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.

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.

Back into the Taigha-cave (DBS vs. White Company)

The new edition also started in the TTS for me with the first game against my lovely opponent AssaultUnicorn. We have not played his second custom mission yet, so we concluded that this would be a nice thing to start with. Since QK is not available at the moment, he fielded his new love, White Company. The rules for the mission can be found here and in this post.

Since the mission requires D-charges and one combat group, the new additions and changes in fireteam-composion and points brought me back to the former struggle of not getting 300 points filled with 10 models. In the end, I mixed whatever seemed to be useful and is expensive. With his new DA CCW, Scarface could be useful in this mission, while a haris out of the HMG, KHD and Mr. Wolf should carry most of the action, guarded by a flexible core-team, where Arslan could take the lead as a back-up piece. Amadeus Wolf seems better in nearly every situation than Arslan, but since the points were free, both could show up.

We talked about his curious approaches for White Company before, but I was not expecting a Guujia here. The core-team with two Haidaos and Hawkwood delivers a great defensive brick and could switch to an aggressive role easily, once the MSR is down and the boss himself can carry things. Shona supported by a Varangian is a good tool to crack up the armory and the Guilangs are supposed to do the specialist-jobs.

In the need of a at least rule-wise fitting map, we came back to one designed for the Dire Foes mission "Viral Outbreak". Two quite high towers in the corners and opposing normal buildings surround the armory, which covers not much but enough room for some advancements. I know this map a bit and the problems potent snipers could cause in a good spot.

AssaultUnicorn wins the Lt-roll and goes first. I choose to deploy second in the south to secure a bit more flexibility in the shadow of the armory.

One camo-marker infiltrates in front of my DZ while a second one hides on the right behind a building. Shona and her buddy start on the right of the central building, in which the core-team starts. The normal Haidao starts on the left, while the MSR starts on the left roof.

I don't want to fight with the MSR, so I deploy my core-team scattered among all three levels of the building more on the right. MSR on the roof, HD Druze and normal Brawler in the middle and the HD together with Arslan down to cover the camo marker and the aproaching Taighas. Cordelia starts behind the building and the haris scatters as far as possible on the central left to be flexible and have all the tools needed by hand in my first turn.

A Guijia appears quite open on the left and Scarface deploys next to Cordelia behind my central building.

WC 1: The normal Haidao closes the left hole after the Taigha is shot directly. The Guijia then jumps onto the roof and startss shooting at my MSR, getting stunned directly. The Haidao MSR now takes over this task while the link shuffles in the building and takes down my MSR. Hawkwood clears the other Taigha. While the Guijia retreats behind the building, Shona and her Varangian smash the door of the armory and both getting targeted on the way.

DBS 1: With the left side uncovered but Shona next to the armory, I decide to kill the designated targets and close the Taigha holes later. The left Taigha is shot by Wolf, while the right one emerges without problems. My haris advances and my KHD gets killed by the Wardriver with his N3 Lightning-upgrade after frying the Guilang hacker. While Wolf advances to smash his door, the Taigha dodges closer and reaches him in CC. The HMG closes back to the link and is included to form a full core.

WC 2: While the Taigha is shot directly, the Varangian tanks a shotgun of the Wardriver and drops him in CC. The second camo-marker rushes into the center, syncing the Civvies and reteating them into the building, out of reach. The Guijia advances and crits down my HMG, then enters suppressive fire behind the armory.

DBS 2: Wolf drops the Taigha while recieving a wound. Since he is better in close ranges, I decide to take him instead of Scarface to try to get the Civvies down. Wolf needs two shots to drop the Haidao MSR prone, but fails to dodge the suppressive fire of the Guijia. A pitcher is shot next the the armory and Arslan clears a Taigha on my right. The left one is shot by Scarface, which enters suppressive fire.

WC 3: Shona clears the repeater and crashes the door of the armory on my side, which is used by the Varangian. Since Arslan now can shoot through smoke, he decides to advance in full cover over the right and shoots him down with his SMG. He advances further and drops Cordelia while getting shot by Scarface.

DBS 3: From one point far away, Scarface could maybe shoot down one or two designated targets. In LoL, this gets quite tight. Scarface fails to drop the new Taigha and forces the Guijia with two wounds into full cover. While further advancing, Shona stunns him with her flash pulse, ending my turn.

The game ends with a solid 10-0 for AssaultUnicorn. My first turn was crucial here. Not only started the unability to win any FtF on my side, but also everything else failed. The Wardriver is included to slow things down and be a thread, but that he is able to kill my KHD with ease...It would have been a better option to shoot a pitcher and get the firewall-benefits here.A big deal in general is all the movement you can gain now with dodging. It can be interesting in active, with Wolf potentially dodging behind the Guijia, but is a terrible thing reactive with CC-units like Varangians, Shona and Taighas. This cut many paths and a lot of my potential. That martial arts isn't linked with stealth anymore contributes to this a lot, especially when it comes to cautious movements.

So in the end it is still a dice-game, but the new changes still feel good and the new toys, too.