Alright, time to resurrect this thread. I had several games of N4 recently but I decided to only write a batrep when the new Azra'il in my roster would a) be alive by the end of the game and b) manage to actually kill something. Well, that day has come. We had a game against a relatively new Tohaa player (making it a nice comeback to my first games of Infinity in N3) and played Decapitation. The new edition lacks a DataTracker and instead gives each player two designated targets to sacrifice. Other than that, it's still a mission where you want to go first to maximize the alpha-strike potential and kill the HVTs before the enemy could mount up their defenses. Spoiler: Lists I'm trying! ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 7 DRUZE Heavy Machine Gun, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 31) DRUZE (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Pitcher, D-Charges ( ) / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30) DRUZE Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, Grenade Launcher, E/M Grenade Launcher / Viral Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 28) ROUHANI Submachine Gun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 21) LEILA SHARIF (Hacker) Shock Marksman Rifle, E/M Mines, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20) SEKBAN (Specialist Operative) AP Rifle, Chain-colt(+1B) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 24) AZRA'IL AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40) GROUP 2 6 2 1 HAWWA' (Hacker, Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 26) SHIHAB REMOTE Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 8) FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7) FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7) FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7) BASHI BAZOUK Combi Rifle, E/M Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 16) GHULAM (Lieutenant) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 11) 6 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army From time to time I still consider giving Druze a try. Unlike Janissaries, the Druze still do not have a Haris option in the N4 edition of QK which makes the points optimization process about as pleasant as chewing glass. But, here's a gist: You fire a repeater, you Spotlight, you go Speculative Fire. Not a bad idea except when you realize that it's always gonna be one die against one die with WIP face-to-face rolls. Azzie+Sekban duo for backup to punch in faces with AP ammo. I really like Sekban's (yet to be officially confirmed but we roll with it for now) wildcard rule and an extra order is always welcome. We do have a Ghulam NCO but those points are better spent on someone who can also shoot straight, plus you don't have to spend an extra 1 SWC. The list is also not so heavy on Yuan Yuans and that's because of the fact that I need orders from Fanous remotes to fuel my Bashi and the only Yuan Yuan since, as far as I can tell, Yuan Yuans do not generate their Irregular Order if they drop down during the Impetuous Phase. These orders are also needed to Spotlight stuff on the first active turn by Hawwa. TR bots without engineers or EVO hackers are a sad sight for my eyes after Dahshat who could always afford to include all three without butchering the rest of the list in the process. 2 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 7 2 MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Contender, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CC Weapon. (0 | 13) KAELTAR Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse, SymbioBomb ( | SymbioMate) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15) KAAURI Sentinel Boarding Shotgun, E/M Mines / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 14) SUKEUL Heavy Machine Gun, D-Charges / Pistol, Breaker Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (1.5 | 34) KUMOTAIL Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 21) KAMAEL (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12) MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Contender, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CC Weapon. (0 | 13) GROUP 2 6 1 GAO-RAEL Combi Rifle, Adhesive Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 30) SUKEUL Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Breaker Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35) MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Contender, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CC Weapon. (0 | 13) CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Sensor, Baggage) Heavy Flamethrower(+1 Dam) ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10) TAQEUL (Chain of Command) Spitfire, Nanopulser, Pheroware Tactics: Endgame, Pheroware Tactics: Mirrorball / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 42) ECTROS Heavy Machine Gun, Pulzar / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 45) 6 SWC | 297 Points Open in Infinity Army Spoiler: Deployment I won the Lt. roll and opted to go first while my opponent deployed second in the DZ that was seemingly more defensive. I deployed my Druze Core on the left flank on the edge of the DZ inside a building. Leila and Rahman were hanging outside ready to take over and cover the Lt. who was a bit to the left. Azzie and Sekban Duo was right in the middle with Azzie prone under the fence. Fanous remotes were overwatching the Parachutist approaches and covered my Lt. The TR bot was on the rooftop with the widest firing angle possible. The HVTs got hidden behind a crate and a central building in total cover. Ectros+Makaul+Kumotail Triad got deployed in the center with Ectros receiving a mate and a bomb. Kamael Lt. with Sukeul HMG and Takeul in a Triad got deployed on the 16", as far as they could. Sukeul ML was on the right flank watching Azzie and a TR bot. There was also an FO on the roof. The HVT got pretty exposed on both flanks, so my Yuan Yuan and a Hawwa could take them down both in one order. I reserve my Hawwa Hacker on the right flank to kill one Designated Target while the opponent deploys a Gao-Rael with Combi Rifle prone on the rooftop. He flips a CT and removes two orders from my Group 1. Spoiler: Round One Qapu Khalqi I move in my Yuan Yuan with Parachutist in the ZoC of a Designated Target. She rolls up MSV1 on Booty. The DT fails to dodge. I then surprise-blast the second DT with my Hawwa Hacker straight into Dead. Yuan Yuan spends a couple of orders trying to pistol the other DT and succeeds after that. Then the Druze Hacker shoots a single Repeater as far as he can without being exposed to the enemy AROs. Kumotail, Takeul, and a Sukeul HMG on the roof are within the repeater range. I then burn all my orders from Group 2 and some from Group 1 trying to Spotlight the Takeul without success. I then try to do a Speculative Fire on 9s to kill the enemy Lt. but fail at that as well. I stand up my Azzie with the remaining orders and start shooting the Sukeul ML, both of us shooting on 10s. The first order sees him eating a missile but only receiving