Corsair Kerfuffle
After my practice game versus James, it was time for another practice game of Acquisition versus Jordan (sprocketgx). I really don’t like Acquisition, mostly because I just don’t find it particularly fun or interesting as a mission. It’s obviously favored for the player that goes second, which is fine, but a little stale these days. In any case, it was in the tournament lineup along with Supplies and Supremacy. I think of the three it’s my weakest mission, so I had to practice it.
Jordan was kind enough to set up this table for us:
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Acquisition
- Forces: Morat Aggression Force versus Kosmoflot
- Deploy First: Kosmoflot
- First Turn: Kosmoflot
I brought the same list as I took against James. My discussion of it is available in the previous report:
Acquisition and Supremacy
GROUP 1
8
KORNAK (Lieutenant [+1 Order], Strategos L1) Mk12, Light Flamethrower / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 45)
YAOGAT MULTI Sniper Rifle(+1B) / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35)
DARTOK (Hacker) Combi Rifle, Pitcher, Cybermines / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 25)
ANYAT K1 Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Smoke Grenades, E/M Grenades / CC Weapon, Heavy Pistol. (0 | 24)
GROUP 2
RINDAK (Paramedic, Forward Deployment [+8″]) Boarding Shotgun, Blitzen(+1B) / Heavy Pistol, PARA CC Weapon. (0 | 35)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) Light Flamethrower(+1B), Flash Pulse / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 9)
TYROK T2 Rifle, Shock Mines / Heavy Pistol(+1B), Trench-Hammer(+1 Dam). (0 | 25)
SKURGOT DA CC Weapon. (0 | 4)
4
5
Q-DRONE Plasma Rifle / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24)
OZNAT FTO Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Shock CC Weapon, Heavy Pistol. (0 | 16)
GAKI AP CC Weapon. (0 | 4)
3 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
Jordan is playing a randomly generated list in preparation for the Salem Shitshow in Feb of 2023. The general premise is Jeff will generate a pair of random lists for you, and then you play those lists. There’s prizes for random participants, like the 2nd to last player get stuff, which is pretty funny. In any case, this is the monstrosity that Jordan was piloting:
Randomlist 2
GROUP 1
FRONTOVIK (Engineer, Deactivator) T2 Rifle, Light Rocket Launcher, D-Charges ( ) / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 29)
GROUP 2
ROKOT Submachine Gun, Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
WALLACE (Lieutenant) T2 Rifle(+1 Dam), Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 35)
ZENIT-7 AP Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 28)
CATERAN Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
PARA-COMMANDO Rifle, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
6 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Infinity Army
It’s not exactly a masterpiece but it is serviceable. It’s also certainly not designed for Acquisition, as it is a random list, but it has a crazy amount of shooting that I’ll have to chew through. Given that, my plan was to use this game as a learning tool to get good pacing for Acquisition and of course give Jordan some reps with his list.
Deployment
I won the rolloff and chose deployment to secure second turn. Jordan set up a truly ridiculous amount of snipers covering various angles, put a Rokot on the left, and then tucked Wallace into a corner. The Frontoviks hung out in the central building of his deployment zone with multiple paths forward on the ground on and on the catwalks.
My deployment was very conservative. I kept the Yaogat 100% safe and out of LoF on a catwalk with Anyat right behind him and Kornak below with the Dartok. I had to honor Margot and Duroc, so I put the Q-Drone pushed up against a building in my deployment zone covering as many angles as possible, and then tucked the Ikadron on either side to cover more of the area.
The Gaki and Oznat were tucked into various nooks and crannies on the right. I held the Rindak in reserve and tucked them both into what I thought were safe areas. The Tyrok hid near the front lines with the Skurgat left out to threaten an advance.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Kosmoflot
I took two orders from the second group to really cripple it, and then settled in to see what the Frontoviks would do. Jordan decided to advance the Frontovik’s guns to the midfield, killing the Skurgat on the way. I’ll take it.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see a line of advance on the Rindak MULTI with a Cateran, so I was in a tough spot and had to dodge a bunch.
I took a wound (this was not a T2 cateran), and managed to get to the other side of the wall between dodges and guts fails with Religious rolls, which let me escape the Frontovik which was coming to assault pistol me.
There’s too many Frontoviks in the midfield though, so I lose the Rindak to one of the engineer’s T2 rifles.
Jordan flips the right antenna with the engineer and passes turn. Not a bad start for him, but my list is pretty intact, so I’m ready to push pretty hard. Of note is that the HRL and the Frontovik sniper are both prone on the catwalk, as Jordan is afraid of my Q-Drone.
