Asteroid Blues

The ever benevolent EI decided to pay a visit to the Xaraks Battery. We heard that Voronin was in the area and wanted to have a chat with him, while acquiring some supplies while we were in the neighborhood!

We setup on the table used in my previous game, and picked up our cards. When I drew my two cards, I noticed that Predator was just shining out at me, and I did not hesitate at all in picking it up!

We rolled off, and the Skiavoros' WIP 16 helped me secure the roll. I elected to choose deployment and took the side of the table with more cover (vs the side that had better height), and asked my wonderful opponent to deploy first.

Unsurprisingly, he chose to go first aswell, so I got everything I wanted!

His setup was pretty much what I expected. Camo tokens all over the middle of the table, a Fireteam in the tallest building on his side, and Voronin hidden squarely in the back.

I deployed my Q-Drone behind a building in the center, focused on blocking some Firelanes on the left side of the table. My Ikadrons were setup on either side guarding the edges, and the Skiavoros was in the middle deep in my DZ. The Libertos counter-deployed against some of his camo markers, and Kerr Nau (my Data Tracker) was hidden inside a building. The Krakots (one with enhanced mobility and one with enhanced physique) were setup in building doors to block things that would walk by. The Noctifier and the Speculo were kept in reserve (thanks to Strategos 2).

His reserve I cannot remember. My Noctifier hid in the back/left of my table side, holding LOF over his fireteams building, and my Speculo hid in a building across the street from the same fireteam.

Turn 1:

The Ariadnan player began his advance with his 3 Irmahindos moving up towards the various antennas. One Irmahindos was directly in line with the Q-Drone and it just wasn't his day! The right flanked Irmahindos (I remember now, this was the reserve!) moved up and activated one of the consoles.

After this, the remainder of the turn was more or less spent with the Sterlok & Antipode trying to come around the left flank to do as much damage as possible. My Libertos ended up discovering the dog, and then proceeded to die on the subsequent order after laying a mine. The dogs then activated again and dodge the mine (this was my chance with the Noctifier to shoot them, but he had 3 orders left and I elected to wait). The next order he started moving towards my Ikadron, and I decided it was close enough to start shooting back with my Noctifier. Unfortunately for me, the trench hammer thrown by the dog crit and the Sterlok rolled higher than my hit, thus leading to a dead Noctifier. His final order was to remove the Ikadron (and the Antipode died in response).

So far so good, I lost 2 orders from my second group, and 1 from the main.

My turn started, and I was ready! My Speculo was 2 orders away from getting into the building with his fireteam (in the back arcs) and could drop a smoke before they could turn around! So, in she walked, and dropped her smoke like a boss. Then the pain started. Picture this, 1 Speculo in smoke, with 2 Vet Kazaks looking around confused. The Speculo walks up to the first and slaps him with her Monofilament CCW, and then he goes an makes the armor save.

Now, normally you can accept this happening once, but the exact same situation repeated itself 5 more times before the Vet Kazak failed an armor save! Remember, at this point I have Predator and need at least 2 kills.

So, the Speculo decides there's still 2 orders left (plus my LT order thanks to Strategos) and walks over to the other Vet Kazak. Lo and behold, the same thing happens 3 more times!

For those keeping count at home, this is 8 orders to kill 1 Vet Kazak and lock the second in close combat!

Spirits were still high, as I had the guy locked in, and if the Fireteam tried to do anything I'd start slicing and dicing.

Turn 2:

The Ariadnan's had a different plan, and the Irmahindos used it's Extremely Impetuous order to walk up and shank the Speculo.... yes, I failed another hit and also failed the armor save... so, Speculo down!

Other than that, the Ariadna player moved up, secured the objective in the middle of the table, laid mines all around it, did some work with the Fireteam to kill a Krakot, killed my Imetron, and had the Sterlok kill the other. Nothing super exciting or spectacular here.

The Combined Second turn started off with 7 orders left visible on the table (and the Rasyat who got transferred into group 1). First two orders were spent with the remaining Ikadron heading towards the fireteam to light them up! I was able to get nice and close and come around the corner to drop templates on people!

First two templates had the Ariadnans dodging all over, and it ended up taking out 1 of them. I spent another order, and since the Fireteam was broken, one of the guys elected to shoot back and take out the Ikadron. Fortunately for me, this took another guy out of the mix.

At this point, my Skiavoros came out of hiding and put a plasma shot onto the remaining corner guard, which splashes plasma all over his HMG friend. Both died horrible, screaming deaths! Now was the time, and my Rasyat came screaming down (on a board edge), and was able to get Eclipse onto the two remaining guys in the area. He then proceeded to cut them into ribbons with a much higher success rate than his Shasvastii counterpart! This secured my a solid 2 points from Predator (we're now sitting at 4-2 because he has the middle).

Turn 3:

The Ariadna player has 5 orders left (including the LT order) and used them to try to take out my Rasyat, while covering the mid field. The first shot on my Rasyat landed an Eclipse smoke as an ARO, and that pretty much neutered his chances of doing much else.

Combined turn 3 had 6 orders left. The only problem was that there were 3 mines and a Sterlok on the center console. The Rasyat (being the boss that he is) decided to just walk up, take the three mines to the face and put a boarding shotgun onto the Sterlok. Fortunately, this worked and the Sterlok was gone.

At this point, Kerr Nau walked up, grabbed the console, and the game ended 7-2.