one wound. The next order is more successful and manages to sneak in an ARM save that burns two wounds off Sukeul and drops her into Unconscious. I use the remaining orders to reposition Azzie and Sekban more to the left so as to see a Chaksa who dodged Druze's grenade and overwatch it because his HFT is scary. Tohaa The Chaksa moves in and fires his flamer onto Yuan Yuan who tries to dodge on 14s but fails and dies. Should've trade shots instead. Azzie tries shooting Chaksa while she does that but rolls an 18. Kumotail breaks the Triad and moves inside Repeater's range where Hawwa successfully spotlights him while the bioengineer himself breaks the Repeater. After that, Makaul moves in and starts lobbing Eclipse Grenades trying to sneak up on my link. He gets inside my link's ZoC and they all Dodge, with the LGL link leader succeeding. He is now facing the Eclipse cloud and stands in the doorway where he is seen by Sukeul HMG. Then Makaul tries to intuitively fry the Druze but thanks to Sixth Sense and a face-to-face roll, the Druze successfully shoots him with Viral Pistols through the smoke, thus saving the rest of the link team. His Intuitive Attack also provoked a Dodge from Azzie who dodges a bit outside where he'd normally be able to see the Sukeul HMG on the roof if not for the Eclipse Smoke. Sukeul then activates, provoking an ARO from a TR bot and the Druze LGL. She focuses fire on him and perforates him into Dead while successfully tanking the only ARM save from the TR bot. She then disposes of him as well while Hawwa successfully spotlights her. She keeps standing on the rooftop and I consider my next move. Spoiler: Round Two Qapu Khalqi I lost LGL and a TR bot but I still got the Bashi. I move in from the same angle which Yuan Yuan had used. I go into cover and see Makaul in the distance and the Kamael Lt. Chaksa senses him in his ZoC and dodges unsuccessfully. The Kamael declares Dodge, and Bashi shoots him with the Combi Rifle but misses while Makaul throws Eclipse successfully to cover Kamael. Bashi then moves into the back-arc of Chaksa and unloads his Combi into him, dropping him unconscious. He then sees Takeul in the doorway facing the other way and out of cover and then drops him as well. After that, Bashi hugs the corner of the building and goes into Suppressive Fire. These actions force Sukeul on the rooftop to drop prone as she realizes that she has a bit too much attention from the link and from Azra'il. Kamael also uses this opportunity to dodge even further, all the way towards the opposite corner of the building. Back in Group One, I move Azra'il into the center of the table, breaking the Duo. I also move Sekban a little bit and drop the enemy FO on the rooftop with the AP rifle. I spend a coordinated order to drop both of them into SF, overwatching the Sukeul and Ectros on one flank and the Makaul and some other guys on the right side. We also reform the link with four people, drop a new repeater on the same position, and put Leila and HMG Druze on overwatch to see Sukeul if she stands up. Tohaa Takeul decides to not regenerate and instead, Ectros tries to cast a Mirrorball while provoking AROs from Bashi and Leila who both fail to hit him because of the additional -3 MOD thanks to SymbioBomb. He throws the Eclipse zone to cover the narrow walkway where Takeul was dropped and Kumotail, once again receiving a Spotlight, moves in to heal Takeul and succeeds. Takeul then stands Endgames the Bashi who tries resetting (should've probably opted for deploying an E/M mine instead) but dies either way. This, however, allows my Hawwa to Spotlight him through a repeater. The Ectros tries moving outside of the smoke into the corner of the central building, provoking an ARO from Azzie and Leila and also letting my Hawwa to Carbonite him. Azzie's hit connects as well as Leila's, removing the SymbioMate. Then the Kumotail tries to dash towards the Unconscious Sukeul ML on the roof but when he's on the rooftop both Azzie and Sekban see him which allows them to gun the bioengineer down while he was on the ladder out of cover with the Targeted bonuses. Spoiler: Turn Three Qapu Khalqi I activate my Hawwa and successfully Carbonite the Ectros who was facing the central building in a way that I could flank him and shoot him in the back from the opposite corner, so now Ectros is stuck with that facing. I activate the link and use Leila to shoot the Targeted Takeul. The BS bonus is enough to drop him once again. I then move my Sekban and use him to drop the remaining Makaul, shoot down the exposed Kamael Lt. from long range, and also shoot Ectros in the back within 12" from him without provoking Reset AROs. I spend two orders after which the Ectros is dead. I retreat with Sekban for a bit and drop him into SF once again. The rest of the link remains in place, Azzie is still suppressing. My position here is secure. Tohaa Not a lot of orders are left in either of the groups. The new Lt. is Gao-Rael and he stands up and tries shooting Azra'il. One shot connects, Azzie tanks it but fails his guts roll so he is forced to cower behind the fence. Sekban shoots Gao-Rael unopposed, inflicting one wound. A couple more orders are spent trying to kill Sekban without success. Then Kaeltar moves in and trades shots with Sekban using the blast mode of his Light Shotgun. Sekban guns her down but drops Unconscious as well. And that was pretty much it. I killed more points, killed both DTs and one Lt, so that's a 10-0 Qapu Khalqi Victory. Spoiler: Afterthoughts and lessons learned – AROing with Spotlight is considered a buff for a reason. No one wants to face-to-face with the enemy using a single die. – Speculative Attack is still dicey for the same reasons. – Druze did not do much in this game. Yes, the LGL guy dropped Makaul through the smoke on an ARO but that could've been Leila or Rahman and that wouldn't have changed anything. Forcing to interact with a Mimetism model (Sukeul) never feels well when your model has no visual MODs or MSVs to counter that. Yeah, Druze are the long-range fighters, but Decap kinda entices you to move up the board. Maybe the Druze are more of a stationary Core after all, even when shooting in the active turn. I really want that HMG with X-Visor to have some good targets, but it's not that easy. – Do not deploy your links and your LTs too far away from the DZ. The reason why Kamael was so exposed and vulnerable is that he was part of the Triad who was meant to be up the midfield. – Azzie with HMG continues to appear like a better version of himself thanks to SF. If only Azzie was a Religious Troop in addition to that!
