Qapu Khalqi Quintessential Kickoff
Well, it’s been literally years, but my Haqqislam have finally hit the table. I’ve had various models for years and have recently put in the time to build to a 300 point all-comers list so I can finally play Haqq! It started with building some Yuan Yuans for a Soldier of Fortune tournament and has finally resulted in a fieldable 300 point list. I haven’t finished building all my Hafzas and I don’t have a Najjarun but some quick and dirty proxying sorted all of that right out.
It’s been awhile since the crew that plays at Glimpses of Wonder and Warfare have been able to play a game, so I was lucky enough to catch folks on a good night. Jordan set down his USARF across the table from me and it was time to deal with those damned Devil Dogs again. This was also an excuse to try out my new neoprene forests from Hidden Forest Gaming. We treated them as saturation zones, which really changed up some firelanes.
Overview
- Mission: Capture and Protect
- Forces: Qapu Khalqi versus USAriadna Ranger Force (300)
- Deploy First: USARF
- First Turn: USARF
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/logo_403.png[/img][b] Qapu Khalqi[/b]
[b]GROUP 1 | [/b][img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]9 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_irregular.png[/img]1
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_7.png[/img] [b]DJANBAZAN[/b] HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | [b]35[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_7.png[/img] [b]DJANBAZAN[/b] Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]31[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_7.png[/img] [b]DJANBAZAN Doctor Plus (MediKit)[/b] Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]31[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_4.png[/img] [b]HAFZA[/b] Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | [b]18[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_4.png[/img] [b]HAFZA (Forward Observer)[/b] Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]17[/b])[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_25.png[/img] [b]LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device)[/b] Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]20[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_21.png[/img] [b]FANOUS REMOTE[/b] Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | [b]8[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_10.png[/img] [b]HAWWA’ Hacker (Assault Hacking Device)[/b] Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]26[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_17.png[/img] [b]NAJJARUN Engineer[/b] Rifle + Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]17[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_3.png[/img] [b]BASHI BAZOUK[/b] Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | [b]12[/b])[b]GROUP 2 | [/b][img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]3 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_irregular.png[/img]3 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_impetuosa.png[/img]3
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_6.png[/img] [b]SEKBAN (Fireteam: Haris)[/b] AP Rifle, Chain-colt / Pistol, Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]22[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_6.png[/img] [b]SEKBAN[/b] Heavy Rocket Launcher, Chain-colt / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | [b]23[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_4.png[/img] [b]HAFZA Lieutenant[/b] Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]16[/b])</p.[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_11.png[/img] [b]YUAN YUAN[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | [b]8[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_11.png[/img] [b]YUAN YUAN[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | [b]8[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/403/logo_11.png[/img] [b]YUAN YUAN[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | [b]8[/b])
[b] 5.5 SWC | 300 Points |[/b] Open in Infinity Army
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/logo_304.png[/img][b] USAriadna Ranger Force[/b]
[b]GROUP 1 | [/b][img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]9 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_irregular.png[/img]1 [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_impetuosa.png[/img]2
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_1.png[/img] [b]GRUNT (Marksmanship LX)[/b] Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]18[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_1.png[/img] [b]GRUNT (Marksmanship LX)[/b] Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]18[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_1.png[/img] [b]GRUNT (Marksmanship LX)[/b] Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]18[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_1.png[/img] [b]GRUNT (Forward Observer)[/b] Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]11[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_1.png[/img] [b]GRUNT Paramedic (MediKit)[/b] Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]12[/b])[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_2.png[/img] [b]MINUTEMAN Lieutenant[/b] AP HMG / Pistol, CCW. (1 | [b]34[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_10.png[/img] [b]MAVERICK[/b] Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]22[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_12.png[/img] [b]DEVIL