Do the Robot
Well, I wanted to get more practice in for the tournament with a tuned ISS list, but I also wanted to get a test game of Reinforcements in… thankfully Jordan and Nathan were happy to oblige me with simultaneous games to pack it all in to one game night.
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Biotechvore
- Forces: Imperial Service versus Steel Phalanx (300)
- Deploy First: Imperial Service
- First Turn: Steel Phalanx
After my last game against Jordan, I decided to put the Crane into the Kuang Shi link which opened up a different organizational structure for the other two links and the combat groups overall. I was also feeling pretty dissatisfied with the weapons ranges in my previous list, so I took a Hsien HMG with the extra SWC provided by the Crane lieutenant. I like pairing the Hsien with a Zhanying, and then just threw a CSU in there to round it all out.
Qualified Immunity v2
GROUP 1
8
3
CRANE AGENT (Lieutenant, Sensor, Triangulated Fire, X Visor) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) ( ) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (+1.5 | 46)
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
GROUP 2
HSIEN Heavy Machine Gun, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 55)
ZHÀNYING (Hacker, Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0.5 | 25)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 11)
HÙSÒNG Yaókòng Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24)
DAKINI MULTI Sniper Rifle / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 20)
TÁOWÙ (Counterintelligence) Nanopulser(+2B), Flash Pulse(+1B) / Viral Pistol(+1B), Monofilament CC Weapon. (0 | 25)
7.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Group two gives me three TR bots and a Dakini MSR. Biotechvore wants more hackers, so I took a Celestial Guard, which opens the door for Taowu to play and hide as a Dakini Paramedic, which is believable and also usable.
Jordan’s tuned his list from last Biotechvore game with Achilles, a Hoplite HMG, and has downgraded Atalanta to a regular Agema MSR. To make it all fit he’s gotta use a Thorakites link, but that’s still very solid when lead by Thrasymedes.
Jordan (sprocketgx)
ACHILLES v2 (Lieutenant) AP Spitfire, Pulzar / Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 66)
HOPLITE Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 41)
DRAKIOS FTO Combi Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Heavy Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (0 | 30)
SCYLLA FTO (Hacker, Hacking Device [UPGRADE: Trinity (+2 Damage)]) Boarding Shotgun, Pitcher ( ) / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0.5 | 28)
ANDROMEDA (Infiltration [+3]) Submachine Gun, Zapper, Flash Pulse, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
THRASYMEDES FTO Submachine Gun, Zapper, Flash Pulse, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
THORAKITES Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 16)
AGÊMA Marksman MULTI Sniper Rifle / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 33)
Deployment
I’m doing the deploy first-go second thing as a training exercise, so I do that again, especially because I kinda have to if I’m playing two games at once. I have to make some concessions to be on the same side of the table. In any case, I set up the Husongs to delay a blitz into my deployment zone, and then stack the Crane/Kuang Shi up on the right. I put the Hsien in the middle to respond to threats, and then set up a pocket for the Dakini MSR on the left as my reserve.
Jordan sets up the Hoplite haris on the left, the Thorakites on the right, and the Agema on a set of boxes. Andromeda makes her confused deployment roll and ends up on Jordan’s left near my stuff.
I deploy the Dakini just straight up watching the Hoplite, and then Jordan puts Achilles down on the table.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Steel Phalanx
I take two orders from Jordan and then we’re off. Jordan starts things off by surprising the Dakini with the Agema, but we both miss our shots. Unfortunately for Jordan, on the second attempt I nail the Agema between the eyes and drop it.
Andromeda pushes forward into a pocket to delay my advance and parks.
The Hoplite dodges past the Dakini, then Drakios and Scylla made it on top of a building. The rest of his stuff scoots forward and makes it out of the zone safely, but they’re kind of exposed.
Bottom of 1 – ISS
Well, I’m full up on orders so I just start the push. Drakios unfortunately is watching the corner where the Crane and Kuang Shi have to go around, so I just pile the up on one side of a wall and then long-skill jump them all over it out of LoF. This lets me get the Crane in position to engage Drakios within 16″ from cover with shock ammo and drop him in one burst.
