Gates of Antares : Unexpected Encounter

As part of me trying to build up the GoA community locally in Jakarta, managed a proper 500 point game with my Freeborn vs the C3 "Hornets".

Concord had 1 Strike Command and 2 strike squads plus a C3D1 squad and a Targeter shard. I ran 2 Domari, 2 Feral, 2 X-launcher teams and a Targeter shard. So at the outset, it was 7 vs 5 order dice.

Since I didn't keep detailed notes, this is all off memory. On Turn 1, we both managed to bring on all our units.

The Concord hit first, knocking out a Domari spotter drone with a lucky hit.

The Freeborn hit back and managed to take out one C3D1 drone... with a Feral squad, even! (NOTE: we should have rolled on the Weapon Drone table instead!)

After that, we traded some ineffective pot shots before realising time wasn't on our side and we both attempted to run squads off the table. The Freeborn on the extreme left and the Concord on the extreme right.

In the end, I raged to do in 2 Strike squads (I wiped out the Strike squad making a run of the table edge) while my Freeborn surprisingly managed to stay intact. BUT... at the top of Turn 6, my Domari squad -- which was an agonising 1 run length away from the table edge -- finally failed its Command Check with 3 pins on the unit... and it went Down! The roll determined the game ended there.

Result: A Draw.

AAR: We both determined this scenario needed lots of scenery and we decided we'd try again with more dense urban scenery for our next game. We also found out that 5 vs 7 order dice had the C3 at a significant disadvantage, but I did point out he paid the points for a Command squad and didn't use the Follow order. If he'd done so, he could very well have concentrated fire on one of my squads each turn with a pretty good chance of wiping out a squad each turn, either through wiping them all out, or making me break due to the sheer number of casualties I'd have taken. But... it was all a learning game so it was all good.

BONUS: I managed to run a small 2 vs 3 squad demo game for a Bolt Action player after this game and he decided Antares is more fun than BA (theme aside, as he is a WW2 fan, hence his playing BA) and he will now get a 500 point Isorian force for the next time we meet 😁.