Amazon Delivery
Given that I now have a fully painted Foreign Company army courtesy of the Shiv Games crew, I had to put it on the table.
These crystals we did so many years ago look so good with so many different table setups. I’d really like to try working in some Comanche terrain with them sometime for my table. I think that would be pretty fun/cool.
Overview
- Mission: BAMS v0.1 Black Spot
- Forces: Foreign Company versus Steel Phalanx (300)
- Deploy First: Foreign Company
- First Turn: Foreign Company
We’re playing a BAMS mission called “Black Spot.” Essentially it’s a killy mission where you select 6 visible models in your opponent’s list to take out. They get 2 vetoes, leaving both players with 4 targets worth 2 points each, with two classifieds. To add in a little spice, you get a special model called a Maya Pirate which is basically the Key Ops/Master Breacher, but it gets Holomask for extra shenanigans. Also, deployment is Power Pack!
I’m playing this ForCo list and breaking my duos only rule for the season. Some factions like ForCo really only work efficiently if you allow links. I could of course do things like take a Croc Man MSR and TR Bot to have solo ARO stuff for board control, even adding in minelayer Zeros and such. That’s definitely a different type of list than I want to play at the moment, and I really want to explore the Croc-Man forward observer. I think that profile has a lot of teeth and is really interesting.
Hmph
GROUP 1
7
1
1
SECURITATE (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 11)
BOLT Missile Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 26)
AVICENNA Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
LAXMEE (Hacker) Submachine Gun, Pitcher, Cybermines, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 24)
GROUP 2
CHIMERA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Viral CC Weapon, Pistol. (0 | 20)
3X PUPNIK DA CC Weapon. (0 | 3)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
SIERRA DRONBOT Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24)
ZERO (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 22)
CROC MAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 31)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
6 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Lieutenant options are a bit sad in ForCo, but it does get better because you can use your Securitate Lt to power a Feuerbach. The real link is the Bolt heavy weapons group with Laxmee and Avicenna. Avicenna to keep your Bolt ML up and running and to fix a MSR disaster, and Laxmee to do things. The rest of the list is cheap orders, some additional ARO from the Sierra, and the aforementioned Croc Man FO.
Jordan’s rocking Steel Phalanx still with Phoenix and Thrasymedes leading their respective crews. What was really funny was he Holomask’ed Hippolyta as Atalanta, which was pretty clever. I didn’t really have a great target for Maya Pirate so I just didn’t Holomask and chose Avicenna to give her a better Dodge just in case.
Jordan (sprocketgx)
GROUP 1
HECTOR (Lieutenant [+1 Order]) Plasma Rifle, Nanopulser, Grenades ( | TinBot: Firewall [-3]) / Heavy Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 69)
PHOENIX Heavy Rocket Launcher, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / DA CC Weapon, Heavy Pistol. (1.5 | 35)
MACHAON Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0.5 | 36)
MYRMIDON Chain Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 16)
THORAKITES Heavy Machine Gun, Nanopulser / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 22)
THRASYMEDES FTO Submachine Gun, Zapper, Flash Pulse, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
GROUP 2
HIPPOLYTA Breaker Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Flash Pulse, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 40)
LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
3.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
Jordan won the rolloff and took deployment, so I decided to go first to try and be a little aggressive. There was elevation in both deployment zones for me, so I put the Bolts on the left and the Securitate on the right. The Sierra watched a long diagonal lane from my left to the right and perhaps more importantly, my back table edge for Ekdromoi. I put the Warcor prone on a roof, figuring that if Jordan chose it as a target, i could leave it prone. If not, that would give me a good use for the Warcor order.
The Zero hacker went into a building on the left, figuring that I could probably hack something as it walked by pretty safely, and the Zero KHD went on the right, not because it was a KHD but because it’s an infiltrating specialist. The Croc Man went in the middle, more or less. I held the Uberfall in reserve.
Jordan set up Phoenix and his crew on the right with Hector, and Thrasymedes and his crew on the left.
The Uberfall went down on my right, and then Jordan put “Atalanta,” aka Hippolyta, on the right as well.
Turn 1
For my six models, I chose the three Thorakites, the Lamedh, Phoenix, and “Atalanta.” Jordan chose my Fugazi, the Pathfinder, the Bolt ML, the Securitate Feuerbach, my Warcor, and the Sierra. I vetoed the Feuerbach and Sierra, and Jordan vetoed Phoenix and “Atalanta.” I probably could have vetoed the Pathfinder, but I fully expected Jordan to just do something mean to the Sierra with a Mimetism -6 model.
