Durian Delivery?
Pete (YueFei23) was in town visiting Adam (TheDiceAbide) and I!
We of course took the opportunity to play some Dadfinity after all the kids went to bed. We were set up in Adam’s kitchen whispering at each other over some scotch while the kids were asleep in the other room. Pete and I decided to play a new Edgelord mission coming up in August to test it and also to give you all a sneak peek!
I broke out the Strompost Alpha table to give a more industrial feel for the Sterling Forge ammonia mines. Gives a fun setting for my Druze to fight Pete’s Imperial Service.
Overview
- Mission: BAMS v0.1 Chemical Leak
- Forces: Druze Bayram Security versus Imperial Service (300)
- Deploy First: Druze Bayram Security
- First Turn: Druze Bayram Security
We’re playing Chemical Leak, a new mission I wrote for Operation Edgelord that blends elements of Supremacy and Biotechvore. I quite like it having played it now. It might be a bit confusing at first to read, but basically the idea is you want to dominate more quadrants at the end of every turn, not round, for a point. Then you want to subjugate (I didn’t choose the term, Corvus Belli did, and it means to be the only one with models in a quadrant) more quadrants at the end of round for a point. That’s 9 points, and the 10th is from a classified. The trick is that there are four “consoles,” or “chemical tanks” where the supremacy consoles are, and you keep having to patch them up because they’re leaking hazardous chemicals (i.e. biotechvore in the quadrant). Eventually you’re going to run out of specialists and you’ll start taking BTS saves!
I’m really having trouble putting Druze in a Druze list. I guess it’s my aversion to a big 5-man core, I just don’t find big cores interesting and them being big and unwieldy doesn’t fit with my playstyle. It’s hard to get away from the irritation at having to move so many models around and finding a safe place for them in the midfield.
Hmph
GROUP 1
10
1
BRAWLER (Lieutenant) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
CLIPPER DRONBOT Missile Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 16)
ARSLAN MULTI Rifle, Light Shotgun / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 36)
DENMA CONNOLLY Chain Rifle(+1B), Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol(+1B), AP + DA CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
BULLETEER Spitfire / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 26)
VALERYA GROMOZ (Hacker) Combi Rifle, Zapper, Pitcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21)
GROUP 2
KUNAI NINJA (Forward Deployment [+4″]) Shock Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31)
SAITO TOGAN (Specialist Operative) Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 37)
3
ARMAND (Multispectral Visor L1) MULTI Sniper Rifle, Nanopulser ( ) / Breaker Pistol(+1B), Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 39)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 8)
5.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Instead, I put the Clipper in a 3-man to be a threat, and then gave Arslan his own little hit squad. Ordinarily the Brawler hacker and engineer are swapped so I can pick the Clipper back up easily, but in this case I needed the Brawler Engineer to be mobile and move up the table due to the mission. I figured I should abuse the Bulleteer some too. I had originally planned this list to be for Blockade Runner, which is why both Saito and the Kunai are in there to run the HVT, but I figured it would work for this as well.
Pete (YueFei23)
GROUP 1
HSIEN (Lieutenant) MULTI Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser ( | TinBot: Firewall [-6]) / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (+1 | 53)
CSU (Specialist Operative) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 11)
GROUP 2
WÚ MÍNG Heavy Rocket Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 30)
ZHÀNYING (Hacker, Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0.5 | 25)
DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 33)
TÁOWÙ E/Marat, Flash Pulse / Viral Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 21)
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Pete’s taking ISS to do his Hsien YueFei roleplay stuff as the defacto head of the Yu Jing in Edgelord. I passed the Nomad torch to BorisGreyMenace and Razek (CSU_Larry) for the duration of Edgelord, which lets me GM more and play non-Nomad armies for funs and for lore, like now! Pete has his favorite double Wu Ming HRL core accompanied by Hsien YueFei and his CSU bodyguards, and then the second group is full of some Taowu/Deva spice.
Arturo checked his plate carrier one last time, ensuring that his rifle mags were snug in their pouches. It wasn’t that he was worried about the mags, it was more that he wanted to have something to occupy his hands as their transport trundled along in the ammonia tunnels. To be honest, it was a little strange still that he had to check them at all. When he was an Evader, his geist would have been synced to his armor and weapons and he’d have a complete ammo count floating in the corner of his vision at all times.