DOG[/b] Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades + 1 K-9 Antipode / AP Heavy Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | [b]30[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/sep.gif[/img] [img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_12.png[/img] [b]K-9 ANTIPODE[/b] AP CCW. ([b]7[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_13.png[/img] [b]AIRBORNE RANGER[/b] Submachine Gun / Pistol, AP CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | [b]20[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_1.png[/img] [b]GRUNT[/b] Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]10[/b])[b]GROUP 2 | [/b][img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/orden_regular.png[/img]6
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_1.png[/img] [b]GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration)[/b] Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]11[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_1.png[/img] [b]GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration)[/b] Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]11[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_1.png[/img] [b]GRUNT (Inferior Infiltration)[/b] Heavy Flamethrower, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | [b]11[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_3.png[/img] [b]FOXTROT (Forward Observer)[/b] Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]18[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_3.png[/img] [b]FOXTROT (Forward Observer)[/b] Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | [b]18[/b])
[img]https://assets.infinitythegame.net/infinityarmy/img/_logosweb/304/logo_5.png[/img] [b]VAN ZANT[/b] AP Rifle / Heavy Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | [b]38[/b])
[b] 4.5 SWC | 300 Points |[/b] Open in Infinity Army
Deployment
Jordan set up his Grunt sniper link atop the tallest building in his deployment zone, with a Paramedic prone up there to inevitably pick them back up if I shot them. He tried three times to stick a Grunt infiltrator and finally succeeded in putting one just outside my deployment zone. His Devil Dog went down in the middle, with a few more Grunts scattered about. The Maverick bike went on his left, and his AP HMG Minuteman went on the right.
A pair of Foxtrots came down in the midfield, one atop the large grey hexagonal building on Jordan’s left, and another atop the olive building at the far right of the midfield. Then it was my turn to deploy, i.e. make my first mistakes of the game! I wanted to contest the center lane, but didn’t want to leave all of my units out. I decided to put a Fanous Remote (proxied by a Transductor Zond) watching the center firelane. I covered the beacon and some of the central approach with several AROs from the Djanbazan link team, but the Grunt link team was enough of a threat that I didn’t want to directly contest the central fire lane with the Djanbazans.
The Sekban Haris came down on my right, basically to wreck the Maverick. Sadly, they didn’t have much of a view to anything else… at least they covered that side against Van Zant and kept my Lieutenant safe. I put the Najjarun and Leila on the left to cover that general area, but not well enough. I decided that the Bashi Bazouk would come in just outside of Jordan’s deployment zone on my left.
Jordan declared that he was done with his reserves, meaning he had one parachutist coming in somewhere, and then I placed my Al Hawwa AHD in the midfield, tucked away behind a shipping container. Leila’s my DataTracker and the AP HMG is his. A quick handshake and then the bullets stated to fly.
Turn 1
Top of Turn 1 – USARF
Jordan jumps the Devil Dog into the central fire lane and dodges successfully against my flash pulse bot so he doesn’t block his own Grunts with smoke. The Maverick cancels its impetuous order so it doesn’t run out into the open and take an additional shot from the Djanbazan link team, but then moves up and face to faces against my Sekban HRL and loses, going up in a pillar of flame. The Devil Dog dodges again on his way out of the firelane, and then dashes up the field before covering Leila with some smoke.
With Leila out of the fight, the Devil Dog drops a chain rifle template onto my Djanbazan sniper and doctor, as well as the Najjarun. I dodge with the Djanbazans and engage successfully with the Najjarun, trying to just tie Jordan up in combat for a few orders. My Djanbazan doctor dodges around the corner and I probably should’ve done the same with my sniper. Ah well.
My gambit pays off and Jordan dumps two orders into trying to beat down the Najjarun, but I out-dice the antipode and shrug off the Devil Dog’s hit with a 18 and a 19 on my ARM rolls! Jordan stands up his Grunt infiltrator and drops a flamethrower on my Djanbazan doctor and sniper. I lose the doctor and the sniper just goes unconscious. I had broken them out of the link to dodge, but I reveal my Hafza HRL and my Hafza lieutenant to gun down the Grunt. Good thing too, because it takes both of them to drop the pesky infiltrator unconscious.
The Airborne Ranger comes and walks into the smoke to shank Leila. I desperately try to slap a D-Charge onto the offending Ariadnan, mostly for the comedic value, but it doesn’t work out and Leila’s down for the count.
