[Batreps] How to run a big business

Two days off, so there was space for two new games. Unfortunatley, I could not continue the good results of the previous game and had to learn again how mistakes can be punished. But have your own look at it:

Spoiler: Game 1: Armory vs Dahsat

Since Vassal opens some opportunities regarding terrain, we wanted to play a less frequent mission in our group: The Armory. I wanted to explore the potential of my previous list a bit more and since Scarface is not very helpful in this mission, the list was fixed.

Spoiler: List Druze: SmokeV2

Druze Bayram Security
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GROUP 1 7 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
BRAWLER Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 18)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 6 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
SAITO TOGAN Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW, Knife. (0 | 39)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
KAMEEL (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Saito should break the door as early as possible and then should be a big problem to solve. In the end, the remaining link-members should secure the room. Everything else was just distraction. After I knew I would go vs Dashat, the strategy remainded the same, but with more concerns regarding McMurder and a linked MSV2 MSR...

Spoiler: Dashat list

Dahshat Company
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GROUP 1 9 1 1
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Haris, Tactical Awareness) Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 34)
RUI SHI Spitfire / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 20)
McMURROUGH 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Templar CCW (AP + DA). (0 | 32)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 5 3
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
SAITO TOGAN Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW, Knife. (0 | 39)
GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Chain-colt, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 10)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
LIBERTO Submachine Gun, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 8)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

5 SWC | 298 Points

Open in Infinity Army

This list was not new for my, but what else would Dashat field than this? With the Libertos and Fanous', it would be very hard to cripple the order pool and reduce the scoring-potential. The appearance of mines would threaten my Hunzakuts and Saito a lot, so especially Saito should stick to the Armory and to the mission...

Spoiler: Table

We had to create an artificial objective room with the gate-markers as doors and no walls inside. I underestimated two firelanes while setting it up, what made it a bit harder during the game (one directly north of the OR, the other one south from it, from green DZ to the damaged truck in the yellow one).

I won the Lt-roll and took the first turn. Dashat took the yellow DZ.

My REMs scattered in the north around the buildings with Fugazis out to stun whatever there will come (I forgot about total immunity on McMurder here). Since I accessed the south to be better to defend and easier to leave, my link went there with the MSR more centered, the HRL and HMG on the crate on the bottom and my Lt and KHD behind the silos. I went back to a former mistake with important link-members scattered to far away to activate and have everyone in ZoC. The EM-Druze went on the rooftop in the center, Saito started north behind the central building in marker state. One Hunzakut reinforced the REMs in the north.

Mc Murder was deployed in the north, guarded by two camo-markers and two Fanous'. The ABH-link with MSR-Brawler scattered around the truck with the MSR out to ARO and one ABH looking into the center around the truck. Centered there was the Rui-Shi with her haris-guys, a single Ghulam and a Doc. The south was overwatched by a Fanous and a Camo-marker on the roof.

Hoping for a quick assassination of Cpt. Obvious, my Hunzakut went into the south room, while something was deployed in hidden deployment on the other side. The ABHs get crazy things this time (smoke grenades, HMG and MSR on the one guy overwatching the center).

Druze 1: My link is pinned down by my bad deployment and the ABH-link and in the north there was nothing to deal with the Liberto and McMurder, so I went for the mission. After two orders hitting on the door, Saito forced himself into the room and grabbed something out of the panoply. I had to choose between a good position and marker-state and decided for the marker-state. Group one tried to breakt free, loosing the HRL-Brawler instantly. My EM-Druze climbed of the roof and I rebuild a full link. Nothing more happened.

Dashat 1: McMurder approached my north flank, killing my Hunzakut, a Fugazi and a Pathfinder, but getting shot in the process. The MSR-Brawler oneshotted the opposite door of the OR and the Rui-Shi shredded Saito in one burst. The north Liberto took a walk and went into the OR, grabbed some cevlar out of the panoply and entered suppressive fire.

1-0 Dashat

Druze 2: Now I see the open door of the south building, allowing my Hunzakut to enter the DZ in the south (that would have been necessary turn 1...). The camo on the roof did nothing, but Saito Togan revealed himself after the Hunzakut had finished the Fanous. A quick shot of the LSG stopped him without problems. The Hunzakut shot down a Warcor, exposed himself for a full burst on Cpt. Obvious and went back into cover. All AROs where saved, but also the two hits on Cpt Obvious. My ABH as back-up for the OR started, but failed to kill the Liberto on distance.

Dashat 2: The HMG-ABH forced my Hunzakut prone, followed by the Rui-Shi trying to kill him but got wrecked during the try. The Zuyong finally ended this. Now the Ghulam Doc started and revived Saito. Both took positions in the south.

2-0 Dashat, since I wanted to recover in turn three and take the full points then.

Druze 3: My AHD finally killed the Liberto in the OR, but then had to take a risky run towards the open door without surviving. My HMG-Druze sacrifices himself to the ABH-link but critting down the MSR-ABH, which opens the path for my MSR. Advancing and shooting, he survived the path into the OR, but got nobody killed on his way and remained in a bad position.

Dashat 3: The ABHs shot their way into the OR and looted the crates.

6-0 for Dashat with not many chances left for my troops after turn 1. If Saito had entered the OR a bit faster, he could had marker-state and a good position, what would have been a pain to deal with. Even my assassination-run in turn 2 was risky, so nothing to be proud of. In the end, I am missing a secong big gun here to lower the pressure on my core and have a second vector, if the Hunzakuts can't solve my problems.

Spoiler: Game 2: Frontline vs. ASA

Since there were no opportunities to try out the Fugazis as active flashlights, I wanted to give it a second try. After the previous game, I was a bit doubtful about the potential of my list in area-denial missions, but I had seen my HMG killing many stuff before, so why not this time?

Spoiler: List Druze: SmokeV2

Druze Bayram Security
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GROUP 1 7 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
BRAWLER Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 18)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 6 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
SAITO TOGAN Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, EXP CCW, Knife. (0 | 39)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
KAMEEL (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

My infiltraters should be the silent reserve in points, while my link should force things down and advance this time. Something I am not comfortable with, but the HMG was the only real gun available and so the only solution for the given tasks.

Spoiler: List ASA

Shock Army of Acontecimento
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GROUP 1 8
BAGH-MARI Lieutenant HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 26)
BAGH-MARI (Fireteam: Haris) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 23)
MACHINIST (SAA) (CH: Mimetism, Multiterrain) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
BAGH-MARI (Minelayer) MULTI Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
REGULAR Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 16)
REGULAR (Sapper) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 22)
REGULAR Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
REGULAR Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

GROUP 2 5 1
GUARDA DE ASSALTO MULTI Rifle + Heavy Flamethrower, D-Charges + AUXBOT_2 / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 49)
AUXBOT_2 Light Shotgun + Eclipse Light Grenade Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 6)
REGULAR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
REGULAR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
KNIGHT OF MONTESA Paramedic (MediKit) Boarding Shotgun, Chain-colt / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 39)
DART Submachine Gun, Viral Tactical Bow, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 34)

6 SWC | 299 Points

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Long time no see for ASA, so I was not directly prepaired for the firepower Bagh Maris could unleash and how nasty MSV 1 and mimetism can be. This increases the big problem Druze has: Creating beneficial FtF-situations. The list itself is straight forward with only the camo-troop as surprise. I was not that concerned of the Montessa, since it would have been easy to handle with EM-grenades or my HMG.

Spoiler: Table

I reused this table, since it performed well. After loosing the Lt-roll, I had the opportunity to get my known DZ and needed to go first.

The link scattered in the center, A Fugazi and the Pathfinder on the left side, an other Fugazi on the right. One Hunzakut on the left inside a building, Saito behind the fallen silo.

The left side saw the Montessa Knight and the MSRs of the Regular-core. The right was overwatched by the Bagh Mari-haris and the Guarda de Assalto hid on the right.

I placed the second Hunzakut inside the right building and a camo-marker was placed in the center in return.

Druze 1: Group one was reduced by two orders, but I saw the chance to clear both links with my right Hunzakut. He advanced, tried to suprie the Bagh Mari HMG and got critted. So plan B was needed. Saito needed three tries to set up smoke, so that my MSR could kill the Regular MSR and then recieving a crit from the Bagh Mari MSR. I rebuild my link and set the EM-Druze in suppressive fire.

ASA 1: The central camo-marker advanced and reached my link without being killed but got discovered as Dart. I forgot to change face my HRL-Brawler while she tried to kill Saito. Finally she entered suppressive fire. The haris advanced and the HMG took a shot on my HRL-Brawler bot got burned down.

Druze 2: My AHD shot Dart in the back, taking her one wound. Now she was facing everyone, so I tried to reach her with Saito and got critted. My HRL died to by trying. Before giving up, my Kameel could enter base-contact with her, so that my KHD could kill Dart in CC (well...that idea came far to late...).

ASA 2: In LoL not much could happen. The Montessa killed my EM-launcher who was unable to land a grenade on him. Everything else advances a bit where possible.

Druze 3: Things were clearly lost, but needed to be played out. My right Fugazi ate a crit from the Mashinist in his try to free the way for my Kameel into the center. I rebuild my link and the HMG starts his way forward, killing a Bagh Mari, the BM MSR and the Montessa. The REMs on the left advance.

ASA 3: Everything advances, while the Regular spitfire ate a crit of my HMG.

I control my near sector, ASA has his near and the middle: 4-1.
Not really played bad, but diced somewhere, what makes it not so beautiful here. The Hunzakut had the potential to pull out many teeth in turn one or even my MSR could have opened the path for the other one after that. But with all the mimetism scattered and the MSV 1s, the best what Druze can offer for this puposes gets nullified quite fast. These tools were missing while killing Dart, so there was an unusual idea needed, which came too late and saw too many troopers dead. Outnumbered and outgunned, it seemed quite hard to stay in the game.