That was before he had been dishonorably discharged from the Nomad Military Forces though. Tough to get kicked out of the CJC, but you sell enough D-Charges on the black market and eventually someone notices. Arturo turned his attention to his companions for this mission. A motley crew to be sure, with actual space pirates! He’d only been working for Druze Bayram Security for a few months, and while he was comfortable with his fellow Brawlers, he was never sure what to make of the Yuan Yuan. One was just shoveling noodles from the local Lo Pan franchise into his mouth, somehow managing to be both extremely messy and efficient at the same time.
Arturo’s stomach rumbled. He’d have to see about getting some noodles of his own once all this was over, refill some calories from the hard work coming. It wasn’t that he was expecting resistance–the Ariadnan Worker Union (AWU) chapter in this Sterling Forge site was on strike and they had been briefed that it would be empty. The Monosodium Glutamate must flow, so Whole Protein had hired out some Druze to have some armed scabs on site.
The Druze weren’t expected to do the actual mining, of course. Just to make sure that the stored ammonia was safe and sound in the chemical tanks at the collection site. There wasn’t a particular concern, but given ammonia’s propensity to boil off at only 240 Kelvin or so, no one wanted a tank rupture. Like it or not, as the team’s engineer, Arturo was the star of today’s show.
Acting LieutenantAlright. We’re 5 mikes out. The Kunai up ahead has indicated it’s all clear, so we just need to provide some top cover and security for Arturo. Once he’s given the chem tanks the once over, we can get buttoned back up and head out. Keep alert, watch each other’s backs, and especially watch Arturo’s six. He goes down without the tanks getting inspected, we don’t get paid. After they’re inspected, well, we gotta keep him alive to buy first round at the Ducktail, eh Arturo?
Brawler EngineerJaja, you got it Tenienta. We keep the air in our lungs and first round’s on me.
Acting LieutenantYou heard the man!
The transport rolled over a bump, jarring Arturo’s helmet into the panel behind him with an uncomfortable thock. At least they were hitting a Sterling Forge site and not a Rocaworks site, he reassured himself. Dishonorably discharged or not, Arturo was still a Nomad at heart.
Deployment
Pete won the roll off and told me to deploy first, so I just went for it. I always set the Strompost Alpha up a little too dense, but it looks too good on this mat to leave more bare. I like the solid walls to break up movement in the midfield and create some interesting problems to solve. The walls did create a bunch of issues for putting together good shots for Armand and for the Clipper, but I decided to contest the long firelane on the right with the Clipper (thus dictating the positioning of the Brawler hacker and the Lt. I put Valerya and the Clipper over there to be somewhat mobile, and then set up the Kunai in front of them.
I don’t think I put the Bulleteer in a particularly good spot, but I didn’t want to over commit to the center. If anything I should have watched the flank on my right a little more, that would have at least slowed Pete down some there. In any case, with everything on the right I put Arslan’s group on the left, just sort of tucked away knowing they would move up on my turn. Le Muet was in reserve and Saito went on my left basically right on the center line.
Pete challenged the Clipper with both Wu Ming HRL, then spread the Kuang Shi out to guard against Yuan Yuan. This meant the left side was very dense, and Pete set up his Hsien there (or at least telegraphed it with a pair of CSU) to protect it. The right side was pretty weak to match my weak left side, which would prove to be relevant later in the game.
Weak being relative here, it still has Taowu hidden as Adil with a CG smoke grenade guy to cover for the Deva MSV2 spitfire. Then a Warcor, using the lovely Operation Hungry Walrus alternate sculpt, to capture all of Hsien Yue Fei’s exploits! I put Le Muet down watching one of the Wu Ming HRL and then Pete put down his avatar, the Hsien YueFei, in his little CSU nest accompanied by his Gou (dog) and Minerbot carrying a suspicious Durian…
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Druze
Pete wisely took two orders from my second group, even mentioning that it was likely that I “had a bunch of Yuan Yuan in there.” Well, he’s not wrong. The fact that he took from the second group meant the Yuan Yuan were coming on Turn 2, which is probably best anyway–I don’t want have to dig anything out through a bunch of Wu Ming, no thank you.
