End of an Escalation

The escalation league ended on Sunday-ish the 1st.  There still hasn't been any sort of "hey guys, thanks for playing, and the winner is..." e-mail/announcement.  Though I guess that might've been posted to the store's Facebook page, but fuck if I'm going to logon to Facebook just to check it.  Since, you know, I didn't win anyhow.

At any rate, on Weds the 28th I played the same Ork player as I'd played at 750 points.  So far my entire 40k career consists of playing Mike a shit-ton of times and this Ork player twice, and that's it.  It was a 1250 point game, and my cadre came in at 1249 points.  His army was something like:

• Slugga Boyz w/ Nob & Warboss
• Slugga Boyz (this unit was fucking 'uge)
• Buggy of some sort
• Zapgun (I think? some kind of heavy weapon emplacement) with some Grots manning it
• Loota Boyz
• Burna Boyz (maybe 2 squads of these?)
• maybe some 'Ard Boyz?

We rolled Annihilation and promptly said, "Fuck that," partially because he'd just played a 2+ hour annihilation game against the IG player, partially because I'm bored of annihilation, and partially because the last game we played together was annihilation.  So we rolled again for Seize Ground w/ 3 total objectives and Dawn of War.  This is all going to be from my perspective on the table, of course, from left to right.

The left third of the table had low-walled area-terrain walls against both his and my edges facing toward each other, a low hill midway between my edge and table-center, with a forest at the center; an objective was placed in the middle of the forest.  The middle third of the table had a series of barricades against my edge, a low building in the center with a cupola that contained an objective, and another low-but-long building against his table edge.  Just right-of-center, firmly in my table half but not against my edge, was a fortified building with a single entrance (facing the left short table edge) that contained the third objective.  The right third of the table contained a larger ruin (a Basilica Administratum, maybe?) on my half and another building of some sort in his half.

I won the roll off and elected to have him deploy first.  Since it was Dawn of War (up to 2 troops and 1 HQ) he placed the buggy right at the 24 inch mark as close to dead center as terrain would allow and his second Slugga squad ready to move up on the central building that contained the objective.  I deployed one of my shas'els in between the objective-holding fortified building and the ruins, a Fire Warrior squad amongst the barricades, and a Devilfish with embarked FW squad to the left of the barricades, in front of the area-terrain wall but behind the hill that overlooked the woods.  The only unit I reserved were my Kroot.

I seized the initiative and the game was afoot!  Or ahoof, in the case of Tau.

(Despite my noting it during deployment, we both forgot about the 1st-turn night fighting rules once the game actually started.)

Turn 1

I moved my XV88 Broadsides up into the barricades, adjacent to the FW squad.  On both the left and right far flanks I deployed one Sniper Drone Team each.  My Hammerhead came out on the right, near the pre-deployed shas'el, with a heavily-obstructed view of the Sluggas that were poised to walk right up to an objective.  My second shas'el came on left-center, looking at the buggy and in support of the Devilfish.  I dropped one XV8 team each center-left and center-right.  The Hammerhead fired a blast of submunitions at the 2 or 3 Sluggas he could see, and it scattered more fully onto the squad; they had cover, however, and casualties were very light.  The deployed FW team did the same, for similarly negligible results, and I have no recollection what my various XV8s (shas'els and the two teams of shas'uis) did; I would assume they fired at the buggy, but if they did they either missed or failed to cause any damage whatsoever.  The Sniper Drone Teams both ran to get into position; the left team headed for the hill overlooking the woods and the right team made it up into the second floor of the ruins.

Again from left to right.  His Zapgun hunkered behind the wall on the far side of the forest, some kind of tank or another rolled up just to the right of them, and continuing to the right a green tide of holy-shit-that's-a-lot-of-models poured onto the field, anchored on the far right by a squadron of Deff Koptas.  The Burnas moved left-of-center, skirting the forest, the Lootas hung out in a building giving them decent LOS over most of the field, and there were just guys, guys, and more guys.  The Sluggas I'd taken under fire returned the favor, and a S8 rokkit launcha made it through my Broadsides' 2+ armor save and blew one straight to hell.  The others failed their morale test and fled right off the board.

This, fellow generals, is why the Advanced Stabilization System is a good idea.  They would've gotten at least 1 round of shooting had they been equipped with it.  Instead, 148 points' worth of heavy support choices ran onto the field just long enough for a third of them to die, and then ran right back off.  I immediately declared, "That's it, the game's over.  I lost."

