Asteroid Blues

The operation continued in the Ops Hub. This time, Hannibal and his band of misfits found themselves in an unwelcome firefight with the forces of the Qapu Khalqi.

I lost the lieutenant roll and my opponent elected to go first. I made him deploy first and I chose my side. I picked the side I picked because it had a rooftop with good cover and I elected to put my flashpulse bot and a disposable Securitate up there along with my lieutenant prone.

My opponent began his first turn immediately getting his classified. He had placed an Al Hawwa hacker next to my HVT and passed a wip -3 roll. However, it took two tries. Then, quickly advancing his Janissary core team to the middle of the board and spread out. He was starting with just 10 orders but only had to use four to get his team where he wanted and to clear out my speed bumps. With four orders left, he moved a couple pieces into position to control quadrants and prepare to defend his positions.

I began my turn trying to dislodge his Janissary team, but immediately lost my Bolt with Spitfire. So, I switched over to Wild Bill and his KTS haris. Wild Bill moved up and got a bead on the link leader. He took the shot… and the Janissary rolled a crit. So, I spent a couple orders getting Avicenna next to Wild Bill to heal him. Then, I went after the Janissary again. This time, I was able to kill the link leader (who also happened to be his data tracker). I then began moving up to dislodge the rest of the Janissary team since they were no longer linked. I knocked another unconscious and moved into position to try to take a quadrant and get my data tracker in it.

We finished the turn with me dominating one quadrant with my data tracker while my opponent was able to dominant three quadrants and complete his classified. Turn one finished with the score 3-2.

My opponent began the second turn trying to revive some of the Janissary members (Akbar Doctors are freaking insane good). He reformed the link with three members and went back to work. He began by trying to take out Wild Bill, but Wild Bill shined in this game. Wild Bill was able to drop the first Janissary (who was the Akbar Doctor) to shoot at him and then my opponent switched to a Hafza with a Spitfire. The Hafza was able to kill finally kill Wild Bill, but became our first casualty of dangerous terrain in the process. This happened to also be my opponents lieutenant! With no orders left, my opponent passed the turn to me.

I was starting this turn with just nine orders at this point. I started with my KTS and Avicenna by trying to kill off a wounded Janissary. While my shooting was able to do a single wound, a second wound was made by dangerous terrain! I moved on trying to get my A-Team up the board (minus the Bolt) and used a coordinated order to move them up. Valkryie tried to take a shot at his Janissary HMG who was no longer part of a fireteam but was only able to do a single wound. I left the team where it was and switched to positioning what was left of the KTS and Avicenna in a better spot. The KTS was able to kill a Hafza that had been part of the Janissary fireteam without hitting a single shot… the Hafza was the third of my opponent’s casualties to dangerous terrain! I finished up my positioning, got my classified (the one where a veteran trooper has to do a WIP roll on my opponent’s side of the board) and I passed turn.

This time, I finished in control of three quadrants, one of which was with my data tracker, and having done my classified. The score was now 6-3.

My opponent still had a shot. He had four models left and was in loss of lieutenant but was able to convert two of those orders into regular orders and was not in retreat. Meanwhile, my A-Team was kind of in the open and my left flank was more exposed than I had originally believed. The Al Hawwa hacker came around a corner and boarding shotgunned my Securitate with repeater, but was then forced to take a hacking attempt from Laxmee. Unfortunately for me, he passed his BTS save. Then, using the two regular orders on the Al Hawwa he moved to try to kill Avicenna (my data tracker) and the KTS that was with her. He lined them up from the back, but within their zone of control, and shot. Avicenna tried to dodge but the chances were slim. He hit with both shots and the impact template included the KTS. Avicenna passed one of her two saves and went into NWI. The KTS was blown to bits. However, my opponent only had the irregular order of the Janissary with HMG left and he was lined up by Valkryie, Hannibal, Laxmee, and Massacre. He decided not to give me the free shots and passed turn.

As it stood, his Al Hawwa and Avicenna were both 27 points so neither of us owned that zone. I had just enough points to own one zone, while my opponent owned none. So, I could finish the game by passing the turn and get a minor victory. However, I wanted the major. So, my lieutenant that had been prone all game on a rooftop stood up and shot the Al Hawwa in the back. He killed the Al Hawwa and it gave me the second quadrant. Then, I simply passed turn and won the game 9-3.

Deadly terrian literally won me the game. Dice doing dicey stuff.