First day of the Nordic Masters went great for my Vanilla Aleph. Mission #1 • Acquisition Opponent • Steel Phalanx Opponent ran a list of : Achilles, Myrmidon Officer + Link, Agema MK2, Scylla, 2 Thora FO and a Dactyl. I ran : Machaon, Achilles, 2 Lamedh, 2 Probots, 2 Daikini Medics, Dasyu KHD, Dasyu Sniper - 3 Net rods, Posthuman Mk1 Doc, Mk2 Sniper The board was pretty cool. A large open space in the middle, flanked by two large buildings, lots of bridges, walkways and scatter terrain - it was sniper heaven. I go first, and I find myself down to 6 orders in my first group (and 2 in the second after deployment ate my net rods. Achilles rushes across rooftops to hold up the myrmidon link. Kills their assault hacker, but they cower behind smoke and Big A runs out of orders. Two thorakitai and a dactyl also die. So killing was pretty good. Opponent spends next two turns dealing with Achilles, while I secure the consols. Sadly I mistake my T3 for T2 and don’t transfer my posthuman not giving it access to the order pool. Game ends with ‘evil Achilles’ charging Machaon on the center objective through a hail of multi snipers, but to no effect - a 2-2 draw. Lesson learned. Two dasyu is a real drain on an order pool. And don’t postpone something for next turn, when you’re in T3 <facepalm> Mission #2 • Comms Center Opponent • Aleph Opponent ran Achilles, Danavas, Mk2 sniper, mk1 doctor, Mk5 FO, 3 net rods, minelayer naga, myrmidon chain rifle, Daleth, 3 net rods - thora FO. Table was an open urban with good firelanes, so I ran the same sniper list. I lured his datatracker Achilles into killing my HVT turn 1, this allowed my Achilles to speed across the field and kill the Mk5, Mk1, 1 rod, danavas, naga, thorakite fo and HVT, Until the mk2 Finally put Big A down. By then his forces were so decimated, he couldn’t do much. And the game ended 9-3, with me securing 7 antennas and healing Achilles, so my final loss was a single daikini. Lessons learned. Don’t overextend your rambo, if an opponent can exploit a hole in your line. Mission #3 • Unmasking Opponent • Corregidor Opponent list involved a balboa link, intruder hmg, zonds, and a few assault hackers. I ran : Achilles, Patroclus, mk1,mk2 AHD,mk5 FO, 3 daikini medics, 2 lamedh, danavas, Machaon lt. Table was pretty close except for a large elevated highway going from deployment zone to deployment zone, which gave clear view of the table, at the danger of traffic. My opponent had never faced Achilles before, and now he faced them both. The game ended in a massacre with me killing 247 pts. Sadly he managed to kill my datatracker (Patroclus), and I didn’t get the last decoy, but still a magnificent 7-1 victory. Mission #4 • Power Pack Opponent • Aleph My opponent fielded a deva sensor lt., a Mk1 engineer, sniper and FO, a dasyu KHD, chain myrmidon, daikini, Spitfire Deva, Zayin, 2 lamedh, naga minelayer, 3 net rods, Spitfire garuda. I chose my Patroclus list. The game startede out with the two MK2s duking it out on a central roof top, but it got settled, when the Dasyu melted my MK2s brain. Then took the central console, the sniper then killed my MK5. My turn one had Patroclus run amok, taking out his MK5, two lamedh, zayin, spitfire deva. On his turn two, his dasyu took another console, the myrmidon died in a firefight with Patroclus, while the zayin got repaired, and the garuda ambushed me from behind killing a daikini. But then Achilles joined the fight, and the game ended 7-3 Mission #5 • Capture&Protecy Opponent • Yu Jing I threw this game. I was basically too tired and grumpy. After a string of bad rolls, I just wanted to finish it fast, so instead of holding out till turn three, I threw away Achilles in turn 2. Lesson learned : keep calm, and don’t mind the bad luck. In the end I finished 8th out of 36. Which I find very satisfactory - and I got a nice bag for the effort :)
Thanks for the report. You faced that many Aleph players ? Just a question, in your 3rd game you chose Pat as the datatracker, why him and not Achilles ? Fear of having Big A hacked away ? You lost Pat's ability to use holo2 and surprise shot, that's a bit sad.
That is quite simple, I must have cheated - whoops! I actually never considered that. And used Pat complete with Holo2 and all. Thats another lesson learned - datatrackers can’t be in marker state. Thats embarrassing.. ..and yeah, there were 7 Aleph players at the tournament in all, so they were pretty popular. I haven't played much against my own faction, but it does make it a lot easier, that you understand the ins and outs of all the troops on the opposing side.