He protested out of politeness, then proceeded to scoot his buggy forward against my barricade, disembark his Warboss + squad, and charge into my FWs and rip them to shreds (of course).  He consolidated toward my Hammerhead and the shas'el.

Turn 2

My Kroot fail to arrive.  The left SDT move + run onto the hill, ready to lay down covering fire next turn.  The Hammerhead backs up away from the Warboss and pals, then takes a long-range potshot at the looted whatever that's diagonally across most of the length of the board and behind cover and blows it to hell.  Well, that's something gone right, anyhow, though no wounds were caused by the detonation.  My shas'el tries to whittle down the Warboss' numbers without much success while the XV8 team puts a wound onto one of the Koptas.  The right SDT makes its markerlight shot against the Sluggas camping out on the objective and scores a few hits, but coversaves prevent any wounds.  The Devilfish creeps around, looking for an angle on the Sluggas and trying not to get my only currently-fielded unit of troops killed.  The right shas'el and XV8 team use their assault move to get as far as they can from the Warboss, moving around behind the right-most ruin (where the SDT is on the 2nd floor).

His Burnas move up and his Zapgun does a thing that grants him a S10 shot while killing a crewmember but fails to get a clear shot through the trees at my Devilfish, which passes a cover save.  There's lots of mildly effective shooting (including him recanting declaring my left SDT as his target after I explained that it had a stealth field that would require a "can you even see it?" check...which I let slide in the spirit of friendliness, or maybe it was my resignation at having already lost in turn 1 with the death of my Broadsides).  The Warboss' gang assaults my Hammerhead, I think courtesy of his WAAAAAGH!, and rips off the railgun as well as stunlocking it in place.

Turn 3

Things aren't looking any better as my Kroot decide to continue loitering about like lazy bums.  My left-center shas'el and XV8 team work over the Burnas as best they can (which isn't very well) and the Devilfish in the same general area beats a hasty retreat to stay safe.  Both SDT teams take a few shots here and there, causing some hits and taking a few wounds. My poor dumb Hammerhead sits around with stars orbiting its ocular sensors and my shas'els and XV8 teams try to whittle down both the Warboss' band and the Deff Koptas while maneuvering with their assault-jumps to try and stay out of charge range of anyone.

A squad of some sort or another move into the forest and claim the objective there.  His shooting phase amounts to the death of the left-center shas'el and one of the XV8s in the team on the same side, but the other Crisis suit holds.  The Warboss' squad assaults my Hammerhead again, ripping off one of the burst cannons and then immobilizing it.  (To add insult to injury, when I removed the flying base the nub snapped off inside the model.)  They then consolidate toward my shas'el, who's been scooting back around to get between the building and the right-most table edge to avoid getting trapped in melee.

Turn 4

Finally my Kroot arrive on the field, but they outflank to the wrong side of the board.  I'd wanted them on the left, to move into the forest and get their 3+ cover save, but instead they come on the right.  I place them sort of centered on the short-edge, with the thought of moving them toward the central objective to contest/take it from the Sluggas hanging out there.  My Devilfish moves around to come at the forest-objective from the left table edge, trusting to the trees and its disruption pod to save it from the Zapgun, and puts a few ineffectual shots from its burst cannon and drones into the squad holding it.  The SDTs fire at their appropriate targets (left to woods, right to center) and my Kroot change tacks and come down to save the blue-skinned bacon of the shas'el being chased by the Warboss.  The surviving XV8 on the left fires at the heretofore ignored buggy (which hadn't even been shooting it's own gun) and wrecks it, while the other XV8 teams takes a Kopta or two.

The Kroot launch an assault, only getting 5 or 6 models out of 15 into range but denying the Warboss and his fellows the charge.  I take a few casualties, he takes a few wounds, and we remain locked in combat.

His shooting is largely ineffective; I don't have that many models on the field anymore, and those that are are either out of LOS, behind stealth fields, or in melee.  The Kroot pile-in and trade more blows with the Warboss and his pals, coming out on top again but the Orks hold it together.

Turn 5

Things aren't looking terribly pretty.

