Apokalypse

Apokalypse is our new Waste World miniatures game. It contains a complete set of miniatures rules for fighting with the armies of Waste World and also a campaign system that lets you become the ruler of a sprawling domain of crowded habzones out in the Wastes. Apokalypse has an experience system that lets your armies grow into hardened veterans. It also contains rules for raiding, trading and diplomacy that let you apply political and economic pressure as well as military pressure to your foes. Collecting Drakonium is a vital part of this, as you need the precious energy source to pay for your expanding army of troops and equipment.

The Plains of Glass

The Plains of Glass is the name of a small sector on the main trade route between Janus and the Shogunate. It takes its name from the great plain of cracked glass that stretches across its core, the mark of an ancient nuclear detonation. Over the years the glass has eroded into jagged, multi-colored outcroppings and glittering sands that drift across the area. Here and there, the vast ruins of dead cities mark the burial grounds of ancient civilizations. Strange artifacts still occasionally turn up, carried from the ruins by mad-eyed Necropolis raiders. The plains are rich in Drakonium and other natural resources and consequently of some importance to the great metrozones. All of the maintain many military bases and Sandfleet refuelling stations here.

We've just started the Plains of Glass campaign here in Prague. The first domains have been created, the first troops have been recruited and the first forces have been dispatched into the field. So far Promethean, Shogunate and Hydran forces have jostled for position, and it looks like Ikarean Skyreavers will soon enter the fray. So far Jeff has created a small elite Promethean battlegroup, bristling with firepower. Heavily cyborgized leaders command two units of Legionaries, supported by two Robotrooper cataphracts. This force bristles with firepower, mainly megablasters and rocket launchers. Brian invested a Shogunate battleforce consisting of four units of Samurai supported by three monstrous battlestalker war machines and a unit of Serpentfang ninja. Brian's Samurai Warlord is one of the fiercest close combat fighters in the sector. His monk is a magister of the Temple of the Phoenix capable of terrible pyrokinetic attacks. Oscar designed a powerful Hydran force equipped with the now outlawed light railguns and tooled to the max with customised symbionic armor. Out of his four units, half were winged and capable of flying. The close combat portion of this force was led by a Brute berserker. The rest of Oscar's leaders were very potent psychers indeed. I'll give you more details of all these forces and their fates in the next update but for now lets look at the opening skirmish of the war.

The Drakonium Strike

The very first encounter of the campaign broke out when the Prometheans and the Shogunate dispatched forces to the same Drakonium strike. The crystals glittered in the sun like crystallized tears of blood as both forces disembarked from their sandkrawlers. For a few moments both commanders studied the opposition through their magnoculars. No wormsign was visible. Not much Drakonium either, only four small harvestable fields. Still any Drakonium is preferable to none. Claim beacons were set off. Messages were exchanged over the comm-net. It was established that neither side would withdraw. Unwilling to give ground, both sides advanced onto the rolling dunes. At this point, conflict was inevitable.
The battlefield was mostly empty. A ruined prospectors bunker marked the Prometheans left flank, a rolling series of dunes dominated the center of the field. A few small mesas overlooked the area, the major one blocking line of sight deep on the Promethean right flank. The Drakonium lay between the two armies tantalisingly out of reach. Both commanders came to the same decision. Neither was going to make a grab for the Drakonium. They were going to sweep their foes from the field and then claim all the crystals for themselves. The Promethean plan was simple-stand and shoot. The Commander and his Praetorian bodyguard stood atop a small rocky escarpment. This gave the Commander a clear view of the battlefield and the Praetorian a clear field of fire with his megablaster. The Legionaries held the center of the Promethean line concentrating their attention on the dunetops over which they expected the samurai to come. The left and right flanks were held by the expendable and somewhat more lightly armed Robotrooper cataphracts.
The Shogunate plan was equally simple- a pincer movement. Brian rightly feared the Prometheans superior firepower but was confident that in close combat his forceblades would slice Promethean armor like a laser slices flesh. The Ninja squad lurked in the ruined hab, threatening the Promethean left flank. The vast majority of the samurai massed in the center behind the cover of the dunes. A smaller force was to advance around the mesa on the Shogunate's left flank. The flank forces would strike at the same moment as the massed samurai emerged over the dunetops hopefully overloading the outnumbered Prometheans with targets. The battlestalkers were distributed one on each flank and one in the center where they could cover the advance.

