The Right Fusilier
Here’s game 1 of the tournament:
Dan (dfocke) and I got matched on the airplane table, which he’s actually got a fair bit of experience on! We were pretty excited to finally get a chance to play one another as well.
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Capture and Protect
- Forces: Yu Jing versus White Company (300)
- Deploy First: White Company
- First Turn: White Company
This is the same list that I’d been testing.
Basically the idea here is to missile something in over multiple turns and at some point send the Su Jian after the beacon.
C&P Supplies v3
GROUP 1
8
1
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)[/i] Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
KOKRAM FTO MULTI Rifle(+1 Dam), Chain-colt, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 36)
SÙ-JIÀN Heavy Shotgun(+1B), Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 50)
GROUP 2
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)
DĀOYĪNG (Lieutenant [+1 Order], Minelayer) MULTI Sniper Rifle, Shock Mines / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 34)
MAJOR LUNAH VIRAL Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29)
WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
TIGER SOLDIER Spitfire / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 34)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
It was fun playing Dan’s WhiteCo immediately after playing Eric’s and seeing their different takes. Dan went all in on MSV with a Haidao sniper, Karhu Feuerbach, and double Guilang. Speaking of doubles, he’s also got double Beasthunters! Madness. The rest of the list is support, e.g. Varangians for somke, Fusiliers to power the Haidao, and a Sierra to watch the beacon.
Dan (dfocke)
GROUP 1
FUSILIER (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
HǍIDÀO (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper Rifle ( ) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 33)
KAPLAN (Doctor) Combi Rifle, Blitzen ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
KARHU Feuerbach(+1B), AP Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35)
GROUP 2
GŬILÁNG (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
SIERRA DRONBOT Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24)
VARANGIAN Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
I won the rolloff and chose side. I wanted to give Dan the side with the plane wing, which generally is more open and harder to advance through. He set up the Sierra and both Varangians covering the beacon, and then stacked up his Fusiler/Haidao link on the right tucked into the plane wing and some trees near his Pathfinder.
The two Beasthunters stood astride the gate to the beacon like an artist’s rendition of the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Kaplan/Karhu link went on the left pointed backwards watching a large open area for Tigers to come prowling through the trees or around the nose of the plane.
I set up my own defensive net around the Beacon. Lunah and the Su Jian both watched it, along with the SpecOps’s mine and the Libertos–whos mine was pretending to be a standing Guilang. My own Beasthunter hid in the trees on my left and the Warcor watched the left table edge. The Daoying’s mine watched the right table edge, and the Daoying itself was tucked into the trees for protection.
Dan put another Guilang on the table out of reserve and my holdback was Lei Gong, standing and ready to fight all the MSV on the table.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – White Company
As I am wont to do, I took two ordres from Dan’s second pool. Dan figured out that I probably had a Beasthunter, and guessed correctly as to which camo token it was. He then spent a fair amount of his turn devoted to killing it. First the Pathfinder showed up to sensor it.
Once it was revealed, the Pathfinder came around the corner to see the Beasthunter, catching LoF to the Su Jian on the way. I AROed with a Panzerfaust from the Su Jian and a dodge from the Beasthunter. Dan split burst, one and one through the saturation zone. He missed the Beasthunter but somehow hit the Su Jian and did a wound. Ouch.
Now out of LoF of the Su Jian, Dan was free to try and take out the Beasthunter with the Pathfinder, but again had no success. He decided to make a play for the Beacon and started moving his Guilang minelayer forward.
He asks for AROs from the SpecOps’s mine, and I decline, so the Guilang second short skill moves into LoF of the “prone” part of the mine, i.e. the camo token could see the Guilang standing but the mine couldn’t. The Guilang therefore doesn’t get a dodge and fails its ARM save.
The Pathfinder tries again to remove the Beasthunter just can’t make it happen.
To seal the deal, Dan sends in the Haidao sniper. Figuring my luck will run out now, I decide to drop an AP mine covering the Pathfinder and the Beasthunter finally gets blasted off the table.
Bottom of 1 – Yu Jing
I don’t have any illusions of getting the beacon this turn, but I can definitely get myself set up for it. I gotta use Lei Gong this turn before his albedo expires, so I’m going to go hunt down the Karhu and whatever else I can. If I can take out the Haidao that’d be good to. Really I just need to remove Dan’s ability to project threat onto the board and then I can mop up the pieces.
I figure the easiest thing for me to do is just roll in the Libertos and see what falls out of camo. First camo token to pop is a Beasthunter, and I easily dodge the flamethrower and the nearby mine deployed by the Guilang minelayer.
I keep pushing forward, and the Beasthunter takes a shot with its pistol. I get greedy and attempt to face to face shotgun it, but fail to wound it.
I then push forward even further to see the other Beasthunter and the TR bot. I split burst on templates and cover everyone with one template. The TR bot shoots, the freshly revealed Beasthunter lays a mine, and the already revealed Beasthunter flamethrowers.
