Back into the Taigha-cave (DBS vs. White Company)

The new edition also started in the TTS for me with the first game against my lovely opponent AssaultUnicorn. We have not played his second custom mission yet, so we concluded that this would be a nice thing to start with. Since QK is not available at the moment, he fielded his new love, White Company. The rules for the mission can be found here and in this post.

Since the mission requires D-charges and one combat group, the new additions and changes in fireteam-composion and points brought me back to the former struggle of not getting 300 points filled with 10 models. In the end, I mixed whatever seemed to be useful and is expensive. With his new DA CCW, Scarface could be useful in this mission, while a haris out of the HMG, KHD and Mr. Wolf should carry most of the action, guarded by a flexible core-team, where Arslan could take the lead as a back-up piece. Amadeus Wolf seems better in nearly every situation than Arslan, but since the points were free, both could show up.

We talked about his curious approaches for White Company before, but I was not expecting a Guujia here. The core-team with two Haidaos and Hawkwood delivers a great defensive brick and could switch to an aggressive role easily, once the MSR is down and the boss himself can carry things. Shona supported by a Varangian is a good tool to crack up the armory and the Guilangs are supposed to do the specialist-jobs.

In the need of a at least rule-wise fitting map, we came back to one designed for the Dire Foes mission "Viral Outbreak". Two quite high towers in the corners and opposing normal buildings surround the armory, which covers not much but enough room for some advancements. I know this map a bit and the problems potent snipers could cause in a good spot.

AssaultUnicorn wins the Lt-roll and goes first. I choose to deploy second in the south to secure a bit more flexibility in the shadow of the armory.

One camo-marker infiltrates in front of my DZ while a second one hides on the right behind a building. Shona and her buddy start on the right of the central building, in which the core-team starts. The normal Haidao starts on the left, while the MSR starts on the left roof.

I don't want to fight with the MSR, so I deploy my core-team scattered among all three levels of the building more on the right. MSR on the roof, HD Druze and normal Brawler in the middle and the HD together with Arslan down to cover the camo marker and the aproaching Taighas. Cordelia starts behind the building and the haris scatters as far as possible on the central left to be flexible and have all the tools needed by hand in my first turn.

A Guijia appears quite open on the left and Scarface deploys next to Cordelia behind my central building.

WC 1: The normal Haidao closes the left hole after the Taigha is shot directly. The Guijia then jumps onto the roof and startss shooting at my MSR, getting stunned directly. The Haidao MSR now takes over this task while the link shuffles in the building and takes down my MSR. Hawkwood clears the other Taigha. While the Guijia retreats behind the building, Shona and her Varangian smash the door of the armory and both getting targeted on the way.

DBS 1: With the left side uncovered but Shona next to the armory, I decide to kill the designated targets and close the Taigha holes later. The left Taigha is shot by Wolf, while the right one emerges without problems. My haris advances and my KHD gets killed by the Wardriver with his N3 Lightning-upgrade after frying the Guilang hacker. While Wolf advances to smash his door, the Taigha dodges closer and reaches him in CC. The HMG closes back to the link and is included to form a full core.

WC 2: While the Taigha is shot directly, the Varangian tanks a shotgun of the Wardriver and drops him in CC. The second camo-marker rushes into the center, syncing the Civvies and reteating them into the building, out of reach. The Guijia advances and crits down my HMG, then enters suppressive fire behind the armory.

DBS 2: Wolf drops the Taigha while recieving a wound. Since he is better in close ranges, I decide to take him instead of Scarface to try to get the Civvies down. Wolf needs two shots to drop the Haidao MSR prone, but fails to dodge the suppressive fire of the Guijia. A pitcher is shot next the the armory and Arslan clears a Taigha on my right. The left one is shot by Scarface, which enters suppressive fire.

WC 3: Shona clears the repeater and crashes the door of the armory on my side, which is used by the Varangian. Since Arslan now can shoot through smoke, he decides to advance in full cover over the right and shoots him down with his SMG. He advances further and drops Cordelia while getting shot by Scarface.

DBS 3: From one point far away, Scarface could maybe shoot down one or two designated targets. In LoL, this gets quite tight. Scarface fails to drop the new Taigha and forces the Guijia with two wounds into full cover. While further advancing, Shona stunns him with her flash pulse, ending my turn.

The game ends with a solid 10-0 for AssaultUnicorn. My first turn was crucial here. Not only started the unability to win any FtF on my side, but also everything else failed. The Wardriver is included to slow things down and be a thread, but that he is able to kill my KHD with ease...It would have been a better option to shoot a pitcher and get the firewall-benefits here.A big deal in general is all the movement you can gain now with dodging. It can be interesting in active, with Wolf potentially dodging behind the Guijia, but is a terrible thing reactive with CC-units like Varangians, Shona and Taighas. This cut many paths and a lot of my potential. That martial arts isn't linked with stealth anymore contributes to this a lot, especially when it comes to cautious movements.

So in the end it is still a dice-game, but the new changes still feel good and the new toys, too.