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Tournament mini-batreps

Discussion in 'Haqqislam' started by QueensGambit, Oct 22, 2022.

  1. QueensGambit

    QueensGambit Chickenbot herder

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    Just finished round 4/4 of the latest Infinity Global League. Since we don't see a lot of batreps anymore, I figured I'd take the opportunity to post some.

    The missions were Unmasking, a custom mission, Acquisition, and Cryogenics. I did one list for the three real missions:

    IGL Buttons
    ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
    GROUP 1[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]9 [​IMG]1 [​IMG]1
    ASAWIRA AP Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (1.5 | 39)
    BARID (Hacker, Hacking Device) Rifle, Pitcher ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 17)
    GHULAM (Doctor [+3]) Rifle, Light Shotgun ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
    YARA HADDAD (Strategic Deployment) AP Marksman Rifle / Heavy Pistol(+1B), CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
    GHULAM (NCO) Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Smoke Grenade Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1 | 15)
    BARID (Hacker, Killer Hacking Device [UPGRADE: Trinity (-3)]) Rifle, Pitcher ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)

    FARZAN (Chain of Command) Boarding Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 28)
    RAFIQ REMOTE FTO Red Fury, Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0.5 | 20)
    McMURROUGH Chain Rifle(+1B), Grenades, Smoke Grenades / AP + DA CC Weapon. (0 | 27)
    GHULAM (Lieutenant [+1 Command Token]) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
    GROUP 2[​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]3 [​IMG]2
    SHIHAB REMOTE Heavy Machine Gun / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1 | 24)
    SHAYTANIYAH REMOTE Missile Launcher / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (1.5 | 16)
    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)
    NADHIR (Forward Observer) Submachine Gun, Flammenspeer / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 24)
    6 SWC | 299 Points
    Open in Infinity Army

    I wanted to try the Rafiq RF with Tac Awareness. Otherwise, this is a pretty standard list for me these days - two 3-unit fireteams, each with a gunfighter and a Barid. With the focus on button-pushing missions, I decided not to take a Fiday.

    I'll post the game summaries below.
     
  2. QueensGambit

    QueensGambit Chickenbot herder

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    Round 1 - Unmasking vs. Ariadna

    This was a Spotlight game. I took first turn, and my opponent null deployed. His table side was very dense, so he was able to hide his HVTs relatively well. I ran the Rafiq up, pushed two buttons, Spotlit and bombed both HVTs through the Rafiq's repeater, and revealed a bunch of camo with Sensor. Then I put up as many AROs as possible to try to slow my opponent's advance on the consoles - my HVTs were very exposed, so I hoped to stop him at the button-pushing stage rather than the HVT-killing stage.

    The AROs were sufficient to stop Van Zandt and an Antipode pack, though of course I lost units in exchange.

    Turn 2, I advanced the Asawira fireteam. The Barid pushed the third button, threw a pitcher, and spotlit and bombed the last HVT and the Unknown Ranger. My opponent spent his second turn advancing specialists and pushing two buttons.

    Turn 3, I'd done a lot of damage and already killed all his HVTs, so I needed to defend. But I still had a bear to contend with. I civevaced my designated target and pulled it back as far as I could, then stood up all my units for AROs. But bears are hard to stop! He basically walked through my AROs and got into ZoC of my target with two orders left. If he'd killed the target, he would have won by having pushed more buttons. The game should have been his, but I got lucky and my target survived two spec fired grenades, giving me an 8-2 win.

    Post-mortem

    Even in an objective-heavy mission, it doesn't pay to focus too much on scoring, especially if you have first turn. I killed two HVTs on my first turn, but didn't do a lot of damage to my opponent. I should have advanced the Rafiq straight to one button, pushed it, but then continued up the board to sensor and spotlight as many troopers as possible. I could have gotten the Unknown Ranger and some other stuff, and left the HVTs for turns 2 and 3. It turns out the HVTs are really easy to kill with pitchers.

    Given how easy it is to kill HVTs, I wonder if Unmasking will often come down to who has the most consoles. I always thought the mission favoured first player, but this game made me rethink that. Second player can wait until turn 3 to score, and win even if first player has killed all the targets. First player might do well to focus on killing orders and specialists for a turn or two before doing the mission.
     
