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
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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
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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.