Asteroid Blues

I need about five games a week to match the breakneck pace of Asteroid Blues and reach my 20 game goal, and luckily-- luckily-- my girlfriend owns a cat who plays Infinity. He's really good at the game though and he really didn't want to play anything too complex (and my objective markers are in another castle) so we decided on simple ol' Annihilation. 200 points, to keep things simple and near limited insertion!

Shellie-- I mean, Charlie, the cat, and not Shellie, my girlfriend, won Initiative and chose to go first, so I was setting up to counterdeploy and watching angles on the board from the get-go.

A funny detail-- we set up the board with a piece of terrain in that big, empty spot next to the convenience store and the garbage truck, but then needed to move it so she could get her-- I mean, the cat's army out. We forgot to put it back where it went for the rest of the game, and you can tell the video is filmed after-the-fact when I realized I needed a video intro so everyone would believe I had played a cat and DEFINITELY not Shellie who is also in the room just off camera giggling.

For a 200 point game list, especially for Annihilation, this is the kind of list that I'm about. Flash pulses for ARO, along with HMGs and Infiltrating Camo Combis for doing grunt work-- and a pair of Morlocks to go into melee and drop chain rifles if the opportunity presents itself. The smoke trick with an Intruder is just so second nature to me at this point so when I hear the cat is gonna play my girlfriend's Nomads I already know what I'm in for.

With the dense nature of the center of the table, I hope I don't lose my long-range options because if I do I'm going to have to wade through some Koalas. And I don't know this, but the Zero KHD versus my ZC is a lot more versatile on the cat's side with the Moran repeater and two flash pulse bots.

Two ZC to roam up the board and close-range gunfight, three Helots to lock down ARO and I pin all my hopes and dreams on the Kamau HMG and Kamau MSR for long-range fighting. This is really similar to my opponent's list-- all lists are at 200 points really-- except for I have less aggressive options and more defensive options. Sadly, not a lot can deal with an Intruder HMG in a smoke grenade.

Deployment goes fast-- the Kriza takes midfield, the Morlocks spread out, a Transductor Zond on each board edge and the obvious lieutenant prone on a building. The Moran takes the center, hiding his koalas behind the middle architecture, and two camo tokens-- the Zeroes-- go down in the middle, near the Moran, and on top of a building with a bridge leading to my DZ.

for my deployment, I storm the office building in the center of my DZ, putting the link team on and around it. The Kamau sits on the second floor balcony, beside the ladder, with the Trauma Doc on top of it-- the idea being that the Kamau is going to mount the building and get cover to gunfight when I go, but if something goes on on the far side of the map, I'm not ARO-less for the first turn.

A smattering of helots and camo tokens fill the right-- the idea is that I want to draw the Morlocks away from that side, into the LoF of the sniper (later) and one of the helots (now).

My opponent hits the board with the Intruder HMG-- the obvious Camo Token in their DZ-- and I hit the board with my ZC Sensor/Jammer on the same side, intending to counter-deploy.

Time for some Annihilation!

Two Extremely Impetuous orders from the Morlocks drag both of them forward, both towards the link. Sadly, neither of them got anything cool from their Metachemistry-- +1 ARM and V: Dogged, which could matter, but hardly change anything about how they're going to be used.

Harley Quinn Morlock can't see anyone if she double moves, so she does, but Colossus Morlock walks into LoF of one of the Helots-- barely. The Helot reveals to shoot and the Morlock smoke dodges, passing versus two hits and dropping it right next to himself! Phew!

Colossus turns back around and chucks a smoke grenade down right next to where the Intruder is going to fight from, landing it on a second successful roll in a row. Things aren't looking up for my Helots at the moment...

The Intruder mov-movs to get into position and then declares a Discover+Shoot on the Helot on the far side of the corridor. We're roughly 32 inches away, maybe more-- the Intruder doesn't have that great of a WIP, does he? Shellie-- I mean, the cat (and I) am surprised to see they're WIP 14! Even with a -3 for range and a -3 for Cover, he's on an 8! I know I'd be shooting back at a -3 for range, -3 for cover, -3 for Camo, -3 for Surprise shot, so it'd miss automatically... I could dodge on an 8? No. I'll do nothing. Then he can't Discover again and I can hold this line.

The Intruder crits his Discover and puts all 4 shots into the Helot. It turns out he's just outside of 32 here, so he misses half of his shots thanks to the -6 overall. It doesn't matter because ARM 3 in Cover is a tough number to roll to survive that, and the Helot takes 1 wound. There goes my dream of clipping the Intruder with a rocket template by shooting the Impetuous Morlock as he goes by.

