Foreign Company Intervention
Work and life have conspired to constantly postpone hangout and game sessions with Dan (White_Lang), so I was really excited to get a challenge from him last game night. He’s trying out TAK for the first time and has an obsession with Limited Insertion lists.
I decided to bring Foreign Company, since I’ve only got a few games in with them to level the playing field, so to speak. On that note, here’s our playing field:
Pretty simple, very boxy, but serviceable.
Overview
- Mission: Quadrant Control
- Forces: Foreign Company versus Tartary Army Corps
- Deploy First: TAK
- First Turn: TAK
Bolt Securitate
GROUP 1 |7
CROC MAN (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 32)
SECURITATE Feuerbach / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 22)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
GROUP 2 |
AKAL COMMANDO Spitfire / Pistol, E/M CCW. (1.5 | 28)
HANNIBAL Lieutenant (Strategic Deployment, Strategos L1) MULTI Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 41)
SEÑOR MASSACRE Breaker Combi Rifle, E/M Grenades, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW, E/M CCW. (0 | 29)
BOLT (Multispectral Visor L1) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 27)
ZERO (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)
MULEBOT (Total Reaction, Repeater) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Infinity Army
After my game with Rida at Ragnarok 2019, I wanted to try a list with evenly split combat groups to reduce the impact if I get two orders docked as well as force myself into a new challenge.
I also really wanted to try the Hannibal, Massacre, Bolt Haris. I decided to back it up by taking a Securitate link to give me some insurance in case Hannibal died. Akali and a Croc Man too, for funzies, and Zeros, because Nomads do all the work while PanO farts around.
Tartary Army Corps
COLONEL VORONIN (Sensor) Lieutenant T2 Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 21)
VETERAN KAZAK AP HMG / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 47)
FRONTOVIK Engineer T2 Rifle, Light Rocket Launcher, D-Charges / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 33)
SPETSNAZ (CH: Ambush Camouflage) HMG / Pistol, CCW, Knife. (1.5 | 38)
VASSILY (Chain of Command) T2 Sniper, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (1 | 39)
STRELOK K-9 Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines + 1 K-9 Antipode / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 24)
Dan really loves his Limited Insertion lists. Always has. He just likes the huge beefy units and their ability to get work done with good reliability. In TAK, that means Veteran Kazaks!
Deployment
Dan scattered a bunch of camo tokens everywhere. Some were obviously Streloks, and I suspected a Tankhunter or Vassily, and probably a Spetznaz. His 5-man link with Voronin parked in the middle of his deployment zone.
My turn to deploy. I has no interest in exposing anything to the Veteran Kazak HMG, so I set up my link deep in my backfield, protected by a building with both corners guarded by CSUs. TAK hates nanopulsars, so I knew this would deter Dan a little. I left the Feuerbach out to ARO a mid-length firelane, but the Kazaks would have to walk a bit to even get there. I put the Mulebot on the left to guard against AD Spetznaz, and then stuck Hannibal and friends on a rooftop.
Of great importance was the positioning of the Bolt MSR. Because Dan had placed his HMG Vet Kazak ahead of the rest of his link, I could place the Bolt MSR in such a way to cover the rest of his link (who were prone at the moment) but not be seen by the Vet Kazak without it getting either much farther forward or it retreating to where the link was.
With my deployment finished, Dan plunked a Strelok K-9 unit next to Hannibal and then I put a Croc Man on my left, as far from his Sensors as possible.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – TAK
Dan doesn’t waste any time going after Hannibal. He has to get through Massacre and the Bolt first though. I drain some additional orders from him by discovering at long range with my Mulebot TR, forcing him to recamo. I delay as the Strelok crests the rooftop, and he puts all his shots into Massacre.
Massacres dies to SMG fire, my Bolt misses, but my TR bot comes through for me and rolls a 1, stopping the Strelok cold.
Still, with one man down this reduces my burst to 1 on the Haris, so Dan guns down my Bolt MSR with a crit from his HMG Vet Kazak.
Thankfully, to accomplish this, he had to walk the HMG Kazak backwards, effectively increasing the order tax on him by forcing “wasted” movement.
