Nomad Attack on Caledonian Village
Overview
Well, here’s the After Action Report (AAR) for my first 300 point game! YAMS game, Nomads versus Caledonians. This is also my first AAR/Batrep where I was trying to take pictures. I forgot to take pictures. A lot. Also, the lighting was rubbish. Photos were shot with a Nikon D40 with a 35mm f/1.8 G, which is a bit short on the depth of field when wide open. I don’t have the cash to get a body with decent high-ISO performance, so this is what we get for now. I’ll keep messing with stuff till I get better photos. Without further ado, here’s the board, and our lists:
Nomads
GROUP 1
10
INTRUDER Lieutenant Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 36)
PROWLER Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 37)
ZERO (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
LUPE BALBOA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Panzerfaust, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 23)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
GROUP 2
REAKTION ZOND HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 28)
CARLOTA KOWALSKY Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Adhesive Launcher, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 30)
1
CATERAN Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (0.5 | 30)
6 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
Caledonian Highlander Army
GROUP 11
GROUP 2
SCOT (1st Battalion) (Fireteam: Duo) Lieutenant AP Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
CATERAN Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (0.5 | 25)
CAMERONIAN 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP CCW. (0 | 22)
ISOBEL McGREGOR T2 Rifle, Flash Pulse, D-Charges, E/Mauler / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26)
VOLUNTEER HMG / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
S.A.S. (Forward Observer) Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 28)
UXÍA McNEILL (Covert Action) (CH: Limited Camouflage, Superior Infiltration, Specialist Operative) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / 2 Assault Pistols, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 25)
DOZER (Traktor Mul Control Device) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
TRAKTOR MUL (Total Reaction) Uragan MRL / Electric Pulse. (1 | 19)
4.5 SWC | 300 Points | | Open in Infinity Army
Objectives
YAMS objectives were as follows:
- Nomads: Assess, Attrition, Infiltrate, Triangulation
- Ariadna: Ambush, Decimate, Flag Kill, Kill the Pigeon
Intruder LT: “Alright, listen up! This is straight from the brass on Tunguska. We’ve got an intel asset embedded in deep cover with the Caledonians. She’s been compromised. Time to clean up Tunguska’s mess. We’re lucky, she got a distress signal out fast. We can’t let the Ariadnans kill the pidgeon or inform their commanders, so we have to wipe out their whole base. Assess their forces, and kill them all (Attrition). No survivors. We’ll need to jam their comms so they can’t get a signal out. We have to protect our jammer array here (Flag Kill), and get a secondary jammer up on the other side of their base and protect it (Infiltrate/Triangulation). Questions? Yeah, Lupe?”
Lupe: “Any other assets in the AO?”
Intruder LT: “Yeah. Our pigeon isn’t the only person we have on the ground. We have a disgruntled Cateran on our payroll. He’s on site and will link up with us after landfall. Any other questions? No? We launch in 5. Carlota, you make sure to get that secondary jammer up ASAP.”
Carlota: “Yeah LT. I got it. Milk run.”
Deployment
I won the roll and chose to go first, so my opponent made me deploy first. I held my Prowler in reserve with Carlota waiting in the dropship, and he held his Uragan in reserve. I don’t think I made any glaring deployment errors. Having to infiltrate outside of the Civvie and Crate’s Zone of Control (ZoC) was pretty brutal this game. Nomads don’t have the best PH stats so I didn’t want to risk putting a zero in the blue barracks building, which was slightly over the centerline for me, and possibly scattering. Ditto with the Prowler. My opponent linked his Volunteers, with Isobel as Link Team Leader.
I deployed with the intent of having Lupe chuck smoke in front of the Intruder MSR on my active turn to basically give him uncontested shots at whatever he could see. It turns out he could see pretty much everything. The Cateran, on the other hand, couldn’t see much, but he was covering the midfield and part of my left flank, in particular that quonset hut with the Scots in it. TR zond sat on the roof of a building in cover, threatening most of the board.
I ended up putting the Zero with Boarding Shotgun in the Valkyrie, figuring he’d cover the approach to the crate in case my opponent had Search the Crate. The Intruder MSR had the civvie covered for similar reasons. I deployed my LT to cover my MSR and Lupe, and the vanilla Algaucil to cover my LT. I wasn’t really sure what to do with the minelayer Zero, so I just stuck him next to the Warthog to keep him out of the ZoC of the civvie.
