Crane Style
After a somewhat frustrating game against Steel on the airplane table where they start at -12 before range mods (Mim -6, cover, low vis)
I decided to give it another go via a lunchtime game against James (RomanLegion).
Overview
- Mission: ITS14 Frostbyte
- Forces: Imperial Service versus Morat Aggression Force (300)
- Deploy First: ISS
- First Turn: MAF
It occurred to me that I could have a whopping 8.5 SWC in a 300 point list in ISS, so I decided to just take all the guns and MSV2. RAWR. It’s a pretty similar list as before, but I added in a Deva and a Bao. Also I wanted to try the Hsien MULTI Rifle because that sounded fun in discussions with Pete (YueFei23).
Qualified Immunity
GROUP 1
8
4
CRANE AGENT (Lieutenant, Sensor, Triangulated Fire, X Visor) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) ( ) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (+1.5 | 46)
DAKINI MULTI Sniper Rifle / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 20)
DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 33)
GROUP 2
CELESTIAL GUARD Monitor Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 13)
KUANG SHI Chain Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
HSIEN (Specialist Operative]) MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (+1 | 50)
BÀO TROOP MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 29)
ZHÀNYING (Hacker, Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0.5 | 25)
HÙSÒNG Yaókòng Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24)
SON-BAE Yaókòng Missile Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 16)
8.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
James is playing Morats, still proxying a fair amount of his Yu Jing as he builds out his actual combined models. He’s taking two drop troops and a Gaki order battery, as one might expect.
James (RomanLegion)
GROUP 14
KORNAK (Lieutenant [+1 Order], Strategos L1) Mk12, Light Flamethrower / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 45)
SURYAT (Multispectral Visor L1) Heavy Rocket Launcher ( | TinBot: Firewall [-3]) / MULTI Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (1.5 | 36)
DARTOK (Hacker) Combi Rifle, Pitcher, Cybermines / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 25)
OZNAT FTO Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Shock CC Weapon, Heavy Pistol. (0 | 16)
GAKI AP CC Weapon. (0 | 4)
GROUP 2
RASYAT Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Eclipse Grenades / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
DROPSUIT TARYOT Boarding Shotgun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 22)
YAOGAT MULTI Sniper Rifle(+1B) / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35)
ANYAT K1 Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Smoke Grenades, E/M Grenades / CC Weapon, Heavy Pistol. (0 | 24)
MORAT VANGUARD (Paramedic) Combi Rifle ( | MediKit) / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 16)
Q-DRONE Plasma Rifle / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24)
IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) Light Flamethrower(+1B), Flash Pulse / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 9)
4.5 SWC | 300 Points | Open in Army | Copy Code
Deployment
James took deployment, so I took second turn. I put my Husong watching the various midfield consoles and the Son Bae watching the far right flank. I wanted to protect the Hsien and Bao as I suspected I’d need to use them this game, so they went in the middle. That meant the Crane and Deva went on the left.
James deployed Yaogat his left, intending to rush them forward and do a bunch of damage with them. His Suryat link went in the middle and the Gaki order battery went on the right.
My reserve was the Dakini watching a long diagonal firelane.
Turn 1
Top of 1 – MAF
I took two orders from the Yaogat, as I could read the writing on the wall. James started off by setting up smoke with Anyat and then challenging the Son Bae through the smoke with the Yaogat, taking it out.
Next up was the Husong on my left. Bah.
Then James decided to land a Rasyat, which was supremely irritating as I failed my dodge to get away from it.
The Rasyat comes walking in and I template instead of firing the MULTI Rifle against its dodge, which I think was a big mistake. I think I was hoping the nearby Zhanying would come through for me and land a hit, but she whiffs horribly.
James then manages to land a pitcher near my Hsien, who he thinks is my lieutenant.
He’s then decides to challenge the Dakini MSR with the Suryat, which is actually pretty reasonable for him, but the saturation zone comes through for me and I get one die through. James fails both saves and the Suryat goes down. I’ll take it!
I then lose the face to face with the Hsien versus the Dartok’s oblivion, and James retreats, smugly assuming I’m in loss.
Bottom of 1 – ISS
I don’t want to disappoint James by not being in loss of lieutenant, so I kill my own Crane trying to get rid of the Rasyat.
I mop up the Rasyat with the Deva at least, or that would have been a real problem.
With a guarantee of being in loss this next turn, I need to make the best of this one. I force the Yaogat back into cover using my remaining Husong.
This lets me get a Kuang Shi forward and force a dodge from the Yaogat.
I keep pushing, continuing to force dodges.
Eventually I can see both the Yaogat and Anyat and force a dodge on both of them, contesting with pistols…
but it doesn’t work and the Yaogat enters base to base.
