Dropzone Commander #18 – The Resistance vs United Colonies of Mankind

Today we feature the Resistance for the first time in ETM battle report history, with the Ferals squaring off against the UCM. A bloodbath ensues as the enmity between these two groups spills over into a terrible street war.

The Armies

UCM Fleet Marine Security Force TF-109

United Colonies of Mankind – 2,000

Field Command

COMMAND – Kodiak ACV with Colonial General (CV5)

SCOUT – 4x Wolverine LAV – Type A

SUPPORT – Ferrum Drone Base

Colonial Armored Formation

STANDARD – 3x Sabre MBT

            -Condor Medium Dropship

SUPPORT – 3x Rapier AA Tank

            -Condor Medium Dropship

SUPPORT – 2x Longbow Howitzer

            -2x Raven-A Light Dropship with Missile Pods

Colonial Armored Formation

STANDARD – 3x Sabre MBT

            -Condor Medium Dropship

SUPPORT – 3x Rapier AA Tank

            -Condor Medium Dropship

SUPPORT – 2x Longbow Howitzer

            -2x Raven-A Light Dropship with Missile Pods

Colonial Legionnaire Corps

TROOPS – 3x Legionnaire Squad

            -Bear APC

TROOPS – 3x Legionnaire Squad

            -Bear APC

            -Sharing Condor Medium Dropship

Colonial Fleet Air Wing

AIR – Archangel

AIR – Archangel

UCM Expeditionary Group

SCOUT – 4x Wolverine LAV – Type A

EXOTIC – 2x Praetorians

            -Raven-A Light Dropship

The Unbowed

Feral Resistance – 2,000

Model 109 Breaching Drill

Warlord’s HQ

COMMAND – M3 Alexander with Resistance Commander (CV4)

            -AT-77 Lifthawk

SCOUT – 2x Freeriders

SCOUT – 2x Freeriders

Vehicle Detachment

STANDARD – 3x Gun Wagon

            -NT-1 Kraken

SUPPORT – 2x M20 Zhukov

Resistance Band

TROOPS – 2x Resistance Fighters

            -MT-90 Jackson

TROOPS – 2x Resistance Fighters

            -MT-90 Jackson

EXOTIC – 2x Berserkers

            -MT-90 Jackson

            -All sharing an AT-77 Lifthawk

SUPPORT – 2x AH-16 Cyclone

Resistance Band

TROOPS – 2x Resistance Fighters

            -MT-90 Jackson

TROOPS – 2x Resistance Fighters

            -MT-90 Jackson

EXOTIC – 2x Berserkers

            -MT-90 Jackson

            -All sharing an AT-77 Lifthawk

SUPPORT – 2x AH-16 Cyclone

Rusted Fist

HEAVY – 2x M9 Hannibal
            -AT-77 Lifthawk

HEAVY – 2x M9 Hannibal
            -AT-77 Lifthawk

Fast Strikers
AIR - J19 Hellhog

After-Action Review

Josh (Griff):

I came away from this game with the Resistance with a different mindset than when I began. The Resistance were looking to be my second army for DzC, but after having played against them at this points level, I am not convinced they are for me. They have a very similar approach to the Scourge, at least in regards to the range on a lot of their weapons. Half of the army doesn’t have Countermeasures at all. Before the game, the army seemed to be capable of rushing an opponent and overwhelming them with weight of numbers. Having seen the carnage that shooting at units without Countermeasures creates, I do not wish to play this army anymore. I see the Resistance struggling to find the balance between old world military tech and new world scrap heap. They suffer from some variant approaches to war in the same army.

The good things in the army, however, were very good. The Alexander is a fantastic command vehicle! It practically one-shot my Ferrum! The Cyclone helicopters accounted for a huge portion of my casualties as well. Their barrage weapons are extremely effective. And finally, the Lifthawk… This transport is a monster, the armor and damage points on it are great. It is perfect for pushing units right into the center of a fight.

I had a blast against a new opponent. Games against Josh are always great, but I do not think the Resistance are the faction for me. So Josh does not like the army, and Josh loves the army.

Josh (Himebaugh):

Well, this was my first full-on game playing Resistance. Therefore, this turned into a bit of trial-and-error in learning some of the quirks of this army. Once I had my Command Deck and Alexander in hand, I had a rather sizable force to be able to field. About the only crucial thing left that I didn’t have was Hellhogs, the buses and the large Hovercrafts, so I decided to focus more on units that can be carried in on Lifthawks. I decided to try out the Ferals first because I do like their cards, and I did think it was more appropriate against the UCM. One of the harder points of the army is trying to figure out a nice balance between the cheap units and the expensive ones as there is not a great deal of middle ground.