It's here that the cat notices that the ZC Sensor/Jammer camo token I put down is... just out of cover from the right angle. Uhhh. Shit. The Intruder spends another two orders moving, then declares Discover... and shoot. The ZC wastes no time declaring Dodge this time around-- I know that the Helot was just out of 32, but the ZC is 6 inches ahead of him, so he'll be in good range-- the Intruder will be on 13s instead of a 7!

The ZC dodges... and gets an 8! The Intruder rolls and the ZC's dodge beats out all but 2 rolls, and he rolls ARM-- an 18 and a 16 on dice keeps him alive, and a failed Guts roll has him slide into total cover where he should've been to begin with!

Shellie-- I mean, the cat-- rushes her Morlock forward, throwing a smoke grenade to interdict the LoF between the Kamau and the Boracs. The giant gun platform moves up to take cover versus the Kamau and prepare to intercept him. Even though he gets Full Auto L1's -3 to be hit, he still goes into Suppression Fire to get the +2 burst-- since the Kamau has no LoF, that seems like a good move to try to lock him down efficiently.

The last regular order is spent on the Intruder to re-camo in the smoke grenade, and the turn goes to me.

First thing's first-- I stand the Kamau HMG up and intercept the Kriza. I want my linked Kamau MSR on top of that building pronto so I can try to defend from the Intruder in later rounds, and I want to kill the encroaching Morlocks ASAP as well.

The Kamau is suppressed, the Boracs fires. The Borac is a 13 with a -3 for Cover and -3 for Mimetism, so he's on 7s. The Kamau is +3 for range, -3 for Cover, -3 for Suppression, so he's on 10s. The Boracs rolls a 7-- wishing he was in bad range-- and the Kamau gets a pair of 9s. With ARM 5, the Boracs is ARM 8 and needs 8s to pass-- a 4 and a 3 put him unconscious in a discouraging display of Infinity dice luck.

That done, my Kamau MSR mounts the building and runs up into cover versus a Morlock. The Morlock tries to regular dodge into total cover, but the Kamau's shots on 19s are too much-- it's over before it began, the Morlock not even able to go Dogged.

With 6 orders remaining, I send my Zulu Cobra after the Intruder and his Morlock friend-- the express idea being to Sensor him out, Jam him up and keep him locked down so I can bring my Kamau around on the next turn.

The ZC re-camos and mounts the curb, jumping and moving closer. The Transductor Zond has no ARO, and neither does the Morlock or the Intruder-- they all delay, waiting for me to get closer.

It's on the second Order that the Transductor Zond and the Morlock both throw discovers, but by then I'm too close-- I jump behind the wall, knowing that if I reveal the Intruder could throw a grenade or something at +3 band and that would be all she wrote. Neither Discover succeeds-- which is awesome!

I briefly consider trying to include the Camo Token above me on the Chinese Food restaurant in the Sensor I'm about to do, but I don't want the Morlock to get a free smoke grenade. I keep to my corner and Sensor the Intruder out, ripping him from his Camo state.

With that done-- I could Jam the Intruder, but the Morlock is just going to take advantage of the hard right angle edge of the sign and drop a smoke grenade on my ZC and then come for him in the night.

I need to do something about it...

The ZC Sensor/Jammer leans out to just see the Morlock. He delays... and I declare assault pistol! The Morlock is just out of 8, and the chain rifle template goes down fits nearly perfectly between us, keeping me safe by millimeters.

So I miss 3 of the 4 shots and the Morlock makes ARM...

I try again, shooting for a second order with only 1 order remaining. This time the Morlock fires his assault pistol back. I'm not pleased to report that his 3 cancelled two of my 1s and he made ARM on the two successful hits!

Panicked, I go in again, moving out of his LoF before I do. He shoots and misses, and I shoot and miss 3 of my shots-- needing 13s! -- and he makes ARM -again-, this time by his +1 ARM I thought was so meh at the outset of the game!

The Morlock rushes forward towards the ZC Sensor/Jammer, ready to throw a smoke grenade to cover his approach until he can CC the ZC in half. I'm not super happy about what's about to happen, but we'll see how this goes-- I check for ZoC to Jam, and the Morlock is just in it after rounding the corner.

A 13 on the Jammer roll rends the Morlock unconscious, and a 12 on the Morlock's smoke toss leaves the ZC in a shroud of smoke.

The big problem is the Intruder, still there. Trying to solve that problem now, the cat has the Intruder move up until he can get a clear shot at me without cover. He throws a pair of 16s at me and I Jammer in return-- my Jammer is a 12, and he gets a 9 and a whiff. The Intruder rolls his BTS... and is also isolated.

That's... that's probably the best way this could have ended up, really.

Wanting to go save her Intruder but unable to get there due to the sniper, Shellie-- I mean, the cat-- activates her Zero KHD and brings him up and around to face the sniper in his good range and her bad range. First, however-- the revealed Helot who fired at the Morlock in the first order of the game. The Zero creeps up and Surprise Shots the Helot with his Combi-- and despite the Helot's best rocket game, the Zero wins out in the end and the Helot goes unconscious!

