Equivalent Exchange
I’d been doing a fair amount of practice with Bakunin trying to figure out the (at the time) new Bakunin. I’m let’s just say an embarrassingly huge number of batreps behind, so this was actually played closer to when the Bakunin update actually landed. Anyway. I’m playing Cord (DukeThundercock) in round one of a local 14-player tournament.
Overview
It’s an escalation tournament, starting at 200 with Engineering Deck.
- Mission: Engineering Deck 2.0
- Forces: Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin versus Jursdictional Command of Bakunin (OpFor) (200)
- Deploy First: Bad-kunin
- First Turn: Bad-kunin
This is a rework of my list that I played against Erik (Zelaponeepus):
Engineering Deck v3
MODERATOR (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 9)
RIOT GRRL Missile Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 32)
ZOE FTO-2 (Hacker) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 25)
Π-WELL FTO Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse(+1B), Pitcher / PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 19)
SIN-EATER (Marksmanship) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 35)
BRAN DO CASTRO Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
CHIMERA Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Viral CC Weapon, Pistol. (0 | 19)
2X PUPNIK DA CC Weapon. (0 | 2)
8
2
1 | 3.5 SWC | 200 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
I didn’t have a chance to practice again, which I really wanted to. I wasn’t sure how Bran was going to slot into my plan, but the other tools seemed okay to me.
Cord’s list was a barebones Moderator link powering a Riot Grrl missile and a Kusanagi/Cenobite/Orphan link to go out and do stuff. He’s bringing the full Uberfall and a bunch of Morlocks.
GROUP 1
KUSANAGI Spitfire, Zapper / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 41)
CENOBITE Light Shotgun / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 21)
ORPHAN Submachine Gun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 14)
GROUP 2
STEMPLER ZOND Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 16)
MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Assault Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 6)
3 SWC | 200 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
I knew going second was key, so I chose deployment. Cord obliged by giving me second turn, now all I had to do was survive. There was an elevated position on on his left where he castled the Morlocks and Riot Grrl with a Stempler nearby. The Kusanagi Haris went on the right, and three Morlocks were spread out across the table.
I put the Sin Eater in a position where I had a shot on the Orphan, then tucked my links in positions where I thought they coudl cover each other well, with the Riot Grrl on the right covering the Sin Eater with her missile. I put my own Uberfall down to screen my Lieutenant and Zoe, and that was that.
Cord plunked his full Uberfall down on his left and then I put Bran next to Kusanagi on a roof. I think this was a huge mistake, and I should have put Bran on my right to just go and delete all the Moderators.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – Badkunin
Anyway. I take orders from Cord’s first group and we’re off. The Sin Eater starts off by deleting the first Morlock to move. Cord wanted to set up smoke for the Orphan, so this was actually a pretty important interaction.
With the Orphan pinned, Cord started moving the Uberfall. I had deployed pretty conservatively against the Riot Grrl, but probably shouldn’t have–fighting with a burst 2 ML really isn’t efficient or safe, and I was just a little too conservative. Setting up both the Sin Eater and the Riot Grrl watching it would have been better. Holding the Riot in reserve and leveraging my flexible links would have been pretty good, especially if it meant I could have tagged this formation with a missile:
Anyway, one of the remaining Morlock long bombs smoke for the Chimera, but I can see right through it with my Riot Grrl, so I’m not worried.
Cord realizes this and has to spend an order to chuck smoke with the Chimera, which is both good and bad. I was sporting and let him know of this issue instead of catching him in the smoke unawares with a missile template–that just seemed rude.
The Pupniks dodge out of the smoke, and I’m in some trouble now.
I lose both Pi Well and the Sin Eater to the Pupnik swarm. Quite irritating, especially given the odds are in my favor with the Sin Eater’s pistol in the sense that I have almost a 70% chance for the Pupnik to die or for nothing to happen:
| 34.4 | 31.8 | 33.7 |
At least I dodge my own Pupnik into base with one of Cord’s. And now things continue to get worse with Bran fighting Kusanagi.
It takes the remainder of Cord’s orders but he manages to take Bran out.
Bottom of 1 – Bakunin
With that it’s to me. I need to stabilize and get some points on the table. I’m not entirely too sure how I’m going to do that with so much of my list gone and my tools to remove the Riot Grrl missing. Cord was out of orders to reposition the Chimera, and my own Chimera’s impetuous order took her past his, out of LoF until the end of my first short skill movement. The free shot in the back kills the Chimera, but at the cost of one of my Pupniks.
I start working on Predator by coup-de-gracing the Chimera with the Moderator Paramedic.
Zoe and the Paramedic manage to get two consoles flipped. I do attempt to land a MediKit on the Sin Eater but whiff the shot. Very sad.
Unfortunately for me, I had to do some crawl-crawling to get around the Riot Grrl on overwatch, so I ran out of orders to anything more substantial or get any of my stuff to safety. This would soon be relevant.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – Badkunin
I’ve been playing a pretty reactive game, and everything is out of position. I lose the Moderator Paramedic to an assault pistol Morlock.
The Chimera dies to the Orphan as Kusanagi moves around to push buttons…
and the Stempler takes out the Moderator Spitfire, which was going to be part of my plan for recovery. The Riot ML dies to Kusanagi, and then it’s my turn again.
Bottom of 2 – Bakunin
Well, I’m in retreat, but Zoe with her Key Ops order and my Lieutenant manage to get the job done, finishing off both Pupniks to get me In Extremis Recovery and Predator.
It’s a
4-6, 37-174 Badkunin Victory!
Post Game Analysis
This game came down to one key mistake–which was putting Bran on the left instead of the right. If I had put him on the right, the Uberfall would have had to contend with him first, which would have protected my orders. Had they not deal with him, he goes and kills all the Moderators. At that point, Cord has no orders and might even be in loss of lieutenant, depending.
There were other minor improvements possible, like holding the Riot Grrl in reserve instead and counter-deploying the Uberfall and forcing the fight between both Riot Grrl MLs. That probably wouldn’t have worked out well for me, because I’d be on 10s versus 14s after some Morlock smoke, but hey, what are you gonna do.
| 26.0 | 12.1 | 61.9 |
Still, 26% isn’t nothing. I’m happy with my execution, but I just started with half my list missing so it was quite difficult to recover. At this point level there’s just significantly less room for error, and I made some pretty big ones. Well played to Cord, and I’m looking forward to a rematch!
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