Frostbyte is Back

I have been chewing on this mission all week given that it is in the lineup for Arizona Armageddon this year and I had already decided I would take Vanilla Haqq to the event.

A TAG list might be the way to go but this seemed like it might be the type of mission to actually try and leverage the Jan Dr in a more HI list. Asiwira spitfire, Jan Dr, Hortlak CoC, Tarik (as snow ops) gives a nice chunk of points that can get into the midfield, covers a variety of cards and tries to leverage the Jan Dr's ability to keep them healed. I'm not 100% on the shujae but I really want to try and use one more and this seems like a solid mission for one to pull some weight.


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GROUP 1 9 1 1
TARIK MANSURI (Lieutenant [+1 Order]) AP Rifle, Light Shotgun, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (+1 | 52)
HORTLAK (Chain of Command) Submachine Gun, Blitzen / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 32)
ASAWIRA AP Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 39)
JANISSARY (Doctor [2W]) AP Rifle, Light Shotgun ( | MediKit) / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 38)
NASMAT PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
RAFIQ REMOTE FTO Red Fury, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 20)
HAWWA' (Hacker, Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 26)
BARID (Hacker, Hacking Device) Rifle, Pitcher ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17)
BARID (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device [UPGRADE: Trinity (-3)]) Rifle, Pitcher ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
SHUJAE Submachine Gun, Flammenspeer, E/M Mines / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
ZULEYKA Light Flamethrower(+1B), Smoke Grenades / Breaker Pistol(+2B), EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 11)

GROUP 2 1 2
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
DAYLAMI (Camouflage [1 Use], Infiltration) Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 8)
DAYLAMI (Camouflage [1 Use], Infiltration) Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 8)

3 SWC | 300 Points

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I've yet to play the new Frostbyte, and I'm also very new to vanilla in N4, so this won't be worth much; but I'll offer it in the spirit of brainstorming:

Seems to me that the mission can be played like Annihilation as long as you bring enough points that can survive in the exclusion zone at the end. Killing most of your opponent's stuff should be sufficient to score both "kill more points" and "dominate the middle." Plus, once you've wiped their AROs, your free bounty hunter can drive into the midfield and push buttons as required - so we don't even need to build button pushing into the list.

So I propose this, which is a list I'd just as happily use in Annihilation:

Frostbyte just kill everything
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GROUP 1 9 1
BARID (Hacker, Hacking Device) Rifle, Pitcher ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17)
BARID (Hacker, Hacking Device) Rifle, Pitcher ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17)
GHULAM (Hacker, Hacking Device) Rifle, Light Shotgun ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 16)
SHAKUSH Heavy Machine Gun, Heavy Flamethrower / AP CC Weapon. (1.5 | 58)
SHAKUSH PILOT Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 0)
MUKHTAR (Multispectral Visor L2) Red Fury, Nanopulser(+1B) ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 36)
SALADIN (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token]) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser(+1B) / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 36)
HAFZA (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 17)
FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
RAFIQ REMOTE FTO Red Fury, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 20)
GROUP 2 2 4 2
SHAYTANIYAH REMOTE Missile Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 16)
FIDAY Rifle, Light Shotgun, Shock Mines, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
ZULEYKA Light Flamethrower(+1B), Smoke Grenades / Breaker Pistol(+2B), EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 11)
KUM Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 6)
DAYLAMI (Camouflage [1 Use], Infiltration) Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 8)
DAYLAMI (Camouflage [1 Use], Infiltration) Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 8)
6 SWC | 300 Points
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The Mukhtar will be the snow ops - she'll do her usual mass murdering in the midfield, and score at the end. The Shakush will take care of distance combat, and wait to move into the scoring zone on turn 3.

Of course we could replace the Mukhtar with something else like an Asawira Spitfire. In this case I'm relying on other tools (Zuleyka, guided missiles) to take out anything with too much armor for the Mukhtar to handle.

It's a mission where the Namurr Spitfire might actually be worth considering as Snow Ops. Highly survivable, can push the buttons while he's in the midfield killing, and has lots of anti-armor tools.

Tarik as Snow Ops seems alright, but he's still so expensive for what he does, plus then you're paying for the Hortlak CoC on top. I don't see myself bringing him until they fix super-jump :-)

 

Having played it, you're very much on the money it's a problem with the mission design. It needs some adjusting to actually feel like a proper mission rather than just a boring game of annihilation.

 

I think the old Frostbyte was some better than the ITS13edition, still is a little "more" than plain Anilation.

About lists...

I found myself playing this sometimes with good results. It is a "generic" lists I could use for more or less every mission with any kind of Exclusion Zone.

I have less REM, HI or TAGs than others lists presented above, but I'm pretty confident that I could do a lot of damage to my enemy, putting down his troups which can be place in the "mortal zone" without worries.

I have myself too formidable units to be place there: azrail and asawira. The "snow guy" probably were the Zhayedan or the Djanbazan, because they can do really good use of that extra order and they have regeneration. Other option could be Leila, if I don't missunderstood the rules of the "snow guy", Leila could do later use of cibermask.

Spoiler: MyList

ArmeriaVsEdo
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GROUP 1 10
HAFZA Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 17)
GHULAM (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token]) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
LEILA SHARIF (Hacker) Shock Marksman Rifle, E/M Mines, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
GHULAM (Doctor [+3]) Rifle, Light Shotgun ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
NASMAT PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)
FARZAN (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse, Shock Mines, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 23)
ZHAYEDAN (BS Attack [Shock]) Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 33)
AL-DJABEL Rifle, Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Viral CC Weapon. (0 | 33)
DJANBAZAN Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 34)
AZRA'IL AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40)
ASAWIRA AP Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 33)

GROUP 2 5 4
ZULEYKA Light Flamethrower(+1B), Smoke Grenades / Breaker Pistol(+2B), EXP CC Weapon. (0 | 11)
MUTTAWI'AH Boarding Shotgun, E/Marat, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 9)
KUM Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 5)
KUM Light Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 6)
WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3)

6 SWC | 300 Points

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The snow ops "must always be on the table as a model and not as a marker," so no cybermask.

 

So, I did missunderstand... Ok. No "extra oder for Leila" then :D