Top of 1 – ForCo
Well, TR Atalanta can’t be allowed to exist, so I set about removing her. I have all the tools I need and I put down White Noise from the Pathfinder’s repeater for the Uberfall, who had moved up with their impetuous order.
I poke the Chimera out to see the Lamedh out of cover. Jordan keeps up the ruse and says “Atalanta” does nothing, since I’m in White Noise, and I drop the Lamedh with the Chimera, putting two points on the board for a killed target.
Then I declare Idle with the Chimera in front of “Atalanta” while in White Noise. Jordan keeps up the ruse and says he does nothing, so I take my shots. I hit, but Jordan says “wait it’s Hippolyta,” and I forget about Negative Feedback on Holomask canceling Mimetism for the order. I’m not really sure how to resolve this so I just say “take a dodge” and that turns my hits against no Mimetism into a whiff because I’m now at an additional -6. Ah well, sometimes you just gotta be chill about weird rules interactions and be permissive.
Well, now I gotta get the Chimera out of there so I walk away and toss smoke to protect the team against Hippolyta’s breaker combi shot.
I then burn all of the remaining orders in Group 1 on the Bolt team. The Bolt MSR cautious moves across a gap and then challenges Phoenix. We’re outside of 32″, and while I don’t wound Phoenix I do get Jordan to drop him prone.
This lets the Croc Man make a move, coordinating a bunch of stuff in the second group forward, as Phoenix and “Atalanta” were the only two things that were really looking at stuff, and Hippolyta doesn’t have MSV2 and Phoenix is prone and out of view. The Thorakites have sixth sense so no sense in preserving camo state for Surprise Shot, so I just drop a mine and then engage the nearest Thorakites.
It takes me two orders but I drop it.
I then challenge the LRL Thorakites, but it crits with its LRL and kills the Croc-Man. Ugh. Well, at least I’ve made things difficult, and with the first Thorakites down (the Paramedic, no less), I’m up to 4 points on the board.
Bottom of 1 – Steel Phalanx
I’m not confident in my ability to stop Hippolyta on the right, and Jordan I think senses this and moves in for the kill. I had hidden my Chimera with her Climbing+ on some rocks, and spread out the Pupniks to be annoying. Hippolyta can see one of them so she engages it, taking it out.
Hippolyta needs to cross a gap covered by the Bolt ML, so she drops some smoke to cover herself. Sadly, she whiffs.
Jordan’s on a schedule, so he makes the move anyway and beats the Bolt’s missile with a dodge.
As Hippolyta moves in, I dodge all the Pupniks and the Uberfall, as well as the Pathfinder.
Jordan wants to move the Thorakites team up to support, but after checking a bunch of slight lines we discover that the Bolts are indeed watching several of them. Hippolyta is then called away to provide smoke for them, letting my Uberfall breathe a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, this means they fail their dodge against Thrasymedes’ LRL shot, killing both Pupniks while the Chimera watches disapprovingly.
While Jordan has smoke, he advances the Thorakites to behind the big crystals and settles Hippolyta in to screen them from attack.
He’s got a few orders left, so he starts by deleting the Securitate Feuerbach with Phoenix…
but rolls poorly against the Bolt ML who plants a single missile center-mass on Phoenix and vaporizes him.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – ForCo
Well, I’m just going to press the attack now with Phoenix down and nothing watching the table. I cancel the Chimera’s impetuous order, because she’s going to just run out in front of Hippolyta. This lets me jump the Bolt ML from shipping container to shipping cointainer (red to green on the left side of the picture below), and set the Bolt MSR up for a shot on Hippolyta.
Hippolyta tries to land smoke, but between MSV1, Marksmanship, and burst three, the Bolt MSR deals with it.
This opens up space to let me start doing the drop mine and peek trick so popular with infiltrating models. The Zero KHD starts things off by dropping a mine covering Thrasymedes and his two Thorakites.
I then set up a shot with the Chimera’s irregular order, forcing a dodge.
This takes out the Thorakites LRL, but Thrasymedes dodges into base with the Zero KHD. This suits me just fine, and I start rolling the Chimera up. Jordan dodges away as I approach to deny me burst 2 in CC. I get into base and we have a fight that the Chimera easily wins on CC 27 versus CC 13. Brutal.
