Perfidious Parachutists
Well, after our first tournament practice game:
it was still mid-afternoon. So after a break to pet the dog and grab a drink, we reconfigured the table and went back for round two.
Overview
- Mission: ITS13 Firefight
- Forces: Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor versus Combined Army
- Deploy First: Combined Army
- First Turn: Combined Army
I requested Firefight to try out my Firefight list. We had just played Supplies, and I felt like Supremacy was possibly too similar in tone for a second game of the day. In any case, this is what I ended up cooking up for Firefight:
Firefight & Supremacy
GROUP 1
8
1
ALGUACIL (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 10)
LOBO (NCO) Red Fury, Flash Pulse(+1B) / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (1 | 33)
DIABLO Light Shotgun / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Trench-Hammer. (0 | 15)
WILDCAT Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 23)
JAGUAR Adhesive Launcher, Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 11)
GROUP 2
CARLOTA KOWALSKY Breaker Combi Rifle, Light Flamethrower, Adhesive Launcher(+1B), D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 34)
MORIARTY PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 4)
TOMCAT (Doctor) Combi Rifle, Light Flamethrower ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 22)
2
GECKO MULTI Marksman Rifle(+1B), Chain Rifle, Panzerfaust / CC Weapon. (1 | 56)
GECKO PILOT Combi Rifle / Assault Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
SEÑOR MASSACRE Boarding Shotgun, Eclipse Grenades, E/M Grenades / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
DIGGER Chain Rifle(+1B), Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon(+1B). (0 | 14)
TRANSDUCTOR ZOND Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
HELLCAT (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 29)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
Between Carlota, the Tomcat Doctor, the Hellcat, and the Wildcat (all the cats, apparently), I felt I had pretty good coverage on all the classifieds. The models that I deploy have zero specialists, allowing me to dictate exactly where and when I want to risk specialists thanks to AD. I also took the Zondcats, to allow me to pick up any of my downed models if the opportunity arose.
The rest of the list is just killing power and area control. I can’t take Morans because they’re specialists, and I want to deny as many targets as possible, so I have to push a bunch of templates into the midfield. I took a correctional link with a Lobo NCO, Diablo, two Jaguar, and a Wildcat HRL. The second group has a Gecko link with some serious stabbing power in the form of Massacre and a Digger.
Basically the plan is to take as many asymmetric trades as possible while carefully shepherding my three AD troops. The only downside is that to get all the orders I wanted, I had to take an Alguacil Lt, which also impacted my top end power because of the SWC cost. The list needs some work, but I really wanted to try the Lobo NCO. Perhaps I’ll try for a Sombra Red Fury in another incarnation of the list, or an Intruder. Ideally I’d figure out a plan to include a Brigada Lt but that’s very hard to fit in the list due to the Gecko.
Erik took the same list as he did from the last game, you can have a look at the previous battle report linked above for a discussion of that.
Moneymaker v 2
GROUP 1GROUP 2
KO DALI (Parachutist, Combat Jump) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Assault Pistol(+1B), AP CC Weapon. (0 | 39)
KAITOK Chain Rifle(+2B), Flammenspeer / Heavy Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 22)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) Light Flamethrower(+1B), Flash Pulse / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 9)
RINDAK (Paramedic, Forward Deployment [+8″]) Submachine Gun, Flash Pulse(+1B) / Heavy Pistol, PARA CC Weapon. (0 | 31)
SOGARAT (Lieutenant) AP Heavy Machine Gun, Pulzar / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 56)
R-DRONE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8)
TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
CALIBAN (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
OZNAT FTO Vulkan Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 18)
Bit (Hacker [UPGRADE: Oblivion, UPGRADE: Trinity]) Submachine Gun, Pitcher ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 20)
SHROUDED MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 25)
4.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army
Deployment
I won the rolloff again, and kept table side out of sheer laziness. The table was sufficiently shuffled to have a different feel, so I wasn’t worried about that. Erik had a very similar deployment as the last game, but went even harder on the AD troop protection, stacking multiple template AROs on the table edges. What he didn’t do, much to my excitement, was have anything facing backwards to honor Carlota.
I had a pretty similar deployment as the last game, castling the 5-model link on the left and the 3-model link on the right. I left the Warcor out to ARO a significant portion of the board this time. I didn’t have a great spot for the Alguacil Lt, but I decided to just put her somewhere not 100% awful. Honestly it’s not really the best spot, as the corridor funnels death to her, but I felt like behind the boxes was a little too open.