In an exercise of frustration, Dan makes all of his ARM saves and I fail all of mine which takes out the Libertos. I had hoped to at least take out one of the Beasthunters! Come on!
No matter, the game must continue. Lei Gong just has more to do now! He easily drops the first Beasthunter to reveal…
then asks the remaining Guilang and the Pathfinder for AROs. The Guilang declines, and the Pathfinder is taken out by the mine and Lei Gong.
I can’t make any more progress without challenging the TR bot, and Lei Gong isn’t really the right tool for the job. The Daoying sniper, on the other hand, is absolutely correct! I stack a bunch of mods on the TR bot and zero it out, KOing with the Daoying’s lieutenant order.
Lei Gong easily handles the remaining Beasthunter…
and downs the Karhu by shooting it in the back while also engaging the Kaplan.
The Kaplan survives, but that’s okay. I’ve at least taken out most of the forces that want to move forward and removed the only real threat to the Su Jian–the Karhu Feuerbach.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – White Company
I’ve done a fair bit of damage now at pretty minimal cost.
I’m happy to let Dan have Lei Gong now. The Haidao finishes him off in one shot.
Dan decides to discover the Liberto’s mine and blaps it with the Haidao.
He spends the rest of his orders Cybermasking the Haidao KHD and stacking up AROs on the beacon. Note that I’ve mislabeled the Kaplan as a Karhu in the below picture!
Bottom of 2 – Yu Jing
This is the turn. I’d like to make the run now, because I need to both get the Beacon and cripple Dan’s list so he can’t get the Beacon at the top of 3. If I push too hard I might put him in retreat, so I gotta go now.
My plan is to send in the Su Jian, but first I should clear out some AROs with the Tiger. I walk on the Tiger and start shooting. I know one of the Fusiliers is Dan’s lieutenant, but I’m not sure which one. I decide to just shoot the one I can see and throw a burst at the Haidao for good measure. Thankfully I force the link to dodge because I was in ZoC of the Fusilier I can’t see.
I drop the Fusilier and wound the Haidao. I push a little further to see the remaining Fusilier to just get the job done, and it’s at this point the Guilang decides to reveal. I put three into the Guilang and 1 into the Fusilier. I whiff on the Fusilier and the Guilang beats my rolls, KOing the Tiger.
There’s still a mine by the Beacon, dropped by the Beasthunter. I try to clear it with my Weibing, but fail.
I can’t mess around anymore and send in the Su Jian and Krit, taking out the Guilang on the way.
The Su Jian goes into view of basically everything Dan has left and crit dodges into base to base with the beacon, even passing ARM against the mine! SO LUCKY.
I snag the beacon and scurry my kitty cat away. Everyone shoots again, but the damage is limited to a single wound. I sneak into cover and post Krit up guarding the approach.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – White Company
As it turns out, the Fusilier that I could see was the right Fusilier!
Dan’s in loss of lieutenant, and he had spent a bunch of command tokens turning the Beasthunter’s orders regular so he passed things back to me.
Bottom of 3 – Yu Jing
The Su Jian shifts one more time to get into my deployment zone and then I sneak Krit back across the centerline and snag Net Undermine to max out points, and that’s it.
8-0, 207-159 Yu Jing Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well, I just had the exact right tool for the job–Lei Gong. I think Dan put it best in Twitch chat while we were discussing the tournament on the Late Night Wargames stream. To paraphrase, vanilla loses links but gains access to a much wider array of tools. I think that Dan should probably have ignored my Beasthunter and forced me to respond to him set up for taking the beacon. He did make the attempt with the Guilang, but it was pretty late in the turn and only after he had already invested so much in the Pathfinder going after the Beasthunter.
The alternative would have been to attack into my forces with the Haidao. The Karhu would have had some trouble from Lei Gong, but the Haidao probably could have engaged the Su Jian and potentially even killed it. Basically I think he spent too many orders on unfortunately not achieving a result when he could have instead attacked my order pool. He has the tools, but perhaps not the orders, especially with me taking orders from group 2. The Guilang play was alright, but I think too early. There just isn’t a feasible way of getting the beacon reliably on turn 1 in most situations.
My defensive net was pretty weak at the top of 2, having moved the Libertos away. I think had he been careful he could have gotten the second Guilang into base with the Beacon and absconded with it. Probably wouldn’t have gotten very far, but I think it’s better than collapsing onto the beacon. I think he was already in a reasonable position and gave up some board presence as a result. If that Haidao had been up and watching, Krit and the Su Jian wouldn’t have been able to make it out. I would have had to send in Lunah or something to deal with it or problem solved with the Tiger.
Nevertheless, a fun game. Dan has been coming to Rose City Raid and nearby tournaments, so I’m glad to have finally had the chance to play him. Thanks to Dan for the great game, and thanks to you for reading!
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