Old vs. New

FOr the last few games, the results were quite satisfying and may intend either DBS are not that weak as said all the time, or that I finally gained some experience playing them. This gets me directly to my latest game against Ramah, which
1. ended my win streak and
2. showed the issues with new optimized profiles:

We played Acquisition, a mission I played a lot during Asteroid Blues and never succeeded in. But since it is no difficult mission, it should be solvable now. I won the Lt-roll but lost the gamble by letting my opponent deploy first on the harder to defend side (in the north) and eventhough getting the first turn...

  Druze Bayram Security
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 7  / 1 
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
 DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
 DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
 BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
 BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
 BRAWLER Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 18)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 21 
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 SAITO TOGAN Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW, Knife. (0 | 39)
 KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
 BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
 KAMEEL (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

 6 SWC | 300 Points
 

Open in Infinity Army

I wanted to try a conservative and calm game with clear plans for each turn. Everything should grant me good positions and ressources to control every console in turn three with my Hunzakuts and Saito. In this situation, I had to decide who will carry out the first-strike against what targets. Since my Hunzakuts where critical for this mission, they were kept behind and only my core-link was potent enough to do this job.

 Ramah Taskforce
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 8 
 GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
 GHULAM (NCO) Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (Normal and Smoke Ammo.) / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 16)
 GHULAM Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 17)
 GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
 GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
 GHULAM (Forward Observer) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
 KHAWARIJ (Fatality L2) Spitfire / Pistol, AP CCW. (1.5 | 32)

GROUP 26  / 1  / 1
 MUKHTAR (Fireteam: Haris) Viral Rifle, 2 Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 31)
 MUKHTAR (Multispectral Visor L2) Red Fury, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 37)
 MUKHTAR Doctor Plus (MediKit) Boarding Shotgun, 2 Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)
 NAFFATÛN Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
 FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 CARMEN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades + Bâtard / Heavy Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 22)
   BÂTARD Trench-hammer, AP CCW. (- | 5)

 6 SWC | 286 Points
 

Open in Infinity Army

Something is missing (not only to enable the REMs) and the division among the groups is not right, but everything important is in. Mukhtars to force their way through everything and a Khawarij as second beatstick (or maybe Carmen and Batard). Lots of Ghulams to back everything up and too many orders to be limited too early.

As said, I deployed second in the south.

My opponent put a Ghulam-core around the right building with a sniper, a missile launcher and a doc+ on the rooftop. A Fanous was added on that side. In the center two Ghulams hid together with the Khawarij and the Mukhtars went on the left with the second Fanous. The single Naffatun was placed on the right center.

My core went on the right side with the Druze advanced and quite open to get rid of the ARO-Ghulams. Behind them, the HRL and MSR Brawler went to fill the link. My Lt was placed on the left building, together with the AHD. Behind that Building most of my REMs went, only one Fugazi went in the center. Hunzakut 2 took the center, Hunzakut 1 the right side.

Carmen and Batard were placed as reserve on the right behind the ARO-building, I placed Saito in hidden deployment next to the tower in the center (mostly to counter the advancing Mukhtars).

Druze 1:
No orders were denied by command tokens, so I calculated how much damage my HMG could do. Since there was too much stuff behind the ARO-building and I am too slow, my potential was very limited and I planned for some kills and a defensive position. If I had my Hunzakuts free, a mine around the corner on that building would have been the best way, since I had the opportunity to kill the obvious Lt. What really happend was nothing. It took most orders in group one to kill the damn sniper (who cares about 63% chances of success?). So not enough orders were left to kill the ML too and get back in a safe position. I wanted to get rid of the Khawarij, too, since he would be able to quickly kill my Lt. My second Hunzakut could advance easily and plant a mine next to him, then a repeater and retreat into relative safety somewhere in the center recamoed. My Kameel scored data scan on the Khawarij, without triggering the mine, since he was prone behind a wall.

