Battle of Vesta

Battle 2 of the Zirconian Campaign

After their initial defeat, the human defenders of Zirconia prepared to defend the Vesta refinery. Additional forces were situated to hold a nearby hill.

With a rumble and a roar of engines, the robot army of the Dominion came into view.

A firefight broke out as robot infantry advanced on Vesta (left flank)

The defenders wiped out the robot attackers on the left. In the center, the robots annihilated some ambushers hiding the woods.

A tank battle commenced.

And the humans were victorious. Meanwhile, artillery fire wiped out the defenders of Vesta.

The humans lost an artillery duel on the left while the human armor battled hordes of robots.

The robots occupied Vesta.

The robots wiped out the human armor.

 Heavy fighting for the hill.

The humans were victorious on the right.

The remaining humans tried to swing left and retake Vesta.

Accurate enemy artillery scattered their forces, though. The robots held Vesta, inflicting another defeat on the defenders of Zirconia.

Game Notes:

• With this battle, the robots are 2-0 in the campaign.
• And now I've completed my first 6 x 6 sci-fi game.
• This scenario was # 14 - Static Defense from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames.
• The attackers had to seize either the refinery (a town in Thomas's version) or the hill by the end of 15 turns.
• I played a rather vanilla version of WISER sci-fi. I did not include air strikes or force fields in this scenario. I'll have to add them in next time.
• I'm going to rethink some of my unit statistics for my sci-fi version. For example, I thought artillery was too powerful. It used 2 dice without modification for range (assuming that drones are directing the fire). Most of the casualties were from artillery. It may be realistic, but made for a somewhat lackluster game. For example, after successfully defending Vesta, the human infantry were wiped out by long-range artillery, allowing robot foot to walk into the area. I would have liked to see a more protracted fight for the objective.
• I had a minor logistical issue with the road. It kept sliding on the board. I need to find a way to secure it without damaging the board, or else I'll need to change the board.