Yesterday I had the pleasure of playing with @fatherboxx in our local one-shot tournament that consisted of a single mission of Panic Room for 200 points. He played Tunguska. Spoiler: Lists Janissary Room ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 9 1 1 ODALISQUE (360º Visor) Spitfire, Nanopulser ( ) / MULTI Pistol, PARA CC Weapon. (1 | 30) JANISSARY (Lieutenant) AP Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 34) ROUHANI Submachine Gun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 21) SEKBAN Heavy Rocket Launcher, Chain-colt(+1B) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 21) LEILA SHARIF (Hacker) Shock Marksman Rifle, E/M Mines, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20) FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7) FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7) GHULAM (Forward Observer) Rifle, Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12) AZRA'IL AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 8) 4 SWC | 200 Points Open in Infinity Army There were several ideas on how to approach this mission. I had a version of that list with Iguana, but I couldn't afford any other important pieces. A Janissary HMG is objectively a better gunfighter than the Odalisque, but the idea here is to bring the two-wound Lt. into the room and also put Leila (also essential personnel) into Cybermask. The idea itself is kinda stupid, and I soon learned why. Sekban HRL was there because he is cheap and fills up the SWC-point gap while also being a decent ARO model that can be put in front of the objective room. A Yuan Yuan would start in the DZ and smoke up the link team's advance while Azra'il would deal with the enemies outside of the room or, if possible, drop down into the Suppressive Fire. The list itself has several glaring weaknesses that will be addressed in the "afterthoughts" section. ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 9 GRENZER (Marksmanship) MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35) SECURITATE Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13) SECURITATE (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13) SECURITATE (Paramedic) Combi Rifle ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15) PERSEUS FTO (Fireteam: Haris) Breaker Combi Rifle(+1 Dam), Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol(+1B), DA CC Weapon. (0 | 32) CHEERKILLER Light Shotgun, Pulzar / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 13) CHEERKILLER (Multispectral Visor L2) Shock Marksman Rifle, Nanopulser ( ) / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 25) GRENZER (Forward Observer, Sensor, NCO) Combi Rifle, Light Flamethrower(+1B), Flash Pulse / Pistol, Breaker Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 29) REAKTION ZOND Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 25) 2.5 SWC | 200 Points Open in Infinity Army This list seems a bit more optimized. CheerKiller Haris with a Grenzer NCO to move up the board and secure the room. CheerKillers themselves are a nice trading unit since they cost so little while also having an MSV2 option. Perseus can also hold down the objective room on his own, Grenzer Sniper is absolutely ridiculous with Marksmanship and the Reaktion Zond it just an all-around good ARO model. Spoiler: Deployment We roll for initiative and I win and elect to deploy second. The opponent decides to go second which was unexpected and should've been chosen by myself. That potentially cost me the entire game. Tunguska deploys with the Sniper link on the right flank, overwatching two doorways into the objective room. The Haris with NCO and CheerKillers deployed in the middle, behind the TR bot that is placed right on the rooftop before the front door. I place the link and a Yuan Yuan near the center to avoid the ARO fire. Flash Bots hug the antennae, Ghulam FO is placed on the edge of the DZ. I reserve-deploy Azzie on the left flank that is mostly unoccupied by anyone. The opponent removes two orders from my group using a CT. Spoiler: Round 1 Qapu Khalqi Yuan Yuan with MSV1 rushes towards the objective room on her Impetuous Order and then spends the Irregular Order to throw smoke in the objective room's entrance. Then the link advances with NCO and some regular orders to move inside the objective room. Odalisque moves up a bit and tries firing against Grenzer Sniper without success. She then moves halfway into the doorway and overwatches both the Haris' building and Grenzer's rooftop without seeing him. Leila breaks the link and places an E/M Mine in the smoke cloud and then goes into Cybermask. That was a dumb move since I needed the 5-man link bonuses to fend off the attackers in reactive. Sekban overwatches the main doorway with his HRL. Tunguska Grenzer moves in and shoots down the Odalisque straight into Dead. He then discovers Leila through the doorway while being on the rooftop and shoots her down soon after that. The discovered Leila, knowing that she is already dead, takes a shot at the Securitate Paramedic, killing her while she was on the ladder. Perseus then advances and throws a couple of smoke grenades in front of the doorway. Grenzer Sniper hugs the cover on the opposite side of the table while one of the Securitates catches the E/M mine without consequences since he's a Veteran. Then that same Securitate moves near the objective room trying to provoke Dodge (-3) from my Sekban who is thankfully outside of 8" from him. Grenzer still takes the shot and Sekban shoots back with -6 which results in Sekban dying. Perseus then goes around the building and kills the Yuan Yuan. Then the Haris of CheerKillers starts moving and LSG lady tries killing the Janissary Lt. She inflicts one wound while Janissary tried to Dodge. I try to guts him into the building, but that's not enough, and the Grenzer NCO is already inside the building, netting the opponent 2 Objective points. Spoiler: Round 2 Qapu Khalqi Most of my units are dead with only Azzie remaining, so I move him up the board and kill the TR bot after a couple of orders. The Grenzer Sniper out of cover follows soon after. I then try heavy-pistoling one of the CheerKillers who tanks both shots and inflicts one wound on Azzie with Pulzar. I finally kill the LSG CheerKiller and tank both Pulzar saves. I then try moving out my Janissary Lt. into the room which provokes AROs from Perseus and Grenzer. I try dodging in hopes of being a pain-in-the-ass ARO deterrent but I fail the dodge and Janissary drops Unconscious. I use my last order to move Rouhani near the Grenzer and try killing him without success. My Ghulam FO dies to the Biotechvore plague at the end of the turn. Tunguska NCO moves in and crits Rahman into Dead and then FOs Janissary's body, completing the classified objective. The CheerKiller MSV2 gets some smoke from Perseus and then moves in the Grenzer NCO into Azzie's ZoC while seeing him through the smoke. I am forced to make a Dodge (-3) and CheerKiller shoots Azra'Il with SMR. He tanks both saves and retreats inside the building. NCO then moves in and we trade a couple of pistol shots with neither of them dying. Perseus is inside the building now and nets 2 more Objective Points. Spoiler: Turn 3 Qapu Khalqi I'm in LoL and I have only two flash bots and a one-wound Azzie. I convert all orders into Regulars and shoot the heavy pistol at the Grenzer who finally dies. The remaining orders net me nothing so all I can do is keep him inside the building. Tunguska Perseus moves in, kills the Azzie, and then retreats back