 

Don't forget about the EXP-CCW! The armorsaves of the door were the problem there.

I am quite curious about the impact of the new crit-rule, since crits affected many games significantly this year and I am not so glad with that. On the other hand, a crit is sometimes your only light at the tunnel-end.

There is one game unreported, maybe I will write it down tomorrow. I am missing the thrill of tournaments at the moment and are a little trapped in our little meta, what decreases the motivation. It feels a bit like having reached your own limits with a faction... But I will discuss this in the next report.

 

I could not agree more in all points here. TTS is a great opportunity at the moment to test anything you want, even if that only makes you more desperate about what you are lacking.
I would be glad to have Druze in N4, but I expect their treatmend a little bit like the discontinued factions at the moment. The worst outcome would be, if they would stay exactly the same as they are now. But that was discussed a few times here.

So, the latest Druze-game was a LI game against Invincible Army. We don't restrict ourselves with special rules normally, but since our Yu Ying-Player only fields 10 troopers and gets overwhelmed by our "spam-lists", I wanted to cut the factor of uneven order-counts in the last game. To build a proper LI-list in Druze was a quite hard task. I found it difficult in QK, but with the limited toolbox of Druze it felt like using the excel-solver to find out the only fitting combination of things (at least if you don't want to field the Anaconda). I ended up with Scarface and a lot of Druze, without anything else fancy:

Spoiler: LI Druze

Druze Bayram Security
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10
SCARFACE & CORDELIA TURNER . (1.5 | 78)
SCARFACE 2 Mk12, Heavy Rocket Launcher / AP CCW. (1.5 | 61)
SCARFACE Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. ()
CORDELIA TURNER Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Panzerfaust / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
ARSLAN Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Light Shotgun / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 36)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)

6 SWC | 300 Points

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Since I needed point-fillers wherever possible, Scarface was set and the other gun-platform needed to be a Druze haris. Going without the MSV-Brawler would have been suicide, so he was the anchor of the core-link. Arslan found a place in this list, since he was the most expensive Lt-option and filled all the missing points. In the first version, I had him in the haris, but for safety-reasons and to utilize the KHD better, they switched positions. Nevermind that LoL would have been meaningless in this list. Scarface and the HMG should wreck whatever their guns would find and that was all the plan.
This is nothing I would ever play in a tournament, since there are so many situations and match-ups, where this list is dead from the beginning. Here I totally reached a point behind what I am willing to try (let's call it: point Anaconda).

Spoiler: Invincible Army pseudo LI

Invincible Army
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10
Zhanshi YĪSHĒNG Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 15)
YÁOZĂO Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
ZHANSHI Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
ZHANSHI Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
ZHANSHI Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
YĀN HUǑ (FTO) 2 Missile Launchers / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 52)
YĀN HUǑ (FTO) 2 Missile Launchers / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 52)
ZÚYŎNG (Fireteam: Haris, Tactical Awareness) Combi Rifle + 1 TinBot B (Deflector L2) / 2 Breaker Pistols, Knife. (0.5 | 34)
KOKRAM FTO (Fireteam: Duo) Combi Rifle + E/Mitter, Chain-colt, E/Mauler / 2 Heavy Pistols, Knife. (0 | 39)
ZHĒNCHÁ (Forward Observer) Submachine Gun, D.E.P., Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 34)
DĀOYĪNG Lieutenant L2 (Minelayer) MULTI Sniper, Antipersonnel Mines / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)

6 SWC | 300 Points

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An other time an unusual IA-list, since nobody would expect the Yan Hou-Haris and only other solo-pieces around it. Nevertheless, this linked MLs were nothing to joke around with and there were enough camo-markers to make my Druze cautious. The lack of a big gun to deal with my MSR and maybe other ARO-pieces was the big draw-back here, as we discussed it after the game. A Mowang instead of a second Yan Huo would have been the right solution.

Spoiler: Table

We played Safe Area and I won the Lt-roll. With my list as a big but unrefined hammer, I wanted to start. My opponent took the north DZ.

Scarface and Cordelia should engage over the right flank, while I deployed my haris as forwarded as possible, avoiding open positions on the left. The one big LoS in the center was contested by my MSR, while the LGL and the Panzerfaust tried to give some firesupport in the shorter corridors.

The Yan Huos counterdeployed Scarface, with one fatty having the center locked down. Some Zanshis were scattered in the backfield, Krit in the center and the left entry to the DZ denied by three camo-markers.

We both forgot about reserves.

Druze 1: With Scarfaces path denied by a linked ML in probably good range, my haris took action and started to eat up as many orders as possible on the left. Two Zanshis were shot and a mine was discovered, then they hid behind the boxes on the left. My core-link left the center and switched to the left, with the MSR backing up my haris.

IA 1: A Zanshi paramedic left the backfield and revived one of his colleagues, while everything else advanced a bit. Two Zanshis entered suppressing fire on the left, in the center the Doc and the Zencha started suppressive fire, too.

Druze 2: Since the right Yan Huo had advanced a bit, Scarface could finally approach him in good range. One order, two crits and an additional hit killed him directly. Scarface advanced further, dropped the Zuyong, but then getting killed in several attempts of getting the Doc and the Zencha out. Cordelia tried her best to keep him in battle, but it was not enough.

IA 2: The Doc revives the Zuyong, which takes revenge on Scarface by destroying him completly. In the center, the Zencha approached my HMG and killed it.

Druze 3: With Scarface down, my board presence was quite limited and my mobility was nearly non-existant. I needed to get three things done to win this:
1. Cordelia needed to climb up the antenna on the far right, contesting the antenna and scoring secure HVT, if possible - checked.
2. My core needed to clear the Zencha as bigges thread and secure the near left sector - The MSR died by shooting the Zencha, everything else went into safety. Halfway done...
3. The left-over haris needed to clear the mine and the two suppressive fire Zanshis on the left and take the console - The mine was shot down and the chaincolt killed both Zanshis without dying himself. A coordinated order later, both Druze entered basecontact with the antenna.
Well, that was very lucky, but everyone stood in positions which were easy to clear out.

IA 3: Krokam approached Cordelia on the roof but could not kill her. With the orders left, the Zuyong ran into my free right sector and into ZoC of my HVT. The Daoying slept to deep to take his chance of winning the game in the far left sector.

With that, I won 3-2 more by luck than by good play. It was very refreshing to have such a fast LI-game with reduced options and thinking about things. But on the other hand, every choice of deployment and placement needed to be considered well, since each loss was a real loss and cuts a big hole in my force. If something would have been able to crack up my haris or take the oncontested side of my core-link, I would have been screwed.
From my point of view, nearly every other faction is able to build a LI list with fewer drawbacks then Druze can. Scarface was the only thing that could be brought back, but in most cases he isn't worth it, The loss of the HMG and the MSR left me with only combirifles in good positions, but on not the best platforms, which is a real pitty. But I found this haris-set up very interesting and able to deal with my previous problem of having two few big guns on the table. Of course you need to be cautious with them and retreat into proper safety after killing one or two units, but you can use 16" of deployment and have a B5 HMG somewhere. In addition to this, the core-link takes good defensive positions, but needs to be deployed with a clear mind. Here I really need some more routine to avoid open firelanes and vectors to be attacked in bad ranges. With the HMG out of this link, it becomes less risky in terms of deployment.

Now with Svalarheima out and someone needed for the Kaldstrom PanO-units, I was thinking along some WinterFor-lists and had the opportunity to test it against Aleph yesterday. To some extend, I would compare Svalarheima a bit to Druze, since there is no real selling point or unit that is a must have or a auto-win. You also need to think about what you do to win the game. But with the big difference of having the right equipment everywhere. I came up with this list:

Spoiler: First try Svalarheima

Svalarheima’s Winter Force
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GROUP 1 9
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
FUSILIER Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
FUSILIER MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 18)
MAQUINISTA (WinterFor) (CH: Mimetism, Multiterrain) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
QUINN Shock Marksman Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)
NISSE Paramedic (MediKit) Combi Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 32)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

GROUP 2 7 1
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
NØKK Spitfire / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 31)
NØKK Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 30)
NØKK (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 29)
VARG (Minelayer) K1 Marksman Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

5.5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

It felt like building the Druze-list I ever wanted with a cheap defensive core, an interesting but not so great haris and some toolboxes in group two, backed up with a full REM-support. I expected this list to work similar to my Druze-lists but without the opportunities my Hunzakuts give. This should be done by the Nokken and maybe the Varg. I was mostly undergunned but overequipped, like ever. But this time, I had optimized profiles and tools to turn each FtF in my favour. And that is what happened: In turn one, I was gunned down by bad dice, but then I recovered by using the K1 Marksmenrifle of the Varg and the combirifles of my Nisse and the Nokken. Nothing else really shot, but this three units cleared everything. The Nisse is quite deadly with MSV 2 and mimetism and the Nokken combi does not need to worry about things shooting back, if they have no MSVs. In the end I lost a close game of transmission matrix due to taking the wrong guy to take the center. But it was never difficult to play. It was easy, nevertheless I have not played this faction before. And this annoys me - The gap between Druze and other factions is that wide and it gets wider with each new release. Visual modifiers become widespread, as well as MSVs and change the meta more and more, while Druze is forced to solve problems in the old way - gun everything down on your plane BS. And that is a calculated death in these times...

But enough of this salt. I will continue with my Druze since they are the cooles Merc-company of the Sphere and I will win a tournament with them. In the time between now and this tournament, I will discover other options and compare the opportunities other factions have, like having some more games with Svalarheima (I have some Briggs-theme from Fullmetal Alchemist in mind here...).

