Lei Gong Lullaby
Well the time for Yu Jing SpecOps practice is over, and the time for the tournament is here! Here are the table setups for the tournament:
I got paired against Eric (Cake Monster) and his White Company on this table, which has a pretty tall sniper perch on one side, but no good way off of it.
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Highly Classified
- HVT: Espionage
- HVT: Inoculation
- HVT: Retroengineering
- Rescue
- Forces: Yu Jing versus White Company (300)
- Yu Jing: Data Scan
- White Company: Experimental Drug
- Deploy First: White Company
- First Turn: White Company
Well, it’s Highly Classified, so I took the highly classified list that I’ve been using. Explanation here:
Highly Classified v3
GROUP 1
7
1
GROUP 2
DÀOFĚI (Lieutenant) Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 55)
GŬILÁNG (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
MAJOR LUNAH VIRAL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29)
NINJA (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Tactical Bow ( ) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
PHEASANT IMPERIAL AGENT (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, E/Mitter, Madtraps / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 27)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
3
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / CC Weapon, Pistol. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
ZHANSHI (Infinity Spec-Ops) [i](Holomask, Minelayer(Shock Mines), Doctor, Engineer)[/i] Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
LÉI GŌNG Shock Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser, Blitzen / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 34)
BEASTHUNTERS (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Forward Deployment [+8″]) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / EXP CC Weapon(+1B), Pistol. (0 | 17)
5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Eric’s got an interesting list, using Hawkwood as his lieutenant backed up by a Tinbot Jujak and Valerya. The Fusilier link is where most of his guns are, as well as many of his specialists.
Eric (Cake Monster)
GROUP 1
HAWKWOOD (Lieutenant) Red Fury, Nanopulser(+1B) / MULTI Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (1 | 40)
JUJAK Boarding Shotgun, Panzerfaust ( | TinBot: Firewall [-6]) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
VALERYA GROMOZ (Hacker) Combi Rifle, Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
FUSILIER Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 18)
GROUP 2
LIANG KAI Chain Rifle, Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 21)
CLIPPER DRONBOT Missile Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 16)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
TIGER SOLDIER (Paramedic) Combi Rifle, Light Flamethrower ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 31)
VARANGIAN Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 16)
6 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
He’s got a bunch of additional tools, i.e. double Pathfinder, Tiger Paramedic, and the excellent Guilang! A Varangian and Liang Kai are also there in case we drew Predator (spoiler: we didn’t). He’s got a SpecOps with Doctor/Engineer and I think Minelayer as well.
Deployment
I won the roll off and chose deployment, so Eric took first turn. The links are split on opposite sides of the table, with Hawkwood’s haris on the right (that sounds like a nice pub) near his HVT and the Fusiliers on the left. I was pretty pleased to see that the Fusilier ML was on the roof, that would probably let me snipe it with something as the rest of the link moved around.
The rest of Eric’s list was clustered up in the middle of the deployment zone with the Guilang in reserve.
I took a careful look at our objectives:
- HVT: Espionage
- HVT: Inoculation
- HVT: Retroengineering
- Rescue
With the exception of Rescue, everything involves the HVT. I set up a big castle on the right with the Libertos right next to the HVT, as I figured I could drop a mine as the Doctor/Engineer SpecOps walked into base to base and then shotgun it repeatedly. I didn’t see a Hacker, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be one, so I put the Ninja KHD next to the HVT as well to be able to ARO against HVT: Espionage as well. Lei Gong was watching the HVT for good measure, and I put the Pheasant and its MadTrap within 8″ of the most likely approach to the HVT.
You could certainly get there, but it was going to be hard! As far as getting HVT objectives was concerned, I had a Guilang hacker that I thought I could get within 8″ on the other side of the building on the HVT, so I put it there. My Doctor/Engineer SpecOps disguised itself as a Kuang Shi and was on the roof of a building to somewhat discourage it getting shot at. I put its mine on a roof watching a couple of good approach angles. I basically put it one of the places where Lunah would actually go to really sell the ruse.
The rest of the Kuang Shi just went in places where Tigers might show up, and the Weibing sat in spots where they were a single move away from shooting at something in a firelane. The Celestial Guard went down near the approach to the HVT to land smoke if necessary.
Eric then put down a Guilang hacker out of reserve near my HVT, and I put Lunah down watching the Fusilier’s approach. My objective was to kill Eric’s SpecOps. I’d wait to reveal until the SpecOps was visible, and then take the shot. Anything else was just gravy.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – White Company
I take two orders from the second group to really limit Eric’s options. I didn’t know there was a Tiger, but in retrospect that just confirms the efficacy of my choice. Eric starts things off by showing a Varangian to Lunah. I ignore it, I’m hunting bigger game. The Varangian shrugs and long bombs a smoke for the Fusiliers instead.
Liang Kai moves up and tries to dodge into view, but fails the dodge.
