Caving In (WinterFor vs. Bakunin)

While there were many things to do, it took some time to get a new game in. So close before N4 will drop, we planned to play some more irregular stuff. For this, AssaultUnicorn from the CB-forum has created two custom missions for the moment. To help a bit with playtesting here, we chose "Cave in", as it seemed quite funny to deal with Taigha Creatures emerging from everywhere. But before we go into the game, I have to admit, that the concept was a bit more complicated than a normal ITS-mission, so some things were played wrong and not read carefully.

Here is the mission-description:

 

My opponent for this was my local sparring partner. I expected some Aleph-stuff here, but since the mission requires a quite unique set-up, that did not matter that much:

 Cave in
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10  
 VARG (Minelayer) K1 Marksman Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
 VARG (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower, WildParrot / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
 ORC (Mountain Terrain, Climbing Plus) MULTI Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 44)
 MAQUINISTA (WinterFor) (CH: Mimetism, Multiterrain) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 KNIGHT OF JUSTICE Lieutenant Spitfire / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 51)
 LOCUST Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0 | 35)
 SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
 BØYG Mk12 / Heavy Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 55)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

 3.5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

This time, DBS was no option. Since some D-charges are needed here and DBS have no great access to them, I switched to an other faction. I was not sure if I should play WinterFor or O-12 with some proxing, but in the end I went for Svalarheima, since I could field a fully painted list here. The core-team should be the multi-tool to close one hole, then stomping the cave and doing things with the civvies. To get some tools into this link, the Vargs are included. The Locust should rally for some more holes on his own and disable the Wardriver in the cave, so that it won't harrass my HIs on the way. The Boyg appeared as a nice back-up and strong hammer to change every problem into a nail.

 Cave In
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GROUP 1 6  
 MODERATOR Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 10)
 MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
 MODERATOR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
 MODERATOR Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 15)
 MODERATOR Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 15)
 TASKMASTER Boarding Shotgun, Pulzar, CrazyKoalas / Heavy Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 43)

GROUP 26  / 1  / 1
 ZERO (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)
 PROWLER Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 31)
 PROWLER Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 36)
 KUSANAGI Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 43)
 REVEREND CUSTODIER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 32)
 REVEREND HEALER Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 32)
 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 6 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

No LI as it was supposed for this, what is a small bummer. That gives a flexibility, I miss in my list. So there were some tools to deny any area to me and to push forward in the same place, like the core-team and the Taskmaster. Three camo-markers should be able to deal with the mission and avoid attacks by some wild Taighas. The haris of Reverends was the tool for the cave here, even with the Healer and her exp-ccw as only opening.

With not much mountain-terrain on my opponents site, we gathered the normal terrain. The two towers in the south were quite tempting for some snipers but the DZ in general had reduced room to deploy a full core-link. The emergence-holes are displayed as consoles here.

Bakunin wins the Lt-roll and chooses to go first. I wanted to deny the sniper-towers, not thinking enough about a good deployment of my link, so I choose the south DZ.

The Moderator-core is deployed in the center with the haris in front of them between the bus and the cave. One camo markers starts on the left, two on the right.

My core-team scatters behind the boxes on the right, quite open. The mine goes a bit advanced to cover the Taigha. The Boyg hides on the left with the Locust next to the emergence hole on the tower. That is reinforced by both Fugazis.

A Taskmaster overwatches the left hole and I place the Sierra on the right with the same purpose.

Bakunin 1: Two Taighas emerge on the holes in front of the Bakunin DZ. The Morlock sets up smoke on the left hole, while the core-team approaches and clears out the right Taigha. A Prowler on that side needs two attempts to seal that hole, while an other Prowler on the left one does the job in one try. The Moderators advance and take out one Fugazi. A pitcher is shot in front of my KoJ. The Custodier tries to hack my KoJ, which resets and due to bad placing, is fried by the Wardriver in return. The Healer picks it up in the second attempt. The Taskmaster bodyblocks the left Taigha.

WinterFor 1: The left over Taigha fails to berserk the Taskmaster and is wrecked in return, while two new ones ermerge near my DZ. The Sierra clears out the right one. Now the Engineer crosses some distance and deploys D-charges on the right hole and the cave-entry. On his way he tries some shots against the Taigha and the pitcher. The pitcher is more sturdy than the Taigha, so it takes one order too much to clear them both. The core is reformed.

Bakunin 2: Kusanagi shoots down the Sierra and the Healer does one wound to the cave-door. By shooting at my KoJ the Moderator spitfire inflicts one wound but dies in return. A new Pitcher is set up there and the left over Moderators as well as the left Prowler enter suppressive fire.

WinterFor 2: Since the holes on my side are not sealed, two new Taighas appear. The left is taken out by my Orc, taking a wound in return. The flamer-Varg leaves the link to clear out the pitcher and the other Taigha, surviving the chain rifle. With his flamethrower he burns out two more Moderators and dies in return. I reform the link and the Locust cybermasks himself after detonating all the D-charges and doing one wound on the cave-entry.

Bakunin 3: The Taskmaster finally opens the cave and shoots the Wardriver. The Healer with her combat-heels has some problems with the mountain-terrain but manages to recover all civvies and guide them deep into the DZ.

WinterFor 3: Things are nearly done here, since I have to kill all the civvies far away to change the game. The Locust is not equipped for longer ranges and the right is denied by Kusanagi, so I choose the Boyg for a last try. He manages to shoot his way through the remaining Moderators, tanking several shots from the Prowler. Nearly in the enemy DZ, he forces the Taskmaster into cover and shoots the first civvie. With my last order I fail to shoot Kusanagi in the back and finally get shot in return by the spitfire Prowler.

With all holes sealed and one civvie killed, I loose 4-8. I wasted too many orders on the Taighas and the pitchers in special, which took me the opportunity to fry the Wardriver and maybe breach into the cave on my own. Together with the limited combat-group, that broke my neck here. Nevertheless the sturdyness of most of my units equaled for a nearly non-existing defensive play and the performance of the Boyg was outstanding. His shooting-abilities paired with hyper-dynamics is really useful to start some unexpeted rambo-runs. Maybe a Nisse-haris would have been a better choice here, backed up by a defensive core, a Locust and maybe a Nokken, since then I would have been able to deal with the Reverends more easily.

Regarding the mission, it was not really clear who owns which Taighas and how they should react. We concluded that everyone controls the Taighas emerging on the opposite side and that they only follow enemy models but ARO on everyone. Besides that it felt a bit imbalanced to close the holes nearly for free, while you need to take great efforts to crack the cave. With 3 STR and ARM 6, the doors are really sturdy. Maybe some reduction of ARM (to 4 maybe) would be great here. Nevertheless it was a nice experience and an very interesting game!