My Devilfish takes a chance and moves into the forest, taking and passing a dangerous terrain test, and unloads the embarked FW team just inside contesting range.  The FWs, in turn, unload 12 shots on the Sluggas, plus 3 from the Devilfish and 2 more from the Devilfish's drones.  The left SDT also hammers away at the same target, but they pass enough cover saves to stay put though they do take a pinning wound from either the DFish's drones or the SDT and fail the morale test, which leaves my FWs safe from being charged. My monat XV8 throws a few missiles into the squad holding the center objective and ducks into some cover, while my shas'el and the other XV8 team sweep up the Deff Koptas.  The Kroot chop at the Warboss in a bloodcrazed frenzy and manage to take down the few surviving Orks, immediately consolidating a paltry 2 inches toward the unclaimed center-right objective (in the fortified structure).

He shoots up a few Fire Warriors but they hold on.  My shas'el was exposed and takes a rokkit, but his drone selflessly commits cyber-seppuku and throws itself in the line of fire; the shock of it, though startles the shas'el into flight and he comes perilously close to the edge.

As the game stands I would lose if it ends now.  We're contesting the left objective, he holds the center objective, and the center-right objective is unclaimed.  With that weighing heavily on my mind I give a d6 a shake and throw it down.

Turn 6

We continue.

My Devilfish says "No Guts, No Glory" and tank shocks the ragged survivors of the Ork unit contesting the wooded objective, breaking them.  As they flee, the surviving gun drone moves up to flank the DFish and help block the Fire Warriors from the Burnas that are still skulking about.  The Kroot move + run toward the unclaimed objective, getting the leading edges of their formation up to the door; the unit as a whole can't embark into the building, though, and the placement of the actual objective means that they're further than 3" from it.  One of the SDTs misses all of its shots (first time that's happened all game) and the other fails to cause any wounds through the cover being provided to the Sluggas that are atop the central objective.  The shas'el regains his wits and moves up in support of the Kroot, while the XV8 monat and team move in towards the center objective from opposite sides; the monat reaches contestation range, but is perilously close to both the Sluggas and the Burnas.  The FWs have no range on anything and try to be real, real small in the face of the Zapgun and Lootas.

The Zapgun does its thing, coming up with a casualty-less S10 shot and blows up the Devilfish, which flings shrapnel into the FWs and causes a casualty.  The Lootas laugh uproariously and gun down the remaining FWs, leaving the objective unclaimed.  The Sluggas have no LOS to the monat XV8, and the Burnas have to take a difficult terrain test and only get 1 flamer in range.  He sprays wildly about, but anyone who's played against SMs knows that a 3+ armor save is annoying as all fuck.

There's a scoreless tableau, with two objectives unclaimed and one contested.  With a 1-4 ending the game, my opponent tosses a d6 which comes up 5.

Turn 7

Panting with exertion, wild-eyed, flush with possible impending victory, my Kroot all make it within 2" of the entrance to the fortified center-right objective and embark, popping up on the roof.  My shas'el and the 3 XV8s combine fire on the Burnas, wiping them away, and the XV8 team continues forward to help contest the objective.  If ever I regretted bringing 2 suboptimal choices in the pair of Sniper Drone Teams, this was not the time: both teams find their marks, plugging a few more holes in the Slugga boys contesting the center objective, who pass a morale check to maintain formation but then fail one and are pinned.

With the Slugga boys gone to ground and unable to take any actions this turn, the Lootas take a few desultory shots at the Kroot and miss them all while the Zapgun has no line of sight to any of my units.

The game ends with the manifest destiny of the Greater Good proving once again that blue > green.

Double Elimination

The second game Mike and I played on Tuesday.  Somehow he managed to roll spearhead/annihilation again, which probably should have been an indication that the dice weren't going to be with Mike for this game.  We swapped back to our traditional table corners and shuffled the terrain a bit to try and make it as different as possible from the game we'd just finished.  We started playing at about 2120, and Mike had told his wife he'd be home by 2130, so we made a conscious choice to play as quickly as we could and as a result there are a few "missing" pictures.

Deployment complete.  Such a no-nonsense look of intensity.  TSM + Chapter Master behind the central plateau, TSM squad embarked in the Rhino.  Shas'el Fireknife and elite Deathrains parked pretty far forward.  Not entire sure what I was thinking, there.  Broadside as far "up" the long table edge as allowed, and as far back as possible to avoid the early Zerg rush.  Kroot Carnivores + Hounds infiltrated with the intention of running and bum-rushing in Turn 2.

Middle of turn 1.  Not much I could do given Mike's counter-deployment, so just some movement.