Jordan gets his Foxtrots into the fight, walking the one on my left off his roof and into base to base with my Najjarun, finally taking out my poor engineer with help from the Devil Dog team. With his last order, he tries to take out the my flash pulse bot with the one on the grey roof, but I’m in cover and out of his good range so he’s on 2’s. I win the face to face but we don’t bother with a BTS save because it’s about to be my turn anyway.
Bottom of Turn 1 – Qapu Khalqi
This isn’t good. I’ve lost two key members of my Djanbazan link, my DataTracker, and my engineer. My left flank is in shambles and I don’t have a strong midfield presence at all. Time to send in the Yuan Yuans! I walk one on behind the Airborne Ranger, and then drop the other two in, one next to the AP HMG and the other next to the beacon, just out of view of any Grunts.
The Airborne Ranger manages to dodge my Yuan Yuan’s chain rifle, so I’m forced drop smoke with the Yuan Yuan in front of the Grunt link, freeing up the remnants of my Djanbazan link to move. I move the Hafza HRL and Djanbazan HMG up to contest the middle firelane and gun down the Airborne Ranger with the Hafza FO on the way. This lets me walk the Yuan Yuan around the corner to chain rifle the Devil Dog team and the Foxtrot, but they all either dodge or successfully tank the hit. Not really sure what the right call is here. Probably shotgun, but I rolled +4 ARM on this Yuan Yuan.
I try to take out the AP HMG Minuteman with a chain rifle, but he engages and the Grunt caught in the blast tanks the hit. I’ve got +1 ARM on this Yuan Yuan, which is pretty much. I try to take the Minuteman out in CC, but I get crit for my trouble. The last Yuan Yuan nabs the objective and settles in for a fight.
I gun down the Foxtrot FO on the roof with my Djanbazan HMG and then knock out one of the Grunt snipers through the smoke. With only one order left, I’ve got the Djanbazan link all strung out awkwardly. I’m at a bit of a loss for what to do–do I fix their positioning or do I attempt to pick up the Djanbazan sniper? I need to slow down the Devil Dog on the left so I try to regenerate the Djanbazan sniper, but his enhanced physique fails him and he’s down for real.
Turn 2
Top of Turn 2 – USARF
The Devil Dog charges into base to base with my Yuan Yuan, dodging his chain rifle and the Fanous REM’s flash pulse. The Foxtrot, caught in the blast, tanks the chain rifle like a boss.
Spending the Devil Dog’s irregular order, Jordan punches my Yuan Yuan but my space pirate punches back harder and I win the F2F and declare a flash pulse into the combat. Unfortunately the Devil Dog passes his ARM, but luckily for me he fails his BTS and is stunned! The Foxtrot, all revved up after passing 2 ARM saves, dashes around the corner and tries to gun down my Fanous remote, but he gets flash pulsed too! Haha! Take that, you low-tech bastards! PEW PEW PEW!
Van Zant walks on in the wake of the Airborne Ranger and tries to fight my Djanbazan HMG, who is obscured by Jordan’s ruler in the picture below. The ruler must’ve affected Van Zant’s aim too, because he whiffs all his shots and the Djanbazan pastes Van Zant with two well-placed HMG shots.
The Grunt link team picks up the downed sniper and drops both my Hafza HRL and Djanbazan HMG. With his last orders, Jordan develops his right flank. Now that my Yuan Yuan that was trying to assassinate the Minuteman AP HMG is down, he’s free to move the AP HMG up, gunning down my Yuan Yuan holding the objective. I had rolled an ADHL with him, but smoke offered better odds. Didn’t matter, because crits are crits. Finally, he moves the a Grunt infiltrator off his back table edge and moves him up… I try to conceal my excitement because this opens up a path for my Bashi Bazouk…
Bottom of Turn 2 – Qapu Khalqi
Well, enough stuff is dead in Group 1 that I can move all three Sekban into Group 1, leaving me with 1 command token left. My Yuan Yuan attempts to punch the Devil Dog and gets wrecked. Well, it was a long shot anyway. I bring in my Bashi Bazouk out of LoF of anything, and push him up the table, blasting away with my SMG through one of my saturation zone neoprene forests. It was a bit dicey but four SMG shots over two orders is enough to do it. I’m now in a bad position but commit, and try to SMG down three grunts, getting flamethrowered off the table in a blaze of glory.
