Bao Jia
After the terrible game on my aircraft table,
let the table tuning begin!
James (RomanLegion) is back from his long Infinity hiatus and generously agreed to help me test a BAMS mission and the table. My last test outing was a bit of a skew list from me, so I wanted to try something a little more standard.
Overview
- Mission: BAMS v0.1 Holographic Havoc
- Forces: Foreign Company versus Yu Jing (300)
- Deploy First: Yu Jing
- First Turn: Yu Jing
The mission grants Holoechoes to two specialists who have to run the gauntlet of 3 mines and a turret to WIP roll a console on the enemy deployment zone edge. You can find out more info here:
Maybe?
GROUP 1
9
SECURITATE (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 11)
BOLT Spitfire / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 27)
SEÑOR MASSACRE Boarding Shotgun, Eclipse Grenades, E/M Grenades / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
LAXMEE (Hacker) Submachine Gun, Pitcher, Cybermines, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 24)
GROUP 2
AVICENNA Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
ZERO (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Shock Mines, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
CROC MAN (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 31)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
6 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
James (RomanLegion)
GROUP 11
4
GROUP 2
DĀOYĪNG (Lieutenant [+1 Order], Hacker, Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun ( ) / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 30)
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / CC Weapon, Pistol. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
HÚLÁNG (Forward Deployment [+8″]) Combi Rifle, Light Flamethrower, E/M Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, Monofilament CC Weapon. (0 | 41)
BEASTHUNTERS (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Forward Deployment [+8″]) Heavy Flamethrower, Panzerfaust, AP Mines / EXP CC Weapon(+1B), Pistol. (0 | 17)
TIGER SOLDIER (Paramedic) Combi Rifle, Light Flamethrower ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 31)
BÌXIÉ MULTI Rifle, Zapper, Flash Pulse / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (0 | 41)
BÀO TROOP MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29)
YĀN HUǑ (Neurocinetics [+1B]) Missile Launcher / CC Weapon, Heavy Pistol. (1.5 | 45)
KRAKOT RENEGADE Chain Rifle(+1B), Grenades / DA CC Weapon, Heavy Pistol. (0 | 14)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
SHAOLIN Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
4.5 SWC | 299 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
James chose to go first so I took the side with what I thought was more elevated ground. James set up a neurocinetic Yan Huo on his catwalk first, scattered the Kuang Shi about, and plunked his Daoying in a safe spot. The left side of the board was sparse with only the Shaolin and Krakot over there, with the Beasthunter on the right with the CG controller. Bixie and the Hulang went in the middle in Holoecho state.
I protected the two consoles with a bunch of mines, including Laxmee’s cybermine. The Bolt ML challenged the Yan Huo, and I set the Zeros up on either flank with the Croc Man on the central platform. One thing that I did do was put Bolt MSR watching the long firelane on my right, with the Securitate watching the door on my left with various link elements spread out nearby.
Laxmee and the Pathfinder were my data pack carriers. I forgot about the more specialists killed and set the CSU up to defend the consoles. James’s reserve was the Bao.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Yu Jing
I take two orders from James’s second group, which turns out to be a pretty good idea. He starts by spending some crazy number of orders trying to set up smoke on the Bao.
After he finally gets it done, the Bao fights the Bolt ML. Thanks to Marksmanship, I’m on 10s still, which means it’s a very dicey move (pun intended). I roll just high enough and James doesn’t crit, so the Bao evaporates.
The Hulang makes its move. I can see one of the Holoechoes, but due to Mimetism -6 I miss it.
There’s a narrow window where the Hulang can just cautious move through, so that happens, which is unfortunate.
It then challenges the Securitate Feuerbach successfully from within 16″, which is annoying. This does set off one of the mines though, doing a wound. Consolation prize, I suppose.
With the Hulang stalled out, James sends in the LIbertos. I decide to trade the CSU for the Hulang, and dodge it into view.
James decides to go for it and reveals the Libertos to lay templates on the CSU and Massacre, and I lay templates on the Hulang. Massacre successfully dodges, the CSU takes one wound, the Libertos goes dogged, and the Hulang survives. Sigh.
The Libertos keeps pushing on Massacre and dies to the turret while Massacre successfully dodges again.
