Aleph VS Pan-O Battle Report

[Peanut]

I really enjoyed my game with Nate last night so I thought I'd do a quick write-up (not quite a battle report) during my prep to help me think about it: I want to thank Nate for excellent sportsmanship and being a really fun opponent.

 

Scenario/Points:

Consoles: 300 Points

This was just an on-the fly scenario: Four consoles spaced evenly out on the field that could be hacked by a hacker at +3 or any other specialist at -3. We also had two classifieds.

 

Players:

• Nate - Aleph (Picked Deployment, went second)
  • Classifieds: Telemetry (Forward Observe one enemy model) and HVT: Espionage (?) (hack my HVT)

 Aleph

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Group 1   9 / 0 / 0

 PROXY Mk.1 Engineer Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (14)

 PROXY Mk.2 MULTI Sniper Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 24)

 DAKINI Tacbot Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (15)

 NAGA (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)

 DAKINI Tacbot Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse. (15)

 GARUDA Tacbot HMG / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 30)

 SCYLLA Hacker (Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser + 2 Devabots / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (0.5 | 36)

 DEVABOT Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (7)

 DASYU (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (36)

 DEVA Lieutenant (G: Synchronized) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser+Devabot / Pistol, Knife. (27)

 DEVABOT Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (4)

 DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 33)

 

Group 2 0

 ZAYIN Rebot HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26)

 NETROD Electric Pulse. (4)

 LAMEDH Rebot Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (8)

 NETROD Electric Pulse. (4)

 

 6 SWC | 299 Points

 

Open with Army 5

 

• Brad - Pan-O (first turn, first deployment)
  • Classifieds: HVT Espionage and Extreme Prejudice (perform a Coup De Gras)

 

PanOceania

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Group 1 9 1 0

FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)

FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)

FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (10)

BOUNTY HUNTER Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (13)

AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (15)

AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (4)

AUXILIA (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle + AUXBOT_1 / Pistol, Knife. (15)

AUXBOT_1 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (4)

KNIGHT HOSPITALLER Doctor (MediKit) MULTI Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (41)

KNIGHT OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE Spitfire / Pistol, EXP CCW. (2 | 54)

PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (16)

CROC MAN Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (29)

 

Group 2 3 0 0

KAMAU Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 24)

BAGH-MARI (Minelayer) MULTI Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)

NISSE MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 34)

 

5.5 SWC | 299 Points

 

Open with Army 5

 

Terrain:

 

Our terrain was just the stuff off the walls in Red Castle. We used a lot of those tall ugly brown blocks that I guess are supposed to represent mountains, or maybe the insides of caves, some trees for low vis on both flanks, and some pipes/fences/logs for cover scattered throughout. The terrain was sparse but not too sparse, there were plenty of times either of us could carefully move up and stay out of our opponents line of sight, but it took some finesse.

 

Deployment:

 

I deployed first and decided to put my Nisses sniper in one corner behind a low-vis zone and my bagh mari on a hill in the other corner prone, with his minelayer mine right by the console closest to him. I had the pathfinder on my left flank within one move of the nearest console so my hacker could hack through him and capture it (which worked), an auxilia team on both sides due to my fear of TO and ODD, and pretty much everything else behind a large mountainy thing in the middle of the board facing back to provide protection against anything scary that could come down. I had planned to do most of my work through the pathfinder (which ended up working but not the way I'd planned). I kept my holoprojector 2 sepulchre knight in reserve. After Nate's deployment I put the knight and his two holoechoes out front behind some low cover but in LoF of Nate's guys. My hope was to waste some of his order pool on going after the knight. This worked somewhat, but it was a bad trade and I would play it differently. More on that.

 

Nate deployed very well - He started with his TR bot on the highest point in his deployment zone (on top of one of those dumb mountain things) with a prone engineer right behind it. This caused me some anxiety! Fortunately he placed his TR bot right in the line of sight of my Nisse. He placed everything else in full cover I believe, with an even spread of forces across the board with a bit more emphasis on his right flank (where I had less emphasis). He deployed many of his guys prone behind pipes and stuff. He also placed two infilitrating camo markers just ahead of the console closest to him on the right side, locking it down. His list had a lot of TO drops as well as an airborne infilitrator that were not on the board. Last, nate dropped his two netrods right in the middle of the map (probably worried they would scatter off the board if he dropped them anywhere else). 

 

At this point I felt like I was outdeployed, but it turned out to be not as bad as I thought.

 

First turn:

 

My multi-sniping, msv2, low-vis and covered Nisse spent the first order going after the TR bot who was already in his LoF. The bot returned fire but ended up needed something like 2's to hit (and didn't get any). The Nisse, often my MVP, did two wounds to the bot. With his mechanic right there, that wouldn't do. He spent an additional order splitting his shots between that bot and a G-Sync Flame bot. The flame bot dodge out of the way to cover and the TR bot was fully destroyed. Whew!

