Now with TTS

 While talking about Outrage and StarCo, AssaultUnicorn and I had a match via TTS today. To my fortune, he is quite experienced with it, so it went quite smooth and fast and was quite fun. We chose Hunting Party by random, which I found quite pleasant for Druze. He pulled of some StarCo-forces, but left my feared Riot Girls at home to take some other nasty stuff.

Bigguns
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GROUP 1 8 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

GROUP 2 5 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

5.5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

I wanted to have a mobile big gun in my list, so I puzzled the HMG-haris in my 'regular' list. The plan was to hunt important things down with it in turn one, while everything else should cause trouble in the following turns. With two Hunzakuts, the Pathfinder and my EM-LGL, I was quite confident to get enough things immobilized during the game.

Starco. Free Company of the Star
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GROUP 1 8 1 1
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
ALGUACIL Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
ALGUACIL Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
EMILY (Chain of Command) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (Normal and E/M), Nanopulser / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 35)
HELLCAT Combi Rifle, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 23)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 5 2
BANDIT Boarding Shotgun, E/Mauler / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 26)
LUNOKHOD Heavy Shotgun, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges, CrazyKoalas (2) / Electric Pulse. (0 | 24)
KNAUF MULTI Sniper / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
DAKTARI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
CATERAN T2 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 24)
HAWWA' (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)

5.5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Two snipers to lock down the routes towards the squishy units and a core-link to support Emily after the ML is gone. This was paired with an Irmadinho, a Hawwa and a Bandit to cause trouble in the midfield. The Lunkhold spiced things up when it comes to area-denial. At least that is my interpretation of the list.

We played on a preset table by VaulSC, which appeared quite dense after taking a closer look. Assaultunicorn won the Lt-roll and let me deploy first in the south. I took the first turn.

On the left I put the Pathfinder, a Fugazi and my ABH, while my core deployed around the central building. MSR out to ARO wih limited view, LGL as far forwarded as possible and my Lt. in a defendable position. The haris got on the right in an advanced position, backed up by a Fugazi and the EVO-Kameel. In the center went the first Hunzakut.

The right side was denied by the Lunkhold with its Koalas, supported by the Irmadinho and a camo-marker. In the center the Alguacil-core deployed with the ML out to ARO opposed to my MSR. Knauf took the left side and a Brawler hid in the left building. Two camo markers were forwarded on both flanks.

My second Hunzakut went in the mid of the left side and Emily appeared next to the Alguacils.

Druze 1: My first group was reduced to six regular orders, what limited the impact of my haris. Nevertheless, the HMG should kill something but should not deal with the Koalas on the right. So it advanced up the middle and shot down the ML-Alguacil and the Bandit-Camo on the left in one order. I took the remaining orders to retrat the link, hoping to have him available in turn 2. Group two was used to push the Hunzakut up on the left, locking Knauf down with a mine, placing a repeater in front of the building and re-camoing himself.

StarCo1: Nobody was watching my back on the right, except for a incoming Hellcat, after the Irmadinho advanced a bit and the Alguacil-Hacker hacked controlled jump. Two orders later, my Kameel and my Druze KHD were glued, then my HMG got shot by the Hellcat. The CSU advanced and discovered my Hunzakut on the left, so that Emily shooted an EM-Grenade on him. This only disabled the repeater. The Lunkhold advanced into the center and set the Koalas in stand-by, while the Irmadinho advanced further.

Druze 2: I was locked down a bit and on the back foot regarding the scenario. My haris-Druze critted out the Hellcat, but died to the first Koala. The second Hunzakut could dodge the CSUs nanopulser out of LoS, but the helping first Hunzakut died to it, after the CSU saved two hits of the LSG. The right Fugazi advaned, placing a sniffer near the camo-marker. One sensor and one sat-lock later, the Hawwa crit-dodges my EM-grenade.

StarCo 2: The Irmadinho activates the right console and kills the Fugazi in CC, as well as coup de grace-ing it. The Daktari send out his Zondbot to clear the mine on the left, tanking it. Now Emily enters the core-link and advances into the center. I could dodge the EM-grenade.

Druze 3: To get a draw, I would need to first isolate the Brawler, then isolate Emily. But since the Brawler was too far away, it was easier to tie on hunted specialists. For this, the left Fugazi advanced, placing a sniffer next to Emily and her gang. The Hacker got targeted and hit by an EM-grenade, while Emily crit-dodged it. I failed to sat-lock the Hawwa on the right and took the remaining orders to get my Pathfinder onto the left console, but failed to activate it.

StarCo 3: The Irmadinho CCed my KHD to score the next classified, then climbed up the wall towards my core-link and stunned my Lt, while getting stunned in return. Emily stunned my Pathfinder and we ended things here.

AssaultUnicorn won 10-0 with a very good game! Some rolls went not in my favour, but thats life. The real engine behind this success was the well thought play form my point of view. There was nothing standing around in a unfavourable position and everything came on spot, so there was no clear entry-point for my tools. Of course, the flexibility of StarCo helped a lot.
I misjudged some distances here, especially by placing the repeater to far away from the Brawler and by calculating my 'alpha-strike' with the HMG. This took to many orders for the two kills. I was wondering to push it up a bit further and shoot at the Lunkhold, but I wanted them alive and retreated instead. In the end, this one order could have been used for it and could have made things easier in turn two.
One thought regarding my 'alpha-strike': There is nothing like that if you nominate a Druze for this. You are far too slow to take out more than three pieces and too expensive to be overextended and immideatly shot in the reactive turn. For everyone who knows the one thing about Druze (To be surgical killers), this can easily be countered by putting the tumors somewhere hard to access. While looking at my games, I had the best results when going second or having a reduced first turn. So I would suppose that the best first-turn strategy would be to castle up as good as possible and then take care of the left-overs of the reactive-turn. Maybe there are some spots where a Hunzakut could push some damage up, but that is all you could do. At least that is, what I will try next time.

After all, it was a great game against a great opponent, which should be repeated as soon as possible.