into the building. With that, Tunguska wins 10-0. Spoiler: Afterthoughts and Lessons Learned – UGH – I should've gone second. Usually deploying second means that the opponent will opt to go first, but that's not true with the Panic Room mission for sure. With the Confused Deployment rule, very little stuff can actually sneak up on you or flank you, so for the most part, what you see on the table is what you get. No infiltrators (if we're excluding Infiltration (+6) units) and no AD troops. So there is not a lot of stuff that can flank you on this mission. Although infiltrating minelayers or people with high PH sometimes prove very useful – that's a big gamble. Add to that the fact that you are better off when the enemy is already in the midfield and this further proves the point that if you win the initiative – you must go second. – Using cybermasked Leila was a mistake. I was better off getting Wild Bill who could absolutely murder anything that is located in the objective room. – I also should've brought Azzie a bit closer, plant him in the panic room, and drop him into SF. Although he'd be in trouble against the enemy Haris with MSV2. – In general, I feel like Azra'il works better in 300-point games when the enemy is more likely to have armored multi-wound units. As he is right now, his Continuous Damage perk does not do much. In 200-point games, Djanbazan HMG is a way better option that also synergizes wonderfully with Yuan Yuans. You leverage the modifiers and a regular HMG is strong enough to kill anything your opponent might take on a 200-point game.
Dropping the full core-link in the center may be the biggest mistake here. In my experience, a full core somewhere in a developed position is really hard to remove or to deal with at all. With the rangebands your link can cover and some good positioning, the room could have been defended more easily, I guess. Regarding Azzie, I totally agree with your conclusion on him. He is a bit expensive when it comes to single wound models, most of the time without heavy armour. On the other hand you could easily face a HI-link now, even with 200 points.
Recovery v2 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 8 1 1 DJANBAZAN (BS Attack [Shock]) AP Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31) DJANBAZAN (BS Attack [Shock]) AP Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31) HAFZA (Lieutenant) 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) SEKBAN Heavy Rocket Launcher, Chain-colt(+1B) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 21) AZRA'IL AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 40) 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) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 8) GROUP 2 5 1 1 GHULAM (Doctor [+3]) Rifle, Light Shotgun ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15) GHULAM Rifle, Light Shotgun, E/M Mines ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 13) HAWWA' (Hacker, Hacking Device) Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 26) FANOUS REMOTE Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7) KAMEEL (Hacker, EVO Hacking Device) ( ) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 15) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 8) NASMAT PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3) 6 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army Lately, I've been playing games on various tournaments with this list and this list was knocking it out of the park every time, granting me steadily good results, varying from amazing to decent, so here is a little breakdown of why I think this list works so well. Defensive Djanbazan+Sekban+Hafza Core. Only single wound models here, yes, but the benefit of negating smoke with two MSV2 snipers that also get AP+Shock ammo is amazing, and the second sniper covers the blind spots the first one could not account for. This is further reinforced by a Sekban HRL who can either assist a sniper on an ARO duty or can hide to keep providing you with an NCO order that is useful for repositioning link teams. In case you have to move the link into the midfield you can always rely on Leila to deal with mid-range targets or Sekban with his twin chain-colts to potentially mop-up even two-wound models in one go. The Sekban is also useful in case you want to cover blind spots specific to your DZ and protect people from the drop troops. The Azzie+Rafiq Duo. Yes, you can slide in someone else like Hafza, Odalisque, Sekban, or either of the named characters, but Rafiq seems to be a bit more useful thanks to various benefits. First of all, it's the ability to discover stuff with a +6 bonus to WIP. The duo will be heading out into the midfield and do most of the gunfighting so having an anti-camo unit in tow with your big gun is incredibly useful. Then there's the Red Fury itself. Covering slightly closer range bands compared to the HMG is a good thing since the midfield gunfights tend to happen within the 8-16" ranges. You'd be surprised how awkward it can be to shoot a covered infiltrator in these ranges with an HMG, often only hitting the enemy on 7s as opposed to Rafiq's 11s. Speaking of which... The third benefit is an EVO hacker that has multiple uses in this list: Controlled Jump and Assisted Fire. This ensures that both Rafiq's and Kameel's potential is squeezed out to its maximum. Finally, its Repeater allows us to utilize our hacking network of two Hawwa Hackers and Leila Sharif. If you have not yet uncovered your Hawwas you will be able to use Rafiq as bait for the enemy hackable heavy to approach. This is when you can double-Oblivion/Carbonite that big hitter with your Hawwas or you could even Carbonite with one and Oblivion with the other, making it so that if both attacks are successful, the only option for that unit would be to reset on a -12. Double Hawwas are great because they can cover a larger area with their hacking deterrence, and to me, they are the prime candidates for a reserved model role if you're going and deploying second. It's no secret that the player going first usually reserves their alpha-strike model, oftentimes that model is something hard-hitting and hackable. Keeping that in mind, Hawwa is a great way of putting a camouflaged roadblock in an area that is hard to get access to. When positioned properly, the Hawwas can force that alpha strike piece to take the scenic route to avoid getting hacked or impose a forked ARO where the model that is about to shoot your sniper receives a hacking attack, making your opponent choose between the reset or the BS attack. There is also the third option where the alpha striker does not care and tanks all the BTS saves. Yuan Yuans complement the EVO hacker pretty well too and having two Yuan Yuans ensures that one of them has decent chances of landing where you want him to while the other can enter via parachutist and smoke up your link team in case you want to shoot someone through the smoke from long range. The second combat group has an obvious dedicated support role with the Ghulam Doctor +3 having the ability to heal Azra'il in case he goes down, which is crucial considering that he will be your primary attack piece. The E/M Ghulam almost seems worthy of inclusion thanks to deployable repeaters and e/m mines, but that role is somewhat redundant because of Leila. This makes me think that the only obvious edit to that list would be swapping the E/M Ghulam for a Najjarun Engineer, but we will need an extra point for that. We could get it by removing the Nasmat, downgrading the Sekban to a Hafza HRL, or anything in-between. The Nasmat removal seems to be the least crippling compromise because the Doctor would be healing up the link team anyway, but then if the Azra'il goes down she won't be able to heal him as quickly without the Nasmat. The reason why I want to include an engineer here is because of the ability to keep Rafiq in the game. With all the buffs and the hacking support, this remote becomes one of my QK favorites. Here is a(n incredibly laggy) stream recording showing off the list:
