Huge 9000 Point AT-43 Game!

On Wednesday evening I played my first three-player game of AT-43. Each of the players put together an army list of 3000 points: Karmans, Red Blok and UNA/ONI.

I had to use the ONI as mercenaries because I didn't bring enough UNA forces to fill out a list of that size. I was expecting to play at maybe 2000 points. I had also missed a few figures from some of my infantry when I was getting my stuff to bring, so I had to field incomplete squads of fighters in several of them. I don't have an exact list, here's an approximate list of what I played:

- Steel Troopers x9 w/ a missile launcher and MSgt
- Wing Troopers x9 w/ a missile launcher and Sgt
- Shock Troopers x9 w/ grenades and Sgt
- Zombies (alpha?) x12 w/ medics & mortar guns x2, and Samurai
- Death Dealer TacArms x3
- Steel TacArms x3
- Zombie TacArms beta x3
- Bokor w/ Vlad

We set up the table with an improvised scenario. The MedTec were stranded (placed in the middle of the table) and all of the armies were trying to reach them. A unit within 2.5cm of one of the medics was considered to hold the objective and received 250 victory points at the end of the round. Entry points for each army were selected after bidding. I chose first and selected a corner. Red Blok chose another corner, putting the Karmans on the opposite edge in the middle (not an advantageous spot).

It took quite a while to get everything on the table, and the deployment zones were pretty cramped. With the table size most of my infantry proved almost completely useless, as they had very little cover to use during their advance toward the objective. This was especially true of the zombies as their ranged weapons are nigh-useless. Well, except for the mortar guns which I entirely forgot to use.

The Karmans took the most damage, losing a full unit to fire from the Dotch Yaga, and a large vehicle being taken out in one shot by Vlad. My TacArms whittled away at some of the Red Blok walkers (quite often needing 6s to do damage). The damage got spread out through the units and walker bodies and took far longer than it should have to destroy anything.

I lost Vlad after a few rounds, having made him a prime target after showcasing his firepower. The Karmans, despite their losses, were able to control and hold the objective for a full two turns. This in the end turned out to be the deciding factor. My army had lost the least amount of units by points and the Karmans had lost the most. Holding the objective granted them 500 victory points however, which vaulted them from last place to winner!

The game did take quite a while due to the point size, table size and number of units on the battlefield. While I enjoyed it, it was largely a ranged game, especially since the Red Blok had fielded no units with less than 12 armour. I simply couldn't hit them with my infantry, and due to the table size had no hopes of getting into close combat with them.

In the future I think I'd prefer to play smaller games, and likely on a smaller sized battlefield. I did quite enjoy playing my ONI forces and am working on a way to build myself some UN and TH Korps units, as well as some basic zombie troopers to add to them.