Asteroid Blues

This one is a really close nail biter of a game. As a result we forgot to take pictures of our armies(amongst loads of other things), for which I apologise

We decided to play the Asteroid Blues Firefight instead of the mission for this zone at 300 points. I lose the initiative roll off, much to my displeasure and my opponent decides to go first. I pick the side of the map closer to the camera once again

Unsurprisingly it's just pure aggression. Carmen makes use of impetuousness to drive up while safely laying down smoke. The Zayin fails to slow down the Mukhtar Haris and goes down. Both the Mukhtars and Carmen quickly get in my face. The Mukhtars are already within 24" of the Samekh FTO (hereafter referred to as Useless Bot) by the time I get to ARO, thanks to the smoke cover. Naturally Useless Bot goes down quickly. The Dakini riflebot is made of sterner stuff though and only goes down after dishing out a crit to the Red Fury Mukhtar. More importantly, Batard sniffs out the obvious mine and the not so obvious Dart. The Red Fury guy then moves up and immediately offs her with a double crit, much to my chagrin.

Once Group 1 runs out of orders it's up to Carmen to press the attack. She picks up a HMG from the panoply on the way in. However, her run anticlimatically ends when the CSU decks her with a shotgun before she can get stuck in, leaving a masterless Batard hanging out in the open. The turn ends with a flash bot moving up to draw a line on the top of my tower.

I essentially start in crisis right on turn 1. While the Carmen rampage disaster was averted, I still have a Mukhtar Haris camping my front door, and a Ghulam sniper and flash bot watching the high ground. I've lost almost all of my defensive pieces and more importantly, Dart. My mistakes which are coming up soon only make things worse.

The servant bot camped on high ground fixes up Useless Bot(not without spending CP for rerolls) and promptly gets shredded by multiple AROs. I manage to get my Mk.1 Engineer to my Dakini riflebot and fix it up too to restore the full 5 man link. A handy Lamedh repeater nearby allows me to immediately put Assisted Fire on Useless Bot and wreck the distant Ghulam sniper. This is where the mistake is now apparent: I totally forgot about the existence of White Noise. This would allow me to not take AROs from the Red Fury Mukhtar. Instead I end up surviving it only through sheer dumb luck.

I then (foolishly) attempt to kill the Red Fury guy with my Dakini rifle. The Mukhtar gets hit but survives and goes prone. There's nothing else I can do other with the link other than take out a flash bot after that. I get desperate after that and commit my Garuda in an attempt to deal with the Mukhtars. It doesn't help that I deviate off point. My order pool is fully drained getting it to where it shoots and kills the Mukhtar Doctor

The enemy continue to attack with the Ghulam link. He throws in another Naffatun to bring them up to full strength again and uses his remaining smoke launcher to cover his movement. My Deva Spitfire actually has a bead on the Namurr but he crits me this time round. The whole Ghulam fireteam marches down the board and quickly puts down the Garuda. Once again Useless Bot only gets to ARO when the targets are already within 24". It manages to put a wound on the Namurr before going down for good this time

The Namurr's murder spree continues when she tanks the mine with no issues and moves right up to the Naga. I make the mistake of dodging with the Mk.5 FO instead of using the flash pulse. He gets murdered, and my Naga is soon shot and put into Dogged state as well. On his last order for that group, the Namurr turns his back on the Naga to go shoot at my CSU and Spitfire Deva. I make another mistake with the Naga which is to plant another mine instead of using the shotgun. My Deva gets hit but survives, while the CSU doesn't.

With his remaining group, he moves up a Naffatun to burn the rifle Dakini. The Naffatun takes a wound but in exchange the Dakini melts beyond saving. Another flash bot moves up to take the place of the first one, and that finally ends his turn.

I'm pinned down again and getting lower on orders. My last attack piece, the Deva Spitfire needs to be bailed out from the flanking Namurr with the full 5 man link bonus. I either have to tough it out with the Spitfire or crawl my AHD+BSG Deva as close as possible and pray I'm within 8 inches, forgetting the 3rd option of using the Proxy Mk.1 to fight instead. I end up going with the Spitfire instead and win the FtF through pure luck, resulting in the Namurr finally dropping dead and taking the link team with him.

My Spitfire is finally free to do stuff. In quick succession, he deletes the 2nd flash pulse bot and the Viral Rifle Mukhtar, plus one of the formerly linked Naffatun. I throw the kitchen sink at him by using the Danavas in another desperation move to shoot another Naffatun from a safe distance, which works out. This allows the Mk.1 Engineer to duel the Ghulam NCO and take him out too.

He's left with only 2 models to attack with, Leila Sharif and the Red Fury Mukhtar. With his last CP he moves whoever he can into the first order group. The Danavas is Leila's first victim. She then sets her sights on the Mk.1 Engineer, however the Posthuman gets the better of her and gives her a mandatory dirt nap. The Mukhtar bags the Spitfire Deva, but overreaches in trying to go for the BSG Deva. The last Deva survives the attempt and the Mukhtar gets shot in the back by the Mk.1 for his trouble.

This ends the game, since his handful of remaining active models are now worth less points than mine.

His attack finally ran out of steam. I get to let out a breath after spending the whole game essentially locked up in my own deployment zone. Also, as it turns out, we totally forgot about the Asteroid Blues specific rules like Hull Breach.

Derp