Asteroid Blues

Infinity

Is this cheating??? You decide!

300 POINTS
Combined Army
GoGo Faehrlich
VS Ariadna
Stoneman95

Disclaimer

While the discussion about the "deputy" affair was still running I was of the impression that free choice of army was still a thing...seemingly it was outruled, but I just read that after I had played and recorded this game. I decided to report it anyways because it took me a lot of time to take photos, crop and edit them on my tablet at site...I just didn't want that to be for nothing.

I am aware that this might be considered "cheating" and I will report myself to the moderation team as soon as this report goes public.

I am a huge fan of creative freedom in these campaigns and being bound to my faction's sectorials just feels wrong to me in the light of having half a dozent mercenary companies at hand...for me, this is another step in the wrong direction. Be ist as it be...I hope you enjoy my report...because it will be my last one for this campaign, if phase 2 doesn't bring significant changes.

Prelude

For my 6th game I played with Felix...who is at least registered on the console but refuses to write his reports. Tz tz tz. I told him I would have a little surprise for this game, so he didn't really know what was coming. He wanted to try his luck again with USAriadna although admittedly this is probalby a sub-par faction in the first place. Still, as he just jumped up to first place in the German tournament system ranking T3 (gratz buddy) I was far from feeling confident. He just is a very good player and this promised to be tough game in which I didn't expect to win.

We decided to play Search & Rescue from the Merowingian Mission Set and he gave me the courtesy to decide tha location to score this on...of course I chose the Chimneys...not that the points would count...but anyways.

While you are here...you might want to listen to some music...

Fluff...again

The Combined Army seems to be an oppressive alien regime. But the reality of daily life in the realms of the EI is far from the human and Tohaa propaganda...far different than one would imagine. Life didn't really change at all for those of the Tohaa race, that would not be called Sygmaa.

Even this term is propaganda...the Tohaa under the guidance of the CA still refer themselves as they did before. But besides word, structures and organizations are often barely touched by the new leaders...the EI is wise enough to never change a running system, and thus some military formations basically are unchanged...which can be extremely useful at times.

Down in The Chimneys people seek to hide hide themselves. A pretty solid idea IF you can provide for your own safety down there. A couple of very important company representatives made use of various hiding refuges under the protection of a...let's call him INDEPENDENT... USAriadna colonel by the name of Kurtz. And things went quite well for business as access was denied to any unwanted journalist, while problem were kept out by the Grunts. All of this changed as the Shasvastii infestation as discovered. In close proximity, a breeding chamber has been found and O-12 troops were out to lead the "sterilization"...with Ariadna support of course. Those news came with a Tohaa detachment, that was stopped by one of the Grunt patrols. There had never been troubles with Tohaa before, the soldiers were careful as they should be, but suspicion was on the lower end of the spectrum. A common foe definitely unites it's enemies...doesn't it?

At that point every same person was bound to get back to "open" space...or at least what could be called open, on a barren rock at the ass end of nowhere. So evacuation was ordered and the USAriadnans were sent out to get the four executives from their private homes and escort the to the maglev-train station. Tohaa were close-by while the Grunts went for the houses...identifying the exact locations of the executives.

What a perfect timing to let this perfidious trap snap...the EI in all it's cunning perfection revealed another one of its great deceptions...a Sygmaa infiltration commando, opening fire on the unprepared USAriadna troops. These executives would make a great asset, once the Sepsitors had done their thing to them...but before that: the humans had to die!

Mission, Lists and deployment

Search & Rescue is a pretty straightforward mission: get those HVTs and pull them back, while having at least one in each of the zones. First turn for sure has a slight advantage IF you could bring infiltrators, mines, and road blocks with you. As the firing ranges are reduced to maximum 32 inches, my Snipers would be far less effective. Plus: the saturation zones just kills my Triad bonusses. But whatever.

Felix fielded two full combat groups...so a lot of orders and a large amount of wounds that I would have to chew through. Fortunately, USAriadnans are quite frail, but it would cost some ammo. Those Flamers could be a huuuuuuge problem, especially on infiltratin Grunts.

