Monday, May 22, 2017

Aeronautica Imperialis: Battle report- Flight of the Vigilant

This battle took place as part of the Blood and Irongard campaign in 2013.  It uses custom aircraft and rules from the campaign that can be found in my Aeronautica Imperialis review here.

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Da grot spottaz had been chattering to da runtherdz about the new bird they saw all morning. They had seen it off and on for a good part of the day. They weren't sur ewhat it was, but it was big and it was oomie.

Finally, Boss Ironhead had had enough of their chatter. He snatch up the mike and rorared at them to shut their gobz about it. In an angry mood, he stalked off to his boyz hutz and rousted a pair of boyz out of their bunkz. Excitedly, the Boss' new wingorks capered over to their fightaz.

Da Boss had decided he was going to get a good look at this new oomie bird himself. 


The Eye in the Sky
Warzone: The Gardens

House Hurt-Zui Wardogs
Marauder Vigilante- Flight Officer Greta Hazt

1 Lightning- Flight Officer Korin Draze
+Additional Weapon Load

1 Lightning- Flight Officer Chaz Yalo
+Additional Weapon Load

Da Skrapperz
Fighta- Boss Ironhead- Ace
+Additional Weapon Load
+Rokit Boosta

Fighta- Dakkablitz

Fighta- Rotgob


Set-up:
The Wardogs set-up with the Vigilante in the center of the board flying at max speed at altitude 5. He was bracketed by a pair of lightning fighters to act as escorts. 

Boss Ironhead and his boyz came in on the opposite side in eschelon. Ironhead was in the center. 

For this mission, the Vigilante had to make it to the opposite side of the board. If it did, the Imperials won. If it didn't, the Orks won. 

I forgot to take pictures. Sorry. 

Turn 1:
Initiative: Rogue Traders

Movement:
The Wardogs move forward, with Lightning 1 leading the way. 

The Orks spread-out to cover the board. Big Boss Iron Head takes the center. 

Shooting:
None

Turn 2
Initiative: Orks

Movement:
The Wardogs begin to feint and bank to the right, with L1 leading the way. L2 slows down and moves back to cover the sensor bird while it sideslips after L1. 

Fighta 1 boldly heads down the center line, while Fighta 2 straightens out. I tlooks like he is way out of position. Iron Head cuts sharply towards where the Wardogs are heading in an attempt to cut them off. 

Shooting:
No one has the range or angle yet. 


Turn 3
Initiative: Orks (Used the Vigilante ability to re-roll so Orks would go first)

Movement:
The two sides move to cross paths, but it ends up that no head-to-head engagements are on the cards. The Imperials feinted right, and now power dive left. For the Orks part, most of them over shoot from moving far to fast, and end way out of position. 

Fighta 2 is the only one in the area, but a clever spiral from Lightning 1 puts the Ork in the cross-hairs. Meanwhile, Lightning 2 just missing getting the angle as weel.. 

Shooting:
Oh no, the Orks have nothing to shoot at! 

Lightning 1 lights up his target, but he jinking craft mostly avoids the incoming shells with a few simply grazing the paint. 

The Rear turret on the Vigilante also fail to find the mark. 

Turn 4
Initiative: Orks

Movement: 
The Vigilant and her escorts maneuver towards the short board edge. They manage to stay together nicely. 

Meanwhile, Boss Iron head moves to try and cut them off before they can escape. Fighta 2 parallels the Wardogs, and Fighta 1 trails far behind and completely out of position. 

Shooting: 
No one has the angle, altitude, or range. 

Turn 5
Initiative: Orks

Movement:
The Imperials continue forward, side sweeping and moving to cover each other. Fighta 1 and Fighta 2 continue to be out of position. However, Boss Iron Head swoops down towards the Vigilante, but just overshoots the mark. This puts him in a very vulnerable position. 

Shooting:
The Orks still have nothing to shoot at! Oh no! 

Lightning 1 doesn't have a shot, but Lightning 2 does. However, they are just a bit too close and are in short range. The aircraft's auto-cannons chatter to life. The shells strike home, and Ironheadz Fighta begins to smoke! 

The rear turrets on the Vigilant open fire, but they miss due to the altitude difference. 

Turn 6
Initiative: Orks

Movement:
\Boss Ironhead dives to the hard deck and races away. Realizing he won't be able to bring the big Oomie bird down himself, he hits his Rokit Boosta and disengages to report his findings to Mektoof. Otherwise, the Orks again fail to get into the right position, just going too fast to make the turn, or trailing to far behind. 

The Vigilant makes it to the board edge. There will be no way to stop him exiting next turn.


Shooting:
A parting shot from the Vigilant's rear turret adds insult to injury by damaging Fighta 1. 

The game ends

Conclusion:
The Wardogs win! They have successfully escorted the Vigilant off the board. Now, with its intelligence gathered they maybe able to locate the Ork base and launch an attack! 

My opponent had a tough time maneuvering his Orks properly this game. I think he forgot that Orks only have thrust 1 after using the Dark Eldar with thrust 3! He came in way too fast, and couldn't slow down enough to get the angle right. Too bad. 

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