Asteroid Blues

Another short one for Battle by the Beach. This one has few pictures because the game was rapid and absolutely bizarre, while being pretty difficult to form a narrative for.

Namely because my extremely drunk, extremely skilled opponent suckered me into putting him in retreat at the top of turn two, netting him a swift 4-2 victory as he had three units left on the field.

I had first turn, misplayed a Fiday and dropped some mines around his DZ, then ran up a Ghazi who failed to EMarat a Vet Kazak link and maneuvered Saladin (My datatracker) and a Khawarij spitfire onto a roof where they'd be nice and safe. He ran his Vet Kazak link straight towards me, losing one but grabbing my zone to nab an early 3-0 lead. On my turn my Ghazis immobilized basically my entire link, my Mukhtar killed his camouflaged Lt, and my Khawarij killed the remnants of the Kazak link.

And then he revealed that he was in retreat and won 4-2.

Fortunately this makes the lessons learned really quick! I mishandled my Friday turn one, futzing about and laying some mines when I should have thrown smoke and blitzed his datatracker to try and take it out. Then I should have checked the implication of slaughtering a five man vet Kazak team and left some of the immobilized ones alive. Finally, I should have revealed my Tuareg and moved her into a hostile zone at the end of my final turn.

"I can't believe we're getting yelled at for winning too quickly," muttered Noor. She sat by the hospital bed of Majnu, one of the garrison's fidays, who was having his arm re-attached by an unamused Hakim.

"It makes sense," says Majnu, "We pushed too far ahead of our lines way too quickly, had to retreat before a counterattack arrived, and now we have to take care of the prisoners until command negotiates something. Sure, we shot some guys, but to hear Omar the only people who actually gained anything are the prisoners."

From his bed in the medical bay, Sergei Bykov, veteran Kazak, comprehensive badass, and prisoner of the Zabaniyah garrison, gave the trio a thumbs up, then turned back to his complementary entertainment terminal. Even as a prisoner it was more luxury than any accommodations he'd lived in on Tartary, and he intended to make the most of it.