Bottom of 1 – MAF
My objectives for this turn are just to beat down some of Jordan’s orders and open the board up a bit. With the Rindak MULTI gone, I decide to put the Tyrok hunter into group two. This opens up group one for a Bashi push. After walking the Tyrok hunter forward and covering two Frontoviks on the ground with a mine, I bring on the free AP Rifle Bashi, who is in group 1. I come on behind a Frontovik, who turns around. On my next order, I declare idle, and the Frontovik that can see me declares dodge.
I then split burst against that Frontovik and the one that’s covered by the mine. Sixth Sense would allow the Frontvik covered by the mine to shoot back, but he really wants to dodge. The link has already declared shoot though, so Jordan elects to just hope I miss the shots on the Frontovik that’s covered by the mine and not ARO so as to not set off the mine and potentially lose two three Frontoviks to a single order.
I take out the Frontovik covered by the mine with the Bashi’s Rifle, but the one that’s closer to me passes ARM. Thankfully the Frontovik that went down was the link leader, so the link is broken. I spend another order and Breaker Pistol the visible Frontovik down.
The other Frontovik that’s covered by the mine is next, and he dodges the mine but dies to the Breaker Pistol.
I’ve got a ladder near me that will let me see the Cateran, so I drop him too with the Breaker Pistols.
It’s the Rokot that finally stops the rampage, taking out the Bashi.
I’ve got a few orders left on the Tyrok, so I drop another mine and climb up, dodging into base to base with the nearest Frontovik.
I move Kornak further up, move the Q-Drone up, put it into suppression, then pass turn.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Kosmoflot
I haven’t had to activate the Yaogat Haris really, so I’m a little alarmed when a Paracommando with rifle and chain colt shows up. It chain colts my Ikadron and Kornak. The Dartok does land spotlight to cancel mimetism -3, and the Ikadron flamethrowers. The Ikadron goes down but the Paracommando survives. Kornak dodges, and I decide to push hard and dodge into close combat with the Paracommando.
Unfortunately, I miscalculated and Kornak is now visible to a Zenit with sniper rifle! I dodge, take a hit, and miraculously pass ARM. I go to fail guts but then fail my religious roll! RUH ROH.
The Zenit tries again, but this time I dodge into base to base with the Paracommando and dare him to take another shot.
Jordan doesn’t bite and brings on his own Bashi and flips the leftmost antenna in favor of Kosmoflot. This isn’t great. I’ve got to flip the antennas back and control them, and all my specialists on the right are down. Not great.
Jordan decides to try and fight the Tyrok by bringing in the Frontovik HRL to help his AP Sniper buddy. this does involves standing up in front of the Q-Drone, but he can do it in such a way that avoids the mine, which is really close to the catwalk. The Q-Drone melts him and the Tyrok hunter beats him in CC, so that’s one dead Frontovik.
Bottom of 2 – MAF
I need to sort out objectives this turn, and do some damage. The Tyrok hunter is now frenzied, and it easily outclasses the Frontovik in close combat, killing it easily.
I’d like to extricate my lieutenant from close combat, but I can’t do anything until I get rid of all of Jordan’s snipers. The Yaogat goes to work with some helpful smoke from Anyat. The first victim is the Zenit.
This does let the Paracommando dodge out of close combat. I don’t really have orders to be messing around not doing the objectives, so I move the Rindak towards the objective and take a 16″ BSG shot, dropping the Paracommando. That Spotlight was important!
I take out the other Cateran by discover-shooting it with the Yaogat, clearning the way for the Rindak.
The Rindak reveals itself above the Bashi, who is now in Holoecho state, but I’ve got a shotgun. The Bashi dodges under the watchful cover fire of another Zenit, so I decide to dodge the Rindak off the building and into base to base with the objective.
The Yaogat blaps the Zenit off the table, and the Rindak flips the left antenna, moving into base to base with the Bashi as it does so, tanking a hit from the Bashi.
I’m really concerned that Jordan’s in retreat at this point, so I get the Tyrok and the Q-Drone onto the central and right most objectives, giving up the points on the right most objective to Jordan because I don’t have a specialist nearby to deal with it.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Kosmoflot
I was right and Jordan’s in retreat.
He puts Wallace in the first group and makes a run on the central objective but the Q-Drone guns him down, and that’s game. I’m in contact with the central and right objectives, Jordan has the left objective, and we both have an antenna flipped, making it a
6-2, 254-9 Morat Aggression Force Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Given Jordan’s list, I think even having to deploy first, I might have considered going second. He’s got an obscene amount of camo for me to go through. I have the tools for it–the Yaogat and the Rindak are obviously well suited for it, but that’s so order intensive and you can play lots of tricks with the Zenit’s decoys to force me to waste orders. That sort of sets the tempo of the first turn, and possibly forces me to overextend one or both Rindaks, which are really oversubscribed in the amount of work I was asking them to do.
