The lists:
Me: Rebels (799 points)
Leia Organa - Esteemed leader
Han Solo - Environmental gear, improvised orders
2x rebel troopers (Additional trooper)
1x Rebel troopers (additional trooper, concussion grenades
1x Fleet troopers ( Scattergun, additional trooper, concussion grenades)
1x Rebel commandos (Environmental Gear)
3x AT-RT with Laser
Opponent: Imperials (754 points)
Darth Vader (Sabre throw, force choke, Force push)
6x snowtroopers with additional trooper, grappling hooks, impact grenades, flamethrower)
Map was the hoth one from the TTS
In the frozen wastes of Hoth, the imperials led by Lord Vader were looking through the remnants of the rebel base, scattered around in order to gather intel on any other rat's nests, when suddenly contact was declared: Rebels that had stayed behind were trying to destroy the evidence! Such actions cannot be tolerated.
The game started out rather well for me during the objectives phase: I managed to select "Dissarray" as an objective. Knowing my opponent had a horde of snowtroopers but only one leader, I wanted to split his forces. Since he aimed for "recover the supplies" he would have to secure objectives scattered all around which was fine by me, and the conditions were clear.
With most of the imperial forces gathered around the shield generators, and the advantage of surprise on the rebel side, the rebels focused their long range firepower and most courageous units to face off against the incomign tide, while more quick and nimble troops moved in to prevent the imperials from securing the compound. Things were looking good
Vader and 4 squads of snowtroopers blobbed up on one corner while two snowtroopers deplooyed in the other corner, trying to secure an objective that was way out on top of a hill and to pincer the counpound in the middle. I however split my forces more evenly: Two AT-RTs, han, the commandos and a squad of troopers to face vader, one of the AT-RTs was on overwatch on a hill, while leia, two troopers, the fleet troopers and the last AT-RT were in the open to rush in the counpound and cause a crossfire with the AT-RT.
The first engagements were rather sparse: The snowtroopers shot wildly, doing absolutely nothing, while advancing steadily. One of the squads went in contact with a data terminal cache, while an other one climbed a steep ice wall with ease thanks to their equipment. The rebels however inflicted several losses right off the bat with their AT-RTs and commandos rushed the cover of the shield generator to slow the tide. The fleet troopers that had failed to get into a transport half an hour before rushed the compound while everyone else tried to find good defensive positions or angles of fire.
This is the turn I understood I had a god chance of winning actually: Due to my orders and range advantage, I could inflict some suppression to the snowtroopers to slow them down, and while they can still move and shoot at reduced speed, I had the means to buy time. Similarly, my orders advantage was mostly a boon and a bit of a curse: My order pool was rather inefficient and I couldn't get what I wanted when I wanted it (especially because of the single commandos) but at the same time I had way more orders (10 vs 7) which provided me with ample room to move-move in the late round with little chance of getting shot at.
The steady advance from the stormtroopers was done under a hail of fire, but finally some hurt was brought to the terrorists. One of the squads threw fire at some really motivated troops, but due to line of sight only two bit the dust, but at the same time losses from heavy laser fire were recorded left and right. The squad that was getting into the compound was wiped from heavy laser fire, an orbital bombardment, some troopers, and finished off by fleet troopers, while the squad on top of the hill got shot at enough to prevent it from opening a crate up top. The bombardment also did significant damage to other squads that thought they were safe in cover but actually weren't, leia directing the fire like a boss. Most notably, han solo twisted his ankle while clambering up a hill to get a good vantage point, only to get a bruise from a sabre being thrown at him brom below.
Bad positioning made one of my AT-RTs have to manoeuver around and not shoot this turn, but my fleet troopers really surprised me, killing off 4 snowtroopers in one go (thanks to pierce 1 from the shotgun). This was priceless since it allowed me to have my compound flank pretty secure with only a single threat up on a hill, in range to get constantly suppressed and out of range from Vader. My commandos got a bit scorched but that was inevitable, and one of my trooper squads on han's side couldn't do much as they were stuck with 1 suppression, so they decided to shoot at the snowtroopers instead of getting closer to the snowies: After all, they were jsut buying time.