Bottom of 1 – ForCo
I start things off by offering a fork to the Yan Huo. I declare the Bolt ML as fireteam leader and show Avicenna walking off the platform onto ground level and ask for AROs. James surprises me by going for Avicenna and giving me free shots on the Yan Huo with the Bolt ML. In retrospect it does make sense, but it was still surprising. Extremely annoying then, for me to miss with one of the missiles and only do 1 wound to the Yan Huo while losing Avicenna.
I really would like to get rid of the Hulang, so I send in Massacre and start blasting with his shotgun. This moves Laxmee and the Bolt Spitfire forward too.
I can’t seem to get the shotgun slugs to land, but at least I forced a dodge to cancel the Holoecho state. Laxmee is now in range to help out the Bolts, so I reform the link with the Bolt ML, the Bolt MSR, and Laxmee to get back up to burst two, then finish off the Yan Huo with the Bolt ML.
The way clear, I get the Bolt Spitfire up on a platform and engage the Hulang out of cover. It takes two orders…
to get my Bolt crit unconscious. I try to do too much and move the Pathfinder forward, which lets the Hulang dodge into view to threaten a flamethrower.
This won’t do, so I reveal the Croc Man and shoot it in the back to finish it off.
I spend my last order on the 2xBolt + Laxmee team to set up pitchers near the doorway on the left where all the action is and pass turn.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Yu Jing
James trades one of the Kuang Shi to a mine for my Pathfinder. Very foolish over-extension by me.
Massacre is still up, so James sends in his Beasthunter to deal with him and maybe do a lieutenant snipe. The Beasthunter tries to take out Senor Massacre with its flamethrower. I dodge successfully and Laxmee spotlights to get me my Telemetry classified.
James waffles hard about whether or not to kill my lieutenant. This would probably have conclusively won him the game had he done it, but he plays to the objective and drops in a Tiger Soldier instead to pick up the Hulang’s data pack. I get a Spotlight off to cancel Mimetism.
The Beasthunter scoots away and finally takes out Massacre, but he doesn’t burn off the table… so there’s a chance!
The Tiger goes into suppression and Massacre fails his regen roll. Not great dice for me so far, aside from that one roll versus the Bao early on.
Bottom of 2 – ForCo
This is really quite bad. I need to do so much with my orders very poorly split. I decide to spend the second group’s orders clearing problems out of my deployment zone. My Zero on the left finishes his bathroom visit, pops out, and aces the Beasthunter. So far so good.
The Tiger is next, and I engage at just inside 16″. The dice behave this time, and I drop the Tiger.
I push Laxmee and the Bolts forward, but don’t have enough orders to really make them safe in the midfield. James can see some of this so he dodges forward with the Shaolin as I move up… so I’m forced to take it out with the Croc Man.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Yu Jing
I was getting a little rushed near the end of the game and I should have checked in as to the order pools that James had. I would’ve discovered that he really didn’t have the orders to do anything with the Krakot and put Laxmee on the Krakot-side of the wall. Or better yet, Cybermasked her and given up on burst two in ARO for the Bolts.
In any case, the Krakot doesn’t have any orders but its own once Bixie leaves the group, and it immediately is gunned down by the Croc Man and the Bolt MSR.
Having not defended Laxmee properly, she dies to Bixie on Bixie’s way in. This happens within range of my repeater, but I roll a 15 on the Oblivion. Sad.
Bixie does get hit by the Cybermine as she fights the Turret, but kills the Turret and resets out of Immobilized on the first try.
This lets her deliver the Data Package and then get flash pulsed by my Fugazi on her way out.
Bottom of 3 – ForCo
Well, I can’t win or even tie now, so I just have to try to keep it to a 3-4 loss. Bixie’s back in Holoecho state, which she shouldn’t be, since she dropped off her Data Pack. Hmm. Good to call out in the mission description. Anyway, to clear it I just fire a missile at her to force a dodge.
This doesn’t work, so I try the Securitate Lt.
This doesn’t work either, so the Zero has a go, and fails even with surprise shot.
The Securitate, exasperated, empties her mag and gets a double crit, finishing off Bixie.