I've had a chance to try out a meme QK list against my favorite Tohaa player @Barsik. It mostly did as well as expected, with some crazy dice rolls. We played Firefight. Spoiler: Lists Anti Deus Vult ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 2 JAAN STAAR Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Viral Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (1 | 31) SUKEUL K1 Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Breaker Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (1.5 | 30) KAELTAR Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse, SymbioBomb ( | SymbioMate) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 15) MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Contender, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CC Weapon. (0 | 13) SUKEUL Missile Launcher, Light Shotgun / Pistol, Breaker Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35) KAELTAR (Chain of Command) Light Shotgun, Flash Pulse, SymbioBomb ( | SymbioMate) / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 21) KAMAEL (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17) TAQEUL (Lieutenant [+1 Order]) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Pheroware Tactics: Endgame, Pheroware Tactics: Mirrorball / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 35) SUKEUL (Forward Observer) K1 Combi Rifle, Flash Pulse, D-Charges ( | Deployable Repeater) / Pistol, Breaker Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 32) MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Contender, Eclipse Grenades / Pistol, Viral CC Weapon. (0 | 13) GROUP 2 3 2 LIBERTO (Minelayer) Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 8) SAKIEL (Paramedic) Combi Rifle, E/M Grenades ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 19) CHAKSA AUXILIAR (Sensor, Baggage) Heavy Flamethrower(+1 Dam) ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10) DIPLOMATIC (CC Attack [-3], Journalist L1 [+3]) Nanopulser, Flash Pulse, Pheroware Tactics: Eraser / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 5) KAAURI Sentinel Boarding Shotgun, E/M Mines / Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 14) 6 SWC | 298 Points Open in Infinity Army That is mostly things that work in Tohaa with an oddball inclusion of a Kamael Hacker. Barsik enjoys some K1 weaponry, hence the K1 Combi/Sniper Sukeuls. The ARO overlap they create can be pretty hefty, although I still find Gao-Rael Sniper to be more effective model since it cannot be countered by the Djanbazan+Smoke combo I tend to use quite often. Talk About Stuff That Is Not Worth Its Money ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 9 3 1 DJANBAZAN (BS Attack [Shock]) AP Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31) DJANBAZAN (BS Attack [Shock]) AP Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31) HAFZA (Lieutenant) 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) SEKBAN Spitfire, Chain-colt(+1B) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 30) IGUANA Heavy Machine Gun, Heavy Flamethrower / CC Weapon. (1.5 | 65) IGUANA OPERATOR Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 0) SCARFACE Loadout Alpha & CORDELIA TURNER undefined / undefined. (1.5 | 85) SCARFACE Loadout Alpha Mk12(+1B), Heavy Rocket Launcher(+1B) / DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 68) SCARFACE Boarding Shotgun, Grenades / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (- | 0) CORDELIA TURNER Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 17) GHULAM (Doctor [+3]) Rifle, Light Shotgun ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 8) 5.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army There you go, a double TAG list, first time ever. With the recent FAQ Iguana now officially gets the medal for the shittiest TAG in the game that not even I can reliably defend. In case you don't know: Iggy's operator does not score points as it used to in N3, making the whole "sacrifice the TAG and leave the Operator alive" schtick unviable. It might as well been gone after the fact that the escape system skill no longer allows the Operator to launch himself out of the TAG and instead is forced to drop in the base contact with the TAG. Iggy is just disappointing now, but I decided to play it here just for funzies. Spoiler: Deployment I win the initiative and decide to go first because I know the Jaan Staar under a SymbioMate trick by now and I DON'T LIKE IT ONE BIT. I place my Core Link's snipers on the rooftop just barely apart from each other so that they don't get clipped by a Missile Launcher, with the rest of the link occupying the lower stories. The DJ Doctor on the second story is actually the Hafza Lt. I drop the Doctor and Cordelia (cosplayed by an Odalisque) on the right flank in total cover and by that point I make it apparent that there is Scarface, but I reserve two models for one CT anyways. Sukeul K1 Sniper with a Triad appears in the middle of the DZ, the ML Sukeul is on the left. The overlapping ARO is pretty dense, and the Takeul Triad with the Makaul and K1 Combi Sukeul is located on the right side in total cover. Jaan Staar is located on the right side of the midfield, deciding not to do the Impersonation shenanigans, covered by a SymbioMate. Mates also cover the Sniper and the ML. A SymbioBomb is spent on a Paramedic. Spoiler: Turn 1 Qapu Khalqi I drop a Yuan Yuan next to my DJ-snipers because there are no easily accessible flanks via Parachutist, even with the Designated Landing Area bonus, and I need to remove these Sukeuls pronto. The Yuan Yuan successfully smokes up the snipers and they then dispense some Triad kryptonite that is the MSV+Smoke combo. I split bursts, firing two shots into the K1 sniper and one shot into the ML on the left through the Zero-G Saturation Zone (still not a fan of these). Both Sukeuls fail their face-to-face and Total Immunity ARM12 saves, their SymbioMates failing to protect them. Both drop prone, alongside a couple of strong words regarding the dice. The forces then move out, I spend a couple of CTs coordinating Scarface, the Doctor, Cordelia, and