Tuesday 10 July 2012

Frondula VI: Show and Kill - The Game

There were six of us for the game. Each with a 1000 points 6mm FWC army
  • Graham: X31 / Tau 
  • Mark: Terminators 
  • Mike: Hunter-Scavengers / Orks 
  • Shaun: Andrayadans 
  • Steve: Space Marines 
  • Me: Hunter-Scavengers / Orks

The table was the usual 6x4 desert style
There were 8 Frondulan colonies spread around the table waiting to see the precious things.
Shaun's Andrayadans and my Hunter-Scavengers landed close to each other. My precious things were being transported by a de-activated Ogrethullu .
Graham's Tau appeared at the Research Centre whilst Steve's Marines appeared in a firing squad formation very very close to Mark's soon-to-be-terminated Terminators. They even managed to present to the same Frondulan.
My transport getting ready to present - those claws were useful for carrying the Enemy Killed bonus cards. Meanwhile Graham boldly pushed his Tau forward leaving his transport to get captured by Mike's Orks

There was a lot of transport being captured mainly because it was easier to capture other people's transport rather than move your own - a flaw in the scenario.

Steve captured Mark's, Mike captured Graham's and Shaun's and Shaun captured mine.

A double presentation by Mark and Steve whilst Mike captures Shaun's transport with his bikers

It was quite a bloody game with Mark being destroyed twice and Shaun once

Here is Mark's description of the game

 The Terminator Assault Wave lasted all of 2 moves - in Steve's 1st turn - & 1 initiative assault move in mine (but at least we presented precious things to the Frondulans). I think the idea of using a Breakpoint:2 army despite it being 'well-'ard' Cyborgs needs a bit more thinking & practice ...

 The Progenitors arrived right into the midst of a gun-fight between Grahams Species X31 & Mikes Orks - did a bit of OK shooting (Smart-Missiles at Steve's Marines ... smoking ... as well as lobbing a few shells at both the Orks & Tau ... probably not the best plan ... shoot at all 3 of your neighbours at once) but then got well & truely mauled by Graham & finally tuffed up by Steve's marines ... but again we managed to 'present' to the Frondulans ... gaining points ... and we all know what points make now don't we boys & girls? 

Unfortunately the next army choice didn't manage to make it onto the planet (as we'd run out of time) ... but it might have been my BP:10 Orange Orks or another BP:3 army - my Kra'Vak fast armour attack squadron ... but we'll never know.


I managed to own a hill until Shaun attacked me. Mind you I had shot up loads of his kit.. My cunning plan was to drop infantry off at each Frondulan colony but as I only got to one it wasn't that cunning


We each managed 4 turns which isn't bad considering there were 6 of us with a 1000 points each - that's 24 turns.

The final score was Mark, Mike & Steve with 2 presentation points, Shaun and myself with 1 and Graham with 0.

With hindsight I would change the scenario so that transports  move at 30 and instead of being captured they flee 30cm in a random direction when overrun.

Frondula VI: Show and Kill - The Scenario

This is a Sci-Fi scenario - we used Future War Commander with 6mm figures

Frondula VI is an Earth-type world with an extremely sentient plant life-form that dominates the planet. This plant, known as the Frondulans, manifests itself as colonies of tentacles or fronds. It has been impossible to ascertain whether each colony is a separate entity or whether it is a single world-wide organism.

Due to it’s immense economic importance, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frondula, almost every other sentient life-form in the galaxy desires access to the planet. However in order to establish a base on Frondula it is necessary to placate the all-pervading Frondulans.

 These tentacle-like plants love nothing better than extreme violence and precious things. Therefore once a year any life-forms intending to maintain a base on the planet must engage in combat and display their precious things to the Frondulans. 

Failure to amuse them results in the Frondulans denying access to the life-form and in some cases to all life-forms as was the case in 2524 when the plant got so annoyed with the MacGregor clan for presenting Bugmans beer yet again that it put on a growth spurt that enveloped the entire planet to a height of some 2 miles and then slowly pulled the arms, legs and other appendages off anything that had not been crushed or strangled by the irate vegetable.

Unsurprisingly it is that time of year when extreme violence must be committed and precious things be presented.

Forces will be transported to the planet’s surface using random orbital deployment ie roll a dice to see where you are located on the table

In order to present precious things to the Frondulans transport unit must start the initiative phase in contact with a Frondulan colony. A player can never present more than once to a colony.

The force with the most presentation points wins.  If a force is destroyed then it keeps it’s presentation points but discards all other presentation bonuses and is brought back in via random orbital deployment.

Colonies block line of sight and fire and are impassible to all – even grav units

How to Present

Presentation involves rolling 2 dice and consulting the table

Double 1Remember 2524?
Roll 1 dice and lose that many units
All other players lose 1 unit
5 or lessYuck – wrong shade of pink.
Lose 1 unit
6-8Didn’t we see a bigger one of those last year?
Gain 1 Presentation Point
9-10mmmm Nice
Roll 1 dice and add that to any CV rolls this turn
Gain 1 Presentation Point
11 plusAb Fab! You can’t get that in Harvey Nics
Roll 1 dice and add that to any CV rolls this turn
Gain 1 dice to re-roll once per turn
Gain 1 Presentation Point
Double 6Precious – we wants it!
Roll 1 dice and add that to any CV rolls this turn
Gain 3 dice to re-roll once per turn CO’s
CV goes up 1 for remainder of game

Dice Modifiers
+1 Every enemy unit destroyed by your force
-1 Every turn without presentation (ignore 1st three)

These must be used when presenting after which they are discarded

Forces

1000 point army
- no aircraft, tunneller units or massive units
- no off-board artillery or orbital strikes
- no minimums - however maximums still apply

You will require 1 transport at no cost to carry "The Precious Things"

This has the stats

Troops Arm Move Attacks Assault Hits Save
Transport Armour 20F 0 0 200 S 2 T

Notes

1. Shield is passive so does not inflict hits
2. Cannot be targeted for recce
3. Can be overrun in which case it is immediately captured
4. Does not block line of sight or fire