Given that and the relative oppression of the Wu Ming HRL, and I gave up on really doing damage this turn and instead focused on objectives and setting up. The end of turn scoring means I have effectively guaranteed points on the first turn to collect, and I can probably negate the dominate more quadrants from Pete. It’ll be hard to deny the subjugate though, so we’ll probably be tied leading into turn 2.
Anyway. Very boring turn. All that happens is the Engineer walks up on the left, patches the chemical tank, and then the Brawler Hacker does the same on the right (breaking and reforming the link to not get the Clipper shot). To dominate the quadrant, I revealed the Kunai after the Brawler got back into position to reform the Clipper link.
Arturo sighed heavily, his breath fogging the inside of his helmet. These chemical tanks were in an absolutely atrocious state. The gaskets were badly degraded and in some cases flaking away as he watched. This wasn’t going to be easy at all. He’d just have to do some in field repairs with the available kit he had on him.
Brawler EngineerThese tanks are totalmente jodido, friends. I’m going to need a few minutes to document everything for Whole Protein, apply some repairs as best I can, but we’re looking at a total plant shutdown while we replace the gaskets in all of the plate heat exchangers.
We’re going to have to come back with a whole team, for sure, and–.
Acting LieutenantArturo, you have thirty seconds. We’ve got company. Everyone find cover, and for fuck’s sake DO NOT shoot the chem tanks.
Bottom of 1 – ISS
I’ve got a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of 1, but that won’t last very long. Nothing’s died either, so, like I said, quite a boring turn. At least it was fast! Pete decides that he wants to get rid of Armand, so the tool he chooses is the Deva. I could reveal Saito here to delay this, but I don’t think it’s worth it. At this point I still think Taowu is Adil, and I don’t think Saito is necessarily going to stand up to a Deva MSV2 and Adil in reactive, so I don’t push my luck.
Anyway, the Celestial Guard gets smoke down and the Deva ices Armand in one shot from just within 16″. Well, that was not what I wanted, but at least it took her a few orders to get there. This does, however, let me dodge Armand into view, which is setting me up for a trade.
Pete decides to pull the Deva back to outside of 8″ from Armand and dump a full Spitfire burst into him on 15s. I have the choice here to double template or hit him with a bunch of DA or shock rounds from the MULTI Rifle. As a point of reference, the double shotgun template has an 80% chance to do 1 wound and a 30% chance to do two, uncontested from the burst 5 on BS 15 from the Deva.
Shooting with a shotgun slug to get me to BS16 through smoke is pretty terrible, at 4% chance to drop the Deva in one go. Shock rounds from the MULTI gets me to 11.2% chance to one-shot the Deva, which is better than DA at 7.8% to drop the Deva. So given that the Deva is somewhere in the range of 24.7-35.4% to drop Arslan in one shot, I figure I should just take the best odds on the shotgun and take the trade, which is exactly what happens.
Pete then reveals Adil as Taowu, sealing his Chemical Tank.
At this point Pete decides to be very aggressive with the Hsien, for mostly narrative reasons. He goes for it and fights the Clipper within 24″, which is not bad odds, but still not what I’d want to risk my Lieutenant on…
I crit on the first face to face roll, and thankfully for Hsien YueFei avoids a nasty resurrection bill (for now, at least) by passing 3/4 saves and staying up. Pete tries again and manages to take out the Clipper on the second go.
He quickly snags HVT: Follow Up on my HVT too for good measure.
A little bit of poking around the corner will give the Hsien LoF to Valerya. I write her off and pitcher in ARO.
I land the pitcher and somehow pass the two ARM saves I need to keep Valerya conscious as the Hsien retreats.
This lets me get one Oblivion off as the Hsien tucks all the way in, but Pete beats my rolls thanks to the Tinbot.
Pete breaks the link, long-skills the other Chemical Tank to seal it with his other CSU, then reforms the link.
At this point, the Icestorm CSU is across the centerline on my left. I’ve got a pitcher on the Hsien, and some of the Kuang Shi have shifted a little forward. Tao Wu and the Celestial Guard are sort of vulnerable on the right, and I need to do something about the CSU and the Hsien. The Wu Ming haven’t moved at all.
Turn 2
We tie on dominated quadrants, but the CSU is over the centerline, denying me subjugate on one of my quadrants (markers don’t count anyway). This brings us to 1-2 with Pete leading going into Turn 2.
