Escalation Battle Report

775 Points of Awesome

Time to give Escalation a try. So we went for one of the "worst case scenarios". A army with a super heavy flyer armed with a dreaded "D" weapon vs. a force unprepared for for such a thing. 2000 points a side and we rolled on the fancy new Alter of War missions table and got #4, the appropriately named, Approach of Doom.

I took my very rarely used Thunderhawk and stuffed it full of fun. That left three five man combat squads on the table to start the game. I put them in as much cover as I could find, still nine of the fifteen were picked off by the overwhelming Eldar force.

300 points vs. 2000

Top of Turn Two, Dark Green Death arrived out of the sky. The Thunderhawk zeroed in on the Wraithkinght and took it out with a solid hit from the Turbo-laser Destructor (did four wounds), two lascannons and a pair of Hellstrike missiles. The four twin liked Heavy Bolters gutted a Guardian Squad.

Friends are here from low orbit

Mrs. Blackheart tossed the kitchen sink at the Thunderhawk, but lacking any dedicated anti-aircraft platforms, only managed to inflict a single hull point. In return a Wraithlord was killed by the Turbo-Laser, and a lucky Hellstrike missile got past the Jink and Serpent Shield and blew up a Wave Serpent. Yet more Guardians fall to the dozen, twin-linked Heavy Bolter shots. By entering Hover mode, the Thunderhawk became much more vulnerable and lost three more hull points to a much depleted Eldar army.
Then the T-Hawk landed right in front of the Eldar Autarch leading a bike squad.

You have arrived at you destination

The Company Commander, his command squad, a Chaplain, a Dreadnought, and 15 Tactical Marines poured out and onto the field. The Eldar Autarch, a warlock, six bikers, and a pair of Vypers were taken down by shooting and close combat. The Thunderhawk went back into hover mode, took one more hull point of damage (total of five now) and killed off a wounded Wraithlord and mopped up a Guardian Squad.
And that was the game. All Gillian had left was most of a Guardian Squad holding an objective.

And yet I barely managed a win, 4-3. That is one of the balancing points of Escalation. 1 VP for every three hull points damage to a Lord of War. If she had managed one more hit the game would have been a tie. We will get in some more games to get a better feel what Escalation really does to the game, but for now, it doesn't seem like the sky is falling this time either. To that end we will try the Eldar Revenant Titan, vs. the Steel Legion to see what 2x2 "D" shots a turn will do.

The Emperor Protects

But He makes it challenging