I went for a pretty basic standard list: Gao Rael, Sukeul, Makaul...what you would expect from a chep Tohaa player. I dropped the fourth Triad I usually would play for some Chaksa to counter those pesky Grunts...plus a Gao Tarsos...because I wanted to proxy that with my Fractaa miniature. Keeping it real I guess :)

Felix won the Initiative and decided to go first. I chose my side as there was a fine sniper tower just in range for my Gao Rael...but he deployed first...and one of his grunts made it up there...damn it! Only two of four failed their rolls.

His plan seemd solid to me: defensive grunt link in the corner, aggressive Haris in the center, bikes on each flank, lots of infiltrators....god...soooooooooooooo many targets.

I tried my best to counter his grunts with chaksas and spred my triads over the deployment zone. Plaiyng Tohaa makes thing pretty comfortable as I could compensate losses quite nicely. But still: I expected some crucial rolls right in turn 1 that could potentially cripple my plan:

Let the humans go for the HVTs, grind them down, shoot the synchronized troopers and grab at least one of the HVTs last turn...could work.

Round 1

With that may orders, I'll try to keep it crunchy.

Group 1: two orders down, so the Desperado advanced...because he had to.
Then the Marauder Haris went forward to deal with that Gao Rael sniper. 5 oders later, the Marauder HRL went down to a crit...so the Haris dude tried his luck and managed to put a hit on the Gao Rael...making his save, but not the Guts roll. Suppressive fire on the Marauder, Grunts links shuffled alittle to get better LoS and that was it for group 1.

Group 2: Hardcase advanced towards the Sukeul, gets discovered and shot. One Foxtrot FO went for the HVT in the square building, synchs both and retreats as far back as possible. Lastly, the Grunt on the tower went for both Gao Rael...sniper makes his save, the spitfire crits...grunt gone.

That was not the most successful turn in terms of killing, but solid in terms of playing the mission.

Time to unleash the Rasail: the guys went forward, shot the Desperado and the flamer Grunt on the left flank. Then the leader went up the building and for the first sniper...oh boy...4 oders later I hat recieved 2 crits before getting that guy down. Only then I realized that I could have used the Chaksa to do even greater damage...stupid idiot. Still...3 casualities wasn't all too bad, and the Rasail was in quite a good position. I would have liked to get that Gao Rael sniper back up, but no more orders left.

In group 2 a Chaksa went for the Marauder and put a wound on him...should have stopped there...and another one, because they got dogged. That cost me a Chaksa. The other "bot" was more lucky and grilled the second flamer Grunt in my half.

Pretty brutal turn for Ariadna, but they were far from beaten. At that point I was beginning to get more confident as Felix lost his heavy lead in order supremacy.

Turn 2

Group 2: Felix started with his second Foxtrott to go for my Rasail...which basically took him all his orders due to a lucky dodge. But finally Rasail went down and the Foxtrott retreated into cover.

Group 1: The Maverick moved up, shot a smoke grenade to evade the Sukeul, went for the third HVT, but had to stop midfield...so he disembarked and went for cover.

The casualities crearly started to show.

It was time to go for the HVTs. So I moved my Gao Rael Spirtfire with his Triad...and got a little overconfident.

Moved the team up while covering the Grunts firelanes. Rosie should be first, but I forgot about her Light Rocket Launcher...all my guys under the template...fuck. Ok..let's take that hit and shoot her. Rolled really badly. FUCK. Rosie needs a 15 to hit. Rolls a 17...Felix: FUUUUUUUUUUUCK. Rosie down.

Makaul killed the Maverick in CC, guys moving up...a Hardcase didn't move and was discovered therefore...last oder I overlooks a flamer Grunt, who shot my Makaul on his second move skill.

Edit: I totally forgot about the Gao Tarsos in group two, that entered to board on the left, right behind the Tohaa symbol...that guy shot another grunt but lost his Symbioarmour in turn.

Still: another solid turn.

Round 3

One picture, one text part:

Ariadna:
A Foxtrot moves up, places a mine in the back of my Gao Rael Spitfire dude. Then the Hardcase takes a shot, mine triggers, but the Symbiomate eats all hits. Gao Rael turns to keep an eye on both. Then the other Foxtrot shoots in his back and misses...then retreats wit his 2 HVTS behind a planter.

The fist Foxtrot goes for the thired HVT, synchs her an retreats as far as possible. Then Felix shuffled his Link, shot the Gao Tarsos and moved the Minuteman forward to protect his guys...suppressive fire on the guy and then the humans awaited my last turn.