With the Zero securing the HVT…
I’ve kept it to a
3-4, 148-58 Yu Jing Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Alright, let’s talk about the game first and then the mission. It’s clear that I didn’t contest a critical approach, which was all the way on the edge of the map by the Comanche Barracks building (basically right under the catwalk of the last photo). There was a gap where the Bolt ML could see, but it wasn’t really covering that area and it could easily be cautious-moved through. James basically fed all his forces through there, be it Bixie or the Beasthunter, and the Hundun also covered that area too.
What was interesting was that the Hulang pushed through the door, but I think that was primarily because of where it started. It was a little annoying that there was an approach that was out of line of sight till 16″, but hey, that’s on me for setting up the table and not being careful about the Feuerbach placement. I was quite happy with the defensive network I put on my consoles, but it just wasn’t enough to stop Bixie, who can get through just about everything with her extra +2 NCO orders.
I also didn’t advance my Data Pack carriers properly. I think this mission is very dependent on pacing of your Data Pack carrier advancement, and you’re really incentivized to take some monster of a unit to do it. James took two, as is Yu Jing’s specialty. I was surprised I wasn’t facing a Hac Tao hacker and Bixie, honestly. Probably a points thing. The AD troop is a good call too. This mission really punishes bad pacing and over-extension and rewards factions with bike specialists. I think the Pathfinder was a good choice, I just didn’t give it enough orders and didn’t pace its advancement properly. I think my list order pool organization isn’t good either, there needs to be some adjustment there.
Something like this is probably better:
The two data pack carriers are then the Croc Man and the Pathfinder. You lose Hidden Deployment on the Croc Man, but a Mim -6 Holoecho is very very strong, as we found out this game, and it’s capable of pushing into defensive tech effectively with all its tools. You also get to retain Surprise Attack bonuses. The Pathfinder is just fast, that’s what you want out of it.
Foreign Company is a strange beast. You always feel short on orders, even though you have plenty of good stuff. I don’t think their top end is high enough to really make use of a 10 order list, but maybe I’ll try that next. I’ve always wanted to abuse an ORC with Climbing+ and a MULTI Rifle, and I think this is the faction to do it in. It’s kinda funny that the fluff behind the faction is that they’re just media darlings (that’s why they have 2 warcors, after all), and all the units in here feel like divas clamoring for the attention of your orders.
So yeah, this is a pretty textbook game of how to apply pressure to a defensive network till it cracks. You don’t want to attack across the entire attack surface, that’s too diluted and ineffective, so you concentrate on one section and just force the issue. It cost James a lot, but all he needed was one unit (Bixie) to get through, and she delivered. The rest of the game was me just having to respond to the units he was leaving in my deployment zone. The Hulang was particularly problematic–I should have just lead with Carbonite or something from Laxmee, maybe moving the Pathfinder up to get a repeater in place, thereby solving two problems at once.
Also, reading the mission would’ve helped–losing specialists already sucks in terms of delivering the Data Pack, but I wasn’t aware that I was also feeding James objective points at the same time! While I didn’t write the mission, I did spend a fair amount of time typesetting it for Comlog, so you’d think I’d be aware. Ah well. Yeah. This mission just got away from me in terms of pacing.
Regarding the mission, I think it’s too order intensive right now. I’m going to make the following changes, some of which were suggested by George (Bubba_Phatt) after he played it at his birthday tournament, the Jeff Rossiter’s Shiv Games George Spenser PanOceanian Celebrity Invitational Rabies Awareness Bromad Academy Mission System v0.1 Infinity the Game Tournament: For the Cure. Happy Birthday, George!
- Remove the turret
- Add a third console, to make them harder to defend, and split the points equality (2-2-2) instead of (3-3)
- No more Holomask, it’s too complicated. Just give Holoprojector.
The turret is just adding such an extra tax, and it doesn’t necessarily interact with Holoprojector great. I like the idea of weakening the defense on the consoles by having more of them, and it also makes it possible to counterplay a single console being flipped. It also means that to get a max score, you have to steal one of your opponent’s datapacks, which I also like.
I don’t want to make more changes beyond that just yet. We’ll start there and see how it goes. Thanks for reading!
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