Saturday 31 October 2020

Sunday morning patrol (Starmada vs. White Company)

Sometimes a spontaneous timeslot appears to fit in a round of Infinity, which is supported quite well by the TTS and the current community. So it appears that I got a game in against Masloo, a polish player I already knew a bit from the ENTE. 


Since it was an additional game and I had already scheduled some future games with DBS, I took the chance to make some further tests with Starmada, while Masloo brought White Company to the field. We agreed on Unmasking, since it is always an interesting mission.

The Crusher is an amazing unit so far and I really like the concept of a AD HI KHD in form of the Santiago, so I wanted to push this to its limit by taking the Santiago and three Crushers to have the biggest possible mid field appearance. Even with just an okay-ish sculp on the horizon, the Zeta will be bought and since it makes the list more extreme and adds a new layer of defense, this was his premiere here. As it was planned by someone, a defensive core of Kappas also fit in and completed the list. 

In general this list should simply gun things down or slow them down as long as possible, while the Crushers and later the Santiago click the consoles, take some sectors or score whatever necessary. A careful deployment of the core-team is important here to secure the orders as long as possible.


This was finally a list using the possibility of PanO shooting and smoke, together with the flexibility of YuYing units. The defensive core team with the MSV2 Haidao works as backbone for the Bulleteer and the Nisse, supported by the Varangian. The Nokken together with the Guilang should do the objective-part here. As Masloo said, the double Peacemaker was something to try out here, what can be a massive problem on some maps and is a big failure on other ones. But with the new hacking, the combination of HSG, HFT on the Auxbot and the repeater to consider is a quite good package. Together with the Danavas, most of the threads can be addressed either by the Nisse or by the linked Fusilier HMG.


We shuffled a while through different maps and Masloo fianlly stayed with this one. I was fine with that, since there were some places to hide my Zeta, but on the other side there were some quite long firelanes, which needed to be taken into account. The consoles needed to be rearranged a bit to fit with the terrain.

I win the Lt-roll and choose to go first, since the DZs are not that different in cover and spots for link-teams. I should deploy first in the south.

I am struggeling a bit with the placement of my link, since the ML should cover as much space as possible, but everyone else should be as safe as possible. So I drop the ML in a open gate in the center and place everyone else in the nearby room. The multi-Crusher starts in a horrible place on the left, while the two LRL-Crushers take the center and the right, since I saw more potential for their LRL there. My designated target is stuck on the left in a dead end, where nobody can land behind it, while one decoy is placed in a similar place on the left. I forgot about the position of the other decoy.

The left sees a camo-marker, a Bulleteer, a Nokken KHD and a Nisse HMG supported by a Varangian together with a Danavas Hacker in the back, while the right is covered by a Fusilier-core with a Haidao MSV2 MSR overwatching the center. It is supported by a Fusilier HMG and protected by a HSG Peacemaker, guarding two HVTs, while the third one is on the central objective.

I place my Zeta covered by the cargo-truck on the right, while a second Peacemaker with HSG appeared next to the first one, hinting a trap or a valuable target there.

My right Crusher is nominated as datatracker, since he can reach each HVT, while the Nokken KHD gets the other datatracker.

I start with repositioning the Zeta, dragging him into the center and dropping the Haidao in one shot. He takes a position behind a wall he can see over and overwatches now nearly everything. The central and the right Crusher advance, fail on each console once and retreat. I take a second attempt on the right one and succeed, discovering a decoy among the guarded HVTs on the right. The Crushers and the Zeta enter suppressive fire.

The Varangian sets up some smoke on the left, which is used by the Nisse to gun down my datatracker and force my Zeta into better cover. The Fusilier-link is refilled, but the HMG also fails on the Zeta. Everything retreats a bit and the Nisse enters suppressive fire.

My Zeta manages to climb the high building on the left without any problems and starts blasting the Doc and the Varangian from this elevated position. To proof the designated target behind the Peacemakers, the mid Crusher activates the console and check the decoy next to it. Everyone retreats and goes back into suppressife fire.

Everything evolves around the Zeta, which finally gets his first wound from thy Nisse HMG. The Bulleteer advances, taking him down but is wrecked by my ML Kappa in the progress. Before this happens, a CSU and the Fusilier HMG are shot by the Zeta. Finally the Nisse takes revenge and drops my ML.

I am in good shape, but I need to score some points here. The mid Crusher finishs the Decoy in the center and reveals the designated target by clicking the left console. For this, he needs a ton of orders, so I am down to one regular order. The Santiago drops behind the Peacemakers, outside of hacking range and with the last order, I land one BSG shot on the designated target.

Quite uncovered, the Santiago is fried by the Nokken KHD, which also drops my central Crusher. He manages to activate the left console to discover the Decoy on the left. There is no way now to get everything valuable done, so the game ends.

With my datatracker off the table, Masloo scores one OP, while I score seven. Over the course I rolled some crits and got lucky with the saves of the Zeta, which shrugged of really a lot with his Arm 8. Here my position in the center, overwatching nearly everything, added up to a really tough spot for Masloo, from which he can't recover properly. 

My list-plan totally worked out and the Zeta performed outstanding. But also three Crushers are something to consider, since they will perform if they are deployed properly. If that point is done successful, there is not much what could be problematic for them. Even if something had managed to go for my link-team, the Bluecoats should have been able to reduce the damage by gunning it down. The KHD was a high paying risk here. If he would have failed his roll, the designated target would have been alive with how the rest of the turn turned out. Being a KHD is a bit of a downside here, since you not only have to look out for LoF, but also for hacking zones, which sometimes limits the available space a lot. Since he has no tinbot, it would be a real shame to have him pinned down by hacking directly. Generally I am a big fan of Santiagos and of AD troops, too. But maybe I need to reconsider his position as AD hacker here.

