Good bye Qapu Khalqi I

Since N4 is coming closer on the horizon and the rumor spread that actually discontinued factions won'T get day one rules, I decided to take the chance of the last physical N3 games to play what got me into heavy gaming last year: Qapu Khalqi.

While most of my lists were build around some Yuan Yuans, the Djanbazan HMG and a defnsive Ghulam-core, I used my favourite units only a few times. So I wanted to create a list especially with such units now to give the sectorial a good break. Those units are the Kaplans as quite interesting mercenary troops but a bit overshadowed in QK and the Iguana as the heaviest hitter you can find in QK besides the Janissary HMG. Of course, it looks a bit squishy with his 2 STR and his costs, but if you stop using him as a center piece in your list and simply waste him in your alpha-strike, you can make great use of him. 

 

The list I first came up with was designed to fit our current group, playing mostly around 10 troopers. So I wanted to go with this.

 Qapu Khalqi
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9  / 1  / 1
 WILD BILL Rifle / 2 MULTI Pistols, Knife. (0 | 27)
 KAPLAN (Fireteam: Haris) Combi Rifle, Adhesive Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
 KAPLAN Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 28)
 DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
 DJANBAZAN Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 27)
 KAPLAN Engineer Combi Rifle, Adhesive Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
 NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 SHIHAB REMOTE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
 SHIHAB REMOTE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
 IGUANA HMG, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 75)
   IGUANA OPERATOR HMG / Pistol, Knife. ()
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 9)

 6 SWC | 298 Points
Open in Infinity Army
 

The Iguana here should simply go on rampage as early as possible and collect enough damage in the process to fire the pilot somewhere in relative safety. After this, the Kaplans can take action to finish the job. The main weakness here is the Lt and the low number of specialists. If there are more buttons to be pushed, things get difficult. The Druze KHD starts a bit advanced and is simply there to get some use of the Iguanas repeater. As there is nothing really build for defense in the other units, two Shihabs should raise some pressure and deny some paths. The Kaplan engineer is not supposed to repair the Iguana, but mainly should keep the Shihabs shooting.

After a first test-game, I switched the Lt and the Druze to get a bit more flexibility into the list:

 Abschied
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9  / 1  / 1
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 9)
 SHIHAB REMOTE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
 SHIHAB REMOTE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
 IGUANA HMG, Heavy Flamethrower / . (2 | 75)
   IGUANA OPERATOR HMG / Pistol, Knife. ()
 KAPLAN Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle, Blitzen / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
 KAPLAN (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
 WILD BILL Rifle / 2 MULTI Pistols, Knife. (0 | 27)
 KAPLAN Engineer Combi Rifle, Adhesive Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
 NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
 MOBILE BRIGADA Lieutenant Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 33)

 5.5 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army
 

Leila seems to be a good replacement to the Druze, since she offers me more flexibility in the Kaplan-team, has more WIP and is cheaper. The Brigada is there mostly because I needed a Lt and had many points left but not enough for the Janissary. At least he is sturdy enough to have a look at his deployment zone.

My opponent took a well known Tunguska list:

  Jurisdictional Command of Tunguska
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GROUP 1 9  
 INTERVENTOR Hacker Lieutenant (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle, 1 FastPanda / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
 HOLLOW MEN Spitfire, Chain-colt / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (2 | 36)
 HOLLOW MEN MULTI Rifle + Pitcher, Chain-colt / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 35)
 STEMPLER ZOND FTO (Super-Jump) Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 18)
 REAKTION ZOND HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)
 TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 SPEKTR (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 32)
 SECURITATE Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 VERTIGO ZOND Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18)

GROUP 24  / 1  
 SECURITATE Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 SECURITATE Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 CLOCKMAKER Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 MARY PROBLEMS Hacker (Forward Deployment L1) Submachine Gun + Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 30)
 ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

 5.5 SWC | 296 Points
Open in Infinity Army

The main plan here is to spotlight things and grenade them to death and if that won't work, shoot everything with the Hollow Men and the Spektr. 

Initially I wanted to test some other terrain-elements, like special clouds with low-vis and saturation zones, but since it was one of few games at the moment, we reduced it to the basics.

 

The mission was frontline and I won the Lt-roll. Since I had no reasonable options to avoid spotlights and smart missiles, I went first and got the south DZ, where I had a good view on the midfield.

The Kaplan-team took the left, together with one Shihab, the rest took the right side, since I saw better vectors for the Iguana on that side.

The Hollow Man started on the right behind the building. On top of it the Interventor hid. The center was overwatched by the Missile-REM and the FP-bot. One Securitate and the Warcor had a look from the left building. On the far left, Mary Problems started.

The Hollow Men were grouped nicely on the right, so I calculated good odds for my heavy flamethrower and deployed the Iguana on the right,

A TO-marker went on the left behind the silos. 

QK 1: The Warcor and the Missile-REM disturb my path towards the Hollow Men, so I drop the Yuan Yuan in the right center. The plan is to force the spitfire in cover, smoke the center and let the Iguana burn down the enemy-DZ. Unfortunately, the spitfire could not be wounded, why I switched to the Yuan Yuan. He fails to set up smoke and gets flashpulsed. The Iguana recieves one crit-wound from the Hollow Man, while it drops the missile-REM unconscious 2 and retreats.

Tunguska 1: The Clockmaker repairs the TR-bot in the second try. Now the Hollow Men roll out, dropping the Yuan Yuan and deploying a pitcher in front of my Iguana. All resets fail, then the dodges, so that the pilot drops wounded in safety. A second pitcher changes that and he is grenaded unconscious. Mary Problems advances a bit and one of my Shihabs is shot by the the spitfire.

QK 2:  The Shihab is repaired and the haris tries its luck on the left. The Spektr surprises the Doc while he revives the Iguana pilot. With some coordinated shots from the rest of the link, everyone tries to get into good positions and shoot down the Spektr. To avoid new spotlights without further investment, the engineer shoots the existing pitchers.

Tunguska 2: Without Leila in an advanced position, Mary Problems easily deploys two new pitchers on the left . The spotlights are set up without any problems and a crit ends the life of the Iguana pilot, followed by the Kaplan spitfire. On the right, the Hollow Men approach a little bit.

QK 3: The most important thing now is to get as many points into the center as possible. With most of the pitchers shot, only the FO-bot on the right is a real threat...Besides the spitfire on the Hollow Man. The Engineer sneeks up as far as possible and survives a shot by the Hollow Man. Unfortunately the Brigada is shot while climbing down the building. The right Shihab advances to cover the Hollow Man spitfire and fails to wound it. Wild Bill fails to drop Mary Problems but secures the center.

Tunguska 3: The Clockmaker advances into the center, Mary secures the nearest sector and the Hollow Men critting through the Kaplan and the Shihab, also securing the center.

With this unlucky third turn I loose 1 to 4. I clearly played my first turn totally inefficient and opted for quite swingy stuff with the Yuan Yuan. Of course, some wounds on the spitfire would have been nice. Forgetting about the TO-marker on the left costed the whole link and having Leila stuck on the roof of a building gave free reign over the infowar and for the missiles. That the Iguana was killed completly by crits was okay, but the crit on the PH-6 roll for the Hollow Man facing my ADHL hurt. 

Missing visors here was a real disadvantage, since it even was to risky to go for the FP-bot with my Kaplan spitfire, so the aproach on the left was blocked and the right path was gone with the Iguana. Some more investment into infowar, only to slow down the smart missiles would have been nice, but especially against Tunguska this may be not the best way to deal with such a list-type. Nevertheless it was a fun game and some better game with the Iguana and the Yuan in turn one would have changed a lot.