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Winter is Coming! An N4 tournament report

Discussion in 'PanOceania' started by daboarder, Feb 17, 2021.

  1. daboarder

    daboarder Force One Commander
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    Hey all,

    So this past weekend I had the pleasure of finally participating in my first serious event of N4. Because covid right.

    The event was something of a whose who of competitive players the the local metas, so even though it is a new edition this could be typified as something of a shark tank.

    The missions for the event were:
    Panic Room
    Supremacy
    Acquisition

    To my mind this meant all missions focused on heavy hitting troops that were resilient and could dominate space on the table. With some forward scoring required for supremacy and acquisition. With that in mind I elected for the following 2 lists, with the first being specific to Panic Room.

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    Ill keep the rundown of each game brief and focus on what felt like salient points.

    Game 1 vs TJC
    • I elected to go first
    • Kept Kai and main group Jotum is reserve for maximum flexibility
    • I used the presence of the Jotum Lt to influence where on the table my opponent would deploy
    • First turn was focused on killing AROs and stripping link bonuses from a Kriza harris, alongside pushing kai into the room to force the issue, fairy dusted Jotums
    • Raoul dropped in, gained 1w, iso, imm on the main group jotum
    • Hollowman hacker and kriza push into the room and kill kai
    • I used agnes to shoot raoul off my jotum, then positioned to lock the table down with overlapping TAG suppression fire
    • Opponent moved his other troops up for a round 3 play.
    • Agnes pushed for the room and killed the hacker
    • Both Jotum stormed the room, killing the kriza and dropped into SF.
    • At that point my opponent conceded.
    • Gave me an 5-2 victory

    Game 2 vs CJC
    • Was given second turn
    • Deployed my Jotum conservatively away from massacres jaguar haris
    • Set up a lot of ARO enfilade fire across my DZ
    • Turn 1 I lost the spitfire peacemaker, karhu and a fusilier to mcdoggo. But scored a classified worth 2pts, and more zones. My opponent had 1 console so far.
    • Turn 2 my opponent pushed his harris and core into the midfield. I spent the turn killing a brigada HMG to break the core and pushing a baggage bot to equal zones.
    • In the last turn my opponent pushed 2 more consoles and then rushed my TAG with the brigada to tie it in combat. But lost the MLand BS to close panzerfaust shots and scattered combi fire.
    • In my turn i was able to clean up with the jotum then push with my fusilier hacker+fusilier to control 2 consoles.
    • Final score was 8-2 my way

    Game 3 vs Druze
    • Something of a meme game. My opponent and I both agreed to run our 2 TAG lists for fun even though not optimised for the mission.
    • I won the roll and elected to go first
    • I reserved Kai and the main group Jotum
    • Round 1 I killed the anaconda, Scarface, an ABH and an EM lgl. The table really facilitated vaulting TAGs.
    • I left both Jotum on ARO and fairy dusted.
    • My opponent had little options left and spent the round setting up.
    • Round 2 I killed cordelia and a kunai sniper and pressed a button with agnes.
    • My opponent put down a pitcher and rushed the tech coffin, killing Kai.
    • I forgot about the pitcher and got my main group Jotum possesed.
    • Was not enough too stop me killing off the troops on the coffin then pushing support troops to ensure i was holding the tech coffin and 2 consoles.
    • My opponent was in retreat and LOL.
    • Game ended 8-1 my way

    Ultimately i came second overall, losing first on the OP tie-breaker to JSA.
    Takeaways from the tournie were;
    • TAGs dominate the game table
    • Reinforced my ideas on Massed Armour due to effective immunity to small arms fire and resilience to high burst medium armaments)
    • Caution not to over extend is critical this edition due to the potential for late game scoring/swings from heavy hitters
    • Killing in ARO is valuable IF you have an ARO that can tank a hit from the bigger guns. Jotums panzerfausts and EXP shots make them excellent at this role.
    • The above point the feeds back to making it a requirement that you have a gun that can force heavy AROs to take cover (eventually)

    In terms of what is next I am Torn between running MO more or trying to build SEF around the concept of control.

    Edit: just to note, aside from the possession (which was just a mistake on my part as I could have killed the repeater with my other TAG) the most significant damage I took to a Jotum all tournament was 1W+iso, Imm to the non-LT in round 1.
     
    #1 daboarder, Feb 17, 2021
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  2. AdmiralJCJF

    AdmiralJCJF Heart of the Hyperpower

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    Good report.

    How are you feeling about the balance of anti-armour tools in the game overall?

    Obviously this is going to be a key factor in the value of Armies/Sectorials in the N4 environment.

    Who do you see falling behind here?
     
  3. daboarder

    daboarder Force One Commander
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    TAGs dominate.
    I think its more than just the anti-armour tools.

    They are fast, hit like a truck, tough as bricks and can score.

    Not only are their predators such as warbands less prevalent, TAGs themselves are just tought vs hacking and attacks thanks to the changes to crits and programs like fairy dust.
    And, you dont drop them in won fight, you have to chip at them, whereas they likely only need to win one of those fights before your attacker is dead.

    Not to mention they are brutally order efficient (a LT jotum is 29 pts per order)
     
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  4. daboarder

    daboarder Force One Commander
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    As to falling behind.

