In different hands II (QK vs. DBS)

Some of my current fails with DBS, especially the loss against papu, inspired Minass, a good buddy of papu, a srong player on his own and a former opponent of mine in the ENTE, to try out DBS by himself. So I was really interested in his approach, hoping to learn something new. Additional motivation came from the release of the missing sectorials, bringing back Qapu Khalqi to the game, my first love and the stepping stone towards the DBS-challenge. Due to a busy week and a spontaneous scheduling of the game, we went with 300 points Decapitation, ITS 12.

Since QK did not change a lot from N3.5, I could more or less take some old list and fill the gained points. Of course, some of the new stuff should be tested. First, this should be the Azrail AP HMG as hellbringer for everything in his way, paired with Rahman to keep him running. Second, the new flexibility in link-teams. A cheap Djanbazan-core around the MSV2 sniper and a Sekban-haris, also as cheap as possible. So where the Azrail can't shoot through, the Sekban should do the job. With the 15-trooper cap, Yuan Yuans are in a weird place. You want to take at least two, even since they gained an unknown flexibility, but you need to fill your points with reasonable troops...Since I have no MSV2 HMG here, I don't really need one in turn one, but if, he could be there. The second one should land when there is a hole to utilize.

Minass took a similar approach to Al'Espagnol, building around a core-link with MSV2 Brawler and Scarface in the other group. But he added the Clipper here, together with Saito Togan. The core-link was streamlined around the task of setting up pitchers (the only tasks Druze actually perform better than everyone else thanks to their X-visors) and spotlighting targets. Scarface, guarded by a ton of flash pulses and the Sierra, should shoot whatever there is left then. Saito adds smoke as an additional tool and can eleminate units walking by.

What map could have been better than this cursed one, where I got some serious defeats, but also some victories? The south side gives better positions to deploy your link-teams and has good spots to overwatch the exits of the other DZ. 

Minass critted on the Lt-roll and chose to go first. I took the south DZ.

His core-team is deployed behind the central building with the MSR slightly orientated towards the left corridor. This one is also watched by Scarface, both Fugazis and the Warcor. They are also protecting one designated target behind the wall there. Cordelia is hidden behind the crate on that side, with one Nasmat nearby and one on the central crate, next to the Sierra. The Kameels hide behind those crates.

My haris is deployed as a back-up on the left. The core goes in the small central building with the sniper overwatching Scarface. Both remotes cover the right corridor, where Rahman is deployed, too.

The Clipper is set behind the core-team in the center, the Azrail closes up to Rahman, building a duo-team.

DBS 1: With one command point, I reduce group one by two orders. The KHD climbs up the building, shooting a pitcher in front of my core-team. My Lt then keeps resetting against the spotlights, after the Druze has fried Leila. Scarface takes a run towards the right, shooting down the Djanbazan sniper completely. He advances further, killing both designated targets.

QK 1: The Azrail and Rahman are taken into group two and advance through the right building. The Sierra burns to the second level of unconsciousness, then Scarface takes two wounds. He guts into cover and crits Azzie with his panzerfaust in the next order. Rahman is able to get him back to his feet with the last order and the last CP.

DBS 2: Now Scarface finishs off Azzie again, together with Rahman. While Cordelia repairs the Sierra, a new pitcher is shot between both links. This time all resets fail and every missile lands, killing nearly everything.

QK 2: One Yuan Yuan lands behind Scarface, while the second one scatters. Through smoke the landed one engages Scarface, but is cut in halfes directly. Now there is nothing more to do, so we end the game.

A major victory for Minass with DBS here. He played this list at least two times against papu with Kosmoflot before, winning both games in the same way as this. If you go first, you will land a pitcher and then land some missiles easily. This should win the game, if you guess the Lt right. If not, Scarface is there, always covered by the Sierra or the Fugazi. Or Saito, just in case.
Minass simply is a good player. He does not joke around with his game, since every unit is there for a reason, but mostly just for this reason. Scarface does the heavy shooting, the KHD does the pitcher-job, Gromoz does the spotlight. Thats it. With this, the plan is always clear and the risk is minimized, since the right guys are there for the job. If you have no good guys available, the job should not be done.
Besides the personal skills, his list may be one of the best DBS-lists actually. DBS may be one of the best factions to set up the smart-missile-strategy or any other pitcher-oriented approach. Not only that this approach is quite strong in N4, it is also very hard to counterplay for most factions, if you go first. And it is not that complex and difficult to set up. But you need to want such a game. For me, this one is totally boring and I am quite salty, that success seems to be bound to such list-type for DBS. I wished for more flexibility and variation here, since there are the units for this. But they are not good enough in combination, compared to the winning things at the moment.

Some words to QK: The link options are great but various. You really need to think about the different compositions to choose the right one for your plan. Here I holoed all Hafzas as Odalisques, since they have good ARO-profiles, being unattrative to attack. But the Hafzas themselves are not that strong, so I will think about including real Odalisques more often. The Azrail in combination with Rahman is great, at least when it goes against targets without visual modifiers. The continous damage here is just a little add-on, while the AP on the HMG delivers the main benefit. And of course, the rule of cool. The Yuan Yuans could have changed the game after the Sierra was down. But then there were the Fugazis and the Warcor. You need to land somewhere and while you try to avoid spots where you get shot, getting flashed there is even worse. This is something I need to elaborate more in the future.