Ramah 1:
The left Fanous triggers the mine and gets wrecked. The link is switched to the Khawarij and the two additional Ghulams in the center. The Khawarij was shot by the MSR Brawler, gets revived and shot the Brawler in revenge. The Mukhtars advanced, killing the left Fugazi, then the EM-Druze and discovering the second Hunzakut, which started tanking some shots. Something should be done with Carmen and Batard, so they trusted their smoke-grenades and advanced into the middle.

Druze 2:
Still in good shape and maybe able to get some shots on the Mukhtars, the killing-plan was continued. The HMG takes out the ML-Ghulam in one shot, in the next order Carmen and Batard, then takes the second doc+ out of cover and gets shot. The other members scattered a bit into better positions. Somehow the Mukhtars needed to be eleminated and CC seemed to be the best option. Saito advanced, threw smoke on the MSV2 (I forgot about this...) and attacked him. The second thing I had not taken into account were the nanopulsers...I took the safe kill and cced the Mukhtar, but lost Saito. This was the one major mistake, which lost me the game (later more on this). The second Hunz used its position to blast away the Khawarij and the Doc+ with his LSG, then recamoed.

Ramah 2:
The Mukhtar doc activates the left console, then hid behind the wall. Both Mukhtars got into suppressive fire and nothing more was done.

Druze 3:
With reduced order pools (three regulars in one, four in two), I only could control the consoles and not activate them. Hunzakut one took the right one, still in camo, covered by the KHD Druze in SF. Hunzakut two shot down the last Ghulam in the center, then stayed in basecontact with the tech-coffin. To make it harder for the Mukhtars to get him, the HRL repositioned a bit and the AHD stood up together with my LT, entering suppressive fire.

Ramah 3:
The last Fanous tried to discover the first Hunzakut, but failed and got shot down by the KHD. The Mukhtar doc killed the second Hunzakut after discovering the first one, then taking the tech-coffin, while the remaining doc+ on the rooftop killed the other Hunzakut.

So I lost 7 to 1 this time. I am not disappointed here, since going first is a hard task in such missions and I had good chances to endure the last turn. The minor success in turn one was a bit disappointing, but hindered me from overextending my attack-pieces. So it is okay, since more then two Ghulams couldn't be killed either. If I had wanted the big alpha-strike, I had to limit my potential for the mission. In the end, this was misjudged, since the KHD had been able to take the job of the Hunzakut in turn three - Here you need to act cool and clever to not limit yourself.
But what hurts most is the use of Saito. It was right to take him for that task and it was right to approach the MSV2-Mukhtar first, since it was the only option with enough orders for full success. But what I did wrong was to declare CC instead of dodging the nanopulsers. I had a good chance of success here and could then take my exp-ccw in the next order. One more speculative smoke-grenade and all Mukhtars could have been taken out. From that point, it would have been nearly impossible to recover.


To let my opponents gain some other experience then only playing against the same list, I will schedule some games with other factions in the next weeks. Not more than five, so don't worry! And I will report this games here, too. I think it is important to see, how a player uses other factions when it comes to the point to evaluate the potential and the skill-level of previous games, so I want to give you this chance. At least, I have an interesting list for MO in my mind and my QKs want some action, too. I will try to write lists similar to my Druze-lists to judgle potential shortcomings in this sector. So stay tuned!

P.S.: Just remembered I wanted to complain a bit about Mukhtars and all this new optimized profiles. I am not a fan of them in general, since they outclass many traditional profiles. But what really bothers me is the allround-equipment they all get. Mimetism, several cool special rules and a template-weapon to fill the only attack-vector or risk left blank...Most traditional units have those blank spot, where they are vulnerable. But not these new guys. This may be okay, if I play a sector without many restrictions. But with a limited toolset in Druze, this gets silly. The Hunzakut has nothing good to offer here, since a mine only takes one wound, they are not hackable and the LSG is weakened by their mimetism. Normal gunfighters are limited by their mimetism and good BS. So only CC with Saito seems good and safe. But then we come to the nanopulsers. And all this for only a few points more than my normal Druze?? This is not correct.