 Masloo was quite limited by the map here, since it had no places to deploy the second Peacemaker reasonable. A more dense one would have restricted my potential a lot and increased his tools, since his Varangian would have gained more use and the Peacemakers could simply sacrifice themselves for my Crushers in close quarters. Maybe the Guilang on the left could have gone for that Crusher and later eat through my order pool. But that only would have limited my actions by leaving him in a pinned position.

Sunday 18 October 2020

First competitive N4 experiences

This weekend we managed to run a small (really small) tournament to close ITS 11 for us and give the new N4 rules a first competitive test. Due to the current Covid-19 circumstances we ended up with five guys and a lot of space. As organizer, I took the first bye and then got the last three games.



The missions for that day were Show of Force to encourage the players fielding some heavy gear, Highly Classified to force some thinking out of the box and then concluding with Frostbyte from ITS 10, since it is an easy mission but not only killing stuff with the biggest gun available. Since I know that the tables I build can end up quite dense and a bit empty from time to time, depending on the box I grab, I decided to build my list with densitites in mind, able to do every mission.

The first list was more or less derived from what I am used to in N3, sprinkled with the new tools we got in the new edition. Since spitfires and multi-rifles don't like long ranges that much and I have no tools to deal with a linked MSV2 MSR overwatching nearly everything, this list is supposed for denser maps, where I can move freely and work on shorter ranges. The core-link is the base-line here to defend my homeground and deliver some hacking-support. Gromoz joined for her pitchers and to get something against TAGs, if I need this list in Show of Force. One KHD is a must in this list and besides this, the KHD is a great tool for Highly Classified, especially with the easy to get cybermask! Group two is mostly designed around a haris with Wolfgang to push forward and wreck havoc. Here I included an engineer for mission-reasons, but also to have at least a small chance to fix a broken REM on the way.

Since open maps can be dominated easily with sniper rifles, the two options DBS offers were set here. Again, the Brawler marked the anchor for my defense, while Armand offers more flexibility, also in the active turn. The hackers here are more or less there to defend my Anaconda a bit, which should be covered by repeaters or the KHD on its path. The HMG on her is a cheap option to deal with opposing long-range AROs and if it has not to engage a MSV2 MSR, the evac-system can be quite useful, too. But since there are no other great tools in this list, other then the red fury-ABH in a haris, the Bashi Bazouk, now quite flexible, showed up with rifle and LSG to clear what is left by my big guns. I opted to use this list better in show of force and not in highly classified.

As it turned out, I got the bye for Show of Force and joined the party for highly classified against White Banner.


While the table was not very dense and had some quite scary firelanes, I wanted two Hunzakuts and Wolfgang here, so I went with the narrow-list. Mainclassifieds were mapping, HVT: retroengineering, sabotage and in extremis recovery, my personal one was follow up. To avoid getting crushed by Guilangs or a linked Shangji HMG, I opted for a restricted deployment, only leaving the Clipper and the MSR out to ARO and trying setting one Hunzakut in SF in front of them. Unfortunately that did not deliver the wanted effect and the HMG crushed all of them with ease and without any losses. Even the second Hunzakut, templating the Zhanshis of the core-link, only managed to kill one of them. So the path was free for my opponent to score the first two classifieds.A bit under pressure, Wolfang and the Bulleteer made a great comeback, dropping the Shangji HMG and some other stuff to prepare an objective run with my KHD in the following turns. A dangerous situation appeared as Wolfgang engaged a Guilang from behind, which had layed a mine next to my link-remainings. I opted for my chain-colt, but the Guilang and the mine made the saves. Luckily I shredded the Guilang in CC then and tanking the mine after a failed dodge then... By putting my opponent in LoL, I gained some more freedom and survived a shot by chance of a Long Ya-REM on my Lt. Wolfgang and the Bulleteer then finished the remaining stuff, utilizing the repeater and my KHD, so that Wolfgang could score in extremis recovery and prevent the Mechanic from scoring HVT:retroengineering in the last round, while my KHD sneaked around several mines and a monk, scoring my own classified and sabotage, ending up with a reliant armor but one order short for mapping. In the end it was a narrow loss in a very intense and joyful game.


The last round went against Cosmoflot, fielded by a very experienced Ariadna-player and ended up in a personal mission to kill Wolfgang as bloody as possible. The list was build around a Varangian-core with a Voltolak ML and the Unknown Ranger, some camo-troops (SAS) and the Polaris-team, supported by Wiliam Wallace. I wanted some more guns on the table and opted again for the narrow-list. I got the second turn and got lucky that Uxia failed her infiltration roll. That was balanced by a Volkolak ML dropping my MSR, while the link advanced on my unprotected left flank. The SASs activated two heaters, but got stuck in LoF of the Bulleteer and the Clipper. The Unknown Ranger dropped both of them and finally the Bearpode rushed into my DZ, killing Gromoz and threatening my LT, as well as my engineer. The KHD failed against his smoke-dodge, while Wolfgang was pasted by a Voltolak missile-crit on 15", leaving me without any good chances for the rest of the game. But my Lt managed to crit the Bearpode with his viral-pistol, killing it instantly. A bit of repairing and a landed Gizmokit got me both REMs back and one Hunzakut could activate my heating unit. Nevertheless it was just a matter of time, until the SAS and the core-team managed to wreck the rest of my crew and warm themselves up in my DZ, so that the second turn ended with me in retreat.


Thanks to the OPs I scored in highly classified, I ended up on the fourth place of five, but without any glorious moment. Most of that I would track back to not that optimal list-designs. Wrapping Wolfgang into a haris, just because he is a wildcard, is a waste of points and resources, since he works totally fine on his own. The freed space there could have been used better for a Peacemaker, securing the side where the Brawler won't overwatch. Or maybe a Sierra could be squeezed in, if the Clipper is dismissed. Here things have not changed - I can't get a proper use of this REM and would prefer the LGL-Druze or none of that. But this needs to be tested better.

