Beyond the Gates of Antares, The Xilos Horizon: Battle Report

With the Xilos Horizon boxed game in hand, myself and Dave Walker of House Lancaster decided to use some of the contents of the game, showcasing a 500pt force aside built from just the components in the boxed game. We decided just to wipe each other out as we were putting on a show for the benefit of our club. The Ghar have a special Distort dice, which can really put a spanner in the works for either side, however we opted not to use it for our demo game, as we wanted to keep things nice and simple.

Ghar:

Assault Squad x 3

Battle Squads x3

Concord:

C3 Strike Squad x5

C3 Strike Squad x5

Plasma Light Support Drone x 2

Turn 1:

The first dice went straight to the Ghar, who advanced up the left flank of the battlefield, keen to get the Concord in their sights. The plasma light support drones responded to this by maneuvering themselves behind some containers, while the C3 squads on the right flank sought to seek a better firing position. The Ghar assault squad advanced towards the encroaching C3, hoping to get their weapons into range, but found their line of sight blocked.

The Command squad of the C3 used his Follow special rule, taking the nearest available squad with them into cover, in a bid to deal with the Ghar threat quickly.

Turn 2

The C3 squad had a clear line of sight to the assault squad and let loose a volley of plasma fire into them. With the fire bouncing harmlessly off their thick armour plating, the Ghar advanced towards the floating plasma drones.. The Concord responded in kind, moving the drones out into the open and losing off six round of plasma fire, but the tough suits of the Ghar managed to shrug off the attacks.

The Ghar assault squad advanced further towards the C3 strike squad facing them, opting to fire a volley of their own, killing two C3 troopers and placing a pin marker on the squad. The Concord troopers, not to be outdone initiated a Fire fight, the C3 squad managed to take down a Ghar!

Turn 3

The concord drew the next dice, and opened up once more with the plasma light support, once again however the tough armour of the Ghar managed to withstand the hail of SV 3 shots! This would take their height Res value of 12 down to a 9, giving the support drones more of a chance to destroy them. 

The Concord moved the nearest C3 squad out in the open to pour fire into the encroaching Ghar walkers, placing another pin on the unit but failed to kill any.

The Ghar enraged, sought to take their fury out on the C3, moving into a better position to try and charge next turn, firing their weapons but missing their target. The C3 unit opted to charge into the Ghar! Opting to combine their plasma grenades to at least try and damage the Ghar, the C3 troopers bravely launched themselves at the behemoths, losing off a hail of plasma point blank. Despite the firepower, the Ghar crashed into the hapless troopers, wiping the squad out!

The other C3 squad fired upon the Ghar, managing to exact some revenge on the unit by killing another, and cooking its reactor off! The remaining Ghar managed to hold it nerve and its Res roll, staying in the game.

Turn 4

The Ghar managed to draw their own distort dice, meaning that one of the squads would be out of action! Opting to use the last assault unit left, the plucky Ghar charged headlong into the nearest C3 squad, killing one with its opening salvo, the C3 unit fire back but to know avail as the Ghar barreled into them, killing one out right. Down to three men left, the unit tried to kill the Ghar but failed, with them losing two men the squad failed their Command check and fled the field! With the last squad gone, the C3 drones tried to gun down another Ghar unit, but failed to cause any damage.

Turn 5

The Ghar gained the first dice, and moved the Assault unit further towards the C3 drones firing a round into their sides, destroying one.  The Ghar drew the next dice, launching into the last drone firing all the way and despite the drone managing to hit its target, exploded in the iron grip of the Ghar ending the game!

Dave;

With a better dice rolls and perhaps not charging into the Ghar I could have clawed back a victory, the best thing when facing Ghar is do not get close, they are slow and easy to hit due to their immense size, so a tactic of shoot and retreat may have been better! The C3 Plasma drones were very useful, as there are tougher than the regular squads and stand more of a chance. They also pack some serious firepower, enabling me to have a better chance at disabling those tough Res 12 battle suits!

Sam:

The Ghar are just walking tanks, able to oak up much of the firepower ranged against them. But I must remember not to get too complacent as they can still die! Pinning the Ghar down is key to success, which why it’s still a good idea to keep them in cover as much as possible,  A great game all round!

The buildings, walls and containers are mostly from Micro Art Studios, as is the wonderful gaming mat. The rest is from Mantic and Warmill.

http://www.microartstudio.com/

http://www.warmill.co.uk/

http://www.manticgames.com/