Metro PUUUNCH!
Credit goes to ishmam of Deviant Art for the title pic. In spite of a pretty packed Hong Kong/China sightseeing schedule, the flexibility and friendliness of the locals in Hong Kong made it pretty easy for me to set up another game, this time with a fellow named Chris. Chris is ordinarily a JSA player, but has been on a bit of an Invincible Army kick as of late, as the others in the local meta’s chat were quick to point out. Given the shipping delay to Hong Kong, Chris has been proxying the IA profiles with his JSA, which made for a little confusion for me. Thankfully, he was more than patient with my incessant “what the heck is that again?” questions. We agreed on Frontline beforehand, and I was keen to try an all Chasseur minelayer list supplemented with infiltrating Metros. I made one concession to the foreknowledge of his army, which was a Zouave with E/Mauler, but if you’ve been following my battle reports, my love of E/M weapons should be well documented.
Overview
- Mission: Frontline
- Forces: Force de Réponse Rapide Merovingienne versus Invincible Army (300)
- Deploy First: FRRM
- First Turn: FRRM
List C
GROUP 1 |
10
CHASSEUR (Minelayer) Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 20)
BRISCARD Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 23)
LOUP-GAROU (Fireteam: Haris) Viral Rifle, Stun Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 22)
GROUP 2 |
1
BRIGADIER BRUANT Lieutenant Molotok, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 28)
MÉTRO (CH: Limited Camouflage, Inferior Infiltration) Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
ZOUAVE Rifle, D.E.P., E/Mauler / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1 | 21)
WARCOR (Aerocam) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
6 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
Chris A
DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 (Minelayer) MULTI Sniper, Antipersonnel Mines / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
TAI SHENG (Chain of Command) Mk12, Chain-colt, Stun Grenades / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (0 | 49)
ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Duo, Tactical Awareness) HMG / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (1.5 | 38)
SHÀNG JÍ Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0.5 | 43)
PANGGULING (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
HÚLÁNG (Fireteam: Duo) 2 Submachine Gun, E/M Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 41)
Deployment
I chose to go first to leverage the Zouave, so Chris picked sides. With four Chasseur Minelayers, I just strung everything out across the midfield, exposing the mines and protecting the Chasseurs. The Briscards went on the left, and the Loup Garous on the right. Bruant also hung out on the right, figuring that the Loup Garou might need some longer ranged punch there. I attempted to infiltrate all three Metros onto a roof, but all three failed their rolls and ended up left, right, and center. I figured at least one would fail, and I could sync that with my Xenotech, but this time I was spoiled for choice. I ended up putting the Xenotech on the left, since that seemed to offer the most cover. I forgot about my warcor till later so I just plunked it down on a roof when I remembered.
Chris was running the Tactical Awareness/NCO link of doom that’s been making the rounds on the internet. Basically it’s Tai Sheng + a Daoying LT L2 of some kind, the Zuyong HMG TA, and as many TA Haris guys as you can fit. Chris chose to fill one slot with a Shang Ji AHD, presumably for 1337 h4xx and the addition of the all-important light flamethrower. This brings the total order pool up to 15, effectively. Not bad to drive a 5-man pain train around the table. In any case, Chris chose the MSR variant of the Daoying, which went on a sniper tower on his left, basically unsupported. There were a pair of Pangulings below, one of which was synced to the Xenotech (illegally, but neither of us noticed till later), and a Chaiyi flash pulse bot.
Chris castled up his core link in a two story building. Tai Sheng prone in the second story, protected by a Zuyong Haris behind…him? and the ground floor was another Zuyong Haris with a Shang Ji. Chris left the Zuyong HMG out to ARO, which is definitely something I vehemently disagreed with, but was happy to exploit later. In any case, I put my Zouave nearby to litter the area with E/Maulers, then watched Chris put down a Hulang on the roof, just in front of his link. 
