Grabbing some supplies

Initially I wanted to give the double-TAG list a second try, but while I thought about the Anaconda a lot on Sunday, I dismissed that. After deductions, the Anaconda consumes much more of your potential, that it is able to add and reaches beyond my willigness.

Yesterdays game was against ISS in supplies. Supplies is a mission, I am a little bit afraid of, since two fast specialists in turn one can loose you the game or make it quite hard to re-enter the game. To deal with this, I chose my older favourite list with two Hunzakuts and Saito Togan. Just to make things as easy as possible.

Druze Bayram Security
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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 2 6 1
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

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The Hunzakuts were supposed to grab the supply-boxes, while Saito should fetch a lost one back if necessary. Everything else is mostly for distraction, orders and AROs. At least it was planned for this. The HMG was supposed as the big gun in back-up, if things get serious.

Imperial Service
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10
BÀO TROOP (X Visor, Multispectral Visor L2) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
BÀO TROOP (Multispectral Visor L2, Biometric Visor L2) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
BÀO TROOP (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
BÀO TROOP (Biometric Visor L2) Boarding Shotgun, Contender / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
PHEASANT IMPERIAL AGENT (Multispectral Visor L1, Marksmanship LX) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 32)
CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
CELESTIAL GUARD (Kuang Shi Control Device) Combi Rifle + Light Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 13)
HSIEN MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 57)
HSIEN Lieutenant HMG, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (2 | 61)
KǍNRÈN Boarding Shotgun, Chain-colt / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 25)

6 SWC | 302 Points

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I suppose that this list was designed to counter-play our Bakunin/Aleph-player, so there was a link full of MSV2, backed up with two Hsiens. But since we draw our opponents by random in our group of four, he got me instead. In addition to this, he had misread the mission and forgot, that there are specialists needed to open the crates. Nevertheless, he wanted to try this. There must be an error in the list, maybe one Bao was equipped differently and what kind of Kanren or other Holo-unit was present is unknown to me until now.

I tried to pre-define a table in my free-time and that is the first result from this. Most of the things were played as high as S2 (all the crates, the lying truck,...) and buildings without roof with infinite height. The legs of the fallen down silos should be lower than S2, but that is hard to predict and leads to misunderstandings. For the future, this and the height of some crates should be played differently.

I won the Lt-roll and decided to deploy second in the south, mostly because I feared to win the game in turn one, if my Hunzakuts would take the boxes somewhere in my DZ without any trouble (sounds quite arrogant, but was necessary, since it was the first game in a while for my opponent and the list was very bad for this mission).

The link with all the Baos deployed on the left side with some pieces out to ARO (I guess there were a few LoFs unseen). Among them was a Celestial Guard with grenade launcher. While a second smoke-launcher Guard was acompanied by a Multirifle-Hsien on the far right, an other Hsien-Guard duo took the center.

My link went into the central house with HRL and MSR out to ARO. Fugazis went on the flanks, all other REMs in the backline and the AHD on the right behind the building. One Hunzakut on each flank into a house, Saito as marker behind the central fallen silo (since we have no idea how to use hidden deployment in vassal).

We both forgot to have a reserve.

ISS 1: Against overclocked REMs, everything advanced. The link shuffled a bit into better positions and both Hsiens advanced near the center line. The HMG tried to engage my link behind the truck and after several orders, my MSR stunned him succesfully. That burned so many orders that the turn was over.

Druze 1: Since there was too much trouble around the crates, I postponed the run for the boxes and switched to my back-up gun. The HMG started and shot two Baos and the left Celestial Guard in the progress to get LoF to the Hsien. I overlooked a LoF here, too, so my HRL got shot unopposed due to bad placement. My right Fugazi stunned the HMG-Hsien, before I forced him into total cover with my HMG. My right Hunzakut placed a repeater near the other Hsien to have better ARO-options.

ISS 2: The Bao MSR failed to kill my MSR and the Agent was killed by him in ARO. Under smoke from the right Celestial Guard, the Hsien HMG tried to shoot down my link but was stopped by a critical stun-shot of my MSR.

