New Model Syndrome
One of the nice things about playing a tournament at Shiv Games is the really big Infinity stock. CB sent us a copy of the new Marut for review purposes… which means I guess I play vanilla ALEPH now. That meant I needed some Proxies, literally.
James agreed to play against my Marut list.
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Frontline
- Forces: ALEPH versus White Banner (300)
- Deploy First: White Banner
- First Turn: White Banner
I have a pretty ridiculous list. My intent is for the Proxy 2 and Proxy 4 to ARO things, and then just have the full pool to do stuff because getting through both the Mk2 and Mk4 will be hard.
Big Bois
MARUT (Lieutenant, Strategos L2) MULTI Heavy Machine Gun, Heavy Flamethrower, Nanopulser / AP CC Weapon. (2 | 99)
KARKATA Flash Pulse / CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
AJAX (Forward Deployment [+8″]) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / AP Heavy Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 46)
EUDOROS Mk12, Nanopulser(+1B), Eclipse Grenades / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 42)
PROXY Mk.1 (Engineer, Deactivator) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges ( | GizmoKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
PROXY Mk.2 MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 28)
PROXY Mk.4 Heavy Rocket Launcher, Submachine Gun, Nanopulser / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 21)
DALETH Rebot Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 16)
NETROD . (0 | 6)
MOTORIZED BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Chain-colt(+1B) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 9)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
8
3
3 6 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
James has a pure core with double Shang Ji and a pile of Jujaks, the Jing Qo haris that I’ve always wanted to try, and some bots and a Beasthunter in group two.
James (RomanLegion)
GROUP 1
JUJAK (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
SHÀNG JÍ (Tactical Awareness) AP Heavy Machine Gun, Chain-colt ( | TinBot: Firewall [-6]) / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 49)
SO-RA KWON Shock Marksman Rifle, E/M Mines / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
JING QO MULTI Rifle, Chain-colt / AP + DA CC Weapon, Breaker Pistol. (0 | 36)
SHAOLIN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 6)
GROUP 2
WÈIBĪNG Yaókòng Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
CHAĪYÌ Yaókòng Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
LÓNG YÁ (Minelayer) Panzerfaust(+1B), Flammenspeer(+1B), Submachine Gun, AP Mines / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 17)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
BEASTHUNTERS (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Forward Deployment [+8″]) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / EXP CC Weapon(+1B), Pistol. (0 | 17)
2.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
As is normal, James split his two links. The Shaolin one went on the left and the big Shang Ji/Jujak went on the right. He put a pair of Long Ya on buildings with their mines guarding the approaches, and then put his Weibing on the approach to the big raised platform in the center with the Chaiyi watching a large section of the midfield.
I put Ajax all the way on the right, the three Netrods hidden on the left, and Eudoros on the left. My Libertos was in the middle, to the left of my HVT (looks like I missed labeling it) with the mine on the ground, and a MBH in the back which rolled an MSR.
James’s reserve was a Beasthunter, and mine was the Proxies and the Marut. I was going to put the Marut behind the white building, but I was concerned it’d get Beasthuntered, so I put it on the right and used the Mk2 to help guard it, and threw the Mk4 under the bus to try and fight the Shang Ji link.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – White Banner
I took orders from group two to deny the Beasthunter orders, and then we were off. James has to solve the Mk4 problem first, and with all his tac aware orders he manages to get in position and then do 1 wound.
Another order takes the Mk4 off the table.
Somehow the Shang Ji HMG successfully discovers the Mk2 across the table. I’m not sure if I should have taken the shot there, but I’m happy to continue making James drain orders.
Unfortunately, the Shang Ji AP HMG has reached a spot where it can’t see the Mk2 but it can see the Marut, and it aces the Marut in one burst.
| 9.6 | 33.6 | 56.8 |
It’s pretty likely for me to lose a structure, but there’s only a 5.9% chance for me to get totally punked. Well that sucks.
James fires another burst to take out the Marut, and then he challenges the Mk2. He’s on 1s, because -6 for range, -6 for Mimetism, -3 for cover, +3 for link, and I’m on 13’s. Of course he crits and I lose the Mk2 because it’s not shock immune.
| 32.7 | 50.7 | 16.5 |
Those are some wild odds. Burst 5 clearly is very good.
The Shang Ji keeps pushing and attempts to discover-shoot the Libertos and fails.
James forces the issue with the Weibing by sensoring, so I just dodge out of the way.
James keeps pushing with the Weibing, so I dodge, expecting to pass the dodge, but of course I roll a 17 and the Weibing pastes the Libertos.
At this point he’s finally of orders, so James passes turn.
Bottom of 1 – ALEPH
Well that was pretty devastating. I’m in loss, but thankfully Netrods are veterans so I have some options. My classifieds are:
- HVT: Identity Check
- HVT: Kidnapping
- In Extremis Recovery
- Predator
I figure if I can CivEvac the HVT, then I can get the two HVT classifieds and a third via Secure, so that seems like a good use of my order pool. I’m going to need to squeeze every order I’ve got out of my pool. Ajax starts by rolling into view of a Long Ya with his impetuous order. The Long Ya dodges and I take it down with Ajax’s burst.
Eudoros makes his way forward, having to wrap around a bunch of buildings.
The MBH gets a shot with its MSR on the Chaiyi and drops it.
I then manage to get Eudoros all the way across the table to CivEvac James’s HVT and climb the nearby building, fighting a Jujak engineer on the way with no damage done to either side. This does take all my command tokens, but hey, if it works, it works.
