Mukhtar Mama Jama
So, I arrived at the game store ready to play Erik’s Ramah again and surprise him with my Druze. I mentioned that I was playing a brand new (to me) faction–although of course I’ve put them on the table before. His response? So was he! After playing Ramah Erik apparently was really excited about playing with those toys in vanilla so he could get the best of Hassassins and Ramah together. Of course, Adam and I have been telling him this for ages… but… you know.
Anyway, we set up some of the store terrain. I ended up starting the build pretty dense and added some trees (low vis, saturation, and difficult terrain).
There’s enough in the way of long firelanes but they’re broken up enough to avoid dominance of sniper rifles and missile launchers. Turns out this was good since both of us brought snipers.
Overview
- Mission: Safe Area
- Forces: Druze Beyram Security versus Haqqislam
- Deploy First: Druze
- First Turn: Druze
Safe Area
GROUP 1 |8
2
GROUP 2 |
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
KAMEEL (Total Reaction, Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
I’ve omitted the core tags from my list because I changed my core several times during the game, and it’d be misleading to show you a particular core. I was actually thinking of Erik’s Ramah list from our previous game when I made this–trying to build a flexible link with multiple options. I think the potential links have a lot more teeth though.
I wanted to try some weird stuff this game, in particular the Kameel TR bots, who are quote dangerous because they have shotguns and repeaters unlike traditional TR bots. They’re also handy because they are great at holding areas thanks to baggage. I took a Brawler engineer to keep them up and running, and then took some Druze good stuff. Key highlights are the Druze E/M LGL, Brawler HRL, and Brawler MSR. Nothing really surprising in there though. Druze is pretty predictable, but the prediction is straight up brute force so I’m kinda okay with this.
Haqqislam
GROUP 1 |GROUP 2 |
NAFFATÛN Lieutenant Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
MUKHTAR (Multispectral Visor L2) Red Fury, 2 Nanopulsers / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 37)
GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
HAWWA’ (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
TUAREG Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 33)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
SPECTOR (AD: Combat Jump) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser, Drop Bears / Pistol, E/M2 CC Weapon. (0 | 33)
FIDAY Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, Knife. (0 | 29)
LASIQ Viral Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 25)
4
FARZAN (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 26)
DAYLAMI (CH: Limited Camouflage, Inferior Infiltration) Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 8)
MUTTAWI’AH Chain Rifle, E/Marat, Jammer, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
It’s interesting to see what people do with their first vanilla lists coming from sectorial play. It’s pretty clear that Erik started Haqq with Hassassins, but he’s sprinkling in the very important Mukhtar, which is so brutal. Oh, I should mention that Erik was playing with Soldiers of Fortune and this list is designed for Tic Tac Toe as well (hence Raoul and the EVO), since he’s prepping for a tournament.
Deployment
I lost the rolloff and Erik took deployment, forcing me to go first. I did the easy stuff first. HVT (because you have to), Warcor, Xenotech, Lieutenant, and the two Kameel. I just put them in places where they could get into zones quickly and on their own. The engineer was easy to deploy as well, just behind the Kameel TR.
The really tough part was deploying the linkable components of the list. Quite a complicated puzzle. I was going to hold the Brawler MSV2 MSR in reserve to respond to Erik’s deployment, particularly his Mutts, so I had to solve a puzzle of getting the benefit of the Druze’s FD1, keeping them out of trouble, and keeping the close to each other, the Brawler HRL that I deployed in cover, as well as potential spots for the Brawler MSR.
I ended up putting one prone behind a Kameel, and sacrificed the Druze KHD on the altar of compromise and put her in the actual deployment zone. The Druze HMG was the furthest forward, to shape Erik’s deployment and encourage him to overcommit to covering it, as there was a nice spot for the Brawler MSR on a building in the backfield.
With some semblance of a deployment on the table, it was Erik’s turn to deploy. He started of by trying to infiltrate a Daylami next to my Lieutenant. Thankfully, he failed, but used it to cover my Druze AHD from across the table instead.
He put down another Daylami Panzerfaust covering my Druze HMG, and then a Ghulam Sniper covering the Druze HMG if I stood up on the roof. The EVO hid in the back along with a Fanous and his usual line of Mutts.