N4 plays more killy than N3, that is fact and many defensive strategies may be thought through now. DBS in special is missing a good mid-field defense, since we have no minelayers. Of course, we have Hunzakuts, Peacemakers and Swanson now, but they are quite easy to dismantle with a dtw, which is quite frequent for attack-pieces. I really felt the need of something to shoot from 11" to not have the autoloss against a chainrilfe. Maybe a better deployment can solve this, but for such nasty things like the Bearpodes, that would not be enough. Besides that, DBS is a more solid sectorial now and can recover quite good, even with a stronger turn one now. If that keeps valid if you don't include Wolfgang, a Bulleteer and or a TAG, needs to be tested further.

Thursday 15 October 2020

Handing an explosive bill [Starmada vs. White Company]

N4 is out, Starmada is out and White Company as well - the perfect reason to wrap everything together. While AssaultUnicorn pushed the White Company in a messy cargo bay, it was my task to hand the latest speeding ticket to Mr. Hawkwood in a game of domination from the new rulebook.



I have already played two smaller games with Starmada with quite mixed results (the reports will follow soon) and since the sector feels quite aggressive in general, I wanted to smooth the transition and buid something similar to my DBS lists. For that reason, a defensive core-link was build with Bluecoats as cornerguards, filled with the great MSV 1 Psi Cop. To have something in a second lane, a TR-bot was necessary. The Peacemaker here is displayed by the mixture of Crusher and Lawkeeper, while the rest is simply there for reasons. I love Santiago Knights and I love the surprise of AD troops, so the new BSG KHD is a big deal, forcing the EVO. To be not totally unarmed in the infowar until he arrives, a Cyberghost should support the gang. And two Varangians for reasons - I have no experience with warbands and far less with a good smoke-support...


AssaultUnicorn must have thought the same and build someting similar to my DBS-lists, too. A defensive core-link, Hawkwood and a Varangian as second beatstick, once the Bulleteer is shot and the Peacemaker is disabled, too. He saw the potential of boosted REMs some time against me and White Co can totally support that game. Assisted Fire is enough reason for a EVO, so the Tiger Soldier is well hidden in that list, to be a last surprise.


The chosen map was heavily obstructed in the midfield with a lot of walls of infinite height, but also with a lot of breakable windows and doors to be opened. Each quadrant is easy to access and has some sweet spots to hide well, while the north has a better spot for linked ARO-pieces.

I lost the Lt-roll and should go first in the south.

The only reasonable spot for a MSR was the far right lane, so the core-team goes there. I misplaced the Psi Cop a bit more centered, recognizing it in my first turn. The TR-bot starts on a window on the right center with a Varangian nearby to smash the window directly. The hackers take the left side of my DZ with the Cyberghost a bit more advanced and the Kytta as support. To prepare a raid with the Lawkeeper, the second Varangian starts on the far left and the Crusher sits prone behind the left console.

The left sees the EVO-Mule, two camo markers and Hawkwood with his Guard, while the core-team goes on the right side. The Haidao overwatches both sides from a container in the back. The Danavas hides behind some crates on which a Warcor tries to shoot some questionable pictures. A third camo-marker and the Bulleteer ae also on that side.

My Lawkeeper sees a nice ride towards Hawkwood, so starts on the left and is counterdeployed by the Peacemaker, which is set in suppressive fire.

Starmada 1: The Varangians advance, while the Lawkeeper waits (just to secure him from ending up in a bad position). While the right one clears the sight for my Peeler and advances into the center, the left one discovers a door in front of the Peacemaker. The Bot can't react to the SMG-volley and goes down, but the nearby Fusilier crits the Varangian down in return. The Crusher activates the console and closes up to the position the Varangian cleared. Together with the other Varangian, he enters suppressive fire. My Cyberghost forgets to place a pitcher next to my Peeler and advances cybermasked. The Kappa MSR gets stunned by the Warcor.

White Co 1: The Bulleteer gets buffed and takes out my MSR and a Bluecoat without any problems. Now Hawkwood tries to clear the Crusher and is blown away by a D-charge. The Varangian griefing for revenge berserks a wound on the Crusher but can't throw an other D-charge out of his pocket and is blown into pieces, too.

I control three quadrants here, scoring the first two points.

Starmada 2: I want to clear the whole left flank, so the Lawkeeper sacrifices his sidebot, triggering a mine. To bait out the Guilang, the Crusher leaves his safe corner and instead of dying, he drops a Fusilier and the Guilang. Unfortunately, the Warcor manages to stun him. The Lawkeeper now crosses the far left flank and fails several times to drop the Warcor. In the last order I fail to wound the Haidao but at least survive. On the right my Psi Cop is directly shot by the Bulleteer.

White Co 2: The divided order-pool now starts to get empty, so the last surprise has to drop in form of the Tiger Soldier. It takes some time, but in the end the Crusher and Lawkeeper are shot. The Bulleteer now only needs to get rid of the Peeler to clear my DZ, but as it happens, a HMG-crit pins him in place. The core-team advances a bit to hold some positions in the last turn.

We tie on quadrants this round.

Starmada 3: It is time for the Santiago, even if I failed to clear the opposing EVO in the previous turns. He tries to land behind the Mulebot and fails the roll, scattering on my left flank. He approaches the Tiger Soldier but is too noisy by planting a mine, so that the target dodges around the next corner. Two orders more need to be spend to shred the Tiger with a D-charge in CC (he tried to dodge away, but since my second move reached his original position, we ruled the dodge to be canceled -> correct me if that is 'wrong'!). With the last order the Santiago knocks out the EVO and hides behind a crate.

White Co 3: Barely out of retreat, the link approaches the Santiago, wounding him ones, while the single Guilang flips both consoles on the left and stealing my near right sector.