Dan wants to keep up the damage and throws Vassily at my Securitate link. He really wants to kill the HMG, so he puts both T2 shots into the HMG, who returns fire, giving the Feuerbach normal rolls. I think this was a mistake–pie slicing each of them individually would have been better, especially since I’m immune to surprise shot at the moment.
In any case, we both get what we want. I lose my Securitate HMG and my Feuerbach blasts Vassily off the table with EXP ammo. After shuffling his link around to get them advanced into quadrants, he passes turn.
Bottom of 2 – ForCo
I start things off by walking on an Akali spitfire and start picking off link team members. Voronin crit dodges on my first attack roll, moving closer to get into that all important 16″ 0 range band.
I keep shooting, managing to just stay out of 16″ on my second order, taking Vassily out.
Two more orders sees the Akali take out the Veteran Kazak HMG, which is great.
I then blow all the rest of my orders taking out the Vet Kazak paramedic with one of my Zeros. Ridiculous!
Turn 2
We’re tied on quadrants as is the norm after turn 1, but I’ve got my DataTracker alive in a dominated quadrant, so I’ve got a 2-1 lead.
Top of 2 – TAK
Dan’s in Loss of Lieutenant, but with so many Veteran L1/2 troopers on the table, it doesn’t matter so much. He’s got 4 orders, which he spends on shotgunning Hannibal in the face with his remaining Strelok… and of course this means I crit him in return with Hannibal’s pistol.
Bottom of 2 – ForCo
I have a pretty boring second turn, just running the Akali closer to Dan’s HVT to 1) get into an empty quadrant and 2) set up for my classified on Turn 3.
I spent the orders in my other pool setting up my Zeros to contest more quadrants.
Turn 3
My Akali brings me to 3 quadrants, and with Hannibal still alive the lead is now 5-1.
Top of 3 – TAK
Dan can’t let my Akali live, so he sends in his remaining Vet Kazak to get the job done.
I play the dice odds, always choosing the highest target number between dodging or shooting, and manage to drain 2 orders.
Dan’s last order is to throw both the Frontovik and the remaining Kazak into suppression as part of a coordinated order.
Bottom of 3 – ForCo
I take this opportunity to surprise shot the Frontovik outside of 16″ with the Croc Man, zeroing him out and taking him down over the course of two orders.
The Croc-Man recamos and contests the same quadrant as the Spetznaz, then I shuffle enough pieces around to hold 3 quadrants.
I’ve got a few orders left, but I don’t want to risk anything against the Spetznaz or the Vet Kazak, especially Hannibal, to go Secure the HVT, so we call it there at a
8-1 Foreign Company Victory!
Post Game Analysis
I really like the split deployment groups. I think I’m going to write most of my lists this way in the future if they’re not Limited Insertion. The biggest challenge is figuring out what belongs in each combat group–you really have to deploy your forces in your mind as you build the list, so you know what’s likely to be where.
I had some really critical die rolls this game, both against Dan’s Streloks. Had he been able to snipe Hannibal I would’ve been in a worse position. Not horrible, just worse. Quadrant Control is definitely a mission where being in Loss of Lieuteant isn’t all that big of a deal. Nevertheless, I got pretty lucky.
I think I had the right tools in the right places as well. Having a BS 13 Spitfire exactly where I wanted it was pretty awesome, as was having a TO model with X-Visor. I did miss MSV though, especially once the Bolt went down. Everything with the exception of Voronin in Dan’s list had at least Mimetism if not full-blown camo. Redonk.
As far as Dan went, I think he’s out of practice–he’s been unable to get games in recently, and 5-man links are hard to move around even when you’re razor sharp.
I think this game really fell apart for him at the bottom of 1 where I took out Voronin and the HMG Kazak. Losing the Strelok early on was a bummer too, but I think the big mistake was throwing Vassily away to take out my HMG Securitate. It wasn’t really a threat, and would have taken a huge amount of orders to really get anywhere. A stronger play would have been to take send in the second Strelok on Turn 1, or spend more orders setting up the link in better positions.
Moving a S4 model in a link around is always hard though. In any case, I’m excited to see Dan’s TAK on the table again soon! I think this is also my first Foreign Company win too, so that’s fun. Thanks for reading!