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  3. QueensGambit

    QueensGambit Chickenbot herder

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    Round 2 was a custom mission, so not interesting to report. Mine was a 6-6 tie, so I had a decent score going into round 3.

    Remaining two batreps will have to wait until tomorrow.
     
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  4. QueensGambit

    QueensGambit Chickenbot herder

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    Round 3 - Acquisition vs. Steel Phalanx

    Steel Phalanx is a nut I find really tough to crack, so this was going to be a challenging game.

    I lost the initiative role, so I had first turn. I find first turn is hard against SP as they're such a strong defensive faction, and Acquisition favours second turn as well, so this was tough.

    I deployed my two links on opposite sides of the table. My opponent had a typical SP list with two 4-unit teams and a bunch of flash pulse bots in group 2. He deployed his whole list in one corner, as far as possible from Yara, with Phoenix on overwatch. First turn, I needed to do damage so I moved up the Asawira and Barid and shot a bunch of flash pulse bots. I wanted to get a repeater into the middle of his deployment so that I could Trinity Pandora. Unfortunately, killing bots took a while and I didn't have the orders to get the repeater where I wanted. My Asawira put a wound on Phoenix, but he healed on his turn.

    My opponent also didn't do much damage on his first turn, but he did land his own pitcher that pinned my Asawira team. With Yara's team too far away to help, I couldn't accomplish anything on turn 2, with the end result of a 4-6 loss. Basically, I scored the objective on Yara's side but my opponent scored the other side and the middle.

    Post-mortem

    I've since run the math in another thread - HB doesn't have anything that can shoot Phoenix. I shouldn't have tried to go after Pandora - I should have Pitched a repeater less far up (for far fewer orders) and spent the turn on Spotlight and Guided to remove Phoenix. Even if that had taken the whole turn, it would have been worthwhile. I could have simultaneously retreated the Asawira link to be less vulnerable to Pandora's pitchers.
     
  5. QueensGambit

    QueensGambit Chickenbot herder

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    Round 4 - Cryogenics vs. Combined Army

    My opponent won the role, took first turn, spent a command token to hold back an extra unit, and deployed an Anathematic, Bit and Kiss, a GML, and a lot of cheap orders. This setup is a big challenge on defense - Kiss is disposable and can pitch 2 repeaters in a suicide attack, so it's very hard to stop repeaters from landing quite far back in one's DZ. I did my best to pin Bit down with a Daylami's panzerfaust, kept my Shihab in reserve, and hoped for the best.

    My opponent's reserves were a Bultrak and a Greif, the latter deploying to threaten Yara's team since it was forward deployed. I deployed my Shihab to guard Yara and stop the Greif from doing too much damage.

    First turn, my opponent Discovered the Daylami and shot it with the Bulltrack, then Bit and Kiss moved up, threw Pitchers, and drained my order pool with Trinity(+everything) and Spotlight/GML. The Bultrack used its mobility and crazy order count to cross the table, climb a building, and take out the Shihab, which left the Greif free to do some damage as well. It was a devastating first turn and the game was over at that point. It ended up a 5-8 loss, but probably should have been 3-10 - it turned out my opponent had misunderstood the extremely confusing wording of Cryogenics, and didn't realize he needed to dominate two quadrants to score the last 2 points.

    Post-mortem

    I'm struggling to figure out what I could have done to stop Bit and Kiss. I think I should have deployed both Daylamis in the midfield to use as shotgun AROs. I should have known that a panzerfaust ARO would be trivial to remove. I could also have left Yara's team to fend for itself, and also deployed the Shihab against Bit and Kiss. But, both those options can be defeated if my opponent Cybermasks them before moving them up.

    I should almost certainly have deployed the Nadhir to cover Bit and Kiss - it can't be cleared with Discover, and my opponent might not have known to Cybermask them. This was probably my biggest mistake. Still, if my opponent had been a bit more cautious he'd have Cybermasked them anyway.