Doesn’t matter. I’ve gotta take care of that Devil Dog. I spend my last two orders rushing the Sekban HRL into position, using the other two members of the Haris to cover my objective. Jordan elects to drop smoke, but that doesn’t protect the antipode from the blast template! Not what I needed but I’ll take a side of BBQ antipode if that’s all I’m getting.
Turn 3
Top of Turn 3 – USARF
I’ve put Jordan in loss of lieutenant, dashing any real hope of getting anything from his deployment zone to my side of the table. This means he has to get his Devil Dog into place, and he’s obligated to rush at my Sekban HRL anyway. I time the shot so the blast template catches the Foxtrot as the Devil Dog rushes by, burning the pesky ranger to a crisp! My Fanous comes through for me again and beats out the Devil Dog’s smoke to stun him again.
Jordan spends some orders shuffling things around to protect his objective, finally drops the Fanous REM with some sniper fire, and passes the turn.
Bottom of Turn 3 – Qapu Khalqi
All I need to do now is get my classified! I’ve got just the guy for the job.
I walk my Al Hawwa AHD across the center firelane with just enough movement to sneak around the corner. This lets me Data Scan in total safety, netting me the one point to edge me out. I’ve got 104 points left on the table to Jordan’s 139. Bloody game.
4-3 Qapu Khalqi Victory!
Notes
- So ah… I should remember that Bashi Bazouks have Holoprojector. Not that it would’ve done much to fix my bad decision making, but at least it’s useful to remember in the future.
- I deployed very poorly.
- Should’ve put the Sekban all the way on the left, then moved them up to take a diagonal firelane through the center.
- Djanbazan needed to cover the central firelane more aggressively as well as avoiding the Grunt Infiltrator, who I sorta forgot about?
- Leila and the Najjarun could’ve taken the right to defend against Van Zant and any Airborne Rangers.
- Fanous was great though, as was the Al Hawwa.
- I really like the Sekban HRL Haris. It does a good job of area denial and I don’t have to worry about a lot due to the 360 visor. Really makes you feel comfortable about a particular part of the board so you can focus your attention elsewhere. This was extremely helpful for me as Jordan really made me think this game.
- I also think I need to take at least two doctors. Maybe a Ghulam Doctor?
- Wasting orders on chain-rifling things with the Yuan Yuans was troublesome. I think I needed to spend all the Sekban’s orders and even the Irregular orders from the other two Yuan Yuan escaping with the objective. I got too excited about a Lt kill and was too freaked out by the Devil Dog in my deployment zone.
- Clearly, more Fanous remotes. Flash pulse is so powerful against Ariadna and just in general.
- Engaging with the Najjarun paid off big time. That was at least 5 orders drained from Jordan — 2 from the devil dog and 3 to walk of the building and stab the engineer with the Foxtrot. Well worth it.
- Jordan and USARF in general play multiple, high-threat pieces with the orders to back them up. It’s a very difficult deployment puzzle to cover everything and not leave any holes to exploit.
- So far, QK doesn’t seem too different than Corregidor in terms of feel. There’s a bit of weirdness with Hafzas, but I’m just treating them as link filler for now which I think is quite reasonable starting out in QK. I need to spend a lot more time thinking about Yuan Yuans, as they are quite different than the usual AD I’m used to. There’s definitely a case for starting them on the board to provide reliable smoke for Djanbazans.
- I think I’m going to spend some time playing just this list with no changes. Big takeaways:
- Guard the Djanbazan Doctor much better.
- Be more effective with Yuan Yuans. Use them as smoke for the Djanbazans and as speedbumps, not as active turn kill pieces against high-PH Ariadnan targets. Against weak LI link teams, go nuts of course.
- Use the Sekban and Djanbazans to mutually cover one another.
- Watch the approaches better.
