Afternoon and we're back again playing Adeptus Titanicus in Otty's shed. This is week/turn 4 over a 5 or 6 week period! 🤣
When we left it our Reaver in front of the Warlord was in the red on its reactor. The Plasma Cannon Warhound was leaking plasma and at risk but a good couple of repair orders might just save our bacon. What actually happened is that everything that needed a repair order failed their command checks. Both Liam and I rolling 2s. Our appalling dice sticking with us.
We managed to immobilise the Eldar Reaper/Reaver, thanks to some Thermal Mines - a strategic asset we actually got to use in the game! The damaged Warhound taking even more damage having been charged, but then ducking out of the combat and fire arc. It's squadron mate moving to the centre.
With so much critical damage the Warhound was vulnerable to even Knight small weapons fire and blew up, damaging the Reaper and barely scratching its twin. As the game went on I think we played this catastrophic damage incorrectly but the rules are so difficult to follow. We spent so much time going backward and forwards. There's literally a section in the advanced rules that refers you to the basic rules, which then immediately refers you back to the advanced rules. It is so frustrating.
So our bad luck was further compounded by Otty and Ben's good luck. This roll was four 6's and a 1, but whichever weapon fired had re-roll 1's and wouldn't you know it another 6! In balance there was very little damage to whatever it hit but what can you do? At about 10:30 in the evening both Liam and I were utterly deflated. It felt like it was midnight and although I expected to suffer early on when we restarted the fact we'd weathered that storm only to get pummelled for still standing was sapping our will to carry on.
Then the immobilised Reaper managed to clip the back of our Reaver with Shuriken Cannon [Gatling Cannon] fire. It was just enough to tear through the leaking reactor. A catastrophic failure that exploded in a 9" fireball. Having been berated by Liam from the very beginning for the poor position of the VSG I knew the first thing I had to check. Lo and behold the VSG was vaporised in the explosion. I literally couldn't see for laughing. Luckily there were two paramedics in the room because my chest hurt too.
But it didn't end there. The chain reaction took out an Eldar Questoris knight, damaged the Reaver and Warhound, which blew up too.
This explosion then blew up the Reaver [thanks to this insane roll] whilst also damaging the two Revenants, destroying one.
As the nuclear fireball dissipated all that was left was a Lancer Knight and a revenant that has managed to secure its lost crew for 20 Victory points. Plus the multiple VPs for the engine kills. I think they were on 42 or 44 points.
To go from such a low, lose so many engines but in such a rewarding why was exhilarating. We were so close, convinced we'd got 37 VPs ourself so all we needed to do was either destroy the revenant with the crew. The Immobilised Reaper, or the Phantom to win the game. We chose the Reaper as it was already damaged and just needed some leg shots. But the Volcano Cannons added 4 plasma, taking it into the red, but it was going to be the last turn anyway and ultimately the Reaper survived. I suspected it would end with an anti-climax after such a roller coaster.
Then we looked again at the scores and it turns out I'd totally overestimated the Eldar units we'd destroyed in the meltdowns and we barely got over 20VPs from the damage caused. So we were far from being in contention.
What had been a painful experience became hilarious and exciting. 4 weeks of gaming, struggling with the rules but ultimately having fun. We need to find a better way to play the game though as it's far too difficult and awkward to play. We all want to give it a rest but we know that that will just mean it's as difficult to play again down the line.
We'll see what happens, hard, hard work, but thankfully rewarding at the end. The dice G.O.D.s may not have favoured us, but they certainly put on a show when it most mattered.
