I flew out to visit a few old friends and take a short vacation. They had been wanting to play Dropfleet, and I was all to happy to oblige. Neither of them had played before, but love the look of the UCM (so do I) and bought into that fleet. I set up a simplified Take and Hold scenario on their dinner table and we started pushing ships around.

Game 1 – A New Challenger Enters the Ring!

Jake is a very cagey and savvy miniature wargamer, so it was anyone’s game. I had the opportunity to take some destroyers this time around, so I was pretty excited to try them out.

Overview

• Mission: Take and Hold
• Forces: PHR versus UCM – Skirmsh (750)
• Deployment: Battle Line

PHR – 4 launch assets

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SR11 Vanguard battlegroup (217pts)

1 x Bellerophon – 180pts – H
+ Vice Director (20pts, 3AV)
1 x Calypso – 37pts – L

SR7 Line battlegroup (208pts)

1 x Orpheus – 130pts – M
2 x Medea – 78pts – L

SR6 Pathfinder battlegroup (208pts)

2 x Ariadne (exp.) – 130pts – L2
2 x Medea – 78pts – L

SR3 Pathfinder battlegroup (90pts)

3 x Echo – 90pts – L

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Destroyer Test – 743pts

UCM – 0 launch assets

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SR12 Vanguard battlegroup (269pts)

1 x Perth – 195pts – H
+ UCM Commodore (20pts, 3AV)
2 x Lima – 74pts – L

SR7 Line battlegroup (175pts)

1 x San Francisco – 111pts – M
2 x New Orleans – 64pts – L

SR10 Line battlegroup (176pts)

2 x New Cairo – 176pts – M

SR4 Pathfinder battlegroup (109pts)

1 x Kiev (exp.) – 65pts – L2
2 x Santiago – 44pts – L

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UCM Test – 749pts

Turn 1

Turn one is really deployment. I dedicated the Orpheus to the central cluster, with the two Ariadnes on the left. I backed up the Orpheus with two Medeas and went for the right cluster with two Medeas. The Perth came on the board on my right, with the San Francisco on my left. A pair of New Cairo pressured my left flank, and then it was time to bring on the Echos.

Since Jake put his New Orleans on the right, I send the Echos after them. My Bellerophon and Calypso were on my left flank as well. I wanted the Bellerophon sort of centrally located to be able to cover the board with bombers.

Turn 2

Turn 2 was a bit more manuevering, mainly getting Medea in place. I pushed my Bellerophon up, dropping it a layer to try and put some damage on the New Cairo before they got to my lines. I left the Calypso in place to cover some of my Medeas. Jake’s New Cairo advanced but didn’t put down much in the way of pain.The New Orleans activated next, so the Echos pounced and ate one.The rest of the fleet pushed forward and then we started landing troops. With the Ariadnes in place I was able to easily dominate the left cluster and the Medeas took the right. The San Francisco had turned to contest the central cluster, just as my Orpheus made it in range.  Jake poured fire from the Perth and the New Cairo into my Orpheus, crippling it but failing to kill it.

Turn 3

My Orpehus took out the Kiev in the center as my Echos finished off the last New Orleans and started hunting the Limas on the right.   Jake pushed his New Cairo into my backfield, going after my Bellerophon…but I scooted past him as my Ariadne pivoted towards the center to add their drop.At this point I had won the ground combat in the center and Jake was down to a heavily damaged San Francisco as his only source of troops on the table. We called it early, as we were really only playing to get him a feel for the game to see if he liked UCM and if he liked Dropfleet in general.

Notes

Pretty short game, so I’ll be correspondingly brief.

• Ariadne are awesome. they do all the things.
• I like the Bellerophon, but I’m not amazed by it yet.
• I think PHR really does have a pretty strong ground game, and I’m not really sacrificing much especially with the Ariadne’s H+S guns.
• I dig the Calypso.
• UCM New Orleans are very fragile. Keep them away from my Echos!
• I am really starting to enjoy the PHR, probably because I’m starting to understand their desired maneuvers.
• Jake, as always, is a quick learner.