    If I'd had a Fiday, I could have deployed it to threaten Bit and Kiss in their starting position. That would have eaten 3 orders - Discover, Discover-shoot, and clear the resulting mine. A Fiday is a tough price to pay for 3 orders, but it might have been worth it if it didn't leave enough orders to do much damage with the pitchers.

    The game also illustrated Yara's weaknesses. She's really flimsy and if you take advantage of her strategic deployment, she's very vulnerable.
     
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  6. QueensGambit

    QueensGambit Chickenbot herder

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    Overall post-mortem

    The big theme in all my games was Pitchers, Spotlight, Guided. The games were all defined by plays I made with Pitchers, plays my opponent made with Pitchers, and plays I should have made with Pitchers but didn't.

    On the whole I didn't miss Fidays. A Fiday wouldn't have been useful against Ariadna (everything is in camo or is a bear) or Steel Phalanx (everything can shrug off a Fiday). It would have been somewhat useful against Bit and Kiss, but as kind of a desperation play.

    My Nadhir did good work, and would probably have been my best option for stopping Bit and Kiss. If I run this list design again, I should probably deploy my Daylamis further forward to use their shotguns - they're a bit redundant as Panzerfaust AROs with the Nadhir also in the list.

    Yara didn't do much in any of my games. Given the emphasis on hacking, I might replace her with a skirmisher - reducing my shooting ability but increasing the number of units that aren't vulnerable to hacking. A Bokhtar parachutist would also be an interesting option so minimize turn 1 hacking targets.
     
  7. Guiz

    Guiz Active Member

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    Thanks for the report, steel phalanx is really strong as defensive position right now.

    Pitcher is a damned thing, I hope they will loose the +3 bonus at range, and spotlight program shouldn't be possible in ARO imho


    What did you think about the new rafiq?
     
  8. QueensGambit

    QueensGambit Chickenbot herder

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    I wanted to try the Red Fury, but I wasn't really impressed with it. I barely shot with it at all - I think I took one shot at a decoy in Unmasking, but missed. In Cryogenics it killed a few chaff units, but I'd already lost the game by that point.

    My theory was that it would be good to have a unit that could run up to a button, killing things as it went, push the button, and then maybe kill some more stuff. In practice, I don't think opponents will usually present those sorts of targets of opportunity on turn 1.

    Tac Awareness on them is great, and I'm toying with some lists that bring two of the rifle+lsg profile. But I think the use will be to run up, push buttons, and then be repeaters in the midfield. So I'll bring the cheaper profile from now on I think.
     
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  9. Jaeger_Illustrations

    Jaeger_Illustrations Active Member

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    Interesting to see how another haqq player did in the IGL. I also brought Vanilla Haqq. I'll just summarize my games.

    Game 1, Unmasking vs Ariadna (we are twinners!) I brought a list with maggy who in ARO killed the unknown ranger and uxia but then died to some basic dude with an HMG. A bearpod then ran up my flank, murdered everything in its way, cue de graced maggy and basically shut me down entirely. My HVT was still alive at the end of the mission. The only thing that kept me in the game was one of my decoys just kept winning her dodges. I think it took like 5 orders to kill, it just wasn't enough.

    Game 2 Against Corrigador I switched lists to my "double" fiday. I tabled my opponent except for billie. I made some silly mistakes like letting my rafiq take on a TR bot. My MVP though was box bot. Shut down an entire side of the table while my fiday two manned the other.

    Game 3, against Invincible army. almost the same thing. Fidays did their thing. Box Bot shut down an entire side of the map. At the end of the game my opponent had a a zhanshi fire team trapped in a corner and instead of risking losing more points opted to pass on his final turn to keep as many VP as he could.

    Game 4 was against vanilla pano and it started the same way, I even had a daylami one shot his tag with a crit and he failed all 4 saves on the first turn of the game, then when he sent some hmg to kill the daylami, I crit that one and killed him too. But I was unable to finish the tag off. And the dice turned against me. I think I downed his tag 3 or 4 times over the course of the game but I could never get that engineer. And once the dice turned it was over.
     
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