Iggy to move up. The latter climbs on the rooftop and, a couple of orders later, disposes of Jaan Staar. Scarface climbs on top of the roof in the midfield and watches over Takeul and two Sukeuls, backing up both Snipers. He spends his last order discover-shooting the Liberto into Dogged. At some point he receives a wound, I can't remember who shot him. Iggy occupies the right side of the enemy side of the table, ready to burn anything that comes in. I spend the NCO order replacing the Team Leader marker onto the Sekban Spitfire and reshuffling the snipers. Tohaa First things first, Takeul breaks the Triad and spends his Lt. order moving out of sight of Scarface. Luckily for him, the Mirrorball roll is a success. A Kaauri BSG slinks around towards the Iguana and plants a mine around the corner with the rest of the Takeul's Triad moving up. Iggy manages to Dodge out of the way of the trigger area. A Sukeul hugs the wall and readies her K1 Combi Rifle... ...she crits Iguana twice while tanking his Heavy Flamethrower hit. The Operator breaks out of the broken shell with one wound remaining. The K1 Sniper Sukeul is back on the ARO duty again, this ends the Tohaa turn. Spoiler: Turn 2 Qapu Khalqi We still got everybody in one piece, but if we don't push back it's gonna get messy. I repeat the Yuan Yuan action of smoking our snipers and her Impetuous order successfully covers them. The sniper takes his time and starts with the ML Sukeul first. She crits him on a 7 and the DJ is torn into shreds. I then try to mix it up (actually I just got tilted lol) by activating Scarface and trying to burst the Sukeul down with Mk12. He fails too and gets obliterated two orders later. Admittedly, not my finest moment. The ML is still alive. I activate the surviving Operator with his TacAware order, trying to at the very least punch through K1 Sukeul's armor with the HMG in hopes of removing more army points. He fails as well and is critted into Dead. Sekban and the link team move out and occupy the midfield. The Yuan Yuan's Irregular Order is spent to smoke up their position. The surviving sniper shuts down the Missile Launcher through the smoke (finally) and then the link hugs the area around the HVT. Tohaa Sukeul/Takeul Triad uses the lack of my ARO models to move through the frontline and do some classifieds, in addition to killing the Ghulam Doc and Cordelia. On their way, there is one good thing that happens: DJ Sniper and Cordelia manage to kill the exposed Takeul with the combined Chain Colt and Sniper Rifle fire. He does not regenerate back to life. Spoiler: Turn 3 Qapu Khalqi The game is pretty much lost since all the people able to do the classifieds are dead and I don't have nearly enough orders to kill enough army points, so I just decide to kill both Kaeltars. I spend an extra order on the Yuan Yuan and manage to trade with one Kaeltar successfully (they both die), and I then move up my Sekban outside of the link, using some extra inches from the Zero-G decompression zones to cover more ground. I get greedy and try to kill the Sakiel paramedic who in turn shuts my Sekban down with an E/M Grenade, against four dice on BS 13. *sigh* The other Kaeltar (the one that is the real CoC, I should've clarified the loadout before spending that extra order on the Yuan Yuan) survives and there is no LoL for Tohaa, but there is nothing left to be done. I lose 3-7, managing to secure the HVT and kill more Lts than the opponent, while Roma manages to outdo me on all other fronts. 3-7 Tohaa Victory Spoiler: Afterthoughts and lessons learned – Iggy is garbage, I'm sorry. Even Anaconda looks better compared to her since it's got an AP Spitfire loadout. Please fix Iggy! – If the opponent wins you with an unlucky crit – do not jump to trying another option. Instead, try the same option in hopes that this time, it's not gonna be a crit on a 7. Not realizing this cost me Scarface and even with two wounds left he could have gone to town and shred someone in CC. Instead, I lost him to the Missile Launcher. – Once again, I find Yuan Yuans to be handy regular frontline warbands and smoke providers. – Ask the opponent about the loadout. NOT the private-information-type skills, but the general weapons and deployable weapons, as long as that is a model and not a marker. It won't hurt to know that before you spend orders doing something you're gonna regret. – Sekbans are competent gunfighters, it is a shame they did not get to shine on this game. I'd like to slot some into the Ghulam link team for a cheap offensive Core, but I am not sure whether I should take a Sekban or an Odalisque. What do you guys think?
Great report! As for the question of Sekban or an Odalisque, why not both? A Sekban HRL is great and could pair well with an Odalisque Spitfire. Both bring great small template weaponry and would love a Ghulam doctor.
I had a wonderful game today against a TAK player. We decided to give MBH a whirl and played Frostbyte. Spoiler: Lists Frostbyte ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 8 1 1 DJANBAZAN Shock Marksman Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 29) DJANBAZAN (BS Attack [Shock]) AP Sniper Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 31) HAFZA Heavy Rocket Launcher / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 17) HAFZA (Lieutenant) 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) KAPLAN Spitfire / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 28) WILD BILL Contender / MULTI Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 22) ROUHANI Submachine Gun, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 21) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 8) GROUP 2 5 2 2 SHIHAB REMOTE Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24) NAJJARUN Engineer Rifle, Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15) HAWWA' (Minelayer) Sniper Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 23) HAWWA' (Minelayer) Sniper Rifle, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 23) KAMEEL (Hacker, EVO Hacking Device) ( ) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 15) YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 8) BOUNTY HUNTER Red Fury / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 15) 5.5 SWC | 299 Points Open in Infinity Army The idea for the list is essentially this: why bother with midfield specialists when you can deploy two expendable ARO pieces? That's when Hawwa Snipers came in. I was thinking of using them in coordination with Shihab to impose a face-to-face with three different models and remove linked ARO pieces, the same way you'd do that with Daylami. Hawwas are becoming increasingly more appealing to me, so I decided to take two on this mission. TR bot, EVO Hacker, Yuan Yuans, it's all well known at this point. Core link with Djanbazans, Sniper and Hafza HRL for AROs, SMR for active-turn shooting in midfield, Leila is there mostly for points reduction and for D-Charge shenanigans. Kaplan+Bill+Rahman Haris because I like the idea of a DA MULTI-pistol with 4 dice in CC to destroy the heating units. For Bounty Hunter, I decided to go with Red Fury because the tables are on a more open side in our meta. ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 1 1 BOUNTY HUNTER Red Fury / Breaker Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 15) LINE KAZAK Rifle, Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 13) LINE KAZAK (Paramedic) Rifle ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 11) FRONTOVIK (Multispectral Visor L1) AP Sniper Rifle ( ) / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30) FRONTOVIK (Engineer, Deactivator) T2 Rifle, D-Charges ( ) / Assault Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26) VETERAN KAZAK AP Heavy Machine Gun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 46) VETERAN KAZAK Boarding Shotgun / Heavy Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 36) COLONEL VORONIN (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token], Strategos L1) T2 Boarding Shotgun / AP CC Weapon, Pistol. (0 | 26) STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21) STRELOK (Minelayer) Boarding Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 21) SCOUT Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26) GROUP 2 5 4 CARMEN Chain Rifle(+1B), Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol(+1B), DA CC Weapon. (0 | 17) BÂTARD Trench-Hammer, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 5) IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 8) IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 8) IRMANDINHO Chain Rifle, D-Charges, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 8) WARCOR (360º Visor) Flash Pulse ( ) / Stun Pistol, PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 3) 4 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army The approximate roster was gathered from my memory. The opponent told me that he decided to play the list that is oriented around Karmen and Batard, it was the first time he played them. I believe that the Core Fireteam he composed included one Frontovik too many, but we did not bother to double-check it. Kazak AP HMG is a staple, Frontovik Sniper has a world of hurt to offer anyone daring to have a shootout with him. Irmandinhos. Lots of Irmandinhos. 8-point specialists. That can push buttons. Red Fury MBH because why not! Streloks are tough midfield skirmishers, having plethora of BSG templates in the center of the table is pretty powerful. Spoiler: Deployment I win the initiative and decide the go first, the opponent occupies the DZ with the sniper tower. I reserve both my Hawwas for a command token. TR bot is placed on the roof near the center of the DZ on the very edge, with Najjarun and Kameel next to it. Near the building is the MBH cosplayed by a remote. He rolls MULTI Rifle, I decided to reroll and get the HMG! Rahman+Bill+Kaplan Haris on the right, the Kaplan is the SnowOps. Djanbazan Core on the left, Odalisque is Lt., Sekban is the HRL. SMR and Leila are inside the building. I decide to deploy a Yuan Yuan in the DZ for the quick and dirty smoke grenades for the sniper. The opponent places the sniper Frontovik on the sniper tower, covered by AP HMG Kazak with the sixth Vet Kazak out of the link and an Irmandinho in the building under the tower. MBH (Mimetism -6), Karmen, two more Irmandinhos, and a Strelok Minelayer all deploy on the right flank since it's denser packed with the terrain. Voronin faces backwards prone behind the crates. Other camo markers spread out evenly, the other Strelok being on the left flank and the Scout being in the center as a reserve (he considered infiltrating but changed his mind). The reserved Hawwas both try to infiltrate and the second one is successful while the other one deploys safely on the right flank on the edge. The mine covers both Irmandinhos and Batard. The opponent removes two orders from group 1 and we begin! My MBH is Impetuous while his own is not. Spoiler: Turn 1 Qapu Khalqi MBH dashes impetuously towards the blizzard and squeezes out an additional inch of movement and then dodges with no success. The Yuan Yuan moves and successfully smokes the Sniper's position. MBH slices the pie and sees the exposed, unlinked (though I did not know that yet) Vet Kazak with BSG. The Bounty Hunter unloads with his HMG and on the second order, he succeeds in chipping away one wound. However, Kazak decides to go Unconscious instead of NWI. I then put Assisted Fire on the TR bot and try my luck against Frontovik Sniper. I fail and the bot goes Unconscious and it's then repaired back by Najjarun, completing the Test Run Classified Objective. Bounty Hunter then moves for 9" towards the Frontovik Sniper for trading and additionally clips the enemy Strelok's mine on the right flank which he does not save and dies. But more importantly, his Heavy Machine Gun lands a crit on the Frontovik Sniper and knocks him out Unconscious as well. With the Sniper out of a commission, we can start working on the midfield. The Haris moves out and pushes the right console with the SnowOp Kaplan, they then shift around and unload into the Unconscious Vet Kazak with KTS' Spitfire. The Kaplan tries discovering the Scout in the center but fails, then Rahman takes point, shifts to the center Console and successfully baits Scout's BSG shot into the Kaplan. I decide to shoot Rahman's SMG instead of Dodging. It pays off: Scout's BSG misses in the 8-16" while SMG lands a couple of hits with Shock and removes the Scout from the table. The Haris then occupies the central Console. Both Hawwas then go up, the un-infiltrated one going on the rooftop while the other climbs up the crate and provokes the Dodge AROs from Irmandinhos and Batard. The mine triggers, but they sadly either all Dodge it or tank the ARM saves. Hawwas have a wider angle now so they will be able to ARO some midfield bad boys. TAK Batard moves impetuously on the crate next to camoed Hawwa and then does nothing, Irmandinhos all move and throw smoke safely (should have left the un-infiltrated Hawwa where she stood, would have been harder for the warbands to throw all that smoke). ABH moves in the infiltrated Hawwa's line of sight and then faces Kaplan Spitfire. I decided to not ARO the Hawwa Sniper but I do activate the Kaplan, and they have a shootout. Kaplan tanks two armor saves and goes into Total Cover. The right-flank Strelok Minelayer then moves out through Irmandinho's Smoke and flanks Kaplan and Bill. Next order, he templates both of them but dies himself in the process. I lose Kaplan but Bill is still standing in NWI. Enemy MBH then slides around and takes a Shot at Bill, I try to Dodge and succeed. The MBH then shoots him again and this time, Bill is shocked off the table. Then, the Bounty Hunter rides towards the uncovered Hawwa Sniper and after a couple of orders kills her. Kazak Paramedic then goes out of the link to not provoke DJ's AROs on the Vet Kazak HMG and then climbs up to shoot his Medikit into the Frontovik Sniper. DJ shoots him but Kazak miraculously tanks all the ARM saves and Frontovik is revived on a critical 11. He then reforms the link team to