End of turn 1.  TSMs and CM started coming around the plateau, but the CM's orbital bombardment scattered into uselessness instead of taking out the XV88.  To make up for it, the combat-squadded TSMs gunned down a Deathrain; I almost miffed up the wound allocation and didn't remove one of the Deathrains, but I caught myself before turn 2 started.

Middle of turn 2.  The Rhino hadn't popped smoke, so the Fireknife and the surviving Deathrain got a bit over-excited and let it rip, but they were largely ineffective.  The XV88 joined in the part, but between them all they only came away with a weapon destroyed and an immobilized.  The Kroot just sorta...stood there, not sure what to do with a Rhino in their face.

End of turn 2.  Kroot BBQ, anyone?  The flamer-wielding TSM from the Rhino turned 11 of 12 members of the Kroot squad into charcoal, and bolter-fire took care of the remaining one.  The surviving Deathrain had a rain of death poured in his direction and also went down.  Things are looking mighty grim for the cadre at the moment; I've only got 3 models on the field of battle, and one of them is a gun drone.

Middle of turn 3.  I managed to roll my reinforcements on and scored a mont'ka ("killing blow") on the Rhino. So now we've got an isolated TSM squad squeezed between the cratered wreckage of their rhino and a tall hill, and the tattered remains of a pair of combat squads that are within rapid fire range of a plasma rifle and a FW squad, as well as the Devilfish's burst cannon and gun drones.  Something is missing from the sequence of events, because the Chapter Master is gone from the field but I would have sworn I hit him with the XV88 and popped the instant-kill shot through his Iron Halo.  Based on the geometry, though, sheer weight of fire from the shas'el Fireknife must've done him in, so I guess the one-shot was the previous game.

End of turn 3.  The full TSM squad runs to support their lone comrade, who, in turn, charges the FWs but is too saddened by the loss of so many battle-brothers and isn't able to bust and blue-skin heads.

From here on out I'm not sure which turns the pics  are from; we were trying to get the game done and moved pretty quickly.  It did roll all the way into turn 7, so we're definitely missing a few.  Mike's dice also go frigid on him; for the remainder of the game his TSMs shoot wildly inaccurately and their power armor decides to take a vacation and turn into speedos.  I don't know that I couldn't have won, but I didn't win so much as Mike was defeated by his own dice.

I think the is the end of turn 5, but I'm not sure.  The shas'el and the Devilfish take refuge behind the plateau, while the FWs stay put to get their single 30" shot, should the game continue.  Which it does.

Somewhere in turn 6.  I have no idea what's going on here.  Devilfish detached its gun drones behind the central plateau??  FWs don't care about a 4+ cover save the DFish is granting the TSMs, since a TSM's armor save is 3+.  Shas'el + FWs + DFish take a reaping of the TSM squad.

Middle of turn 7, end of game.  One of those gun drones is actually dead and the other is falling back, but hell if I can remember which or who was targeting them.  At any rate, sheer weight of fire whittles the TSMs down to nothing and the game ends with Mike being tabled.

Elevated Tensions

Escalation league, game 1.  Short version of the league:

• 500 points for 2 weeks
• 750 points for 2 weeks
• 1000 points for 1 week
• 1250 points for 1 week
• 3 game per week maximum, win/draw/loss is 3/2/1 points
• 3 points per phase for having painted army

Deployment complete.  Mission was rolled as annihilation, deployment as spearhead.  We shook things up by me deploying top-left and Mike bottom-right; just given space constraints at the table we usually do it bottom-left and top-right.  I won the roll-off and made Mike deploy first/take first turn.

Middle of turn 1.  Movement, I've got movement!  You can see that the livestream already crapped out, and we didn't bother to try to get it running again.  Mike's orbital bombardment, centered atop the main body of the Kroot Carnivores and Hounds, scattered to the upper-right and only clipped a single Carnivore, obliterating it.

End of turn 1.  Not too sure why I left my XV8s up there out of cover.  The Rhino got shakened/stunned, but is still protecting a full 10-man TSM squad.  The Kroot got a bit nervous at the pretty light and sound show that squashed one of their buddies and decided to try and close the range to the TSMs and the Chapter Master.

Middle of turn 2.  The combat squad has broken away from the Rhino's protective shadow to attempt to close into bolter range of my shas'el.  The Chapter Master ran toward the Kroot, getting nearly full movement out of his extra D6".  The sad panda face Mike is making is because his missile launcher armed TSM didn't splatter my XV88.

