One of the games I've been tempted into trying out is Warlord's Games' Beyond the Gates of Antares, since my Scifi gaming is sorely lacking (nevermind that, at the moment of writing this, I'm likely heading into a Kill Team league...)
I picked up a Freeborn starter set and a couple extra units, since the Freeborn look like a pretty versatile faction that have unit choices from very cheap, expendable infantry to expensive, elite troops. The whole "Space Dutch" backstory (as Keith put it) and the Fremen from Dune aesthetics were icing on the cake.
So it was back to Keith's place to play on his table. We used the "Let Battle Begin" scenario, with both sides lining up on opposing long edges of the table.
Keith's force of Algoryn was small and elite, with a Command Squad, two AI Squads, an Infiltrator Squad, a Skimmer Squad, and an X-Launcher team.
My Freeborn were less elite but more numerable: A Command Squad, two Domari squads, a Feral Squad, a Mag Light Support team, an X-Launcher team, a Transport Drone, and a Targetter Probe shard.
The first turn was all maneuvering, with Keith moving his skimmers up one flank and my transporter drone hovering down the streets. The white poker chip was a minefield that Keith's infiltrators had placed before the game started. While they looked to be more anti-infantry, I decided I didn't want to risk my drone that early, so I moved it towards a different gap in the buildings.
Speaking of the buildings, we decided that were we playing in an industrial sector. This meant the buildings offered a decent resilience bonus, but were difficult to move through.
Keith's skimmers, unfortunately, took a hit when my Mag Light Support managed to ambush them, downing one of the vehicles. The remaining skimmer fired at my X-Launcher, but only managed to put a pin marker on the unit. Keith's Infiltrators, however, took fire from both the Domari unit in the buildings with the weapon teams and the drone, which did some damage. Thanks to a Down order and a Camo Drone, Keith's Infiltrators managed to stay alive.
By turn three, it was clear things weren't going well for the Algoryn force. The last skimmer was taken out by the Mag Light Support team. While a Scramble shot from the X-Launcher forced my drone back, the Ferals unloaded and charged forward.
This meant that one of the AI squads, which was trying to move forward, was caught both by an Ambush from the drone and supporting fire from the Ferals, severely reducing the unit. My other squads started to move out of the buildings and onto the street.
In a desperate last chance bid to take out the drone, the remaining two troopers in the AI squad charged my drone and attempted to wreck it. Unfortunately, they didn't have the equipment to deal with the vehicles armor, and both sides came away from the combat untouched. However, the AI squad was left in the sights of the Ferals, who opened fire and wiped the Algoryn out.
At that point, Keith decided to concede, as his force was badly mauled and unlikely to be able to do much to the drone or supporting infantry.
It was a fun game, if overlong for just 750 points (although some of that might have been us checking the rule books, QRS, army lists, and weapon lists again and again). One problem I have is GoA's similarities and difference to Konflikt 47 - there's enough of a shared ancestry that you feel like picking up the game will be easy, but the changes are enough that you're constantly second guessing or mixing up rules.
Still, I hope Antares gains popularity in the area, and we're hoping to get to 1,000 point games as a minimum for more variety.
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