 

My pathfinder moved up and split his burst against the two defenseless netrods. Both were destroyed. Great! He then moved to just past the front left console closest to me and did a sensor to try to reveal the two camo markers on the other side of the mountain. He was just out of range! The hacker spent an order getting the console through the pathfinder and failed (needed a 16). So he spent another order and failed again. So then he spent another order and succeeded! With few orders left I took another shot at the flame bot with the nisses, and the bot dodged out of the way to full cover. My hacker ran towards the closer console to me on my right flank and was taken down by a lucky aro shot from a combi remote across the field. Damn.

 

Nate's First:

Nate responded by hacking through a repeater to the console that was closest to him on the right flank. Success. Then he revealed some sneaky TO guy who forward observed my mercenary, completing his first classified. He revealed another TO guy and started going after my Holoprojector Knight. He shot the first holo echo off, and missed one. One holo echo down. Then he dropped his Garuda with HMG, went after the two holoechoes and got a wound on the sepulchre knight who chose to dodge prone. All echoes were now gone and my expensive knight was down a wound and standing out in the open. 

 

Nate used his sneaky sniper (TO?) to kill my bagh mari - he was rolling two 7's and I was rolling one 6 in response. I hate losing the bagh mari, he's maybe my favorite.

 

I can't remember much else except things moved forward and shots  were fired at my bounty hunter, who survived. I returned fire against one of his TO guys in cover with a boarding shotgun and lost the shot due to having too many penalties. I actually made a mistake like this twice this game! Some poor play on my part.

 

Current Score: Nate 2, Brad 1.

 

Brad 2: My memory is a little hazy at this point (I had celebrated Oregon's first day of recreational marijuana sales just before the game). Ah now it's coming back. My Sepulchre knight started getting revenge. He blasted the Garuda to bits, put the TO combi sneaker prone and in full cover on the right flank (thus leaving me an open flank to advance on), and murdered one of his combi rifle remote guys (Dakini Paramedic). Felt good.

 

Then I remember pushing forward with an auxilia FO team on the now defenseless right flank to get that near console I had failed to capture when my hacker went down turn one. The aux bot snuck up the right flank as there were no ARO's (his one TO combi guy was prone and peaked over the top of the cover the TO guy was hiding behind to flame him. The TO guy engaged, passed his roll and was in to the aux bot. Question: Is engage a dodge as well if he passes his roll? It is just now occurring to me that maybe he would have taken the flame if he did an engage. Oh well, it turned out just fine. Next order the auxilia moved to the console and took it on a lucky roll while the auxbot did nothing (it was engaged). This allowed his TO sneaker to CC the auxbot and kill it as an ARO. But I got the console, bringing me to two!

 

I remember peaking a corner on the far left flank and getting a lucky shot across the board at his 8 point minesweeper/baggage bot and maybe moving my merc up a little, but nothing else happened that turn.

 

Nate 2: Nate brought around this really sneaky MSV2 spitfire Deva who finished my sepulchre knight off easily, then moved his 2nd Daktini paramedic towards the console. I took the somewhat long range ARO with my croc man, who revealed himself as hiding beneath a little piece of log. The shot missed, so nate moved that same Deva over just a bit and shot at the croc man, who dodged by sneaking under the log a little further to full cover. With the Daktini paramedic free, he moved over and capped the console. With fewer orders, he moved  few of his backfield guys forward, moved the sniper to cover the right flank a little more, and moved his little TO sneaker up to kill off the auxilia who's Auxbot he'd already scratched up with his knife. Last, his camo Naga popped around the corner really close to where my croc man was and dropped a mine, locking the croc man in.

 

Score: 3-2 Nate

 

Brad 3: I still had a fair amount of orders but was far from any of the other consoles and he had both locked down with lots of defenses. I decided to go for a classified to get a tie. I decided my pathfinder needed to get in touch with his inner-rambo. To clear a way, I had my croc man do some daring dodges (past the mine that he set off when he stood up and the Daktini's poor shot across the board). No problem. The croc man then took that paramedic Daktini down, peaked around the corner at the Naga and blasted him with a shotgun too. I'm always impressed with Croc Men. The X visor really helps with the shotgun's poor range and he's just an all around badass. The movement this turn was incredibly tricky as I had to be really slow and careful to ensure limited AROs. Sadly, as the croc man took out the Naga, the naga dropped a mine on him which blew up, killing him. Note: it now occurs to me that I the mine wouldn't have gone off on the same ARO it was dropped, it is supposed to happen at the end of the order if I am remembering correctly.

