Retrospective: Resurrection of Evil - the Daleks Cangames 2008

Battle Report

I am gradually posting battle reports / AAR on all my past Doctor Who Miniature games.  This was one of my very early games and the first time I had used the: 5th Doctor, the TARDIS, tanks and the Dalek troopers and the Daleks. 

 Some unusual creatures posing with the 5th Doctor and Tegan

Resurrection of Evil - the Daleks (Cangames May 2008)

Preamble:

This was the first convention game I ran using the Doctor Who Miniature Rules, and only about the fourth game I had played using the rules. Being very ambitious (or foolish) I decided to try different aliens (Daleks) for the convention as opposed to the Cyberman and Autons I had used in my earlier games.  The pressure of a deadline would of course result in my getting everything painted!   Unfortunately there was just not enough time to get all of the figures fully painted (Dalek troopers, some UNIT figures) but the "Show must go on".

Game prep, painting the TARDIS and Daleks

As I was both GM and photographer I did not always mange to get pictures of all the critical events, but I think I got most of them.  It can also be challenging reconstructing the story after over 10 years, but the pictures make it a lot easier.  Although as I started writing up the battle report I soon realized I had pictures from two different games, the test game and the actual convention game.  So I will do a report on both games. The glaring clue is the hedges the test game has some very nice horse hair olive coloured hedges borrowed from a friend, and the convention game the darker green bottle brush style hedges from Leemax.

Situation (the Scenario summary)

In the earth year 2686 Dalek trooper have rescued Davros from his prison on an earth orbiting space station and escaped.  But as they were escaping they encountered a more powerful Movellan cruiser which they tried to evade by entering a time warp that transported them back to 1984 but the Movellans followed.   Both ships were seriously damaged in the insuring battle and crashed on earth near a small English village. Davros and the Dalek troopers who rescued him have survived but the ship is too badly damaged to leave the earth.  The crashed Movellan ship contains the deadly Movellan virus that kills Daleks on contact.  A second Dalek ship has transported two squads of Daleks to deal with the situation.   The ship has landed some distance away and the Daleks must move in on "foot". The surviving Movellan has placed a force-field around their crashed ship to fend off the Daleks and protect the virus. Meanwhile the 5th Doctor has become aware of the situation and alerted UNIT and they have rushed to the scene to thwart the Daleks.

The Forces:

Monster Forces:

5  Daleks  including Dalek Patrol leader + Special weapons Dalek  enter on North edge of board

6 Daleks incl. Dalek Patrol  leader  enter on North edge of board

1 Black Dalek Invasion Leader (may join other formations)

7 Dalek troopers and Davros at the crashed space ship. They must remain inside the space ship on turn 1.

Heroic / Earth Forces (UNIT)

5th Doctor, Tegan, Turlough, 3 Galifry Guards  enter via TARDIS

7 UNIT troopers  (including sniper) + Sgt. Benton enter south edge

8 UNIT troopers + corporal enter south edge

Heavy weapons squad: 81mm Mortar with FOO, GPMG, Bazooka + 1 corporal ; Land Rover or Truck + Capt. Yates.

Scorpion Light tank (reinforcement 2 Chieftain Main Battle Tanks) enters on  south edge + Brigadier (who may join any other formation)

1 Movellan at the crashed Movellan ship, that might be persuaded to join UNIT

The Test Game:

On turn one both sides advance toward the town and the Daleks ship wreck.

Sargent Benton's UNIT squad advances into action.

The Doctor and his crew supported by Captain Yates' squad are the first to move into range of the Dalek ship.

Dalek troopers in black defend their ship and Davros.

UNIT forces advance toward the Dalek ship

he UNIT troops defeat the Dalek troopers near the ship, but silver Daleks are on the way to replace them..

Silver Daleks advance to the attack

The UNIT forces are bolstered by the arrival of two Chieftain tanks that help turn the tide against the Daleks defending the crashed ship.

Tanks and UNIT heavy weapons team move towards the ship

The Dalek reinforcements suffer casualties from the UNIT tanks gun fire.

Daleks advance toward the tanks, one is killed

The Daleks return fire damaging the light Scorpion tank, while the heavy tank smashes through the wall.  The Doctor provides support stunning Daleks with his sonic screwdrive. This is the climax of the game.

The Scorpion tank is damaged,1 more Dalek is killed.

The Daleks fail their morale test and the game ends with a victory for the  Heroic side.

The Convention Game

On turn 1 the UNIT forces including the Scorpion tank advance on to the board from the left, the Daleks advance from the other side and the Doctor and his crew arrives in the TARDIS and advance in the foreground near the crashed Dalek space ship. None of the players seem that concerned about the Movellan ship and chose not to deploy near it. 

Forces advance Dalek ship in foreground,  
Movellan ship in the background

The Dalek ship takes a hit and starts to burn.  At this point the Dalek player decides it is best to leave the ship and move to a safer location.

Dalek troopers guard Davros as he leaves the ship to find safety

The Scorpion tank provides support to the UNIT troops as the engage the Dalek troopers who come out on the short end.

The Dalek troopers lose two of their number to UNIT

A squad of gold Daleks comes to the aid of the Daleks troopers but the gold Daleks take 50% casualties and  don't arrive in time to prevent Davros being shot down.

Gold Daleks move int to reinforce the attack but it is too late

The Daleks have lost too many of their number plus their ship is burning, culminating in their failing their morale test and retreating off the board.

The Doctor and his TARDIS crew are victorious, the Dalek ship burns.

The 5th Doctor and Tegan are pleased with the result

Wrap-up

Surprisingly the Movellan ship played no part in the battle as neither side chose to attack it.  The climax of the test game came when the Chieftain tank smashed through the wall, this was the final attack that broke the Daleks whereas it was the battle with the Dalek troopers and gold Daleks that was decisive in the convention game.  Both games took about  6 turns over 4 hours.  The game kept us on the edge of our seats until the end so proved to be a success and the first of many Doctor Who games I have run at Cangames.  Perhaps I will run it again at Cangames, this time with all the figures painted!