One of the Kuang Shi clears the repeater and I shuffle the Hsien forward and try to reset, but fail. I shuffle things into positions to fight Anyat and the Yaogat, and pass turn.
Turn 2
Top of 2 – MAF
James reveals his second drop troop and lands on the Deva, who successfully dodges into close combat.
The Dropsuit tries to fight the Deva but she punches it in the face and drops it. Anyat sets up smoke on the Yaogat so I don’t get free shots on it if the Yaogat activates. Smart.
With that complete, the Yaogat tries to heavy pistol the Kuang Shi off of him, but the State Emperor protects and I successfully KO the Yaogat instead.
Anyat tries next with the Vanguard in tow. She lands a hit but the Kuang Shi passes ARM somehow.
Kornak has plenty of orders though, and he starts pushing around the table to try and make things difficult for me, taking out a Kuang Shi on the way in.
Eventually Kornak sees the Deva and she fights him to a standstill.
Kornak retreats and the Q-Drone advances to try and hold the center.
Bottom of 2 – ISS
I’m in loss now, so I just do the best I can. I try to get the Kuang Shi killed by Anyat so I can just shoot her, but she passes ARM so they’re stuck together. The Hsien then spends its order to drop the Q-Drone.
The Deva pushes on Kornak and does a wound.
I spend a command token to prosecute this fight and take out Kornak, removing him from the table.
The Husong near Anyat fights the Vanguard and succeeds only in forcing it back into cover.
I move a bunch of Kuang Shi forward to lock Anyat down. She dodges out of close combat. I then nominate the Zhanying as my new Lt before passing turn.
Turn 3
Top of 3 – MAF
Anyat splits burst between the TR bot and one of the Kuang Shi. She goes down, but not before taking the Kuang Shi with her.
The Dartok moves to secure the central objective, flipping on a heater and also dropping a Cybermine. The Gaki are kind of useless now, as they’re not Veteran, which is the danger of taking them.
That limits James’s options, so it’s back to me.
Bottom of 3 – ISS
My remaining Kuang Shi drops the Vanguard, finally, and then it’s time to secure the central zone, turn on a heater, and save as many points as I can.
The Zhanying manages to get a heater on for my deployment zone…
then I get the Hsien into the central zone to outpoint everything in there.
I can get a classified off the Suryat, so I send in the Dakini, trying to remove the Dartok. It doesn’t work, so I just commit.
The Dakini makes it into base with the Suryat and fails its first attempt at In Extremis Recovery, but somehow passes both Cybermine saves while the Dartok whiffs an Oblivion.
This lets me make another attempt and I succeed on the WIP roll this time.
The Zhanying is standing next to James’s HVT, so I get a point for that as well.
Kornak was James’s Master Breacher, and the Zhanying was mine, so the Dartok dies in the center along with the Kuang Shi, making it a
9-0, 194-41 Imperial Service Victory!
Post Game Analysis
Shockingly, I had too many guns this game. The Bao was a little redundant and kind of useless on this table because of the saturation zone. I was pretty happy with the Deva though, she performed quite well. I’m very annoyed with the Crane though–I should have swapped the deployment there. I think the issue is that I’m tying the Crane’s deployment to the Dakini’s deployment, which forces a corner spot, letting things like the Rasyat come on.
I could have probably pushed the Deva into close combat to make things a little better, odds-wise there, but I decided to be a little too aggressive. I briefly considered shooting into close combat, but decided to decisively handle the issue. EIther I win the fight or I get to shoot the Rasyat. Either way it’s a dead Rasyat, it’s just that one way ends with me being in loss.
It’s much better to go into loss on your turn because you can then set up for the following turn, which I think I did effectively. I liked my use of the Kuang Shi on the right side to basically pin the Yaogat and more or less take it out of the game. It did take a significant amount of orders to do though. It was a bit annoying to have the Hsien isolated, but James is a Yu Jing player and knows how dangerous they can be, making them a priority target for him.
I do think that I need to think more carefully about force projection in ISS–taking a Garuda or a Ninja would help quite a bit. I also kind of want to explore Kanren a bit more, they feel like they could use a bit of love. James’s big mistake I think was pushing so hard with Kornak. I think he just sort of felt like needed “to do something,” which is generally a recipe for disaster in these games. If you don’t have a clear plan to get some useful return on investment, maybe consider doing something else. Getting Kornak to safety would have been a good plan too. I think James just wanted to remove my tools but Kornak had to move too far to do it. Losing the Suryat in the initial exchange with the Dakini was a big deal as that was a big part of James’s plan to push with that combat group. Kornak in that group is a secondary gun.
I should revisit Morats myself. I want to explore Zerats some and see what I can come up with, but I think ITS15 is going to be the year of vanilla for me. We’ll see how I feel as the missions are revealed soon. Thanks for reading.
