A system in Chrysies - Scenario 1 Enemy Identified - Concord 750

What an absolute exciting time there is around Antares right now.

Weekly gaming club (Primeris Shard) for the folks in and around Notts. Open Signal anthology of short stories available now and Dimensional Gates coming soon.
and of course continued podcasts by both The Freeborn Shard and Noise Sector, which are as excellent as ever.

There was one other thing…  Something about the 1 July…  Not the exciting Warlord Antares Day with the tournament and a selection of talks by the one and only Rick Priestly…  Oh that was it…

The Chryseis Shard!

A brand new awesome expansion including SIX new narrative scenarios, rules for cool new minis and also rules for fighting in hazardous environments along with much more without mentioning the sinister Locus. 
But I know what you all want.  More lists!!

As much as I would love to do twelve lists all in one post, I fear for our sanity.  Let’s handle the lists one scenario at a time.  Starting from the first scenario sounds like a reasonable idea.  

Time to pop kettle on, find a sharpener and prepare the old HB.

Scenario

The first Scenario is Enemy Identified.  Concord are attacking, so we’ll do their list first.  They’ll be facing a Freeborn force, which usually has numerous units so we’ll have to make certain we’re not outnumbered with regards to order dice.
Half our force enters from turn 1 and then the second half enter from turn 2 with command tests as usual, but on random edges. 
All we have to do is drive off the opposing force by removing half of the enemy’s order dice, although they are also trying to achieve this objective – another reason to keep the order dice count high.

There is perhaps one other thing to note. 
Chryseis Drones are closing, this rogue intelligence can corrupt IMTel reasonably easily.  Unless the IMTel is able to protect itself with the new Iso-Drones.

Force Selector

Force size	Points Value	Tactical (t)	Support (s)	Strategic (g)	Auxiliary (a)
Skirmish Force	750	4-6	0-2	0	0-1

Selecting the army

Our aim is to have a reasonable order dice count, take units that are reasonably resilient but can also hand out a good kicking (would that be “foot” out a good kicking?) in return. 
I’d personally quite like Drop Troops, as the flavour of the situation builds them in nicely; but we’ll see how we get on.
Finally, we can’t take a Subverter Matrix in this scenario.  Don’t ask why, just don’t take one.  Probes are also a bad idea.

(t) Drop Command Squad (141), SlingNet (+5), Spotter (+10)  = 156
(t) Drop Squad (176), extra Lance (+3), SlingNet (+5), Spotter (+10) = 194
(t) Strike Squad (112), Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) Strike Squad (112), Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59), 1 extra Light Support Drones (+59), Spotter (+10) = 128
(a) Iso-Drone (25) = 25
753 points.  6 Order dice.

Tinker-time.
We’re not far off the points value here.  The C3D1 is a RoF 3 weapon, so perhaps the Spotter Drone can be repurposed for something else.  Also splitting the C3D1 unit into two separate Support choices would give a 7^th order dice.

Should we drop a C3D1 for a X-Launcher?  Or a C3D2 with plasma cannon.

I guess with the random deployment and a max of 4 units to be deployed in the first turn that an X-Launcher may find itself lonely.  To fire OH effectively the X-Launcher will want to be still, and Chryseis Drones love that slow moving crunchy IMTel.  Mmmm, tasty. 

The C3D2 with Plasma Cannon is perhaps too specialised, firing once a turn against a lightly armoured enemy.  The C3D1 has a good RoF and SV for this battle.

(t) Drop Command Squad (141), SlingNet (+5), Spotter (+10)  = 156
(t) Drop Squad (176), extra Lance (+3), SlingNet (+5), Spotter (+10) = 194
(t) Strike Squad (112), Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) Strike Squad (112), Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59) = 59
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59) = 59
(a) Iso-Drone (25) = 25
(o) Well Prepared (55) = 5
748 points.  7 Order dice.

Deploy 4 units on table = Strike Squads, Iso-Drone and one C3D1.
Second Turn the Drop Command, Drop and Second C3D2 appear.
All randomly, but you can’t have everything your own way.

This force fits nicely with the background, suggesting that Drop Troops and Drones were dispatched to attack the Freeborn in a counter strike.

We could really push this to the limit by dropping a Strike Squad and taking a Concord Drone Commander, which is a tactical choice.  We would need an eighth unit to permit this second Limited Choice, which would probably be a third C3D1.

(t) Drone Commander (48), Batter (+20) = 68
(t) Drop Command Squad (141), SlingNet (+5), Spotter (+10)  = 156
(t) Drop Squad (176), extra Lance (+3), SlingNet (+5), Spotter (+10) = 194
(t) Strike Squad (112), Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59) = 59
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59) = 59
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59) = 59
(a) Iso-Drone (25) = 25
(o) Well Prepared (5) = 5
750 points.  8 Order dice.

Deploy 4 units on table = Strike Squad, Iso-Drone and two C3D1.

Again the above is quite pleasingly fitted to the background.  Wonder how it would get on.

Cunning deployment tactic.
In this scenario the opponent MUST deploy a single Freeborn unit within 5” of the table centre.  During table set up, a Chryseis Drone must be deployed in the direct centre of the table.
This means that the Freeborn have a unit that must pass a test before it can be used.
Make it harder for a second unit to assist the first Freeborn unit by placing your three Chryseis drones as close to the table centre as possible.
Additionally, you enter play from the table edges; therefore it is in your best interest to NOT allow the enemy to destroy a Drone in the first turn or two; they’ll be hot on your heels otherwise.  The other drones you can’t do much about. 

Until next time!