End of turn 2.  The Kroot formation shuffled backwards a few steps, though I'm not really sure why; they couldn't stay out of the Chapter Master's assault range while staying within rapid fire range.  The XV88 shook/stunned the Rhino again, while the combined fire of the Deathrains and the shas'el caused enough casualties for a morale check.  The TSMs failed and broke for the table edge, but we both knew they'd auto-regroup immediately.

Middle of turn 3.  The Chapter Master charged into the mass of Kroot, but his faith in the Emperor was misplaced and between 22 attacks he took and failed to save enough wounds and went down, accompanied by 2 Kroot.  The TSMs at his back were bored of not shooting and came forward to also engage the Kroot, while the Rhino disgorged it's cargo and the broken TSM squad regrouped and moved up, firing their bolters at the shas'el.  You may not be able to tell from the picture, but the ML-wielding TSM is peeking around the Rhino's flank to get a shot at the XV88 next turn.

End of turn 3.  My reserves finally roll onto the field, scooting forward 12" and disgorging 6 FWs.  Thanks to the miracle of modern Tau technology, the Devilfish's multi-tracker allows it and its drones to fire after a 12" move, and the combined weight of fire from the Devilfish, drones, and the debarked Fire Warriors gun downs the TSMs.  The XV88 finally gets a decent shot against the Rhino, destroying the storm bolter, while the XV8s hold position.

Middle of turn 4.  Not much movement, as an oppressive sense of dread settles across the Space Marines.  Somewhere in turn 3 or 4 a wound was placed on the shas'el, but I don't remember when or by who.  A scattered frag missile clips a Fire Warrior, sending him on his way to wherever dead Tau go.

End of turn 4.  My XV88 scores a devastating hit against the Rhino and secondary explosions rip it apart in a fiery spray of wreckage.  The XV8s fire their various weapons, but I don't recall how effective it was; doesn't look to be terribly effective from the number of models still in the TSM squad.  The FWs clamber back aboard the Devilfish, and it and the Kroot surge towards the TSMs.  In the grim darkness of my dining room table there is only impending doom, and Mike concedes the game.

This game came down to a few bad rolls; the krak missiles never took out my XV88, the initial orbital bombardment only killed a single Kroot, and the Kroot managed to kill the Chapter Master in a single round of melee.  Any of those rolls going in Mike's favor would have drastically changed the game.

A Moral Victory

Battle 02 was played last night vs. Mike’s (aka amrbean) Space Marine chapter.  Points limit for the evening was set at 750; he came in at exactly 750 while I was a mere 749.  We rolled Capture and Control for the mission, Spearhead for the deployment, and I won the roll-off, choosing to deploy first and take the first turn.  Mike set his control point in the far corner of his two legal table edges (using his wedding band), and I offset mine a bit towards center to take advantage of a bit of blocking terrain (using an Ethereal painted by my Scottish friend Tom, who first introduced me to 40k several years ago via the original Dawn of War RTS).  I was slightly preoccupied being Dada, so to get things rolling Mike setup the terrain features for both of us, and he allowed me to move one of the trees down near his table edge to beef up the foliage there (for a plan of mine that didn’t work out).

It was with no small amount of trepidation in my mind (and a hungry 3-month-old in my arms) that we shook hands and had at it.  We were so absorbed in playing the game that we didn’t take pictures at some key moments, but whatever; we’re still new at this.

Pre-Game
Mike is setting up terrain.  That upside-down-bowl looks vaguely like a Tau building, don’t you think? We’ve already deployed, so this is effectively also a top-of-Turn 1 tableau.  It didn’t matter (as he never fired them), but my Broadside has a Twin-Linked Plasma Rifle rather than the Smart Missile System as modeled.  (I was disappointed with the Hammerhead’s SMS; 24” range was awfully short for my heavy support long-range guy).  We livestreamed the game via justin.tv; that’s what the Macbook is for.  Next time we’ll even try to have the audio working.

Turn 2 (Yes, we forgot to take pics during Turn 1.  Shaz’bot.)
This is the bottom of the turn; I think Mike is looking up some Sniper-related rules at the moment as he gets ready to shoot at my Broadside.  Notice the lack of visible ASMs; Hammerhead submunition rounds took a pretty bad toll already, and the survivors are using the Tau building as cover during their advancement on the Devilfish.   Look closely; see the beautiful patterns all that lovely smoke is making as it billows out of the smashed Predator?  I can’t remember if it was the Hammerhead or the Broadside, but I scored a Crew – Stunned in Turn 1 and a Destroyed – Explodes! in Turn 2.  Now Mike knows how my Devilfish felt in Battle 01.  Somewhere in here I completely forgot about the Kroot for a turn, which let Mike amble on up and chip out a model with his Razorback’s Storm Bolter.