Erik put his Sogorat down as his reserve again. I originally had planned on putting the Gecko behind the Airlock terrain, but with Bit and Kiss and the Kaitok on that side I figured I’d be better off putting more space between the Gecko and hacking as well as defending the corridor with a panzerfaust ARO. This meant I wouldn’t be able to form the link at deployment, but I was kinda okay with that.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Combined Army
Same plan as last game. Stay alive and drain orders. I docked two orders from the second pool again to maximize chances of this. The first Taigha popped out of the corridor network and dodged past a pair of ADHL shots and a flash pulse.
I traded a Jaguar for it by just dumping two chainrifles into it as it came into close combat. A great trade for Erik, but I also wanted to just be done with the Taigha. It felt an acceptable trade to me in terms of headspace control for me and options control for him.
Erik then spent some time setting up more mines with the Libertos and grabbing a bunch of stuff out of the Panoplies. One of the Oznats got a MULTI Rifle so she posted up in a corner and went into suppressive to delay the Gecko’s advance.
The Sogorat then went on a rampage, taking out the Warcor and a Transductor before Erik passed turn.
Bottom of 1 – Corregidor
Well, my objective this turn was to just do damage. Erik had left me a gaping hole to bring Carlota on, so I did exactly that and one-shotted the Sogorat Lt in the back. I had a 79.72% chance to do one wound, 38.30% to do two, and 8.81% to just take the Sogorat off the table. 10ish percent is pretty reasonable odds, and that’s what happened! I’ll take it!
Even if the Sogorat turned around after getting shot, I’d still have it out of cover and would have excellent odds to finish it off on another order:
| 68.18 | 25.95 | 5.87 |
As it stood, with it only taking one order I could take the nearest threat to Carlota off the table by going after the nearby Ikadron.
The Oznat on the other side of the corridor system was also a threat, so the Lobo took the NCO order and just blapped it off the table.
I’m out of orders in my primary group now, but I have plenty of orders in my secondary group. I’m not too enthused about pushing forward with the Gecko at the moment, especially since the Digger has grenades and is within 8″ of some models. I start chucking grenades, hoping to clear some mines. I fail a bunch of grenade speculative fires, but force the Oznat to break suppression.
Eventually I tag the Oznat with a grenade with the Rindak dodging away. During the course of this, I hit a mine twice, but it passes both ARM saves! Irritating!
I could have spent a few orders reforming the Gecko link here, but I think having a bunch of safe grenade throws on 10s felt pretty good.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Combined Army
Erik’s in loss of lieutenant now, which is great for me. He has a few Morats on the table, so he has some options, but not many. He’s holding a Taigha and the Kaitok in his deployment zone to defend against more Tomcats, which is smart–I’ve definitely got more AD waiting to come on the board, and I really want them there. Erik spends some time improving some models positions, and then gets HVT: Designation with his Caliban FO. Definitely good work there.
He was really worried about the Gecko, so in addition to setting up a repeater on the Digger and the Gecko’s forward path with Bit and Kiss, he also pushed an Ikadron into the tunnel system.
Finally, he pinned Carlota in place by putting an R-Drone onto a piece of elevated terrain his deployment zone to threaten her with a flash pulse from outside 16″.
Bottom of 2 – Corregidor
Things are going reasonably well. I should spend the turn continuing to apply pressure and maybe setting up for a classified. I think I can hold onto both the Tomcat Doctor and the Hellcat Hacker until the final turn–I don’t really need them to do anything just yet and being able to respond to an opening is pretty important. I decide to just go after Erik’s order pool by bullying things with flash pulses. This has the added benefit of getting rid of the R-Drone that is pinning Carlota. First I have to get past the Ikadron in the tunnels, which the Gecko handles with ease.
The Gecko is close to the Shrouded MSR, but it’s still in camo state. The Rindak is hiding prone behind some boxes, so I can’t template both to pop the camo. I send in the correctional link, hoping to bait Erik into revealing the Shrouded. He bites, and we trade MSR and panzerfaust fire from the PzF Jaguar. I win and drop the Shrouded.
This lets me get the Diablo into view of the Caliban thanks to the linked movement. The Caliban decides to template me, so I triple template back and erase it. I even pass ARM!
