200pt Robotech game

On Tuesday I ran a game of Robotech RPG Tactics at the Edmonton Wargamers Group meeting.
Dave played the Zentraedi forces, while Chen reprised his role from the previous battle as the UEDF.

THE Battlefield

 I had blitz a few bits of terrain teh few days before teh game night.

The Zentraedi forces had 2 recon squads each with a recovery pod.  one squad had 2 heavy missle battlepods attached.

Dave's Zentraidi forces

the UEDF forces had a squadron of Valkyries and a a reinforced Brawler Company of (4 Tomahawks and 2 Spartans)

Chen's UEDF Forces

  During the first turn, Chen shot up some  battlepods with  valkyrie missiles, but they returned during teh enxt turn.  The Zentreadi fired half the missiles from their heavy missile battle pods, but teh valkyries managed to avoid serious damage.

during the 2nd turn, the  UEDF killed the 2 heavy missile battlpods nearly killed a Command pod, but in response lost the Valkyrie Flight leader, one spartan, and  a missile volley from the heavy missile battlepods nearly took out a pair Tomahawks(left then with 1 damage point each).

At the beginning of the 3rd Dave moved his 2nd battlepod squadron into position to capitalize on the previous turn's missile strikes. he took out the last UEDF spartan,  one of  the badly damaged tomahawks, and another valkyrie. In return Chen's UEDF forces killed the damaged command pod and more battlepods.  

During the 4th turn things tuned for the Zentraedi as  Dave lost his last  Command pod and a recovery pod, and, of course, more battle pods(as long as command pods are alive they comb back after all).

During the last turn,  the Zentraedi charged their remaining recovery pod into close combat with a Valkyrie, but failed to land in hit.

all in all it was a good game. During the 2nd turn it looked like  the Zentraedi were pulling ahead, but the UEDF pulled  ahead during the 3rd and 4th turns.The UEDF still took significant losses.  50% of their unit had been outright destroyed, and another 3 of the remaining 5 machines had heavy damage.

The Zentraedi had 5 battlepods and 1 recovery pod when we called the game.

I think Dave and Chen enjoyed the game.  it certainly was bloody.   I need to get to painting more UEDF forces for some variety.

A Welcome to Edmonton and My First Game of Robotech.

I'm back!   Gotten things mostly straightened out in the new house.

the gaming community here is smaller then I'm used to, but they play more consistently which is nice. The members of the Edmonton Wargamers Group(EWG) are all bunch of good guys.

I've now attended 3 of their bi-monthly meetings. during the first game, I played saga.  during put on a small game of Man O'War.  naturally i forgot to take pictures.  My photgraphy-mind gets easily distracted by pretty models and gameplay it seems.

last night I attended my 3rd  gaming night with the EWG.  I brought along my Robotech RPG tactics collection.  i only had enough painted to play the smallest introductory scenario, a meeting engagement between 2 UEDF Valkyries and 6 Zentaedi battlepods.  I also forgot to take pictures here(despite my camera being less then  2 feet away during the game).  fortunately Chen-song,  the UEDF player, snapped a few pics with his phone.

The Feared Zentreadi Regult Battlepod

Battlepod from a different angle

UEDF Valkyries shown with all 3 modes, in Israeli Jet camo

Close up of Valkyrie models.

The Battle rages on. One Regult down!

Regults close in for the Kill

neither Chen nor I had ever played the game.  I've only red it a few times.   fortunately the game is fairly simple, so it didn't take long to pick up on the mechanics with so few models on the table.

during the first 2 turns we closed the distance.  Chen got first blood and took out 2 regult Battlepods in 2 successive turns.  I destroyed one valkyries in hte 5th turn. he badly damaged 2 more battlepods, then retreated into the woods to make it harder for me to shoot at him.  the luck took a drastic turn for chen.  i managed to kill his last Valkyrie despite the cover of the trees.

All in all it was a fun, fast game.  It's definitely meant to be played with more models though.  Also, in hind sight, I think Valkyries need to spend at least one turn in  one of their other modes to utilize their missiles(missiles on the wing mounts can only be used in Guardian and Jet mode).  thinning out the battlepods early seems like a good idea.

thanks to Chen-song for playing and chatting after.  it was an enjoyable night.

A Robotech Oddyssey

At Hotlead  back in March i bought the Robotech RPG tactics boxed set.  this game has sentimental value for me two-fold.

1)  When i was 6 (in 1987) my family was shopping in Toronto.  now shoping in my family was always a big deal becasue i have 2 older sisters, and they were 12 and 14 at the time. because I was  well behaved my mother bought me this cool toy.  it turned out to be a Robotech Zentraedi Tactical battlepod with a 5" pilot action figure.  It was really cool.

2)  when i started gaming what I was 12, my first game was battle tech.  I got the 3rd edition battletech boxed set and the 10th anniversary Compendium for Christmas.  the 3rd edition box is the one that came with 16 mech, all of which would later become the Unseen mechs (a good deal of which were actually directly lifted from Robotech).

 Robotech RPG tactics, as a purchase, was mostly fueled by nostalgia.  however I found the models to be great fun to paint, and the rules are delightfully good.  I missed the ongoing trainwreck which  Kickstarter  is apparently turning out to be.

As almost everyone knows by now, Palladium made some bizarre choices as to how to split up the models on the sprues.   the Zentraedi models, so far are not much more complicated then your average GW plastic model.   the UEDF destroids  range from about as easy as the Zentraedi to a little more complicated.   but the UEDF Valkyries are just silly.  each Valkyrie ash 3 models to represent the 3 modes you can transform into.  only the fighter mode is straightforward and simple.  the Guardian/gerwalk mode has some serious arm issues, and Battloids are between 15 and 17 pieces depending on which variant your are assembling.  The only good thing about the battloids being in so many pieces is that it's easier to convert new poses.

I decided i was going to do my UEDF forces in a Israeli theme.  I love the Israeli 3tone camo.  So i modeled my Valkyries after the  IAF 106 "Spearhead" Squadron.  I have yet to print off the squadron decals and apply them but i intend to.

VFA-106 "Speahead" Squadron

 the UEDF ground forces(destroids) are useing teh IDF armoured markings.  I decided to Model the 71st Armored Battalion, of the 188th Armoured Brigade. I've taken some liberties with the nicknames. Each battalion in the brigade is named after some sort of weather phenomena, so I've dropped that down the the company level(since my game "squadrons" are going to be companies). 

1st "Tornado" Company of the 71st Armoured Brigade

At the moment I have 4 of each destroid, but no Defenders(Riflemen) or Phalanx(Longbows)  painted yet.  they will be arranged into 3 companies.  th 1st "Tornado" Company will be 2 tomahawks and 4 Spartans. the 2nd "" Company will be 2 tomahawks and 2 Defenders, and the 3rd "Monsoon" Company will be 4 Phalanx and 2 Defenders.


My zentraedi will be fairly vanilla.   I have not come up with a theme for them yet.  I'm thinking I may not come up with one at all, since they are Zentaedi.  They don't strike me as particularly individualistic or as having a great deal of character.

2 Glaug Command Pods and a Recovery pod.

2 Recon battlepods and 2 tactical battlepods.

I have 18 Tactical battlepods  4 artilelry battlepods, 2 Recon battlepods, 2 GlauG command pods and 2 recovery pods.  I have to really work on painting more battlepods to get a solid game in.