Game 2 – Space Fisticuffs

PJ, the man who got me into Infinity, had been watching and learning (like a Velociraptor) while I played Jake, so we re-racked and started again with the same lists.

Overview

• Mission: Take and Hold
• Forces: PHR versus UCM – Skirmsh (750)
• Deployment: Battle Line

PHR – 4 launch assets

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SR11 Vanguard battlegroup (217pts)

1 x Bellerophon – 180pts – H
+ Vice Director (20pts, 3AV)
1 x Calypso – 37pts – L

SR7 Line battlegroup (208pts)

1 x Orpheus – 130pts – M
2 x Medea – 78pts – L

SR6 Pathfinder battlegroup (208pts)

2 x Ariadne (exp.) – 130pts – L2
2 x Medea – 78pts – L

SR3 Pathfinder battlegroup (90pts)

3 x Echo – 90pts – L

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Destroyer Test – 743pts

UCM – 0 launch assets

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SR12 Vanguard battlegroup (269pts)

1 x Perth – 195pts – H
+ UCM Commodore (20pts, 3AV)
2 x Lima – 74pts – L

SR7 Line battlegroup (175pts)

1 x San Francisco – 111pts – M
2 x New Orleans – 64pts – L

SR10 Line battlegroup (176pts)

2 x New Cairo – 176pts – M

SR4 Pathfinder battlegroup (109pts)

1 x Kiev (exp.) – 65pts – L2
2 x Santiago – 44pts – L

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UCM Test – 749pts

Turn 1

Turn one was slightly different. PJ slow rolled his forces onto to the table, again putting the Perth on my right, the San Francisco on my left, and the New Cairos again pushing up the center. The New Orleans again were on my right, so I pushed the Echos on the board to intercept.

Turn 2

The New Orleans angled towards the center, and I managed to put a minor spike on one of the Santiagos that was moving towards the center…letting the Orpheus blast it out of the sky on 12 dice before it made it to atmosphere.The Echos swooped in to destroy the New Orleans… but the New Cairos, the Perth and its Limas vaporized my Orpheus off the able before I was able to launch troops.

Turn 3

I had a strong troop prescence in the left cluster, so even with the San Francisco approaching I thought it safe to move the Ariadne to the central clusters. After carefully putting my Calypso into silent running and cramming into the center cluster, I damaged one of the New Cairos with the Bell’s burnthrough laser.Sadly, the Limas lit up my Bell and the Perth crippled it. My Echos cleaned up the last Santiago, but the Kiev hung on for dear life to the table. My Ariadne entered the fray in the middle, doing a course change and fishtailing into the center. PJ responded by pivoting the New Cairos on a dime and wiping out an Ariande, but the other survived.

Turn 4

I snuck my Ariadne past the new Cairos and got behind the Perth, which blasted my Orpheus off the table, finally.

The New Cairos tried unsuccessfully to laser my Medeas off the left cluster as the San Fransisco scooted by. I pulled my Medea out of atmosphere on the central cluster and pivoted them towards the right cluster.   The Perth turned to put some more hurt on one of the Medeas, but it was too late. I was winning 8-2 at this point.

Turns 5 and 6

It’s a bit fuzzy what happened in these turns, but I landed more troops and ended up with a 16-6 victory.

Notes

• The Perth is GROSS, especially with two Limas.
• I love Ariadnes! They’re so useful!
• This was the first game where I felt like I was being cagey and playing with orbital layers and course changes. I’m starting to get a feel for positioning in this game.
• PJ and Jake have a lot of combined hours of game time in a very wide variety of systems (not that my regular opponents don’t) and talking with them as fresh faced newbies to the game really underscored the all-rounder nature of the PHR, which definitely fits my playstyle. I think I chose the right faction for me, even though I like the look of UCM more.