Basically, Chris had null-deployed and gave me run of the board, which can be pretty high risk if I have a lot of infiltrators, which I did. He took a look at my order pools, docked me two orders, and limited me to one command token on my first run. Interesting! I’ve never seen that before. It did force me to think carefully. I just ended up flipping the warcor’s order, but I would’ve appreciated a coordinated order or two…
Turn 1
Top of 1 – FRRM
I started things off by getting a Chasseur into position, within 16″ of the Zuyong HMG. One order later, it was off the table. While I had 10% margin to win the face to face, observing the 0.48% outcome of Chris getting hit three times and failing all three ARM rolls was quite unexpected.
This was one of three heavy weapons on the table. All that was left was Tai Sheng’s Mk12 and the Daoying’s MSR. There’s a lot of high BS stuff running around, and the Hulang is certainly not to be discounted, but taking an HMG off the table and degrading a link was a great outcome. Statistical flukes happen, and lists like this out of IA have order redundancy but not as much gear redundancy. I knew I wanted to take out more orders with the Zouave, but the Chaiyi was blocking the approach. I gunned it down with the Chasseur, leveraging the 40mm base and shooting it in the butt for a normal roll.
I then dumped the entire second order pool into the Zouave, dropping an E/Mauler to cover the Zuyong on the ground floor and triggering it with a burst of assault pistol fire. I managed to do a wound and land the E/Mauler, so that meant that the Zuyong was basically useless, even for scoring later. I didn’t want to overextend the Zouave, although I probably should have been more aggressive and gone after the Shang Ji, so I just retreated it and dropped two more E/Maulers on the way. 
I then set up the Briscards by climbing the HRL up to rooftop, and re-positioned the Loup Garou a bit. I wasn’t thinking too clearly, and left the Loup Garou BSG out a little too far.
I end the turn by throwing my Chasseur back into camo to drain orders.
Bottom of 1 – IA
Chris punished this by revealing his Daoying to shoot at my Briscard. The first lieutenant order went into a full burst of MSR at my Briscard. Sadly I whiffed both viral rifle shots against this, and also failed to notice two more AROs–one from the Metro on the right, and one from my Warcor. Ah well. That’s what I get for playing jet lagged! In any case, I forget about these extra AROs for a second time when the Daoying splits burst, one against my Loup Garou BSG and the other against the rifleman, and that’s enough for me to sneak a viral round through and drop the Daoying. This was in spite of its Bioimmunity–failing a save still knocks you out!
Chris then rocketed a Panguling across the table to detonate both E/Maulers, tanking an assault pistol shot from my Zouave in the process. 
Through the lens of memory, I’m not sure if he was using 6-6 MOV in the process, rather than the Panguling’s slower 4-4. It’s easy to forget sometimes, especially when proxying, and it didn’t truly matter all that much. In any case, with the E/Maulers gone, Chris was now free to pop up the Hulang and gun down the Zouave, who gamely fired back with his D.E.P. 
Okay, containment of the link was failing, but at great cost to Chris’s orders. He continued trying to punch his way out by attempting a discover on my Chasseur with his remaining Zuyong Haris, and failed. 
Tai Sheng tried with a new order and succeeded, allowing the Zuyong to gun down the Chasseur. 
At this point, Chris notices a window to see one of my Briscards with Tai Sheng and takes him out as well. 
He then attempted a quick hack on the downed Chasseur for a classified and failed before retreating the Shang Ji back into the building.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – FRRM
I spend my second order pool going after objectives. The Metro synced to the Xenotech can get to behind the Hulang, who didn’t have enough orders to go back prone, so I do that. I land a hit, but it passes ARM and drops prone. No matter. I spent the rest of the order pool attempting to drop the Multiscanner, finally succeeding one the second try. I reform a two-man Loup Garou Haris and push them forward, attacking what’s left of the Zuyong core. I lose one to some unlucky rolls, but manage to put a wound on both the remaining Zuyong Haris and the Shang Ji. I throw the remaining Loup Garou into suppression and hope for the best. Finally, I coordinate the rest of the Metros and Bruant forward.
