Smash and Grab

Hey guys, welcome to my first ever batrep! I've gone for a narrative approach, rather than a technical blow-by-blow account. I enjoy watching the technical batreps and learn a lot from them. I just found that telling a story of the battle suited my personal style. Without further ado let us look at the army lists.

KFC

784/800

Emperor Palpatine [210](220)
Anger [5]
Esteemed Leader [5]

Stormtroopers [44](68)
DLT-19 Stormtrooper [24]

Stormtroopers [44](68)
DLT-19 Stormtrooper [24]
 

Stormtroopers [44](68)
FX-9 Medical Droid [19]
Impact Grenades [5]

Stormtroopers [44](68)
FX-9 Medical Droid [19]
Impact Grenades [5]

Snowtroopers [48](68)
Flametrooper [20]

Snowtroopers [48](68)
Flametrooper [20]

Imperial Royal Guards [75](112)
Electrostaff Guard [25]
Tenacity [4]
Emergency Stims [8]

Scout Troopers (Strike Team) [16](44)
DLT-19x Sniper [28]

Cardinal Fang

788/800

General Veers [80](95)
Esteemed Leader [5]
Improvised Orders [10]

Stormtroopers [44](68)
DLT-19 Stormtrooper [24]
 

Stormtroopers [44](68)
DLT-19 Stormtrooper [24]

Scout Troopers (Strike Team) [16](44)
DLT-19x Sniper [28]

I was certain that KFC, a rebel player, would bring Jyn and the Pathfinders for this game. So I took a large 12pt bid and cut Recover the Supplies from my battle deck. KFC pulled a big surprise on me by fielding an Imperial army. Ironically we ended up playing Supplies, as I reasoned my Bobba Veers list is better suited to it than KFC's Palp list.

We filled a quarter of the table with terrain, and then spread them out fairly evenly across it. All of the buildings and barricades were heavy cover; whereas the boxes and trees counted as light.

The positions of the five supply crate objectives are marked with red stars. KFC's deployment zone was in the top left and mine was in the bottom right.

Throughout the batrep I will be making table positional references (e.g. bottom left, top right) in relation to this photo.

KFC's deployment. Clusters of troops hid behind LoS blocking terrain from my snipers. The two rebel troopers right at the back proxied for medical droids. Using the blood plasma of captured rebels to heal the Emperor? How evil and appropriate!

My deployment. Two DLT Storms (one of them concealed by the dome the sniper is on) are positioned to grab the two supply crates on the top right. The rest of my forces are set up to contest the central supply crate or provide fire support.

Right off the bat KFC plays "Give into your anger" on my snowtroopers. Being round 1 of course they had nothing to shoot at, so they had to swallow their rage and take four suppressions. I got a point back right away when Veers rolled four hits on his "Maximum firepower" and wiped KFC's only sniper team off the board. Hide your spotters behind LoS blocking terrain people!

KFC double moves his IRG and one squad of Snowtroopers onto the objective in the compound on the bottom left.

He also moves a squad each of DLT storms and snows towards the other objective, located next the containers at the top centre of the table.

In a mirror move I double move two DLT storms in contact with the two objectives on the top right of the table.

KFC makes a bold flank attack with his IRG. They burst out of the compound and fires on my Snowtroopers.

My snowtroopers got reduced to half their number as they were out of cover. What's worse the suppression from that attack pushed them over the panic threshold, even with the officer upgrade. They legged it for the table edge but managed to stay in.

One of my DLT storms behind the snowies retaliated with a full volley of blaster fire, inflicting 3 damage. KFC puts 2 of them onto the Emergency Stims so he still had a full squad. Then with the first activation of the next round the IRG charged into the hapless snowies. After the flurry of force pike and electro staff strikes, only the officer was left alive.

She wisely disengages, opening the door for two full DLT stormtrooper squads to focus down on the IRG. The unit was reduced to two guards.

Being Royal Guard, of course they charged again into my stormtroopers! Insane IRG charges are becoming a bit of theme in my games. They kill two, and then the stims ran out and one of them crumbled. The last guard soon joined him under a flurry of E-11 rifle butt strikes.

With the action concentrated on the bottom centre of the table, my DLT Storms on the top right have secured two supply crates and advanced cautiously behind barricades. In the meantime my scout sniper teams poured out consistent and unopposed fire, picking off a trooper here, putting on a suppression there.

One of KFC's snows picked up the supply crate the IRG left behind. Behind them a massive conga line forms behind one of the trees. Nobody wants to get their head shot off by a sniper I suppose.

Whilst fierce fighting was taking place in the bottom centre, I saw an opportunity to secure the central supply crate. I activate Bobba last/first over rounds 2 and 3. First to double move next to the objective, and then to claim and fly away behind the cover of the repulsor truck.

The only unit in range to respond is KFC's second snowtrooper squad. They fire a full volley at Bobba at point blank range and he makes both saves.

One of my DLT storm squads return fire and score six hits on the enemy snowtroopers on a natural roll. They've obviously been doing extra markmanship practice! Between them and Bobba, the snowtroopers were quickly reduced to the squad leader, who Veers then finished off.

Seeing Bobba making off with the central objective, the Emperor finally emerged from behind LoS blocking trees and advanced as quickly towards my lines as his walking cane allowed.

He finally makes into range to unleash his full fury.

Poor Maxi copped three full volleys of force lightning. He was very much immobilised, suppressed and dead. Another squad of stormtroopers were also wiped out.

It's pay back time! With Palp on his last wound, there was no better opportunity for Bobba to get his bounty. He did not disappoint, scoring five hits with his backpack rocket and carbine.

One hit was guardianed off, so Palp needed to make all four saves to stay live. Yep.

Bobba watched in frustration as his rocket and blaster bolts exploded harmlessly around a force field the Emperor had projected around himself.

One of KFC's medic stormtrooper squads activates next and heals Palp back to two wounds. No problems, my DLT stormtroopers are up to the challenge!

They aim and fire, scoring five hits.

With two hits cancelled by guardian and cover, KFC rolls his defence dice. This time he was not so lucky! The Emperor's force field flickered and failed and my humble bucketheads had taken a huge scalp! With much hooting and hollering we called it a day.

After a really fun and action-packed game, we sat down to talk about the lessons learnt:

• Palp needed to be used much more aggressively. Yes he's a 220pt 5-wound investment that needed to be protected. By with esteemed leader and a 3+ save, not much damage is gonna get through. And what damage that does get through can be healed by the two medical droids. If Palp and the bulk of his army had pushed for the central objective from turn 1, the battle may well have turned out very differently.  
• Bobba is a swiss army knife. Whether it's a quick smash and grab job to win the game or finishing off depleted enemy squads, he's got the tools to be your man. He would've gotten his bounty too but for Palp's incredible saves!
• DLT storms in large numbers rock. There is a reason the Imperial meta is dominated by them at the moment. For once I deployed them well, behind cover and with open fields of fire. They dished out the bulk of the damage, and held the line against charging Royal Guards, snowtroopers and Emperors.
• Scout snipers do work. Ok that's not news to you, but it was my first time running them after experimenting with saboteurs. Set up in the right positions and with aim buffs from Veers and Co-ordinated Fire, they put out consistent damage and suppression all day long.

Ok that's my first batrep done! Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed playing/making it. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Until next time, may the force be with you all.