With his impetuous moves done, Eric starts working his way down the laundry list of classifieds. The Guilang reveals itself to take a hack on the HVT. I reveal my Ninja and Trinity, but we both fail our WIP rolls!
After much (understandable) hemming and hawing, Eric decides to throw the Guilang under the bus and tries to get HVT: Espionage again. He fails the roll again, and so do I! On his third and final attempt he gets the classified, and the NInja fails again.
Eric doesn’t have orders to get the link to the HVT just yet, but he sets up for the following turn by moving the Fusiliers forward and setting the Fusilier missile up to ARO for the next turn. I decline to ARO with Lunah until the SpecOps is in the open. I take my shot against the link team’s dodge and win the face to face, killing the SpecOps.
The Fusilier HMG isn’t quite in position yet, so Eric tries to remove Lunah with the missile launcher. I’m on 13s and he’s on 10s. It doesn’t go well for him and the missile is gone as well.
The HMG is finally in position and is firing on 9s versus my 13s. I crit the HMG with Lunah and that’s the end of that.
Eric is very focused on Lunah, and there’s a Pathfinder in LoF of it already. I win the face to face against Triangulated Fire as well, and the Pathfinder goes down.
Eric then makes what I think is a pretty big mistake and brings on his Tiger soldier near the HVT and Guilang to have orders for next turn. The reason I say this is because it gives up hidden information, positional pressure, and the order itself, i.e. I’m not going to let it live anyway.
Bottom of 1 – Yu Jing
My objective for this turn is to just remove specialists and orders and then I’m free to do what I need to do on turn 2 as far as objectives are concerned.
I forgo all of my impetuous orders and send in the Weibing on my left to take out the Varangian. I get it to go dogged which is good enough.
The Ninja finally takes out the Guilang now that his iPad has updated.
I push Lei Gong forward to deal with Liang Kai on the way to taking out the Fusilier paramedic.
It takes two orders, but Lei Gong’s shock marksman comes in handy and takes out Liang Kai.
I have a back shot with Liang Kai’s pistol on the Paramedic but it survives. I leave Lei Gong up with his nanopulsar watching the two Fusiliers, so that’s at least partially solved. Now to deal with the Tiger. The Daofei walks by and the Tiger delays.
I keep walking till I’m out of flamethrower range and then I take the Tiger out, recamoing both the Daofei and the Ninja before passing turn.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – White Company
Eric wants to un-pin the Fusilier Paramedic to maybe get another classified, so he sends in Hawkwood. Unfortunately it takes too many orders to do just one wound to Lei Gong, so Hawkwood is forced to retreat to guard the HVT… a little too close to the HVT, I think.
I don’t realize it now, but I’ve just denied myself the ability to get a full 10 points because Lei Gong is in NWI. I guess this technically is a null state? Can I Rescue him? I dunno. It didn’t seem fair, so I didn’t make the attempt later. I guess this is what I get for being so focused on preserving my order pool. He throws the remaining Pathfinder into suppression watching his HVT and passes turn.
Bottom of 2 – Yu Jing
Well, if I’m going to do something, this is the turn. I move the Beasthunter into group one for orders. The Daofei takes out both Fusiliers…
the Pathfinder…
and the Clipper.
The Beasthunter parkours her way into view of the Hawkwood link. Eric breaks the link to dodge with Valerya and the Jujak, but Hawkwood discovers. Unfortunately Hawkwood is in range of the flamethrower template and everyone fails their dodges and ARM saves till they’re all off the table.
I have a full second pool to get the rest of the classifieds with my Doctor/Engineer and that’s that.
9-0, 299-0 Yu Jing Victory!
Post Game Analysis
From my side of the table, really this game was won by Lunah. Eric and I were just there watching. From the score, we can see that it was a pretty rough game for Eric. Obviously Lunah’s dice were very kind to me, but Eric and I discussed opportunities for ways to have improved his game.
The first idea was to not challenge Lunah at all. Eric needs to get the link the unpainted MDF building near the Guilang. He can do that by taking the long way around on the right, and completely avoiding challenging Lunah in her firelane. He will have to leave the Fusilier ML behind, but can reform the link later.
To really maximize the benefit, he can move-dodge on the first order with the ML still in the link. That lets the ML stand up in cover, and then he can reform later and force me to deal with the ML.
The other big thing is of course bunching up the link with Hawkwood. That was more of a problem related to Lunah killing all of his orders and not being able to correct positioning later. One thing he could have attempted instead was to just walk the Fusilier Paramedic away and respond appropriately to my ARO from Lei Gong. Very unlikely to get in base to base with the HVT but at least then the Hawkwood link isn’t out of position.
So really just the decision to go left versus right really changed the game. I certainly had an opportunity to respond, and I would have just gone after the link with the Libertos, but at least I’d have to expend resources as opposed to Lunah soloing the link in reactive. Thanks to Eric for a great game and for the learning mindset–he was really chipper and excited to understand the decision making in this game even though he got tabled. And of course, thanks to you for reading.
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