With two sectors controled now and two consoles flipped, AssaultUnicorn wins 5-4 in a more than close game. The Crusher was a real monster to deal with and was a real surprise for me. The Peacemaker was a little gift for me, since AssaultUnicorn forgot about the door in front of him. On the other hand, the Bulleteer really hit my right flank, disabling me from dropping the Warcor, which caused major trouble in the second turn. Without the orders I sunk in him, I could have caused more damage on valuable pieces. Starmada seems to  be really devastating with alpha-strikes but may have problems to keep the race in the following turns. Here White Company could secure some resources long enough to outpoint me in turn three, while I had nothing reliable left to scare him away. Nevertheless, it was one of our bloodiest games so far and his unlucky CC-streak continued (several electric pulsed Yuan Yuans and such things). It feels a bit strange that D-charges are such a valuable CC-weapon now.

I really liked the taste of Starmada in this game and the different approach this sector shows, so I will dedicate some time to this in the future. Besides that, I want to field all the new miniatures I painted recently.


Sunday 11 October 2020

ENTE round 4 aftermath: Looting and Sabotaging vs. Shasvasti

Even with all my games done, one of the more unexperienced players in the event asked for a test-game and since I had a free afternoon, I took the chance. To stay with the level of the event, I took the same list as in my real game and was curious how it would perform against Shasvasti.


HPLSLI
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

9  / 1  
 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)
 ARSLAN Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Light Shotgun / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 36)
 SAITO TOGAN Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW, Knife. (0 | 39)
 SCARFACE & CORDELIA TURNER . (1.5 | 78)
   SCARFACE 2 Mk12, Heavy Rocket Launcher / AP CCW. (1.5 | 61)
   SCARFACE Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. ()
   CORDELIA TURNER Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
 VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 PEACEMAKER Spitfire + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (1 | 27)
   AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
 SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
 NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)

 5.5 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

In general, my plan for this mission turned out quite good the last time, so I planned for the same game here. The amount of difficult terrain needs to be considered and normally nothing except for my  camo-guys should really take a walk there to save ressources

 Shasvastii Expeditionary Force
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

10  
 SPECULO KILLER (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 39)
 SPECULO KILLER (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 39)
 SPHINX Spitfire, 2 Heavy Flamethrowers / EXP CCW. (2 | 106)
   SCINDRON Flash Pulse / Knife. (0 | 0)
 IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
 IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
 MED-TECH OBSIDON MEDCHANOID Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
 SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 NOX Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Submachine Gun, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
 NOX Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Submachine Gun, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
 NOX Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Zapper / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
 SHROUDED (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Dazer / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)

 6 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

One of the most reasonable tools for Shasvasti to destroy the AC2 is the Avatar, so I kind of expected it, what does not really help to solve this problem with Druze. My opponent thought that even monofilamt-ccws could destroy the AC2, so there are two Speculos and some more or less reasonable support for them. The Shrouded definitvly can slow down things on their way to the own AC2, but once it is reached, only the Ikadrons can defend it somehow.


My opponent chose the same map as in my real game, so I was not that sad here. I win the Lt-roll this time and choose to deploy second on the red side, since I experienced that side to be easier to defend, especially against an Avatar. My opponent takes the first turn.

Dr. Wurm and one Ikadron start  in the base in the closed chamber, a Nox, a Ikadron and the Slave drone take the center and one Nox hides behind the rocks inside the DZ. One camo-marker appears in the central room One impersonator and a camo-marker start outside in front of my DZ, a second pair starts in the base, blocking the wide entrance.

First I am glad to have no Speculo in reserve, since I totally forgot about them in my planning. But the way they are positioned, I really need to look for good positions to start the run with Saito and the get my Peacemaker into the game. The Sierra overwatches the outside from the far right corner, Scarface and Gromoz start in the outside hidden behind the central rocks, too and my core-team overwatches the center and the left. The MSV-Brawler can overwatch the whole path towrds my AC2, since I assumed the outside-way to be the chosen one for the Avatar. My Hunzakut starts inside the base but not that far advanced and Cordelia takes a position near that door.

The Avatar appeared in marker state inside and I puzzle my Peacemaker out of the trigger area of the mine outside with the Auxbot overwatching the wide door of the base.

Shasvasti 1: The Shrouded places his Dazer in the center, covering my Peacemaker. The inside-Speculo grabs some armour out of the panoply, places a mine to cover my Hunzakut and re-impersonates. Now the Avatar advances, grabbing a combirifle out of the panoply  and tries to engage my Hunzakut. He places a repeater in the first contact and manages to dodge the flamethrower, while my overlord-hacking fizzles.

Druze 1: The Hunzakut places an other repeater to pin the Avatar a bit longer. Saito Togan takes a cautious walk and manages to reach the AC2. This time two orders are enough to destroy it. With the last orders, he shoots down the Shrouded and clears an Ikadron in CC, then recamos.

Shasvasti 2: The inside-Speculo takes some orders to ground the Hunzakut and the repeater. In the own DZ a Nox discovers Saito and the other Ikadron burns him down. The Avatar uses the small door on my left to shoot at my core-team. The Brawler goes down while everyone else survives.

Druze 2: Gromoz fails to place a pitcher to protect my AC2 while she and Scarface advance to bait out the other Speculo and secure the HVT.

Shasvasti 3: The Avatar tries to burn down my last link-members. Cordelia manages to engage it and while burning down, Arslan stunns the Avatar. This  cuts the chances for him to damage my AC2. An Ikadron advances and a Nox hacker tries to spotlight my HVT without success.

Druze 3: Cordelia  blows up the Avatar with one D-charge and Scarface manages to discover and shoot the outside-Speculo. Cordelia then fails to take out the other Speculo and is shot in return.