the full 5-man Core. Irmandinhos all rush towards the midfield, the one on the right getting dangerously close to the Console I have just hacked and also performs Sabotage on the building he's hugging. Spoiler: Turn 2 Qapu Khalqi Kaplan and Bill are lost but Rahman is still with us and he can push buttons and win us the mission. Yuan Yuan burns down his Impetuous Order and instead throws smoke on his Irreg order, covering the DJ Sniper. EVO Hacker puts Controlled Jump and I try landing the Yuan Yuan from Group 1 next to Voronin in a blind spot but then decide that breaking the enemy link is more important. Regardless, the PH roll on a 14 fails and the Yuan Yuan deploys on the right edge of my DZ. He gets Grenades for his Booty so hey, that's something! There is no choice, I will have to do the Sniper-vs-Sniper lottery. DJ fails, tanks one ARM save, then succeeds and headshots Frontovik right through the dome. There's no reviving him now! Sniper then goes a bit forward and snipes Batard and enemy MBH through Smoke and Saturation Zones, his aim staying true. Now that there is some breathing room for Rahman, but I don't activate him yet. I move the Yuan Yuan with Grenades to the enemy Irmandinho and then make a Speculative Attack up close. I land it, but Irmandinho tanks the ARM save. I then engage him with the Irmandinho directly and they both trade chain rifle shots and go Unconscious. The surviving Hawwa has no templates or other scary stuff near her so she shifts her Line of Fire and puts a Surprise Attack with the Sniper Rifle onto the enemy WarCor and Irmandinho way on the left flank. Both are slotted successfully. The left-flank Yuan Yuan dashes towards the advanced Strelok and tries discovering him with no success. He then just stands in front of him like an idiot because my orders are over. TAK Carmen impetuously vroom-vrooms towards the DZ and blasts the remaining Hawwa with her Chain Rifles while avoiding the Sniper Rifle shot. She then carefully rides next to her HVT and bides her time, waiting when the ARO models on my end will be removed. The camoed Strelok BSG moves behind Yuan Yuan in front of the TR bot and the DJ sniper. I consider whether or not I should throw smoke right away or maybe try to discover and decide to do the latter with YY and DJ while TR bot delays. Strelok goes into Total Cover from the sniper and the Shihab but he is discovered successfully. He then blasts Yuan Yuan in the back and proceeds by closing in on the DJ sniper. AP shotgun slugs vs. DJ's pistol. A couple of orders later, DJ Sniper drops Unconscious, the link is broken. Strelok then exposes himself in front of the TR bot in order to have a shootout with the DJ SMR who was peaking from outside the building. The SMR guy also drops Unconscious. Shihab wounds the Strelok through the Saturation Zone as an act of retribution. When the turn ends, both of the downed Djanbazans successfully Regenerate back up. Spoiler: Turn 3 Qapu Khalqi Alright, time to get to work. Rahman moves out and double taps Strelok's corpse (performing Extreme Prejudice) avenging his Haris teammates. He then pushes the middle Console and activates the Heating unit on my side of the Exclusion Zone, so my entire half of the table is now warmed up. He then hugs the right Console he had already activated and stands about within the ZoC of the enemy HVT. He then drops into SF. The Core link is reformed, and instead of just standing there, the DJ Sniper decides to move along the rooftop's edge to go outside of Kazak's HMG range and hopes to shoot him down this time. This does not happen and Djanbazan is knocked out once again. He then Regenerates back up again at the end of the turn, but I have no Command Tokens to move him back into the link team (I don't think I could even do this legally). I also move my TR bot more aggressively to overwatch the Kazak link team. TAK Carmen rides towards Rahman impetuously and puts Chain Rifles onto him. Rahman tanks them like a chump, going NWI, and his SF shots successfully zap her into Dead. Vet Kazak moves with the remainder of his link (Kazak Paramedic, Frontovik Engineer, Kazak GL) out of the building, all of this while blasting my unlinked Djanbazan Sniper who still ended up just barely inside the HMG range (precisely 32"), and DJ is knocked out for the third time. While that was happening, Shihab lit up the Kazak Paramedic who got exposed while climbing down the sniper tower. The 3-man team then goes to the left flank and has just enough orders to shoot down the Shihab, do the Extreme Prejudice on the Yuan Yuan (killed by Strelok on Turn 2), activate the Console, and enable the Heating Unit in their own DZ, saving Colonel Voroning from freezing to death. They then simply step into my half of the table and are all safe and cozy in there. The game ends with my DJ sniper NOT getting back up on a 13, Rahman being in the warm half of the table but in the HVT's ZoC (netting me the third Classified) and the enemy Core link being in the ZoC of my HVT (also netting the opponent the third Classified). Both having Heating Units and 3 Classifieds accomplished, we check the other objectives. I killed more Army Points while the opponent has dominated the Exclusion Zone. It's a 7-7 DRAW! Spoiler: Afterthoughts and lessons learned – Yup, Hawwa Snipers do have their own uses, even if they are not capable of contesting anything with as much as Mimetism. But if you manage to infiltrate them in just the right spots, they can be very cheap and fairly reasonable sweepers by taking out trash from long range using unpredictable flanks and lines of fire. – I feel like I should take Djanbazan HMG more often. I am getting pretty tired that my only high-burst gun in the last couple games has been a Kaplan Spitfire. DJ HMG is AWESOME, even as a solo model, and have you seen a linked Janissary? I should consider using them more often. I am getting kinda sick of all these sniper duels so I might as well resort to an HMG instead. – I exposed my Haris because I wanted them to get up close and smash the Heating Units which did not happen because Wild Bill got shot down and I did not have enough orders for Leila to do it. That was my very first lesson when I was playing against IA back in N3 when starting this thread: links being in the midfield on Turn 1 is not something you wanna do. Better to do their objectives in a hit-and-run kind of way, retreating back towards a more protected side of the table. TEMPERANCE!!! – Motorized Bounty Hunters are now leagues better than many other motorbikes this season, but that advantage comes mostly from Booty. HMG and Mimetism -6 are both rare and powerful rolls that tipped the scales of battle in favor of both players respectively. My HMG hunter managed to disable Vet Kazak and a Frontovik Sniper purely thanks to the power of 4 dice and the opponent's MBH removed Hawwa Sniper and Wild Bill. Bill hasn't been losing his FTF rolls to anyone for a while now. Cover+Mimetism+8-4 MOV = kind of power creep, but I'll refrain from any final judgments for now since it's my first game with MBHs.