Of course, there was a Tuareg on the table that he made me turn around for, as well as two sketchy camo tokens! The Lasiq tried to stay out of LoF, not accounting for the roof where my Brawler MSR went eventually. Erik tried to figure out what the plan was for his Fiday, debating whether or not he should go for the lieutenant snipe. I wasn’t too worried since I’d have 5 regular orders on the table either way thanks to the Druze, but he decided to conservatively use it for points and put it basically in the middle of the table.
Then it was my turn again to deploy. I didn’t see a way of getting a full 5-man link made that wouldn’t get someone shot for free, so I just picked the best spot where I could attack both Daylami and the Lasiq with the Brawler. Erik deployed his Muhktar on the left to help out against the Druze.
I formed a link of the Brawler MSR with the Druze HMG, Druze Paramedic, and E/M LGL. All were not visible, aside from the Brawler watching the Daylami that failed its infiltration roll.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Druze
Erik docked me two orders from my primary pool, and then I got to work. First order, the Daylami inferior infiltrator died to the Brawler MSR.
A small shift left into partial cover and another other took out the next Daylami Panzerfaust.
Then I formed a new link including the Druze AHD to get the +3 BS bonus, and stood the Brawler up to catch the Lasiq out of cover–I was now tall enough to see all of the Lasiq’s base.
| 87.56 | 5.50 | 6.94 |
I have amazing odds. I even have 76.58% odds to straight up kill the Lasiq. In reality, I end up hitting twice since the Lasiq canceled one of my shots, and Erik passes all four saves and then passes WIP to fail guts down to the other side of the box the Lasiq was on. Pretty sure this is cool with Climbing+. It definitely made for a fun puzzle so I was totally fine with this.
With the Lasiq out of the way, I could scoot the Druze HMG forward without worrying to gun down the Ghulam sniper.
I get my Hunzakut into LoF of the Lasiq hiding on the backside of the box, prone. I hit but fail to wound again!
| 59.00 | 34.84 | 6.16 |
Erik passes WIP and moves to the opposite side of the box from the Hunzakut, still out of LoF of the Brawler MSR.
I’ve got two orders and a irregular order left. I spend both orders on spec-firing the Naffatun with the E/M LGL. I crit on the second roll, and then I flip the irregular order to fix my link’s positioning. Aside from isolating his Lt, this also de-syncs the Xenotech, which is great.
I want to pressure the Fiday a little, so I move up one of the Kameels to cover it and see if I can bait Erik into revealing it.
He doens’t bite, so I settle for getting the Xenotech into position and drop the Multiscanner.
Bottom of 1 – Haqqislam
Erik (who prefaced our game with a comment about how he was really tired) forgets about his Farzan Chain of Command and thinks he’s in loss of lieutenant. The first Mutt moves up and my Hunzakut sends it dogged.
Another Mutt covers the Kameel with smoke.
The third Mutt moves and the Druze fails to wound it (we initially thought I did but I forgot about low-vis from the trees).
The last Mutt moves without incident, then Raoul comes falling out of the sky, taking out the Kameel on the left.
Raoul tries to take on the Druze KHD but she crits him in the face! Take that, Raoul!
Erik throws the Muhktar into suppression and then CCs the Kameel with the Fiday through the Mutt’s smoke. He rolls a 7, which is really 8 thanks to CC 21 against my electric pulse. Darn it! That would’ve been hilarious!
Turn 2
Top of 1 – Druze
I need to get rid of Raoul and put some more damage on Erik’s order pool. I reveal the Hunzakut on the left to take out a Mutt over two orders–I always miss shock when fighting Mutts.
I poke the Hunzakut out enough to see Raoul in my backfield and catch him out of cover. I’m in 16″, so the odds are good. Raoul decides to throw a drop bear to be cheeky, and we both succeed.
Raoul’s gone, but I need to get rid of that mine. I activate the Engineer and his Nasmat, triggering the mine. We decide that if I pass my repair roll on the Kameel and fail ARM, it goes back to unconscious. That’s exactly what happens, but the Nasmat passes ARM. If only I could’ve passed on the Kameel!
In any case, Erik had decided to keep his Fiday in close combat with my other Kameel, so I leverage the link team bonuses and gun down the Fiday with some viral pistol rounds.
One of the Mutts is visible, so I send in the Druze AHD, who fails to beat the Mutt’s smoke. The Brawler gives it a shot (hah) but only ends up forcing the Mutt back into cover.
I reform the link to include the Brawler HRL instead of the MSR, leaving the Druze KHD behind and keeping the Druze HMG (who is on the catwalk now) in.