Druze 2: The left Hunzakut shot down the Bao MSR and grabbed the box. On the right, the other Hunzakut needed only one shot to slay the HMG-Hsien in his back-arc, but needed several tries to get down the Celestial Guard with his LSG. We called it here, since there was nothing more to do or to gain for him after this losses.

I won 6-0 with a bad feeling, since a bad match-up was salted with crits and bad dice for my opponent. The Hsien getting stunned so often and then killed by a rifle...uff. We discussed, that some commitment to the Multi-Hsien in turn 1 would have been a lesser risk with better angles to attack. He would have been able to get my HRL first, then killing the MSR in good range with shock-ammo. The HMG set into suppressive fire in the midfield would have denied me the total access to the objectives and with my natural fear of HIs at the moment, the game would have been completly different.

One thing I learned during the game is the use of flash-pulses in active turn. A Hsien is a much lesser thread, if it can't shoot back. Of course, the Fugazi was on a risk here, but a suprising Hunzakut could do it easily. Or a boosted Fugazi...There are so many options for this, what could be a work-around for the missing smoke. This will be tested in the future and is a nice hope for even better results.

After that game and my experiences with this list, I would conclude to have a good archetype and recommendation for all new Druze-players to get in touch with this sector. There are many Druze-unique things available, nearly every tool accessable and something to play with and to further invest for every playstile. But that is mainly my feeling, so I would be interested in your thoughts about this?

Fieldtesting Anaconda

Challenged by dhellfox s idea of two TAGs in Druze, I used todays Vassal-game to try my suggested list. The mission was quadrant control, the opponent Aleph vanilla and the map challenging. All in all: Every single thing bad for this list happened. But have a look at it by your own:

Druze Bayram Security
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9 1
ANACONDA HMG + Chain-colt, Panzerfaust / CCW. (2 | 68)
OPERATOR Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (- | 0)
SCARFACE & CORDELIA TURNER . (1.5 | 78)
SCARFACE 2 Mk12, Heavy Rocket Launcher / AP CCW. (1.5 | 61)
SCARFACE Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. ()
CORDELIA TURNER Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

5.5 SWC | 299 Points

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While the link should be the required toolbox to provide a better environment for the TAGs, Anaconda should open up the path for Scarface, who then strikes as hard as possible and dies. What is left, should be able to wrap up with Anaconda or the Druze SMR. Cordelia takes two Nasmats here to keep her big buddies alive a bit longer.

ALEPH
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10 2
DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 33)
PROXY Mk.3 Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 21)
PROXY Mk.2 Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
PROXY Mk.1 Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
AGÊMA Marksman (X Visor) Mk12 / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)
THORAKITES Submachine gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 15)
THORAKITES (360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
THORAKITES (360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
AJAX 2 Combi Rifles, Nanopulser / AP Heavy Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 39)
EUDOROS Lieutenant Mk12, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 40)
DART Submachine Gun, Viral Tactical Bow, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 34)
MYRMIDON Spitfire, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 31)

6 SWC | 300 Points

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The only positive thing to say about this list is the weak smoke-support, but besides that there is only pain and mostly pain with visual modifiers on them and/or multiple wounds. Not very sophisticated, but if the hammer is big enough, everything becomes a nail.

After we tried a pre-set table the last time, we made an attempt on our own this time. The result is not that satisfying, but hey, we wanted to play. For the next time, we will use tables we created before with more time and thoughts about them. The limited terrain-set here is difficult to deal with, but there will be work-arounds after some games, I guess.

I lost the Lt roll and chose the blue DZ as it seemed a bit better to defend with better places for my link. On the right side, my TAGs would be totally exposed.

Ajax, the LRL Torakitei and the Deva took the upper part of the DZ, with Ajax and LRL on the flank. A TO-marker on the center line screened their path. Agema went in the center, backed up by the Myrmedon. Eudoros and the post-humans took the south, while the Torakites scattered around.

