Shattergrounds

Welcome back to the last in our current series of articles on the locations and missions for Phase 1 of the Shattergrounds Campaign. We’re rapidly approaching the end of the first phase of the campaign and some fantastic battle reports have been submitted by the community. Do you have a favorite report that’s been submitted so far? 

Let’s take a look at the last of the Phase 1 missions in  Location 6: Rhodan Main Spaceport. 

Rhodan Main Spaceport (RMS) is Edda’s primary hub, the largest with the best connections to the entire metropolitan area of this megalopolis. Although these facilities are considered purely civilian, there is a military area reserved for Bureau Aegis units and it’s connected to the Wiggin Aerospace Base shared by Concilium’s Planetary Defense Force and SWORDFOR. For this reason, Rhodan Main Spaceport is considered a vital component of Concilium Prima’s defensive network and a high-value target in any scenario.

Faction Goals and Starting Influence

O-12 obviously want to protect their capital city and main administrative center and to do that they must maintain control of the spaceport at all costs.

The Combined Army would benefit greatly from controlling this city and it would also neutralize much of the planetary defense forces.

O-12 starts with the advantage in this area with Combined Army 2nd and all other factions 3rd

Mission Overview

The Mission for this area is Capture & Protect which can be found on Page 24 of the Phase 1 PDF.

This is a classic Capture the Flag mission with two Bacon’s, sorry Beacons taking the place of flags.

Notably there are no HVT’s in this mission.

Scoring for this mission is at both the end of every round and at the end of the game.

• 2 Objective Points at the end of every round for capturing the opponent’s Beacon, (so up to 6 Objective Points are available.)
• 2 Objective Point at  the end of the game for having the opponent’s Beacon captured and in your Deployment Zone. 
• 1 Objective Point. at the end of the game for having your Beacon not captured by your opponent. 
• Also one Classified Objective with 1 Objective Point.

To Score maximum points in this mission you will have to:

• Have captured the opponents Beacon at the end of each of the three Game Rounds.
• Have the opponent’s Beacon inside your Deployment Zone at the end of the game.
• Have your Beacon not be in possession of the opponent at the end of the game.
• Have achieved the Classified Objective.

How do you go about capturing the delicious Bacon’s, I mean Beacons?

• Any unit, not just a specialist troop, has to be in base contact with the opponent’s Beacon or a unit who has already captured the beacon and spend a short skill to pick it up with no roll required. 
• No opponent’s unit can be in contact with their Beacon.  
• Units can carry only one Beacon at a time unless they have the Baggage skill  in which case they can carry two. 
  • Not much point in this as you can only pick up the opponents Beacon and not your own. 
• Only models and not markers can carry the Beacon, so you can’t enter a marker state like Camouflage, Impersonation or Holoecho when you have it. 
• If a unit goes into a Null state with the Beacon they drop it. 

To have Captured a Beacon you need to have one of your units in possession of the Beacon, not in a null or marker state and with no opponents units also in contact with the Beacon. 

General Mission Tips

While it is not allowed to deploy in direct contact with either Beacon, you can still deploy really, really close to them if the terrain layout permits.

• You can try to deploy Infiltrating units close to the opponents Beacon so that they can grab it and run for your deployment zone early in the game. 

While units in marker states can’t pick up the Beacon, they can still stop an opponent’s units from picking it up by being in contact with it. 

• So an Impersonation Token or Camouflage marker in contact with a friendly Beacon won’t let it go!

The opponent’s beacon only needs to be in your deployment zone at the end of the game to score the extra 2 Objective Points. Until then you can play keep away with it anywhere on the table. 

You can play a very morbid game of  “Pass The Parcel” with Beacons to carry it across the table. 

• By declaring two short movement skills the unit carrying the Beacon will always reach the maximum movement distance possible, even if they go into a null state at the conclusion of the order from ARO’s.
• Another friendly unit can then pick up the Beacon and repeat the process. 
• It costs units, it’s grim but it works. 

There’s nothing stopping fast units like bikes or TAG’s from carrying the Beacon, most TAG’s have MOV 6-4 and Bikes usually have MOV 8-6.

• Remember that units can freely vault over any obstacles that have a height lower than their Silhouette. So a Silhouette 7 TAG can rapidly carry a Beacon across obstacles that would normally block normal Silhouette 2 or Silhouette 3 units.    
• Any units with Mimeitsim carrying the beacon will still retain their negative to hit modifiers so make maximum use of your fast, large and Mimetic units.
  • The Cutter and Spinx TAG’s absolutely excel at this task along with a few other S6 TAG’s and S5 Heavy Infantry.
  • Most bike units have Mimetism and most base factions have access to Motorised Bounty Hunters.   

Special Campaign Rules

The two Special Campaign rules that apply in this mission are  AMPLIFIER &  TRANSORBITAL MED/AMMO SUPPLIES

AMPLIFIER means that In this scenario, any declared Comms Attack will apply a MOD of +2 to its Attribute.

• A Comms Attack is an attack that can’t be dodged but can only be Reset against, they also ignore and modifiers from cover.
• All hacking programs are Comms Attacks so any of them that require a WIP roll will get a +2 WIP benefit to the unit using them.
• Note that the damage of a hacking program will not be boosted by AMPLIFIER.  

