section without electronic support.

This is where things get kind of hazy. Next turn he loaded infantry onto his remaining Lynx and moved it towards the objective. His Nomad called in their remaining cruise missile and it moved halfway up the table. The other one took a shot at a Wolverine but did nothing. The Wolverines engaged the Nomad and took it out easily with their flamers, then one moved behind cover while the other moved onto the objective. My Lances couldn't get within point blank range without leaving them in the open, but I wanted that Lynx dead while it had infantry in it. So I took a gamble and got naught but a point of damage on the Lynx and my tanks in the open. The Nomad called in the last cruise missile before getting popped by mortars in the next activation. FH's armor section took aim and knocked out one of the Lances.

My memory of the game at this point has gotten fuzzy enough to not remember exactly what happened, but in the end, it ended being one lone, damaged, Wolverine sitting on the objective, having claimed three of the six tokens, facing down a Dictator 60 and the Falcon from the Armor section. The two mortar teams also remained as well as one lone stranded rifle team. He killed the tank before it could claim one more token for a victory. So, even though he wiped me off the table, I secured a draw by the scenario objective.

It was a great game that had a great back and forth feel to it and it was questionable up until the end who would win. I wish my indirect attacks had rolled better, had they taken out the Lynxes with the infantry in them it would've been a different game. But that's how the d10 rolls. I was really happy with how the cruise missiles played out. They were more resilient than I thought they would be. Now for the two pictures we remembered to take during the game...





After the recon moves and his first activation






And the showdown at the end of the game (yeah, we suck at remembering to take pics)








And some glamour shots of the Forlorn Hope mercenary unit