Top of 2 – Druze
Not a particularly great situation for me to be in, but I confirm Pete’s fears that I have a bunch of Yuan Yuan in group two, to which he responds “oh shit.” I walk one on behind the Hsien, CSU, and a Kuang Shi. It rolls a light flamethrower, which ordinarily is very good, but not really what I need in this exact moment.
I land a second Yuan Yuan the hard way behind Taowu and a pair of Kuang Shi (who both fail their dodges, thankfully). This one rolls +2 ARM, which is what I want.
I then move the first Yuan Yuan into view of the Hsien and lay a template across a CSU adn the Hsien. Both dodge, and the nearby Kuang Shi templates the Yuan Yuan. I pass ARM, thankfully.
The second Yuan Yuan moves into view of the Warcor and the Kuang Shi, and lays a template on the Kuang Shi, Taowu, and the Celestial Guard. The Kuang Shi templates in response. Taowu passes ARM, but the Celestial Guard, Kuang Shi, and the Yuan Yuan do not. Two orders for a Yuan Yuan and a O-12’s prestige command token. I’ll take it.
I had hoped to take out the Icestorm CSU with the Yuan Yuan, but I guess I’ll have to spend some group 1 orders on it.
Valerya takes the duo move forward and I gun the CSU down easily with the Bulleteer, also plugging the gap on the right left by the downed Clipper.
I don’t need to overthink it. Taowu needs to go, and I need to patch up my Chemical Tanks. Denma gets smoke down on the approach to Taowu to defend against the Wu Ming HRL.
I then use the Engineer bonus to WIP roll as a short skill on the Chemical Tank while Denma moves up, breaking the link. Thankfully, I pass even on WIP 12.
Denma enters the smoke to get an intuitive attack off on Taowu.
It only takes me one order, thankfully, and Taowu goes down.
I do a coordinated order to get the Brawler hacker up, move the Kunai, retreat Denma, and put the Engineer prone, then patch the Brawler Hacker’s Chemical Tank and pass turn. With Taowu and the Celestial Guard down, I’m dominating three Quadrants thanks to Denma, taking it to a 2-2 tie.
Bottom of 2 – ISS
Pete gets the Kuang Shi near the live Yuan Yuan into base contact, threatening a chain rifle. I dodge, so the Kuang Shi pistols, hitting once, but I pass ARM.
The CSU breaks the link again and re-patches the now patchless Chemical Tank. Unfortunately for Pete, this does let me dodge the Yuan Yuan away from the Kuang Shi.
Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t thinking about the Wu Ming HRL, which can now see the Yuan Yuan, and I lose the Yuan Yuan immediately. Drat!
Pete then waffles between advancing the Hsien or the CSU, but then we remember that Pete would have to get past hacking and the Bulleteer with the Hsien, so he decides to just throw the CSU under the bus. He starts by basing the Brawler Hacker with the CSU. I shoot with Valerya, judging correctly that we’re out of template range. Pete just wants the repeater down, so he templates the Brawler and the repeater.
Valerya whiffs, the Brawler goes down, but the repeater rolls double 18s on its ARM save against the shotgun! Pete then decides that he can just kill Valerya to remove the hacking problem and goes after her with the CSU. I dodge, as I’m now in template range, so Pete slug modes. I pass the one ARM save I need to…
so he tries again as I fail guts away. The Brawler Engineer can now see this, but he fails to connect. Valerya gets hit twice now, but she passes both saves.
Finally the CSU drops Valerya, but the Brawler engineer drops the CSU.
Pete’s orders in group two are spent trying to remove Denma with the Kuang Shi on his right. I’m in template range, so I dodge and crit on the dodge.
The repeater down, Pete decides to just take shots on the Bulleteer with the Hsien.
It goes very poorly for me and I lose the Bulleteer.
Turn 3
Of note is the fact that Denma rolled +6 BTS on his MetaChemistry roll the first time around, so I obviously kept it for this mission. It comes in handy as the quadrant he’s in is no longer patched, so he passes BTS. The Kuang Shi in there with Denma isn’t so lucky and dies. The other quadrants are patched. I control and subjugate two quadrants, as does Pete, so the score is still 2-2.
