Asteroid Blues

Second game that day...Tom regained some of his confidence and was eager to pay me back. I somehow had the feeling that encouraging people to restart a once abandoned system, I should probably not go to hard on them.

I quickly let that idea slide, of course!

We chose to play Recon: Supremacy, which is basically quadrant control, plus getting a console and securing the enemy HVT. Straightforward mission that rewards second turn, as points are calculated each turn.

To add some flavor I proposed to change Secure HVT for "kill 3 HVTs" for me, which Tom found hilarious and agreed. To further spice things up a little, we chose to allow one charcter. JSA really benefits from it's character lieutenant options, so why not. Fun times incoming!

I didn't really change my list too much. Swapped the Speculo for Corax Hasht for some more long range punch. Plan was simple: move that guy up, kill stuff, press the button and hope for the best in suppressive fire. Baggage and Infiltrators should do the job...I thought.

Tom rethought his list completely...no more expensive attack drones, but rather some solid baggage bots. Kempeitei now got the MSV2 which maks a lot of sense against Shas. Upgraded the Paramedic to a full doctor, added a Ryuken Minelayer and...Jojimbo. Why did I agree on that character thing? You are an evil man!

I agan won the initiative We basically had agreed to switch sides, so I decided to go first. That might not be the best of ideas, but having Jojimbo rampaging through your ranks first turn definitely sucks. So I gave him the advantage of reacting in terms of scoring.

Again I deployed aggressively, relying on coordinated orders to get my guys into position. I wanted to secure at least my two quadrants to get equal points in turn 1 and then go from there, so each side of the closer quadrants would be buffed by an Ikadron, while Corax should kills stuff. The Infiltrators would force him to put some troops in his quadrants as well, binding them there. Seemd fair to me.

Tom did everything to keeps his heads down. He knew that I wouldn't be able to get across the board and do damage, so all units were put in positions, where I could basically just kill one that turn. Jojimbos Koalas were another problem...plus a mine. Damn. Only the Kempaitai stood ready for AROs...exactly what I needed.

Turn 1. I coordinated both Ikadrons, Corax and the Minelayer to move forward. The Kempeitei got a glimpse of the Shrouded, but failed to discover. As I had some plans with him anyways, that oversight wasn't too much of a deal. Dropped a mine and moved up the building to get into one of Toms quadrants. The Shrouded FO was basically pinned due to the mine, so Corax went forward and killed the first JVT. Orderpool almost empty, he went into suppressive fire and waited for JoJimbo...but wait...

...I forgot about the smoke. Fuck Jojimbo has smoke...fuck fuck fuck. 5 orders later, there were two Koalas in stand-by mode, two smoke templates on the board and that bitch had killed Corax and one of my Ikadron, so one quadrant was "depopulated". Nowhere to continue his rampage, Jojimbo retreated, but still his base was a bit more placed in my quadrant.

To secure his quadrants, he coordinated his Tokusetso and Pangullings. So together the doc, having moved further, and the Ryuken would be more than 35 points...the maximum allowed points for a single trooper. Very clever! One Pangulling then moved into the quadrant and made up just 3 or 4 points more than my minelayer...very clever ideed.

So turn 1went to JSA. Damn it!

Edit: I messed up the map down there...tunr the map 180° and you're fine :D

Turn 2...that didn't work as planned. 5 orders left, my options were kinda limited. So I went for desperate measures to kill some orders on the other side: recamoed Shrouded going for the Kempeitei. Surprisingly, that went quite well and the Kempeitei went down. The Ikadron then roasted the Pangguling and the second HVT. One order left, the Shrouded tried his luck with the other Pangguling, but a -6 just was too much, while that bot saved that one wound. So back on the ground, froggy! Still, I was quite happy with that turn.

Now Tom had underestimated one thing: Jojimbo is impetuous and went straight into my TR drone...took 2 wounds and died. Phew, that was quite important. Then he activated the doc's bot and tried to fix his Kempeitei. Failed his first attempt and spent his last command token for a re-roll. Success. Ok, but at least no more fireteam.

The Kempeitei took matters into his own hands and took a walk over the board, to attack my Q-Drone, from just over 16 inches, so 3 dice looking for12s vs 3 dice looking for 5s. First attempt went bad for him as he couldn't beat my 4...pathetic. Second attempt and last order he scored three hits and I was honestly thinking, that this drone was done...made all saves...ridiculous.

So turn 2 I controlled two quadrants, which was enough to get me the points. Not all that bad!

I started turn 3 with some serious thinking about how to proceed. I went for the Mentor to make use of the Lt. order. Sent that guy to get the Kempeitei. 2 regular orders spent and the boarding shotgun did it's work. The Mentor had to eat two Koalas, which of course killed him. The Shoruded rose and shot the third HVT. This time he would stand to defend his groud and block the remaining Pangguling. The Q-Drone jumped forward and took cover to defend the left quadrant, while the Ikadron made sure to stay in his quadrant...controlling 3 of them, I was confident, that this could work. But I had forgotten another thing: the Ninja. Fuck.

Taking my Mentor as an example, his lieutenant Kempeitei went for the Mexican Standoff with my Shrouded. Took him down. I would still score points for the Seed Embryo, but now his Pangguling just moved across the board and into this exact quadrant...very clever again. We both had two quadrants now.

What happened now really surprised me: he sent his helper bot to clear one of my mines, only to reveal his Ninja in the former trigger area. The question now was: Ikadron or Ninja...who was more expensive.

Additionally the Ninja was in ZoC to my HVT, so Tom chose to not use his last order, not to risk anything. It would be a draw in worst case.

Surprise: it wasn't! Both the Ikadron (baggage) and the Ninja are worth 29 points, so he got more quardrants in turn 3 and thus won the game 6:4.

I must admit, that this was very cleverly played. Well done pal! I really hope that you will come back to Infinity! Your Eden gaming didn't spoil your tactical thinking ;).