Round two: a perfect defense

 I have always expressed the fear of overinvesting into Fugazis, sniffers and Pathfinders, including all the spec. fire-stuff, besides doing it quite successful. My last game brought it down to what it normally is: difficult. So enjoy the report of a really big loss:

Round two of our current TTS-Tournament was Supremacy and I got paired against Perzan (I don't know if he is in the official forum, but maybe some of you will know him), a quite experienced player from Poland. He was playing vanilla Haqqislam, giving a real sharp sword into trained hands.

QTohneEZ
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GROUP 1 7 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)
PEACEMAKER Spitfire + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (1 | 27)
AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
DRUZE Lieutenant (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

GROUP 2 5 2
BASHI BAZOUK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
HUNZAKUT (Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
ARMAND Minelayer MULTI Sniper Rifle, Nanopulser, Antipersonel Mines / 2 Breaker Pistols, Shock CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 42)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

6 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Since there was no excklusion zone in this mission, the plan was the same as in Tempo War, so the decision was clear to grab the LGL-list again. Maybe that was the wrong decision in retrospective, but in general four strong 'infiltrators' and a lot of tools to deal with threads rolling into your sectors is no bad idea here.

WN ETTST List 2
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GROUP 1 8 2
FIDAY Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 31)
HAFZA Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 18)
SALADIN Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 36)
MUKHTAR (Multispectral Visor L2) Red Fury, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 37)
ARMAND (Multispectral Visor L1) MULTI Sniper, Nanopulser / 2 Breaker Pistols, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (1.5 | 45)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
NAHAB Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Submachine Gun + E/Mitter, Nanopulser / Pistol, Viral CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 30)
BASHI BAZOUK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
HAWWA' (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
FARZAN (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

GROUP 2 2 3 3
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
NAFFATÛN Rifle + Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

The list, or what I saw, triggered two thoughts. On the one hand, there was only the Mukhtar as potent gun-fighter, so once he is gone, I may have the power of the biggest gun on the field. But on the other hand, there was so much stuff to disguise me, to drain my orders and to kill my stuff softly. Saladin combined with a Fiday and a Mukhtar force a quite conservative deployment and the Hafza together with all the camo-markers made it hard to guess if there is something missing and where to expect what unit. The Nahab is then only the cherry on the cake.

I was curious about the chance to heal the wound Bobman did to Druze on this table. It appeared quite useful for my short-range weapons and had some nice places to utilize Armand and the LGL Hunzakut.

I lost the Lt-roll and let Perzan deploy first in the north (the first bad decision, since I gave him good positions to hide his valuable stuff). He played second.

Two Saladins were deployed, one behind the containers on the left, one on the rooftop on the right. The right one was guarded by a Naffatun and the Fanous, as well as two camo-markers next to the console. Four Armands scattered around the central building, overwatching many different firelanes and only one with high probability to be not Armand.Three Ghazis were scattered across the DZ and three additional camo-markers were in the midfield and on the left behind the building.

It was clear that there will be at least one Fiday and the Mukhtar also fitted into the points on the table. With Cpt. Obvious as my Lt, i expected him as a primary target for a Fiday, so I deployed him guarded by the KHD on the left with the MSR overwatching the center. One ABH also took care of my Lt. A Fugazi should give one more ARO on that side. The right was guarded by the Sierra and the second Fugazi, while the Pathfinder and the EVO hid in the mid of my DZ. The second ABH was ready to enter the central building. With no reserve, Armand had to go on the left building, right on the top, the Hunzakut FO infiltrating on the ground floor and the LGL infiltrating on the building on my right, as far as possible. To deal with the camo-thread on my left, the Peacemaker made his appearence there. My plan for the moment was to rush a Fugazi up the right side, first clearing the Liberto (it needed to be a Liberto with his mine), than targeting Saladin and grenading him to death. He seemed to be the real one with all the guard set up there, but on the other hand, it was a bit too obvious. One of the camo-markers also could have been a Farzan CoC...

A Mukhtar appeared on the right, next to a Ghazi and the Fiday showed up on my right side behind a wall, just to overwatch my approach and get points into the sector. So he had fulfilled two tasks immideatly: Locking my Lt down somewhere, just by my own fear and capturing one of my quadrants with ease.