Since my HVT is blocked by the other Speculo, I can't secure the HVT. I also grabbed nothing from the panoplies, so I win this game 8-1. I got a bit lucky with Arslans stun-shot, but on the other hand, the chances to block the Avatar somewhere on the way in that turn, were not that bad. We discussed later, that a Speculo as reserve would have brought more options to him, since I have had to plan for a second one with my DZ and he could have searched for a whole in my deployment and crack the path for the Avatar.

ENTE round 4: Looting & Sabotaging vs. Dashat

The luck of the draw led to facing AssaultUnicorn, the author of the ENTE-narrative and my regular TTS-opponent in the final round of the event. Our team planned for something different here, since I know that AssaultUnicorn is around my level, maybe a bit better and it will come down to individual choices in the game. If I would have drawn an other opponent, this maybe could have been mixed up in favour for our team. But in the end I am glad to have this last game scheduled in this way. The last mission for the event was Looting & Sabotaging with three really beautiful and interesting maps, made by Badlazzor and Cabaray.

 

If someone likes to watch the record of the game, made by AssaultUnicorn, you can find it here:



 HPLSLI
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

9  / 1  
 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)
 ARSLAN Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Light Shotgun / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 36)
 SAITO TOGAN Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW, Knife. (0 | 39)
 SCARFACE & CORDELIA TURNER . (1.5 | 78)
   SCARFACE 2 Mk12, Heavy Rocket Launcher / AP CCW. (1.5 | 61)
   SCARFACE Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. ()
   CORDELIA TURNER Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
 VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 PEACEMAKER Spitfire + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (1 | 27)
   AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
 SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
 NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)

 5.5 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

Meanwhile I am quite confident with this list and had a good plan for this mission. Since only Saito Togan is able to destroy the AC2 properly, this was the main aggressor and should reach the AC2 unharmed. This is the task for the Peacemaker, shooting things out of the way and then be a speed-bump for later. Scarfaces acts as pure distraction from this, while the small core-team and the Sierra should secure my AC2 as long as possible. I don't plan to use the panoplies, since it is too order-intesive for this list and there are no units on the way to to it properly. But the AC2 and the classified, scored by Gromoz, should be enough here.

 TM
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 8  / 2  / 1
 GHULAM Hacker (Hacking Device) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
 GHULAM Hacker (Hacking Device) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
 GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
 GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
 GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
 MIRANDA ASHCROFT Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 24)
 BOUNTY HUNTER Red Fury / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
 NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 McMURROUGH 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Templar CCW (AP + DA). (0 | 32)
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)

GROUP 21  
 ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Haris, Tactical Awareness) Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 34)
 RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)
 VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 DOZER Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 LIBERTO (CH: Mimetism, Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 11)

 6 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

Besides the Ghulam-core, AssaultUnicorn brought the best Dashat has, I guess. While group one acts as defence for the AC2 with the core-team, the Hunzakut as plan b for the AC2 with some D-charges and McMurder as plan a, group two is an additional back-up for everything. The Rui SHi can deal with most of the threats thrown at the AC2 and the link is mobile enough to reach the panoplies on their own.


After a long hunt for the source of the mysterious sepsitor-signal, we finally reached some underground-facilities, run by the CA, where it is necessary to destroy/analyze/rearrange the power-sources for the signal. We had the game on a 50/50-map with one half of difficult mountain terrain and low-visibility (nobody takes some flashlights these days!) and a hidden base on the other side with some doors and corridors wide enough to fit a TAG in there.

I lost the Lt-roll and AssaultUnicorn deployed second on the red side. I choose to go first.

Backed up by Cordelia, the Sierra overwatches the left outdoor-area, whith the Brawler looking at the rest and Arslan having a slight look at my AC2. Scarface and Gromoz start in the base to use the mobility a bit better. My AC2 is guarded by my Hunzakut, since it is quite easy to reach and hard to defend on the other way. Saito starts next to the central room outdoors in hidden deployment.

A Ghulam-core overwatched the outdoor-area from the left corner and a camo-marker starts a bit forwarded there. Behind some rocks in the center, the Rui Shi-haris starts and McMurder together with two Ghulams hide on the right.

Since there is no need for the Peacemaker to clear a path for Saito, it is deployed inside to set up a trap for McMurder. That is denied directly with two camo-markers in front of McMurder inside the base.

Druze 1: Saito starts, sets up smoke to avoid engagements of the Ghulams and the camo-marker and attacks the AC2. It takes way too many orders, but finally the AC2 is destroyed and I recamo Saito.

Dashat 1: The Rui Shi gets buffed by Gromoz and takes out Saito without problems. While McMurder advances into the base, the camo-marker on the left grabs some D-charges and the one on the right turns out to be a Liberto, sacrificing himself to take out the Peacemaker. The Dashat-Hunzakut approaches my AC2, takes out my Hunzakut and blow two holes into my AC2.

Druze 2: The KHD enters the room and shoots the Hunzakut down, while Cordelia lets her Nasmat repair the Peacemaker, which takes a defensive position to finally take out McMurder, if he approaches. 

Dashat 2: The Rui Shi-team enters the base and grabs some goodies out of the panoply. One shot of the Rui Shi is enough to disable Scarface. McMurder smokes out the Auxbot and wrecks it in CC, then shoots the Peacemaker down and finally destroys my AC2.

Druze 3: Scarface gets repaired and takes out the Rui Shi, which is completly destroyd by my Gromoz. She shoots a pitcher next to the link. To get the KHD free, Arslan engages McMorrough and takes him down in one shot, but the KHD dies to the chain rifle. My Gromoz takes care of my HVT and fries the other one, while Scarface advances towards the enemy HVT.

Dashat 3: The remaining Zuyong takes out Gromoz but is shot by Scarface in the process. Now the core-team moves to get LoF to Scarface and finally drop the TAG. The Dozer lets his Nasmat advance and secure my HVT.

