TAG-date with Mr. Tinder [QK vs. PanO]

The last week of my days off during the holiday season included a casual game against TJE, one of the organizers of the German Masters in southern Germany, newly called 'Mr. Tinder' for some podcast-reasons. We 'met' each other during the ENTE and my following tournaments and had a little chat about TTS events after that. So a game was overdue. The mission was frontline and I wanted to try out a new QK list with a modified game-approach. TJE decided for vanilla PanO. German speakers can watch the game here:

Smoketrick
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1  9  / 1  / 1
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 8)
 DJANBAZAN (BS Attack ) AP Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31)
 DJANBAZAN (BS Attack ) AP Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31)
 SEKBAN Heavy Rocket Launcher, Chain-colt(+1B) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 21)
 HAFZA (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 17)
 HAFZA (Lieutenant) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
 DJANBAZAN Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 34)
 FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
 FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
 FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)

GROUP 21
 YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 8)
 AZRA'IL AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40)
 SEKBAN (Doctor [+3]) Boarding Shotgun ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
 HAWWA' (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, Flash Pulse, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 22)
 HAWWA' (Minelayer) Sniper Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 23)

 6 SWC | 299 Points

[url=https://infinitytheuniverse.com/army/list/gZMLcWFwdS1raGFscWkKU21va2V0cmlja4EsAgEKAIF6AQMAAIEyAQMAAIEyAQMAAIFTAQMAAIFGAQMAAIFGAQQAAIEyAQIAAIE+AQEAAIE+AQEAAIE+AQEAAgUAgXoBAwAAgUoBAQAAgVMBBQAAgUsBAwAAgUsBAgA=]Open in Infinity Army

The quite expensive defensive core around two Djanbazan AP snipers served me quite well in the last games, so it should be the anchor for a single Djanbazan HMG, exploiting smoke-interactions. The back-up is foreseen in the Azrail together with the Sekban Doc. The Doc here is crucial, since he increases the order-efficiency, can revive Azzie and is able to click consoles on the way. If needed, the core-link can take actions, too. One Yuan Yuan should be deployed directly to smoke out the Djanbazans in place, while the second one should take the flexible part.

 
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

 7  / 5  
 DRÃGAO Hyper-Rapid Magnetic Cannon, Heavy Flamethrower / AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 73)
   CRABBOT Flash Pulse / CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
 SERAPH Spitfire, Nanopulser / EXP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 74)
   CRABBOT Flash Pulse / CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
   AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 4)
 TIKBALANG Heavy Machine Gun, Heavy Flamethrower, Shock Mines / AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 68)
   CRABBOT Flash Pulse / . (0 | 0)
 MONSTRUCKER Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Drop Bears / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
 PALBOT PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
 REGULAR (Triangulated Fire, Minelayer, Sensor) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
 REGULAR (Triangulated Fire, Minelayer, Sensor) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
 HELOT MILITIAMAN (Camouflage [1 Use]) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 17)
 FUSILIER (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
 AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
   AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 4)

 6 SWC | 298 Points

[url=https://infinitytheuniverse.com/army/list/ZQpwYW5vY2VhbmlhASCBLAEBCgALAQEAAIU1AQIAABUBBgAAFQEGAAAlAQEAACIBAQAAIQEBAACExgEGAAABAQoAABYBAgA=]Open in Infinity Army

There may be something different in the squishy part of the list, but what matters is there: Three (!) TAGs, none of them like the Anaconda, but real TAGs. Three of them. To avoid silly assassination-runs on the order pool or Lt, Auxbots and Regulars with mines set up as many obstacles as possible. If one TAG goes down, there is a hired engineer to repair it.

The map is from Cabaray, found in the White Noise-collection, designed for frontline. The center sees a watery channel with some boats on it, while the other scoring zones consists of elevated areas with symmetric obstacles and a second level under them, which you can enter from ladders or from doors out of the DZs. The billboards guarantee closed firelanes.

TJE wins his first LT rolls in ages and decides to go first. The DZs are the same for each side, so I simply deploy second.

The Seraph starts behind the elevated area on the left, the Dragao also on the left, next to the staircase. One camo-marker overwatches the field from the right building, while markers, Auxbots and cheerleaders are scattered in and around the buildings.

It seems like a good idea to pin down the Dragao directly, placing my link on the right with one sniper on each building and the rest on the ground. Azrail and Sekban go behind the left building, together with a Fanous. This combination seems solid, so Azrail and the Fanous are out to ARO on the left flank. The other two Fanous go on the building. The Hawwa sniper supports the core-team on the elevated space and the FO Hawwa memes a hacker, taking a bath behind the left boat. Yuan 2 starts next to the staircase.

A Tikbalang is deployed on the right and my Djanbazan HMG joins the Yuan Yuan.

PanO 1: The Dragao starts the shootout with my Djanbazan sniper, which takes some orders until it is removed completely. From there, the Dragao removes both Fanous on the building, giving quite free reign for the Seraph, which advances on the left. Meanwhile the Tikbalang drops the second sniper. The Seraph reaches my DZ with enough orders to kill my Djanbazan HMG and the Yuan Yuan, while the Auxbot pins down the last Fanous and the Azrail after he recieves one wound. The sniper regenerates.

QK 1: The second Yuan Yuan enters my DZ and smokes out my remaining sniper. He can see the Tikbalang and the Seraph and with some shoots, the Seraph is unconscious and the Tikbalang dodges into safety with one wound remaining. Azrail advances into the lower level in front of my DZ, while my core-team changes positions and take the far right building again.

PanO 2: Since the Dragao is still unharmed, he manages to gun down my Hawwa sniper, the Yuan Yuan, the Djanbazan sniper again and the Sekban HRL. This frees the path for the Monstrucker, reactivating the Seraph. My sniper regenerates again.

QK 2: The core-link is reformed with what is left. While the sniper fails to drop the Seraph again, I have misjudged the distance to the Dragao and the sniper goes down again to its HFT. The Sekban Doc has to drop the Auxbot to reach the Seraph but does nothing more than the Auxbot by reaching the elevated part. Azrail can't climb up since the Seraph is standing on the hold of his ladder. The sniper comes back a third time.

PanO 3: The Dragao finally kills the sniper. Now the Seraph goes wild, first slicing the Sekban in CC, then joining Azrail in his basement and also wrecking him in CC.

In retreat, I have no option to do anything (maybe the Hawwa FO is shot somewhere before). TJE sits in every zone, so it is a clear victory for him. For this mission, three solid TAGs with enough orders in the back are simply outstanding. Together with the fact that nobody expects such kind of list, his proper play made it very difficult to keep my head up.

Nevertheless, I was quite confident in the beginning, since there was no MSV in his list and I had taken all the things TAGs normally don't like. Unfortunately, I made a bad play with the Djanbazan HMG, deploying him to open and having the Azrail pinned by the Auxbot nailed the coffin. With at least one offensive weapon in position for turn one, Two dead TAGs wouldn't have been a problem and I would have gained a good position. What didn't disappoint me was the Djanbazan-core with two snipers. Having one regenerating three times is nothing usual, so two are a solid choice for not too many points. If at least three other guys in the link are alive, they then can be a real pain in the active, too. The only thing I missed was a hacker in the midfield. Upgrading the Hawwa from a bluff to a thread would be nice, but would force some unpleasant decisions in list-building...