Its time to start talking a little about Dropzone Commander Tactics I have found over the last year of playing the game. While I have had the chance to play now against or with almost every unit the game has to offer, some units I have only been up against once or twice.
I know for many people, the UCM and Shaltari are the most common forces due to the new starter sets, so I am going to start off talking about the first of these, the Scourge.
Here is what the Scourge are.... from Hawk Wargames.
The Scourge
The Scourge are foul, neuro-parasitic lifeforms which can utterly dominate an unfortunate host, bending its life to its will. They thrive on the conquest and absorption of other races, their very mode of existence as potent a threat as their formidable battlefield technology. They are the galaxy's ultimate predators.
Their breathtaking assimilation of the central planets, including Earth itself, has made them the primary threat to the very existence of mankind. Their methods of killing on the battlefield are abhorrent to witness, but violent death at the hand of their potent plasma weaponry can be as nothing compared to the dread of being taken alive.
The Scourge are masters of planetary invasion. Their entire fighting system is geared towards this single minded goal. Their dropships are strictly one-way transports, deploying from low orbit in freefall and only capable of sustained powered flight at relatively low altitudes. Sinister grav-tanks can deploy from these peculiar, vertically configured craft in seconds, reaching the combat zone faster than those all other races, save the Shaltari. Their weapons are short ranged, but spectacularly destructive. Their entire ethos demands lighting speed, intense shock and merciless aggression. The Scourge do not know retreat, they either conquer, or die trying.
The Scourge are fast. I mean really fast. At their core, are very fast moving skimmers, which you must learn to utilize to play a Scourge force. What this means is getting your skimmers on the ground, and moving. A skimmer in Dropzone Commander that has moved in its previous activation gives a +2 Accuracy penalty to anyone shooting at them, AA guns are the exception to this.
This means that Scourge units must deploy into protection and out of the line of fire. Your armor values are not that of the PHR or UCM. Deploy into cover and hidden, and then move out to attack.
As a Scourge player, you must know that to take full advantage of the command cards at your disposal, you are much better to take a large squads of tanks, rather than two or more smaller ones. This is because of your command deck. Jink and Weave cards are common in your deck, and you want to take advantage of this when you must zoom out into the front line of battle.
The Scourge can very rapidly get to almost anywhere on the table, their light dropships moving an amazing 30" across the tabletop. Use this to your advantage. Get somewhere, and control where the fight is going to happen.
I often tend to try and get into central buildings that threaten the enemy with my infantry of exotic forces. This tends to focus the enemy on countering you, while the rest of your forces are deploying skimmers to get into position.
For example. Intruder Light Dropships filled with Destroyers, Prowlers, and Minders, can rapidly get into a very deadly combat zone to bring a swift death to enemy units, and often forcing them out of where they had intended on going. I like this combination of an Occupation Battlegroup as it gives you a strong unit to take a building, prowlers to hit forward moving ground forces, and Minders to take out dropships that linger.
One of the key factors with the Scourge I have run into, is that while you are fast, it can also be your undoing. Strike swift, but do not feel like you cannot fall back, redirect and continue the fight. I have done this several times, where I rush out into the open with a jink and weave, to deliver a deadly round of shooting, only to jump back behind the buildings for cover and then unleashing destructive death to the buildings that the enemy is trying to push to get into.
I will do some breaking down of Scourge units in the next post.