As promised I thought i'd share my experiences at the Las Vegas Dire States tournament, the Sin City Smackdown! First off, the great people of Las Vegas put on an amazing tournament and i can't recommend it enough. So here are my two lists: These are from memory, so there may be some errors.... My Killy list: 1st group Druze HMG Druze LGL Brawler AHD Valerya Gromoz Clipper missile launcher Brawler LT Brawler engineer pathfinder Hunzakut FO Hunzakut FO 2nd group Sierra Dronbot Peacemaker w/heavy shotgun ABH w/SMG ABH w/SMG Fugazi Fugazi Bashi Bazouk w/SMG Warcor My Button Pushy list: 1st group Druze HMG Druze KHD Valerya Gromoz Fugazi Fugazi pathfinder Druze LT Brawler engineer nasmat Bashi Bazouk SMG Bashi Bazouk SMG 2nd group Brawler Haris Brawler HRL Brawler AHD Sierra ABH w/SMG ABH w/SMG Hunzakut FO Warcor 1st mission Supplies I'm going off pure memory here, so forgive me. I used the Button Pushy list. I challenged Joel Traveller of WGC fame and he was playing Shasvasti. This is the first time playing the new Shas and it started off staring at a field of camo markers. Having a deep fear of Speculo killers, i deployed both of my Bashi in holo state disguised as Druze LT profiles. He didn't know which was the LT so he placed his speculo to counter my Druze link team. I did something i've never tried before, i ran my Fugazi up the field and planted sniffers everywhere to reveal a bunch of camo markers. I managed to kill a few dudes but he kept me pretty much locked down. On his turn, his Q drone engaged me, but my bounty hunter hit it with an Akralyte canon and glued it. He ran a slave drone up to unglue it, but the same bounty hunter sniped it with his SMG because he rolled an X-visor. He landed a Cadmus (I think? Whatever the drop troop is) but because of my positioning, wasn't able to do much. The rest of the game turned into a blood blath and came down to the last roll. My Pathfinder shot up the field to grab a crate that had been dropped but an Ikadron was in range to act as a repeater for his hacker. If i passed the BTS roll, i'd be able to pick up the crate and win. Alas it failed and was immobilized, leaving the nefarious Shasvasti in control of a crate. Narrow Loss 2nd mission Capture and protect I played against Vanilla Nomads using my Killy list. I won initiative and started the turn by killing his Iguana and Intruder in with my linked Clipper. I then dropped my Bashi Bazouk and took out his Sin Eater from behind with a burst from his SMG. I positioned my Bounty Hunters, Hunzakut and link team to grab the beacon on the next turn. He brought out a spectre...and began to kill my entire army with it. I could not win a face to face roll to save my life and he could not fail an armor roll. That one spectre killed my link team, both bounty hunters and the Hunzakutie. I finally manged to kill it on my next active turn and grabbed the beacon with Gromoz. On his next turn, he popped out another Spectre, killed Gromoz, causing her to drop the beacon and ran for my beacon. He would have grabbed it, except my brave Warcor hit him with a flash pulse and stopped his advance. It ended in a tie. 3rd mission Counter Measures. I used my button pushy list against JSA. I was terrified of ninjas and oniwaban, so deployed my Bashi Bazouks as Druze LT decoys. As it turns out, he didn't have any, so i wasted them. Every classified card we drew was either not possible or super difficult to do. I spent my first turn, running my Druze link up to hack the HVT. I made it with only once chance to hack...and i failed. My opponent did the same thing, but passed and took the card. We kept drawing useless classifieds, so i was forced to put my Sierra in harms way to try to get it damaged so i could repair it. He blew it up with a missile in one shot. I tried with a Fugazi, and i failed all three armor saves. I tried with my Pathfinder and it died the same way. I only needed to pass one armor save...and couldn't do it. So i was left trying to get a hacker/FO in base contact with a building in my opponents deployment zone. I sacrificed a Brawler to clear out Musashi's crazy koalas and ran my Hunzakutie up. All i had to do was pass one armor save from a combi-rifle...which of course i failed. And thus died my only chance at victory. Narrow loss. 4th mission Quadrant Control. My opponent arrived late, so we only had an hour to play and only got to play one round. He was running Ikari. I used my killy list. I ran my Druze core link up and killed his Musashi and his Druze Haris team. My ABH was my data tracker, so i ran her up behind the link, firmly controlling two quadrants. On his turn, he managed to kill a Hunzacutie menacing another quadrant with a ninja. He then dropped two Yuan Yuan behind my warcor and spent a few orders laying down smoke. His Yuan Yuan climbed the building and tried to sneak up on my warcor. My warcor started blasting with his stun pistol but the Yuan Yuan engaged the warcor in close combat. He rolled a one, my warcor beat him and stunned him. I controlled two quadrants and got my classified. Victory! 5th mission Annihilation Playing against Bakunin with my killy list. I started the game by running my Peacemaker up where the two snipers in the Moderator link couldn't see it. It then blasted the link with heavy flamethrower and heavy shotgun, killing all but one. It then wheeled around the corner to flame a Reverend custodier Haris team, killing all but Kusanagi but wounding her. I dropped my Bashi Bazouk which went on a killing spree, killing some remotes, a Daktari, Brand DeCastro and finishing off Kusanagi. She did end up killing my Druze link with a couple of Zeros but it was all over by then. Major victory!!! Overall, i loved how my Druze performed. My Bashi, Peacemaker and Warcor were my MVPs and did a lot of work. Both of my defeats came down to one roll on the last turn and could have easily been victories. Druze can definitely throw down with the best of them and put up a fight. their flexibility and tricks combined with raw firepower makes them very fun to play. One thing i noticed, their armor 3 and viral pistols came in very handy in every game i played. I killed a lot of models with viral pistols.... Anyway, i had a great time and couldn't be more pleased with how they did. I got 19th overall place out of 32 (i think?). Funny thing is, most people i played against said it was the first time they had ever played against Druze.