My opponent deployed his Cateran in the opposite corner of my MSR, put his Uragan out of LoF of anything, and stuck his two SAS FO guys in the building out of LoF (the one on the roof started prone). The link team was across from Lupe and the MSR, and the potential Scots link team was hiding out in a quonset hut. His Cameronian was forward deployed at the edge of his deployment zone in preparation for killing the civvie, and his Dozer was there just in case I had a sticky ADHL surprise waiting. He didn’t have a great place to place Uxia, so she hung out in the Valkyrie with my shotgun-toting Zero and literally put a gun to his head.
Not being able to infiltrate within 8″ of the civvie or crate really made deploying my spitfire very difficult. I ended up putting him by the nose of the Valkyrie, intending to take out either a Scots guard or what I thought was the Cateran on my active turn.
Turn 1
Nomads Active Turn
I started by having Lupe chuck smoke in front of the Intruder MSR. Isobel declared ARO: flash pulse. Lupe wiffed her grenade roll, and I was so annoyed at that I forgot to make my BTS save against flash pulse, which would’ve been at BTS 6 due to cover. So no smoke for my Intruder. Fortunately, spending my next order on the Zero with boarding shotgun paid off.
Uxia: “I see movement in the Valkyrie. Going in to investigate.”
* gunfire *
Scots LT: “Uxia, sitrep! Did you secure the Valkyrie? Uxia! Come in Uxia!”
The Cateran displaced, forcing my opponent’s Cateran to reveal himself. We both flubbed our rolls and no one got hit, but his Cateran was revealed! I then attempted to take out a Scots guard with my Spitfire Prowler, rolled terribly, and was killed by a single crit. I think I might be willing to spend the 37 points on having a Spitfire start at the centerline again, but losing that 2 SWC on your third order of the game without anything to show for it just sucks. Dice lose games.
I then proceeded to faff about with my Zeros. I laid another mine near the warthog with the minelayer Zero, and one on the boarding ramp of the Valkyrie before re-camoing the BS Zero. I then wasted a ton of orders poking the bear, i.e. I shot the Cameronian with my Zero’s combi-rifle. Really I was trying to break up his formation on my right flank so I could get Carlota on the table. My opponent just dodged his Dozer around, and dodged his wolf-man up the table closer to the civvie.
What I probably should’ve done was just said “to hell with it” and started taking pot-shots with my Intruder MSR. At the very least I would’ve broken up his link team before going down to either the Cateran, the link team, or getting blinded by Isobel. I was also pretty convinced that my opponent’s flag was a second Cateran, esp at 300 points. They’re so cheap/effective!
I’ve always had such shit luck using snipers on my active turn that I figured I’d use him in ARO and pick off guys as they moved around. I really really wish that Lupe hadn’t gotten flash pulsed, especially since I forgot to roll her BTS save. That would’ve pretty much guaranteed that I killed at least one thing.
Lupe: “I’m hit! I can’t see!”
Intruder MSR: “Pop smoke! Get us cover!”
Lupe: “Negative, negative! I dropped the grenade! I can’t see it!”
Intruder LT: “STAY DOWN!”
Intruder MSR: “LT, I have a shot! Infantry squad in cover by the house, my 11 ‘o clock!”
Intruder LT: “Negative! Hold fire! Wait for them to displace and break cover.”
All in all, a totally ineffective first turn. I really should’ve used my MSR. He had such a commanding position. Perhaps it’s time to look for other smoke sources in vanilla Nomads, especially Morlocks. I can take 3 Morlocks for the cost of Lupe, if for nothing else but redundant sources of smoke for my Intruders. It seems like Lupe is best used in a link team.
Ariadna Active Turn
Intruder LT: “Weapons free! Light ’em up!”
My opponent didn’t waste any time murdering the civvie. He advanced his Cameronian up under smoke cover, and I revealed my Intruder MSR and put a wound on the wolf man in ARO. Not having DA ammo in ARO sucks. The wolf managed to kill the civvie without any further difficulty.
The SAS FO in the barracks did some combined order stuff and tried to spot some of my troops for Uragan fire. They managed to spot the minelayer Zero, but my TR zond and a mine pasted the one on the roof. The other passed his ARM rolls and hid inside the building.
Intruder MSR: “Contacts, barracks, red two-one and roof! Engaging!”
Alguacil Hacker: “Zond sees ’em too!”
Intruder MSR: “Roof contact confirmed down, red two-one contact has been suppressed!”
My opponent thought the mine I had placed in deployment was another Zero, so he blew it (and my minelaying Zero) up with his Uragan. Isobel then tried to displace with her link team, but my sniper dropped her without even trying. Lupe wiffed a panzerfaust shot in ARO on the rifle volunteer (who I thought was the LT, being familiar with the possible LT options).