The battle opened with the central battlestalker attempting to sweep the Promethean commander"s escarpment with its chaingun but the range was too long and the Promethean armor was too good. The commander escaped the attack unscathed. The battlestalker was not so lucky and was destroyed by a burst from the Praetor's megablaster. Unfortunately some of the Prometheans ammunition proved to be defective. Backflash from the megablaster wounded the Praetor. The samurai rolled forward. The Legionaries sighted their weapons on the dunetops. The right flank Robotroopers moved to intercept the flanking samurai. The ninja lurked in the shadows. Things were tense but few shots were fired. Rumours of defective ammo spread like wildfire through the Promethean lines and most of the troops inspected their magazines carefully. The Shogunate's right flank battlestalker swung over towards the center to give covering fire to the troops. Rattled by the loss of the first Battlestalker, the Shogunate commander abandoned his plan. Both flanking forces moved to the attack before the main force had completed massing behind the dunetops. The first samurai were cut down by a blast from the Robotroopers support rocket launcher and then mopped up by fire from the remaining troopers blasters. Overwhelmed by casualties, they turned and fled, only to be rallied by the battlestalker behind them.
The Ninja moved from their position but were spotted by Promethean Commander using his image enhancing telescopic eye. A burst from the Praetor's megablaster mowed down most of the now exposed ninja, the commander took out the ninja leader with a burst from his blaster, and the last few were blown to bits by rocket launcher fire from the Legionaries. Still, the Ninja made their presence felt posthumously as a booby trap they has set earlier exploded and wiped out most of the right flank Robotroopers. The last of the central samurai made it into position, ready for the big push. Unfortunately then the fickle finger of fate intervened. Aerial spotters reported wormsign. A huge wasteworm was coming to investigate this noisy disturbance in its territory. Both commanders hastily adjusted their plans. There was now no time to wipe out their opponents. They needed to grab the Drakonium and evacuate before the worm arrived. Equally, they wanted to prevent their foes from grabbing the Drakonium.
A brave samurai squad was dispatched into the sights of rocket launcher. Unfortunately, the crystals were highly unstable Fools Drakonium and exploded killing a couple of warriors. Their karmachips were hastily collected for reincarnation. A second unit of samurai managed to harvest the other crystals but were then panicked by a hail of fire from the legionaries. Fortunately they managed to take the crystal with them and were swiftly rallied by the Warlord. Over on the Promethean right flank the surviving Robotroopers made a grab for the crystal atop the small mesa. They were cut down by an enormous burst of chaingun fire from the battlestalker. The Legionaries were more successful and harvested a crystal that lay on the dunes. Then as the earth shook at the presence of the approaching worm, both sides picked up their wounded, ran for their sandkrawlers and raced for the safety of rocky ground.
The wasteworm reared up, tons of sand tumbling down its massive armored sides. Its huge circular mouth opened, and all sign of Drakonium vanished forever. In the aftermath of the battle, both sides cursed their luck. It had been a hard fought engagement for little real reward. Both sides had managed to harvest only one crystal- barely enough to pay for their bullets. The samurai felt they had been just about to overwhelm the Promethean position. The Prometheans felt equal confident that their withering firepower would have mowed down the Shogunate's proud warriors. The one bright spot was that total casualties weren't that heavy. Most of those lost on both sides were simply wounded, rather than killed.
The only real losses were the brave Robotroopers disabled by the ninja boobytrap. They were captured by the left flank samurai and the support battlestalker. Jeff refused to ransom them but so they were sold into slavery. Fortunately for Jeff some Skavenger raiders in his employ managed to intercept the slavers Konvoy and free the battered unit. Both sides managed to improve a few units through experience. Predictably the Prometheans concentrated on increasing their ranged firepower skills and the Shogunate concentrated their training on improving their morale and close combat abilities.
The campaign turn that followed was fairly uneventful. Predictably both sides contented themselves with building a few more habdomes for the expected influx of refugees and new recruits. The peace was only broken by a few Skavenger raids sponsored by both sides. The losses balanced. Neither side got any net gain from them. Bryan did manage to recruit a unit of samurai mounted on skimmer bikes. By now a new threat was emerging. The Hydrans had decided to take over the sector. The Prometheans moved to meet them. In the east a storm was gathering.
More on this next time!