Now it's time for the sniper. He creeps out again, gun at the ready, waiting to try to take down the myth-- the legend-- the Tigerfish! ... The Kamau's MSV2 ignores the Zero's Camo, but he's not a bad shot-- and tries to prove it by rolling an 11 and a 9. But thanks to Mimetism on the Kamau, the BS 11 Zero needed an 8, so he misses critting by 1 and misses-- the Kamau, needing 13 puts a 12 and a miss into him, and the Zero outright dies.

Running out of options, my opponent brings her Zero boarding shotgun to bear. Moving carefully to not enter the ZC Sensor/Jammer's ZoC, the Zero comes up to see my Camo Token-- the Zulu-Cobra KHD.

After the first order is spent, the Zero declares Discover+Shoot and the ZC shoots back with his Breaker. After surprise shot, the ZC is on 10 (too tall to have cover on that bridge like that) and the Zero is on an 14. But things fail to work out again as the Zero puts a 1 and a 16 into the ZC and he hits her with his Breaker Combi on a 3.

Luckily, the Zero makes BTS, and she fails guts to slide back over the bridge to avoid a second volley.

Out of options with 1 order left, the cat cautious moves his Moran Maasai across the gap-- priming up for next turn going for the Kamau HMG I left standing after my first order with him. But it's back to me for the bottom of 2, and I've got a lot of Isolated guys to kill...

First order of business is the ZC Sensor/Jammer shooting the Intruder with his Assault Pistol. The ZC is on 13s, and the Intruder is on 16s-- the ZC wins out the battle with 2 successful rolls, and the Intruder takes 2 wounds, dying on the spot.

Next I want to clear out the Morlock since the ZC Sensor/Jammer is back in chain rifle range. The KHD hops up on the bridge and moves forward-- no matter what, he has to see the Transductor Zond to see the Colossus Morlock. A flash pulse and a smoke grenade are the response, and the ZC KHD puts 2 breaker combi shots into the Morlock and 1 into the Transductor. The Transductor and the ZC bounce, but one hit catches the Morlock, cancelling his smoke grenade. He fails BTS-- exactly-- and goes unconscious.

A second order staying out of the Zero boarding shotgun's LoF and the ZC claims the Transductor Zond at the end of the corridor as well.

Moving up, the ZC hovers over the prone Zero. The Zero boarding shotguns, but the ZC wins out with a flurry of Breaker Combi shots. Now there's... almost no one left to kill.

I see a line on the Moran Maasai on the ground and go for it.

With only 1 order remaining, the ZC KHD moves up to see the Moran Maasai and takes a long distance shot. The Moran dodges, succeeding against the ZC's bad-range shots against mimetism, and the round is over.

I foolishly think that retreat will apply and the game is over. It does not. The Moran has 3 orders to wreak havoc!

The Moran Maasai turns and moves closer to shoot at the ZC KHD-- missing all 3 shots, but so does the ZC. We're at about 18 inches now, but getting any closer requires the Moran to run into LoF of the Kamau Sniper. I remind the cat that I've taken about 18 points of damage so far, and the ZC could get her past 50 and make me lose an objective point. Also... I've already killed her past 150 points killed, so I can't get any more points from killing the Moran.

Weighing her options, the Moran runs into good range, provoking an ARO from the Kamau sniper. The Moran puts two shots on the ZC KHD and one on the Kamau Sniper-- and gets three good rolls! But the Kamau Sniper is better than good, getting a 17 to hit to beat the Moran, and the ZC... well, he misses entirely again, even though he's on a 13 now with +3 range -3 mimetism. The ZC goes down to Combi Rifle fire and the Moran hits the deck-- just unconscious.

With an order left, the cat puts his Securitate in suppression fire.

Now it's back to me with 8 orders remaining. I have my ZC Sensor/Jammer sprint for the stairs at the back of the convenience store, run around and up them and then Recamo next to the Securitate lieutenant-- her data tracker. With 2 orders to spare I pop out and Surprise Shot the Securitate and they suppress back!

I ... I don't do well, dropping the ball entirely, but neither does the Securitate, hitting the ZC only once. He makes ARM for the umpteenth time in this battle, and with 1 order left... I'm cool with where I am. I don't want to spend an order and die and lose 1 OP in the pursuit of getting a 10-0 when an 8-0 is pretty much the same thing.

A great game that was very awesome. Huge shout out to my loving, supportive, amazing and generous... cat... for helping me get a 5th game in that week so I can make my quotas of 5 games per week to get to 20 by the end of the event. Thanks a lot, you strangely friendly cat!