[300P] Decapitation – Vanilla Haqq vs. TAK

Hello there, fellow Haqqislamites! Yesterday a buddy of mine and I managed to squeeze another game into our weekend, so I figured I’d post a summary for you to enjoy.

My opponent is still fairly new to the game, so our lists were not optimized (he basically brought all he had + the free MBH) and I did make some concessions here and there to facilitate a fun game, so please keep that in mind when reading the report.

The scenario was Decapitation and my Vanilla Haqq went up against his TAK.

My list:

Spoiler

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GROUP 1 8 2
SALADIN (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token]) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 36)
MAGHARIBA MULTI Heavy Machine Gun, Heavy Flamethrower(+1B), Mine Dispenser / AP Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 85)
MAGHARIBA PILOT (Paramedic) Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
KNAUF MULTI Sniper Rifle / AP Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 32)
NAJJARUN Engineer Rifle, Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
NASMAT PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
NAFFATÛN Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13)
ROUHANI Submachine Gun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 21)
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Shock Mines ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 18)
FIDAY Rifle, Light Shotgun, Shock Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
RAGIK Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
GROUP 2 2 1
MUTTAWI'AH Chain Rifle, Jammer / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 6)
DAYLAMI (Camouflage [1 Use], Infiltration) Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 8)
3 SWC | 291 Points
Open in Infinity Army

No free MBH to give my opponent a small advantage


His list:

Spoiler

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10 1 1
VETERAN KAZAK (Lieutenant) AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 46)
FRONTOVIK (Paramedic) T2 Rifle ( | MediKit) / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
FRONTOVIK (Engineer, Deactivator) T2 Rifle, D-Charges ( ) / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
SPETSNAZ (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage], Mimetism [-3], Decoy [1]) AP Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 34)
SPETSNAZ (Mimetism [-3], Parachutist]) AP Rifle, Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 30)
SPETSNAZ (Surprise Attack [-3], Camouflage, Mimetism [-3], Decoy [1]) Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 38)
BOUNTY HUNTER Red Fury / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 15)
PAVEL McMANNUS Ohotnik, Chain-colt, Shock Mines, D-Charges / Pistol, T2 CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
SCOUT (Forward Observer) Ohotnik, D-Charges, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 30)
SCOUT Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
LINE KAZAK Rifle, Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 13)

5 SWC | 299 Points
Open in Infinity Army

Frontovik+VetKazak Haris


The terrain consisted of a large three story hab block in the table centre with passageways leading up and through in various ways. Unfortunately I did not take a picture, but this scenery piece is a beautiful WIP of my buddy’s so we really wanted to try it out. I will attach a rough sketch of the table layout below.



On each side of this large block, there was a long firelane obstructed by clutter, so the only direct dz-to-dz angles were fairly narrow. There was also a narrow intersection on the ground floor of the hab block, which was obstructed by a car.

DZs were a collection of containers/barricades and clutter plus one larger feature (Truck and low building respectively).


TAK won the the LT roll and decided that I had to deploy first on the southern DZ, while I took the initiative for turn one. I consolidated most of my infantry around the bottom left side, inside the container park and around the truck. Between the Naffatun HFT and the Mutt, I had decent defensive coverage for Saladin who was tucked away behind a container. The Najjarun would place his Nasmat on the far right end of the DZ in case I had to put my Maggie there. Knauf was placed 2/3 to the right behind some cover so he could get a bead on the low building. Hunzacute and Daylami PF were placed on top of the hab block, on the left and right side respectively.

Thanks to Saladin, I held back both the Maggie and the Fiday, while he held back one of his decoyed Spetsnaz. Designated targets and turrets were deployed according to the sketch. Eventually I decided to deploy both my reserves along the right side to contest my opponent, who had basically mirrored my deployment on the top right side around the low building and barricades. His scout ojotnik was placed on the far left top side, while bis BSG scout was sitting in the center corridor on the ground floor of the hab block.
The MBH was placed behind the right corner of the low building and rolled Mimetism -6 on his booty roll, so this fella would be a nasty threat I had to contend with.

I’d need Maggie and the Fiday to break his entrenched Haris and claim some scalps, so both were deployed on the right flank. Maggie behind the scenery piece next to the Nasmat, and the Fiday right around the corner of the rightmost enemy Designated Target.

My opponent stripped me of two orders and the first turn was ready to go...

 

Haqqislam turn one:

My opponent was pretty much null deployed except for his autoturret on top of the low building. Since this was going to be my main line of approach, I had Knauf lean out of cover to take it out. Now the Fiday was supposed to go on his rampage and claim the first two points for Haqqislam.

Casually strolling around the small crate, he approached the designated target to the far right, who delayed her ARO, wondering what this strange man in capri shorts could possibly want from her.
She found out shortly afterwards when the Fiday revealed himself and blasted her with a LSG. Between cover, surprise attack and +6 for short range those were pretty solid odds one would have thought. The DT, however, had a different idea and crit back with her stun pistol. Mean things were said at this point.