Top of 3 – Druze
It’s not so great at the moment, but I have one more Yuan Yuan up my sleeve. I bring him on behind the Hsien, again.
I roll into base contact and we both declare CC. Hsien YueFei is too good and I lose the face to face (but pass ARM). The right thing to do is for the Hsien to dodge and for me to CC in response, but this is a narrative battle report!
Of course, this is in full view of the Wu Ming, who just delete the Yuan Yuan in a hail of rockets. Ah well.
The Hsien is vulnerable, so I decide to use my Brawler Lt to get rid of it. I hop off the roof and take shots at range, but the Hsien passes ARM and fails guts out of LoF.
I just commit, comes around the corner, and shotgun the Hsien down. I lose the Brawler to HRL shots, but this was worth it.
I move the Kunai into my far right quadrant, hoping to survive the Chemical Leak, spend a long skill on the Engineer to guarantee the patch in that quadrant, and reveal Saito to get points in the quadrant.
With the Hsien down and Denma and the Kunai making their saves, I have more quadrants, pushing it to a 3-2 lead for me going into the bottom of 3.
Bottom of 3 – ISS
Pete spends his loss of lieutenant turn attempting to move things forward into the quadrants. He starts with one of the Wu Ming HRL, who tries to fight my Kunai, gets crit, and passes both ARM saves.
Next is the Warcor jumping off the roof…
Saito and Denma try to take it out, but fail.
Finally, the last Kuang Shi tucks into my near right quadrant.
At this point, only one quadrant is patched, and the chemical leaks kill Denma, the Kuang Shi, and the Kunai. None of Pete’s other models made it into quadrants, meaning my Engineer is the only thing in a quadrant on the whole table.
With Saito securing Pete’s HVT, this brings me to a
6-2, 63-143 Druze Bayram Security Victory!
Arturo could feel the ruptures through his boots as three of the four chemical tanks blew, obscuring Denma entirely in a cloud of ammonia droplets. Arturo’s geist mercifully muted audio from the main channel to hide the wet coughs and gurgles of the rest of the squad as the pure ammonia ate through their BTS and turned their lungs to sludge.
Arturo glanced down at the rapidly failing seal on the tank in front of him and began backing away from it. He just had to get to the transport and then he could get out of here. The Wu Ming didn’t seem to be too interested in negotiating the ammonia clouds, so Arturo took his chance and started running for the transport, his heart thumping in his ears in time with his footfalls as the ammonia clouds began engulfing his recently vacated position.
As he ran, Arturo’s geist rapid-fire flickered through the helmet cams of his squad and displayed the feed in the corner of Arturo’s vision. Most of the feeds just showed the ground, or were just test patterns due to camera damage. The feed from Lydia’s helmet caught his attention. The lens was badly cracked from the heat of the HRL rounds, but there was enough of the lens intact to discern movement!
Arturo slowed. Was Lydia still alive? He realized then it wasn’t the Lydia’s helmet moving, which would mean she was possibly alive, but something moving in front of the camera. What was that? It looked like… a worm? Then it was out of frame. He’d have to analyze the footage later, the lights of the transport in the mid distance a far more attractive prospect than venturing into a concentrated cloud of ammonia to investigate what probably was his visual cortex playing tricks on him.
Post Game Analysis
I like the mission! I think it’s a good balance of forcing objective play, has demands on pacing, and gives you options as both first and second player to to score points on all turns. The patch tokens is a little finicky, but I couldn’t think of a cleaner way to handle the state tracking that would be unambiguous. This was definitely more of a narrative game–I think at a tournament Pete would have shoved the Wu Ming into my face much earlier.
That said, I do think that my call to drop the LSG templates from Arslan onto the Deva was good. I also think I had an awkward placement for Armand. Potentially setting him up to fight at a longer range would have been good. I also think I should drop some of the Yuan Yuan and add in Bashi. Maybe do 9+1 Bashi in group 1 and then 2+3 Yuan Yuan in Group 2? That’s perhaps a workable list. I do wish the Kunai had a specialist profile too.
In terms of my own pacing, I think I definitely messed up the way I handled the Brawler hacker, going out and back wasn’t all that smart. Also, I got very lucky with Valerya, which absolutely changed the game in my favor. Still, it makes for good narrative! Thanks to Pete for the game and for helping GM Operation Edgelord!
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