TRANSORBITAL MED/AMMO SUPPLIES is the same rule as in Location 1 , it adds two 25mm supply boxes that each player places in THE OPPONENT’S half of the table. So 4 boxes total, 2 for each player. 

A unit from your army in contact with one of your supply boxes, not your opponents, can spend a short skill to cancel an Unloaded State or Recover 1 Would from their profile. 

• Recovering a Wound is only possible by units who have at least 2 wounds in their base profile or who have a skill like No Wound Incapacitation, or Dogged (allowed  in this mission) since an unconscious trooper cannot spend orders. 
• Its Wounds not Structure so TAGs and Combat Remotes can’t use this ability of the boxes. 
• This is good for any Heavy Infantry units who find themselves in the opponent’s half of the table, though assaulting units with NWI or 2 wounds and units with NWI who will have infiltrated into the opponent’s half of the table. 
• Reloading an unloaded weapon is a godsend for any units with Pitchers or Panzerfausts who make it up table. This would allow a player to easily expand their hacking area into the opponent’s deployment zone with Pitchers or get off additional Panzerfaust shots at close range.   
• Only 1 use then they are gone so plan ahead which unit might make use of each box. 

Faction Focus

Let’s take a look at the O-12 and Combined Army Units can be the most useful in this mission.

O-12

For O-12 all their various Hacker units get a boost from the effect of AMPLIFIER with Cybergosts perhaps being the most deadly with their access to Hacking Device Plus, Pitchers and being WIP 16 when declaring Hacking programs.

• Don’t forget your Deva Functionary units on loan from ALEPH who have a Hacker option that will have a huge WIP 17 in this mission and can risk a counter hack with their 3 BTS and No Wound Incapacitation.  

Fast units like the Roadbots and Lawkeepers can get the Beacon and run off with it, don’t forget the Motorised Bounty Hunters for additional cheap bike units.

The ZETA TAG has the usual 6-4 MOV and is Silhouette 7 so can vault over most small obstacles with the Beacon. However it also has Climbing Plus meaning it can freely run over buildings if needed.

Tough Units like Bettatroopers, Bronzes and Gamma Units can hold the Beacon and rely on their high ARM, Multiple Wounds or high BS to hold off any enemy units. 

Also any units that can infiltrate or forward deploy will be useful in securing the Enemy Beacon, Casanova and Andromeda are particularly good at this as they can make use of well placed Supply Boxes to recover from No Wound Incapacitation States.

Hippolyta is a very useful unit in this mission as her 6-2 MOV, 2 Wounds, Eclipse Grenades and Super Jump mean she can cover her advance to the Beacon and then get it back to friendly territory very quickly. Should anyone be foolish enough to get in her way she can Beserk into them with a DAM 16 EXP CC.  

Combined Army

The Combined Army get access to some of the nastiest hackers in the game who can make the most of the AMPLIFIER special rule. 

• The Carontids with their base WIP 16 and Hacking Device Plus are a terror in this mission as all their programs have +1 Damage as standard. 
  • Being able to enter an Impersonation state with Cybermask and then use a DAM 17 Oblivion or DAM 17 Total Control with WIP 18 and benefiting from Surprise Attack modifiers! 
• The Anithematic also has WIP 16 with a +1 Burst Trinity Program which can leverage its Hidden Deployment skill for Surprise Attacks that will probably fry the brains of a few of the opponents hackers. 
  • Not much survives a Burst 4 Trinity with an 18 WIP roll. 
• Bit and Kiss provide a cheap hacker option with pitchers to boost the available hacking area for programs.
• The Umbra Character Norkias in addition to being an all around nightmare, also has the option of a Killer Hacking Device with the Upgrade of Total Control +1 Dam.
  • His base WIP of 15 gets boosted to 17 on most of his hacking attacks and with his many, many additional skills there’s no unit on the table that is not vulnerable to him. 

Combined Army have some powerful Combat Jump Units they can use both in attack and defense  

• The Caskuda can drop right next to the beacon, explode anyone nearby then carry it away like its nobody’s business.
• The same goes for the Dropsuit Tryots who are a slight cheaper option.
• Rysats can walk into the opponents deployment zone and kill their way to the Beacons, all the while covering themselves with Eclipse Smoke grenades 
• Ko-Dali can act both aggressively and defensively while having even more options to regain lost wounds than her Prothion ability.

Combined Army don’t have access to any fast bikes beyond the Mercenary Bounty Hunters however they make up for it with plenty of infiltrating Shasvasti who can deploy to “conga line”  the beacon back to the deployment zone or just keep it out of the opponents reach. 

A tactic that CA can really leverage in this scenario is to use their impersonators, Speculo Killers and Grief Operators to stop the opponent from taking their beacon by getting into base contact with it.

• Since they appear as friendly units to the opponent they’ll both stop any template weapons from hitting them and stop the beacon from being picked up. 
• A good way to deny your opponent the Beacon and give them a headache at the same time.

Phew, that’s all 6 of the Mission Briefings for Phase 1 completed!  I hope these articles have been both entertaining, informative and hopefully useful to you in your Shattergrounds Campaign games so far. 

What’s been your favorite mission from Phase 1 and which one has caused you the most headaches? Let us know in the comments below. 

Check in with us when Phase 2 begins when we do this all over again for the new missions that await players in Shattergrounds.