VASA vs Triad - First Game

Rid and I had our first Urban War game at the club tonight, him using his Triad force and me with my VASA.  We stuck with the rosters that were listed on the faction sheets that come in the 2nd edition box sets which gave us around 170 points each to battle with.  The box sets are superb - as well as the models themselves, you get a quick start rule book, the faction sheet for your specific force plus a couple of D10.  You really do get absolutely everything you need to get playing with them.

Here's our forces ready for action:

My VASA force

Rid's Triad force

We cobbled together some scenery from the Bunker's terrain pile.  It wasn't perhaps the most dense or themed scenery but it was enough for us to get to grips with the rules.

In position...

We played a basic scenario where we fought until one of us had lost over half their strike force - so once someone lost four models they would need to take command checks to see if the whole squad bugged out.

The main difference between Urban War and other skirmish games is that you have to decide what you want each model to do and mark them with hidden tokens to denote whether you want them to move, shoot or assault or if you want them to remain still and sit on overwatch, ready to intercept enemy models by interrupting their action.  As the game progressed, we both came to understand how important these decisions could be.  I had positioned my sniper into a ruin and left him on overwatch and he soon picked off a Retainer and Rid's Kabuki as she charged towards my Archangel.  I didn't have it all my own way though - Rid got his Sumo Bodyguard to charge one of my Suppressors and made short work of him and following through to attack my Suppressor Sgt.  They traded blows but, thankfully for me, she managed to hold out against the giant warrior.  Another of my Suppressors charged into the Sumo to help but was outmatched by him totally.  I was beginning to think that the Bodyguard would take our my whole force on his own but my Sgt managed to take him out of the game.  Only seconds later, she herself was shot dead by one of Rid's lurking Retainers.  After this, the final battle turned towards my Archangel who'd found herself in close combat with the Triad Boss - not something that would be recommended as she's not a good close combat model.  Amazingly, the Triad Boss failed to hurt her and she killed him with her return strike.  Rid was down to just three models now so needed to take a command check - which he duly failed.  So the VASA were victorious in their first battle but the main thing was that Rid and I enjoyed ourselves immensely playing Urban War.  It's a very tactical game but it's still quick to play and just plain good fun.

We're going to schedule another game soon but, in the meantime, I'm going to get cracking with my Prussian fleet for Dystopian Wars.  I have a game of that scheduled for after the club's AGM on the 19th December so I need to have my fleet painted before then.