With this, the game ends 7-5 for AssaultUnicorn. Maybe the thing breaking my neck was the amount of orders Saito needed in turn one. If I had two more orders left for the Peacemaker or for Scarface to set up better ARO-positions, I could have stopped McMorrough a bit earlier. A switch between Arslan and my KHD would also have been an option, since Arslan can dodge quite good and is a good threat for things like Hunzakuts. All in all it was a great and interesting game and a fitting end for me in this event.

Friday 9 October 2020

ENTE round 3: Transmission Matrix vs. TAK

After the test game vs. Ayadan, I managed to get my game on the same map. I calculated a good use of the maintenance-tunnels with my REM-heavy list. The cherry on the cake was the match-up vs. TAK. TAK is a kind of trauma-opponent for me, but in this mission with my list and the other available opponents, this should be a solvable problem.

List Druze:

 DecapTM
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 8  / 1  
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 PEACEMAKER Spitfire + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (1 | 27)
   AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 DRUZE Lieutenant (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
 DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
 CLIPPER DRONBOT Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18)
 DRUZE Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 28)
 BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)

GROUP 21  
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
 SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)

 6 SWC | 299 Points
Open in Infinity Army

The plan and everything is exactly the same as in the previous game against MO. This time I knew that there were no obstacles on my info-war approach, so I calculated good odds for my Clipper, while my REMs clear everything what was not accessable with a smart missile.

List TAK:

European 2.0
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 9  / 1  
 VETERAN KAZAK AP HMG / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 47)
 LINE KAZAK (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
 LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 LINE KAZAK Paramedic (MediKit) Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
 FRONTOVIK (Multiespectral Visor L1) AP Sniper / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1 | 31)
 LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 9)
 STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 ASSAULT PACK . (0 | 25)
   HANDLER Rifle, Smoke Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (- | 10)
   x3 ANTIPODE AP CC Weapon. (- | 15)

GROUP 21  / 1
 SPETSNAZ (CH: Ambush Camouflage) HMG / Pistol, CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 38)
 STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 STRELOK (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
 SCOUT Lieutenant Ojotnik, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 29)
 IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

 6 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

Whenever I have bad dreams about TAK, I am dreaming of this list: A core-team with a good defensive weapon and a Vet-Kazak HMG, supported by way too many camo-markers, leaving no clue what could be what. The Assault Pack then is only the minor thread.

 

Minass chooses to take the second turn after winning the Lt-roll, so I let him deploy first in the north.

His core-team is deployed around the right building with two replacement-Kazaks. The Antipode-handler takes the inside of the building and tons of camo markers are scattered everywhere else. I can only see S2 camos, so at least there is no K-9 waiting and for the moment no Assault Pack. Four camos are securing the center and four are scattered on the right around the designated target.

I mirror my deployment from the last game, placing the link and a Hunzakut on the left, some REMs in the center and the Sierra, a Fugazi and a Pathfinder on the right.

The Assault Pack appears on the left in the forest and my Peacemaker starts on the building on the right, ready to sacrifice the Auxbot and clear some mines and everything else there.

Druze 1: To lure out the camo markers on the right, my Peacemaker starts, sacrificing the Auxbot by burning the markers and the designated target. The dodge is successful and one mine triggers, but the Auxbot tanks the mine and two hits from the Frontovik. I want to get rid of the Frontovik, so my AHD tries to spotlight him without success. Since I had misjudged LoF between the Frontovik and my Brawler, it takes a shot but tanks it. With bad odds for spotlight in general, I switch to my Peacemaker. It gets assisted fire and advances further. I get greedy and try to burn the designated target again before getting both REMs in good range against the Frontovik. Now my Auxbot is destroyed and the designated target dodges again. The Peacemaker advances a bit and gets a crit from the Frontovik. With that front down, I try to sneak up the central Fugazi through the maintenance tunnels but one marker, expected as ambush, turns out to be a mine, killing the Fugazi.

TAK 1: The core-team is formed without the Frontovik but including the Vet. Kazak. He tries to engage my Sierra and recieves two crits in a row. A Spetznas HMG engages my Clipper, wrecking it and getting stunned by a flash pulse from somewhere. Out of LoF it recamoes. Now a Strelok approaches my left side, dropping everything except for my EVO with his BSG, after the designated target is killed.

More quadrats for TAK.

Druze 2: With not many ressources left, I try to consolidate things a bit. The right Fugazi is dragged into the center, while the central Hunzakut kills the Strelok near my DZ. The Sierra fails to drop the Frontovik.

TAK 2: The Frontovik is included in the link again, killing the Sierra and my Brawler. The Spetznaz drops the last Pathfinder, while a Strelok is stunned on its way.

More quadrants for TAK.

Since there is nothing left to threaten the center or get me back in the game otherwise, we stop here with an 8-0 for Minass. The number of bad decisions around the Frontovik in turn one drained ressources to develop a presence in the center. I should have gone with the Peacemaker from the beginning, going for the order pool of the link and snacking the designated target on the way. Spotlighting something is a dangerous thing with WIP 13 in N3, since targets reset better most of the time. But besides this mistakes, Minass deployed a serious thread against nearly everything. Even if I would have been able to sensor the center, not more than a mine and some ambush-markers would have been revealed, gaining nothing for me. Nevertheless we concluded that I had everything on the field to solve all the issues and to win the game. The difficulty is to know what is the right tool for the current problem and that the tools are scattered on single units. This leads to two problems:

  • Is this specific unit already dead, the solution is no longer available.
  • The single tool needs to be deployed where the problem occurs. With 4-2 MOV and no good defensive equipment, this is a really tricky problem.

Most other factions avoid this by having multi-purpose units, fulfilling different roles at the same time or at least having the tools equipped with something that helps them to get where they are needed. Maybe DBS gets a change here in N4, but for now, I need to try to work more with my Hunzakuts and Pathfinders, since they are able to develop paths so that a Druze or something else can give the final solution to the problem. But without these two units, you are not flexible enough to deal with all the different situations.