Class write up Cthulhu! Thanks for taking the time to do it also, it's wondeful having something new to read on the forums again! Glad that you had a blast too!
Sounds like a fun event! I watched a bit of the awards ceremony, I was curious to see who got the top spots. Kudos to you for running both lists without Saito, I think I would have had to include him in one. He's like a security blanket for me. EDIT And wow, only 1 Hunz in list two for your buttons list? and no EM LGL? No Brawler sniper? Is that only a 4 man fireteam in list 2? Wow man, you really broke the mold with your lists... did you have a hard time making those choices? I'm most impressed by your playing the Bashi as Decoy Lts in game 1 vs Joel. I never got around to running 4 of them while playing Druze, but I had a couple of concept lists. There is a lot of value in deploying the bashis on the table. They are actually fantastic profiles, and holo lets you really get into opponent's heads. Congratulations! Yeah a lot of players don't see how well rounded DBS is and how flexible Druze Shock Teams are on the table. It looks like skill and equipment bloat until you start remembering to use all of that gear when it's called for. I'm on my Tunguska roll right now after having an army professionally painted, but DBS is on my short list when I start to mix it up with my factions again. As far as I'm concerned DBS is a sleeper top faction, not many players get it, but they have everything they need to win games.
Thanks for that great write up! I would be interested in your thoughts behind the lists and how your links are set up? How was the performance of the HMG-Druze? He may be one of the best gunfighters in DBS, but never fits into my lists recently because of costs and fireteam composion.
I have Saito, but i've never used him. The single Hunzacutie was a gamble, but i feel like i made the right choice with a wider range of options and a stronger ARO game with the Seirra. I would have loved to have included the EM LGL but needed to make room for specialists. Plus, i've never had luck with the EM LGL. In a year of playing Druze i've only managed to EM one model. But i take it anyway hoping for that one magic day... It was actually only a 3 man Core link. I used a Haris of Brawlers and a 3 model core of Druze. I was experimenting with multiple, smaller and more managable fire teams and it worked GREAT. I might do this for all lists in the future. The Brawler MSV sniper is always taken out on my enemies first order, so i just stopped taking him. The Bashi Decoy worked great because it protected me from Speculo and Oniwaban. None of these were tough choices because i learned from my disasters at the Salt Lake Showdown and tried something different. Worked way better.
@Cthulhu363 Great answer! It's nice to see someone list build, play, analyze and go again based on experience rather than follow "established" advice on these forums.
I couldn't agree more about the Brawler sniper Cthulhu, on paper it's a good profile but it almost always immediately dies for me! I too love the Sierra, and always take an Evo for the Fugazi flash pulse disco! I'm also a big fan of Nasmats, they are great for mine / crazy Koala clearance! I have been curious about using Bashis as decoy LTs, do you have multiple Brawler Rifle models or do you just proxy them? :-)
The EVO is pure gold in Druze...i just couldn't fit the points this time. Same with the nasmats. It came down to having a warcor or a nasmat, and i chose the warcor. I have multiple Brawler rifle models as well as using the LE wardriver model as a Brawler hacker/doctor/engineer. Definitely invest in Bashi. Take multiple. That way if you are fighting CA or JSA, set one or two up as decoys and drop in the rest. Not many people are familiar with Druze, so they almost never expect the Bashi coming in, spraying dudes with sub machine guns. So much fun.
Right?! I actively try to avoid internet group think, take what models and profiles i think are the coolest, and adjust from there.
Haha! I have had the exact same War Cor / Nasmat quandary so many times when list building! I have never regretted taking a War Cor though! A great spend of 3 points!
Any model in Infinity can be good because of dice, but when it's the Warcor; it's especially hilarious. At Rumble 2018 with Druze in the second match, Hunting Party versus HB, my Warcor tanked an Ayyar and 3 or 4 activations of a pissed off TR bot. It was largely inconsequential, but still pretty darned funny. I love that you guys are getting use out of the Doc and Engi brawler. My opinion of them is it's nice they are there, but I've rarely put them on the table myself. So I'd pretty much always Warcor over Nasmat. Plus locally, my DBS Warcor for some reason developed a personality as Randy the ne'er do well son of the Caravansary chief and aspiring social media influencer whose edgy conflict-zone selfies occasionally led to enemy units being stunned by the absolute stupidity of his actions.
Sorry! I thought i answered this, but looking back i didn't. For my killy list i used a full 5 man core with valyrea and a Clipper. the Clipper missle bot is super useful with that +3 BS and template. You can make enemy link teams really suffer. For my Button pushy lists i went with more flexability. I used a 3 man core of Druze and a haris of Brawlers, both with specialists. If i have Druze, i'm using the HMG...even over the EM LGL. It's too good not to take. I build my lists around it.