I switched troops in combat groups and was left with 9 oders...more than enough. I though about using my Gao RAel, but then I saw a better way. The Sukeul Triad moved forward...on the way the Kaeltar got shot by the Minuteman, but one Sukuel should be more than enough. That dude shot the Foxtrot behind the planter, tons of AROs not hitting. Then he moved out in the open and shot the second Foxtrot...all HVTs now unclaimed. Sukeul lost a wound and his mate...but that was fine. The Makaul synched the last HVT on the center line, which was a win for me.

Bloddy brutal game!

Results and Aftermath

Result was a plain 3-0 for Toh...ähm Combined Army. One HVT (2 points) and Secure HVT (1 point). And a bloodbath with about 250 against 80 survining points.

Concerning the game: I had some really lucky rolls...as well as Felix. But in the end Felix had more bad rolls than I, so the game goes down to dice rolls to one part.

The other part of this massacre: Tohaa just are op. I played them 3 times before and really consider myself inexperienced with them. Still I managed to handle them really easily without too much of a hassle. It's probably one of the most effective factions and I must confess: I feel cheesy playing them...everytime.

Felix took it like a true sportsman...discarding any future plans for USAriadna. Maybe a good idea :).

Still a fun game and huge kudos to Felix for making this report happen!

Final words

While rereading the comics I realized how badly German language autotext messes with my writing...please excuse that.

Taking this game and it's story as a strting point, it becomes pretty simple to see where this was supposed to be going: the sepsitorized executive would return to her mercenary company and accept some contracts...of course working in the interest of the Combined Army. I would have loved to make stories happen, in which Ikari oder Dashat fight other humans, only to aid the EI on it's way to conquer this asteriod.

This is all flushed down the shitter now. And honestly, I lost significant interest in this campaign. Having to play CA only armies while simultanously enduring our insignificance in any way of scoring just makes me wonder, why I shoudl put all this time in my reports...it just doesn't make sense. Such stories would have encouraged me to proceed. Now: I won't.

I kinda feel sorry for the stronger factions, especially Haqqislam. They have always been a great bunch of people and I salute them for their great morale. It's a shame that this years campaign just feels insignificant for a lot of people and I really hope, that in the end, you guys will have enjoyed it and got something out of it!

Best Regards

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Recommend Commander For Commendation

15 People Recommended GoGo Faehrlich for commendation

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Combined Army
GoGo Faehrlich
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10 Comments

  • El Indio says:

    missed this one! great report!

  • Ariez_OBann says:

    Ausgezeichnete Arbeit, so viel Liebe zum Detail!

  • Melchior says:

    BTW I loved your and CAs general performance this year. I hope you’ll return. There may or may not a larger sepsitorization program running in pakgn nbis. So next year might be differnt 😉

  • Melchior says:

    Great idea running evil tohaa! why not ( before the ruling) nice detailed report

  • Father Knight Luisjoey says:

    What a good table and good report!

    why dont take a video of the gameplay?

    Father Knight Luisjoey of the Santiago de Leon Order.
    #DEUSVULT

  • Lady Numiria says:

    Very good report, sad to see you go… where I gonna find crazy aliens that I need to know the name now?

  • Shnuggles says:

    Your batreps are amazing. Sorry to see you go.

  • SkyKnight says:

    Shame to see you go. You give great batreps.

    I respect your frustration. Best of luck.

  • Danger Rose says:

    Merciful Raoh, that video!!! Now I know what the Sucker Punch Program feels like!

    Honestly, I’m with you. Having a Merc army and using it for a Faction of your choice should have been how to deal with NA2, instead of making them another Faction. On the same note, the News torpedoed our Sepsistorized Army plan.

  • Payne says:

    Und wieder mal ein sehr gelungener Report. Man merkt wie viel Energie und Liebe du da immer investierst. Bin voll und ganz deiner Meinung was den Lauf der Kampagne dieses mal angeht. Hat mir immer sehr viel Spass gemacht die zu spielen. Ich hoffe das es nicht den Weg geht den wir aktuell leider sehen.
    In diesem Sinne auf die nächsten Tollen Spiele.
    Let the dices roll.
    Micha