Druze 1: I loose two orders from group one and change my plan, hoping for a trap with the Saladin on the roof. The Bashi Bazouk should try to reach the Saladin behind the container and maybe clearing a Ghazi, as well as baiting out some camo-markers. To make it a bit safer, I place a sniffer next to a mine on my left side and sucessfully discovering a mine. The Peacemaker sacrifices the Auxbot by burning the mine and the camo-marker next to it, revealing a Farzan minelayer. The mine burns and kills my Auxbot and the Farzan dodges successfully. This makes it clear that there is no CoC, since I see no Hortlak and Farzans are AVA 1 in vanilla. The Bashi enters and Perzan guesses wrong a few times, but just before he reaches the Saladin, a chain rifle and a hit of Armand drops him unconscious. At least I know the real Armand now. The Hunzakut FO advances in the building, the ABH on the right enters the building also and I overclock my remotes. Two grenades are shot at the Farzan without a result.

Haqq 1: The Ghazis advance and smoke is set up on both flanks. The left Ghazi intuitivly jamms my Hunzakut FO and on the right the Mukhtar crits down my Sierra and advances further. He drops my Fugazi, fails to drop the Kameel but manages to drop my ABH in the building. He enters suppressive fire next to the console in my near right sector.

I control only one quadrant, Perzan three. 0 - 2.

Druze 2: My MSR needs to free up my movement, since the right flank is locked down completely by the Mukhtar (my Pathfinder would need to shoot without cover, since the damaged Fugazi denied the only spot in cover for him - no option here, since everything is inside 24" then). The deployment of my core-team makes it impossible to activate the MSR as leader, so my Lt advances a bit and I reform the link. One shot of my MSR is enough to kill Armand. The Fugazi places a sniffer next to the recamoed Farzan and I fail the sat-lock two times. So I need to shoot grenades behind the Mukhtar without success. He stays in suppressive fire.

Haqq 2: The camo-marker on the left reveals to be a Hawwa FO and activates the far left console. Together with the Farzan, both sniffers are wrecked, including the Fugazi. The right Ghazi approaches my Hunzakut LGL but fails to chainrifle him on the roof.

Nothing has changed in quadrants: 0 - 4

Druze 3: I drag Armand in group one and let him advance on the roof by simultanously trying to shoot what I see. The Fanous goes down, while the Ghazi next to my Hunzakut LGL is missed two times and smokedodges in the third try. The Ghazi on the left also survivies one shot. Armand enters an ARO-position in the far right sector. I advance the Pathfinder, Peacemaker and the remaining ABH a bit.

Haqq 3: The left Ghazi chainrifles Armand and dies. I make my safe but fail guts and go prone, leaving the center uncovered. A Nahab KHD enters the field on my far right, activates the two consoles on the right, while the left Saladin advances a bit.

Since no one scored a classified, I loose 0 - 9 with 238 to 241 VP.

It was a great game, even with the result that bad and never dangerous for Perza. But it was a pleasure to see, how you can deploy a full defense in Infinity and to experience its strength. I would have needed to shoot the real Armand to access the camo-markers, expecting one mine to trigger. If I had managed to do this and survive the mine, also killing the camos, I would have been so order-starved that the next Ghazi could simply wreck whatever I had chosen for this. And besides this, the Mukhtar was there, the FIday could have started, too and if everything went south, there would have been the Nahab to secure the points. So the list and the game-plan were really on point and the only factor for failure, the actual play, was absolutly excellent, leaving no space for a chance. If I substract the amount of bad dice I had, nothing would have changed, since the second option would have done the job in most cases.
The game felt a bit like bringing a knife to a gunfight in general. I brought many tools needed for this task, but they had no back-up to have a significant impact or deploy a thread. Maybe I could have attacked better, if I wasn't forced into a conservative deployment, but the defense was layered that good, that a push on my side would have risked more than I could have gained.I would assume that I would have done better, if I had tried to force my way through the center in turn one. Guessing the right Armand with my Brawler and then doing the sniffer-sat-lock thing on the centered camo-marker, what appeared to be the Farzan. This at least would have opened an additional vector for me to engage things with my Peacemaker.
To conclude: A fun game, but nothing to be repeated often, at least with Druze. And we may assume, that the table seemed to be cursed for Druze!