First full game

I played my first full game yesterday (250 pts) and I found that a few things did not go as planned.

Here are the forces that were used

UEDF

Valkyrie Squadron (upgraded with Max)

Area Denial Squadron

Tomahawk Squadron (upgraded with command unit and Dietrich)

Zent

Recon Squadron

Attack Squadron (upgraded with Khyron)

Artillery Squadron

UEDF got the first initiative and the Zentraedi failed to steal the initiative, and opened with a salvo of missiles aiming at the high priority targets in the backfield, oddly the missiles all scattered and went out of play.

The zents started with the Attack Squadron, they surged forward and fired into the area denial squadron, causing damage but no kills.

Next the UEDF Valk's moved forward and fired both the missiles and gun pods into the recon pods taking out a single pod.

This was followed by the recon squadron activating (paying the +2 command points to get the +1 to hit) and firing into the Valkyrie squadron. No losses but some damage done. Max's ability to re-roll failed dodges was very useful as the Zent's really tried to take him out.

The UEDF followed by having the Tomahawks fire into the Attack squadron taking out the Glaug and a single pod.

The Zent's returned fire from the artillery squadron (who also got the +1 to hit from the Recon Pod). and managed to do some damage on the Tomahawks.

At the end of turn one the Zentraedi were closing in on the UEDF and managed to avoid nearly most of the damage that they should have taken. It looked like the UEDF was about to be overrun.

The UEDF also won the initiative for turn two, none of the destroyed pods returned (either out of LOS when destroyed or the Glaug was off the table when they could have returned). The UEDF started with the area denial squadron, the Phalanxes started by firing the volley 4 blast missiles taking out a number of pods and the last Glaug, the UEDF had turned the corner and reduced the Zentraedi's access to command points. The two defenders fired taking out a pod each.

Next the remaining pods in the attach squadron fired into the area denial squadron (which is odd as I would have focused on firing into a unit that hadn't fired that turn). I lost a Defender and a Tomahawk

Next three of the Valkyries tried to boost their speed (one succeeded) and moved to surround the recon squadron. The combined fire of the missiles and gun pods left only 1 single pod from that squadron on the table, and had destroyed the recon pod.

The artillery squadron then fired taking out the last defender and one more tomahawk.

At that point the Zetraedi only had a handful of pods left and they gave up the game.

What I learned.

1. Missiles can be hit or miss, the use of good anti-missile systems and a bit of luck can make missiles nearly useless. But when they work, they really work.

2. The combination of volley and blast for the Phalanx missiles makes them extremely potent for carpet bombing small areas, but you have to be careful who you actually target (I was successful when I targeted the artillery pods who do not have anti-missile weapons and had to spend a command point and try and get a 6+ to shoot down the volley)

3. The recon pod's ability to add +1 to hit was more useful in this game than the Glaug, they are a priority target.

4. When playing Zentraedi, do not try and protect basic battle pods, just through them at the enemy and tie them all up.

5. You need to weigh the use of special characters very carefully, some of them are really not worth the points and you have to know exactly how you want to use them to make them worth your while. In this game Khyron was never used to produce extra command points and that wasted 10 points. On the other hand, Max was points well spent.

6. In both games that I've played the Zentraedi have been consistently outshot and out maneuvered by the valks, I'm going to have to look into this more, but I think I'll need to start looking at hand to hand or trying to pile in more bonuses to make the shooting work.

7. As with all games the best laid plans amount to naught if the dice are against you.