 

This cleared a path for the pathfinder to run up the side, hugging the left corner of the table to BARELY avoid the second camo marker, which everyone knew was a mine. The pathfinder avoided a long range combi shot by scooting through a low vis zone at long range, then with very careful finagling and the helpfulness of my excellent opponent nate, the Pathfinder just avoided getting hacked through a repeater I had forgot about, ran forward and Coup-De-Gras'd his 8 point minesweeper/repeater bot. A tie! I moved all my fusiliers and all other models out to provide suicidal ARO's to anyone trying to come to my side of the board so that I could maintain the tie. At this point their lives didn't matter, all that mattered was keeping my consoles unhacked!

 

I forgot to mention: The pathfinder actually took a bunch of ARO's as he coup-de-gras'd the bot, but made 3 armor saves on armor 0 no cover! Nature rewards the brave.

 

Nate's 3: Nate looked for a hail mary and ran his Deva MSV2 Spitfire buddy up, blasted away someone important (I forget), then moved his hacker with two flamebots over to my pathfinder. My silly purple rambo-bot blasted the hacker in ARO, but then was cooked to a crisp by two heavy flamers. Oh well, his purpose was completed. Nate moved stuff up with coordinated orders but couldnt finish any more objectives as my HVT was too far away and my consoles too locked down/far away.

 

End Game: The best possible game end, a tie to a very back and forth, tight game. One of the better infinity games I've ever had.

 

Mistakes: The bagh mari was placed poorly. The Sepulchre knight is better as an active piece as the opponent then has to ARO against one of the three holoechoes hoping it's the right one. In ARO, if he dodges he reveals which is the real Sepulchre. I shouldn't have put him out on ARO duty, though it did work a little and drew a few of Nate's orders. I should have moved up the right flank with everything I could and tried to contest that console early. I shouldn't have suicide run my one and only hacker in turn 1!  I also shouldn't have tried to medic-gun my hacker with my doc as her phys is a 10 and she had to pass a roll of 7 to get back up! Not going to happen.

 

Overall it was a fantastic game. Hope someone actually read this but if not I don't blame you it's a wall of text. It's nice remembering the game though, so if nothing else this is for me and maybe Nate.

 

Other thoughts: 

 

• The game went quite long but that was okay. I think my favorite points level is maybe somewhere between 200 and 250, though at this large level of game you can take losses and still be in the game.
• Nate's a really good opponent - strong competitively and a great sport.
• I need to stop forgetting coordinated orders.
• I should bring more specialists.
• I should never not bring a croc man.
• Snipers don't always have to be on ARO duty, it's nice though.
• I like non-complicated scenarios like this one. It was the perfect balance of needing to kill and needed to get objective points.

 

 

[rudra34]

Good read!  Sounds like a great game.

[Don't Panic]

yup i screwed up a bunch as usual!  the more i think about it although im not sure i dont think engage 'logically' makes sense to me being a dodge although they are the same type of roll... so i think he would have had to eat the flames.... 'sigh' my bad.  i liked your list a lot.  was fun.  cant believe your flame teams are 15 freaking points.  mine are almost twice that lol.  think it was the nisse i got the last turn  cause she was the one locking everything down and i had to take it out to be able to move forward.  and i have no idea how the laying a mine thing works in that case.... i think you're right cause laying a mine is during the action.  if i didnt do that i would have used the shotgun point blank which might actually have been a better choice anyways now that i think about it although your TO would make it interesting!..  note to self: learn the freakin names to your opponent pieces.  i need to stop referring things as 'flame bot' combi bot and TO sniper bro lol. 

thanks for the more in depth review.  i plan on doing in depth detail ones in the future... i just have hazy memory putting the actual pieces but having the lists i think helps that a ton!  i also like your style of play.  something similar to what i would do with pan-o i think! funny you remembered everything this clearly haha!

 

EDIT: i retract one of them haha! "Roll is successful, then the user Dodges all Attacks against him and moves into base to base contact with his target at the final location previously declared."

yet you are right about the other(although in my defense Peanut suggested it as an ARO.. i only cheat when pressured to! ) "Mines or Camouflage Markers are not considered deployed until the Conclusion of the Order"

[wisetiger7]

My first reaction while reading was that you can't use repeaters or G:Servants to perform actions reserved for specialists. But then I realized you guys had homebrewed your mission, not running a true ITS mission. I actually like the fact that you guys went off book. I find games like that more refreshing, and easier to tell a narrative for the reason why you are running the mission in the first place. ITS is great and all, especially for structured tournaments and such. But I really like the ability to create some in depth missions that fit your narrative (or vice versa).

 

Fun read!

 

Cheers!