With Thrasymedes down, the Zero KHD goes after the Thorakites HMG with another mine (the Lamedh keeps passing mine saves). The mine doesn’t do it but her combi does.
Bottom of 2 – Steel Phalanx
Well, it’s time to start pushing with Hector and Machaon, because… Steel? Hector joins the link and they start shuffling forward. Hector starts in cover, but is just outside of 16″ so I land a missile and do one wound.
Jordan has a moment here where he debates what to do, and just goes for broke and moves Hector out of cover into 16″. This does delete the Bolt ML but I make things extra hard by declaring Oblivion from the nearby Zero. I probably should have done that last order, but I wasn’t really thinking carefully about it.
Unfortunately the Oblivion misses. This gives Hector the opportunity to spec fire a grenade onto the Warcor that Jordan declared as a target. I fail my dodge, but pass ARM on an 18! PHEW! The Warcor scoots out of 8″ while Jordan grumbles good naturedly.
Hector challenges the Bolt MSR next, who does a second wound, putting Hector into NWI. Hector fails guts around the corner into range of the Zero HD, and passes turn.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – ForCo
Well, Hector has got to be dealt with. I start by getting Carbonite down. Higher burst and DA gives me what I think is an easier time getting past his Tinbot and WIP. Then I can start doing Oblivion with him on -3 WIP.
I succeed and move on to other things. The Lamedh somehow passed all its ARM saves against mines, so I get Industrial Espionage off of it with the Pathfinder.
I’d like to remove sixth sense from Hector, so I try to remove one of the Myrmidons with the Chimera, but get pistol crit and lose the Chimera. Gross.
I had also hoped to secure the HVT with this move, so I’m forced to move the Pathfinder instead. The Myrmidon doesn’t get to turn around from the earlier interaction with the Chimera because it already ARO’ed due to Sixth Sense.
I want to make things difficult for Jordan, so I set up a pitcher with Laxmee ensure that Hector is going to be in a hacking area for at least a few orders. Laxmee has higher WIP than the Zero, so I use her to Oblivion him as I set up the rest of the link’s positioning. This succeeds and Jordan will be in loss of lieutenant next turn.
I’m doing a pretty reasonable job at locking down a lot of the board now. Still, to really make it difficult, I long-skill climb the Securitate and the CSU onto a box and throw them into suppression.
Bottom of 3 – Steel Phalanx
Jordan’s got one play, which is to pick up the Thorakites HMG at max range with Macheon’s MediKit. It takes him all of his resources, but he manages to do it.
The Bolt ML is down, so Jordan has killed 1/4 targets, and with the Thorakites HMG back up, I’ve only got 3/4. I do have a classified and I am securing the HVT, so it’s a
8-2, 201-137 Foreign Company Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Well, that seemed to click–specifically the Uberfall is starting to make more and more sense for me. I’m really enjoying the Bolt ML + Bolt MSR link–you have a throwaway (and very dangerous) ARO in the ML, and the MSR is your active turn hunter. Laxmee and Avicenna are excellent additions as well. The Securitate Feuerbach didn’t perform very well this game, but I was asking a lot of it to fight Phoenix at band range without cover.
I think Jordan was a bit SWC light, but more importantly was relying too much on Phoenix to fight the world. If I can force him prone or otherwise remove him (and those are hard to do), the board basically opened up entirely, giving me complete freedom to wander around. Also, I think that he made a mistake in not aggressively pushing Hippolyta. Even if she dies to the Uberfall, he can take on the Pathfinder and get some points, and maybe even take out my Lieutenant if it goes really well. I think that was probably the big issue, he blunted his own attack and then moved the Thorakites up for me to eat. They were in a much more defensible position before, I think, especially if Thrasymedes was up on the catwalk prone and peeking the approach.
As far as the mission is concerned, I really liked it. I intentionally chose most of my targets to be in the same deployment box, which I think is a good approach, and I think Jordan did a really cool thing disguising Hippolyta as Atalanta. I’m excited to play more of this mission, and maybe do a little more thinking about what to Holomask my Maya Pirate as. Avicenna having a Tac Aware order was very helpful in positioning the link, so I certainly wasn’t sad about that though. In any case, thanks to Jordan for a fun game, to Steven for a lovely painted army, and to Jeff and the rest of the Shiv crew for setting up such an awesome tournament and charity raffle! Thanks for reading.
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