I notice that the Hunzakut on the left can see enough of the EVO bot to take a shot, so I do that as I reset back to my original position. A crit takes out the ‘bot.
I throw a single E/M grenade at the Mukhtar but fail to do anything other than break its suppression when it dodges.
Bottom of 2 – Haqqislam
Erik’s Mutts smoke up the area, theoretically making them easy pickings for my Brawler MSR, but I keep whiffing the shots. Bah!
This lets one of the Mutts get right up behind my Hunzakut, blocking LoF to my Druze with smoke as he moves out of LoF of the Brawler. Another order sees him chain rifle the Hunzakut that was hunting the Lasiq, but I pass my dodge.
The Lasiq makes another appearance and takes out my Brawler MSR.
Some more Mutt smoke goes down and the Mukhtar goes hunting.
An order shooting through smoke (this only really helps him only get shot by the AHD) sees him take out my Druze AHD who’s the link leader, breaking the link.
The Brawler HRL dies to a coordinated order between the Lasiq and the Mukhtar.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Druze
I am totally out of command tokens at this point, and I have a broken link. I try to take out the Mutt pinning my Druze HMG with the Druze KHD. In this case, using the viral pistol is the right idea, apparently.
| 45.58 | 11.75 | 42.66 |
What I actually did was shoot it with the combi rifle. In that case, I’ve got a 29.04 chance of killing the Mutt. I really need to kill it, not just get it dogged.
| 29.04 | 34.11 | 14.35 | 22.50 |
It ends up taking two orders, but he Mutt is finally gone.
I try to Viral Pistol down the Mukhtar with the Druze HMG and discover to my dismay that we’re just outside of 8″.
| 22.67 | 58.95 | 18.37 |
Within 8″, the odds only climb to 26%, so I guess I can’t be all that upset.
I get the Hunzakut into contact with the left near console and ensure to hide it from the Lasiq. I move my Druze E/M LGL forward as far as it will go.
Bottom of 3 – Haqqislam
I lose the Hunzakut to a the Mutt’s knife, but this lets me dodge my Druze E/M LGL 2″ forward…
Erik drops smoke onto my Druze HMG. I attempt to dodge prone but fail, then it’s the Mukhtar’s turn to do stuff.
It handily guns down the Druze HMG, then moves as far forward as it can. A Taureg Doctor pops out to secure a console, and the other two consoles are secured by a Farzan CoC and the Al’Hawwa. Erik even tried to get cheeky and use his Lt order to try and take out the Hunzakut, but he thankfully whiffed.
We measure quadrants, and it turns out my dodge mattered, putting the Druze E/M LGL just over the line into the same quadrant as the Farzan CoC!
I out point Erik by one army point, tying us for quadrants and making it a
5-3 Druze Beyram Security Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well, Druze feel pretty great. I love their profiles and the way they play. Not a lot of complicated nuance, but sometimes you just want a straightforward faction with lots of flexibility and effectiveness.
I think juggling all the various link compositions ended up hurting me. It dramatically increased the difficulty of deployment, and it also drained me of all my command tokens. Not a fan of that at all. That was probably the most irritating part of everything. I think I need to think about some other options, like spreading out the Druze in the FD1 band and then picking various Druze up with command tokens as I advance the main link.
I was definitely happy with most of my decision making and my execution overall. I think Erik played very well and did a great job of attacking me in the right way with the right amount of investment. It’s clear to me at least that he almost took the game. I had a pretty terrible deployment situation, I think, which he could’ve exploited more had he not been in “loss of lieutenant.”
I will say that the Mukhtar Red Fury MSV2 is really really really good. It’s fast, has two effective wounds in the average case, and has a ton of useful kit.
They’re some bad mama jamas!
That Mukhtar Red Fury MSV2 profile is so good, in fact, that I’ll commit the sin of doing a cross-faction comparison to an Intruder HMG.
In many cases, I’d prefer the (cheaper!) Mukhtar. It’s faster, has shock, also has a vis mod, and has template weapons. Really what I’m getting at is that the Intruder impresses me, and the Mukhtar is impressing me to a similar degree. This shouldn’t be news to anyone, of course, but I just wanted to highlight the unit because it’s awesome. I do think that people discount the fact that the Intruder HMG is also a PH 12 model with grenades too, so there’s that to chew on.
In any case, Erik’s really become a force to reckon with, and I’m enjoying our sparring matches. Thanks for reading.