Then things became really hectic, shots left and right... The two remaining commandos charged a squad of snowtroopers, knowing fully well that they would die regardless. This heroic action saw them getting their heads bashed in but slowed down the imperials, while an other squad, being suppressed and afraid of the flamethrower, also rushed a squad of snowtroopers. However, darth vader moved at a pace, casually throwing his sabre at han again, and used the force to push these courageous troopers out of the way, causing them to flee! Everything wasn't going that well for the empire through, with the squad up the hill under heavy fire and deciding to turn tail while Vader was busy too far away to see, and heavy laser fire carving through troopers. One of the trooper squads that was in the counpound moved forwards to secure one of the objectives and have a look at the smoking pile of snowtroopers by the entrance, while fleet troopers got to a door and cause some minor damage. Meanwhile, han shot left and right, wounding vader and finishing off a squad of snowtroopers that was right below his vantage point, gunslinger style.
Now getting my squad of troopers pushed off from the battlefield felt really cheap, but that's the game for now, let's hope the rules change on that, especially since the snowtroopers they were engaged with still hand their two actions. However, the commandos sacrifice really helped because this way they didn't get to shoot while advancing, and they only could move back into a bit of light cover. The guys up the hill panicking was a good thing, but that's all I wanted to do anyway: They were in heavy cover, I didn't expect to be able to kill them off. Han really paid himself back by killing off stuff and surviving being shot at this much (heavy cover and rerolling saves really is awesome). Things were looking great: Snowtroopers were melting like snow and were were even on objectives, but I had a better chance of securing several more than the opponent.
Vader then decided to get things in his own hands and pushed hand out of his cover. But since he was suppressed, ha still had coever and managed to live off the next sabre throw, dodging it like no one. An AT-RT reversed into a squad of snowtroopers, hoping to diminish their efficiency, but they just took a steady aim, moved back and lobbed grenades at it, blowing it immediately! The panicking squad of snowtroopers recovered a bit and moved next to its crate again, but totally faield to do any damage from range. Meanwhile, the combined efforts of fleet troopers, AT-RTs, and a squad of rebel troopers meant that two other squads of fleet troopers lay dead, including one that had secured an objective. Darth vader still tried to kill han, and finally did render him unconscious. With this secondary objective done, Darth received a message from the emperor himself to return to base, which he did.
The opponent threw the towel at that point. I was on the verge of securing two more objectives (one from a dead squad and one from the counpound, making me go to three objectives, while he was down to 0 with only one in reach if his squad wasn't panicking again by the end of the round. With his slow troops, he wouldn't have been able to do much by then to turn the tide, with only 5+2 snowtrooeprs and a vader down to 5HP against 2 AT-RTs (including one on a hill), leia, a half strength fleet trooper unit (lost the scatter gun due to LoS targets removal) and two almost full strength rebel troopers.
Here's the map at the end of the battle: One objective token held by my rebel squad up top, one near a crater by the middle of the map, one on the far right on the hill, not secured by the snowtroopers, one in the middle right next to leia, and the last by the center/bottom of the map to get later.
Conclusions from this battle:
- Fleet troopers work great... If there's heavy LoS blocking stuff.
- Engaging units in melee is great to reduce their firepower... As long as there's no force push around to throw you off the table.
- AT-RTs with lasers did great because of range 4, they could most of the time just sit, aim and shoot, which allowed me to get lots of crits (thanks to surge to crit) so I bypassed a lot of cover with them, even if they only have three dice.
- Snowtroopers are scary
- Never let the opponent have such an order pool advantage: This is part of what cost him the game
- The objective phase is very important. If you see a deployment that would ruin you, get rid of it if possible.
- Leia's orbital strik is a godsent with sharpshooter 2
- He had <40 points left of stuff to add to his army, come on that's a bad idea!
- Best way to be safe from flamethrowers is to use and abuse LoS: Sine they only add dice on a LoS basis, good positioning of my guys allowed me to survive a roasting with my commandos (he only shot 6 black dice isntead of 8, and only lost 2 guys)