Going after the Oznat with either the Paracommando or the Bashi might have been worthwhile.
The Bashi can come on between the Rindak and the Ikadron, and then I’m forced to choose between Holoechos with the Tyrok’s ARO. The Rindak probably is out of 8″ there too. Then the Bashi has to fight the Tyrok, burst wins here, hopefully, and then you get one chance to dive on the Oznat while you die to the Q-Drone. Taking out the Oznat does make a very real and very dangerous Gaki problem suddenly appear, but you can stand the Frontoviks up somewhere in overwatch where the Yaogat can’t see, and then try to Cateran down the Rindak MULTI as before.
I’m not in a losing position by any means, but it does put a huge amount of pressure on my primary order pool. I absolutely can do the mission but I can’t kill everything that I did, I simply wouldn’t have the orders to do both. This makes it a much more even tempo game instead of me just sweeping the Frontoviks with the Bashi and then having run of the board with the Yaogat and Rindak the following turn.
I think the Frontoviks were definitely over-extended. Standing up at least one Frontovik to force me to fight it with the Yaogat might have been a reasonable order drain–perhaps the AP sniper would be a good call, as that sort of counters my smoke advantage in terms of setup and positioning–it’s sixth sense that does the most work here. It’s really hard to say here. Jordan really needed the tools to take out my Yaogat, and he just didn’t have them.
Of course, we should remind everyone that his list was randomly generated, and he piloted it well. It’s not really a fair assessment of skill here, or the quality of the list. We can return to the stated objectives at the start of the report, which were to get reps in with the list for him and to establish pacing for the mission for me before the tournament.
I think he got some excellent plays in, the work with the Paracommando and Zenit was great, and the Bashi objective run was also very good. The Frontovik pile is a bit hard to pilot, but I think he managed well. We talked later about how he might reorganize the combat groups (he’s allowed to do that), and I was suggesting perhaps the HRL, Sniper, and one of the Engineers as a 3-model link, which would free the other two Frontoviks up to be flexible and go get objectives and cover more angles with the camo snipers helping punch holes for them as needed.
In terms of pacing, I think I had too much of a focus on murdering stuff, and not enough of a focus on objectives. I should have put the Dartok on the right as a backup specialist instead of using it as a spare tire for the link on the left. The Rindak MULTI was far too exposed. I think I should’ve just put it where the Ikadron on the right was and kept it safe. That would’ve made my problem solving a lot stronger on that side, which I desperately needed. I managed to make it happen with the Tyrok, and I suppose the Oznat could have provided smoke if I needed it, but things were just really weak on the right.
Overall I’m reasonably happy with the list, I think it performed well and I like the redundancy and backup plans built into it. It’s not an easy list to pilot, and requires good command of fundamentals and pacing, and I’m really enjoying the challenge. I wish I had points for more tools, but you can’t have everything. Kornak has really been providing a lot of value with his Strategos and extra orders, which I think more than justify his price tag, his own equipment and contributions notwithstanding.
The Gaki link I think is pretty flimsy if you’re not careful with it, and it was pretty dangerous here. There was a place where Jordan could have YOLO’ed a Frontovik at the cost of all his orders to see the Oznat on turn 1, which might have been good, but then he’s wildly overextended and then I have 4 Gaki to problem solve with, which is not great for him…
I will say that I don’t like the free Bashi. Obviously it does a crazy amount of work, and I’m not complaining about that. I am, however, complaining that everyone gets AD for free now without having to concede anything at list building time. I don’t think it unbalances the game but it can create some very skewed results like in this game, where just having access to AD brings a huge amount of value, and I didn’t have to sacrifice anything! The Bashi absolutely crippled Jordan, and it was a free unit.
AD is one of the strongest skillsets in the game as it allows you to respond to and punish poor positioning, and I firmly believe that you should have to pay for it at list construction time. Yes, both players have access to it, but it amplifies skill gaps in a negative play experience way. I’m not trying to be sensationalist about it, more wary and cautious. I’m just generally not a fan of free units because it breaks a core mechanic of miniature wargaming, which is that you have to problem solve with limited resources, i.e. evaluate and honor tradeoffs at the table and during list construction. In any case, a great learning game for both of us. Thanks to Jordan for a great game and thanks to you for reading.