ENTE Round 3 test: Transmission Matrix vs. Military Orders

With three weeks per round, there is some time in between to have some games around and since I had some good discussions with the french team and Ayadan contributed a great map for the next round, we took the chance and tested this one. I was really glad here to have a game vs. one of the best PanO-players around for the moment and have the opportunity to show him what DBS can do. The mission here was Transmission Matrix.

 List DBS:

 DecapTM
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 8  / 1  
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 PEACEMAKER Spitfire + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (1 | 27)
   AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 DRUZE Lieutenant (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
 DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
 CLIPPER DRONBOT Smart Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 18)
 DRUZE Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 28)
 BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)

GROUP 21  
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
 SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)

 6 SWC | 299 Points
Open in Infinity Army
 

As mentioned before, the list was designed to fulfill the requirements of Decapitation and Transmission Matrix. With the existing repeater-network and three hackers on the table, I am sure to dominate the infowar against most other factions, except for Nomads. So I should be able to target the key units and drop missiles on them without any problems. A strong defensive core-team and a Peacemaker should solve every other problem deployed against that.

List MO:

 Santiago Deployment
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 9  / 1  
 ORDER SERGEANT Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 ORDER SERGEANT Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 ORDER SERGEANT Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
 KNIGHT OF SANTIAGO Lieutenant (Specialist Operative) Spitfire, Nanopulser, E/M Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, DA CCW. (1 | 43)
 KNIGHT OF SANTIAGO Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 38)
 TECH-BEE (Remote Assistant Level 1, Specialist Operative) Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
 PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
   AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
 BULLETEER Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 23)
 TRAUMA-DOC (Father-Doctor) Combi Rifle  / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
 SPEC. SERGEANT Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)

GROUP 21  
 MACHINIST (Father-Engineer) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
 PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 SPEC. SERGEANT Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 BULLETEER Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1 | 23)
 MULEBOT Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
 WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

 6 SWC | 299 Points
Open in Infinity Army

 My estimation, even from my own experience, would have been a minimal infowar-approach to simply gun everything down. Ayadan planned for this estimation against MO in this mission and took a completly different and from my point of view unexpected approach: Go all-in into the infowar. Not only that a 2W KHD is a scary thing to deal with, but also the EVO to support that with Kaleidoscope (something I totally forgot about) and two other hackers to harrass mine are a real staple here. The needed guns are brought by the Peacemaker and two Bulleteers, kept alive by a Machinist. So everything moving across the table is shot down with ease and everything trying to click something on his comlog is shut down.


The map was something different from what was used on TTS over the last weeks.I set the theme for the whole round as a hidden base in the jungle, so the left side had some jungle-terrain with forest on it. The base here was in the center with a REM-maintance-system in the center (tunnels made for S4 units to move freely under it with some hoists to reach the elevated center), a landing-area in the north and an assistance-system next to the building in the north.

I can't remember who won the Lt-roll but I go first and take the south DZ.

My link deploys around the elevated position on the left with the KHD and the MSR around the antenna and the Clipper down overwatching the inner area there. One Fugazi, two Pathfinders and the EVO take the center and the other REMs are deployed on the right with the Sierra overwatching the inner area and a Fugazi taking care about the right flank. One Hunzakut starts in the forest on the left and the other one starts in the right building.

A core team with a Santiago KHD and a Santiago spitfire deploys inside the right building. The OS HRL is on the roof to overwatch things. While one spitfire-Bulleteer starts in the center, a second one starts on the right flank. A Machinist and an EVO Mulebot hide on the left behind the fence and a Techbee together with a Doc hide behind the right building. One OS hacker secures the left antenna, a second one  supports on the right.

To cut through the REMs, my Peacemaker starts behind the right building near my Hunzakut. It is counterdeployed by an other Peacemaker.

Druze 1: As always, I loose two orders from group one. My Hunzakuts sneaks through the building and takes out the Peacemaker and the Techbee with his shotgun. My EVO is dazzled by the hacking-interactions and is fried while trying to buff my Peacemaker. Without support, the Peacemaker takes out the Bulleteer and needs several attempts to ground both REMs completly. My Sierra and the right Pathfinder advance a bit into the antenna-area.

MO 1: The core-team breaks and the KHD Santiago takes out both hackers on my side and starts a shoot-out with my Peacemaker. He recieves one wound bit finishs him in the progress.

MO controls more antennas.

Druze 2: My left Hunzakut sneaks up on the left flank and fails to shoot the OS hacker on the antenna but manages to clear a Warcor. Meanwhile my Lt as datatracker takes the maintance-tunnel in the center to crawl into the center and shoot down a Palbot.

MO 2: The Santiago spitfire advances and fails to shoot my left Hunzakut. After the OS hacker clears my Lt, the Santiago advances and takes out my Clipper, then secures the center.

MO controls more antennas.

Druze 3: The Hunzakut finally takes out the OS hacker and I reposition the left over REMs.

MO 3: My designated target gets spotlighted and the KHD rushes into my DZ and secures my right antenna.

Again MO controls more antennas and I loose 8-0. After I realised that my hacking-plan was completly destroyed by a MO infowar (!!!), my options in general and my movement-options with nearly only hackable units were limited a lot. That forced me into risking my Lt. Would my Hunzakut has been able to drop the OS hacker in turn two, things would have been open again, but that failure together with my Lt in LoF made the Loss clear.

Besides some dice and decisions in the game, the most remarkable thing here was Ayadans list. Of course, nobody expects MO in Transmission Matrix to approach over the info-war strategy, so I calculated my whole plan over the Clipper. This conclusion and planning was used by Ayadan to lure his opponent into a well thought trap. Not only this, but his list-concept was something completly new for MO. I knew him as one of the stronges MO-players and know his discussions with offbeat list-ideas and game plans. To get this deployed against me and executed that good, I would definitely say that his game is a new level of playing MO.