 

While talking about Outrage and StarCo, @AssaultUnicorn and I had a match via TTS today. To my fortune, he is quite experienced with it, so it went quite smooth and fast and was quite fun. We chose Hunting Party by random, which I found quite pleasant for Druze. He pulled of some StarCo-forces, but left my feared Riot Girls at home to take some other nasty stuff.

Spoiler: Druze list

Bigguns
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 8 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

GROUP 2 5 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)

5.5 SWC | 299 Points

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I wanted to have a mobile big gun in my list, so I puzzled the HMG-haris in my 'regular' list. The plan was to hunt important things down with it in turn one, while everything else should cause trouble in the following turns. With two Hunzakuts, the Pathfinder and my EM-LGL, I was quite confident to get enough things immobilized during the game.

Spoiler: Assaultunicorns StarCo

Starco. Free Company of the Star
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GROUP 1 8 1 1
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
ALGUACIL Missile Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 15)
ALGUACIL Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 18)
EMILY (Chain of Command) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (Normal and E/M), Nanopulser / Assault Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 35)
HELLCAT Combi Rifle, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 23)
IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 5 2
BANDIT Boarding Shotgun, E/Mauler / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 26)
LUNOKHOD Heavy Shotgun, Akrylat-Kanone, D-Charges, CrazyKoalas (2) / Electric Pulse. (0 | 24)
KNAUF MULTI Sniper / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
DAKTARI Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
ZONDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
CSU Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 11)
CATERAN T2 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 24)
HAWWA' (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)

5.5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Two snipers to lock down the routes towards the squishy units and a core-link to support Emily after the ML is gone. This was paired with an Irmadinho, a Hawwa and a Bandit to cause trouble in the midfield. The Lunkhold spiced things up when it comes to area-denial. At least that is my interpretation of the list.

Spoiler: Table

We played on a preset table by VaulSC, which appeared quite dense after taking a closer look. Assaultunicorn won the Lt-roll and let me deploy first in the south. I took the first turn.

On the left I put the Pathfinder, a Fugazi and my ABH, while my core deployed around the central building. MSR out to ARO wih limited view, LGL as far forwarded as possible and my Lt. in a defendable position. The haris got on the right in an advanced position, backed up by a Fugazi and the EVO-Kameel. In the center went the first Hunzakut.

The right side was denied by the Lunkhold with its Koalas, supported by the Irmadinho and a camo-marker. In the center the Alguacil-core deployed with the ML out to ARO opposed to my MSR. Knauf took the left side and a Brawler hid in the left building. Two camo markers were forwarded on both flanks.

My second Hunzakut went in the mid of the left side and Emily appeared next to the Alguacils.

Druze 1: My first group was reduced to six regular orders, what limited the impact of my haris. Nevertheless, the HMG should kill something but should not deal with the Koalas on the right. So it advanced up the middle and shot down the ML-Alguacil and the Bandit-Camo on the left in one order. I took the remaining orders to retrat the link, hoping to have him available in turn 2. Group two was used to push the Hunzakut up on the left, locking Knauf down with a mine, placing a repeater in front of the building and re-camoing himself.

StarCo1: Nobody was watching my back on the right, except for a incoming Hellcat, after the Irmadinho advanced a bit and the Alguacil-Hacker hacked controlled jump. Two orders later, my Kameel and my Druze KHD were glued, then my HMG got shot by the Hellcat. The CSU advanced and discovered my Hunzakut on the left, so that Emily shooted an EM-Grenade on him. This only disabled the repeater. The Lunkhold advanced into the center and set the Koalas in stand-by, while the Irmadinho advanced further.

Druze 2: I was locked down a bit and on the back foot regarding the scenario. My haris-Druze critted out the Hellcat, but died to the first Koala. The second Hunzakut could dodge the CSUs nanopulser out of LoS, but the helping first Hunzakut died to it, after the CSU saved two hits of the LSG. The right Fugazi advaned, placing a sniffer near the camo-marker. One sensor and one sat-lock later, the Hawwa crit-dodges my EM-grenade.

StarCo 2: The Irmadinho activates the right console and kills the Fugazi in CC, as well as coup de grace-ing it. The Daktari send out his Zondbot to clear the mine on the left, tanking it. Now Emily enters the core-link and advances into the center. I could dodge the EM-grenade.

Druze 3: To get a draw, I would need to first isolate the Brawler, then isolate Emily. But since the Brawler was too far away, it was easier to tie on hunted specialists. For this, the left Fugazi advanced, placing a sniffer next to Emily and her gang. The Hacker got targeted and hit by an EM-grenade, while Emily crit-dodged it. I failed to sat-lock the Hawwa on the right and took the remaining orders to get my Pathfinder onto the left console, but failed to activate it.

StarCo 3: The Irmadinho CCed my KHD to score the next classified, then climbed up the wall towards my core-link and stunned my Lt, while getting stunned in return. Emily stunned my Pathfinder and we ended things here.

AssaultUnicorn won 10-0 with a very good game! Some rolls went not in my favour, but thats life. The real engine behind this success was the well thought play form my point of view. There was nothing standing around in a unfavourable position and everything came on spot, so there was no clear entry-point for my tools. Of course, the flexibility of StarCo helped a lot.
I misjudged some distances here, especially by placing the repeater to far away from the Brawler and by calculating my 'alpha-strike' with the HMG. This took to many orders for the two kills. I was wondering to push it up a bit further and shoot at the Lunkhold, but I wanted them alive and retreated instead. In the end, this one order could have been used for it and could have made things easier in turn two.
One thought regarding my 'alpha-strike': There is nothing like that if you nominate a Druze for this. You are far too slow to take out more than three pieces and too expensive to be overextended and immideatly shot in the reactive turn. For everyone who knows the one thing about Druze (To be surgical killers), this can easily be countered by putting the tumors somewhere hard to access. While looking at my games, I had the best results when going second or having a reduced first turn. So I would suppose that the best first-turn strategy would be to castle up as good as possible and then take care of the left-overs of the reactive-turn. Maybe there are some spots where a Hunzakut could push some damage up, but that is all you could do. At least that is, what I will try next time.

After all, it was a great game against a great opponent, which should be repeated as soon as possible. Maybe @AssaultUnicorn has something to add or to change, since that is only my point of view.

 

Actually the Bashi Bazouk is one piece I want to bring back to my list, because adresses the mobility-issue and is a great tool in turn two. But I am tending more towards the SMG-profile, since it is cheap and delivers this great weapon on point. The Emauler may be favourable on some situations, but in many cases I pay for something I can 't use properly. The SMG kills stuff, what is never bad.
The big question behind this is, if it is okay to replace one Hunzakut with the Bashi to keep the irregular part as small as possible. Three irregular guys can do a lot, but they limit the already stressed order-pool even more. On the other hand are two Hunzakuts a really cool and useful thing... I will try around this issues a little bit, since it is a great source of motivation and knots to my successes in January.

 

Things discussed on Wednesday between @AssaultUnicorn and me directly evolved in a game of Supremacy on Thursday. As it was discussed, I added a Bashi Bazouk to my list, dropping the Druze-haris to a Duo (HMG + KHD). AssaultUnicorn chose a quite interesting QK-list for this.

Spoiler: List Druze

Druze Bayram Security
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GROUP 1 7 2
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
BASHI BAZOUK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

GROUP 2 5 2
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

There were enough SWC to get two HMGs, so why not take them? There would have been the choice to upgrade the Peacemaker HSG to the spitfire, but since it only should take part as a roadblock, I opted for the second HMG. Missing big guns scattered on the table was one problem in the past, which should be addressed by this. The Bashi Bazouk should clear things up, which try to lock down my Druze or my Hunzakuts.

Spoiler: List QK

Semper Fi
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GROUP 1 8 1 1
GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
JANISSARY HMG / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 40)
HAFZA Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 18)
HAFZA Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
ODALISQUE Submachine gun, Contender, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 22)
HAFZA (Forward Observer) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
HAWWA' Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26)

GROUP 2 6 2 2
KAPLAN (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
KAPLAN Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle, Blitzen / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
WILD BILL Contender / 2 MULTI Pistols, Knife. (0 | 25)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 8)

5.5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

I faced a wall of flashpulses and the dangerous Wild Bill-Kaplan haris. For myself, I didn't find him that cool in the past, but that was only theory. For Supremacy, this is a rounded package, including points, specialists and durable firepower. Everything you need. The real deal was the core-link. With two Hafzas in it, a Jannissary and an Odalisque, everybody could have been everyone and it was quite impossible to count out, how many points could have been left over for Yuan Yuans. In the end, it was a trickbox which really did his job!

Spoiler: Table

AssaultUnicorn chose a quite interesting table with some long firelanes, but also a lot of scatter and other terrain-pieces, breaking things up and allowing a lot of movement. We took the consoles as solid objects this time, which added some more scatter.

I lost the Lt-roll and had to go first.

My core-link went around the building on the left, with both Druze a bit advanced to directly get some points in that sector. MSR out to ARO, and my AHD Brawler watching the backfield for incoming pirates. A Fugazi should back him up. On the crates in the central right, my Warcor went on overwatch, together with the Kameel and the Pathfinder. As last line of defence, a Fugazi overwatched that sector. The Druze-duo took an advanced position on the right, together with the Peacemaker, everybody looking at every spot possible. To get him out of trouble if my Auxbot needs to use the flamethrower, my Hunzakut went a bit back on the right, while the other one guarded the Druze HMG on the left.

The Holo-core went on the right with some LoS to my right side, together with two Fanous and a "Najarun". The link looked like Leila, Odalisque SMG, Odalisque Spitfire, Jannissary HMG and Akhbar Doc. Only the Doc was watching the corridor, so that trap was set up nicely, but too obvious if you know QK. The Kaplan haris took the left side by his own. One camo-marker hid on the roof of a building on the right side.