And yes, Clint (pseudonymmster), as I’m writing this I know that Eudoros is impetuous and therefore can’t CivEvac, but I didn’t know that during the game. You can stop typing that message in Discord to me now. <3
With my last order, I throw Eudoros into suppression and hope for the best. The Mk1 is my new lieutenant.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – White Banner
James moves the Beasthunter into Group 1 and starts his turn. He decides that Eudoros is best solved by the Beasthunter, and starts moving across the table. My plan is to let him get within 16″ and then attempt a discover, breaking suppression. That means he’ll be on a 5 to panzerfaust, which is probably okay, and then I’ll have to contend with all the nonsense from the link, but I can probably dodge prone and that might work out because he’ll have spent a ton of orders… Eudoros also might be able to fight the Beasthunter… Lots of uncertainty.
Anyway, James pauses before he crosses the MBH’s line of fire, and then he reconsiders. Emboldened by his 4 orders to remove a Mk4, Marut, and Mk2, he sends in the Shang Ji HMG. He first takes out the MBH with the Shang Ji…
then he goes after Eudoros. We’re just within 16″, so the odds are pretty even:
| 32.7 | 50.7 | 16.5 |
Thankfully I crit and do a wound. He tries next with Sora Kwon, and I crit her too.
Sora tries again and eventually does a wound to Eudoros, who goes prone.
This lets the Long Ya drop a mine and go into suppression covering Eudoros.
The link shifts to James’s left and hides in a building to prevent Eudoros from attacking them directly, at least not without going through the Beasthunter first.
Bottom of 2 – ALEPH
Well, I think it’s the Ajax show now. If I can get Ajax into the room with the Shang Ji, I think I can easily snag Predator. I don’t have orders to not use my impetuous, so I just let him go for it. He has to get through a Warcor, and we’re just outside 16″, which means I whiff on burst four against like a 1 or something. UGH. UGH UGH UGH. Ajax is flash pulsed and now I’m just sad.
I decide to let Eudoros do his thing with his impetuous order, but the Long Ya passes ARM.
| 49.3 | 35.5 | 15.2 |
I spend my lieutenant order and drop the Warcor at long range with the Mk1. I wish I could have done this before Ajax moved, and I did consider it. Maybe I should have done it, because all I’m really saving is 4″ of movement, and it’s totally safe with the Mk1. I’m in crisis mode with such a degraded list though, so I really needed to cut corners.
Eudoros takes out the Weibing, and then I use the Daleth to take out the Long Ya because Eudoros is having trouble. Also, I don’t want to lose Eudoros to a bad face to face.
Sora Kwon goes down to the Daleth next, having already taken a wound from Eudoros’s crit.
Then I take out the the Jujak engineer with Eudoros.
I’ve got one attempt to take out the Beasthunter, so I reveal it with the Daleth…
and take a shot.
| 42.1 | 57.9 |
The odds are worse than a coin flip for me, and of course James crit dodges. Sigh.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – White Banner
Well, I’ve done my best to even the odds, and it’s looking a little better. The Shang Ji Paramedic picks up Sora Kwon, then reforms the link with the HMG and Sora.
The Shang Ji Paramedic makes its way towards the Daleth, picking up the Jujak engineer on the way. I dodge the Daleth up the wall to try and get away…
but it’s not enough and I lose the Daleth.
The AP HMG Shang Ji rounds the corner to see Ajax, and I roll a 17 on his dodge. UGH. I “only” take two wounds and fail guts to break LoF.
James then activates Jing Qo’s link and tries to advance into the midfield, but I put a stop to that by shooting at the Shaolin with Ajax. He snags a classified, and that’s that.
Bottom of 3 – ALEPH
Okay. All I need to do is secure the near and far zones, and I think I have this. Eudoros takes out the Jujak engineer, again.
That lets me take out the Shang Ji HMG by shooting it in the back.
Next to go is Sora, who dies to a burst from Eudoros.
I do one wound to the the Shang Ji Paramedic as well, and then I have to move Eudoros to the far zone to score. I try to remove the Shang Ji Paramedic with my Mk1’s lieutenant order but can’t crack its armor.
I have 4 points for having the near and far zones. James out points Ajax with the Shang Ji Paramedic and two Kuang Shi, so he has 2 points, and he has 2 points from classifieds. I have one point for securing the HVT (I’m within 8″ of where the HVT started, because I couldn’t have CivEvac’ed, so I don’t get HVT: Kidnapping), so it’s a
5-4, 119-103 ALEPH Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well that was a brutal game. James really alpha’ed very hard and removed literally all of my SWC. I had to problem solve with Eudoros and a bunch of combis. Honestly it’s a little annoying that I forgot about the impetuous/CivEvac restriction, because I wouldn’t have spent quite so many orders on Eudoros… I could have moved my MBH back into cover to have a BS12 MSR for use later, which would have been very helpful against things like the Long Ya in suppression and various members of the link.
Goodness. That MBH was not expendable, and I treated it as such. That was a big mistake. Also, straight up losing the Marut was awful. I don’t think it would have done all that much during the game, but at least I would’ve had more orders and command tokens! Really what won me the game was the humble veteran Netrod powering the absolute monster that is Eudoros. What a boss.
Also, James’s huge mistake of not sending in the Beasthunter was a big deal. That said, the CC odds are definitely in James’s favor, but not completely:
| 35.1 | 11.6 | 53.3 |
Still a gamble, but better than fighting Eudoros in suppression. I’m pretty happy with my decisions, except for deployment, haha! I think I had enough of a defense net to save the Marut from the Beasthunter, especially because it was in the other combat group–but I don’t think I get to know that till later? I dunno.
In any case, I’m very happy with the result of this game. ALEPH as a faction I think rewards big plays, and I had to do nothing but big plays all game long after that brutal first turn. I think all the constraints and pressure really forced me to prioritize carefully. My poor Marut though. I snapped the sword while deploying, and then it died before I could do anything. Talk about new model syndrome.
Thanks for reading!