With all the spitfires and ODDs available, I was sure that both TAGs would be dead in my first turn. Since there were less big guns in the north, Scarface and Anaconda hid there as good as possible, supported by a Nasmat and a Pathfinder to scare away the MK2 posthuman hacker. Cordelia crawled on the roof of the radar-station to get her out of the way, my link went in the south with MSR out to ARO.

An additional camo-marker was placed near the center-line in the south, I placed my Hunzakut next to the TO-marker to provide additional support for my TAGs. Aleph-datatracker was Eudoros, I nominated the SMR-Druze, since she had the best chances to survive turn one.

Aleph 1: The camo-marker approached my link and since I expected a minelayer (Dart or Naga), I delayed as much as possible. Dart appeared and started shooting on my MSR. After several saved ARM rolls for Dart, she finally killed my MSR and retreated a bit. Eurodos and the posthuman spitfire advanced with the posthuman advancing to the north to defend my TAGs. Dart, posthuman, Agema and Eudors entered suppressive fire.

Druze 1: Both TAGs alive, that was on the positive side. But there were so many hard to kill targets and no tools were available, what was the negative side here. I wanted to weaken the Aleph-force as much as possible, so Scarface tried to get rid of the LRL-Torakitei, hoping to kill Ajax in the longer run, but failed at the LRL. I had to dedicate my punch more to the center, so Scarface switched positions after my Druze SMR took out the posthuman spitfire with some longer shots. The next target was Eudoros as Lt and datatracker with the Agema on the way. Scarface took out the Agema, but got Eudoros only in 25". First I forgot about the HRL, but remembered it in the second order. Retreating and hitting Eudoros, dealing one wound, my turn ended with not much damage done.

And I had completly forgotten about the mission: 3-0 for Aleph.

Aleph 2: The post-doc and his Yudbot advanced to back up Eudoros. The Myrmedon advanced and tried to set up some smoke to take out my Anaconda, but failed several times. His last try was successfull, but costed his life by crossing LoS to my Druze SMR. The Deva took hos place, but had no order left to wreck the Anaconda. Instead, she entered suppressive fire in my north quadrant.

Druze 2: Scarface started and took out the Deva in two orders, then the Anaconda started and shot Eudoros down in two orders. Totally misjudging the distance to Dart, I tried to kill her with the Anaconda, resulting in a wrecked TAG after one suppressive fire-burst...Luckily the operator could score in extremis recovery on the posthuman spitfire next to him. My last option now was to kill Dart and get my SMR out of my DZ in the south - with only two and a half orders. My positioning was bad and Dart killed both Druze in the process.

I had only one quadrant, so the score went up to 5-1 for Aleph and I called it here.

Aleph is a bad match-up for Druze in most cases, since they are the opposite sides of equipment and failproofnes. But this time, my list maxed this drawback out even more. If I had the possibility of an alpha-strike, things may be different. But with that being my only real chance, that says everything about this list. Only due to bad dice and some bad decisions (Dart with EM-grenades instead of mines), I had a first turn. From my point of view, there is a second ARO-piece missing in this list and after you have lost both TAGs (what is the case quite early), there is nothing mobile to solve remaining problems. It felt like things were not working together in a way, they need to in this sector.

What do I think is the problem here: That is easy to answer! It is the Anaconda. I don't know any worse unit in Infinity than this "TAG". The increase in costs due to tactial awareness was the last nail in this coffin. He takes away the space for all your synergizing tools and only adds a 2W HMG. 2W and 4/4 MOV is nothing TAG-like and while looking at other TAGs, I get none of the cool equipment of other TAGs in that price-category. It is too expensive for a better armed Hospitaller Knight.
I won't say that terrain and match-up were factors here, too. And maybe you will play them different in a real game with an better overview about angles and units. So I will make at least one more game with this list, but I am not very optimistic about this idea in Druze. Scarface is okay as a one way solution, but there is no need or space for the Anaconda.