This gets me right up onto Andromeda, who dodges away as I approach, but I just make an issue of it by blasting away with a Kuang Shi’s pistol as she dodges.
I manage to do a wound, but I need to get stuff out of the zone so I coordinate the TR bots forward and spend an extra order wiping out the Hoplite with one of them.
I have a few orders left in the first group which is enough to get the CSU into range of Andromeda to threaten templates. She dodges, so I just slug-mode her and drop her. The Hsien isn’t on the roof yet, it’s on the ladder…
so I climb up with the next order and delete Scylla.
I push the Dakini up to the roof of a building just out of the zone and engage one of the Thorakites there, dropping it with the MSR from just outside of 16″.
I then push the “Dakini Paramedic” forward, and gently suggest to Jordan that he might want to dodge…
so he does and I split burst on Taowu’s viral pistols, hitting the Thorakites in the back and double critting the one in the front. The one in the back passes both BTS saves but the one that got crit gets melted.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Steel Phalanx
I’ve got a wild material advantage now. Achilles tries to take on one of the TR bots and gets crit, taking a wound.
My luck doesn’t hold and the TR bot dies. The Thorakites that passed BTS is still in nanopulsar range, so it dodges out of the way as Taowu peppers it (or more accurately the wall behind it) with viral pistol shots.
Achilles fights another TR bot and takes it out too before retreating. With that he’s out of orders.
Bottom of 2 – ISS
I’ve got Extreme Prejudice, but I’ve straight up killed all of Jordan’s models. I figure I can take on Achilles with the Hsien and just get him to unconscious, so I execute on that plan. I get the Hsien off his roof and engage Achilles who fails guts even farther away after passing ARM.
I then poke around the corner to see him, and the proceed to land three crits and two hits, utterly deleting Achilles and ruining my clever plans.
I snag Telemetry with the Zhanying off of Thrasymedes…
then try to take out the Thorakites, but burst 4 nanopulsars are too deadly and one dies while Thrasymedes dodges around the corner.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Steel Phalanx
Thrasymedes tries to get a classified by fails, and I elect to just dodge and try to not kill him.
Bottom of 3 – ISS
I have some other classified that I can’t get, so it’s really up to me to get Thrasymedes down and then Extreme Prejudice and Secure the HVT. I try to do it with the CSU’s rifle, just blasting away and hoping to only get one hit through… sadly I get two and take Thrasymedes off the table.
Taowu secures the HVT and that’s that.
With only 2 classifieds, that makes it a
9-0, 252-0 Imperial Service Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Wow. That uh… was a very decisive game. This is the danger of Biotechvore… if you don’t have a safe place to live in the midfield and don’t restrict movement enough, bad things will happen. I’m pretty pleased with my long-skill jump over the wall maneuver, that really got me out of a bind. I didn’t want to engage with the Crane in Drakios’s good range, that would have been too dangerous.
The Hsien HMG did a good job, but I’d still like to investigate the other profiles for fun and profit. I do really like the CSU haris, having shotguns in there really helps. Taowu is also hilarious. I’m so glad I was able to do the thing this game and reveal him for some serious damage. I definitely got lucky with 5 crits, but I don’t think any of them were particularly meaningful. Looking at the table I’m not sure what Jordan could have done significantly better, aside from perhaps keeping everyone in the Hoplite’s link in the zone along with Achilles and pushing really hard with the Thorakites.
That’s an interesting plan, because so much of Steel is multi-wound, so maybe he could have gone on a tear with Andromeda or the Thorakites and just let stuff try to make saves. That certainly puts me in a rough position, especially if Thrasymedes fights the TR bots and wins, because then I don’t have much in the way of area control in the midfield. A really tough game for Jordan though–taking Achilles makes it hard to take a balanced list with a bunch of midfield control stuff. Thanks for reading!
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