Planetary Empires: Round One Conquests and Bounties!

Over the weekend we had the 'conquest round' to end our first turn of the Planetary Empires Campaign. During the 'conquest round' any player who won a game can roll against the territories of the player(s) whom they beat. In my case I had won four battles which gave me the opportunity to try and seize territories from other players. In Planetary Empires it is much easier to take a territory if you are adjacent to it, however because I was consolidated at the super secret moon base, the only things adjacent to me were other space ports down on the planet surface. It seemed to be a perfectly logical step to first seize a spaceport so I went after the ork space port. Luckily I rolled well and gained possession of the space port, gaining a foot hold on the planet! 

Photo Credit 'Mars project Blog'

 Deciding that this should be treated as any proper invasion I next decided to go for tiles (territories) adjacent to the newly acquired space port in order to increase our 'beach head' on the planet. Seizing an open field tile next to the space port from the other Space Wolf player was an obvious and easy choice. After a second successful 'conquest roll' the territory was mine. My last two attempts were made against the Eldar and Dark Angels, but in Planetary Empires you receive increasing penalties to your conquest rolls for each additional roll. So by the time I reached my 3rd and 4th rolls my penalties to seize the tiles were difficult to overcome and I failed at the last two attempts. However, gaining two tiles was an excellent conquest round and put me well on my way to winning the campaign. The ultimate goal of the campaign is to be the first player with 10 tiles who has also played each of the other players. I had played 4 of the 9 other players and had 8 tiles in possession of the Space Puppies!

After all the players rolled their conquest rounds it was time to settle up on that bounty issue!

Click HERE to see what kind of beer it was...

With the conquest round over, my status as an arrogant bastard confirmed, the debts paid and the dust settling from the first round - it was time for round 2, complete with narration!

The alien landscape of Belsbeth II has erupted with verdant, yet dangerous, vegetation. Dense patches of vine-like forests tower over the structures on the planet's surface. Many of the vines sport hollow thorns that drip a waxy, pale-yellow, vitreous fluid. Still others have large orange and purple flowers, their petals sometimes as large across as a transport, that exude a thick a heady musk. This musk has begun wrecking havoc on planet side sensory equipment and effecting the minds of your troops who are exposed to it for long periods of time. This macabre flora seems to erupt over night, and almost seems to be thriving on the raging violence and spilt blood that permeates the surface of Belsbeth II.

This newly formed vegetation has compounded the already difficult task of having your army reinforced. Previously scouted sites deemed appropriate for landing craft could well be covered in the choking alien vine the next day. With your forces being in steady engagements, and already few in number, your numbers are dwindling fast. You have to call for reinforcements from orbiting ships. With so few areas left that are clear, everyone else is trying to land their forces, or repeal incoming forces, in the same general areas on the planet. Your reinforcements are going to have to come in hard, and hit the planet fighting.

Photo Credit 'Mars project Blog'

As you can see in the picture above, the planet has sprouted green 'stuff' and is none to happy about our presence!

Belsbeth's Dangerous Flora
At the beginning of each game, before deployment, roll a d3+1 to determine how many pieces of Belbeth's Dangerous Flora to place on the board. The pieces should be of agreeable size to both players, and should be represented as area terrain, with some kind of verdant feel (Forests, jungle, etc.) Once the number of terrain pieces has been determined, each player rolls off, and the player who rolls the highest determines the location and type of the first piece of terrain. The second player then does the same. If there are remaining pieces the players take turns alternating placement and selection. The type of terrain is determined by the player placing the piece, but no one player can select more than one of the same type of terrain for the pieces they are placing.

Choking Vines- Area terrain, impassable and blocks LOS.
Injector Vines- Area terrain, difficult, dangerous, 4+ cover.
Lucid Vines- Area terrain. 4+ cover. Any unit beginning their movement phase in the area of the terrain must pass a leadership test or immediately goes to ground. If a unit is engaged in assault, it must still make this test. If it fails it fights with -1 Attacks, Weapon Skill, and Initiative in the next Assault phase. Fearless units must also make this test and will be affecting as normal if they fail. 

My first game of this round would come against Tyranids... bugs in the jungle - never a good idea!

still practicing_


Tallarn