Druze 1: Group one was reduced by two orders. My main-goal was to secure my two sectors as good as possible and deny as many good spots for Yuan Yuans as possible. So my Hunzakut on the left hacked the console, layed a mine and entered the far left-sector back in camo and cover. The right Hunzakut did the same but shot down a Fanous on its way. Overclock was activated and that was it.

QK 1: There was one place left behind the left Fugazi, where the Yuans should drop. The first two scattered away and entered the field on the right inside the DZ, while the last one hit the ground and killed the Fugazi. Under smoke, he advanced and climbed the building towards my link. My MSR engaged him, while my Lt miscalculated the engage-range and died to the chain rifle. The Kaplan-haris advances a bit.

Druze 2: My left Hunzakut tried to shoot Wild Bill but failed and died in return. My AHD tries to take out the Yuan in my DZ in CC but gets killed instead. Nothing else happens.

QK 2: The Yuan now takes out the MSR and the nearby Druze LGL, while his buddy on the right side wrecks the Peacemaker. The Kaplan-haris advances and activates the far left console, while the camo-marker on the right leaves his roof and activates the far right console (Hawwa AHD). With a long shot, Wild Bill clears out the second Hunzakut.

Druze 3: Only a few orders left and much space to cover, my duo-HMG advances and after failing to kill even one Yuan, dropping the Kaplan spitfire unconscious. My Bashi Bazouk enters the game in the far right quadrant and enters suppressive fire.

QK 3: On each side a Yuan Yuan takes out the neares HMG with ease. The Kaplan Doc revives the spitfire and the link advances further. The Hawwa advances on the right and gets his brain melted by my KHD while he activates the console.

So I lost 5-2 against AssaultUnicorn in an again great game. The core-link laying a big shadow over everything possibly being on the field or not, was a great idea and really suprised me, as he sent me the actual list. That the Akbar-Doc was the HRL-Hafza was obvious, but with the Odalisques and the HMG Jannissary, everything was possible, so nothing was easy to approach without a strong gunfighter. The Yuan Yuans played the game of their life, even after two of them scattered in the first attempt. They were a great order-sink but got their points out several times, not speaking from all the trouble they caused me during deployment and turn one. On the one hand I had several tools to control them, but with their chain-rifles and my REMs and close-up 1W link-teams, mistakes were paid in blood. The entry-point used by AssaultUnicorn was initially covered by my AHD, but to secure link-coherency, I placed him differently and have not checked my position again...In the end, it would have been better to take the Peacemaker on the left, since it was overdone on the right and he could have fought the haris better than the Hunzakut, since a mine can't stop Wild Bill properly.

Since I had to go first in a lot of recent games, that is something I would call out as a reason for the bad results (paired with bad dice sometimes). Games where I can go second are not that problematic, since Druze can consume a lot of firepower in turn one and than fight its way out of this in close corners. But going first, you need to deal the damage somewhere. This time, I tried to do this with my Hunzakuts and the HMGs as back-up, what worked good for the Hunzakuts, but not for the HMGs. They are the wrong weapon to take, if you face your opponents in the center from turn two on. I'd had better taken my lovely SMR instead of the HMG in the duo-team here. If two Hunzakuts are necessary when there is a Bashi Bazouk there, too, needs to be proved in the future.

With an other loss on my list, I gambled a bit with Druze in other factions and could write some interesting lists but without any Druze-flavour in them. Wether in Ikari or in QK, you have to leave so many good things at home, if you want to take more than one Druze, that it is a real pain sometimes. In most cases, I see only the SMR and the KHD as good additions to normal lists of these sectors, but I want the SMR in a haris, what is not available there (or just to quite high costs). So I will stick with Druze further and try some new things in the future. One thing to deal with the bad potential when going first is to reduce the dependency of my core-team. Here I want to test two small links (3 man core with HMG and MSR Brawler + Druze haris with SMR and KHD). Together with the available skirmishers, many problems of the last games can be addressed, with the problem that I am out of SSL2 and the +3BS for my Brawler...But we will see.

 

The new ideas regarding list-building motivated me to squeeze in two more games until now. While I was massacred by Aleph one more time, I could win a quite close but interesting game against Ramah in LI.

Spoiler: Game 1: Decapitation vs Aleph

Vanilla Aleph is never a good match-up, but I rebuild my current Druze-list a bit to have some more options to pull the big teeth Aleph would bring. In a mission like Decapitation this would be more important than anywhere else.

Spoiler: List Druze

Smalllink
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GROUP 1 6 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 7 1
BASHI BAZOUK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE Paramedic (X Visor, MediKit) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

I spread my reduced link-teams over both combat groups, since they had different roles. The HMG-core should be the first turn team of group two to open things up and do "major" damage, hopefully getting the MSV Brawler somewhere good for the reactive turn. In group one the Hunzakut should make use of other vectors and do damage on his own. During the following turns targets should be close enough to get rid of them via the SMR in group one and with the Bashi Bazouk in group two. Everyone needs as many orders as possible, but since the Bashi Bazouk is missing in turn one, a bit more is invested in that group.

Spoiler: Aleph list

ALEPH
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10 2
DEVA (Multispectral Visor L2) Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 33)
PROXY Mk.3 Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (2 | 21)
PROXY Mk.2 Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
PROXY Mk.1 Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)
YUDBOT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
AGÊMA Marksman (X Visor) Mk12 / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 29)
THORAKITES Submachine gun, Light Rocket Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 15)
THORAKITES (360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
THORAKITES (360º Visor) Submachine gun, Chain Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
AJAX 2 Combi Rifles, Nanopulser / AP Heavy Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 39)
EUDOROS Lieutenant Mk12, Nanopulser, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 40)
DART Submachine Gun, Viral Tactical Bow, E/M Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, Knife. (0 | 34)
MYRMIDON Spitfire, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 31)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

I played against this list some times before, but the overwhelming firepower paired with the visual mods is a really dangerous thing. Dart had AP-mines this time, he learned out of the one game without them.

Spoiler: TTS Table

I took one good looking table from what is offered in VaulSCs discord but did not have a closer look before the game.

I won the Lt-roll and was not brave enough to take the second turn, so I went first and was given the south DZ, which showed the drawbacks too late.

My HMG-core went on the right side with the Brawler behind the crate, covering the long firelane there and both Druze forwarded on the rooftop in the center (big mistake!!). A Pathfinder also went on that side, while the haris-team went behind the central building. The street was covered by my Fugazis and the Peacemaker, while my Lt and the other two hackers went on the left side, hidden as good as possible. The Bashi Bazouk should enter from my near left side.

In the right corridor, the LRL-Torakites and a camo-marker were sent, both watching my Brawler. Ajax started centered in the far away part of the DZ, behind all three spitfires and backed up with the Doc-Proxy. Eudoros appeared on the left, covered by a Torakites. An other one was a bit advanced in the center, overwatching a part of the street. In front of him, a TO-marker started.

My Hunzakut should help my Brawler in the right corridor, while an additional MK12 Agema went there, too. My Datatracker was the Druze paramedic, Alpeh nominated one of the Torakites, I guess.

Druze 1: With two orders down in group one, I totally fail to get things in the right order. In an attempt to clear the right corridor, my whole link was blewn up by the LRL and the Hunzakut only could put a wound on Dart and knock the Agema and the Torakites unconscious. Due to the wrong order here, I was left with four orders in group two but without anyone to spend them.

Aleph 1: The Doc let his Yudbot advance and pick up the Agema and the Torakites, while Eudoros advanced and wrecked a Fugazi. The TO-marker was the Proxy AHD, but got stuck on the Peacemaker or better said on all the other hackers trying to freeze him. The Deva advances but iss topped by a critical Flashpulse.

Druze 2: My KHD takes out the Proy hacker, then the haris fails to kill Dart and the Torakites on the right and falls back a bit. My Bashi Bazouk appeared and took a wound of the Deva and Eudoros with his chain-colt, then he died.

Aleph 2: The Myrmedon sets up smoke on the street, which is used by the Deva to kill the Peacemaker and the second Fugazi. While she tried to shoot my haris, the KHD crits here down but this triggers a mine layed by Dart, which kills the other two members of her link.

With nothing left to threaten Eudoros, I call it here and Aleph wins 5-0 with more army points and a killed designated target, I guess. I felt diced somehow, since I rolled quite low or quite high most of the time, while everything Aleph tried succeeded. Logically, this can'T be due to the randomizer of the TTS, but who knows? I calculated most of the situations in the dice calculator afterwards, which showed that I was shooting with something like 40-50% chance of success against 20% chances for Aleph. While I failed most of the time, Aleph succeeded. But I have to admit, that I made the wrong decisions here, leading to those odds. Suprisingly a buffed Pathfinder would have been the best available choice in the right corridor. Something to be considered in the future! My haris was nice and will be tried again in that set-up, while I wasted the core totally. I struggled in my plan during deployment and chose the reactive one, with the Brawler far away from the rest of the link, expected to be shot. This made it impossible to move my link with him as link leader. Lesson learned.

Spoiler: Game 2: Safe Area vs. Ramah (LI)

The second game was against our Dashat-player in Vassal. Since games with him took at least three hours in the past, we decided to play some LI-games in the next weeks to smooth things a bit and reduce the brain-work a bit. That said, I had to take the hard task of limited insertion with Druze.

