CRUZ CHRONICLES #009 - FAMINE. PESTILENCE. DEATH. WAR!

Last Saturday, August 24th, a battle of epic proportions was fought on the very grounds of Glorietta! We took a break from the campaign matches and clashed head to head with each other in a battle that would dwarf the Battle at Helm's Deep! (yeah, pun intended.)



Operation Cerberus offers an apocalyptic scenario titled "Four Horsemen". Originally, it's designed to be played by two sides, fielding 600 points worth of Dust Tactics goodness each.

Vic issued the challenge, and three brave souls answered: Raven, Binbi and yours truly.

"The board is set; the pieces are moving."
- Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Since there were four warlords, we decided to turn the scenario into a 2on2, with each general fielding no more than 300 AP. We randomly determined who will team up with who, and ended up with Raven and Binbi versus Vic and me.

Bin's Army: Four walkers and a funeral

Raven's Army; the only Axis in the fold

Vic's army with the Long Tom II!

My Army; see anything familiar?

To fully enjoy the game, we didn't set a time limit. It took us a whopping four hours to complete the 8th turn of the game, though. Makes you wonder if the name of the scenario was a play on this element.

There were numerous hilarious, phenomenal and crucial moments midst the long game. We realized that the scenario was designed to eliminate alpha strikes on the First Turn. But first blood was immediately drawn as soon as the Second Turn started, unfortunately for me it was my Ozz and Grim Reapers on the receiving end. Two memorable events in the game for me were 1) my Rhino and Hammers dismantling both a Pounder and a Ludwig at the same time; and 2) when my French Legionnaires successfully reacted to a charging Totenmeister and Axis Zombies, not to mention me rolling 11 blanks in one roll during that reactive fire!

It was a fun game nonetheless. Everyone in the venue who sees us asked the same question: "Is this Dust's Apocalypse version?" referencing Warhammer 40K's own megalevel game version.

The momentum shifted from one side to the other almost every turn of the game. There were 4 Objectives that needed to be claimed, and no one side had a clear, outright advantage on all those Objectives. Vic's army was reduced down to just a single Hammer, which was eventually upped to two after my NCO healed it. On the other hand, all of Raven and Bin's walkers were annihilated, causing a major set back as a huge chunk of their lists were comprised of vehicles, with no solid infantry left to challenge the other Objectives we were protecting.

In the end, Vic and I won, claiming 3 out of 4 of the Objectives. Our infantry-heavy list paid off, as we were able to maximize the protective cover of the structures where the Objectives were placed in. This is something we think we will tweak next time we play something similar in the future, to make it more balanced.

Personally, I really enjoyed having been able to play a larger scale battle with Dust Tactics. I think it's even possible to pattern a one-time-big-time tournament scenario after the Four Horsemen. I'm looking forward to play a similar point total on the Warfare platform soon! Til next time!