Anyway, the Ragik had a good angle on that same DT if I could combat jump her on top of the building it was hiding behind. One PH roll into a nice 20 later, the Ragik was left on the wrong side of the building instead, on the very far right of my DZ and table edge. That's two orders wasted, but at least I had the Ragik on the table to user her order for next turn. In hindsight, I should've walked her onto the right table edge instead. Even if she had taken a shot from the MBH, dogged would've made sure she could attack the DT anyway.

Now I had to rely on Maggie to carry the day. I moved her out of cover and towards the helipad on the right side. I had been itching to use that mine dispenser and the Mim-6 MBH looked pretty scary, so I covered two approaches on the right side with shock mines. Then I used a second order to refill Maggie's mines and a third one to walk her closer to the enemy DZ and shoot another set of mines a bit further up the board, in front of the low building and to the left towards the barricades, where his Haris team would emerge from.

I had maneuvered Maggie into the corner where my rightmost DT was hiding. She was behind cover, inside a blizzard zone and obstructed LOF to the DT, so that was as good as it would get. I left her there and used her irregular order to put her into suppressive fire, ending my first turn.


With my alpha strike having failed catastrophically, things weren’t looking good at all, but at least I managed to somewhat reign in his MBH and his Haris with a small minefield. Things were still looking bad, so I had to hope for some mistakes on my opponent’s part.

 

TAK turn one:

The stunned Fiday was too tempting a target to ingore. His MBH emerged behind the low building on the right side and sped along the table edge to unload her Red Fury into the poor assassin. The blizzard zone reduced it to B3, but Fiday aren’t exactly tanky, so that’s 27 points for TAK.

I had misjudged the size of the small teardrop template, so the MBH was able to skirt past the first mine and discover + shoot a second to clear the way for the Haris.

My opponent knew that Maggie had to go and was worth a chunk of points, so he moved the VetKazak around the barricade to bring his AP HMG to bear. This, however, did provoke an unexpected ARO from the Daylami on top of the hab block. Faced with an ARO from the Maggie and a Daylami Panzerfaust (who both were placed inside or behind Blizzard zones), my opponent had a decision to make. Maggie was too far away to use her Suppressive Fire profile, so I used the Anti Materal one instead, which is EXP ammo.

His Vet Kazak had NWI and a paramedic waiting just around the corner, but he had to shoot into a saturation zone in both cases, which neutered his haris burst bonus. After some moments of deliberation and discussion, he prioritized the Maggie with 3 dice (4-1 due to the saturation zone) and contested the Daylami with only one die, hoping for the low BS to fail.

Turns out it was the right decision. The Daylami was out of cover, up against a mimetic target in cover and thus promptly and rightfully turned into red mist. Maggie lost her FTF, taking two hits to the face(plate), both of which were thankfully saved. ARM8 in cover can do the trick, even against D15 AP HMGs.

Despite that small victory on my part, the overall situation was dire. The Vet Kazak Haris should eventually break Maggie and from there, with my Fiday dead and my Ragik completely out of position, I had very little in terms of maneuverability and killing potential to leverage for the remainder of the game.

Luckily, my dice luck took a sharp turn when I needed it the most. The Vet Kazak took aim again and his 4 dice lost to the one of my Maggie. VetKazaks are ARM 7(!) in cover, so it was 3 saves on 10’s or higher for my opponent. He failed two and his LT died.

While there is no LOL in Decapitation, this was still a huge win for me. My Saladin was firmly entrenched far away from his main threats and his only reasonable approach was a Spetsnaz AP Rifle parachutist, whom I was confident I could defend against. If I could hold that position, I already had 3 victory points in the bag.

Dismayed by this sudden turn of events, he chose not to reveal and risk his Spetsnaz HMG in the same FTF. Surprise attack and Marksmanship would've tilted that roll strongly in his favour, but maggie was still at full STR and the Spetsnaz doesn't carry an AP HMG, so he decided against it.

His MBH, despite having rolled MIM-6 on her booty chart, was faced with a HFT ARO from Maggie, a combi rifle from the still camo'd Hunzakut on the eastern edge of the hab block and a MSR shot from Knauf down the board, were she to expose herself any further on the left flank, so he left her there for now.

He had, however, brought one lonely Line Kazak GL (because he wanted to use Oktavia as a proxy), who was hiding behind the northeast corner of the hab block, so he decided to start spec firing into my Maggie and my DT, basically gambling away several of his remaining orders (just for the record – I did advise against it, but he’s still young and impulsive).

After 5 attempts on BS 5, he had somehow managed not only to kill the DT, but also to inflict a wound on Maggie. Emboldened by this unexpected success (quite the pattern here), he decided to use his last two orders to bring his Spetsnaz AP Rifle onto the board and get him into position on the left flank to open another attack vector on his next turn, as he was hard pressed to get a LT kill and equalize that score.

The Spetsnaz sniper and hmg were still sitting under camo, same as his scouts and Pavel, who would become an important factor later.

Points wise, my opponent had killed one DT and I had killed his LT once, with me having killed more army points than him.


Score after round one:

Haqq: 6 points

TAK: 2 points

To be continued...