Spoiler: List Druze LI

LIBest
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

10
SCARFACE & CORDELIA TURNER . (1.5 | 78)
SCARFACE 2 Mk12, Heavy Rocket Launcher / AP CCW. (1.5 | 61)
SCARFACE Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. ()
CORDELIA TURNER Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
ARSLAN Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Light Shotgun / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 36)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Panzerfaust / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

I wanted to test my small links further, so I tried to fit all this into a restricted list. Scarface was needed to fill the points, as well as Arslan. I would have loved to have at least one Pathfinder included to experiment a bit with it, but that is not possible in LI, if you don't want to use Scarface and the Anaconda. And I totally did not! The KHD this time should stick with the HMG, while the Panzerfaust should add some ARO-potential to the haris. Arslan and the LGL should hang out together for whatever there would be.

Spoiler: List Ramah LI

Ramah Taskforce
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

9 1 1
GHULAM (NCO) Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (Normal and Smoke Ammo.) / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 16)
KHAWARIJ (Fatality L1, Multispectral Visor L2) Mk12 / Pistol, AP CCW. (0.5 | 36)
KHAWARIJ (Chain of Command, Fatality L1) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 32)
KHAWARIJ Heavy Rocket Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (1 | 28)
NAMURR Spitfire, E/Marat, D-Charges / Heavy Pistol, E/M CC Weapon, Knife. (1 | 44)
GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
MUKHTAR Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Rifle + Light Shotgun, 2 Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 33)
TARIK MANSURI Lieutenant L2 Spitfire, Nanopulser, Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (1.5 | 59)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
CARMEN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades + Bâtard / Heavy Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 22)
BÂTARD Trench-hammer, AP CCW. (- | 5)

5.5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

The core-link was quite weird with all the different stuff in it, but the Namuur needs to be considered as a thread and a MK12 MSV 2 as back-up is not bad, too. Tarik should work together with Carmen as a solo-piece, while I have no clue over the Mukhtar to be honest.

Spoiler: Table

Table setup in Vassal is quite limited and I had not much time to create some playable new ones, so we went back to the well known factory. Maybe I need to redo it in the future, since there are some too sweet spots, if you reach them.

I won the Lt-roll and chose to deploy second in the north, but was given the first turn.

The Ghulam-core hid behind the south right building and the nearby crates with the HRL out to ARO and some dudes looking for the entrance of the right building. Tarik went together with the Fanous and the Doc+ into the central building, while Carmen & Batard started behind those buildings.

My HMG and the KHD went on the far right, waiting for their Brawler-fried, while the Haris deployed behind the central building or inside of it. Scarface and Cordelia took the left side, backed by the LGL and Arslan, still preparing for battle in their barack.

A Mukhtar AHD was placed on the left and I deployed my MSR Brawler on the right, building my core-team.

Druze 1: My core-team advances towards the crates on the right, from where the MSR blasts away the Kawarij HRL. THe team shifts towards the center, shooting a pitcher next to the Mukhtar and then dropping it unconscious with a skullbuster. My TAG-team advances a bit, the haris, too and all in all a bit of Druze-shuffle was done to build a core-team with my MSR in it, waiting behind the truck. My KHD cybermasked himself inside the room to avoid nasty templates.

Ramah 1: Carmen didn't want to move, so the core-team starts. The NCO sets up some smoke and shoots my pitcher, before the Namurr tries to engage my Brawler with the spitfire right in front of the truck. Two orders later my Brawler had killed her with his pistol (40% for the Namuur, 20% for my Brawler).

Druze 2: With the whole core-team lined up on the left side of the truck, it was time for Arslan! Together with his buddy, he started advancing and took out the Kawarij and the Ghulam in one order each, further advancing into the left building near the south DZ. There he entered suppressive fire. On his way he scored mapping. Meanwhile my core-team fails to take out the MK12, still hiding behind the truck.

Ramah 2: Things seem lost here, but nothing is lost as long as Tarik is on the field. Supported by smoke from Carmen, he advanced in the midfield and took out Scarface, Cordelia and my MSR with crits only (without joking!). Everything wielding a rifle or comparable weapons enter suppressive fire.

Druze 3: Tarik did real damage and reduced my capabilites to control him or the quadrants. First I had to un-cybermask my KHD by shooting a pitcher and securing the near right console. WIth a new five-man core up, my SMR was shot down by the MK12. Three men grouped again and the HMG was shot down by Tarik. Scarface embarks his demolished TAG, while my remaining Druze enter suppressive fire.

Ramah 3: Carmen tries to chainrifle Arslan and puts a wound on him, but dies to the shock-ammonition. Now High Command struggled with his orders, so that Tarik takes out Scarface and enters my near left sector, leaving the far left to me.

So we tie on sectors, but due to my controlled console and my scored classified, I win 4-2 more to bad luck and missing concentration. I thought the game won after my second turn, but Tarik is such a bad-ass...Wow. Arslan has ordered a poster of him for his bedroom, I guess! Of course, there was some luck with the dice, but this whole package boosted with Fat2 is just great and can turn a game completly on his own. That is something, I call a super-soldier! I was worried about this even in the beginning, but not in that way. Even with four guys lost, the Lt2 makes him so powerfull....wow. So, lucky me, that you need to be concentrated to win Infinity and I hope this loss hurts enough to learn from it.
In general I am really pleased with my game, since most of the things worked out as planned and the core-team in the center of my side was gold. With only 10 orders available, it is not that easy to dig out such a link then. I could have wrecked the link with Scarface instead of Arslan, but that would have lost me the game, since 59 points were still sitting in my DZ in the end and there was enough space to take him up in round two. Arslan did a great job here and is definitively someone to take into account in the future. Maybe. In LI he is great!

Both games showed me, that I am on a cool path with two reduced links and some skirmishers added to it, but with some things to learn better. A Druze-link is where it is, so you need some mobile units to solve your problems in other positions. With the Hunzakut as a premium-hunter here, the Bashi Bazouk is an other piece of this puzzle, but the Pathfinders are also valuable for this, since you want to field some support for it anyway. I am sceptical to get a raid through the whole DZ in turn one some time with a Druze, but I am confident to work out at least the surgical removes you have to in turn one and be able to continue strong enough then.
Credits here need to be given to @WiseKensai and @TheDiceAbide for their recent battle-report and some thoughts around that! Thank you very much!

 

I could squeeze in two more games this week, further testing the previous lists (LI and "normal" against @karolis and @AssaultUnicorn .
Unfortunately, it is better not to speak about the results of both games, more about the lessons learned. But first things first!

Spoiler: Game 1: Annhilation vs Karolis (MOLI)

I had some time, so I asked for a random match via discord and had the pleasure to face Karolis for this. Since he is quite new to TTS, we agreed on LI to reduce time and failure-potential. To smooth the game even more, annhilation was chosen as mission for this.

Spoiler: List Druze LI

LIBest
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

10
SCARFACE & CORDELIA TURNER . (1.5 | 78)
SCARFACE 2 Mk12, Heavy Rocket Launcher / AP CCW. (1.5 | 61)
SCARFACE Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. ()
CORDELIA TURNER Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
ARSLAN Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Light Shotgun / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 36)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Panzerfaust / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

No changes were done on this list, since I was quite satisfied with the potential and resilience of all my units. Scarface as secondary attack-piece, while the core out of HMG, KHD and MSR Brawler should do the main work as long as possible.

Spoiler: List MO

Karolis MO
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

7 2 3
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse / Stun Pistol, Knife. (0 | 3)
TECH-BEE (Remote Assistant Level 1, Specialist Operative) Flash Pulse / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 5)
KNIGHT HOSPITALLER HMG / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 39)
KNIGHT HOSPITALLER Doctor (MediKit) Combi Rifle / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 35)
MAGISTER KNIGHT Missile Launcher / Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 32)
MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22)
MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust, Light Shotgun / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 22)
JOAN OF ARC Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW. (+1 | 49)
TIKBALANG OF MONTESA (Religious Troop) AP HMG, Heavy Flamethrower / DA CCW. (2 | 92)
CRABBOT Flash Pulse / Knife. ()

6 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

I was really curious how I could perform against MO, since I tried that sector a lot in the past, but without major success and I had some interesting tools against those knights. For my bad, I could not remember all the costs well, so the missing 10th slot tricked me into thinking there is a TOFOOS hiding somewhere...The concept here seems quite cleas: Tikbalang as major atack-piece, while the Hospitaller HMG should strike second, after the ARO-potential of the Magisters is wrecked. Jeanne generates the orders for this.

Spoiler: Table

I chose a quite basic, but interesting looking Icestorm-table for this match. There were some longer firelanes scattered, but S2 models could walk quite free most of the time, while the TAGs had to be caucious.

I don't remember who won the Lt-roll, but I had the chance to go first, deploying first in the south.

Scarface and Cordelia took the right side, since there was more TAG-cover, while my haris-team went on the left side. The HMG-core deployed in the center with Arslan and the LGL left to them. I had no better place to hide Arslan and forming a duo, so he had to stay on the ground, behind the building.

In return, a Magister/Hospitaller-core was deployed in the center with the ML on a building and the other two Magisters watching the sides of that building to give additional Panzerfaust-AROs. HMG behind, while the doc was prone next to the ML. Techbee and Warcor were hidden on the right, together with Jeanne on a roof.

My Bralwer MSR formed the core-link in the center, while a Tikbalang appeared well hidden on the right side. We forgot about datatrackers here.

Druze 1: While there was no direct path to access the Tikbalang as major thread, I had to go for the ML-Magister first. My core advanced carefully to react on TOFOOS if needed and my Brawler was pasted in the first shot. The HMG knocked the ML prone with one hit afterwards and retreated to form a defensive core-link. I deployed not good enough here, so I was only able to build a four-man-core here and shuffle the haris a bit to have the panzerfaust out to ARO. I wanted to replace Scarface somewhere better and oversaw a panzerfaust-LoF, what knocked him out directly.