Turn 3
ASMs were unsuccessful in their grenade attack on the Devilfish, who promptly skimmed the hell out of there.  This is where I failed to win the game by not making a beeline for Mike’s objective; I let myself get distracted by the smell of Space Marine blood in the air and worry overmuch about the Land Speeder (in my defense it was armed with a melta weapon).

A few different shots of the end of my Turn 3 player turn.  Scouts dead, but not before Pinning my Broadside.  We didn’t want to stop to look it up, so we agreed that he would’ve been pinned before making the fall-back morale check and then later that at the end of his pinning he was back in play instead of making another morale check for falling back or not; either way it was a moot point, I don’t think he ever managed to get another salvo off.

Turn 4
I moved the Hammerhead in to cockblock the Razorback from having a straight shot at my objective, having remembered that it was crammed to the rim with a full 10-man TSM squad.  That last ASM had managed to shove a grenade up my Devilfish’s tailpipe, which removed any hope of an outright scenario-victory for me.

I managed to wreck the Razorback during my shooting phase, and you can see the TSMs piling out.

Turn 5
I’m sorry, is that a Direct Hit on the scatter dice in the midst of the TSM squad?  Why yes!  Yes it is.  Actually it’s my second direct hit of the night, the first having been earlier vs. the ASMs.

Those Kroot are getting awfully close to the Captain over there on the far side of the table.

Turn 6
Mike rolled us into Turn 6; good for me, not as good for him.  Except that somehow my stupid far-sighted Hammerhead managed to miss the Land Speeder while blocking LOS for the Broadside.  Trying to save his Shas’la, my Shas’el assaulted in and took out 2 TSMs.  There are plasma blasts and missiles landing just about everywhere except on that damn Land Speeder!

Somehow that single damn Kroot passed his leadership check vs. morale.  A Shaper in the making?

The surviving TSMs assault and manage to take out one of my Shas’el’s drones while the Land Speeder scores a second Immobilized hit on the Devilfish (I think Mike was trying to blow it up in order to inflict casualties on the Fire Warriors), taking out the burst cannon.  And the Captain didn’t have any trouble repelling the Kroot’s assault and taking his head off.  Ah well, I guess he wasn’t shaping up after all.  Ha ha.

End of Game
I roll for Turn 7 and come up short; the game ends immediately in a tactical draw, with no one controlling any Control Points.  It’s only just now occurring to me, 2.5 hours after we finished playing, that neither of us technically controlled our own control points.  Oops?  There’s so much to remember.

Post-game analysis, bragging, and commiserating.

Conclusion
This is a damn fun game.

I was convinced going into it that Mike was going to mop the floor with me, but most of my units made good turns of the bad tactical situations I put them in.  I'm laughing (through my yawning) at the fact that neither of us was controlling our own point, but live and learn.  There was plenty of fumbling for the rulebooks, but our fundamental grasp was orders of magnitude better than it was just 10 or so days ago when we played our "prologue" introductory 550 point game.  Tau army lists seem to work a lot of the edge cases (complex units with multiple-wound and single-wound components: can I put a wound on a Shas'el two turns in a row, then put a third wound on a drone during a subsequent turn in order to save the Shas'el?) which it falls on me to be clear about.  I also lost sight of the actual victory conditions early in the game, which led to enough blunders that it snowballed into me needing a complete kill in order to win.

We need more terrain.  I won't be buying any, but even though I consciously tried to bring out lots of stuff to use as terrain features the table was sparse compared to what I see in other battle reports.  That's something else we'll get to over time, I'm sure.

Mike purchased Planetary Empires last week and brought the rulebook for me to skim.  The elegantly simple campaign rules it has look pretty damn fun.  We're going to try and get a campaign going, but it might be difficult to drum up another player who's willing to approach it as, "Let's play a game together!" rather than, "Let's see who I can crush beneath my armored boot."

All in all I feel as though I won a moral victory; I didn't lose the match outright, and I could've easily come closer to victory, if not actually achieving it, if I'd not been so caught up in bloodlust.