Wednesday 7 October 2020

ENTE Round 2: Hunting Party vs. Varuna

After round one turned out quite successful for us as one of two teams with three victories, the PanO-Aleph Team "Bisounours" from France was our next opponent. Eventhough I build all three maps for that round, I managed to draw Varuna on the most open table.

For Hunting Party, I wanted to have as many ADHLs as possible, on good profiles in the best case and some tricks to disable enemy glue-guns. With two classifieds in this mission, this is something to be considered, too. One of my previous LI-lists turned out to have most of the things I need and also fields the only considerable units for Looting and Sabotaging. So I simply dropped that one.

 HPLSLI
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

9  / 1  
 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)
 ARSLAN Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Light Shotgun / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 36)
 SAITO TOGAN Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW, Knife. (0 | 39)
 SCARFACE & CORDELIA TURNER . (1.5 | 78)
   SCARFACE 2 Mk12, Heavy Rocket Launcher / AP CCW. (1.5 | 61)
   SCARFACE Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. ()
   CORDELIA TURNER Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
 VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
 PEACEMAKER Spitfire + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (1 | 27)
   AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
 SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
 NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
 HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)

 5.5 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

The reduced link with Arslan and the KHD is a real risk in Hunting Party, but leaves enough space for all the other tools and is quite resilient over the whole game. The Peacemaker should open the path for the link or Scarface, while Cordelia should keep things running and deny points. Against Varuna most of the plan could simply be denied by the linked Kamau, so a plan for this was needed. In the best case, I am able to attack the link with Saito or pick some other members with Saito or the Brawler. If that is not possible, my best chances against the Kamau MSR are under 16" with Arslan. Everything else has odds below 40% with 35% or recieving wounds in return...

Varuna S1
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 9  
 SQUALO (Armored Cav.) MULTI HMG, Heavy Grenade Launcher / AP Heavy Pistol. (2.5 | 95)
   CRABBOT Flash Pulse / Knife. ()
 FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
 FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
 BIPANDRA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
 KAMAU (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
 KAMAU Heavy Rocket Launcher, Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 23)
 ZULU-COBRA Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 28)
 ZULU-COBRA (Forward Observer) Breaker Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26)
 MACHINIST Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
 PALBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)

GROUP 2 / 3  
 HELOT MILITIAMAN Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 9)
 HELOT MILITIAMAN Shock Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
 HELOT MILITIAMAN Shock Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)

 6 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

The link is what you expect, while the Zulus and the Helots form the nebula where everything dangerous can hide. The Squalo is hard to predict with all the camo-tokens and the possibility of Echo Bravos in that list.

Lucky as I am from time to time, I won the Lt roll and chose the south DZ. That side had at least three positions from where the Kamau could see the most important paths. The other side had the obvious spot on the left building, where I could approach in close ranges on the left. In return, I got the first turn.

I calculated bad odds for Scarface in the open if I could kill the Kamau, so he went on the left together with Gromoz. To engage things in the most flexible way, the core-team took the right side with the KHD safe on the rocks. The Sierra and my Peacemaker should just secure my half of the table and engage if the Kamau is shot.

The link took the building on the left with the Kamau on the big building, blind towards the far left path. This way is covered by the HRL and the Fusiliers scattered in the inside. Two camo markers in front of that. The Machinist is deployed in the center and the other camo-markers took the right side.

Saito is deployed in the building on the left side to approach the link unseen. Something else is placed in hidden deployment.

Druze 1: I am restricted to one CP in this turn. THe most important thing is to limit the potential of the link, so the MSR advances a bit and fails to discover a camo-marker. Since the marker doesn't aro, I choose to ignore him and advance further. A Cutter appears and I split burst between the Kamau HRL and the Cutter. The HRL goes down and the Cutter recieves a crit and retreats out of LoF. Scarface fails to discover the camos on the left. I try to outdice the Kamau MSR with the Sierra but go down and Cordelia totally wrecks it.

Varuna 1: The Cutter approaches the Brawler and drops him. The mechanig repairs the Cutter and a camo marker advances on the left. By passing Saito, the ninja reveals his presence and the marker stops his advance.

Druze 2: Scarface tries to discover something on the left but fails again. Saito advances on that side and tricks both markers to reveal themself. Now Scarface shoots down a Helot, which is used by Saito to score In Extremis Recovery. The revealed Zulu is scanned by Gromoz for Datascan. Out of LoF, Saito recamoes.

Varuna 2: The Zulu on the left targets my HVT twice for Designation and shoots down a Nasmat and the Peacemaker. Finally he manage to glue down Scarface.

Druze 3: Arslan crosses the edge and fails multiple times to glue the Zulu, even with several hits on 6.

Varuna 3: Since Arslan ended his action in a bad position, the already engaged Zulu, supported by an other one on the right, glues Arslan first, then Cordelia and finally the KHD on the stones.

With more Lts and specialists glued, I loose 8-2. My first thought was, that this loss was mainly caused by Arslans missing ability to hunt down the Zulu on the left. Otherwise I would have hunted down more specialists and with more classifieds done, I would have won this impossible match-up. But as Shas'O'Kassad mentioned later, I should have simply engaged the Zulu with Saito and hunt him down, so I would have had a really good position to sustain his third turn. But even with this game lost, I am really satisfied with my performance a) vs. Varuna, b) on such an open map and c) vs. such an experienced and skilled player. In the end, games with DBS are not decided by your list (except for some rare cases and lists) but with your ability to deploy the right solution on the right place. The major problem here is that all these solutions are mounted on different units, so that each plan needs a specific set-up. Other factions don't have this problem just because of a biggere reliabality of single stron units and the availability of multi-purpose units. So here, each mistake does real damage to your whole game.

Joining the wrong neighborhood [DBS vs. CA]

Even if it went very quite here, I have not quit playing Infinity. Nevertheless, we joined some other systems (Dystopian Wars, Dropfleet Com...