MO 1: The Tikbalang started, crossing the right side. On his way he failed to wound my haris-team, but then killed Cordelia and took a wound on Arslan. Arslan survived several shots here and went into total cover. The core-team shuffled a bit to get the ML up again, while the Tikbalang retreated into a better position and entered suppressive fire.

Druze 2: The Tikbalang needed to be removed and the only reasonable way to do so was the LGL. I needed some orders to get a fith Druze next to him and after a first missed shot out of range, the whole link needed to shift to the right. With my last order, I missed a second shot on the Tikbalang.

MO 2: The Tikbalang starts and by climbing the buildings in my DZ taking out one member of my fireteam after another, without being harmed reasonable. The turn ended with two Druze alive, so we called it here.

With the Tikbalang being one of the scaries TAGs in the game, even in MO and me not adapting to this situation, I have to apologize for such a boring game. After turn one, only a lucky EM-shot could have rescued me in a way, but most things were lost with the missed opportunity of my core-team in turn one. Missed opportunity is well said here, since my MSR was shooting with something like 48% chance of success against 30% for the Magister, so no reliable odds here. Nevertheless, nothing else in my list had scored better against a full-linked ML here. Maybe I could have had a chance, if I had not thrown away Scarface and if I had not taken the safer path with my core-link in the fear of a mine-laying TOFOOS somewhere. In general, the bad FtF-potential here for my units sucked.

Spoiler: Game 2: Highly Classified vs AssaultUnicorn (QK)

To not get caught in the LI-box with many Druze-tools not available, I had the chance to face AssaultUnicorn one more time. To spice things up and break up the permanent quadrant-control setup of many ITS-missions, we agreed on Highly Classified.

Spoiler: List Druze

Smalllink
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 6 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

GROUP 2 7 1
BASHI BAZOUK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE Paramedic (X Visor, MediKit) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
BRAWLER (Multispectral Visor L2) MULTI Sniper / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 28)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

I took my "small-link"-list without any changes, since I felt set up well for many classifieds and simply wanted to test the potential of this concept further. The plan was exactly the same as in the last game:
The HMG-core should be the first turn team of group two to open things up and do "major" damage, hopefully getting the MSV Brawler somewhere good for the reactive turn. In group one the Hunzakut should make use of other vectors and do damage on his own. During the following turns targets should be close enough to get rid of them via the SMR in group one and with the Bashi Bazouk in group two. Everyone needs as many orders as possible, but since the Bashi Bazouk is missing in turn one, a bit more is invested in that group.

Spoiler: List QK

Classified
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 7 3 3
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0 | 8)
GHULAM Doctor Plus (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
HAFZA Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 18)
GHULAM (Forward Observer) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 13)
GHULAM (Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, E/Mauler / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 14)
GHULAM Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
GHULAM Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
ODALISQUE Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 30)

GROUP 2 7
SHIHAB REMOTE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
HAWWA' (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 21)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
KAPLAN (Fireteam: Haris) Spitfire / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
KAPLAN Engineer Combi Rifle, Blitzen / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
ALGUACIL Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 10)

6 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

AssaultUnicorn sticked to QK this time and set up a defensive Ghulam-link. Easier to predict, but with more space for other tools. This time, many different Ghulams made it hard to predict, which one could be the Hafza - Or even if there is one hiding. The Odalisque should reform the link, if the sniper goes down, so that the hunt is on and in group two everything is set up to score the classifieds with the haris and the Hawwa, while shooting things down if necessary.

Spoiler: Table

The table appeared quite open, what was proven wrong during the game. The forest-areas were defined as djungle-terrain and saturation-zones, while all see-through fences were also defined as saturation-zones.
I won the Lt-roll and wanted to choose turns, while AssaultUnicorn chose to deploy first. I went first then in the south.
Main classifieds were: Rescue, HVT Kidnapping, Predator and Nanoespionage. We both were not happy with this, since there was nothing really easy to score. As my secondary objective I drew HVT Espionage

The Ghulam-core went on the central building with the sniper overwatching the left side and everyone else well hidden. The Kaplan-haris took the left side, screened by a camo marker, while a Ghulam, the Kameel and an Alguacil were placed on the right. The HVT went on the left, as narrow to the DZ as possible.

I had again to scatter as good as possible to prevent an airstrike in turn one, so my back was covered by Kameel, Fugazi and AHD on the left, Lt, Path and Fugazi on the right. My haris-team took the more dense right side, where also my HVT went, while the core deployed on the right. The Bashi should enter on the far right, my Hunzakut started in the center.

A Shihab TR-REM was deployed on the right, overwatching my access on that side, while I brought up my Brawler on the left side.

Druze 1: Two orders were taken from the first group. The core-team advanced on the left and the MSR Brawler was instantly shot by the Ghulam sniper. On the right the TR-Bot finishs off my SMR and the Bashi Bazouk could not disable it either.

QK 1: Two Yuans scatter, while one drops succcessfully on the building near my DZ. With some smoke he can reach my Druze paramedic, but gets shot by his viralpistol in CC. The camo-marker advances on the left, just to be shot by the Peacemaker when he reveals. The remaining Yuan Yuans and the haris advance. The Odalisque advances a bit and enters suppressive fire.

Druze 2: The HMG tries to shoot the Odalisque, forcing her prone with one wound. The AHD tries to sneak onto the left side but gets stucked, so he enters suppressive fire in a safe position. The KHD does this, too, on the right.

QK 2: One Yuan Yuan catches the KHD and kills it in CC, but gets stunned by the near by Fugazi. On the left, the other Yuan Yuan grabbed the unconscious al Hawwa and drags him back into safety.

Druze 3: The Fugazi on the right stuns the Yuan Yuan again, but the remaining DEP-Druze needs three attempts to kill him in CC, scoring me predator. The HMG dies while trying to shoot the sniper, which leaves me without further opportunities, since I am out of orders to catch the ambulance-Yuan with my Auxbot or advance the Peacemaker for my secondary classified.

QK 3: Ambulance Yuan drops his patient and tries to attack my Peacemaker in CC. The electric pulse is enough to stop him. The Hawwa is now taken by the Odalisque, while the haris advances on the right, shooting my left over units. Ignoring my HVT, Leila blew up an obstacle in my DZ for Sabotage with the last roll.

We tie on main-classifieds, but since AssaultUnicorn could score his secondary objective, he won 5 - 3. Since I had no opportunities to advance on the left, the right side was played not clever enough by myself. What rescued me were the not very CC-experienced Yuan Yuans. To "loose" three of them in CC in the same game really is bad luck and without this, I would have had to completly rely on the left side to score anything. Here the Ghulam-sniper was gold, since his shock-ammonition denies me rescue, his LoF denied kidnapping and espionage and he locked down my paramedic to get the downed Hawwa.
It could have been an even safer win for AssaultUnicorn, if he had gone for my uncovered HVT in turn three and had not taken the risk and investment to score predator by himself, but after all it was played very well. Especially the positioning of the TR-bot and the Ghulam-sniper were perfect and the haris as driving force in this mission did his job pretty good.

One option to enter the game from my side would have been a smarter way on the right side. Instead of forcing it through a saturation zone with my SMR, it would have taken me only four orders without greater risk to blow up the TR-bot: Pitcher from my KHD on the fence, my AHD immobilizing the TR-Bot and the SMR advancing and dropping it. One order as back-up. That would have enabled me to fight other things on the right with the Bashi Bazouk and the haris-link, so that I could left the left-side by his own. There was nothing to gain, since I overestimated my HMG and my MSR again. Like in the previous game, my odds were below 50% for both units, so the result is not that surprising.

The lessons learned here are quite clear:
1. Think about smart solutions, if there is no obvious good opportunity to gun things down. There are enough tools available to enter the game via hacking or via other equipment (sniffers for example) and there are too few units acting as a reliable hammer in turn one. Things change in turn two, but turn one is too important to clear out yourself by stupid decisions.
2. A BS12 weapon, equal if it is B3 or B5, can't solve a linked thread reliable, if there are no other opportunities to change the mods (out-ranging with a 4-2 MOV in turn one? For sure...). While searching for new ideas to solve this, I got back to the basics and visited @Q.A.I. s primer again. Sometimes the obvious things are nearer than you think they are. Not very hidden, he wrote about the Druze MSR as one of our better hammer-units. I checked this in the calculator for all the critical situations I lost my HMG or MSR-Brawler in the last games and he is right: No other unit can score odds of 60% in standard-situations.
So I will rebuild my lists to fit in the Druze MSR, but also to keep the toolbox alive or even better supported. But if there are other suggestions or thoughts, don't hold back! Sometimes I get the feeling of being stuck in my own hole and not seeing the obvious things.

Many thanks again to @karolis and @AssaultUnicorn for this games!

 

Mh yeah, now that you say it. It was a thing before third offensive, I did not questioned that. But since it did not really matter in that game and linkteams are not easy to overview these days, I am not mad about this. Happens from time to time, so it is a learning-process.

I thought about him, too. But he is quite expensive. In LI it could work fine, but I prefer the Druze MSR in normal lists. He has multiple purposes there, while Armand is on his own, without supporting my HMG for example.
On the other hand, he would have been a blast against your Ghulam-sniper!

 

Oh, that is a sweet idea! I think, I will test it next week! Have you thought about Valeria instead of the Kameel? In that way you could take Cordelia with a Nasmat, which would make your first turns more reliable and gives Scarface at least some protection against hackers.

 

While I expected to have more games in LI over the last days, I was able to test the MSR-variant of my "bigger" list two times with mixed results but good experiences:

Spoiler: Game 1: Frontline vs Bakunin

This one was great...I decided to cut the MSR-Brawler for the Druze MSR, since ODD and TO in positions, where only a linked MSR can remove them, are not so frequent. Of course, the first opponent for this list had to be Bakunin. We decided to have a game of Frontline, since we were sick of quadrants for the moment.