One of the points that I wanted to test with this army was to see for myself what works and what doesn’t so much. For instance, the net lists seem to be in love with the four Cyclone groups to be able to drop a ton of barrages on the enemy’s head. I on the other hand am not as thrilled with this prospect of creating too much threat centered on single units for my opponent to concentrate AA to destroy. Also, the Hannibals have been considered one of more underwhelming units in the new army. My first small trial game with the starter force did make them seem rather mediocre, but I figured this might have been in the similar ballpark as only having the minimum unit of Sabres. I tried out four Hannibals with two Lifthawks to see if they were more effective. Last, I put in the Berserkers to test them out, but I decided against just running a larger unit to dog pile on some hapless foes. Instead, I tried a smaller support unit with two other Fighter units in two separate battlegroups.

Even though I lost 5 to 10 on this one, much of this came down to rolls on the activation. I poured a lot of damage into the central structure where the Legionnaires were going for the objective for many turns, but they my initiative rolls failed me in the end. Because of that, he was able to pull out of the building with one squad and three damage points left. Then, it came down to initiative roll for my Zhukovs to try to catch the Condor leaving with an objective. I lost every single roll after the first two turns it would appear, and I shouldn’t have burned that Central HQ Directive card early on because it got hit with an Espionage. If I had let him burn that card on my Field Repairs for the Alexander, then it might have been a different story. Topped off with not having a Call for Extraction card, and I was looking at an uphill battle in getting the objectives off.

To say that this game was bloody is a rather obtuse understatement. The Hannibals did remarkably well most of the game making a nice fat block pushing through the middle throwing out some damage to the Sabres and the Rapiers, but they finally begin to falter at the last few turns. The two Cyclone squads I felt did just fine with only a Barrage 2 which is still usable behind buildings. The Berserker squads were not really able to showcase their abilities in close combat as the only CQB was between Freeriders and Praetorians. I know many people on the forums have caused quite a bit of a stir over these units coming out of a drill and going for objectives, but my original fears tested of them being easily intercepted by units in Light Dropships came to fruition unfortunately. In hindsight, I think I might start using them more in an anti-armor role when I realized they had more than one shot with those E10 sticky explosives. My poor scouts with both the Freeriders and the Gun Technicals getting rolled up rather quickly did a lot of damage to my command radius, and my AA getting surprisingly shellacked turned the favor toward the UCM. I am still not sure if it would have been better to get my Zhukovs out in the middle field or just have them roll on to provide some threat to air right out the door similar to what I have experienced against Phobos walkers. This unit will require more experimentation further to get a feel for this Heavy AA tank.

Probably one of the premier units for my army had to have been the Alexander Command Tank. This beast took down a Ferrum with 4 wounds left in only a single shot at almost 40 inches thanks to Devastator and Toughened Shells. I wish I had a better hand drawn for the Commander to get more of a feel of the Command Deck, but it just wasn’t in the cards so they say. The multiple groups of Resistance Fighters did rather well in finding objectives quickly which is what I had to bank on most of the game.

One of the hardest things I had to hit me in the face was just how much Resistance had to take some things at a higher threat that I never really had to while playing UCM and Scourge. For instance, the Legionnaire rockets doing a superb job in destroying all three Gun Wagons in one go was a shock. Also, the Longbow artillery, which I never had to consider as much of a threat before, became one of the things that stopped a lot of my flanking momentum and kept me having to scramble in the back field to getting dropped objectives from my poor infantry. Rapiers even by themselves are frightening towards my lighter units.

I consider this ultimately a learning experience towards the Resistance. I feel that I am not just learning a new army but the whole game over again because this army operates outside much of the standard paradigms that the core four races were built on. With no light drop ships and units that cost from extremely cheap to rather expensive, this army is going to require some definite thought to get into the groove for how this army operates. But I am hopeful that I will persevere and achieve a better capacity to pull through for the future. If there is one thing that I do enjoy about DzC, it is that I feel that I do indeed learn from my experiences in such a well-coordinated and tactical game.

I congratulate my UCM opponent for a hard fought victory because it was well earned, and I look forward to the day that my Separatists will face him again on the Cradle Worlds.