During all this, the Intruder MSR went down to a crit from the HMG volunteer, which had advanced up the outside stairs of the barracks. I stupidly AROed (and killed) the LGL instead of shooting at the HMG, but the crit would’ve killed the Intruder anyway, so having a FtF roll wouldn’t have mattered. Lupe also got pasted by the HMG, despite trying to drop him with her remaining panzerfaust and being in cover. I probably should’ve tried to throw smoke and protect the Intruder MSR. That would’ve been much better. Drat.
Intruder MSR: “Contact, 5 infantry in the open, my 10! Engaging! One down! Got anoth- * static *“
There was a brief exchange between my Cateran and my opponent’s Cateran. My Cateran won. With his last few orders, my opponent used his wolf to bait me into revealing my Intruder LT, which then went down to the HMG volunteer. I finally pasted the HMG volunteer, who had gotten greedy and tried to kill my Cateran. He ate a full burst from the TR zond and failed all his ARM rolls.
Turn 2
Nomad Active Turn
I was in loss of lieutenant, so I nominated my vanilla Alguacil as my new LT. We had a brief chat about whether or not I could bring Carlota in, and we agreed that it was probably okay. There was no good place for her to be, so I brought her in out of LoF from the overwatching Dozer.
Unfortunately there were no good places along the board edge for her to arrive. The Dozer was closest, so I exposed Carlota to a rifleman and the chain rifle volunteer who were significantly farther away. Of all things, she went down to a long-range shotgun slug from the chain rifle volunteer.
Alguacil: “LT’s down! I’m taking command!”
Carlota: “We need that jammer up! Cover me, I’m coming in!”
Alguacil: “Negative! Negative! LZ is hot! I repeat, LZ is HOT!”
Carlota: “Get out of there! I’ll try to buy you some time!”
Alguacil: “NEGATIVE! Stand down! LZ is HOT!”
* gunfire*
With that, I was in retreat. There was no way I was going to be able to do anything on my next turn, and even more of my orders would have been killed by the Cameronian during my opponent’s active turn. I conceded and he won 2-1. I achieved Assess, and he achieved Kill the Pigeon and Decimate.
Alguacil: “Wildfire! Wildfire! Execute your E&E plans! SAR birds should pick us up on the way out. Good luck!”
Mission Debrief
I need redundant sources of smoke. If I was so set on getting smoke for my Intruder, I should’ve started Lupe prone, or had Morlocks hanging out next to my Intruder MSR. I also should’ve been bolder and used my Intruder to take out as much as possible, especially that damnable HMG. Nevertheless, the Intruder MSR killed the LGL volunteer and Isobel, and put a wound on the wolf-man. Not sure it was worth the cost. I think swapping him to the new Grenzer coming in Icestorm will be better, or maybe trying a Sin-Eater MSR would be good. The Alguacil MSR is just too crummy outside of a link team.
I also needed more orders for my Cateran. I sorta assumed I’d be using his irregular order only to displace him or get better shot angles, but turns out I really do want to be using him in the active turn. I don’t mind losing 25 points and 0.5 SWC if I’m taking 1-2 models with me.
A strong alpha-strike is key. Mine was anemic and pretty much useless. I had hoped the spitfire prowler would’ve done more to accomplish that, but he just died, wasted 2 SWC, and put me 37 points closer to retreat. I also really need to take out as many heavy weapons as possible, especially HMGs, which are very good at critting things to death. Getting flustered by the early tempo hit due to Lupe getting flash pulsed didn’t help either. Had I kept a cool head I could’ve figured out that the “second Cateran” was just a flag and I had some options on my right flank.
I really don’t like the Intruder LT. Every time I’ve taken him I’ve been disappointed. He’s too expensive and is basically useless. A combi-rifle does nothing at long range, even attached to a BS 13 body with MSV2, and if you’re close enough for me to use my flamethrower I’ve already lost the game. I suppose his intended role is backfield defense, but a B1 combi-rifle against multi-wound models like the Cameronian is just laughable. I suckered myself into taking him for the MSV2 and the 0 SWC. Probably could’ve taken a Wildcat LT and an Alguacil or two instead and given the Cateran some more orders…
My opponent and I had brief chat post-game about more terrain on the board edges to help with AD2, but it’s still really difficult to get my AD troops where they need to be without getting shot up. It really does seem like I need to be taking Morlocks and filling boards with coordinated order smoke grenades.
Not my proudest moment, but I felt okay about my deployment. I need to be more careful and come up with a game plan for the reactive turn as well beyond “shoot everything that moves.” For example, had I popped smoke in front of the Intruder MSR I would’ve had normal rolls on everything. Gotta remember that next time. Furthermore, that’s a reason to take the Intruder MSR over the Sin-Eater MSR.