Spoiler: List Druze

Smalllink
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 6 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

GROUP 2 7 1
BASHI BAZOUK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
DRUZE (CH: Mimetism) MULTI Sniper / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
BRAWLER Doctor (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Compared to the previous version the changes are small but important. First, the MSR Brawler was switched to the MSR Druze as main attack-piece, followed by the HMG. To have a specialist by hand, the Brawler Doc made his first appearance in this link, since the odds are better with WIP 12 than PH 8 with the paramedic.To get more out of the AHD, it was switched between the groups to help out if the SMR-haris failed.

Spoiler: List Bakunin

Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 7
MODERATOR Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 15)
MODERATOR MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)
MODERATOR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
PROWLER (Specialist Operative) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, CCW. (0.5 | 33)

GROUP 2 6 1 1
TASKMASTER HMG / Heavy Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 49)
REVEREND CUSTODIER Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 34)
REVEREND HEALER MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 37)
REVEREND CUSTODIER Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 32)
ZERO Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
ZERO Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

5.5 SWC | 293 Points

Open in Infinity Army

This is not the correct list and not the correct distribution of the troops, but everything essential is here. A flexible Moderator-link, some midfield-clearance by the Reverends and a Taskmaster to clear out what the camos can't handle.

Spoiler: Table Frontline

Since TTS lets you try things you can't have in real life, I wanted to play this interesting looking train-table. There are some interesting firelanes, if you get into elevated positions, but besides that, long range weapons seem only to shine on the right side, while the containers on the left open up some other interesting but difficult options.

I won the Lt-roll and went second this time, given the south DZ.

The Moderator-core went on the central right, with the MSR on the building and the spitfire behind. Three camo-markers blocked the right corridors. On the left side, the Custodier-haris should clear things on their own, only supported by a Morlock.

I was quite confident to beat the Custodiers with mines and hacking, so my haris-team went on the left side, supported by a Fugazi and my Hunzakut in the center. Everything else was grouped on the right to handle the camos and coordinate a counter-attack with the Druze MSR or HMG then. My REMs should take the discovery of the approaching camos. THe Bashi Bazouk was dedicated to the far right flank.

A Taskmaster HMG took the heavy work in the right corridors and I also reinforced the position there with my Peacemaker near the center line.

Bakunin 1: Overclock is activated and two orders are taken from the group with more camos in it. The Taskmaster starts by wrecking the right Fugazi, which is used by two camo-markers to approach. Both getting discovered between all my units in front of the pile of barrels. In the evolving firefights a Zero dies, while the Prowler survives. On my side the Peacemaker, my Pathfinder and the Druze MSR go down. The haris advances on the left.

Druze 1: Since the Prowler has survived and is blocking all my movement on the right, the AHD is sent out to finish him off. The Doc revives my MSR and everything repositions a bit. On the left side my Hunzakut places a mine and a repeater in the gap between the containers. The KHD fails to hack the Custodier in range, but at least the mine finishes the Healer.

Bakunin 2: The Morlock crosses the containers and dies to the Hunzakut. On the right the last camo advances and places a mine next to my link and the AHD Brawler but dies in the progress. Now the Taskmaster takes the run, but can't do any damage on the link. Even the mine goes off without effect (uff!!).

Druze 2: There is no good option to deal with the Taskmaster, so I have to take the risk and shoot at the TM out of cover. This is not survived by the Druze MSR, but the Doc revives him a second time and everyone repositions a bit. The mine-hacking trick of my KHD and Hunzakut is performed a second time on the left, knocking out both Custodiers.

Bakunin 3: The Moderators start moving, so that the MSR could take out my MSR with a long shot. The TM then kills my AHD and advances into my DZ and enters suppressive fire.

Druze 3: I know I had won here, since the Moderators left their position from where they could see my entering Bashi Bazouk and the Taskmaster was in my DZ. Nevertheless, I wanted to make it clear. The Brawler Doc somehow kills the TM, while the HMG dies by climbing on the building.

With the Bashi Bazouk in the far sector and my Hunzakut in the mid, I won 7-1, more to luck, than to skill here. Killing the TM with the Doc was more than unusual, if he had stayed out of my DZ. The camos in the first two turns did all the damage they needed to do, even with a moderate performance this time. Again, I found no effective way to handle them properly. Most of the time, one mine or a well placed BSG-shot is enough to cripple my entire next turn or even the whole game here. On the other side, the Hunzakut and my haris-team performed super well, even with most of them not doing anything. But the flexibility the haris offers is great and if they could get into positions with closer ranges, they really shine.
Am I satsified with the Druze MSR? Not really in this game. Whenever I needed his mimetism, the dice were not in my favour. But I am really suprised by the Brawler Doc. I ranted about him several times in this thread, I guess, but he had proven me wrong. WIP 12 together with the option to get someone back is really great and his loadout really fits into the range-gap the link has between 8" and 16", so he is a thread on his own. Great guy!

Spoiler: Game 2: Unmasking vs QK

@AssaultUnicorn was at hand for an other game last week and since my sickness of quadrants is not over yet, I could convince him to play Unmasking.

Spoiler: List Druze

Smalllink
──────────────────────────────────────────────────
GROUP 1 6 1
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)

GROUP 2 7 1
BASHI BAZOUK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
DRUZE (CH: Mimetism) MULTI Sniper / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
BRAWLER Doctor (MediKit) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
BRAWLER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Submachine Gun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 17)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)

5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

I took my new list again, just to see the Druze MSR in action and test it out more. The plan for Unmasking was to flip one or two consoles with the Hunzakut, have one Decoy killed with the Bashi Bazouk and wrap things up with my haris, if needed. A second infiltrator would have been gold in this mission, but hey...

Spoiler: List QK

RIPCORD
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 9 1
HAFZA Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Panzerfaust / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
LEILA SHARIF Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Shock Marksman Rifle, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 20)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
BASHI BAZOUK Submachine Gun, Chain-colt / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)

GROUP 2 4 1 1
KAMEEL (Minesweeper, Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
HAWWA' Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26)
DJANBAZAN HMG / Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 35)
SHIHAB REMOTE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 9)

5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

This game should result in a mirror-match somehow with a Druze-core against me. A Druze KHD should do the main work together with Leila, while there were many back-up pieces to deny every path needed.

Spoiler: Table

Since there was a table available for unmasking, we decided to take it. The office-rooms in the center had walls of infinite height, making the right side quite closed, while long-range actions were dedicated to the left side.

I think, I won the Lt-roll again and decided to go second, leaving me deploying first in the south. This was thought through here, since I expected some Yuan Yuans and wanted them to jump into a denser line of defense, not weakend by a previous movement on my side. So I hoped to survive this alpha-strike in a good shape and have my Hunzakut still available then to klick the consoles.

Two of my HVTs went on the left side, quite open, with my Designated Target behind the container on the left flank. The other HVT was placed well protected on the right behind the office walls.
The left side was guarded by my core-team and the Peacemaker, while both Fugazis went into the center. My haris was advanced on the right side, backed up by my Pathfinder and the Brawler AHD. To hold back my Bashi Bazouk, I had to deploy the Hunzakut in the office, hidden under a desk. My Lt. took a nap on the building on my side.

One HVT was placed on each side, while an other one directly in the center, behind the office wall and overwatched by the central building.
A core-link with Leila deployed in the central building, while a Kaplan engineer guarded the right entrance to the office. The Druze KHD hid on the advanced left flank. while a TR-bot covered the left HVT and some more area on the left. A camo-marker was deployed in the office on the right side.
This deployment let enough space for some Yuan Yuans, so I planned for the worst, even with no EVO-Kameel on his side.

The Bashi Bazouk should get into trouble too soon by taking the far left spot, so he should assassinate the right HVT. A Djanbazan appeared on the roof of the left building, overwatching all my movements on that side. My datatracker was the Druze SMR, while AssaultUnicorn nominated Leila.

QK 1: My REMs were overclocked and I reduced group one by two orders, since I wanted to limit the movement of the Druze. Only one Yuan Yuan entered the battlefield on the left side, smoking up the LoF of the Djanbazan. The camo-marker starts by switching the right console and retreating out of the office. My Decoy on the right was revealed. The Druze KHD switches the other two consoles and getting stuck in the central room of the office by failing to cybermask her. The Djanbazan let bounce off a whole burst of his HMG on the Peacemakers armor.

Druze 1: Again my mind and fear for Yuan Yuans tricked me totally, but better be prepared than getting wrecked immideatly. My Bashi Bazouk enters the battlefield to clear out the Hawwa in one shot, but can't handle the Druze SMR and dies. My haris advances and in the shootout between both Druze KHDs, mine got shot. So the Hunzakut crawled through the whole office to finally take out the KHD and recamoes on the right console. My REMs advances a bit and getting overclocked to strengthen my defence a bit, since the rest of the haris-team is more than opposed.

QK 2: The Yuan Yuan gets stunned on his way to my Designated Target. This time, the Djanbazan succeeds on my Peacemaker, but is not able to take out the central Fugazi. To my suprise, a Bashi Bazouk enters on my near right side where the Hunzakut was hiding. The Hunzakut is not able to pick or hit the right target and is shot down. With renewed holoechoes, the Bashi Bazouk leaves the office and in a hail of fire, my Decoy is killed together with the SMR-Druze, while the real Bashi Bazouks survives all AROs. Leila cybermasks herself and advances to the central HVT.