At this point I decide to try and take out the R-Drone with the Gecko, but get flash pulsed, so I send the Lobo in to finish the job.
After repositioning the correctional link, I grab Net Undermine with Carlota. Had I been more clever, I would have moved Moriarty forward last turn while Carlota was doing her thing to support the Gecko and/or dive it into the corridors to do some mine clearing.
With my last few orders, I retreat the Gecko to safety.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – Combined Army
Erik finds a spot to drop in Ko Dali. I still have a pretty reasonable set of AROs on the right, forcing Ko Dali to drop in really close. This allows me to dodge the Gecko into view of her and threaten a chain rifle. The Libertos goes to unstick her and tries to shotgun the Gecko a bunch, eventually doing a wound.
The Rindak tries to SMG the Gecko next, so I chain rifle in response. That fails, but my Jaguar glues the Rindak with his ADHL. Importantly, the Rindak spends a Lieutenant order to do this, so I know who Erik’s new Lt is.
The Liberto and Gecko trade templates, and unfortunately I fail both ARM saves, losing the Gecko. At least the Libertos is dogged and I won’t have to deal with it on my next turn.
The turn ends with Ko Dali killing my Lieutenant.
Bottom of 3 – Corregidor
I’m pretty confident that I’ve killed more things, so I just need to stay mostly alive, kill the Rindak to kill more Lieutenants, and get my last two classifieds. I’ve got enough command tokens to flip some orders, so I’m feeling pretty confident in my ability to do all of this even in Loss of Lieutenant. I break the Lobo, the Jaguar, and the Diablo out of the link, and they all spend their irregular orders shooting the Rindak. Eventually the Diablo finishes it off.
This lets me drop in the Hellcat Hacker and get HVT: Kidnapping. I don’t need to get HVT: Designation, since I’m securing the HVT.
I decide I could probably get some more padding on points, so I try to take out Ko Dali. First I flash pulse her from behind…
then send in Deadpool. I hit with a shotgun slug, but she shrugs it off and dodges out of Line of Fire. I bring on the Tomcat Doctor and end the game.
I’ve got 190 something points and Erik’s got 90 something points, so I definitely have killed more. I’ve killed two Lieutenants to his one and some number of specialists to his zero, but he has more things from the Panoplies. This makes it a
9-1 Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor Victory!
Post Game Analysis
So the list works. Probably more fragile than the game lets on. There is a ton of pressure on the command tokens if the Alguacil goes down, and the Lieutenant is both obvious and squishy. I think my snipe of Erik’s Lieutenant at the bottom of 1 bought me the win by stalling out his momentum. That and applying the right amount of aggression at the right time. I think there is a better list though, with a more resilient lieutenant. I definitely felt undergunned this game in the past 24″ rangeband. I also may want to consider bringing the Morans back in, but the camo variants to get Koalas in the midfield. I can probably ditch the Tomcat Doctor, I think that’s only two classifieds and it’s pretty unlikely for me to have to take both–I can secure for one of them anyway.
I think modern Corregidor with a Gecko sort of wants a Intruder MSR to hit out past 24″. I may have to rethink my list to accomodate that. I’m also think Massacre is probably an over-investment, especially with the Digger providing a fair amount of his toolkit (and more with grenades). I do miss out on the smoke, but I figure I can just shoot my way out of the problem with the Gecko. If I have an Intruder that will definitely let me handle the problem as well.
I really did enjoy playing this list though–it’s like playing two limited insertion lists simultaneously, which is perversely fun for me. I’m still a little confused as to the ultimate purpose the Lobo and Diablo and how they slot into my playstyle, but I’m warming up to them. Having a second NCO profile so I can have the Wildcat HRL in the link is valuable, and having decent CC skills is also appealing. I do think that the Digger is quite nice, but doesn’t necessarily need to be in the Gecko link–it would be better supporting an Alguacil link or something.
There’s more to explore here–perhaps I can thread the needle and use a Brigada ML as both ARO and attack. Durable enough, and can reach out and touch things that the 24″ guns in the list can’t do. The only trouble is I lose the correctional link, which I actually think is pretty strong and toolboxy in Corregidor. Would be worth thinking about some more. One thing is certain–the Lieutenant needs to be different for Firefight. I was too greedy in list composition and only my initial momentum carried me over the finish line.
Thank to Erik for another great game, and thanks to you for reading!
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