Bottom of 2 – IA
I had intended for the surviving Loup Garou to watch the Hulang, but with his comrade dead he was out of position. This let Chris climb the Hulang off the building (locally they assume the holes for pegs mark ladders for ease of play) and only have to contend with a single Chasseur’s ARO. Of course, I get crit, and lose the Chasseur.
This opens the door for the Hulang, proxied by Mushashi, to come a slice my poor Metro in half. Without looking at the math at all, I decide to do the funniest possible thing and attempt to D-Charge the Hulang. Chris declares MA3, meaning that he’s effectively CC26 and I’m effectively CC 7. This was definitely the time to crit for me, and my dice did not disappoint. My hero Metro jammed a D-Charge into the Hulang’s faceplate, ducked, and hit the detonator. Works for me! Chris failed enough saves after that to take the Hulang off the table. 
With the Hulang gone, Chris has to fight his link out the hard way. He crits me right back with the Zuyong, knocking out my Loup Garou in suppression.
He finally grabs his classified with his Shang Ji and then nestles the three remaining link members in a triangle behind some shipping containers and amongst the Merovingian casualties. 
Turn 3
Top of 3 – FRRM
I’m down to just three orders in my first group, and I really want to flamethrower the three heavy infantry, two of which are wounded, with a Chasseur. Of course, I also have to grab my classified, which is WIP roll the HVT with a MI one. I waffle for a bit, but then decide to do things the right way and use my correspondingly deeper second pool to send Bruant in. Bruant makes it into LoF and goes to work. He puts a wound onto Tai Sheng, who fails guts around the corner…
then slices the pie and guns down the Shang Ji and remaining Zuyong. 
I run the Briscard forward, snag my classified, and push him into the far scoring zone.
Bottom of 3 – IA
Chris effectively has three orders at this point, and I think is in retreat. We miss this in the game, and it ends up not mattering though. He tries to take out Bruant, who drops prone…
then tries to stun grenade my Briscard, who passes both BTS saves…
and then tries to knock out the Briscard with a Heavy Pistol, which I pass ARM against. Phew! 
Bruant and the Briscard out-point Tai Sheng, and I’ve got both other scoring zones. Chris didn’t get a chance to drop his Multiscanner, canceling out his classified, making it a
10-0 Force de Réponse Rapide Merovingienne Victory!
Notes
Notes for Me
- I was pretty unhappy with myself as I edited the photos for this report and discovered that I had AROs to the Daoying that I didn’t take. Missing not one but two AROs to a Lieutenant profile. Bah! A good reminder to slow down.
- I got pretty lucky this game with dice, particularly the Metro PUUUUNCH situation against the Hulang. Also, losing the Zuyong HMG in a single order was also pretty rough.
- Very pleased with the 3-man Briscard core and 3-man Loup Garou Haris. I don’t think I like leaving either out for ARO duty much. Perhaps it’s time to consider some alternatives, like taking some TR bots.
- Ariadna really doesn’t play the ARO game well. You need to dedicate resources, i.e. orders, to throw things into suppression.
- Bruant as a Turn 3 striker is rude.
- I think I should’ve gone after the rest of your order pool with a little more gusto–taking out the other two bots would’ve been a good plan. No need to get fancy with the Zouave, I suppose.
Notes for Chris
- Null deployment is a gamble. Not sure it paid off here. Some ARO presence is worthwhile.
- I’m also not sure that I would’ve put the Daoying up there. Risky, and very exposed. Even though I missed two AROs I had enough to take it out.
- Also, as we discussed, mines on rooftops are pretty useless. The FD1 from MI this season can let you do some cool tricks with mines.
- The list is fine, but a little eggs-in-basket-y. Worth thinking about maybe including another midfield element like a Zhencha, or a TR bot, or something. I do really like the combo of the Daoying MSR and Tai Sheng. Works great on the table.
- Thanks again for the game! Looking forward to our next one!
I’ve always read “Only during the Tactical Phase of the enemy Turn the player can spend one single Command Token to perform one of the following options:” to mean you have to choose and can not do both. The “one single Command Token” part being the reason why