    Ariadna, not because they lack the tools to hurt a TAG in active. But because they have no real reactive threats and they lack the resilience to stand up to the TAG beating them down. They also lack the bodies to attrition out and still have orders.
     
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  5. Maksimas

    Maksimas Heavy Infantry Addict Maxim

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    I don't think Ariadna falls that far behind, honestly. Whilst the limit of how many orders they can bring to a table hurts, one thing I keep seeing people underestimate is, at least in Vanilla, that whilst you can grind down their Orders, it's near impossible to deprive them of units to spend orders on.

    I'd argue Tohaa probably fall behind the furthest in terms of dealing with Armor and stuff of a similar nature. T:
     
  6. Goorie

    Goorie Well-Known Member

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    Hhmmm... Two of the best Tohaa profiles have access to a wide range of K1 weaponry.
     
  7. Maksimas

    Maksimas Heavy Infantry Addict Maxim

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    Two?
    I only know of Sukeuls.

    Aelis seems like a nice utility Triad member, so do Kosuils.
    But I don't see any hype for the Reex in normal Tohaa.

    So what's the second unit?
     
  8. Goorie

    Goorie Well-Known Member

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    Nvm in my mind Taqeuls had K1 rather than Viral.
     
  9. Maksimas

    Maksimas Heavy Infantry Addict Maxim

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    I mean.
    Viral is a solid alternative to AP weapons quite often.
    The net ARM vs BTS difference is usually 0-2 compared to AP.

    Honestly I just mention Tohaa as being further behind because they do the "killing TAGs" part worse than Ariadna without really being better, or even perhaps being worse, at the "surviving TAGs" part.
     
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  10. daboarder

    daboarder Force One Commander
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    Ive been seeing Tohaa lists with significant amounts of K1 in their triads.

    K1 is very very valuable on N4 and when looking at the triad as a whole they are often rocking makuals to help that k1 get into range.

    As to surviving. Jack in the box makaul dodge AROs, symbiomates and other tools to chew orders and slow down the TAG are where tohaa get their mileage in that regards

    Edit: with ariadna the thought is that they cant handle the attrition. Losing troops in hail mary plays to try and stop an MBT was fine when you had twice as many troops and almost half again as many orders. But now you need to conserve those resources so that you can set up firefights where you have the advantage
     
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  11. AdmiralJCJF

    AdmiralJCJF Heart of the Hyperpower

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    I'd have thought that keeping threats under Camo would help Ariadna a fair bit, how are you finding your armour dealing with those kinds of options?
     
  12. daboarder

    daboarder Force One Commander
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    The armour just goes where it wants, does what it wants, kills a few orders, caps a few points, then falls back behind its own screen.

    Whatever flinches probably dies.
     
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  13. RobertShepherd

    RobertShepherd Antipodean midwit

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    I'm tohaa maining at the moment and it hasn't been an issue, but sukeuls are super high quality anti armour pieces in N4. I've only had two games against dual-TAG with my Tohaa so far this edition but they were both on the same game night because in the first one I killed both TAGs top of one and we re-racked rather than play it out.

    The weakness of tohaa engagement with models like an MBT is that has to be chiefly in active. You might be able to get lucky and pin a PanO TAG down with K1 sniper fire but it shouldn't be assumed, and a TAG's combined resilience, high output (raw DAM matters a lot against tohaa), maneuverability and height often makes it an excellent attack piece against tohaa by letting it position to punch through or over tohaa close-in defences. In games where I haven't gotten the jump on a TAG, I've had to weather a storm in reactive that's a real challenge to endure.
     
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  14. daboarder

    daboarder Force One Commander
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    It should be also noted that stripping/killing the order generators for a TAG is also a lot less effective this edition. Lt TAGs generate 3 orders on their own (or more) and given their diversity in terms of scoring capability, can win missions on their own or with only a handful of additional troops. This often means dealing with the TAG has to be a concern if you want to succeed
     
  15. Maksimas

    Maksimas Heavy Infantry Addict Maxim

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    Not even necessarily just when it comes to TAGs.
    Nowadays I find it's far more valuable to eliminate the units that get orders spent on them instead of the units that generate the orders to spend.

    That slot in the army list is suddenly worth something, and it's worth a whole damn lot.
     
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  16. Tongfa

    Tongfa ULTRA INSTINCT UKR

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    I think this really sums up a lot of my thoughts regarding N4. In factions where you have a preponderance of 1W/semi-2W models, the 15 model cap makes you infinitely more fragile than you might have been before.

    Yeah and in this respect and others TAGs just fit in so well into the 15 model limit. Very Tough, multiple wounds, multiple orders, all in a single model. A fast moving brick of hurt. As you've expressed, the old "ignore the TAG" I think just doesn't apply anymore. You have to deal with it b/c it can do so much by itself, but being forced to deal with an ARM10 model (or two of them) is easier said than done.

    Since you have all your hacking and other bases covered, what problems might give this list pause. If you weren't running two Jotums, how would you play against this kind of list?
     
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  17. Freki

    Freki Well-Known Member

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    Impressive, facing TJC and CJC with TAGs does not seem to be too much of a concern for you. Do you think you should have struggled more? Do you expect some lists being better at having a better repeater network and you struggling to fight your way through?
     
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