Asteroid Blues

After defeating the merc force at the Cosmica HQ, morale was high. The high command then got intel of a hot data cache lying in the Jiyuan "the Pit" sector. The data was said to be about some experimental weapons or biological complounds and that the Black Labs were clamouring for it. Taske Force Magenta was ordered to the sector to secure the cache and bring it back for further study. When the taske force arrived, the reality of the situation dawned upon everyone there....

The Haqqislam sector command had gotten the very same intel as the nomads and were suckered into the same trap. Once both forces hard deployed to search for the data, the heaters in the area was shut down... It was time to light a few fires as it were.

The Qapu Khalqi squad had gotten their first, due t their condensed numbers. They setup a Kaplan link in the middle, supported by Leila Sharif. on the left was the Iguana TAG, no doubt "lifted" by them and on the right was Scarface, Cordelia, a Ghulam and a Alguacil (no doubt unaware of the situation).

The nomads deployed wide with the Intruder sniper, A morlock, the Feuerbach Tsyklon. the Clockmaker, the Intruder HMG (prone) and the Libertos pn the right flank. The Securitate HMG and The Dak held the center and the left was Zero FO, the Zero , the bandit hacker, the Securitate LT, the other Morlock and the Moderator with a spitfire.

Data Trackers were Scarface and the Securitate LT (probably shoud have been the Securitate HMG, but done is done)

The Haqq force started to flex their muscles. The Iguana moved up and KOed the Tsyklon. Scarface moved up and killed the moderater spitfire. The link team moved up and provoked the Intruder sniper into a firefight which the Intruder lost (when will I learn). The Iguana and link team the shifted postitions to get better cover. A damn shame is I had a plan for mig Libertos and his DEP for that Iguana. A highlight of that turn was when the Zero FO decloaked and stunned Scarface with his laserpointer. Both Morlocks were also killed, because they were deployed to aggressively.

The stunned Nomads responded with agression from the Spektr. It moved up and killed Scarface and turned on the heater. The Clockmaker fixed up the Tsyklon. The Libertos shifted position to support the Tsyklon and the Bandit moved up to support the Zero and Spektr. The Securitate LT moved up the building the Bandit and the Spektr had occupied to get ready for a push (dumbest move I could have made, more on that later). The Tsyklon took a shot at the Iguana but failed due to the better position of the Iguana (I hade to take 2 dice on 12 vs. 1 dice on 17. Hade I waited, it would have been 4 dice on 17 vs. 1 dice on 12). The Tsyklon siezed operating again.

The nomads felt ok after defeating Scarface. That meant the Haqq could not dominate the center. The Haqq felt differently. The mighty Iguana strode forward at killed everything in it's path. The Libertos, Clockmaker, both Securitate, the Dak and the Zero all got atleast KOed by the Iguana. The LT/Datatracker got killed too, which was very bad. Had I held it in it's starting position the Iguana would not have gained Line of Sight. All the nomads remaining were the Intruder HMG, the Bandit Hacker and the Spektr FO. The Iguana took a single wound during the rampage.

The loss of the majority of the troops truly stunned the nomads. With the last command token, the Intruder HMG took matters in his own hands. He gunned down the Iguana and tried to kill the HI operator. That sadly failed. The Spektr went into surpression fire and recieved notice that he had command of the remaining units.

With the battle well and truly won, the Kaplan link moved up to secure the the last to consoles on their way, they discovered and killed the Bandit hacker ( I reminded my opponent that the link would be destroyed at the end of the game if they stayed in the middle, but he shrugged and carried on). The Iguana Operater moved up, executed the the KOed the Securitate HMG and stole some ID data. (He had to complete Extreme Prejudice)

The Nomad Spektr crawled to the Haqq side and found a hidey hole towarm up in while the Intruder froze to death on the roof top. (retreat and no command tokens).

Scattered thoughts about this game:

I deployed the Morlocks in the open in front og TAGS.... not smart, but I hoped for smoke to save the day
My Opponent was a scholar and a gentleman. He played our matchup and the mission very well.
My ARO dice were ice cold with frost on top (yes, that is a pun)
I did try to push up on his weaker side (the Scarface side), but I had no real answer to 2 TAGs. I spent to many orders on Scarface to make it worth while to engage the Iguana with the Intruder HMG in turn 1.
I should never have moved up my Securitate Lt.
Although I lost, it was a good game. It highlighted the potential in the TAGS with the new rules.

And you can't play Frostbyte without a bit of Foreigner - Cold as Ice afterwards :-)