Druze 2: I am quite locked due to the chain-colt of the Bashi Bazouk. I pull everyone but my Lt in group two. My Lt. stands up to clear out the Bashi Bazouk and gets back prone with the next order. Now the time is there for a highly mobile specialist, so my Pathfinder starts his way, switching both consoles in the office and revealing both HVTs on the flanks. I planned for Decoys here to get them for the one objective point, but in the end AssaultUnicorn gave his best to hide his Designated Target as a Decoy, so I revealed it on the left flank, in LoF to my Pathfinder. With MMSL2 activated and a few orders later, the Designated Target was dead and my Pathfinder in a good position in the central office-room.

QK 3: The Yuan Yuan failed to kill the Designated Target or the Decoy he is in between, but Leila is by hand, sneacking around my Pathfinder and killing the Designated Target.

Druze 3: Since I have nothing by hand to handle Leila and the Yuan Yuan on the left to get the tie, I try to tie at least in Decoys. For this, the Pathfinder approaches the Druze on the right, killing them one by one and surviving the Djanbazan while crossing his LoF. But I am one order short to get into LoF to the Decoy on the right.

I loose 7 - 5 against AssaultUnicorn in a very interesting and funny game. While looking at his deployment and the actual list, I am freaking out a little bit about the missed chance for an easy Lt-kill, since the Bashi could have taken the "Kaplan" out easily and he was the only Lt-option on the field. Normally I am quite confident with mind-games in my play, but this time (with the last games in mind), I found my master or my nemesis in AssaultUnicorn! Not only I can hardly predict his lists and actions, he also dictates my game in great ways and has a solution by hand everytime. Eventhough I got his Designated Target and riddled him mine quite good.

It was quite interesting to have a game against Druze in an other incarnation, since QK is said to be one alternative to play Druze differently. I am not a big fan of them in QK in general - You have to take the full core-team and put a lot of points into an immobile brick, or have quite slow solo-pieces. I am missing the haris-option here, eventhough I like the SMR and the KHD as a duo-team to get a better midfield-presence in QK. From my point of view, this was proven right in this game. The big investment in the core-team did not pay off great and I was offered a lot of space to get back into play due to the missing overwatching pieces. A haris-team would have made it very hard for me here. Now, a lucky shot of my Hunzakut on the Bashi Bazouk could have been quite devastating, since I had more options to deal with Leila - probably.
But maybe AssaultUnicorn can tell his thoughts about this, too?

The Druze MSR did nothing this game, so nothing to say about him. But in general, I like how this list plays out and offers solutions to many different situations. Finally I could try a Pathfinder in full action and I am really impressed by the flexibility and his potential in gunfights. With MMSL2 on him, he can fight against many targets in close ranges and as long as he stays out of template-ranges, there are only a few expensive tools in DBS comparable with his potential. This will be done more often!

Spoiler: Game 3: Capture and Protect vs Bakunin

Inspired by the last game, I wanted to try out a REM-based list. I thought through different approaches in PanO, YuYing and DBS, since there are a lot of sectorials with great access to cool REMs, especially White Banner, but in the end, DBS seemed to be not worse than this, so I stuck with it. Against Bakunin, this should turn out a bit complicated, but I want to try lists and not tech against opponents.

Spoiler: List Druze

REMtasy
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 9
PEACEMAKER Spitfire + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (1 | 27)
AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
PATHFINDER DRONBOT Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 16)
VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
SCARFACE & CORDELIA TURNER . (1.5 | 78)
SCARFACE 2 Mk12, Heavy Rocket Launcher / AP CCW. (1.5 | 61)
SCARFACE Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. ()
CORDELIA TURNER Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (0 | 3)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)

GROUP 2 5
SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
BRAWLER Lieutenant Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 16)
BOUNTY HUNTER Submachine Gun, Akrylat-Kanone / Breaker Pistol, Knife. (0 | 12)
KAMEEL Hacker (EVO Hacking Device) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 25)

4.5 SWC | 299 Points

Open in Infinity Army

This time, I went a small step back towards one full combat group and a smaller support-group. Only a small step, since I am convinced of even combat groups and Scarface together with Cordelia forces me into support tasks in group one, so group two needs something to do, so it got the Sierra and a Fugazi. The Sierra should take some attack-tasks and the Fugazi should deliver sniffers where needed, so that the Pathfinders could deal with camo-markers. In theory. Valeria goes into the duo with Scarface to free Cordelia as my ensurance policy. After the Peacemaker is out of the game, the Pathfinders should take the work and engage on shorter ranges in turn two and three. Scarface is there fore...Cordelia.

Spoiler: List Bakunin

Jurisdictional Command of Bakunin
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1 7
MODERATOR Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 15)
MODERATOR MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)
MODERATOR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
PROWLER (Specialist Operative) Combi Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, CCW. (0.5 | 33)

GROUP 2 6 1 1
TASKMASTER HMG / Heavy Pistol, DA CCW. (2 | 49)
REVEREND CUSTODIER Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 34)
REVEREND HEALER MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 37)
REVEREND CUSTODIER Hacker (Hacking Device Plus) Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 32)
ZERO Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
ZERO Boarding Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17)
MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

5.5 SWC | 293 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Well, the same problem as in the last game against Bakunin - I can't recall the list correctly, but it looked like something in this shape.

Spoiler: Table

I tried a lot of tables here, but only the salt mine seemed cool enough and had a good set-up for Capture and Protect. It appears a bit open on the first sight, but in detail is well strucutred and great fun.

I won the Lt-roll and went first. For this, I was given the south DZ.

Scarface and my Sierra went on the left side with closer ranges, together with a Pathfinder and one Fugazi. The right saw two Pathfinders, Cordelia and an additional Fugazi, as well as a ABH. My Druze KHD hid on the containers in front of my beacon.

The Moderator-link went on the right with the MSR elevated on overwatch. Two camo markers went in the center, a third one on the central left in front of the Morlock and the Reveredn-link.

My Peacemaker found a nice spot on the left to engage the MSR. A Taskmaster denied his path towards the Moderators by deploying in the center. We forgot about datatrackers.

Druze 1: The Peacemaker gets MMSL2 and takes two orders to knock out the Moderator MSR, then is unable to get at least one wound on the Taskmaster, so he retreats a bit. The left Fugazi advances towards the center line to screen the center and support Scarface. The REMs are overclocked then.

Bakunin 1: The first camo marker advances and disabling my Peacemaker (Zero BSG). He gets stunned in this action. The camo marker on the left advances and reaching a position in front of my Sierra. This Prowler tries to glue Scarface, while I let my Sierra dodge the possible LFT. Nothing happens, except for a stunned but alive Prowler. The Reverends advance on the far left, firing a pitcher next to Scarface. I reset against the hacking-attempt.

Druze 2: The Prowler is a major threat, since he locks down nearly everything on my left side. I try to remove him with the central Pathfinder out of cover but got knocked out by myself. So Cordelia lets her Palbot repair the Peacemaker, which takes the Prowler out and retreats into my DZ. My KHD destroys the Pitcher and I set up for a better defense with Scarface and a buffed Sierra. The ABH advances a bit and enters suppressive fire on the right (which was totally dumb from my side).

Bakunin 2: The Zero crosses the centerline again and places a mine in front of my Beacon, only to get stunned again and retreat a bit. The Custodier failes with her last Pitcher, but wrecks the left Fugazi. The Moderator spitfire takes action and shoots my ABH without problems, but get stunned by my Fugazi. The Taskmaster advances a bit in the center and does a wound on Scarface.

Druze 3: There will be nothing from my side able to reach the Beacon, but I have HVT:Retroengineering as classified, which could be scored by my advaned Palbot and win me the game, if I could defend my Beacon then. So the Palbot is send out to the HVT, while Cordelia closes up to the damaged Pathfinder. First I score the classified, then the Pathfinder is back. I retreat Cordelia a bit and repair Scarface a second wound, only to remove it with the next order. Scarface clears out the Zero in the center and wounds the Taskmaster with his HRL. Out of LoF he enters SF together with the Pathfinders on the flanks, which had advanced a bit into the firelanes. Valeria buffed the Sierra again.

Bakunin 3: The last camo marker crosses the center line without being dscovered. He then slips into basecontact with my Beacon by his second short skill, while I discover him. Without activating him again, I can not kill him with all the guns pointed at him, so the game is over.

This time I was tricked by the mission, since I thought you need to pick up the Beacon. 6- 2 for Bakunin this time. As long as I am not able to do anything against those camo-skirmishers, equal if it is a Zero (17 points for a BSG and AP-mines???), a Prowler or a Naga or whatever, they will be my biggest problem. There are enough units to discover them, but most of the time they reach their target within this order, so I can only remove them while they cause the problems they should. A minelayer on my side could be a weak solution for this, but I can't waste a Hunzakut for this, I guess.
Besided that, I am really suprised by this list, since it is straight forward, resilient and mobile, without having reduced tools or tricks by hand. I could not imagine that something like that could be fun or even playable, but it totally is and will be tried more often. Only Cordelia in group one sucks a bit, since she reduces my active orders. I had one order left in group two two turns in a row with nothing to do here, so she could have a cozy place here. But this would have been different, if the Sierra had to take the attack on his shoulders. Maybe I will switch the Fugazi and a Pathfinder between the groups the next time, to have a second gun available in grou two.

In the end, I am quite happy with how things turn out at the moment (looking at the game!). The improvements kicked in and new ideas work out, too. But there are still problems to be solved, like camoed skirmishers. But then, I am looking at my overall scores: 13 wins, 21 losses and 3 draws with DBS since Christmas. A win-ratio of 36% is nothing to be proud of after 37 games in total with a sector, I guess. Maybe this turns in the next weeks, but probably not. I am stuck in my meta and should win more reliable here, since I am used to what I face, but this doesn't happen. Since the goal is to get into the first third regularly in competitive play, the road still is long and I am asking myself, if the combination of driver and car can make it. But we will see! Any suggestions are very welcomed!