Now don't panic [DBS vs. ISS]

 

After two serious losses in the Quadratekämpfer-tournament, there was no space left for any kind of ambition, especially with Panic Room as the last mission. What got me motivated again was my opponent thi time: 8-bit, one of our german podcast-hosts and someone I was eager to play against for some time now. While I built a more or less silly list for this mission, 8-bit tried to get in touch with ISS during the tournament. Our pairing maybe said all about this attempt so far.

PanicSquad
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GROUP 1  10  
 BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 27)
 DRUZE (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Pitcher, D-Charges ( ) / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MULTI Rifle(+1B), Chain-colt / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 35)
 VALERYA GROMOZ (Hacker) Combi Rifle, Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
 ARSLAN (Lieutenant) MULTI Rifle, Light Shotgun / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 36)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
 BULLETEER Spitfire / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 23)
 DRUZE (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Pitcher, D-Charges ( ) / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
 DRUZE (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Pitcher, D-Charges ( ) / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
 PEACEMAKER Spitfire / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 26)
   AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 4)

GROUP 23  
 KAMEEL  (Hacker, EVO Hacking Device)  ( ) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 15)
 PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)

 5 SWC | 298 Points
Open in Infinity Army

Well, for the moment I don't really know how to approach this mission. We played this game before we had the last IGIL-round, so the Starmada-list was a bit more thought out, based on the experiences of this game. My thoughts behind here were to avoid being hacked to death or templated to death in the room. So the KHDs, advacing in a duo-link this time, should block the room in impersonation-state and when it is time, Arslan and Wolfgang, ideally with the HD still alive, storm the room and dodge whatever warband is chainrifling into the room. The Bulleteer and maybe the Pathfinder should open up the passage for the important units here.

 
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GROUP 1  10  
 DEVA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
 DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 33)
 ADIL (Specialist Operative, Veteran) Breaker Combi Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 32)
 SÙ-JIÀN Spitfire, Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 54)
 KǍNRÈN (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt ( ) / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (0.5 | 28)
 KǍNRÈN (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt ( ) / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
 CELESTIAL GUARD (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
 CELESTIAL GUARD Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
 MAJOR LUNAH VIRAL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29)
 BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 12)

GROUP 25  / 3
 KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
 KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
 CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 13)
 KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
 CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)

 5 SWC | 299 Points
Open in Infinity Army

Without knowing ISS very well, the approach was exactly what I had imagined: A bunch of throw-away warbands in form of Kuang Shis to clear the room and annoy whatever there will be, two Kanrens to do the digital work and a flexible haris, which first shoot things down, then enters the room and scores the points. Some redundancy is added by the Sujian and Lunah, both potent killers and valuable for the mission.

This round we got the one Icestorm-map with all the tweeks and twerks this terrain has in TTS and in real life. Once I got wiped out by Karolis and a Tikbalang here, since TAGs really enjoy this terrain. There are some nice firelanes on the right and in this version the denser left side got more open, so that something deployed savely on a roof has a quite big impact. This map too was not designed for the reduced DZ, making deployment quite messy.

I loose the Lt-roll and get to go second and deploy second in the south. Since I feel better with going second in this mission, that is quite nice.
One (or three) Kanren infiltrates right in front of the room, while an other one is deployed on the left, next to the Kuanghsi-link and a camo-marker. The haris-team starts in the center and all the other stuff is deployed more or less hidden on the right.
Most of my eggs go on the right side: Bulleteer, Fugazi and core-link. The left side is secured by the Pathfinder and the other Fugazi, while my KHDs for some reason start together on a central rooftop. Due to the unfitting deployment, most of my stuff starts quite near to my table-edge.
As reserve, a Su-Jian starts on the left and my Peacemaker fails his deployment and also starts in my table-edge in the center.

ISS 1: With two regular orders removed from group one, the haris under smoke advances on the right. The MSV Deva tries to engage my MSR but is shot down. So the Su-JIan takes over, rocketing itself on the high building on the left and transforming into his shooty-form. The Kanrens and Kuangshi advance.

DBS 1: To disable the transformer, the Peacemaker is sent out and in the far too long progress the Su-Jian recieves a wound but takes out the Auxbot and somehow the Fugazi, which tried to support his robot-friend. With the mission in mind, the core-team advances. A panzerfaust-shot pastes the Brawler, leaving me in suboptimal conditions. Now Arslan himself takes over the situation but fails every dodge and barely manages to enter the room alive. At least I score two points but lose my Bulleteer to the zone.

ISS 2: The Kuangshis use my scattered defense on the right and round that flank. One kills Gromoz and scoring Extreme Prejudice on her. One Kanren first shoots down Arslan, then clearing the Peacemaker. With a cat-like jump towards the ground, the Su-Jian kills my Kameel. To get more points into the room, the remaining of the haris-team join the Kanren there.

DBS 2: First the Pathfinder dies while trying to get rid of a Kuangshi, then Wolfgang takes over. Thanks to a surrendered situation, I lose my HD and one wound from Wolfgang to the Kuanghsi, as Wolfgang manages to enter the room but not to tear the Deva into pieces in CC. The plague kills both KHDs and 8-bit scores two points.

ISS 3: Adil and his friends execute Wolfgang in CC and close the room from the inside, leaving me with nothing to do.

So this game ends like all the others recently: I loose 7-2 with only one Fugazi remaining. Of course, my list was not optimal, but with how the dice went, a far better list would not have made a big impact, I guess. The Su-Jian tanked so many shots and killing everything in return, while most of the stuff on my side wore paper-armor and iron-gloves to avoid any successfull dodging-attempt. In the end my choice of deployment kicked off a catastrophic snowball-effect, since I maneuvered myself into a bad starting-position, from where I could not rescue three regular orders and valuable pieces. If I could get my KHDs into the game, things may have changed, but so they were trapped on the roof, overwatched by the Su-Jian, while the plague advanced.
If it was mostly my performance, my opponents skill or the dice rolled - I reached the last place of the tournament. Nevertheless I am still a big fan of my DBS-REMtasy-list and DBS in general.